[Not] Yet another circumnavigation

Taronas

Taronas
Kris said:
They postponed it, i think no changes to icy world in 3.3.
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To bad, but I probably wouldn't try another ice moon anytime soon anyways :)

Alec Turner said:
Here's a couple of images of what they were working towards ...
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That one, I have seen that before. But never expected that to be in 3.3. Looks like a more thorough overhaul of the terrain and surface.


Day 12: More of the same

Yes. More things to cross, more things to find. But still some surprises! Lets see …

First thing today was tuning the GPS to the actual target location to realize: Less than 1.000km! Is that a relief? Guess so.




Where we left of yesterday, with lots of daylight again. Should be a good ride today




The next valley




Another crashed ship! Same type as in all the other cases. Somebody should investigate why it's always the same. Some design fault? Time for a recall campaign?




Oh, and this of course. The number of crashed things on this little moon is actually alarming! What's going on here? Is this the Bermudas Triangle of the Universe?



But the really interesting thing in this image is the GPS Location! Look closely!
Yes, I just crossed the Line!


Navigation check:






A little canyon ahead




That was funny: Bad choice of hiding place! Detected by System Security.
I didn't stay around to see the outcome. But a while later I heard in the Comms that the Pirate would give in.




Nice ship in Ice Canyon:




On the other side of the Ice Canyon



And another valley ahead




Another DBX, no crashed landing this time




Lets take the coasting slide into the valley




I HATE WHEN THAT HAPPENS!




Oh, a double-ditch, for a change




Now, that second part was actually quite challenging to get out. The wall was very steep. Careful, slow 'crossing' was in order. Amazing that the SRV sticks to the ground at those angles. Did I actually put on the spike tires? Wasn't aware of that! Good preparation :)






And: Out!



Some statistics:







Outlook: 700km to go, some rough terrain ahead. At the current rate I could finish next Sunday. But RL Interdictions might occur.
 

Taronas

Taronas
Alec Turner said:
That was a pretty damn epic bit of terrain traversal and you're driving style is fine (excellent use of handbrake to tackle rough landscape in short, controlled sections and ability to keep the SRV in a straight line on ice). If you ever get the chance/inclination I'd really recommend getting some form of head tracking device (I use TrackIR) 'cos it really helps to be able to see where you're going when you've got the SRV tilted down at 90° but otherwise, yeah - you're doing great! The only other thing I'd say is maybe not to lean back so much when you're coming in for a landing after a big jump - a) it means you really can't see where you're going and b) isn't actually necessary, you can land fairly flat (even font wheels first slightly) and then simply bounce back up and keep on travelling (assuming that's what you want to do). Of course if you're deliberately air braking because you're trying to come to a stop then fair enough. But also ... whatever works for you (which it clearly is).

If you watch something like my Pomeche Ridge Challenge demonstration run you'll get an idea of a) how handy head tracking is and b) the sort of angle I tend to land and bounce at (mostly level or slightly front wheels first, rarely if ever leaning back).
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The intense 3.000km-in-two-weeks training schedule finally shows some results :) Thanks for the observations and suggestions!

I mapped the head movement to a hat switch on the Joystick but that doesn't work well because that's too much multi tasking for one hand in those situations ;-)

I do have a TrackIR still lying around somewhere. Used it back then when I was flying Aircraft in X-Plane regularly. At some point I grew tired of having to wear a hat (cap?) to put the reflector clip on. Thought about that this would be handy in ED as well as X-Plane but haven't bothered with yet. I also have one of those Intel 3D cams connected, which is supposed to track me moving around without wearing anything special. To be used with OpenTrack. But results in X-Plane were not good so far. I might try that one with ED.
 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
Taronas said:
The intense 3.000km-in-two-weeks training schedule finally shows some results :) Thanks for the observations and suggestions!

I mapped the head movement to a hat switch on the Joystick but that doesn't work well because that's too much multi tasking for one hand in those situations ;-)

I do have a TrackIR still lying around somewhere. Used it back then when I was flying Aircraft in X-Plane regularly. At some point I grew tired of having to wear a hat (cap?) to put the reflector clip on. Thought about that this would be handy in ED as well as X-Plane but haven't bothered with yet. I also have one of those Intel 3D cams connected, which is supposed to track me moving around without wearing anything special. To be used with OpenTrack. But results in X-Plane were not good so far. I might try that one with ED.
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I'd really recommend digging out tha TrackIR and tolerating the hat - for me headtracking is a complete game changer, second only to VR.
 

Nick Sticks

Nick Sticks
Alec Turner said:
I'd really recommend digging out tha TrackIR and tolerating the hat - for me headtracking is a complete game changer, second only to VR.
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On my T1600M Hotas the throttle has a mini self centering joystick which I use to look around and in general it works quite well.
I have no doubt though that the TrackIR would work better and will likely give it a go one day.
 

Taronas

Taronas
Day 13: Running out of Headlines

Good progression, 260km until the night settled in.








What happened along the way? Nothing special apart from this one

[url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/162045585@N07/45383431354/]

Looks dead on the ground, although hull and shields seem intact. But I saw a big dust cloud before I was close enough to get any details. Whatever happened …


Otherwise I crossed countless valleys, ditches, trenches, canyons even. Some impressions












That's it for today. 450km to go. Yes, I'm looking forward to get off the ice marble soon. It's been enough by now. Hopefully the landscape will be interesting most of the remaining way - that's what the map suggests at least.
 

Taronas

Taronas
X4 is downloading !!! I'm afraid the SRV has to wait a day or so … I'll be back to finish this trip the next days
 

Taronas

Taronas
longboat said:
One circumnavigation seems insanely long. But then again I'm fairly new to exploring. I've only been to Colonia and back.
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I choose a moon that's on the upper end of size for stellar bodies that usually get driven around. My own fault ;-)
On the other hand, my longest exploration trip (in my trusty T-7) was the 5.000LYs to unlock Prof. Palin. Going to Colonia? I cannot imagine doing that ever. Congrats on that one!

Check out The Planetary Circumnavigation Club for how others did on smaller moons, potato planets etc.
 

Orvidius

Orvidius
Taronas said:
On the other hand, my longest exploration trip (in my trusty T-7) was the 5.000LYs to unlock Prof. Palin. Going to Colonia? I cannot imagine doing that ever.
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It's interesting how this works out. When I did my 5kly trip for Palin (actually it was 7kly, since I took a passenger mission out to the Bubble Nebula), it felt like a crazy long distance. I knew I wanted to be an explorer, and that I'd have to adjust my mindset, if I ever wanted to go further. So I grabbed a bunch of friends, and we spent several weeks travelling to Colonia, then Sagittarius-A*, and then back home. And from then on, 5kly seemed small. ;)

Before that, Colonia seemed so very, very far away. Now I've been there so many times, I've lost count. Sometimes just diving in is the way to go.
 

Kris

K
Taronas said:
On the other hand, my longest exploration trip (in my trusty T-7) was the 5.000LYs to unlock Prof. Palin. Going to Colonia? I cannot imagine doing that ever.
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Somewhat similar here. Furthest i have been is i think over 8k ly from Sol, but there has always been some block to go further. Galaxy just seems so big, and home so far away. When 3.3 hits i plan to change that - maybe not to Beagle Point, but further than i have so far been (or maybe take part in DW2). I have done 1 moon circumnavigation (i think if i got tired of mining in 3.3 first thing i want is to get that moon my "mapped by" credit :p ), many trips to 3-4k ly distance but still quite a bit from Exploration Elite rank.
 

Taronas

Taronas
Looking at my explorer stats, I have travelled 43k LY already! (Not counting the other account, but that was much less). That would be Colonia and back again. But to imagine to do this all in one (or two) long stretches, with nothing else in between - besides some SRV craziness, of course - sounds like impossible to me. Concentrating on one thing for two weeks (real time) seems the upper limit. There is just too much else going on around, in ED and out of it.

My respect to all the long-distance Explorers!


Day 14: Small steps

I managed to squeeze in another 50km SRV driving yesterday! When I came back from work the X4 download was still going for a while ;-)

But wow, the last couple kilometers might become the real endurance test!

Terrain became a sea of waves, hills, dips, ravines etc. Nothing difficult on it's own but just no flat terrain anywhere makes the going slow.
Can't describe properly in english, better show some pictures:








Looking a the map I think I will soon hit higher ground again, thankfully. Just don't turn left into that darker area.



Current estimate: I might be able to do some 100km sessions - 4 more days. Sounds manageable!

No SRV driving in X4 - I have to come back to ED quite frequently
 

Taronas

Taronas
Day 15: Yet one step closer

First 50km were horrible. Continuation of yesterday. Difficult to drive. Jumps would always land on some uneven ground and then jump of in any direction but where I want to go. Just driving gets constantly stopped by 180° turns, sigh.

But then I reached that other plateau and could add some more km, accompanied by the usual ditches etc.
No ships, no crashed things along the way today.

I think I stopped with 260km left. Two more days?











 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
Had vague plans of trying to hook up with you last week but I just realised I sent my friend request to Taronas rather than Explorix - Doh! I'll send another later today if I get time - might still get a chance to drive a bit of this awesome landscape with you!
 

Nick Sticks

Nick Sticks
Alec Turner said:
Had vague plans of trying to hook up with you last week but I just realised I sent my friend request to Taronas rather than Explorix - Doh! I'll send another later today if I get time - might still get a chance to drive a bit of this awesome landscape with you!
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I was on my way back to Pomeche Ridge when I realised this System is quite close so I've called in and am sitting near the finish at the moment but will try to find him without the friend request for the moment - you know I like to do that :D

There is a lot of traffic on this planet and I'm getting a lot of scans as I sit here.
I have no cargo so they are all disappointed.
I did like the one that came right up to me and then said "Sorry, mistaken identity. I thought you were someone else".
 
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