Earlier this summer I saw a guy wearing a t-shirt that said: "I'm retired - do it yourself". Might look into getting one
Second time around
- Thread starter Rustnsawdust
- Start date
Day 15
Darkside again but another session of good progress. The valley wall mentioned in my last post turned out to be as easy as I hoped, although it marked the beginning of rougher terrain. Eventually, things settled into a routine of small valleys that ran almost parallel to the equator and made for a long spell of traversing these with much climbing and descending. I managed to keep a reasonable speed, but I spent more time going up and down than forwards.
Happily, the terrain gradually evened out and I made better progress from there. There were the usual interruptions:
I've seen so many of those cargo cannister dumps that I could have easily filled a ship with salvage. Could be a worthwhile starter career if not for the tedium of collecting them two at a time in the SRV.
And a few kilometers later, this Anaconda parked right across my route:
At least that yielded aberrant shield pattern encoded mats.
Speaking of mats, I've pretty much given up chasing outcrops. The only thing I could do with more of is phosphorus and this little moon is a little parsimonious with that. Otherwise, I've filled all my bins with the other materials commonly available here. I'll still pursue metallic meteorties for the rarer stuff.
Ended the session here at around 22° E, just short of 90° longitude for the journey so far:
Darkside again but another session of good progress. The valley wall mentioned in my last post turned out to be as easy as I hoped, although it marked the beginning of rougher terrain. Eventually, things settled into a routine of small valleys that ran almost parallel to the equator and made for a long spell of traversing these with much climbing and descending. I managed to keep a reasonable speed, but I spent more time going up and down than forwards.
Happily, the terrain gradually evened out and I made better progress from there. There were the usual interruptions:
I've seen so many of those cargo cannister dumps that I could have easily filled a ship with salvage. Could be a worthwhile starter career if not for the tedium of collecting them two at a time in the SRV.
And a few kilometers later, this Anaconda parked right across my route:
At least that yielded aberrant shield pattern encoded mats.
Speaking of mats, I've pretty much given up chasing outcrops. The only thing I could do with more of is phosphorus and this little moon is a little parsimonious with that. Otherwise, I've filled all my bins with the other materials commonly available here. I'll still pursue metallic meteorties for the rarer stuff.
Ended the session here at around 22° E, just short of 90° longitude for the journey so far:
Quarter of the way there - keep goin', man!Day 15
Darkside again but another session of good progress. The valley wall mentioned in my last post turned out to be as easy as I hoped, although it marked the beginning of rougher terrain. Eventually, things settled into a routine of small valleys that ran almost parallel to the equator and made for a long spell of traversing these with much climbing and descending. I managed to keep a reasonable speed, but I spent more time going up and down than forwards.
Happily, the terrain gradually evened out and I made better progress from there. There were the usual interruptions:
I've seen so many of those cargo cannister dumps that I could have easily filled a ship with salvage. Could be a worthwhile starter career if not for the tedium of collecting them two at a time in the SRV.
And a few kilometers later, this Anaconda parked right across my route:
At least that yielded aberrant shield pattern encoded mats.
Speaking of mats, I've pretty much given up chasing outcrops. The only thing I could do with more of is phosphorus and this little moon is a little parsimonious with that. Otherwise, I've filled all my bins with the other materials commonly available here. I'll still pursue metallic meteorties for the rarer stuff.
Ended the session here at around 22° E, just short of 90° longitude for the journey so far:
Day 16
Back in daylight and another enjoyable speed run across a flat plain that stretched for mile after mile.
Was wondering whether there'd be anything of interest to highlight the 90° mark, and ED did not let me down. Right on cue another one of these:
While I was still some distance away there was a wing of 3 unidentified ships poking around, but they'd gone by the time I arrived.
After that it was fast travel - or at least, as fast as I dare. Once I get up over 20m/s the slightest bump will throw me into a skid and it costs 2% of damage. If you slide gently into one of those big rocks, that's another 3-4% of damage. And rolling the SRV costs much more. So I generally stick to around 18m/s which seems fast enough to me. Incidentally, the highest ground speed I've achieved so far is 30m/s - that was straight downhill on a near-vertical slope and the SRV became a bobsleigh.
At end of session I'm at 15°E for a total of 95° travelled. And it looks like this plain goes on for a while yet. I'll enjoy it while it lasts.
Back in daylight and another enjoyable speed run across a flat plain that stretched for mile after mile.
Was wondering whether there'd be anything of interest to highlight the 90° mark, and ED did not let me down. Right on cue another one of these:
While I was still some distance away there was a wing of 3 unidentified ships poking around, but they'd gone by the time I arrived.
After that it was fast travel - or at least, as fast as I dare. Once I get up over 20m/s the slightest bump will throw me into a skid and it costs 2% of damage. If you slide gently into one of those big rocks, that's another 3-4% of damage. And rolling the SRV costs much more. So I generally stick to around 18m/s which seems fast enough to me. Incidentally, the highest ground speed I've achieved so far is 30m/s - that was straight downhill on a near-vertical slope and the SRV became a bobsleigh.
At end of session I'm at 15°E for a total of 95° travelled. And it looks like this plain goes on for a while yet. I'll enjoy it while it lasts.
Day 17
Pretty uneventful - the easy terrain continued for the most part, although I became very much aware of a large black mountain looming to the north. I know from bitter experience that major features like that usually come with disrupted terrain for miles around, so although it looks like I'll pass it to the south, I was watching for trouble. So much so that I almost plunged into this deep crater which took me by surprise:
First real crater I've seen so far. I couldn't think of any reason to go down in there, so I skirted around the rim.
Real life meant I had to end a short session a little further on. Here's where I am, just west of 10°E, keeping a wary eye on that mountain. Total distance travelled: 100°.
Pretty uneventful - the easy terrain continued for the most part, although I became very much aware of a large black mountain looming to the north. I know from bitter experience that major features like that usually come with disrupted terrain for miles around, so although it looks like I'll pass it to the south, I was watching for trouble. So much so that I almost plunged into this deep crater which took me by surprise:
First real crater I've seen so far. I couldn't think of any reason to go down in there, so I skirted around the rim.
Real life meant I had to end a short session a little further on. Here's where I am, just west of 10°E, keeping a wary eye on that mountain. Total distance travelled: 100°.
Day 18
That mountain off to the north didn't give me much trouble in the end, although - as I suspected - it did mark the end of the long, flat plains and the start of much rougher travelling. The early part of today's session resolved into a series of steep ridges and deep valleys with slopes covered in all kinds of rough and tumble. Nothing too difficult but it did slow me down quite a bit.
I've been ignoring human-origin signal sources in the wavescanner unless they're directly in front of me. But one appeared to have a different audio signal so I wandered over to take a look:
Turned out to be a very old-fashioned satellite with crumpled solar panels. There was a public data point that yielded some kind of data but I'm not sure what. Probably one of those superpower-related intel packages, of which I've acquired a large number recently.
From here the terrain got a little easier but it became apparent that something nasty was lurking on the horizon:
That big chunk of black mountain lies directly on my path and there'll be no avoiding it this time. I'm here at 5°E and thought that the next session would mark a major milestone as I entered the western hemisphere for the first time. But I have a feeling that I'll have a hard time getting from here to there.
That mountain off to the north didn't give me much trouble in the end, although - as I suspected - it did mark the end of the long, flat plains and the start of much rougher travelling. The early part of today's session resolved into a series of steep ridges and deep valleys with slopes covered in all kinds of rough and tumble. Nothing too difficult but it did slow me down quite a bit.
I've been ignoring human-origin signal sources in the wavescanner unless they're directly in front of me. But one appeared to have a different audio signal so I wandered over to take a look:
Turned out to be a very old-fashioned satellite with crumpled solar panels. There was a public data point that yielded some kind of data but I'm not sure what. Probably one of those superpower-related intel packages, of which I've acquired a large number recently.
From here the terrain got a little easier but it became apparent that something nasty was lurking on the horizon:
That big chunk of black mountain lies directly on my path and there'll be no avoiding it this time. I'm here at 5°E and thought that the next session would mark a major milestone as I entered the western hemisphere for the first time. But I have a feeling that I'll have a hard time getting from here to there
.Day 19
A short session today, but long enough to get into trouble. Happily, daylight had returned so I could see just how much trouble I was getting into.
The same mountain on the horizon from a little way further east from yesterday's pic. The approach looked a little easier from the south (left in the pic) so I headed in that direction. As I got closer I began to worry that the slopes were too steep to climb but I eventually found a line that looked manageable. It wasn't long before I realised - too late, obviously - that getting into the mountain was going to be a lot easier than getting out.
Once in the middle I found myself in a mess of near-vertical slopes with terrain in between that looked like a frozen, hurricane-whipped sea:
Shortly, it got worse - long stretches of those nasty mogul fields that I hate so much. Finally, I bounced my way into a kind of mountain pass leading roughly south-east. It brought me out here:
That's looking due west, which is the way I need to go. But there's this:
Looking more southwards it seems to open out onto a wide icesheet, which looks a more appealing prospect, although getting from here to there might be tricky. This taken at around 1.5°E, so around 3.5° progress since yesterday. My arrival in The West will have to wait.
A short session today, but long enough to get into trouble
. Happily, daylight had returned so I could see just how much trouble I was getting into.The same mountain on the horizon from a little way further east from yesterday's pic. The approach looked a little easier from the south (left in the pic) so I headed in that direction. As I got closer I began to worry that the slopes were too steep to climb but I eventually found a line that looked manageable. It wasn't long before I realised - too late, obviously - that getting into the mountain was going to be a lot easier than getting out.
Once in the middle I found myself in a mess of near-vertical slopes with terrain in between that looked like a frozen, hurricane-whipped sea:
Shortly, it got worse - long stretches of those nasty mogul fields that I hate so much. Finally, I bounced my way into a kind of mountain pass leading roughly south-east. It brought me out here:
That's looking due west, which is the way I need to go. But there's this:
Looking more southwards it seems to open out onto a wide icesheet, which looks a more appealing prospect, although getting from here to there might be tricky. This taken at around 1.5°E, so around 3.5° progress since yesterday. My arrival in The West will have to wait.
Day 20
Westward ho!
As said in yesterday's post, I headed southwest towards that iceplain, and as expected getting there took a bit of doing. It was much further away than it looked and involved some rough ground that gave the varmint's suspension a severe workout. That major mountain that lay due west of my final position yesterday extended much further to the southwest, out of view, and I realised I was going to have go over it at some point. While I was scouting for the best approach I failed to spot that I'd crossed the prime meridian. I wanted to record the moment at 0°/0° but this will suffice (hard to see the minus sign on the longitude but I'm at -0.06°):
Eventually I found a route that was fairly accessible and, although it was slow going, I got up on top only to discover a massive ravine on the other side:
It took about 20 minutes to get to the bottom, most of it spent tobogganing out of control, often sideways but never upside down. An obvious concern was getting up the far slope and I was worried for a while. In fact, it turned out to be relatively easy as it resolved into a series of false summits and shallow valleys that made for steady progress.
Up on top there was a wide, flat ascent to the next ridge and then somewhat bumpier terrain afterwards, which caused a few major skids. During one I caught a glimpse of this so I stopped for the photo opportunity (that big black shadow in the distance is the mountain that has featured in the last couple of posts);
At end of session, I'm here:
Current position: 2.5°W, total distance travelled: 112.5°, with another ridge lying across the route. I wonder what's on the other side?
Westward ho!
As said in yesterday's post, I headed southwest towards that iceplain, and as expected getting there took a bit of doing. It was much further away than it looked and involved some rough ground that gave the varmint's suspension a severe workout. That major mountain that lay due west of my final position yesterday extended much further to the southwest, out of view, and I realised I was going to have go over it at some point. While I was scouting for the best approach I failed to spot that I'd crossed the prime meridian. I wanted to record the moment at 0°/0° but this will suffice (hard to see the minus sign on the longitude but I'm at -0.06°):
Eventually I found a route that was fairly accessible and, although it was slow going, I got up on top only to discover a massive ravine on the other side:
It took about 20 minutes to get to the bottom, most of it spent tobogganing out of control, often sideways but never upside down
. An obvious concern was getting up the far slope and I was worried for a while. In fact, it turned out to be relatively easy as it resolved into a series of false summits and shallow valleys that made for steady progress.Up on top there was a wide, flat ascent to the next ridge and then somewhat bumpier terrain afterwards, which caused a few major skids. During one I caught a glimpse of this so I stopped for the photo opportunity (that big black shadow in the distance is the mountain that has featured in the last couple of posts);
At end of session, I'm here:
Current position: 2.5°W, total distance travelled: 112.5°, with another ridge lying across the route. I wonder what's on the other side?
Day 21
I managed another hour or so yesterday and what was on the other side of the ridge turned out to be more of the same. Wide, level terrain followed by steep descents into massive canyons, followed by long, steep climbs up to another plateau. It all made for pretty fast travel and I covered a lot of ground.
Today, log-in coincided with sunrise on this little moon, which made everything more enjoyable. Here's the view looking back over one of those toboggan runs from the summit of the next long climb:
And this is looking back after another speedrun across a vast sheet of ice:
After this the going got a bit rougher - nothing serious but many smaller, criss-crossing valleys that meant I had to slow down a little to avoid spins and rolls. I also passed another major milestone: 10°W, so 120° travelled, one-third of the circumnavigation.
At close of play today, I'm at 12°W and the road ahead looks pretty good, although I'm sure there are some surprises in store:
I managed another hour or so yesterday and what was on the other side of the ridge turned out to be more of the same. Wide, level terrain followed by steep descents into massive canyons, followed by long, steep climbs up to another plateau. It all made for pretty fast travel and I covered a lot of ground.
Today, log-in coincided with sunrise on this little moon, which made everything more enjoyable. Here's the view looking back over one of those toboggan runs from the summit of the next long climb:
And this is looking back after another speedrun across a vast sheet of ice:
After this the going got a bit rougher - nothing serious but many smaller, criss-crossing valleys that meant I had to slow down a little to avoid spins and rolls. I also passed another major milestone: 10°W, so 120° travelled, one-third of the circumnavigation.
At close of play today, I'm at 12°W and the road ahead looks pretty good, although I'm sure there are some surprises in store:
Woot! Keep going man, this is awesome!Day 21
I managed another hour or so yesterday and what was on the other side of the ridge turned out to be more of the same. Wide, level terrain followed by steep descents into massive canyons, followed by long, steep climbs up to another plateau. It all made for pretty fast travel and I covered a lot of ground.
Today, log-in coincided with sunrise on this little moon, which made everything more enjoyable. Here's the view looking back over one of those toboggan runs from the summit of the next long climb:
And this is looking back after another speedrun across a vast sheet of ice:
After this the going got a bit rougher - nothing serious but many smaller, criss-crossing valleys that meant I had to slow down a little to avoid spins and rolls. I also passed another major milestone: 10°W, so 120° travelled, one-third of the circumnavigation.
At close of play today, I'm at 12°W and the road ahead looks pretty good, although I'm sure there are some surprises in store:
One question: In the early part of your journey, you were being virtually inundated by foreign objects - crashed satellites, wreckage, parked ships. Has the frequency of foreign objects dropped off?
Also, how are your rep/refuel mats?
Cheers!
Not hardly, I've just been ignoring them. This morning I almost had a repetition of my close encounter last week when I came over a ridge and there was a protected dump right in front of me. Skimmers popped up, and I just managed to avoid skidding into the tresspass zone. I see human-source wavescanner signals about every 30 minutes or so!
Repair mats are fine - I've got enough for about 180 repairs. Refuel mats not so much, but I picked up quite a bit of phosphorus early on. I've largely been using the 200% premium refuels, and each one lasts around 4-5 days, but I've only got enough arsenic for about 10-12 of those, but then I've got around 60 ordinary refuels available. And if I chase down a few mesosiderites I can increase that, although phosphorus doesn't drop as often as I'd hope.
OK. I'm still thinking we might be able to arrange some sort of resup assistance for you - SRV's running ahead, locating and popping fuel mat sources so you can top up at speed. Our own little CG with lots of photo ops!
Day 22
Back at it today, in darkness unfortunately. The first 30 minutes found me in slightly rougher terrain, crossing a series of small valleys. No real problem, but it left me hankering for that vast ice sheet of last week. Inspired by NorthernDevo I stopped to take a look at some of today's space junk.
First one was this, another crashed satellite:
And then this:
Then this cargo dump a short distance further:
And those were just the ones pretty much directly ahead - there were another four or five that I ignored in that short distance. It's ridiculous, to be honest.
Anyway, before I realised it, I had put those little valleys behind me and found myself on a long stretch of those gently rolling hills so I cranked up the speed and averaged about 18m/s for the next hour or so. If my maths is correct, that's about 65k/h. At close of play I'm just west of 21°W for a total distance of 131°.
Back at it today, in darkness unfortunately. The first 30 minutes found me in slightly rougher terrain, crossing a series of small valleys. No real problem, but it left me hankering for that vast ice sheet of last week. Inspired by NorthernDevo I stopped to take a look at some of today's space junk.
First one was this, another crashed satellite:
And then this:
Then this cargo dump a short distance further:
And those were just the ones pretty much directly ahead - there were another four or five that I ignored in that short distance. It's ridiculous, to be honest.
Anyway, before I realised it, I had put those little valleys behind me and found myself on a long stretch of those gently rolling hills so I cranked up the speed and averaged about 18m/s for the next hour or so. If my maths is correct, that's about 65k/h. At close of play I'm just west of 21°W for a total distance of 131°.
Day 23
Short session and not a lot of progress. The easy terrain of yesterday soon turned to rougher going of the kind that usually marks a major feature - a dramatic canyon or a big crater. But as far as I could see there was nothing of that nature.
There were, of course, the usual interruptions. First up was this FerdeLance:
Eventually I came over a ridge and found this in my path:
At first I thought it was a canyon since it stretched away to north and south as far as I could see. But when I got down in there I realised it was a massive creater. On the downslope I found this Krait:
He seemed to be taking an interest in a crashed beacon nearby, while on the upslope there was what looked like a Keelback (flat and boxy), although I couldn't muster the interest to investigate closer. And down in the bottom of the crater was yet another crashed beacon. After a long, slow climb up the western wall of the crater I had to traverse a series of steep-sided valleys, no real problem but much slower going. I ended the session just west of 27°W, around 6° travelled, total so far: 137°.
Short session and not a lot of progress. The easy terrain of yesterday soon turned to rougher going of the kind that usually marks a major feature - a dramatic canyon or a big crater. But as far as I could see there was nothing of that nature.
There were, of course, the usual interruptions. First up was this FerdeLance:
Eventually I came over a ridge and found this in my path:
At first I thought it was a canyon since it stretched away to north and south as far as I could see. But when I got down in there I realised it was a massive creater. On the downslope I found this Krait:
He seemed to be taking an interest in a crashed beacon nearby, while on the upslope there was what looked like a Keelback (flat and boxy), although I couldn't muster the interest to investigate closer. And down in the bottom of the crater was yet another crashed beacon. After a long, slow climb up the western wall of the crater I had to traverse a series of steep-sided valleys, no real problem but much slower going. I ended the session just west of 27°W, around 6° travelled, total so far: 137°.
Wow, keep going!
If I'm figuring correctly, you should be about 2 days from the halfway point...from there it's all downhill!
And uphill, and through craters, and into rocks....
If I'm figuring correctly, you should be about 2 days from the halfway point...from there it's all downhill!
And uphill, and through craters, and into rocks....
from there it's all downhill!
And uphill, and through craters, and into rocks....
Sounds about right!!This is good stuff! Got my excitement back up for my next one!
Day 23
Just to prove I'm still here, even if not making much progress. The Christmas festivities (preparation for) are really eating into my free time . So for the first time in a week I found I had the house to myself and got behind the wheel (or whatever controls the varmint) for a quick hour's driving.
Not much to report... I'm still in a relatively friendly area of this little moon. A couple of wide valleys that offered long, easy descents and tougher, steeper climbs out, separated by wide and flat plains that allowed me to keep a good speed.
The too-brief session ended here:
Just shy of 32°W - about 5° covered today; total distance travelled: 142°. Another steep valley wall to cross next time.
Just to prove I'm still here, even if not making much progress. The Christmas festivities (preparation for) are really eating into my free time
. So for the first time in a week I found I had the house to myself and got behind the wheel (or whatever controls the varmint) for a quick hour's driving.Not much to report... I'm still in a relatively friendly area of this little moon. A couple of wide valleys that offered long, easy descents and tougher, steeper climbs out, separated by wide and flat plains that allowed me to keep a good speed.
The too-brief session ended here:
Just shy of 32°W - about 5° covered today; total distance travelled: 142°. Another steep valley wall to cross next time.
I've been on this planet from the start trying to find you but with no success.
Not sure if it's the timing or the mode : (
Not sure if it's the timing or the mode : (
I'm not saying I'm starting another planetary circumnavigation myself .... but I'm not saying I'm not starting one either. Let's just see where this little ravine takes me ..
forums.frontier.co.uk
Let's see where this little ravine takes me
Back in November 3305 I paid a visit to HIP 23759 to see the Gnosis, which had allegedly got itself entangled in an installation. When I got there the Gnosis had been freed but the sight that greeted me on arrival was spectacular nevertheless. On posting that screenshot in the Screenie(s)...