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Newcomer / Intro Neutron Highway
- Thread starter hawknerd
- Start date
Probably not worth it for such a short trip, as the fields only start at about that distance from Sol, but you might want to check out this (old) forum thread.
Once you arrive at the fields, just set your GalMap to include Neutrons and tell your route GalMap route plotter to use Neutron boosts (of course, that also works outside of the fields - you just will touch on fewer Neutrons), then go zoom. Don't forget to take a short break every dozen hops or so and repair your FSD. A FSD failure while you're in the cone, charging up, is no fun.
Once you arrive at the fields, just set your GalMap to include Neutrons and tell your route GalMap route plotter to use Neutron boosts (of course, that also works outside of the fields - you just will touch on fewer Neutrons), then go zoom. Don't forget to take a short break every dozen hops or so and repair your FSD. A FSD failure while you're in the cone, charging up, is no fun.
I wouldn't recommend it, but that's me. I also don't recommend flying shieldless, but for some it's the right thing to do I suppose.
One reason is it is dangerous. I reckon you've gotta do the first one at some point, but it's a real risk. This doesn't mean you will have any trouble. But for me you have to weigh the risk of ship destruction against the desire to get there quickly. I hate losing ships so much maybe it clouds my view and I should relax
The other, maybe better, reason is you will skip so many systems. I'd say that for a first real long trip it's worth it to actually explore your way there. The profit from exploration data alone is worth it, not to mention the first-discoveries, stamping your commander name on the galaxy. But again I am coloring your plans with my views and maybe these don't apply.
Whatever you decide, good luck commander.
One reason is it is dangerous. I reckon you've gotta do the first one at some point, but it's a real risk. This doesn't mean you will have any trouble. But for me you have to weigh the risk of ship destruction against the desire to get there quickly. I hate losing ships so much maybe it clouds my view and I should relax
The other, maybe better, reason is you will skip so many systems. I'd say that for a first real long trip it's worth it to actually explore your way there. The profit from exploration data alone is worth it, not to mention the first-discoveries, stamping your commander name on the galaxy. But again I am coloring your plans with my views and maybe these don't apply.
Whatever you decide, good luck commander.
Neutron scooping is actually a lot easier than some claim. Just approach at the right speed and don't ever point towards the star itself. Also never scoop white dwarfs. In fact, untick them from your list and never add them back in unless you're specifically going to 1 in particular. They're the only thing that's actually dangerous.
As in supercharge your FSD, not get fuel.
By the time you've figured out how to do the neutron jumps, you could have done the trip using conventional jumping. If you have enough money, use an Asp. With the Guardian FSD booster, it'll cost 50 mil and give you nearly 50ly jump, so 100 jumps or around one and a half hours. When you get the invite at 5000LY, self destruct and you'll be transported back to where you started with a 2.5 mil rebuy. 2.5 mil to save 100 minutes of jumping is nothing when you could use the time to mine 250 mil worth of LTDs.
All you need:
A new starter could do it in a Hauler in under 3 hours. I've just been doing Road to Riches in one like this, which i'd be happy to use for the the 5000LY:
All you need:
A new starter could do it in a Hauler in under 3 hours. I've just been doing Road to Riches in one like this, which i'd be happy to use for the the 5000LY:
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It's not as exciting as your first hyperdiction or the first time you enter a damaged station but as long as you stay out if the exclusion zone, stay out of the jets and dip shallow & punctually you'll get the hang of it.
Try white dwarfs but try them locally and with cheap ships so you don't waste a lot of time or money.
Double up on the AFMUs if you can. It can triple your survivability.
Do them because they're fun, not so much because it's a FSD boost.
Try white dwarfs but try them locally and with cheap ships so you don't waste a lot of time or money.
Double up on the AFMUs if you can. It can triple your survivability.
Do them because they're fun, not so much because it's a FSD boost.
is it really that hard?
Flying shieldless on a long trip is nonsense and serves no purpose. On the long trip you probably going to land somewhere sooner or later. One rough landing on the surface of the planet and you going to regret it. One rogue pirate on the way back and you going to regret it as well. Small, lightweight, downgraded shield is OK, but no shield at all definitely not recommended.
No it's laughably easy. Seriously. Arrive at the system, come to a dead stop facing the star. Fly towards it slowly. When you're about 0.4ls away turn left or right and slide yourself gracefully into the jet, heading AWAY from the star. Make sure you're going nice and slow so that you don;t get thrown out of the jet before you've charged up and after about five seconds you'll get the 'frameshit drive supercharged' message. Hit full throttle and fly out. Don't try to get out of the jet immediately, just fly out of the end of it.
The only thing (literally the only thing) that will kill you is heading into the jet facing the star. All I do to be safe is select the star itself before I approach. Keep an eye on the compass on the left of your HUD and make sure the star is hollow not filled when you enter the jet - if it's hollow it's behind you. It doesn't matter if it's directly behind you, or if it's one degree from being in front of you because when you're in the jet, you will never get turned round past the 180 degree line - if the star is behind you when you enter the jet it will stay there.
Easiest and cheapest way to practice is just head to Jackson's Lighthouse in the bubble in a sidewinder. That way you can get blown up as many times as you like with no consequences. It has the added advantage that the Sidewinder gets thrown about worse than any other ship in a neutron star jet so when you get used to it in a sidey, doing it in a medium ship is fine and doing it in something like an anaconda is a cakewalk.
Note - all of this applies to neutron stars. If you want to charge up at a white dwarf make sure you have rebuy, cross your fingers and say a prayer. White dwarfs are the devil's work.
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That's two hours since I posted. You could've been back by now if you had done what I said!
he wants to unlock the engineer, not practice SRV jumping. Shields have only disadvantages when travelling long distances.
The Spansh neutron route plotter is here: https://www.spansh.co.uk/plotter - it's worth comparing this with the standard plotter to see if the reduced number of jumps is worth the hassle of having to manually paste in the system names.
To be able to use the neutron highway properly, the neutron stars should be sufficiently close together for you to be able to jump from one to the next. That's OK, if you're heading corewards, but not if you're heading out towards the galactic rim. Obviously whether you can "join the dots" is dependent on your base jumprange too. I usually switch over at Mammon or thereabouts.
You will need to break off for fuel occasionally at a regular main-sequence star. For that reason, having a decent-sized fueltank is a good idea, because you don't need to break off so often, even though the extra mass reduces your base jumprange slightly. Most exploration ships with a size 5 FSD have 32t tanks as default, which is fine. But some extreme jumpconda builds downsize to an 8t tank (8t is what a size 6 FSD needs for one max-range jump), not good for neutron-jumping. My own Jumpconda can still manage a base 77ly or thereabouts with 48t fuel (I fitted an extra 16t tank). A big fuelscoop also helps, as you'll be refuelling a near-empty tank quite often.
To be able to use the neutron highway properly, the neutron stars should be sufficiently close together for you to be able to jump from one to the next. That's OK, if you're heading corewards, but not if you're heading out towards the galactic rim. Obviously whether you can "join the dots" is dependent on your base jumprange too. I usually switch over at Mammon or thereabouts.
You will need to break off for fuel occasionally at a regular main-sequence star. For that reason, having a decent-sized fueltank is a good idea, because you don't need to break off so often, even though the extra mass reduces your base jumprange slightly. Most exploration ships with a size 5 FSD have 32t tanks as default, which is fine. But some extreme jumpconda builds downsize to an 8t tank (8t is what a size 6 FSD needs for one max-range jump), not good for neutron-jumping. My own Jumpconda can still manage a base 77ly or thereabouts with 48t fuel (I fitted an extra 16t tank). A big fuelscoop also helps, as you'll be refuelling a near-empty tank quite often.
Assuming he didn’t die of boredom on the way!
I did it that way and it was mind numbingly boring. Jump, honk, check system map, jump again. Using neutron stars would have spiced it up a bit. The exploration data payout wasn’t huge and of course you lose that if you self destruct at the end.