I can take a hint

[CmdrKull]

I know when I'm not wanted. Clearly I'm being discouraged from exploring by some higher power. 3 times I've gone out towards a particular region of space, and 3 times I've been sent back empty handed. The first time was after a long break, I came back to elite and found myself 16k ly from earth (I'd been mapping a black-hole filled region of space). I got a little bored and decided to land on a planet for a cool selfie. Big mistake, of the boom-crash-bang variety. Soon I set out to try again, this time making it a mere 2k ly before there was another..uh, "incident" involving a planet and a selfie stick. Fast forward to last night. I'm out again, been puttering along for a couple weeks. 11k ly, clearly not in an enormous hurry but Id surface scanned maybe a hundred planets and pinged 5 times as many. Things are going pretty good and I'm within a few nights of a milestone destination. I've been tinkering with my steam controller so I can sit on the comfy couch with my phone VR setup and explore comfortably. Well, I'll never know exactly what happened, but I had jumped into a system and set the throttle to 0%, set down the goggles and controller and fixed myself a drink. I came back a few minutes later to that most dreadful screen - "your ship has been destroyed"

I'm just heartbroken at this point. Weeks of progress, a moment of carelessness, and nothing but personal experience and a couple of poor screenshots to show for it.

Personally I blame the steam controller, I've had some issues with unexpected bindings... some default combination of buttons that does something unexpected. I use the 2 buttons on the bottom to yaw left and right but I once had it set my throttle to 100% and I didn't know why that happened. I fear it struck again while I wasn't looking.

Well, nothing for it except to start the journey again. I think I may try to get a grade 4 fsd upgrade before I go, since at one point I went from 30 jumps per kylie to 40-45 and had no end of trouble finding a workable route. The route won't be a problem now that I have the bookmarks but 50% more jumps per 1K should be addressed.

Who else has a tale to tell of lost data? The milestone I'm trying to reach is a system with a pair of earthlike worlds and one or two water worlds. I had the sense to bookmark it, but knowing my luck it won't be unexplored by the time I finally get back to it. What's the best thing YOU'VE ever lost?

 

[Kerrash]

I'm sorry for you loss but quit to menu takes seconds.

 

[CmdrKull]

Indeed it does, and once 2.2 comes with its preserved routing I promise to make heavier use of it. If you're just off to the kitchen for a minute though, well who expects their ship to spontaneously combust 11k for the nearest "tasty cargo" connoisseur? I'm not complaining or blame shifting though(other than to steam and their either crazy-good or just-plain-crazy controller). Just wanted to share my miserable tale.

 

[Andrew Gaspurr]

Please don't take these losses too seriously. I have had a few losses as well but it never quite stopped me from going out again into the big black sea.
No one can take your screenshots away and the fact that you have been 'there'. It's all (to me) that really matters. Anything on top of that and it starts to feel like a job or duty, rather than a game and a hobby.

Ad astra per aspera.

 

[Major Klutz]

Sorry for your loss.
My personal philosophy and habit is to never walk away from the game while pointed toward a star. Zero throttle is never actually zero and given enough time you will hit the exclusion zone.
People have been known to forget they left the game running and come back several hours later to a destroyed ship.
Or as may have happened in your case, a mistaken or glitched throttle up straight into the star while they are away.

If I need to get up and get a snack, I always point 180 degrees away from the star. That way if the cat steps on my keyboard or my controls glitch, I'm not pointing toward anything that can cause me harm.
If I know I'm going to be away for more than a few seconds, I wait until I'm a couple of hundred LS away and drop out of SC.

 

[Shifty]

I feel for you, I really do. I went to BP on DWE and got all the way back round to Jacques to lose my ship for reasons unknown when I stepped AFK for a couple of minutes. Loss of shedloads of exploration data. Then a few weeks ago I set out from The Bubble to go clockwise around the SCM route and had an "incident" at the landing site for waypoint 2a where planet surface met ship at higher than optimum rate of decent leading to loss of yet more data. Oh well, live and learn I suppose. Kerrash is right - only takes a few second to log and it doesn't take much to take time and not let one's impatience take over.

 

[Boogyman]

What's the best thing YOU'VE ever lost?

My first serious exploration run ended badly, and quite mysteriously.

I was flying an Asp back in v1.x, when there was only one Asp to be had. I had been out three months full-scanning nearly every system I entered along a 25kly path from the bubble toward the NE corner of the core region.

My ship had very little damage, mostly caused scooping too long a couple times, and getting pinched between a couple binaries.

I had a habit of simply leaving my ship in supercruise if I needed to go AFK for periods under 2 hours.

On the final day of that expedition, before going AFK, there were a few unique circumstances:
1) 4 or 6 systems prior, in the debug cam, I noticed my ship emitting little orange particles (sparks?) from the underside, slightly off-center and slightly toward the rear. Not near any recognizable internal or external component locations. I checked my modules and hull, and neither appeared to be taking damage, so I wrote it off as a graphical glitch.
2) The final system had a binary neutron and black hole as its primary, only light seconds apart
3) When going AFK this time, I dropped out of SC to normal space. I had been thinking the night before that this might save me from the risk of interdiction while AFK in the extremely unlikely case that there was a malicious NPC or Player out there.

Well, when I returned to the game after a somewhat lengthy trip to the grocery, my ship was destroyed. To this day, I still do not know what happened. I was so disappointed that I didn't play Elite again for 3 months.

I did check that I had fuel fuel enough for the AFK period prior to leaving, so that was not the issue. I had no cargo.

Point 1 might fit with the story of another commander in the last year who was told by support that his ship was destroyed due to having encountered something corrosive, but I have no proof.

Foregoing arbitrary explanations such as "bugs" or "aliens", I can only think of one possible cause, and it too seems unlikely:
I dropped out of SC closer to the black hole, with the neutron on the far side, at a range that would usually be quite safe for such objects. The neutron star and black-hole were quite close together (< 100 ls), which may have caused them to orbit each other quite quickly. It is (barely) possible that I dropped out in just the right spot to get run over by the neutron star if the two had an orbital cycle around two hours (meaning it would need about an hour to come around to my position).

 

[Satsuma]

There is a new bug (or something) that started showing up in 2.1 where you'll exit witchspace at some speed above the minimum when your throttle is closed. It seems to only happen for me when I'm tabbed out of Elite, but this might have happened to you. It was a real surprise when I first saw it, especially because I used to occasionally do things like jump (throttle closed) and then go fix a drink or use the bathroom.

 

[Ashnak]

Regarding exiting Witchspace at speed: I *thought* there was a correlation between tabbing out and SC duration:

- if I throttle down and keep the game in front, I exit at zero throttle
- if I throttle down and tab out of the game, I exit at regular/full throttle if the witchspace run completes in the minimum time
- if I tab out and the witchspoace run takes longer than the minimum time (presumed server problems), I exit at zero throttle, no matter how I go in

That's just an impression, possibly just my imagination trying to make some sense out of the various combinations.

Oh, and if I start a jump and then just tab over to check on the live stream, Sandro starts telling something interesting and I end up crashing into the star. Sandro, should you read this - you owe me 1% of Hull and PP

 

[Mostly Awol]

Once had this happen to me. I just jumped into a system I made sure I was at full stop and got up to do something. I came back and saw the rebuy screen. Had no idea what happened but I guess is I hit something as I got up and flew into the star or something. So now when I need to get up for something. I now wait until I fuel scoop and pointing away from the star pointing at nothing but black space before getting up.

 

[osser]

If i have to afk... no mater what i exit to the menu. I use bookmarks extensively while traveling so the lost route is no big deal.
Another thing: I never open the system map under speed while facing a body. Its throttle to zero and then open the map.
I've had 1 too many disco spin scares.

Edit to add: When i park for the night I always fly out of any orbit lines for 500 ls. I call it parking safely.

I had a really bad scare a few months ago. Here's the thread:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/285414-I-had-a-BIGTIME-scare

 

[CmdrKull]

The neutron star and black-hole were quite close together (< 100 ls), which may have caused them to orbit each other quite quickly. It is (barely) possible that I dropped out in just the right spot to get run over by the neutron star if the two had an orbital cycle around two hours (meaning it would need about an hour to come around to my position).

Just the possibility that this is what happened to you makes an amazing story! Thanks for sharing, rep++

This has put it into my head to do some time-lapse screenshotting. I was never patient enough to do it manually but I think I'll whip up a console app tonight for the purpose. Thank you. Since I'm back in then bubble, adding some fuel tanks to last a day is a thing I can do. Time to search fuel consumption info and conservation techniques.

 

[Baroness Galaxy]

Welcome to exploration !

Sorry to hear indeed but the good news is its part of the game and you really should know all serious explorers have been there as well. Hell, during DWE many explorers crashed into planets halfway the galaxy or further and STILL BB'd in a couple of days back to where they were. Exploration is about resilience and endurance. But the beauty beyond that is all worth it

Go for it !

 

[Yanick]

Exploration is a less risky business than many other kinds of trips in the game, but it still carries risks.
All one can do is to try and take only calculated risks, when necessary. For example, my SRV driving is far more adventurous, when not 30kly away from the nearest station.
There is of course a degree of luck envolved. But things should start working out, if you keep at it.
Best of luck CMDR!
o7