Maybe We Should Just Head Home

[AgingGamer]

I forgot to mention one thing: there's an engineer that's unlocked only if you went 5000+LY from your career start location (Palin). He is the only one that can upgrade thruster to lvl 4 and 5.
Since you say you never went this far, and you are 4.8k from Sol, you might want to push for a little more and don't need to repeat the task if you are weary of exploration.

Note that the enginner wants a distance of 5000LY from your career start location, not from Sol.

Personally I don't remeber where i started Elite, but if you go 5500 from Sol you can be dead sure you will be 5000+ from career starting location.

Thanks. It's settled then. I'm heading south another 1000LY at least. I just went straight "down" about 800LY into the top of the Perseus Arm to check out a blue supergiant. Ship seems to be fine. No more crackling or smoke.

First, Ca$hback- only go as far as you feel you want to... plus maybe a little bit more just to prove to yourself you can. I think if my hull were down below 40%, I'd be thinking of home too.

I've never been out quite as far as you. The furthest out I've been is about 2,000 Ly, so- congratulations! As some of the 'old salts' have said, 5,000 Ly is (to them) a jaunt, barely out the door. But that's them, and we aren't all cut from the same cloth. I expect I'll probably be a bit more like you: I like the exploration, but in bite-sized doses

Second, Commander Akira RE: unlocking an engineer at 5K or beyond. This is really interesting, and news to me- thank you! I'll do some investigating, but I had no idea there was an engineer who is interested in your 'distance from start'. It gives me a goal that is far more 'reasonable' to me than Colonia or Sag A*!

 

[Macros Black]

Sounds to me like you're ready to go back (after passing the 5000Ly threshold). Take an exploration break in the bubble, pick up some exploration superjuice and head back out when the calling of the black gets too powerful to ignore. Maybe take some passengers?

Edit: Joining an expedition makes the long trips much easier, and once you're out there, you might as well keep going.

 

[Ca$hback]

Just a little update.
Found my first space potato, 303k radius. I was tempted to circumnavigate it in an SRV but it was rough, frustrating terrain.
8125LY from Sol.
I'm staring across the chasm between the Perseus Arm and the tail end of the Cygnus Arm.
59 Jumps to make the next 988LY at 44LY per jump. 19 Jumps gets me 620LY, after that it drags me all over the place. I'm going to try to make some strategic use of jumponium to see if I can bridge a few out of the equation.
Just finishing up my systems inspection, we're departing after dinner.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

4784LY? That's just a couple of hours - go home, get repairs, set off again. If it were 47840Ly...

Z...

i initially read it as 47840ly...

i recently flew a lot further with 15% left on my FSD and a cracked canopy @ 18%, there are other CMDR's who have come back from Beagle point with less hull

you will be fine - its not exactly dangerous out there unless you go put the kettle on again while trying to land

 

[Ca$hback]

you will be fine - its not exactly dangerous out there unless you go put the kettle on again while trying to land

While taking off.

 

[Ca$hback]

After months of it at about 2000LY per week, I decided tonight to make the remaining 4,800LY in one long session.
I'm back at Mic Turner base ready to sell my data! It's been a 30,000LY journey and while I'm not home yet, it feels good to climb out of my luxury liner into the cramped research base.

I made it back with 5 minutes before the server maintenance and I was 14m over the pad when I got scanned. I turned on silent running (which laughably broke the scan), bashed my hull from 32% to 24%, and was luckily centered enough to lock down. It felt epic.

They were even advertising a bonus for exploration data. Truly my lucky day.

I sold one page of data, which I promptly spent on hull repairs, integrity and power plant. I was watching the congratulations screen when I ran out of time and had to close it.

My first true expedition, a success! Can't wait until the servers are back up and I can savor my first discoveries.

I learned a lot. I learned 7500LY is about as far as I want to venture out without additional motivation. It's the return trip that gets me. 15,500LY is too far out for me. Getting back was the grindiest grind I've faced in this game and yet, it's never felt so sweet to land safely and drink Second Best from a run-down outpost-still.
I've learned tons about identifying planets by appearance, distance and type of star. Never really caught onto the sound thing. A lot of intuitive things that are tough to describe.
Started out an omnivore. Came back a picky carnivore.
I found my favorite activity was to find HMC worlds with 60-90% nitrogen and 10-30% oxygen, less than 5% water or argon, less than 2% CO2 and less than 1% ammonia or sulfur dioxide at 1 atmosphere. .75-4 atmospheres, 220K-340K, Max 3.5Gs. Then I wonder what's wrong with them.

The journey has really helped me appreciate how great atmospheric landings will be. The idea of visiting those HMC worlds, for some reason, really captivates me. Like dry TOS sets with breathable air.

At any rate, just thought I'd come back with an update. [alien][money][zZzZz]

 

[Anon Sin]

Well done Commander o7

 

[GreyAreaUK]

Once thing occurs to me - why is it we can repair our SRV hulls with mats but we can't repair our ships' hulls with mats? Seems inconsistent.

 

[Witzo]

If I were down to 34%, I'd head home.
It's the gamble we take with our time when we head out for a long trip. The boring, repetive 'cut throttle, honk, detail scan the main star, open system map while scanner does its thing, look for neat stuff,' and watching the hull %; all these slow things are the stretched-out version of what our combat oriented fellows in the bubble experience in seconds. Sometimes you need to leave the fight to repair and get back for a new round.
What in many games is a decision to be made in seconds with results in seconds, is for explorers something that plays out over weeks or even months.

 

[BaldEagle]

A nice positive finish to your journey - congrats Commander. You may be pleasantly surprised at the credits you receive and you should save details of some of your 'first finds' and then bring them up on the Galmap to see your name in 'lights'
Next stop SgrA*

 

[Ca$hback]

Destination: PHEIA THUA TO-Z D13-0 (Approx 16,400LY from Sol)
Furthest Star Reached: PHEIA EUQ PM-H B37-0 (Approx 14,500LY from Sol)
Jump Range: 44.34/49.17