Out of Fuel? - Explorer Rescue Service, The Fuel Rats

Hello Fuel Rats I am Prof. Norvegicus of the R and D Dept.

We in the Dept. try to trouble shoot any problems that we think could hinder you active Fuelers, in your brave missions to save the unfortunate Cmdrs who run out of fuel.

So to that effect we randomly plucked a pilot out of the Mischief to run some tests. Unfortunately we did not get the brightest of you. Cmdr Aitken was sent out to Robigo to do a few runs. Why Robigo? Well we have heard that the interdiction rate after picking up cargo has been high and that is exactly what we wanted. Also if he survived he would make a little money.

We sent the subject Rat with instructions to get interdicted and follow a set of procedures. Our findings and recommendations are listed below.

The Best Way to evade NPC Interdictions.

Throttle to 75% - This is the sweet-spot, set up a key binding for it if you do not have one already. Press it as soon as the interdiction begins.

Four pips to SYS – Unsure why this helps but the thought is that the on board systems help to repel the interdictors tether. Experimentation was preformed with four pips to ENG with unsatisfactory results. We did not try putting pips in WEPS as the Asp was unarmed.

Use Thrusters – Yes they work in Super Cruise while being interdicted. Our Fuel Rat uses a HOTAS with the thrusters bound to controls on the throttle.

With this method our lab rat had a very high success rate, most of the failed ones were due to him being to close to the entry point and flying into the exclusion zone of the star.

Below is listed ship and pertinent equipment.

Lakon Asp Explorer

Unarmed – Gave Cmdr Aitken a reason to evade.

1 heat sink and 1 Chaff Launcher.

A3 Power Plant
D5 Thrusters
D4 Power Distributor

We do not think that the type of life support (No idea why we fit this anyway), FSD and sensors matter. No shield cells or other boosters were used.

Please remember we were not using one of your better pilots, your attempts to evade should be glorious. We used an Asp as this seems to be a popular ship with Fuel Rats. Limited trials were done in an Anaconda, it laughs at the attempts and we conclude that it is probably the safest ship out there at the moment. We lack the data to confirm this theory.

We are still brainstorming the instancing issues and fervently hope that they will improve in the coming months.

As always your mileage may vary, as different ships will no doubt have different results.

Thank you for your time Rats and fly safe.

Professor Ralph Norvegicus

Head of Department,
Fuel Rats Research and Development.
 
...
Throttle to 75% - This is the sweet-spot, set up a key binding for it if you do not have one already. Press it as soon as the interdiction begins.

Four pips to SYS – Unsure why this helps but the thought is that the on board systems help to repel the interdictors tether. Experimentation was preformed with four pips to ENG with unsatisfactory results. We did not try putting pips in WEPS as the Asp was unarmed....

Nice work!

Looking at this, is it possible 'we' have been making the same mistake and thinking that 'best speed' = fastest?

Now I'm thinking, is it about going as slow as possible, while in the 75% to force the Interdictor to overshoot?

Food for thought

o7
 
Paul Kavinsky is asking for someone to do a write up of the recent long range rescue. these are the details he gave me:

cmdrs involved
Burwellian Ship: Cleopatra
John magellan Ship: Tanhauser
Paul Kavinsky Ship: Sena
Spanielz


Clients name: Karuv
almost all the rats were brand new fuel rats on their firt trip to sag a. Paul was the only rat with experience this was his second sag a. John magellan hooked up with client Paul provided operational planning along with burwellian. Spanielz had a lot of problems like losing limpets.
25kLY roughly 2 days with Paul and Burwellian taking one day to get there

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

SEPARATE POST that has nothing to do with the Long Range rescue.
The Big 100:
The rescue anaconda "Celestial Redeemer" was still in Bylgit System from a case red operation hours earlier. When a distress call came in from Col 285 Sector VD-Q B19-0 system. That system was 350.21 Light years away. Eleven frame shift jumps for my ship with 20 limpet drones in the cargo hold. After the sixth jump I was interdicted; reported that to dispatch and continued jumping. It took thirteen minutes from the time the distress call had been received for the Celestial Redeemer to arrive in the client's system. The client and his vulture were in supercruise till after breaking through a language barrier. At which time I fully refueled the client's vulture scoring my hundredth rescue as a Fuel Rat!
 
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Commander's log, 18 November 3301.

A code red in #ratchat, but I'm on a robigo run! No limpet controller on board... Nearest station. Sells one! perfect, only 3 tonnes of cargo space available, will have to do. CMDR Tall Bird already on the case and closer, who will win the rat race?

6 jumps later, in system, Client states they're near Wohler Terminal. Tall Bird is already in position. Becci[dispatch] tells them to log in. Visual on beacon, but no ship upon navlock drop. Oh wait! That's... Tall Bird. Relaunching to fix instancing.

Turns out, instancing near a busy station is an issue. CMDR Precursor has arrived and is standing by in supercruise, I jump and instance with them. Good sign.

Let's try this again. Client logs in, nav lock. instant drop, 2 CMDRs on the scanner, one blue, one yellow. The blue one... it's the client! Firing Limpet drone! Precursor drops in, plenty of limpets in the 'air' now, client is safe... now who's that other CMDR? It's Tall Bird! Turns out instancing wasn't the problem this time around, but the lack of colour-coded scanner icons. Winging up is helpful for more than just instancing!
 
I don't mind giving the long ranger write up a go when I have time.

We looking for a particular style? GalNet suitable or just casual story telling?
 
I don't mind giving the long ranger write up a go when I have time.

We looking for a particular style? GalNet suitable or just casual story telling?

We looking for Epic ! Just kidding, write in your own style or someone else's... We don't care. What we want is great soties, feeling, suspense, joy, etc...
 
scoring my hundredth rescue as a Fuel Rat!

Huge congratulations to you!! That is glorious!

Those of you who've been around since the beginning will recall my pledge to provide t-shirts for the top occupants of the leaderboard. I will (of course!) honor that pledge. But I have decided to do something else to honor the awesomeness of the many individuals that make up the collective; it's a secret that I've dragooned the amazing CMDR Father Cool into working on for us all. Do not ask him or waterboard him, please.

One of the objectives is to recognize the amazing efforts of The Fuel Rats and to honor you who have put in ridiculous effort dealing with CASE RED instancing, being DISPATCH (<- Being DISPATCH is crazy hard. I know. I've done it.) being there for people when they needed it.

I've been dealing with euphemestically titled "Life Issues" lately and haven't been able to spend as much time in #RatChat as I like. And it's interesting: the state of the art has already passed me by! It's been 3 months since I was doing DISPATCH myself and now there's robots, new SOP, new awesomeness. The wizened little ink pump I call my "heart" swells with pride when I drop in to #RatChat and see a DISPATCH who I don't know and haven't even met, being awesome, professional, steely-eyed and organized, walking down a CASE RED as if it's ... well, it is something they do every day.

I'd say something all emotional like, "I love you" except whenever I try it my mouth can only produce the words "Do your paperwork." OK?

Keep bringing the glory, Fuel Rats.




We looking for a particular style?

Fuel Rat Style is the style of no style. :)
 
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I'd say something all emotional like, "I love you" except whenever I try it my mouth can only produce the words "Do your paperwork." OK?

WHAT ? The Founder, asking for more Bureaucracy ? This isn't Sparta ! (and by that I mean that This is Madness).
Don't just "do your paperwork", people. Regale us with Epic tales and incredible life-threatening suspense ! Show us how much of a poet you are ! SING the song of the stars and the Hydrogen Serenade ! Strike us with wonder at the sights your words can only weakly encase as if your work was a diamond that did not fit anywhere but here !
 
LOL, just watching the Sugar Bus Rat Trap episode (from newsletter #100) ...

[video=youtube_share;xZfhv8Ev668]https://youtu.be/xZfhv8Ev668[/video]

Couldn't help noticing Alec-BirthdayBoy-Turner in the IRC there. :)

I remember feeling a bit cheesed about this prank call at the time (to be honest I hadn't heard of Sugar Bus) but watching it now I feel bad we weren't more playful. I guess we take what we do pretty seriously.

Cmdr Loetmichel ... did you ever forgive them and claim your prizes?
 
How's this? :)


Commander's Log, 22 November 3301

Sagittarius A*

What a week.

It all started with the cargo runs from Fehu on Monday. For some reason, both the Empire and the Federation appreciate you running supplies to them, who'd've thought? Within an hour of becoming an Imperial Baron, I completed my run and returned home to Fuelum, to find the Federation offering me Petty Officer rank as well; my Sol permit at last! I parked the Python, switched over to my Asp, "Cleopatra", and went to take a look at the cradle of humanity, where we started from. After a little time in Earth orbit, I returned back to Fuelum and parked for the night, surely that was my landmark for the week.

Little was I to know.

I stirred the next morning and looked at the clock; 06:20, much earlier than usual. Then I saw a flickering light by the comm unit; a shortage of Rats, the Fuel Rats were calling for members with long range ships, "explorats" to go on a long range rescue. I had five successful rescues under my belt, why not go for a sixth?

TWENTY FIVE Kylies! Blimey, that's as far out as Sag A*! I already had Cleopatra close to hand, and had recently refitted her with a view on the upcoming Distant World's expedition; this wouldn't quite be the shakedown I had in mind, but it'd give me some long range practice and it'd get there quicker than most. I checked the system, launched and made a beeline for the core, almost before I'd thought about it. I'd never been more than 6,000ly out, certainly not been to the core before. I'd read about it, sure, but not actually attempted it.

Within an hour I had backup following me; Commander Spanielz left the bubble with his tanker; whilst mine did lots of little scoops, he had gone for a full hold of fuel and a single larger scoop for fuel every kylie or so. Like me, he'd never been out this far before, and only had a handful of rescues under his belt; three so far. The backup was welcome and the chase was on!

DmEzYjc.jpg


Before I knew it, I was nearing the Cat's Paw Nebula, and more news filtered through. Paul Kavinsky, with over a hundred rescues under his belt including a similar long range one, was joining the fray in his Asp called Sena, while our client was not only 25,000ly away but was in a Sidewinder as well! What state he'd be in when we arrived was unclear, he'd certainly be low on fuel but would we get to him in time before air became an issue? With such a small ship, would our fuel limpets damage him more than the refuelling helped him? We'd certainly give it a good go.

The Fuel Rats radio channels kept me going on the long haul, stopped the trip from getting dull. Jokes being thrown about, encouragement to reach the client as well. There was plenty going on in our wake; two more rescues over 3,000ly each, and even a call from a commander only a thousand or so light years ahead of me. A detour, help two commanders in one long haul? I had the limpets, but alas, the issue wasn't fuel. The distress call was from a Commander with no life support, down to 0%. Never found out how, we presume he'd had a run in with a star, but beyond advice, there was nothing we could do to help.

KhQuOZc.jpg


Onwards; through NGC 6357 and towards the core, before we knew it, it was 23:00 and I was at the Great Annihilator. It seemed like a good place to stop for the night, an easy place for my fellow rats to remember. So I did. Next morning, it took an hour or two to get to Sagittarius A* itself, 700ly from the client. Paul wasn't far behind, but Spanielz had hit trouble; half his limpets had been lost already. One of the rats from the 3,000ly rescues, John_Magellan, had decided to bring his own Asp (the Tannhauser) and chase us, in case we needed backup and as moral encouragement. Again, he'd not been out this far and had a handful of rescues, but all the backup was welcome. He joined us after a day or so, Eagle in tow, and we waited for Spanielz.

And waited. And waited... Then the news came through. As far from civilisation as he'd come, he'd been shot down. He wasn't coming.

YjQcFnA.jpg


So the attempt was made; we entered the system, Karuv's little golden Sidewinder next to the star, and John fired the limpet. Success! We'd come all this way, and the client was safe. A few photos later, Karuv was back under way towards the Great Annihilator; the black hole I'd been at a couple of days earlier. John and I went for a quick photo at Sag A*, while Paul made his way straight back to the Bubble.

40F7E0988A0AA15B59323283447F71227526EF3D


Now we face the long haul back ourselves, having done a trip in a day that most take weeks to attempt. There's plenty of sights to see on the way, but I'll be back out here again soon I'm sure.

Signing off.

Commander Burwellian.
 
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Sounds fantastic. Congratulations again on the long range, they are always the best in my opinion :)
Also congratulations on your first long range trip outside the bubble. How'd you find it, some nice sights out there. If you want any advice on places to detour to on your way back let me know, I've done 2 similar trips so have a few good suggestions you may want to look at :)

Golden sidewinder ftw Karuv, best of luck with the remainder of your expedition :)
 
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I think I have a route back planned. I'll be back out here soon with Distant World's, but picked out about 20 nebulae to visit :)

It was pretty literally a sprint out here so I went by Cat's Paw and NGC 6357 to try and keep things from getting too dull early, then legged it. It's the route back where I need to keep myself entertained :)
 
I think I have a route back planned. I'll be back out here soon with Distant World's, but picked out about 20 nebulae to visit :)

It was pretty literally a sprint out here so I went by Cat's Paw and NGC 6357 to try and keep things from getting too dull early, then legged it. It's the route back where I need to keep myself entertained :)

Sounds about right. If you get time for a detour the Hypo Auf AA-A H37 has some awesome black holes around it if you want to play with nebula and black holes. There's also a planetary nebula called Dumboi XP-X E1 7577 around that area iirc that was pretty amazing to see.
Other advice is to go as high or low as possible on the galactic plane for the view with half the sky empty of stars...
DYRI AOC AA-A H60 and GREAE PHIO AA-A H33 nebula both worth a visit if you are passing.
Finally there's some binary earth likes in BLEAE AWESY AJ-B D28 which is fairly epic even though they arn't that close. I believe I own the tags on those :)
 
I think I have a route back planned. I'll be back out here soon with Distant World's, but picked out about 20 nebulae to visit :)

It was pretty literally a sprint out here so I went by Cat's Paw and NGC 6357 to try and keep things from getting too dull early, then legged it. It's the route back where I need to keep myself entertained :)
If you haven't left the core yet, try dropping straight down and heading for PHROI FLYA. Not only does it get you out of the route plotting mess in a hurry, but that sector is absolutely lousy with black holes to farm. One of my favorite spots.
 
I'll note these down for future trips I think; current plan is:

Sagittarius A*
MYRIESLY CL-P E5-4186 - 'Emerald Look' Remnant
MYRIESLY CL-P E5-7383 Neb
MYRIESLY YE-R E4-3646 - 'Drop Of Blood' Nebula
MYRIESLY WJ-R E4-5254 - 'Blink Of An Eye' Remnant
MYRIESLY MS-T E3-3831 - 'Northern Lazur' Remnant
MYRIESLY HR-N E6-4354 - 'Amethyst Cloud' Remnant
Byoomao HB-X E1-232 - The Byoomao Blue Nebula
ZUNUAE RZ-O E6-1973 - The 'North' Zunuae Nebula
ZUNUAE HL-Y E6903 - Zunae "Inky" Nebula
HYPIAE AUSCS NO-Q E5-385 - Hypiae Auscs Nebula
HYPIO PRI JH-U E3-6719 - Hypio Orb Nebula
Great Annihilator
ATHAIP DW-N E6-3063 - Athaip Wisteria Nebula
AUNAIRM MH-V E2-658 - Aunairm Planetary Nebula
Shrogaei DL-P E5-3604 - Shrogaei Planetary Nebula
DRYAA PRUAE AA-A H133 - Neutron Nebula
EOK PRUAE NS-U F2-1097 - Terra Incredible
EOK PRUAE PI-S E4-2295 - Cloverfield Planetary Nebula
MYLAIFAI AA-A H528 - Mylaifai Nebula
DRYAO AOWSY RY-R E4-6369 - Galactic Highway Nebula
EORM SCRUA EW-N E6-8 - Turquoise Wind Stellar Remnant
OEPHAIRD CF-A E7699 - Oephaird Planetary Nebula
FROARKS GM-D D12-355 - Gleeson's Gem
FROARKS XJ-R E4-1363 NEB - Froarks Planetary Nebula
FROARKS AA-A H22 - Froarks Cloud Nebula
BLEAE AESCS ZE-A G4 - Bleae Aescs Nebula
EODGORSTS GO-F D12-37 - Norma Southern Gate
ELLAIRB UL-N C7-33 - Daughter's Reach
PRIELUIA GH-B C27-16 - Prieluia's Furnace
NGC 6357
EAGLE NEBULA
OMEGA NEBULA
Trifid Nebula
LAGOON NEBULA
Blu Thua GI-B b55-2 - Cycladia
Spiral Planetary Nebula
SHAPLEY 1
Fuelum.

I'm deliberately avoiding the Stellar Forge so it can surprise me on my way back out here in a few months.
 
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How's this? :)


Commander's Log, 22 November 3301
Sagittarius A*

What a week.


Absolutely, utterly, unequivocally, frickin' awesome. Awesome rescue, awesome pictures, awesome writeup. Just awesome.

Have some rep! +1? pah ... where's the damn +1000000 button?!?!

Edit: I just had a similar (insufficient rep) problem elsewhere and mentioned your post. The least I can do for them is to reciprocate here. Go spread some love people ... https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=172362&p=3052226&viewfull=1#post3052226
 
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Phenominal rescue and account. All I seem to do nowadays is throw rep around, but I am still here! :)
.
Ravenov, the quality of that picture edges me ever closer to dishing out for a 4k system to play E.D on.
 
Phenominal rescue and account. All I seem to do nowadays is throw rep around, but I am still here! :)
.
Ravenov, the quality of that picture edges me ever closer to dishing out for a 4k system to play E.D on.

Dude. I had a setup at 1800 euros, now if I throw in 4k I'm looking at 2500. Why you make me spend so much, frontier !
 
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