Sidewinder Mk. I Galactic Circumnavigation Attempt

[ajg74]

Why isnt this thread where it belongs, at the exploration forums? :S

A bit harsh, if the mods didn't think it should be here then it would have been moved already.

Because I posted it on the Dangerous Discussion Forum by mistake. Obviously. Move thread request submitted to Moderator. Have a nice day

Ignore him, obviously a disgruntled forum dad!

Edit - BTW love your bravery in doing this and the updates are great, keep them coming.

 

[Henkka77]

A bit harsh, if the mods didn't think it should be here then it would have been moved already.



Ignore him, obviously a disgruntled forum dad!

Yeah, maybe it didnt come out right, but i surely didnt mean it as harsh..

 

[Traveller_GG]

Great... someone else taking the WC out for a spin. I just hope this one's remembered to pack enough soap.


(good luck you glorious mad fool you)

 

[iain666]

This voyage is more than twice that distance, and takes me through some very sparse areas, and my jump range is more like 27-28L-y.

You'll be grand with 27-28ly. That's a wee bit more than I had in my unengineered, no jumponium Cobra when I did this

Spoiler

Good luck out there.

 

[Threeofseven]

Awesome, I'm doing something similar in an iEagle, just made it into Beagle Point over the weekend.

 

[Rudi Raumkraut]

This will be a journey!
Excited to read more about it!

Best wishes and have fun out there!

 

[GunnerBill]

No AFMU?

Your Tauntaun will freeze before the first marker!

 

[Commander William Diffin]

Yeah, maybe it didnt come out right, but i surely didnt mean it as harsh..

But obviously you were right and the thread needed to be on the Exploration Forum. Thanks for that [up]

You'll be grand with 27-28ly. That's a wee bit more than I had in my unengineered, no jumponium Cobra when I did this

Spoiler

https://i.imgur.com/k0sbPlx.jpg

Good luck out there.

Wowski. That's some superlative navigation there. Plainly whoever planned my expedition was over-cautious, and didn't think a Sidewinder should even attempt to navigate the Outer Arm Vaccuus. Maybe I'll circumnavigate the Galactic edge on my second circuit of the Galaxy now I know it can be done

Awesome, I'm doing something similar in an iEagle, just made it into Beagle Point over the weekend.

Congratulations, how is BP these days? Still deserted? It's been 18 months since I was last there and I felt pretty isolated. It's a really unique experience. If you're going round the Galaxy anti-clockwise we might bump into each other somewhere around Wagar's Reach.

No AFMU?


Your Tauntaun will freeze before the first marker!

I wanted a DSS instead to be able to discover 'green' systems, more than I wanted an AFMU for repairs and neutron jumping. I can still neutron jump anyway as far as Farsight Base and get FSD repairs there. After that, not so much, unless I take a break and detour to Colonia.

---

Thanks again for all the good wishes folks, I've now found my way out of the Northern Trifid red dwarf streamer with a couple of boosted jumps, next stop is the Oyster Nebula...

 

[GregMalcolm]

Right on commander, I approve wholeheartedly!

I'm doing something very similar right now, roughly following along with the Dead End Expedition route:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/352060-Travels-With-My-Sidewinder-The-Galaxy-or-Bust

Looks like we have pretty similar builds! I lost a little bit of jump distance by engineering my DD:

https://eddp.co/u/9AUzuf2w

I haven't reported in in a while, but I'm currently on the southern most arm somewhere south of Eta Carinae:

https://www.edsm.net/en/user/travel-map/id/2561/cmdr/Marlon+Blake

 

[GunnerBill]

But obviously you were right and the thread needed to be on the Exploration Forum. Thanks for that [up]



Wowski. That's some superlative navigation there. Plainly whoever planned my expedition was over-cautious, and didn't think a Sidewinder should even attempt to navigate the Outer Arm Vaccuus. Maybe I'll circumnavigate the Galactic edge on my second circuit of the Galaxy now I know it can be done



Congratulations, how is BP these days? Still deserted? It's been 18 months since I was last there and I felt pretty isolated. It's a really unique experience. If you're going round the Galaxy anti-clockwise we might bump into each other somewhere around Wagar's Reach.



I wanted a DSS instead to be able to discover 'green' systems, more than I wanted an AFMU for repairs and neutron jumping. I can still neutron jump anyway as far as Farsight Base and get FSD repairs there. After that, not so much, unless I take a break and detour to Colonia.

---

Thanks again for all the good wishes folks, I've now found my way out of the Northern Trifid red dwarf streamer with a couple of boosted jumps, next stop is the Oyster Nebula...

You’ll need to pay more attemtion than I do! I’m 50% back from Beagle and PP / AFMU are at 72%.

 

[GregMalcolm]

You’ll need to pay more attemtion than I do! I’m 50% back from Beagle and PP / AFMU are at 72%.

It gets worse. With paper light explorerwinders the sensors and life support are extremely sensitive to heat damage. My sidey as 96% hull, but only 20% left on Sensors, 60% on life support. It's not like life support is important, right?

 

[GunnerBill]

It gets worse. With paper light explorerwinders the sensors and life support are extremely sensitive to heat damage. My sidey as 96% hull, but only 20% left on Sensors, 60% on life support. It's not like life support is important, right?

No you’re ok I think life support is only a placeholder in ED and in principal only effects the espresso machine and the home cinema.

 

[Commander William Diffin]

Right on commander, I approve wholeheartedly!

I'm doing something very similar right now, roughly following along with the Dead End Expedition route:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/352060-Travels-With-My-Sidewinder-The-Galaxy-or-Bust

Looks like we have pretty similar builds! I lost a little bit of jump distance by engineering my DD:

https://eddp.co/u/9AUzuf2w

I haven't reported in in a while, but I'm currently on the southern most arm somewhere south of Eta Carinae:

https://www.edsm.net/en/user/travel-map/id/2561/cmdr/Marlon+Blake

Wow, it's Commander Marlon Blake, whose Discovery Tags I've seen all over the Galaxy! And you have a prior circumnavigation to mine, with an uncannily similar account of your adventure! I honestly hadn't seen it before. Obviously great minds think alike. And obviously I'm not the only Commander to have understood how inspirational the Sidewinder is for exploration. You don't know 'Papi' do you?

Despite the wisecracks about Sideys being flying toilet cubicles, Leviathan is a beautiful bird for sure, a classic. A weird coincidence that Enterprise has practically identical range. Interesting that you managed to get engineered secondary mass reductions on modules that don't normally have engineered mass reductions. I should have kept plugging away with the Engineers until they gave me some of that too.

Personally I compromised some extra mass on my Power Plant to get G3 Low Emissions with -36.90% Efficiency, and I have no overheating issues at all, not even with G5 Dirty Drives, unless I really screw up and sit deep in a stellar atmosphere for time that is. Knowing I was going to be scooping every jump, I wanted to be sure that I could do so without having to be too careful of overheating. Since Enterprise's Sensors and Life Support are also very sensitive to overheating (I found that very curious when I first clocked it) I compromised some more mass by packing a G5 Lightweight Heat Sink for when I do occasionally screw up. It also gives me another button to press.

I also wanted good speed, hence the Dirty Drives, which can really mess up your heating control when boosting without a Low Emissions Plant.

Also having plumped for a DSS I rejected upgrading it, as the comparatively gigantic mass gain and loss in range was totally unacceptable for the sake of not having to hang around as long for scans to complete. The scanners really miss a lightweight upgrade, as does the Mining Lance I wanted to take. If you dropped Leviathan's DSS upgrade she'd gain over 1.4L-y range on Enterprise.

If you're taking the anti-clockwise route around the Galaxy and I'm taking the clockwise route we'll cross paths at 12 o' clock, and therefore simply have to rendezvous at Beagle Point; it'll be my privilege, but for the sake of promoting exploration and the miracle of engineering that is the Sidewinder Mk. I Scout Ship, I can't see how such an opportunity ought to be passed by.

Assuming we both make it that far.... The best of British luck to you Commander! /\¯/\ o7

 

[Commander William Diffin]

You’ll need to pay more attemtion than I do! I’m 50% back from Beagle and PP / AFMU are at 72%.

If I were you I'd drop in at Colonia for repairs on the way back to the Bubble! (And to hand in my discovery data before my ship falls apart like the Bluesmobile.)

 

[Commander William Diffin]

Day Nine:

Waypoint №5 - 1,701.11 - 4,062.39 - Oyster Nebula, GCRV 2334

Found my way out of the Northern Trifid Nebula fairly easily in the end, using just a Basic and a Standard FSD Boost to get back up into the denser part of the Orio-Persean Gap. Had a careless Emergency Stop at Slegao TJ-Q c21-0 whilst I left the ship controls unattended, but the damage was minor and can yet be repaired at Farsight. But after Farsight I won't want many such minor accidents.

(Module damage after one Emergency Stop; note the relatively heavy damage to Sensors)

The rest of the journey to the Oyster Nebula was very smooth and without much of more than passing interest. Many systems I passed through had been visited before, and some Commanders' names recurred frequently as the First Discoverers of systems. Nonetheless as I drew closer to the gigantic Wolf-Rayet star that is the source of the Oyster Nebula, I discovered a new Earth-Like World in the Hegeia GR-M d7-16 System, a previously unvisited system not much more than 100ly from the Nebula, with a third planet more or less the same size and mass as Terra. The planet is almost a perfect Earth-analogue but for the thinner atmosphere, two-thirds as dense as Earth's, but still perfectly tolerable for humans. Unfortunately apart from the ELW there was little else in the system of note; no gas giants, no ring systems, no asteroid belts, just a handful of Ice worlds and two High Metal Content worlds, one landable with an orbiting landable Rocky moon, with three Jumponium elements (Ge, Ca, As) between them.

(Enterprise cruising past a great tundra continent of the newly-discovered ELW)

(Flying past the night side leaving the planet behind)

Finally arriving at GCRV 2334, was treated to some spectacular vistas within the Oyster Nebula, the entire sky covered with fiery red filaments.

(Enterprise facing Wolf Rayet star GCRV 2334 A; note the Coronal plume developing at the star's 5 o' clock)

Decided to camp at C1A, the single Rocky moon of an outlying unlandable High Metal Content world of the system, choosing the central peak of the largest crater facing me to land on. This proved tricky, and every time I thought I had found a suitable spot to set down, the red 'UNSUITABLE TERRAIN' warning flashed up on the HUD. After some scraping about with directional thrusters I found a spot, but lost another 2% hull integrity in the process. It doesn't matter, but after the final repair stop at Farsight there will be no more tricky landing sites if I can help it.

(Landed on GCRV 2334 CD1a)

(With GCRV 2334 CD1 visible in the sky)

(Wide angle view)

Enterprise has now left the Orion Spur behind and completely traversed the Orio-Persean Gap. She has now entered the ominously-named Wayfarers' Graveyard, so called owing to the large numbers of salvageable wrecks that have been discovered in the region. Now she must cross the Perseus Arm to the Farsight Expedition Base at the edge of the Formidine Rift...

 

[GregMalcolm]

Love the GCRV 2334 pics!

Wow, it's Commander Marlon Blake, whose Discovery Tags I've seen all over the Galaxy! And you have a prior circumnavigation to mine, with an uncannily similar account of your adventure! I honestly hadn't seen it before. Obviously great minds think alike. And obviously I'm not the only Commander to have understood how inspirational the Sidewinder is for exploration. You don't know 'Papi' do you?

Heh heh, sorry about all that graffiti

I've met a lot of other explorers, but not Papi as of yet.

I should have kept plugging away with the Engineers until they gave me some of that too.

The improvements there were mostly very slight, but I had to try. It was the FSD's exceptional roll that has really given my ship the edge. I rolled 130 times trying to get it. Nothing but the best for my precious sidey...

Bit extravagant really, because my Asp/Python FSD is abymal...

Since Enterprise's Sensors and Life Support are also very sensitive to overheating (I found that very curious when I first clocked it)

yep, turns out theres a consequence to neglecting the Integrity. I think if I rebuilt I'd perhaps sacrifice a little mass for something a little less heat damage prone. I thought about heat sinks but I figured I'd only accidentally waste them. Though in retrospect I could have used mats to replenish them. Oh well...

I also wanted good speed, hence the Dirty Drives, which can really mess up your heating control when boosting without a Low Emissions Plant.

I didn't worry too much about the drive. My thinking was that it'll only be useful for exploring planets, not much help when in supercruise.

Good (ELW) hunting!

/\¯/\ o7

 

[Heavy Johnson]

You crazy, bro. Keep on flying.

 

[Commander William Diffin]

You crazy, bro. Keep on flying.

That's right o7

---

Day Ten:

Waypoint №6 - 1,225.77 - 5,288.16 - The Sleguae Terrestrials, Sleguae XT-A b20-11

An uneventful journey to the next Waypoint; although many of the systems I passed through were undiscovered, there were few which contained much of interest beyond a handful of ice worlds. I passed through many red dwarfs in this sector, seeing very few gas giants. One of my neutron jumps was from a neutron star discovered by a Commander with the memorable name of Dostoevsky. The Sleguae Terrestrials System at Waypoint №6 was very unusual then compared to the systems I had visited on the journey.

(System Map of the Sleguae XT-A b20-11 System)

Despite not containing a single gas giant, this system contains a terraformable water world:

(Water World Sleguae XT-A b20-11 4)

and no less than three ammonia worlds.

(Ammonia World Sleguae XT-A b20-11 6; note the remoteness of the side-presentation of Barnard's Loop in the background)

(Ammonia World Sleguae XT-A b20-11 7)

(Ammonia World Sleguae XT-A b20-11 8)

In spite of the prevalence of Ammonia Worlds in the system, I detected no apparent Thargoid activity in the system.

Finally I landed Enterprise on the closest landable planet in the system to the primary star, coming down close to the terminator. Once landed I took the SRV Herbie for a spin, collecting some Vanadium, then watched the Sun sitting on the horizon.

(Perpetual Sunset on the tidally locked world Sleguae XT-A b20-11 1)

The next Waypoint is a Black Hole nearly 1,700ly away, but I will have to take it easy on the neutron jumping; FSD integrity is down to 81% now and the last repair stop is still another 3,000ly away.

 

[Commander William Diffin]

Day Seventeen:

Waypoint №7 - 1,697.09 - 6,985.25 - Altera's Eye, IC 1805 Sector DQ-Y e3

The discovered systems began to peter out a little more as I made way way through the Wayfarers' Graveyard, and at Sleguae YB-X c4-6 the region lived up to its name when I investigated a rare Degraded Emissions Signal Source, finding the gutted wreck of an Eagle Mk. II between the primary and secondary Type-K stars of the system. It looks like an explosion in the power plant gutted the entire interior of the ship, whilst completely taking out the port wing and mid-to-aft fuselage. It's unusual to see Eagles this far out, so probably this Eagle Commander had pushed his ship too far, and she had finally succumbed to accumulated damage when she jumped into this system between the two stars and overheated.

(Eagle Mk. II wreck in the Sleguae YB-X c4-6 System. This Commander should have installed a Low Emissions upgrade to his ship's Power Plant)

After neutron-jumping midway between waypoints at Gludgoea GI-B s13-274, I seemed to hit a main route as many of the systems I visited had received prior visitors, Commander Perrier being a frequent First Discoverer of primary stars. Once I entered the IC1805 Sector all of the systems I passed through had had prior visitors.

(Enterprise approaching Altera's Eye Nebula whilst passing IC 1805 Sector VO-F b12-4 A with coronal plume)

Finally arriving at Altera's Eye, I was as surprised by the spectacular vistas as I was by encountering a Sagan-Class Tourist Ship in the vicinity, which no one had warned me about. The Bulk Cruiser apparently had no docking facilities and certainly wasn't prepared to let me avail myself of them if she had. Still. I took the Enterprise in to have a good look at the Sagan's biodomes. It is likely to be the last human-cultivated greenery I will see for some time.

(Enterprise at Altera's Eye, with gravitational lensing of Heart and Soul Nebulae in the background)

(Enterprise at Sagan-Class Tourist Ship at Altera's Eye, with biodomes)

A cloud of ships and ship salvage surrounded the Sagan (none of the salvage was useful to me for extra Heat Sink Synthesis), and pretty soon I found myself being buzzed and scanned by an over-friendly Vulture Commander with a Deadly combat rating. Enterprise's only defences are Lightweight Armour Alloys with Grade 5 Heavy Duty upgrade, for an Armour health of 146, about the same as a basic Imperial Courier. So I decided to leave the system pretty quickly, and headed to IC 1805 Sector AV-O c6-6 9a to make camp with a fine view of the Altera's Eye Nebula at a safe distance of 2.35ly.

[Explorers' Tip: a word to the wise: with the Sidewinder having such a tiny fuel capacity, only 2t, and with the ship burning 0.25t of fuel per hour just being parked up on a planet surface, if you haven't refueled first you can use up all of the ship's remaining fuel just being parked up taking photographs. So it's important to power down all non-essential systems; with Planetary Vehicle Hangar, Cargo Rack, Fuel Scoop, Power Distributor, FSD, HSL and Sensors all powered down she only burns 0.03t per hour parked, and can be safely left like that for hours. Similarly in free flight, the Planetary Vehicle Hangar and Cargo Rack can be left powered down, so that the ship only burns 0.36t/h in free flight instead of 0.47t/h, and only 1.08t/h in Supercruise instead of 1.18t/h. It makes a big difference when you're nursing just 2t of fuel around the Galaxy.]

(Enterprise at IC 1805 Sector AV-O c6-6 9a with views of Altera's Eye Nebula)

Having left the Wayfarers' Graveyard, Enterprise is now just inside the near end of the Perseus Transit. The next Waypoint will take her just over the boundary into the adjacent end of the Via Maris, to the last scheduled repair stop on the Circumnavigation, at the Farsight Expedition Base in the Heart Nebula. FSD integrity is now down to 80%, having only taken only 1% damage during the single neutron jump I made since the last Waypoint. I may push the FSD to get to Farsight since I expect to make full repairs to all ship systems there in any case.

 

[Commander William Diffin]

Day Twenty-Two:

Waypoint №8 - 1,312.35 - 8,297.60 - Farsight Expedition Base, Heart Sector IR-V b2-0
LAST REPAIR STOP

The journey to Farsight Expedition Base, crossing over into the near end of the Via Maris, was fairly uneventful, the Enterprise hopping mainly between previously discovered red dwarf stars with orbiting ice worlds. After a neutron boost at IC 1848 Sector SE-Q d5-48 the FSD integrity had dropped to 77%, eventually precipitating an FSD malfunction whilst jumping from IC 1848 Sector NC-W b17-1 to IC 1848 Sector HB-Y b16-0. This was the first of five malfunctions before reaching the next Waypoint, and I soon realized that FSD malfunctions could be a real nightmare whilst circumnavigating the Galaxy without any repair stops. So neutron jumps are out of the question after repairs are completed at Farsight, unless absolutely necessary, as I'll only have seven or eight of them before the FSD starts to malfunction.

(Enterprise leaving Altera's Eye behind, with IC 1805 Cluster)

Another Unidentified Signal Source was detected whilst charging the FSD to jump to Hypoae Ain ZC-A b56-2 from Hypoae Ain DJ-Y b56-3, Degraded Emissions. Investigation yielded the discovery of a wrecked Imperial Cutter, the superstructure so badly fragmented that it appeared the ship's demise must have been extremely violent. Immediately after leaving the wreck for Hypoae Ain ZC-A b56-2, Enterprise suffered a fourth FSD malfunction.

(The remains of an Imperial Cutter at Hypoae Ain DJ-Y b56-3)

The final jet cone boost of this leg came at Hypoae Ain DS-B d13-46, reducing FSD integrity to 75%. There were no problems with the following 108.83ly jump to Hypoae Ain CT-I b51-2. Then it was just 17 jumps to Farsight.

(Heedless of the danger, Enterprise flies towards the jet cone of Hypoae Ain DS-B d13-46 A, the Heart and Soul Nebulae in the background)

After arriving at the Heart Sector IR-V b2-0 System, the possibility of a rebuy and respawn back at Flaming Star reared its ugly head, in the form of an interdiction attempt by a WANTED Diamondback Scout affiliated with the Farsight Logistics Company, which occurred whilst Enterprise Supercruised through the system towards the gas giant A4. Enterprise's light weight means that she can evade all attempts at interdiction with ease, but the episode was an unwelcome reminder of what will be at stake by the time she has made extensive progress around the Galaxy. In any case, after evading the interdiction attempt, Enterprise arrived at Farsight Expeditionary Base safely and without further incident.

(Enterprise arriving at Farsight Expeditionary Base)

However Enterprise arrived at Farsight in less than perfect condition, having gunned the FSD through a number of jet cone boosts, and sustained an Emergency Stop, as well as the normal wear and tear to be expected over the 7,000-odd light-years since the last repair stop at the Flaming Star Logistics Centre.

(Condition of the ship upon arrival at Farsight)

The ship damage statistics prior to repairs were as follows:

Hull 96%

Paint Job 69%
Ship Integrity 69%

Thrusters 99%
Planetary Vehile Hangar 98%
Cargo Hatch 98%
Fuel Scoop 98%
Power Distributor 99%
Frame Shift Drive 75%
Life Support 99%
Heat Sink Launcher 99%
Sensors 88%
Cockpit Canopy 100%
Power Plant 99%
Advanced Discovery Scanner 98%
Detailed Surface Scanner 100%
Engine Colour Orange 100%
Data Link Scanner 100%

After servicing the ship, I sold CR12,586,961 of exploration data at Universal Cartographics. I then donated CR3,000,000 to the local faction. They won't be forgetting me in a hurry.

(One fully-serviced Sidewinder Mk. I Scout Ship ready to head into the Formidine Rift)

Farsight Expeditionary Base represents the last repair stop on the Galactic Circumnavigation itinerary. After this I'm on my own. After this I travel further and further into the unknown. Beginning with the infamous Formidine Rift....