How far out do you go these days for undiscovered systems?

[Archvillain]

I haven't been out in the Deep Black for a long time. What kind of distances are involved these days to find undiscovered systems, both along the galactic plane, and away from it in random non-nebula directions?

How far before even the distinctive-on-the-map interesting systems are often undiscovered? (Black holes, HIPs, neutron stars etc)

 

[marx]

Funny you should mention that, I updated my data analysis thread on this a few weeks ago.

Of course, that one is for any systems, and the closest undiscovered one(s) per day in any direction. If you're looking for stuff that stands out on the galaxy map, well... Good luck! Maybe in the less popular directions, and stuff that are still less popular, like carbon stars and giant stars. In my experience (so, anecdote, not evidence) I'd say at least 4,000 ly. Such stars are rather sparse near the bubble, after all. Lesser distance for neutron stars, probably - personally, I don't really count those as standing out.

In the core though, there are plenty to be had. It's not like flying there takes long, either: you can either jump on a carrier shuttle (Colonia's good too, it's just outside the core), or with today's large jump ranges, it doesn't take too many jumps to get there, if you're chaining neutron stars.

 

[Lhorndra]

Last year, I flew my alt CMDR to Colonia in a Hauler and found a ton of undiscovered systems. However, I didn't use the Colonia highway. First, I ascended around 1000 ly above the galactic plane. Then, I didn't jump to Colonia in a straight line, I flew a curve. Amongst other things, the Traikeou Goliaths lay on this curve.

So, I can't give you a specific number, but that's how I discovered a lot of systems without flying to the galactic edges at all.

 

[GroG79]

Last week found an undiscovered system about 700ly from Sol. Stay away from the center of the plane. Go up or down and do not travel north (Colonia, SagA) to find undiscovered systems fast.

 

[Dragsham]

Travel 'southeast' about 3k or more you'll find lots there. As previously mentioned go down or up first 300ly or so then head out.
(North being the colonia highway)

 

[Kalizandra]

I'm currently taking the FC out to Achilles Altar, stopping to explore along the way, I started to find unexplored systems at the 4k mark. I didn't go up or down the plane, just set off towards my chosen star.
Currently at 6k ly out and its all undiscovered.

 

[varonica]

I'm currently taking the FC out to Achilles Altar, stopping to explore along the way, I started to find unexplored systems at the 4k mark. I didn't go up or down the plane, just set off towards my chosen star.
Currently at 6k ly out and its all undiscovered.

Yeah. generally if you pick an obvious target, nebula, unusual star formation or basically anything that's visible from a long way away in the game everything on the way there will be discovered out to many thousand light years, got to go a long way to start hitting unexplored in that situation.

 

[Anticon]

Just returned to the bubble from way out, and basically it wasn't worth mapping anything closer than about 4k Ly - too much mapped already. But once you're past 5k, most systems are undiscovered if you stay away from the beaten paths.

 

[Chrystoph]

When I was exploring, I normally set about a 30° offset left or right from the direction I wanted to go and picked a star about half way to the objective, creating an arc.

That way, I was going to something spectacular but still getting discoveries.

 

[Jumpin' Jack Flash]

Hi

I haven't been out in the Deep Black for a long time. What kind of distances are involved these days to find undiscovered systems, both along the galactic plane, and away from it in random non-nebula directions?

How far before even the distinctive-on-the-map interesting systems are often undiscovered? (Black holes, HIPs, neutron stars etc)

Tricky question. I'd say from personal experience you'd have to go about 1500Lys out from the outer edge of the bubble before undiscovered systems really show up. Some of these would be mostly part discovered systems, but you might see totally undiscovered systems, mainly those systems with class L Stars, so they're still out there but obviously as time goes on these are getting much harder to find.
Depending on which direction, and as other posters here have said, how high above or how low below the galactic plane generally will have some bearing on whether you find undiscovered systems or not.
There'll be plenty of undiscovered systems within the 1,300 to 1,500Lyr range (probably some less than this) but these if not all are mostly locked behind permits at the moment, (Col 70 - Col 121 sectors etc.).

It's always a good thing to bear in mind though that whatever systems you travel through it's a good practice (even if only briefly) to scan the system and check stuff out, just in case other commanders have missed anything. It's sometimes surprising

Jack

 

[DjVortex]

Tricky question. I'd say from personal experience you'd have to go about 1500Lys out from the outer edge of the bubble before undiscovered systems really show up.

I think there are undiscovered systems much closer to the bubble than that. I'd say less than 1 kly.

Even more if you count the "partially discovered" systems, ie. the ones where only the main star has been discovered by someone, but none of the planets. I suppose it depends on your definition of "undiscovered" whether these count or not.

 

[Archvillain]

Update: By using the Merged Exploration layer of the Astrometrics Map, I tried to find one of the nearest areas where most stars are unvisited, and in the direction I picked I've found that at about 1900Ly from Sol. (As DJVortex and others point out, I was hitting unvisited systems much earlier than this, but I like to be in areas where unvisited stars are the norm rather than the exception, hence going a bit further out.)

The map's Saturation / Merged Exploration layers also really highlights something I noticed on my previous trip: if you start in the bubble and head rimwards (away from the core), you have to go much further to reach unvisited space than most other directions, because the gap between the Orion Spur and the Perseus Arm has far lower star density, so they're all visited, so until you have crossed beyond the gap and reached the Perseus Arm you can't find unvisited areas.

 

[Chrystoph]

You'll also find that the highs and the deeps are less well explored because most people travel in the

Thick disk - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

As a result, getting into, but more, above or below, the thin disk is more likely to generate discoverable zones.

 

[K Olley]

The very top and bottom edges are very sparse of stars and seem well explored but the gap between them and the well used zone has a greater density and a lot more undiscovered systems.

 

[Xenia_K]

Just returned to the bubble from way out, and basically it wasn't worth mapping anything closer than about 4k Ly - too much mapped already. But once you're past 5k, most systems are undiscovered if you stay away from the beaten paths.

so far I agree, if you want make shure you are fishing in un-charted waters, its around 4-5Kly from SOL.
Nevertheless - that does not necessarily apply for ExoBio! There are plenty of Systems even in the 1KLy shell around the bubble where you still can get your first-footfall bonus!
Therefore have a look to Sysmap after initial honk (even if the planets are displayed in your HUD) if there are Planets/Moons with Atmo and quick check those with FSS - if no notification "First-Footfall Cdr xyz" is shown, it might still pay quite well

 

[Valije]

A few days ago I was doing some exploration close to the bubble and started exploring all the systems in a 100x100 ly grid around 2kly from sol. More than half of the systems were unexplored. When getting there and then coming back I found unexplored systems at mabye 700 ly.

As other CMDR's said before, don't go to a "shiny" place in straight line and don't travel in 2D. Going up or down in the galaxy is probably the best tip to find undiscovered systems, as long as you dont got in the center/colonia direction.

 

[LJR69]

Just returned to the bubble from way out, and basically it wasn't worth mapping anything closer than about 4k Ly - too much mapped already. But once you're past 5k, most systems are undiscovered if you stay away from the beaten paths.

This ^^