Newcomer / Intro I agreed to take a passenger ~37,000 Light Years to Choose Your Own Adventure--did I bite off more than I can chew?

Oh-Cyrus

O
So I bought a Dolphin. It's got mostly D modules, with an A FSD. I put a passenger cabin in, a fuel scoop, and a small shield generator. My max jump range with current fittings is 21.17. I've been playing the game for a week.

The reward is 50,000,000 credits. But as I understand it, once I get this guy to "Plaa Scraa EA-A e114 (Choose Your Own Adventure)," I have to bring him back to Ngalkin. I don't have any exploration stuff installed in my Dolphin, though I've been honking at every system and doing FSS on some (even found a few planets that didn't have a "Discovered by" tag on them).

I've traversed 2,000 Ly of the total trip thus far, and I'm having deep regrets. I almost ran out of fuel before I realized I could filter my route to only include scoopable stars. My current waypoint is ~17,000 Ly and requires 950 jumps. That won't even take me as far as Saggatarius A*, which I understand to be a sort of rest point for long-range explorers. But I also understand that should I even get that far, I can't upgrade my ship because you can't transfer passengers to a new ship (if the station even sells ships).

So if I press on, it looks like I'm stuck with my 21 Ly Dolphin. Should I cut my losses, turn around now and forget this guy? Or is this an experience worth pressing on for? I understand the system is fairly cool, with three neutron stars or something. But I kind of regret not buying an AspX to make this a shorter journey.

In case it's not obvious, I'm not a Min/Maxer by nature. I chose the Dolphin because it looks cool and I wanted to run passengers in it. I guess I'm concerned that I can't even make it (am I going to pass through "The Abyss" I read about and get stuck?), or that it's going to take so much longer than it seems--I only have four weeks to complete the mission, and although the client is laid-back, I wonder if he will appreciate it taking that long.
 

NorthernDevo

NorthernDevo
LOL welcome to the Galaxy Commander.
I get what you're feeling; we've ALL experienced this. You've accepted a VERY long run and are wondering if it's worth it.

Welcome to Elite: Dangerous. :)

Only YOU can make that determination, Commander. Do you wish to press on and fulfill the contract? Or do you prefer to dump the guy for easier coin? I cannot tell you what to do here, because both are viable.
I would personally dump the dude, but I'm not YOU. How do you feel about abandoning a contract? Seeing it through to the bitter end will give you adventure, exploration and a fascinating tale to tell. Letting it go might advance you quicker.
Whatever you decide, be easy with the decision. Trust me - there are MUCH harder decisions in the future.
Cheers!
 

Oh-Cyrus

O
NorthernDevo said:
LOL welcome to the Galaxy Commander.
I get what you're feeling; we've ALL experienced this. You've accepted a VERY long run and are wondering if it's worth it.

Welcome to Elite: Dangerous. :)

Only YOU can make that determination, Commander. Do you wish to press on and fulfill the contract? Or do you prefer to dump the guy for easier coin? I cannot tell you what to do here, because both are viable.
I would personally dump the dude, but I'm not YOU. How do you feel about abandoning a contract? Seeing it through to the bitter end will give you adventure, exploration and a fascinating tale to tell. Letting it go might advance you quicker.
Whatever you decide, be easy with the decision. Trust me - there are MUCH harder decisions in the future.
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Honestly, if I could jettison him into space I wouldn't even have to think about it. 100 jumps in and he'd be gone. But that I have to admit to this guy that we're not going to make it, turn around, avoid him in the mess hall for 160 jumps back to his home, and probably ruin his life.. Ugh.
 

B.Roberts

B.Roberts
Oh-Cyrus said:
So I bought a Dolphin. It's got mostly D modules, with an A FSD. I put a passenger cabin in, a fuel scoop, and a small shield generator. My max jump range with current fittings is 21.17. I've been playing the game for a week.

The reward is 50,000,000 credits. But as I understand it, once I get this guy to "Plaa Scraa EA-A e114 (Choose Your Own Adventure)," I have to bring him back to Ngalkin. I don't have any exploration stuff installed in my Dolphin, though I've been honking at every system and doing FSS on some (even found a few planets that didn't have a "Discovered by" tag on them).

I've traversed 2,000 Ly of the total trip thus far, and I'm having deep regrets. I almost ran out of fuel before I realized I could filter my route to only include scoopable stars. My current waypoint is ~17,000 Ly and requires 950 jumps. That won't even take me as far as Saggatarius A*, which I understand to be a sort of rest point for long-range explorers. But I also understand that should I even get that far, I can't upgrade my ship because you can't transfer passengers to a new ship (if the station even sells ships).

So if I press on, it looks like I'm stuck with my 21 Ly Dolphin. Should I cut my losses, turn around now and forget this guy? Or is this an experience worth pressing on for? I understand the system is fairly cool, with three neutron stars or something. But I kind of regret not buying an AspX to make this a shorter journey.

In case it's not obvious, I'm not a Min/Maxer by nature. I chose the Dolphin because it looks cool and I wanted to run passengers in it. I guess I'm concerned that I can't even make it (am I going to pass through "The Abyss" I read about and get stuck?), or that it's going to take so much longer than it seems--I only have four weeks to complete the mission, and although the client is laid-back, I wonder if he will appreciate it taking that long.
Click to expand...
Are you using neutron highway or you just using straight old-fashioned jumping? 21 LY jump is really low by any standards (reasonable exploration ships jumping over 60LY) but with neutron boost you can still make around 80 or so.
 

NorthernDevo

NorthernDevo
Oh-Cyrus said:
Honestly, if I could jettison him into space I wouldn't even have to think about it. 100 jumps in and he'd be gone. But that I have to admit to this guy that we're not going to make it, turn around, avoid him in the mess hall for 160 jumps back to his home, and probably ruin his life.. Ugh.
Click to expand...
I'd have to check the mechanics, but I'm pretty sure you can outfit a DBX with the pax cabin he signed for and continue the journey at 60+ LY/Jump. Not having done so myself I can't say for certain if that will work, but you can try it.
Beyond that - completing the journey in your current state would be hard and exhausting, but it is possible and you can have bragging rights upon completion.
 

Maolagin

M
Hi there, welcome to Elite - you've certainly started by diving in the deep end!

You undoubtedly can complete this mission in a 21 LY Dolphin - that route won't take you anywhere near the Abyss, in fact you'll mostly be travelling through the core where the stars are much more numerous than near the bubble. But it's certainly a serious project that will take up much of your next few days or weeks (depending on how much time you have to fly) and it sounds like you're not wild about the idea. In which case, go right ahead and turn around. You'll have many many other opportunities to impress, disappoint, and betray other people (both humans and NPCs) if you stick around for the long term.

A couple of resources you should definitely know about, if you don't already:

https://coriolis.io/ - a site that lets you design ships "on paper" before building them in game

https://eddb.io/ - the community database of known systems and stations, in your case perhaps handy to find the nearest stations with particular services or parts for sale

If you decide to press on, you might use those two sites to tweak your build and squeeze out a bit more jump range. Once you're back to civilization, you can of course go much farther in terms of different ships and builds, not to mention unlocking engineering upgrades. Good luck!
 

Esteban

E
I have to say that 950 jumps is a heck of a lot; 21 LY jump range is pretty pedestrian. My Python does better than that and I didn't try. If you dump the mission it's not like your world will end. I doubt that it will bother you after having done a couple other reasonable missions.
To offer an alternative: if I take the time to get allied with factions in a system (not hard), I can make 50 million credits by doing one-jump missions in a hurry - they'll pay from 1 to 7 million a piece- or more. Going many-hundreds of jumps is... dedication! (is that a good word?)

On the other hand, you'll collect a huge amount of exploration data; that payout will be a pretty good sum on top of your mission payout. Having credit awarded to you for the discoveries is nice too.

The answer to your question depends upon what you would like to accomplish. If you just want the 50-million; there are far better ways (even without mining). If you want to travel, acquire explo-data, etc., then... do it.

My 2 cents...
 

CptArcher

CptArcher
That's one heck of a trip for only a 21 LY ship. I wouldn't even consider neutron highway it if you didn't pack an afmu. You'll get stranded. I think you can do it in four weeks, but that is a lot of dedicated jump honking every day. Once you are near the core, you'll run into other issues like nav computer glitches due to the amount of stars there. I would turn around and build as close to a 50 LY ship as you can. On the other hand, if you continue on, when you get back you will most likely be Elite and have access to Jameson, so you always have that to consider too.
 

Ashnak

Ashnak
Depending on what you have available as Engineers and Guardian modules (and can actually complete in the time remaining for that mission), you can get at least a single cabin Dolphin to over 60 ly jump range (although I'd sacrifice the half ly and go with the 4A thrusters for 590 m/s boost).
The smaller scoop is not a hindrance here - it's still the same class as the FSD (unlike the DBX), and this build can safely charge while scooping at max rate, so you won't lose any time waiting to finish scooping.
 

Max Bothin

Max Bothin
if you were Imperial: you are in debt. Become yourself enslaved by the passengers family if you abort the mission. There is no questiion to do it or not. You must complete the mission.

Welcome to the Empire..
 

colprice2002

C
The Dolphin as a good choice for long distance journies & scooping - the last buff to it means it's almost impossible to overheat during scooping.

The 21ly range is a bit short - consider engineering the drive (Felicity) and also going for the Guardian options (FSD extender).

If you keep going, you should be well in with a chance for Elite (exploration) -- don't sell all the exploration data at one station, choose a couple of factions you like, then get to Allied, move on to the next..
 

Para Handy

Para Handy
Oh-Cyrus said:
So I bought a Dolphin. It's got mostly D modules, with an A FSD. I put a passenger cabin in, a fuel scoop, and a small shield generator. My max jump range with current fittings is 21.17. I've been playing the game for a week.

The reward is 50,000,000 credits. But as I understand it, once I get this guy to "Plaa Scraa EA-A e114 (Choose Your Own Adventure)," I have to bring him back to Ngalkin.............
Click to expand...

Abort it, it is not worth the effort with such a short jump. You can make that much money in half an hour mining so why waste your life with this? Nearly 2 thousand jumps to complete your mission (there and back) will probably put you off Elite Dangerous for life.

Lesson learned - long-distance sight-seeing missions are not worth the bother (mainly).
 
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Ant hill

A
Para Handy said:
Abort it, it is not worth the effort with such a short jump. You can make that much money in half an hour mining so why waste your life with this? Nearly 2 thousand jumps to complete your mission (there and back) will probably put you off Elite Dangerous for life.

Lesson learned - long-distance sight-seeing missions are not worth the bother (mainly).
Click to expand...
You are halfway to 5000 ly from starting destination though. Which is an important threshold in unlocking engineers.

Sensibly @Para Handy is right. There might be a way to stop off at a neutron highway station and upgrade modules purchase an afmu after selling some data. I'm not sure if you stopped by colonia you might then be able to engineer the ship with your passenger in it <edit> you can't unless you've already unlocked in the bubble</edit>. But you'd still need to collect relevant materials for that. People do crazy things in ED all the time, but this is probably one of those things. When the fun stops, stop... and do something else in game, there is plenty to do. Leave the crazy trips to those that love it. Cheer them on from the sidelines while wondering what internal mechanic keeps them going.
 
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aRJay

aRJay
You have bitten off more than I would chew certainly.

The Dolphin is a great ship for that sort of work but 21Ly is a bit low ideally you would engineer stuff and add a Guardian booster but that all needs access and materials probably not available to you in the mission time limits if you can reach a station where you can refit your Dolphin you could try something like this which gives you an extra 10Ly which would help.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
coriolis.io coriolis.io

Just add the smallest passenger cabin that will accommodate your party and then get rid of the original cabin and all non essentials.

As was said in a post above pushing on until you have gone 5,000Ly will be useful in the future.

But whatever you decide good luck.
 

Iron Body

Iron Body
I enjoy long distance passenger missions. But only in my 70ly conda with 5 or 6 stacked missions all going to sites near Sag A.
37,000 ly in a 21 ly Dolphin ? Forget it.
 
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