I think I should turn back...

misnomer

misnomer
I've only recently started in the world of exploration, after having done a few small trips out of the bubble, I decided to head out to Colonia.
It's been a few days now and already I'm starting to miss home. My Asp Explorer has a jump range of about 30ly which I thought would be enough for the trip, but I'm starting to think that I should have spent a bit of time upgrading and engineering my FSD before setting out.

Anyhow, I'm currently sat in a nice little place called Eudaemon Anchorage in the Rohini system, decided to deviate off of my own route and onto the main route as was missing the sight of people. So, here I am, with a nice glass of wine, wondering if I should head back, rank myself up a bit more and engineer my FSD a bit before giving it another go, or should I stick to it and keep on to Colonia. Ive seen some great things already on my trip out here, but after a few jumps I start to worry about loosing all my data.

What do you all suggest, if I head back, is there something / somewhere I really should look at not too far from Rohini before heading on, is there a nice Road to Riches type pathway I can use to build up a few credits on my way back? Any special sites I should visit / get things from before heading home?

Alternatively, if I keep going onward will I be able to find someone out Colonia way to upgrade my kit enough so that when I do decided to make the return journey I can make some slightly larger hops?

I've shared my travel map here, so you have see how I've been slowly progressing: https://www.edsm.net/en/user/travel-map/id/50579/cmdr/Misnomer191
 
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mpfj

mpfj
Don't think for one moment that a 30LY AspX isn't good enough to get to Colonia.

I went to Beagle Point and back (via Colonia and SagA) in a 33LY un-engineered AspX, and others have done the same in less !!
 

Orvidius

Orvidius
It's hard to say. Your jump range certainly is just fine, so it's more a question of your own level of patience, and what you enjoy.

My usual advice is to alternate exploration with coming back to do your upgrades. That way neither activity gets stale, and with each journey you will also learn what is more important to you for your ship's configuration. You might do the Colonia round-trip with a 30ly range, and do your next journey with 40ly, and another later with 50ly.
 

xtnsgo

xtnsgo
I've learned (for me anyway) exploring is about how many jumps/system scans i can tolerate. With greater FSD range your tolerance will carry you farther, but your current ship will easily take you where you need to go, and remember there is a benefit to the cost of short range--the extra systems you'll have to go through will multiply the data you'll gather. Also the difference isn't as much as you'd think. If you need to make some time just honk and jump on every other system and you're moving almost as fast as a much longer-ranged ship.

Outfitting in Colonia can get a bit tedious, but the Colonia "bubble" is pretty small and most populated systems are only a jump or two away from each other even with a shorter range FSD. Credits won't be an issue; if you're scanning on the way you will have credits spilling out of your hold when you sell. I don't know if it's been changed since i last checked (maybe two weeks ago?), but you can also farm the Colonia tourist missions for fast earnings (three destinations all in one system--and passenger cabins are readily available.) At higher ranks you can pull hundreds of thousands or even 1 or 2 million per contract and the missions take maybe 10 or 15 minutes--seriously (Most trips are one or two jumps). Everyone around Colonia wants to go to Jaques Station and all three destinations can be scanned from a single point. It's like the Colonia ATM. An AspX packed with passenger cabins can earn heaps of credits quickly. I was able to make enough to have a collection of choice parts and my Courier shipped from the Bubble. When i returned to the Bubble i just left all that stuff there for next time.

imho, just keep going. Like others have said, your ship is more than up to the task and once you've made this trip you will have a bunch of experience and a better idea of what will and won't work for you in the future.


Have a safe journey! o7
 
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Lightspeed

Lightspeed
You can put in to the intermediate stations en-route to hand in data for the credits if you are worried about losing it. Also to make repairs, if necessary.

If you engineered your ship, with big jumps you will feel you are making better progress but, of course, will probably discover less per thousand lyrs. I say probably, because I don't think we can know for sure - common sense would seem to suggest it is right.
 

Lightspeed

Lightspeed
Your rate of progress (ie distance covered per hour of gameplay) will also depend how you fly and, especially, how you use the fuel scoop available to you. If it's a slow scoop, do you get close enough to the main star to start scooping before scanning it? Do you investigate planets in the system map while scooping? Or do you do a quick scan, scoop and go? Or do you scoop every few stars as the fuel gets low? It all can make a difference to the progress rate.

On the other hand, the travelling part of the journey is as much part of the adventure as the desire to reach the destination quickly. Some explorers aim to travel quickly to reach the destination, others travel more slowly and want to discover what is 'out there' along the way.

I find the first 5,000 lyrs are the worst part of the journey, where your mind plays with you and puts doubt in your mind, telling you to turn back. After that, I settle into the job in hand and just press on, regardless. :D
 
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Titler

Titler
The maximum range before engineering (and planetary landings even) in an Asp Explorer was only 38ly, and many of us went to the galactic centre, or even further with that.

As mentioned, exploring has always been a collosal slog and thus isn't for everyone. If you've got that far however you're unlikely to lose your data unless you really screw up; the great secret that few want to admit is exploration is also extremely easy, all the talk about special builds etc are only for extreme, player created challenges; you've already beaten the core gameplay loop by surviving that distance however. The only other challenge would be a Neutron star, because you only get a few minutes before hitting it. But as long as you aren't whacking the central star, or trying to land somewhere too fast, you've got the only true skill required down already. Try not to worry about losing data then.

Looking at your map, you're about a quarter of the way towards Colonia. From what I can guess, the Trifid, Lagoon and Omega nebulas are nearby and to the right if you do want to turn around but see something unique. There are probably some planetary nebulas in each arm you cross, but the chances of you claiming one on such a highly travelled route are effectively zero. Find the threads listing player discoveries to see what you can reach.

As far as I am aware, there are no engineers near Colonia yet, but there are planned to be some eventually. You can however hand your data in there.
 

Alex Brentnall

Alex Brentnall
If you go back and sell your data you can learn neutron jumping in relative safety. Gives you +3x jump range so you'd do a 120ly jump with a neutron boost. Using a plotter like spansh you can probably use that to get about 5000ly per hour.

My personal preference is to power through distance for a while then explore slowly through a few systems before powering a bit more distance. Keeps me moving but exploring.
 

varonica

varonica
mpfj said:
Don't think for one moment that a 30LY AspX isn't good enough to get to Colonia.

I went to Beagle Point and back (via Colonia and SagA) in a 33LY un-engineered AspX, and others have done the same in less !!
Click to expand...

I've done it in both a 17ly un-engineered Python and 16ly Cobra Mk3, both with no AFMU or heat sinks. Ok I did end up flying into the bubble with around 30% hull in my Cobra but that was me doing silly things. 33ly AspX? Luxury. On my way back from way out past Sag A* in a 30ly T6E at the moment. Just fly, enjoy yourself, if in doubt entering BH, Neutron or WD system just throttle down, the rest is petty easy.
 

Jackie Silver

Jackie Silver
If you do give neutron jumping a try, I would a) sell data first as people suggested and b) set your galmap filter to include only OBAFGKM and non sequence stars, but *not* white dwarfs and unscoopables. White dwarfs are far more dangerous and difficult to scoop from, and don't provide a big boost in any case, avoid them like the plague.
 

misnomer

misnomer
After a good nights sleep in Eudaemon Anchorage... Well I say a good nights sleep, here is a side story, I decided to stop in the station and get a break from the ship for the night, so after a few glasses of wine I retired to my room. Some idiot in the room next to me was playing that crap 31st century boopy boopy type music all night long. I could put up with the noise of the people in the bar but not when I'm trying to get some shut eye.

Anyhow, One day of being back in civilised space and I've had enough already, being around people is most definitely not for me. I forgot how irritating it was back in the bubble, and after only a few days.

Well thank you all for your motivational pep-talk. I'm going to head out to see the Trifid, Lagoon and Omega nebulas once this headache stops (No idea why I've gotten a headache this morning) and will then keep plodding along towards Colonia.

Also, Lightspeed, think this summed up perfectly how I was feeling.. "I find the first 5,000 lyrs are the worst part of the journey, where your mind plays with you and puts doubt in your mind, telling you to turn back".

Again thanks all for the supporting words and advice.
 
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Seizewell Warrior

Seizewell Warrior
The Black is a strange place, compels and repels at the same time. I'm currently out on the "eastern" edge of the galaxy en route to Beagle Point, heading up towards Silentium. best not to think of the whole journey but divide it into bite sized chunks. Build up a routine - at the moment I'm stopping every fifth system to do detailed star scans and going out to the goldilocks zone for planets, also looking for mats. I may step that down to every ten jumps as, with something like 45,000 LY to go even with a 47LY Aspx and the occasional neutron star figure it's going to take in the order of three more weeks to get there. then I've got to get back. Down in reality land that's many hours of looking at a PC screen and hearing "Friendship drive" (actually I disabled that!) 2000 or more times, with the occasional side trip. I could be playing FO4, Deus Ex or a rally game, but something just keeps drawing me in and holding me...
 

Ian9989

Ian9989
misnomer said:
After a good nights sleep in Eudaemon Anchorage... Well I say a good nights sleep, here is a side story, I decided to stop in the station and get a break from the ship for the night, so after a few glasses of wine I retired to my room. Some idiot in the room next to me was playing that crap 31st century boopy boopy type music all night long. I could put up with the noise of the people in the bar but not when I'm trying to get some shut eye.

Anyhow, One day of being back in civilised space and I've had enough already, being around people is most definitely not for me. I forgot how irritating it was back in the bubble, and after only a few days.

Well thank you all for your motivational pep-talk. I'm going to head out to see the Trifid, Lagoon and Omega nebulas once this headache stops (No idea why I've gotten a headache this morning) and will then keep plodding along towards Colonia.

Also, Lightspeed, think this summed up perfectly how I was feeling.. "I find the first 5,000 lyrs are the worst part of the journey, where your mind plays with you and puts doubt in your mind, telling you to turn back".

Again thanks all for the supporting words and advice.
Click to expand...

Sorry about the music, I will have the radio on a different station next time!
 

misnomer

misnomer
It's been a few years that I've been alone in the black now.

I eventually did get to Colonia and found it a bit... well... populated, so I've spent the last few years bumbling around the galaxy finding all sorts of interesting places, but it is now time to go home.
A few weeks ago I started the slow trek back to the bubble, I'm still a few weeks out, but wondered if some people could offer some advice.
When I left, I'd only unlocked Felicity Farseer, I'd not really progressed with the Empire or the Feds and not unlocked any of the locked systems.
I'm now coming home with quite a significant amount of exploration data.
I've heard through the grapevine, despite having not spoken to another human for years, that there is a desire to help the dark wheel gain more influence, so tempted to drop it all there, but I am also feeling a bit selfish and want to use it to unlock as much stuff as possible.
Does anyone have a "returning home" plan already created, where to go to sell all your data to maximise unlocks?
Also, it's been a long time that I've been in isolation, so I am really looking forward to getting back to earth / the bubble to go out and socialise again, I'm really jealous of all the people back on earth being able to go out and spend time with their friends and family every day, it feels like I've been away for far too long and can't wait to go out for a drink with a load of random humans again.

Any advice / selling strategy that people have would be welcomed.

P.S. I've not been uploading all my trip data to EDSM (So the link above doesn't show my trips) as wanted to keep some of my discoveries a bit of a secret. Will upload once all the data has been sold.
 
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GroG79

G
You can use part of your data to gain rank with fed/imp/alliance. Just make sure the ruling faction is one of those.
I also like to snatch some permits. Therefor you need to get friendly with the faction that is in change of the locked system. Usually there is a place nearby where you can get friendly by selling around 10 mil in data. Relog and accept the permit.
 
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