Newcomer / Intro How do I plot a course for the longer passenger routes?

I have seen a lot of passengers that require a very long journey. Looks like fun, but how do I plan these immense trips, as i am only able to plot 1000 ly jumps? IS there some trick or something i missed, or do I just write down a lot of stars in between the route and go from place to place in jumps of <1000 ly ???
 
Yes that's what you need to do , work out how far you can get in the general direction , max 1000 ly, plot a route that far and repeat until you reach your destination . Usefully you can bookmark waypoints on the route , which makes getting back much easier. Worth it if you can fitting an advanced discovery scanner for the trip , no use for navigation as such , but you can make a significant amount of cash scanning each system as you go and then selling it to Universal Cartographics when you return. And if you can a 4A fuel scoop and as many fuel tanks as you can manage.
 
Yes, bookmarks help. Other than that welcome to the everyday life of an explorer, which consists of looking at map, ticking and unticking boxes, plotting routes and jumping. :)
 
Great, so they added a sort of passenger route discoverer. Kind of wonder which ship is best for these missions. Must be with great FSD range and enough cargo for transport of passengers... Thinking ASP?
 
Great, so they added a sort of passenger route discoverer. Kind of wonder which ship is best for these missions. Must be with great FSD range and enough cargo for transport of passengers... Thinking ASP?

ASP X is a great ship because of its long jumprange but any ship will do it. I prefer the small Adder, you can equip it with a passenger cabin and ready to go.
3 days ago i saw someone with an Imperial Eagle on the way to the center of the galaxy.
So its up to you, for some exploring you dont need a fully equipped supersized ship.
With engineer mods you can build a good ship, with shields and SRV bay etc. with a 40+ jumprange.
 
http://roguey.co.uk/elite-dangerous...060i060i050i050i050i0262b0262b0032d0032d0034a


try that one ! Basically and A grade Fer De Lance , kitted for passengers. Using the station based module storage you can configure it in different ways to accommodate various combinations of passengers, switching between a grade 5 and 4 shield generator and different class passenger cabins in the 5 and 4 slots. Its quite useful if you get interdicted along the way, not a great range on the FSD but you can fit an extra fuel tank if you have fewer passengers or if you want , just filter the galactic map for scoopable stars along the route and fuel scoop as you go . Its netting me about 6 million and hour at the moment , with careful mission selection and a brief visit to the home Nav Beacon at my home system on my return . It wont get you out on the long 1000 ly plus passenger missions, ( they look profitable but when you work it out you see that for the time it take for the reward on offer it just isn't an earner), but its configurable to be profitable and rather a lot of fun . If I don't get bored with it , I can configure it for mining and start over again with engineering it .
 
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Yeah, it's all about having controls mapped in the Galaxy Map so you're comfortable panning, rotating and zooming in and out. Then I usually rotate the view so my current location is in the foreground and the destination is visible in the distance, then pan forward stopping every now and then to check the distance. When the stars are about 980 to 999 Ly away, plot a route (and probably bookmark, it might help with the return route). When you complete that leg, repeat as necessary.
 
Yeah, it's all about having controls mapped in the Galaxy Map so you're comfortable panning, rotating and zooming in and out. Then I usually rotate the view so my current location is in the foreground and the destination is visible in the distance, then pan forward stopping every now and then to check the distance. When the stars are about 980 to 999 Ly away, plot a route (and probably bookmark, it might help with the return route). When you complete that leg, repeat as necessary.

^This^ Galaxy Map route plotting 101
 
Yeah, it's all about having controls mapped in the Galaxy Map so you're comfortable panning, rotating and zooming in and out. Then I usually rotate the view so my current location is in the foreground and the destination is visible in the distance, then pan forward stopping every now and then to check the distance. When the stars are about 980 to 999 Ly away, plot a route (and probably bookmark, it might help with the return route). When you complete that leg, repeat as necessary.

Except in the core, there you should go for shorter legs or else you'll wait for a veeeeeeeeeeeeeeery long time till the planner is finished.

As for a ship: if the Asp is to expensive and the Adder to small a Viper MkIV is not a bad compromise.
 
Except in the core, there you should go for shorter legs or else you'll wait for a veeeeeeeeeeeeeeery long time till the planner is finished.

I think this has improved in 2.2, but haven't confirmed. If not, there is a tip somewhere that if you plot a route to a star that's close to an exact multiple of your jump distance, it plots far quicker.. I don't know the exact details. Otherwise yeah, avoid plotting routes that long in very dense areas.

Oh, and since we're at it: if the OP is going long-distance, staying around the galactic plane is the easiest (where the middle coordinate in the Galaxy Map grid is around zero). That's where the star density is the highest, so the routes will be the most direct. It's particularly important if you need to cross the inter-arm voids. Ignore this advice if you're keen on finding as many unexplored systems as possible. :)
 
Yeah, it's all about having controls mapped in the Galaxy Map so you're comfortable panning, rotating and zooming in and out. Then I usually rotate the view so my current location is in the foreground and the destination is visible in the distance, then pan forward stopping every now and then to check the distance. When the stars are about 980 to 999 Ly away, plot a route (and probably bookmark, it might help with the return route). When you complete that leg, repeat as necessary.

Yes, the difficult part is not finding a star just under 1000 ly away (and scoopable is another useful addition) but doing it efficiently, that is not too far off a direct line to the ultimate destination. I use the same method you describe. A nice feature would be to have the plotter draw a line in space between the start and end points which I could use as a guide, but it won't so this is the next best thing.
 
My compliments. I am not that good a pilot

Although I have a clipper and the rank that comes with it... that was my choice
 
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What everyone says about just looking toward your target and moving the cursor till it hits 950-1000 ly. mark. Zoom out to go faster, pay attention to the grid lines to have a notion of how far you can go before you have to zoom back in.

Oh, and no extra fuel tanks. If you take the biggest fuel scoop you can fit (no mass penalty) and fit a fuel tank half the size of the stock one, you just saved a chunk of mass that will give you longer jumps. Your destination is always on the far side of the star you just jumped to when you're doing a long, straight-line course, so fly close to the horizon of the star and pick up what fuel you can on the way past. No need to slow down, stop, do anything clever, just take a swoop-and-gulp around every scoopable star and make a second pass if you go through a non-scoopable.

And, when you're a couple of hundred light years out, stop and turn off everything non-essential. Reduces your basic heat load, so you can jump sooner after you're done scooping. Saves a modest amount of fuel into the bargain, not that that's a major concern.
 
My compliments. I am not that good a pilot

Although I have a clipper and the rank that comes with it... that was my choice

To be honest neither am I but with not working comes lots of time to play. I tried all the rank locked ships in the beta and the Clipper is a splendid ship.
 
What everyone says about just looking toward your target and moving the cursor till it hits 950-1000 ly. mark. Zoom out to go faster, pay attention to the grid lines to have a notion of how far you can go before you have to zoom back in.

Oh, and no extra fuel tanks. If you take the biggest fuel scoop you can fit (no mass penalty) and fit a fuel tank half the size of the stock one, you just saved a chunk of mass that will give you longer jumps. Your destination is always on the far side of the star you just jumped to when you're doing a long, straight-line course, so fly close to the horizon of the star and pick up what fuel you can on the way past. No need to slow down, stop, do anything clever, just take a swoop-and-gulp around every scoopable star and make a second pass if you go through a non-scoopable.

And, when you're a couple of hundred light years out, stop and turn off everything non-essential. Reduces your basic heat load, so you can jump sooner after you're done scooping. Saves a modest amount of fuel into the bargain, not that that's a major concern.

Great hints! Thanx
 
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