Stepping back out into the black -- Cmdr Z@pp's travel log

roboteconomist · Mar 5, 2017

I am a good place money wise and I've finally put the finishing touches on my main combat/mission-runner Python, so I decided to head back out into the black and see what the galaxy has to offer. I've only done one deep space mission before, a quick week-long jaunt out to NGC 5606 in December to unlock Felicity Farseer and Prof. Palin. My goal this time around is to stay out in the black until the 2.3 release is on the horizon and I have racked up enough exploration data to hit elite. For the curious, here is my Asp, packed with all of the amenities and engineered for range and low thermal load.

I reached my first waypoint -- the nebula in the TRAIKAAE sector -- today (obligatory selfie below; this game looks so crisp on a GTX970). I haven't found an earth-like yet, but I did run across two undiscovered ammonia worlds relatively close together in the BLEAE THUA sector.

My plan for now is head for the eastern neutron star field, using nebulas and known pulsars as waypoints. After that, I thought I might spend some time hunting for high-value planets and cool stuff in the Norma Expanse and Circinus Transit. Once I'm ready to head back, I was thinking that I would hit Sag A* and take the neutron highway from Colonia home. That said, I realize I'm relatively new to the exploration game and I only have a rough outline for the trip, so I'm open to ideas and suggestions.

roboteconomist · Mar 7, 2017

I've decided that for my next move, I am going to go hunting for planetary nebulae. I spent a little time scanning the southeastern neutron fields and found a couple that aren't listed on EDSM and haven't already been discovered or are on folks' various 'to do' lists.

As part of my search, I discovered a high-plane neutron highway that starts about 1.2k ly from the TRAIKAAE nebula. Oh, and as I was making my way over to it this evening, I found a ringed water world orbiting a ringed gas giant. Cool stuff.

roboteconomist · Mar 11, 2017

Some quick updates from the past week. I had a couple of interesting finds, including twin water worlds (the far one is just off the tip of my ship's nose):

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A planet with both high vulcanism and a water atmosphere, giving it an interested combination of surface textures:

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I also found my first undiscovered black hole.

roboteconomist · Mar 11, 2017

Also, on the recommendation of another commander, I checked out the FROARKS EL-Y E86 nebula, which features a neutron star with an incredibly high rate and angle of rotation that forms these two perfect particle cones:

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For the curious, here is the neutron highway I used to crush the 7K LY distance between the TRAIKAAE nebula and the FROARKS sector in about 2 hours. It starts at BYUA EU-Q D7-7 and terminates around PUEKEE SU-N D7-200.

roboteconomist · Mar 11, 2017

Finally found an undiscovered nebula in the OEPHAICH sector. The core is a neutron star and Class A star in an extremely close orbit -- it almost looks like the sun has a bowtie.

mikekim · Mar 12, 2017

nice pics [up]

roboteconomist · Mar 14, 2017

Some more points of interest from my travels:

An orange super giant with a radius of 35 suns. I did a double-take first entering the system.

Here is what it looks like rising over the surface of a planet more than 4700 ls away.

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Speaking of sunrises, here is a sun rising over the first of two Earth-likes I found over the weekend.

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I also ran into two terraformable planets with hoola hoop-like ring systems.

roboteconomist · Mar 14, 2017

One final picture -- I imagine this is because Stellar Forge selects the star density in the background based on your distance from the galactic core and some systems fall between two density zones.

roboteconomist · Mar 14, 2017

Mission Update: Just made it to SAG A*. Rather than go to Colonia now, I am going to do some PN hunting over near the northeastern neutron star field (ZUNIA/CLOOMAA sectors) and Norma Arm.

roboteconomist · Mar 16, 2017

My tally of POIs thus far:

-- Visited 51 planetary nebulae (only 1 first discovery thus far)

-- Visited SGR A*

-- Discovered 3 Earth-likes, 5 Ammonia worlds, one super giant star, one set of twin water worlds, and one jumponium-rich system.

I've also scanned a dozen black holes and 3-4 times as many neutron stars, so I should clock up to Elite Explorer rank when I finally get back to civilized space.

roboteconomist · Mar 25, 2017

I've been playing through Horizon Zero Dawn, so I didn't get around to posting all of the stuff that I've encountered over the past two weeks, including an undiscovered Class A supergiant:

I was actually a bit disappointed when I first jumped into the system -- the star didn't seem particularly big -- but then I realized that I was over 200 ls away. Here is a shot from about 120 ls away, which is about as close as I could get:

I also ran into a terraformable Water World orbiting a ringed L Class Brown Dwarf:

Got a nice shot of it and the star, edge-on to its huge ring system:

"Bro, I heard you like dwarf stars..."

Two ringed gas giants orbiting a ringed gas giant:

Sticking with the ringed theme, a ringed Ammonia World:

The planetary nebula in the background of both of those photos was interesting -- it had a black hole at its center with a landable planet orbiting only 10 ls away. About 150 ls away from that was a really neat-looking group of closely-orbiting stars:

roboteconomist · Mar 25, 2017

I've also been keeping track of gas giants that are ridiculously close to their stars:

Seriously bro, that is cutting it a bit close:

Bro. BRO!

Yep, that says 20 ls. Here is a shot from close in; note that we're still close enough to see the textures on the sun:

Strangepork · Mar 25, 2017

Nice to see man, keep this going...

iain666 · Mar 26, 2017

roboteconomist said:
I've also been keeping track of gas giants that are ridiculously close to their stars

It's not ridiculous until you get less than 10ls

I think my record is just under 7.

Might be one of these two

roboteconomist · Mar 27, 2017

iain666 said:
It's not ridiculous until you get less than 10ls I think my record is just under 7.

Might be one of these two

http://i.imgur.com/c9mNgwj.png
http://i.imgur.com/rNReP5D.png

Dude. Now that is a Hot Jupiter.

roboteconomist · Mar 27, 2017

I found two supergiants this evening that simply dwarf everything I've found thus far. Both are 400+ solar radii; one is nearly 50 solar masses and the other is 77 solar masses. I haven't found a hypergiant yet, but I'm refining my search technique, so fingers crossed!

A couple of planetary POIs from this evening -- a terraformable water moon:

And an Earth-Like with a landable rocky moon:

I also found my second undiscovered planetary nebula. Not as interesting as the first, but it had a great inky-blue gas cloud:

Kenneth McGrew · Mar 27, 2017

roboteconomist said:
View attachment 117151

I wish we could re-paint our ships out in the black, starting to look like stig of the dumps ship ^^

nice pics though!

roboteconomist · Mar 28, 2017

Kenneth Mcgrew said:
I wish we could re-paint our ships out in the black, starting to look like stig of the dumps ship ^^

nice pics though!

And that's with only 2% hull damage!

FWIW, I'm actually kind of into the hint of realism suggested by a ship's hull looking worn after a significant amount of travel. Very Star Wars.

Sonof Hibachi · Mar 28, 2017

Now that is a proper explorer's ship!

roboteconomist · Mar 28, 2017

Found my third undiscovered PN; a nice pink one just right outside and slightly above the galactic core. My wife is using a screenshot that I took as her wallpaper right now (I can post a full-sized shot on imgur, if folks are interested):

As for my plans for the next week or so, I've picked out a track of A supergiants that will lead me back toward a small cluster of PNs closer to the galactic core (fingers crossed that CMDR Madraix didn't get there first) then intensify my search for rare stuff like unique stars, Earth-likes and close-in gas giants. Speaking of Earth-Likes, I refined my technique over the weekend and managed to find 12 more, as well as dozens of Water Worlds in three days.

One final note -- I found a landable planet with a radius of ~20,600 KM. I haven't scanned it yet, but I am kind of tempted to try to land on it. Should I even attempt that with rinky-dink ASP X thrusters that top out at 260 m/s?