Neutron boosting and FSD repairs

Jethro49 · Oct 10, 2018

Quite a straight forward question, although the answer should not be so simple and the following debates might be interesting... (or not) :
Considering the integrity of the FSD while travelling along a neutron highway, and looking for the best time efficiency, what is the threshold under which I need to stop to repair this module ?

Straha Yeagar · Oct 10, 2018

Jethro49 said:
Quite a straight forward question, although the answer should not be so simple and the following debates might be interesting... (or not) :
Considering the integrity of the FSD while travelling along a neutron highway, and looking for the best time efficiency, what is the threshold under which I need to stop to repair this module ?

Malfunctions start happening when the FSD falls below 80%.

Orvidius · Oct 10, 2018

Personally I repair somewhere right around 80% so that I don't waste time with malfunctions. Repairing more often means spending more time waiting for the FSD and AFMUs to power up.

Granted you can make arguments about having a margin of safety, but most of the time it's all pretty predictable, and safe to choose when you want to repair.

Cpt Shadow Wolfe · Oct 10, 2018

I generally just power up the AFM when I am close to a gas giant with a lot of moons to scan, can usually get close to scan one moon, drop down to normal space, start repairing while scanning all the moons. If I am running 2 AFMs, then don't take long to repair. Can make 10 to 15 Neutron jumps between repairs.

lokvette · Oct 10, 2018

As others have said 80% is when it starts to hit the fan, I tend to do it before that tho

Jethro49 · Oct 10, 2018

Ok, thanks to all for their answers [up]

So the trend is to repair just before the FSD starts to malfunction, at 80%. But I observed that between 75% and 80%, the FSD malfunctions, then goes back online after a random time and allows one more jump. So did anyone push the limit farther ? One of my friend did a jump at 45%... What are the risks ? especially is there a risk to drop in normal space while still struggling in the jetcone ?

marx · Oct 10, 2018

I'm not sure if anyone did some tests, but from my experience, the lower the percentage of your FSD, the more frequent the malfunctions (which disable your drive for a time) will be. I think I heard people say that if your FSD malfunctions during supercruise, you drop down to normal space, which would likely be fatal if you're in the jet (you could escape, but a malfunctioning FSD will make that more difficult), but I haven't observed this yet. What I did was that a malfunctioning drive would abort charging a jump.
In my opinion, it's best to play it safe and don't go below 80%. Better to lose a bit of time to repairing every now and then than to lose a lot of time to staring at the rebuy screen.

LifesAJourney · Oct 10, 2018

I use AFMU on the first FSD malfunction. I'm pretty sure it happens always at 79%.

disorganise · Oct 11, 2018

LifesAJourney said:
I use AFMU on the first FSD malfunction. I'm pretty sure it happens always at 79%.

Similar to me. Except usually the third or fourth and a swear word. Still 79% though

space voyager · Oct 11, 2018

Jethro49 said:
Ok, thanks to all for their answers [up]

So the trend is to repair just before the FSD starts to malfunction, at 80%. But I observed that between 75% and 80%, the FSD malfunctions, then goes back online after a random time and allows one more jump. So did anyone push the limit farther ? One of my friend did a jump at 45%... What are the risks ? especially is there a risk to drop in normal space while still struggling in the jetcone ?

There are people reporting being cooked in jet cones. I don't remember exactly but I think they reported waiting for.FSD tl come back online so this may be the reason.

osser · Oct 11, 2018

I don't remember and I really never did enough of these, but don't these do damage to the PP? if so amfus cant help there.

Jethro49 · Oct 11, 2018

osser said:
I don't remember and I really never did enough of these, but don't these do damage to the PP? if so amfus cant help there.

Well from my experience, the supercharge only damages the FSD.

Other notes, confirming what was written above :
- the first malfunction always occured at 79%
- I never exited SC while the FSD was malfunctioning
- the jump charge was never interrupted by some FSD malfunctioning
- The lowest I went was 73-75% integrity : the FSD didn't came back online after 2 minutes and I had to stop to repair. That was 4 boosted jumps after the initial failure.

So I guess that the most efficient is to wait for failures, and if the FSD doesn't come back online after a minute, then it's time for repairs !

Orvidius · Oct 11, 2018

Mine has malfunctioned in the jet cones rather frequently, but it hasn't dropped me from supercruise. So that's a plus. Sometimes I just don't notice that it's getting close to 80%, and the moment it hits 79%, it usually malfunctions once, immediately.

My understanding is that by the time you get below 10% integrity left on it, it'll malfunction more often than not, making travel very difficult.

Ziggy Stardust · Oct 11, 2018

Jethro49 said:
Ok, thanks to all for their answers [up]

So the trend is to repair just before the FSD starts to malfunction, at 80%. But I observed that between 75% and 80%, the FSD malfunctions, then goes back online after a random time and allows one more jump. So did anyone push the limit farther ? One of my friend did a jump at 45%... What are the risks ? especially is there a risk to drop in normal space while still struggling in the jetcone ?

Ed Lewis went to Beagle Point on his first big exploration trip and made it there and back on a pretty beat up FSD. Can't remember how beat up. I do remember taking a shot every time it malfunctioned on his Journey Home livestream.

Ian Phillips · Oct 11, 2018

Ziggy Stardust said:
I do remember taking a shot every time it malfunctioned on his Journey Home livestream.

If you can remember drinking a shot every time, it wasn't that beat up

Ziggy Stardust · Oct 11, 2018

Ian Phillips said:
If you can remember drinking a shot every time, it wasn't that beat up

It was an afternoon stream. The shots were coffee

We at Frontier have fun responsibly.

marx · Oct 11, 2018

So I hopped over to Jackson's Lighthouse to do some ‼Science‼. Here's what I found:

Only your FSD is damaged by the jet in supercruise, and it degrades continuously while you're inside.
The module's displayed health doesn't get updated frequently, so its actual health is probably lower than you think.
Malfunctions start at 79%, and (anecdotal "evidence" warning!) seem to get more frequent the lower the module health gets.
You only drop down from supercruise when the FSD reaches 0% module health and gets disabled. No random drop-outs before that. At least, it took me around 25-30 minutes (didn't time it, just looking at the logs) to go from 100% to 0%, and I only dropped when the FSD failed.
If you do drop down into the catastrophic environment of the cone, NPCs can spawn and follow you in there. Sadly, I couldn't check if they get damaged as well, because my sensors fried before I could get a full reading.
Even a 2A AFM will repair your FSD faster than the jet damages it. (Tested on an Imperial Courier, so six internal slots.)

So basically, as long as you don't hit the neutron star's exclusion zone, you should be mostly safe, unless you're really not paying attention.

Jethro49 · Oct 12, 2018

marx said:
So I hopped over to Jackson's Lighthouse to do some ‼Science‼. Here's what I found:

Only your FSD is damaged by the jet in supercruise, and it degrades continuously while you're inside.

The module's displayed health doesn't get updated frequently, so its actual health is probably lower than you think.

Malfunctions start at 79%, and (anecdotal "evidence" warning!) seem to get more frequent the lower the module health gets.

You only drop down from supercruise when the FSD reaches 0% module health and gets disabled. No random drop-outs before that. At least, it took me around 25-30 minutes (didn't time it, just looking at the logs) to go from 100% to 0%, and I only dropped when the FSD failed.

If you do drop down into the catastrophic environment of the cone, NPCs can spawn and follow you in there. Sadly, I couldn't check if they get damaged as well, because my sensors fried before I could get a full reading.

Even a 2A AFM will repair your FSD faster than the jet damages it. (Tested on an Imperial Courier, so six internal slots.)

So basically, as long as you don't hit the neutron star's exclusion zone, you should be mostly safe, unless you're really not paying attention.

That's science, repped for that [up]

Gazatronic · Oct 12, 2018

marx said:
You only drop down from supercruise when the FSD reaches 0% module health and gets disabled. No random drop-outs before that. At least, it took me around 25-30 minutes (didn't time it, just looking at the logs) to go from 100% to 0%, and I only dropped when the FSD failed.

Remember that damaged power plant can drop you out of SC at anything less than 80%.

marx said:
So basically, as long as you don't hit the neutron star's exclusion zone, you should be mostly safe

Yeah I've done that too. Had supercharged, left the cone and was swinging around to line up for high wake. Bang! Alarms screaming, ship smoking and fizzing, pants browning. (I survived with heavy damage)

ibmalone · Dec 7, 2018

Interesting, from that thread (wonder if cross-thread quotes work?):

marx said:
Malfunctions start at 79%, and (anecdotal "evidence" warning!) seem to get more frequent the lower the module health gets.

You only drop down from supercruise when the FSD reaches 0% module health and gets disabled. No random drop-outs before that. At least, it took me around 25-30 minutes (didn't time it, just looking at the logs) to go from 100% to 0%, and I only dropped when the FSD failed.

That's fairly recent it seems, which really does make it sound like hitting the exclusion zone is the only way it could happen. I suppose I could have been buffeted backwards?

But also:

Gazatronic said:
Remember that damaged power plant can drop you out of SC at anything less than 80%.

Which would be consistent with not being able to start the FSD, but leaves the question of how the powerplant could get that badly damaged in the first place. (Was at 98/99 from an earlier emergency drop hitting a ring system a little too hard.)

marx said:
Even a 2A AFM will repair your FSD faster than the jet damages it. (Tested on an Imperial Courier, so six internal slots.)

Which is fairly annoying, as I picked up the AFMU in Colonia, so it was grade B and couldn't keep up. (Though if the problem was the powerplant, then it wouldn't have helped. Wonder if repair limpets work in a jet cone...)