Long Range Exploring: Am I doing something wrong?

Arvel Yael · Jan 1, 2019

So I'm here:

Over 32 Kylies from home. Travelling spinward around the rim, trying to get as far from the core as I can for funsies sake.

I like it out here, nice and quiet, npc and player free. Just me and the big wide black.

I've even managed to map a handful of water worlds, I've seen plenty of gas giants, and I'm practically turning my nose up at ice and rocky bodies these days. I'm still on the hunt for anomalies, sparkly lagrange clouds and earthlikes though.

Thing is, even though I'm over 30,000LY outside the bubble, I'm hitting a disturbing number of stars and other bodies that have already been discovered. Is explorer traffic in the Errant Marches region particularly high? With so many stars in the galaxy I shouldn't see more than the barest handful that have already been visited, surely?

Zeeman · Jan 1, 2019

Go high, go low, don't sit on plane.

Z...

iain666 · Jan 1, 2019

Lots of us have been out that way, and when you get right out to the edge where the stars get sparse then there's only so many routes. You don't have to come in that far to get lots of undiscovered again (especially if you go up or down a bit as Zeeman said) but right on the edges there's only so many stars.

Arvel Yael · Jan 1, 2019

iain666 said:
Lots of us have been out that way, and when you get right out to the edge where the stars get sparse then there's only so many routes. You don't have to come in that far to get lots of undiscovered again (especially if you go up or down a bit as Zeeman said) but right on the edges there's only so many stars.

Zeeman said:
Go high, go low, don't sit on plane.

Z...

I think it's a mixture of the two. Being [relatively] close to the bubble and forcing myself into a sharper and sharper razor's edge of space in which stars still exist, I'm pretty much forcing myself into a pacman-style "wakka-wakka eat up the systems one after the other" that everyone else has already been on.

I'll take the hit. There's still plenty to find out here and even at 40Kly from the core and 33Kly from Sol, I'm not quite out at the razor's edge just yet. I've only been out in the black for a few days and (barring emergency trips to colonia) I don't intend to return to civilisation for another 358 days, so I'm sure I'll come back with my pockets full.

Arvel Yael · Jan 1, 2019

Aha! I finally found something:

Really struggling for undiscovered stars now though, I guess that's a good sign. I hope that if I steer clear of neutron boosts I shouldn't get myself into a star system I can't get out of.
That sounds reasonable, right?

EDIT:

Bottlenecked myself up to the point where the route planner couldn't plot a route to a star 25ly away (jump range is 63ly).
Decided to bite the bullet and turn around, I still made it a healthy distance away, but the stars were getting so sparse out there, and I've still most of a year to go. No sense in getting trapped out here. I've got the Aquila Halo to deal with yet!

Arvel Yael · Jan 8, 2019

Update: The Aurora Dawn just crossed into Aquila's Halo.

Sapyx · Jan 8, 2019

Check out any one of the "where people have been" galaxy maps. You'll find the outermost fringe of the galaxy is a solid line, whereas inside the galactic bulk is much more empty.

Many explorers seem to have this yearning for "reaching the outermost limits" and max out their jump ranges in order to get there. However, since so many explorers have that same yearning and out ships all have much the same capabilities, we all end up going to much the same places; very few stars around the circumference of the galaxy are unexplored now. It's not entirely logical for explorers to think this way (given that you're far more likely to do "genuine exploration" in the Core, where the probability of finding a star system no-one else has ever visited is much greater), but it is human nature.

Ashnak · Jan 8, 2019

Hmmm... you know this page:

https://www.edsm.net/map/traffic

?

Arvel Yael · Jan 10, 2019

Ashnak said:
Hmmm... you know this page:

https://www.edsm.net/map/traffic

?

Wow. I had no idea so many had gone so far out

.

Shinji Ikari · Jan 10, 2019

My bet is that you can find plenty of undiscovered systems in the edge if it's not close to the cardinal limits of the galaxy, ie, not north south east and west, I went to all those 4 and they were tags close by although when I went to Amundsens Star there was an undiscovered body only 3 jumps away

WR3ND · Jan 10, 2019

99.99+ percent of systems in the game only need probably a 10 to 15 LY jump range to meet. Those requiring more are fewer and further between, and with many explorers preferring to explore on the fringing, relatively speaking, you'll likely see a higher portion of them being previously visited.

You could try economic route plotting.

—The Mad-eyed Space Vagabond

jimbeau1571 · Jan 10, 2019

Human logic says 'go to the edge, no one will go there'

Only, how many humans are using that logic .... well a bloody lot of them.
So we all go to the edge.

'Im on the edge, why is there no undiscovered systems?'

QED.

Krash · Jan 10, 2019

Zeeman said:
Go high, go low, don't sit on plane.

Z...

I.e. The path well traveled. This is true right outside the bubble. I've been experimenting with finding unmapped systems. On the surface, all the good stuff is mapped. If I dip below the common path, at least 200ly, I start to find systems with WW, AW and ELW that no one has mapped yet and these systems are within 500ly of the bubble. I even found a couple of new discoveries here, nothing high value but it proves the point.

Bartizan · Jan 10, 2019

Zeeman said:
Go high, go low, don't sit on plane.

Z...

This right here all day long.....I avoid the plane as much as possible in the black.

Bartizan · Jan 10, 2019

Krash said:
I.e. The path well traveled. This is true right outside the bubble. I've been experimenting with finding unmapped systems. On the surface, all the good stuff is mapped. If I dip below the common path, at least 200ly, I start to find systems with WW, AW and ELW that no one has mapped yet and these systems are within 500ly of the bubble. I even found a couple of new discoveries here, nothing high value but it proves the point.

I am a bit more extreme. I like being about 1000 ly below the plane. I almost never hit a discovered system and I can take advantage of the vast NS fields for quick travel when I want to relocate.

Krash · Jan 10, 2019

jimbeau1571 said:
Human logic says 'go to the edge, no one will go there'

Only, how many humans are using that logic .... well a bloody lot of them.
So we all go to the edge.

'Im on the edge, why is there no undiscovered systems?'

QED.

If I was inclined to skirt the edge, I would go to the very edge, take a peak, then come back ~1000ly and find a spot in the thick of it not on the ecliptic plane. That would be my "edge" as I went around the circumference.

WR3ND · Jan 10, 2019

Bartizan said:
This right here all day long.....I avoid the plane as much as possible in the black.

The plane is THICK... er, dense. Whole lotta unexplored systems there to be had. Probably not so much near the bubble(s) and along the straight paths between JM, Jaques, and Sgr A though.

Now with star selection for route plotting we can easily avoid those more numerous brown dwarf type systems.

I'm guessing with the long jump ranges of some ships and the fast route plotting they likely use, the plotting algorithms tend to funnel them together.

Arvel Yael · Jan 10, 2019

I think I'm going to pull in from the rim a little while maintaining my circumnavigating course. I'm gonna have to shoot outwards from time to time to visit regions like The Void because the main thing I want to do on my expedition is visit all 42 regions of the galaxy. I'll be visiting Beagle Point again just for old times' sake as well and I might drop in at Jacques for repair and resupply if necessary.

Are there any isolated/far out of the way stations anywhere else in the galaxy, far from the bubble? Gorgon Research Facility in NGC 7822 Sector BQ-Y d12 would be an example.
I'm hoping to return to the bubble on Christmas Day, having stayed out in mostly empty space for a whole year. But it'd be handy to know I've got an emergency port within a few days' travel if I need it.

Krash · Jan 10, 2019

Arvel Yael said:
I think I'm going to pull in from the rim a little while maintaining my circumnavigating course. I'm gonna have to shoot outwards from time to time to visit regions like The Void because the main thing I want to do on my expedition is visit all 42 regions of the galaxy. I'll be visiting Beagle Point again just for old times' sake as well and I might drop in at Jacques for repair and resupply if necessary.

Are there any isolated/far out of the way stations anywhere else in the galaxy, far from the bubble? Gorgon Research Facility in NGC 7822 Sector BQ-Y d12 would be an example.
I'm hoping to return to the bubble on Christmas Day, having stayed out in mostly empty space for a whole year. But it'd be handy to know I've got an emergency port within a few days' travel if I need it.

Does EDDB list all the remote stations? I would try there first to see if it gives you a list of nearby systems with stations.

Ebel · Jan 10, 2019

Krash said:
I.e. The path well traveled. This is true right outside the bubble. I've been experimenting with finding unmapped systems. On the surface, all the good stuff is mapped. If I dip below the common path, at least 200ly, I start to find systems with WW, AW and ELW that no one has mapped yet and these systems are within 500ly of the bubble. I even found a couple of new discoveries here, nothing high value but it proves the point.

I tend to keep 1000-1500 above or below the plane. Where I am now I have not seen another Cmdr name for at least 3 months and I play most every day. Am jumping econo right now about 30kly out. Thinking of starting back in about a week or so econo all the way. Have found plenty of the good stuff and since 3.3 have been mapping all including terraforms.