Newcomer / Intro Off into the wild black yonder

[Ankor Grammaten]

I'm attempting my first serious exploration trip.

I am flying an AspX, equipped for exploration as best I can, no guns, little cargo space, all the exploration scanners, a powerful fuel scoop, and a level 6 shield (didn't feel safe without one). I have a jump range of around 33ly.

I've headed out towards Sagittarius A*, not trying to get there in the shortest time but making it a kind of "road trip". I honk every system , but only stop to do full exploration every so often. I just realized that I should always scan the star itself as it takes very little extra time.

I don't know if I will ever reach Sag A, it's a long way, but at least it gives me an objective and a direction. So, I have a few questions, and welcome any suggestions.

How can I see what exploration data I have and its value, without docking at a station, which is obviously impossible this far out?

I have equipped an SRV as I found some people recommending it, but so far haven't seen any use for it. Is there?

Is my method of honking all systems and scanning only a few a good approach? What do people typically do? Fully exploring every system would seem to be excessively time consuming. How to select the best systems to explore?

I can't plot a route to Sag A as it's too far, so I've headed out in that general direction doing routes to scoopable stars of 100-200ly. I then check how far I've come and how far to go to see how close to a direct line I have followed. So far this could do with improvement. Any advice? The galaxy map is not an easy tool to use to draw a 3D straight line to something.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Hi,

There's no way to check for sure, if you are honking and jumping with an advanced scanner the average system is worth about 9,500credits. Taking a screenshot before you set off of the statistics panel (right hand -> 1st tab -> left x2 -> scroll down) you can get to a systems visited count. Do your exploring then if you want to check just work out the difference and multiply by 9500.

If scanning stuff you can keep count and use this: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/141785-HOLO-ICONS-CHART-Exploration-values
Which is what I did on my recent trip, you can get pretty accurate.

Generally its up to you what you scan. Most people only scan the high value targets and all stars. I tended to either scan nothing or scan everything depending on if there were multiple high value objects. Broke it up nicely imo.

As for plotting you can only plot up to 1000ly at a time, I always set myself a few waypoints centred around nebula or shiny objects on the galmap, gives you a target that's only a few thousand ly away so it never feels far till you look and realise you are 15,000ly from sol.
A good bit of advice is to fly above or below the 0 height band as there's a whole bunch of unscoopable stars between -500 and +500 height that can cause a lot of issues.

 

[Chris Simon]

Honk-jumping is a very common strategy.
What I do is arrive to the system, honk while scooping and aligning with the next jump. I press the FSD charge and switch the system map on. If I see something interesting (that could be a waterworld or ELW) in the goldilocks zone, I cancel the jump and go look, if not, I proceed with the jump.
I got to Sag A* in less than 10 hours like this, so don't worry - you'll get there eventually and it's definitely worth it!

Though sometimes when I'm bored by jumping, I just pick a random icy moon and go have fun with the SRV.

 

[Ashnak]

Alex forgot one thing: EDDiscovery. If you ever want (or need) to find out where you've been and/or want to make a few notes during the trip.

Regarding the SRV:
- collecting materials to e.g. repair or refuel the SRV, refill your AFMU, reload your guns (if you have any), synthesize jump boosts or just store them for the Engineers
- getting a better view of your ship (and the landscape) for pictures
- just for fun scooting around on an 0.1g snowball

 

[CMDR Mr. Boombastic]

How can I see what exploration data I have and its value, without docking at a station, which is obviously impossible this far out?

There is Jaques station in the Colonia Nebula (Bubble 2.0) where you can dock and sell exploration data but could be a slight detour. Although read some CMDRs do use it as a stopover for going to or coming back from Sag A*.
Its currently still called 80 DD-D 774-CE-2 and in the system Eol Prou RS-T d3-94 but I think I read in the patch notes it will be renamed back to Jaques Station in 1.7/2.2.
This is assuming no-one has sabotaged the station which can shutdown some station services.

Jaques background: Jaques the Cyborg - a background history, info on current events, and possible future projects?

Also after the next patch there will be some refuelling stations built from the Colonia Nebula back to the bubble, but they will be outposts and not sure if you'll be able to sell exploration data there.

 

[Ankor Grammaten]

Thanks for all the info/advice.

I must say I'm very surprised that the exploration data is not available in-ship. I mean, you dock at a station and they know exactly where you have been and how much it is worth. Where do they get it from? It can only be your ship's computer.

OK, don't bother to point out that common sense is one thing, how the game works is another.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Thanks for all the info/advice.

I must say I'm very surprised that the exploration data is not available in-ship. I mean, you dock at a station and they know exactly where you have been and how much it is worth. Where do they get it from? It can only be your ship's computer.

OK, don't bother to point out that common sense is one thing, how the game works is another.

To be honest I make up reasons in my head to satisfy my OCD.

In this case I see it as a locked data storage in the heart of your ship, hence why it's lost when you die. Same with bounty vouchers but the ship computer can give you a quick total but it can't tell you what the name of each wanted npc was that you killed etc.

Not the proper answer I'm sure that has something to do with the exploration database being on slower data-servers that can't handle as much traffic as they are not required for fast response times or constant use like instance servers and combat/ship movement servers (which is mostly P2P anyway).

 

[Xaqman]

What is HONK-JUMPING?

Thanks

 

[Alex Brentnall]

What is HONK-JUMPING?

Thanks

"Discovery scanner" is the honking - press and hold and it gives you a "Found X objects" top left which gives you cash if you sell that data.
The alternative is planet scanning which doesn't require but is enhanced by the "Detailed surface scanner" which you do by flying up to planets and looking at them until the scanner does its work and adds the data to your ship (also to sell).

Mechanics are pretty basic at the moment but the thrill of exploration is finding the rare systems like the Earth like orbiting a black hole or the planet with 10x earth radius but only half earths gravity etc. <- My opinion

 

[Dad Rock]

What is HONK-JUMPING?

Thanks

As one of the earlier commentators said, Honk-jumping is where you start the discovery scanner as soon as you arrive at a system, while at the same time fuel scooping and starting to line up for your next jump. It strikes a good balance between collecting the Advanced Discovery data of a system along the way on a long journey, while also saving you time. As you get better at it, you start timing it so that a discovery scan, fuel scoop, and aligning with the next target can be done with enough time to check the system map for anything valuable you might want to use the surface scanner on. Takes a bit of practice, but it's a very efficient, and potentially lucrative, way of exploring the galaxy without getting bogged down by exploring each body in every system you visit. Good luck out there!

 

[Manticore]

I'm attempting my first serious exploration trip. .

Exploring rocks. I'm planning to start another nebula expedition in a couple of weeks.

Stay safe out there CMDR and have fun!

 

[Gator Country]

Alex forgot one thing: EDDiscovery. If you ever want (or need) to find out where you've been and/or want to make a few notes during the trip.

Regarding the SRV:
- collecting materials to e.g. repair or refuel the SRV, refill your AFMU, reload your guns (if you have any), synthesize jump boosts or just store them for the Engineers
- getting a better view of your ship (and the landscape) for pictures
- just for fun scooting around on an 0.1g snowball

Your link goes to an outdated version of EDDiscovery; here's one to the site with the current version (4.3.5) - https://github.com/EDDiscovery/EDDiscovery/releases/tag/Release_4.3.5.