Saggy-A Neutron Stars Thoughts And Questions

[Seizewell Warrior]

As documented in the thread in Exploration I made it out to Sagittarius A last night in my Asp Explorer "The Edge Of Forever". Hopefully that represents a Rite De Passage and I can move out of posting in the Newbie forum. [big grin]

Great sense of achievement though there isn't much there apart from the Black Hole itself - no restaurant at the end (actually middle) of the Universe. Something for FDev to consider even if an outpost there defied logic! I was also quite surprised to see on the Exploration forum less than 2100 souls (as of now) have actually registered their achievement and arrival there. For a game with this big a following and so many players I was expecting 10 times that number at least. Perhaps exploration is a specialized lonely occupation, undertaken only by us anti-social misfits...

Anyhow thoughts turned to getting back. Heart sunk when even in my 34ly Asp it was calculating 404 jumps just to Gandharvi on the Colonia Corridor. So fired up Spansh and input a neutron route back to Deciat - 202 jumps not allowing for fuel diversions or FSD repair pit stops. Now for those who use Spansh and the neutrons a couple of quick questions. First I couldn't find any means of saving the route to a separate document which means each time I start the game I'm going to have to check where I am and manually recalculate the route again. Or am I missing something? Second, what do other CMDRs do as regards fuelling on the Neutron Highway. Do you look for a system slightly off route with a scoopable star divert and return or do you just fly one of Spansh' legs conventionally and fuel along that?

How many jumps before repairing the FSD?

The one bit of advice I would give to anyone doing neutrons for the first time is that you must concentrate. All music and distractions switched off. Make sure SWMBO is watching Call The Midwife or similar so out of the way. It does take a little longer to set up the jump than conventional so I'm guessing the time saving isn't in the order of 4 or 5 more like 2 or 3, but covering 350ly in about 18 minutes was quite impressive!

 

[JonathanBurnage]

As documented in the thread in Exploration I made it out to Sagittarius A last night in my Asp Explorer "The Edge Of Forever". Hopefully that represents a Rite De Passage and I can move out of posting in the Newbie forum. [big grin]

Great sense of achievement though there isn't much there apart from the Black Hole itself - no restaurant at the end (actually middle) of the Universe. Something for FDev to consider even if an outpost there defied logic! I was also quite surprised to see on the Exploration forum less than 2100 souls (as of now) have actually registered their achievement and arrival there. For a game with this big a following and so many players I was expecting 10 times that number at least. Perhaps exploration is a specialized lonely occupation, undertaken only by us anti-social misfits...

Anyhow thoughts turned to getting back. Heart sunk when even in my 34ly Asp it was calculating 404 jumps just to Gandharvi on the Colonia Corridor. So fired up Spansh and input a neutron route back to Deciat - 202 jumps not allowing for fuel diversions or FSD repair pit stops. Now for those who use Spansh and the neutrons a couple of quick questions. First I couldn't find any means of saving the route to a separate document which means each time I start the game I'm going to have to check where I am and manually recalculate the route again. Or am I missing something? Second, what do other CMDRs do as regards fuelling on the Neutron Highway. Do you look for a system slightly off route with a scoopable star divert and return or do you just fly one of Spansh' legs conventionally and fuel along that?

How many jumps before repairing the FSD?

The one bit of advice I would give to anyone doing neutrons for the first time is that you must concentrate. All music and distractions switched off. Make sure SWMBO is watching Call The Midwife or similar so out of the way. It does take a little longer to set up the jump than conventional so I'm guessing the time saving isn't in the order of 4 or 5 more like 2 or 3, but covering 350ly in about 18 minutes was quite impressive!

I don't use Spansh (XB1 so no help to me sadly) but you don't want your FSD dropping below 80% integrity or you'll get random malfunctions. If one of those drops you in a jet cone you've had it.

 

[mikekim]

Neitron jumping becomes second nature once you've done a couple.. the hardest part is finding the correct speed and angle to enter the stream.

When I ran the neutron highway I was looking at repairing my fsd when it got to 85%.

As for the scooping issue quite a few times you can find neutrons that have scoopable stars in the system, or just plot to the closest scoopable star to the one that spansh suggests. Then plot onwards to the next neutron.

 

[JonathanBurnage]

Sometimes they are really close...!
[video=youtube_share;9qFb1Zpj1TY]https://youtu.be/9qFb1Zpj1TY[/video]

 

[YinYin]

You can save the link to the route.

Repairs are required about every 20 jumps. You can drag that out till the first malfunction.

If you use the in game plotter it will automatically interlace the route with fuel stops based on your core internal fuel tank. If you've got additional capacity you'll need to skip them manually on occasion (select and jump to the next neutron star in route).

 

[Seizewell Warrior]

Thanks for the neutron tips guys.

 

[Seizewell Warrior]

First fright this afternoon, thought I'd make a couple of quick jumps before coming into work, on the non-FSD equipped cycle...

Lined up with the cone, started to get the "limit exceeded" message then... BANG! Overheating and dropped out to normal flight. Managed to get clear with boost but temp up around 170, in the rush forgot my hotkey for heatsink and warnings about system damage and toxic fumes in the cockpit.

Hopefully not game over but going to find a quiet non neutron system and once satisfied I'm not suffocating will get the AFMU to work on patching things up.

Moral of story - neutron jumping definitely a gamble and even when you think you got it going right, can bite you on the posterior.

 

[Lightspeed]

Yes, just when you think you are good at it, you get a little too casual and ..... it gives you a wake up call [noob]

I am still avoiding White Dwarfs because they were much more dangerous and for only a small reward? Is that still true in 3.0 ?

 

[ITZC0ATL]

Great sense of achievement though there isn't much there apart from the Black Hole itself - no restaurant at the end (actually middle) of the Universe. Something for FDev to consider even if an outpost there defied logic! I was also quite surprised to see on the Exploration forum less than 2100 souls (as of now) have actually registered their achievement and arrival there. For a game with this big a following and so many players I was expecting 10 times that number at least. Perhaps exploration is a specialized lonely occupation, undertaken only by us anti-social misfits...

According to EDSM, 3299 CMDRs have visited Sag A* to date, and that is only a fraction of the real number, which only FDev know. However, I would guess somewhere around the 10K mark, or a bit more. It's definitely still an achievement though, regardless of how many have been there before you! I'm actually amazed at how many non-explorers haven't been to Sag A* at all, or indeed how many people have never been further from the bubble than 5KLy.

As for neutrons, there are pros and cons to any approach you take. I use the built-in plotter over Spansh for the simple reason that Spansh can only route you to a star that has been uploaded to EDSM, meaning someone else will likely have discovered it before. By using the in-game route plotter, it'll plot you by a scoobable star every other jump (which is overkill for fuel) but you will discover more untagged neutron stars this way, earning you money and also contributing to Spansh to help others (if you sync with EDSM yourself).

 

[lemon cup]

Yes, just when you think you are good at it, you get a little too casual and ..... it gives you a wake up call [noob]

I am still avoiding White Dwarfs because they were much more dangerous and for only a small reward? Is that still true in 3.0 ?

Yep, white dwarves are still the angriest little stars in the galaxy.

 

[lcdguy]

Now that you have been to the centre you could go somewhere further .

As for neutron scooping i have found a good speed in my conda is around 15-20m m/s around 15-30 degrees flying away from the center. It seems to work well.

 

[Seizewell Warrior]

On loading up the game last night...

Good news is the cockpit and hull are intact and I can still breath. Considerable AFMU resources expended getting some of the modules back up above 90%.

Bad news is that the DSS seems to be perma-damaged. Although shown as active on the status bar and consuming a biowaste load of AFMU, remains redded out, not drawing power and doesn't come up on the HUD in super cruise. That means unless by chance I enter a system I've already scanned going to be hard to find landable planets as I don't have enough vanadium to craft fresh repair material.

So choices, choices... Probably the best course of action for now is to keep neutron jumping until I run out of AFMU resources to fix the FSD, at which point I'll zero the closest inhabited system with ship repair facilities and jump there conventionally. Forget Deciat for now, this is about survival and getting back in one piece to cash in my exploration data. And this is a poke in the eye for the CMDR(s) who scoffed in another thread that exploration is for wimps and should be nerfed by FDev ASAP. This is every bit as "Dangerous" as any other occupation in the game. 10000 LY from the nearest outpost with a dented ship and potentially weeks of achievement down the drain. And all for probably 20 million (if I'm lucky) credits for the data.

 

[ITZC0ATL]

On loading up the game last night...

Good news is the cockpit and hull are intact and I can still breath. Considerable AFMU resources expended getting some of the modules back up above 90%.

Bad news is that the DSS seems to be perma-damaged. Although shown as active on the status bar and consuming a biowaste load of AFMU, remains redded out, not drawing power and doesn't come up on the HUD in super cruise. That means unless by chance I enter a system I've already scanned going to be hard to find landable planets as I don't have enough vanadium to craft fresh repair material.

So choices, choices... Probably the best course of action for now is to keep neutron jumping until I run out of AFMU resources to fix the FSD, at which point I'll zero the closest inhabited system with ship repair facilities and jump there conventionally. Forget Deciat for now, this is about survival and getting back in one piece to cash in my exploration data. And this is a poke in the eye for the CMDR(s) who scoffed in another thread that exploration is for wimps and should be nerfed by FDev ASAP. This is every bit as "Dangerous" as any other occupation in the game. 10000 LY from the nearest outpost with a dented ship and potentially weeks of achievement down the drain. And all for probably 20 million (if I'm lucky) credits for the data.

What percentage is your DSS? Was it definitely re-enabled after repair?

A DSS should still work unless it's at 0%, as far as I know. And if it is down to 0%, a reboot/repair should sort you out and get it back to 1% even if you run out of AFMU juice.


EDIT: Failing the above suggestions, it may even be a bug if it's still not working properly

 

[Brrokk]

On loading up the game last night...

Good news is the cockpit and hull are intact and I can still breath. Considerable AFMU resources expended getting some of the modules back up above 90%.

Bad news is that the DSS seems to be perma-damaged. Although shown as active on the status bar and consuming a biowaste load of AFMU, remains redded out, not drawing power and doesn't come up on the HUD in super cruise. That means unless by chance I enter a system I've already scanned going to be hard to find landable planets as I don't have enough vanadium to craft fresh repair material.

So choices, choices... Probably the best course of action for now is to keep neutron jumping until I run out of AFMU resources to fix the FSD, at which point I'll zero the closest inhabited system with ship repair facilities and jump there conventionally. Forget Deciat for now, this is about survival and getting back in one piece to cash in my exploration data. And this is a poke in the eye for the CMDR(s) who scoffed in another thread that exploration is for wimps and should be nerfed by FDev ASAP. This is every bit as "Dangerous" as any other occupation in the game. 10000 LY from the nearest outpost with a dented ship and potentially weeks of achievement down the drain. And all for probably 20 million (if I'm lucky) credits for the data.

I think I'd avoid neutrons entirely and plot conventional jumps to the nearest possible station. Colonia? Or one of the way-stations between the Bubble and Colonia?

This has been a cautionary tale for me, I've been neutron-jumping to Sag.A*; I now have only 3kly to go.

 

[Shiro Akai]

I am still avoiding White Dwarfs because they were much more dangerous and for only a small reward? Is that still true in 3.0 ?

Yep, white dwarves are still the angriest little stars in the galaxy.

Hmm... then the one I met yesterday was super polite to me. Took my brand new iClipper for a spin in search for nice photo making place. While going back I entered a system with small blue star that had nice two braids. Before that jump my UI said "star class: DA". Been wondering what kind of a star DA is... now I know. I haven't used any neutron boosts in the past but seeing those lovely braids I thought "why not".

Entered the cone, got little "whee" and my FSD got supercharged. 38 LY range got boosted to 56 LYs. Quick replot and I waved my farewells to DA star.

I guess I found her in a good mood toward noob CMDRs[big grin]

 

[Seizewell Warrior]

I'll take another look at the DSS - it seems strange that the status would show active if it has been blown completely off the hardpoint.

And yes, after sleeping on it I definitely think creeping back to one of the outposts in conventional jump mode for repairs and collecting my exploration loot is probably a better idea!

 

[Seizewell Warrior]

Update...

No DSS will not reboot, shown in red but active 100% health just won't deploy. At a loss with that one.

Data link scanner also shown in red but 100% health so looks like that's boogered too.

Anyhow looks like Kojeara (Colonia Bubble?) the nearest location to where I am, just over 300 jumps from where I was. So heading that way now for repairs then I might stay local and head off to the Great Annihilator from there.

 

[YinYin]

Eh? The surface scanner does not appear on the HUD. It just adds to the active target scan of a body.

If you really aren't getting detailed body scans and this module appears to be offline despite being repaired, the only thing left is missing power (either due to priorities or power plant damage).

 

[Seizewell Warrior]

The power plant and distributor did take some damage but I'm certain I repaired it. Will double check when next on the game, won't be for a few hours due to being at work.

Sounds like the boat took more damage than I thought and I was darned lucky not to be looking at the rebuy screen.

 

[ITZC0ATL]

Update...

No DSS will not reboot, shown in red but active 100% health just won't deploy. At a loss with that one.

Data link scanner also shown in red but 100% health so looks like that's boogered too.

Anyhow looks like Kojeara (Colonia Bubble?) the nearest location to where I am, just over 300 jumps from where I was. So heading that way now for repairs then I might stay local and head off to the Great Annihilator from there.

Are you sure the module is active? When you use an AFMU on a module it turns it off. That's all I can think of that it could be, aside from a bug.

Either way, if you can work out what's gone wrong, it'll be a learning experience for future trips, especially if you decide to stay out for longer durations.