Warning: this is a pretty epic wall of text. If you're not interested in plotting routes near the core without spending half an hour doing so, this probably won't be very interesting...
Update: If you prefer your guides in video form, check out
this excellent summary by Dr. Kaii about how to get around this problem!
So, first up: it's widely known that ships with a large jump range (>30Ly especially) often have serious trouble navigating in the core: routes will often take half an hour or more to plot, lagging the game horribly as they do so.
I believe I've found a solution for this, and I have a reason as to why it works. If you just want to know how to plot, just read the first part: for
why I think it works, read further on...
Evidence that it works: I recently did a Buckyball A* run where my
entire time spent route plotting came to a bit under 18 minutes, for 30 plots.
So, first up: you'll need the following; all examples assume a jump range of 35Ly.
N is the maximum number of full range jumps you can do within 1000Ly - e.g. 1000 / 35 = 28.57..., so N = 28
M is the distance travelled by that number of jumps - e.g. 35 * 28 = 980
D is the distance you are from Sgr A*, in 1000Ly - so if you're at about 15k from A*, D = 15
Plot = M - ((N / 4) + (D * 2))
Now, you're probably thinking "
MATHS?! I didn't come here for maths!", and that's fine.
This isn't exact anyway, it's a half-decent approximation I just made up based on what I've experienced. You might need to go a little higher or lower than this suggests to get fast plots. It's just a guide.
What it means is that if you have a "max optimal range" of 980Ly, you need to plot
much lower than that on the edges of the core if you want to get a good plot.
Let's plug some numbers in at various distances:
15k from A*: 980 - (7 + 30) = 943
10k from A*: 980 - (7 + 20) = 953
5k from A*: 980 - (7 + 10) = 963
0k from A*: 980 - (7 + 0) = 973
<snip>
