Memoirs of a Newb Explorer

[Cmdr Tipcee]

2nd post in the comments below! Thanks for reading!

Hi All,
I am currently on my first exploring expedition and thought that I would like to document it a little along the way - just a few instalments and maybe a few screenshots here and there to give me something to do on the 300k Ls trips to scan a planet etc. I am sorry if it is too long, I feel like I am on an epic journey and to cut it short would do it a dis-service.

A disclaimer before I begin though...I don't know a lot about space. I like Star Wars (the old ones), Star Trek (the new ones) and Apollo 13 is probably my favourite movie of all time but when it comes to knowing the ins and outs of space I don't even pretend to be in the know, especially after reading a lot of the other posts on this forum, the technical knowledge that a lot of you seem to possess on this subject is truly admirable. So with that in mind, when and where I make mistakes or call things the wrong name PLEASE, I beg of you, correct me! I want to learn these things and all of you are a terrific source of knowledge that I would be an idiot not to tap into if I can...


So where to begin...

The Back Story
I am still, what I would consider, new to ED. At about 75 hours played I feel like I am now just starting to get a handle on what my play style will be like for this game and how I need to go about improving in order to achieve what I want out if it. I started off as a trader. I was blessed to have a good friend who also plays tell me a couple of nice, short, safe and profitable routes and I felt like I progressed reasonably well through this. My main route was a tiny 31Ly each way route which was netting me about 3,800c per Tonne and I was usually able to complete this route in about 12-13 minutes. Once I bought my Type-6 and upgraded it to carry 104 Tonne of cargo this meant that I could make around the 1.9M credits per hour mark, which I thought was a pretty profitable way of life.

But while doing this route over and over and over again it kind of dawned on me that I was really wasting this game. Now let me stress that this is not a shot at traders at all, I was spamming the same 3 jumps time and time again and not going on long routes or running rares etc so I know that trading can be a lot more fun then I made it. I started thinking about all the different systems out there, all the stars, planets, nebulae etc and at that moment I decided that my focus would be on exploring! But I had a problem - I know nothing about exploring! I quickly watched a YouTube video on the best explorer build for an Asp and then set off to get it. After getting my Asp I thought I had better test it out so I jumped a few systems over scanned a few things and jumped back to the Chona system and sold my data. Hooray! I am no longer Aimless, just Mostly Aimless, I am practically Elite already

With this profound amount of experience under my belt I decided I was right to leave and that night I departed the station that had been my home, Smoot, and headed off for places unknown...

The First & Second Days
I had (and really still have) no idea where I was going. I thought the centre of the galaxy looked cool...lets try and go there! I clicked on a star somewhere near the centre of the galaxy, noticed that it was about 22,000 Ly from where I was and thought to myself "Sheesh! That's a long way!" and then got confused as to why I couldn't plot a course to it! After a couple of minutes on Google I realised my stupidity and found a nice system 990LY closer to the centre than me, and off I set.

It took me about 15 jumps to get to a system that was completely undiscovered - "Finally" I thought, "now I can start to earn some money!". After 30 mins of scanning everything and it all being either ice planets or rocks I figured maybe I needed to do a little more research on this whole thing.

Enter you guys and your posts.
I found so many helpful threads on this forum that I simply had to join this community even if only to express my thanks.

With my new found knowledge I was again ready to go, and this time focus on the right things rather than everything! I jumped for about another 8 hours over the next couple of days and found a whole heap of things that were new to me - Ammonia planets, Gas giants, Water worlds and even one undiscovered Earth-Like world. I also learnt how to go into debug mode and take some screenshots, a couple of which are below.

Spoiler

My ship, the Cerberus, ready to depart

Spoiler

If you could name planets I would have named this one "Icarus". It was 3.9Ls from the sun, it definitely flew to close

Spoiler

My first ELW! I claim her and she shall be named Tipsonia! May all that dwell here be blessed.

That is all for my first instalment, if you made it to here - Thank You. If you actually enjoyed reading it then Thank You again!

I want to do updates whenever I feel like enough has happened to warrant a short little story, I don't play all the time - RL has a habit of getting in the way but I do get a decent amount in none the less.

I'm keen for any feedback as to how I should update this...do I edit my first post or just reply to it? what would be the best way do you think? I would also love any suggestions as to a destination in the centre of the galaxy (eg a system name), I have seen plenty of references to Sag A* but am unsure as to where this is exactly (Newb, remember? ).


Thank you all again.

 

[Zieman]

IMHO you should add updates by replying in this thread.

If you feel so inclined, you could add a list of the main points to the first post, compete with links to relevant replies in the thread.

Sag A* (shorhand of Sagittarius A*) is the central black hole of the Galaxy.

Ah yes, welcome!

 

[Cmdr Raz]

Great first write-up, Commander - looking forward to the updates!

Fly safe

 

[Whiterose]

No system too big,
No system too small,
I love big juicy rocks,
and scan them all.

 

[iain666]

Welcome, glad to know at least some of our meanderings on here have been helpful

Have fun out there, and bring back lots of pretty pictures.

 

[Cmdr Tipcee]

Days Three & Four
I started this next period of my great journey full of excitement. I had had an amazing first exposure to this new mechanic of the game and couldn't wait to sink my teeth into it further, what would I discover next? What untold mysteries did the galaxy still have to reveal to me?

Well.....it seemed, not much, would be the answer to those questions.

Don't get me wrong, I saw beautiful things, things which the day before would have had me frantically hitting the debug button, after positioning myself in that spot that I thought was just right, for the next award winning shot. But the problem was that it seemed to me that I HAD seen all these things the day before. Where were all the new types of planets, stars and moons? In my previous couple of sessions everything had been new, everything had been shiny and exciting and I was itching for that feeling to come back to me, I was like a junkie chasing that next hit - just jumping from system to system looking for something new and not finding it.

Had I made a mistake in coming out here? Was trading meant to be my forte in ED after all? In my despair and confusion I once again came back to the explorers forums and started to read through some of the more "social" posts rather than the "guide" posts that I had been sticking too previously.

I read through CMDR Surly_Badger's amazing "Fuel Rat" post, CMDR Kancro Vantas's list of CMDRs who had made it to SAG A* and that only (at that time) 614 CMDRs were recorded as having made the trip from the whole player base and many other posts that were funny and that I was starting to relate with....
And then I clicked on a post titled "The 65k meet-up"

Spoiler

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=162005

which detailed how 3 CMDRs - Allitnil, Barefoot Bandit & Stulli, had met up some 65,000Ly out from Sol for a couple of screenshots and a chat. That this was not only possible but actually happened blew my mind and inspired me. Up until then I had felt very alone out here but that made me realise that there a lot of you out here with me doing what I'm doing - that we were alone together.

This made me totally review my playstyle and what I was expecting out of this area of the game. It came to me that it wasn't necessarily the new things that should excite me but the small little intricacies that separated and defined different planets of the same type. I started to actually fly close enough to some planets, not all - just some, to actually view them and not just scan them from a distance.

I was about 5,000LY out from Sol by now and had plotted a course to take me through the Lagoon Nebula on my way to Sag A*. I decided that rather than just race to it I would stop and smell the roses so to speak.

Given that I wasn't surrounded by hundreds of ELWs I decided that every now and again, when they looked interesting on my map, I would start to have a closer look at some of the ringed planets and stars I came across. Some of the things I saw made me realise that this change to my attitude towards ED was well worth it.

This ringed star was the first of its type that I had come across. I love the difference in the density of the rings and the "gap" ring near the centre. The fact that it is around a star and not a planet is the icing on the cake for me.

Spoiler

This blue gas giant was in a system with a white star, I'm not sure what drew me to look closer at it but I'm very glad I did. The way the light hits it and the dark side of the planet were what I really liked about it and what made me photograph it. For the first time I actually went to the dark side of the planet and marvelled at how the light from the core came through when there was no light illuminating the ring. I also had to get a white sun sunrise selfie

Spoiler

This planet just took my breath away...I'm not even entirely sure why. I think just the brightness of the debris rings along with the density of them and the way the galactic core just seems to perfectly run behind it like a line through a circle. It is probably something seen every day but remains one of my favourite discoveries.

Spoiler

I finished up this session about 600Ly out from the Lagoon Nebula, with it growing steadily larger through my canopy with each jump. It feels good to have an actual destination that is reachable on my next play but even better to know that it is just the first mile marker on this marathon. I even got the added bonus of a nice Water World on my final jump for the night

Spoiler

So in closing for tonight's entry into the memoirs I just wanted to thank, yet again, this games/forums community. Someone IS out there reading what you write and it IS making a difference to how I play and enjoy the game.

I am excited to move onto my first Nebula next and hopefully I can find a ELW along the way

Thanks for reading!​​​​​

 

[CMDR Space Lurker]

Good old Lagoon Nebula... it was the second nebula I visited. (First was the "Coalsack".) Lagoon was the nicer one by a mile of a difference.