Testing the route plotter!

[Mad-Max]

Hello fellow explorers!

I've set out on a sizable task: testing how well the route plotter can find a way around inaccessible blobs of space, by flying back and forth between two set points in space with the route planner set to only choose systems I haven't been to before.
I have chosen two systems 350Ly apart in a sector I haven't visited before, with a relatively dense star field. System names are provided in the picture below:

Spoiler

As you can probably tell, I've set the jump route to Fastest, just to get some sense of achievement in the beginning, because the thought of having to jump economically and getting nowhere fast is a bit daunting at this time. I might try that when this experiment is done, but then in a bit sparser populated region of space. I know, I know; I'll have to go through all those systems anyway using Fastest, it'll just take so many more tours back and forth, but this is what I decided for now.

This experiment came to me as I flew across the galaxy from Colonia towards Beagle Point, to rendezvous with cmdr Aggie Ninepence to take over the Legacy named "The Endurance" (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...r-s-Legacy-(A-suggestion-about-Lavian-Brandy)), which I now have in my cargo hold. I thought it would fit well to carry out this experiment before passing it on to the next willing exlorer. I'm planning to be done with it before mid November where I'll try to rendezvous with Yanick's expedition, the "Minerva Centaurus Expedition" (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/372565-Minerva-Centaurus-Expedition), to find someone there willing and able to take over the olympic torch that it is to carry one of the Legacies!

I've already completed the first eleven tours, so far nothing much to report, except for the jump destinations are slowly crawling out towards the edge of the primary to soon be visible at jump-in point, a sign that tells me the route plotter is starting to feel the work load. Let's see what breaks first, my determination or the route plotter!

 

[Mad-Max]

Update 1

Well... This is going to take some time. When I look at the progress so far, that is, when I turn on Visited Stars, it looks like this from one end of the tour:

So far so good, the nearest cluster to my position is the last jump from the other end, at around 17-23Ly, the next cluster of blue dots are at Lyndsey's full range at around 42-44Ly. And that pattern repeats all along the tour.

...

Then I switched on Not Visited Stars...

And got a bit disheartened. But I will press on! I'm carrying The Endurance, for crying out loud! This is my pilgrimage!

Fun facts: the twentieh tour had a string of stars like this: Y-T-Y-M-Y-K-Y-M-M, the non-refuelable marked in bold. Lyndsey was a bit thirsty when I reached the M-class.

 

[Emil_]

Cool idea.
I'm excited to see the results ;-)

 

[Cdr Voorheez]

Appreciate your efforts Cmdr but we are getting an enhanced longer range route plotter in 2.4.
Wouldn't want to see nugatory efforts and all that.
Your time is appreciated of course

 

[Orvidius]

Excellent, I look forward to seeing the results... for SCIENCE.

 

[Mad-Max]

First of all, thanks for your feedback, makes it feel more meaningful to press on.
To answer Cmdr Voorheez, I'm doing it now in the nick of time to get some benchmarks before 2.4, and plan on doing the test again some time after 2.4. I'm not sure on how much time I have, given that the tests need to be done before Yanicks Minerva Centaurus Expedition in mid-November.

Now for the data so far:
I've jumped back and forth 50 times now, which translates to 450 jumps and 18,468 light years traveled. I could've been at Sol now...
There's no appreciable increase in neither workload nor "route linearity", the next jump is often behind the primary, though I think I see an increase in the final jump distance (from 13-17Ly to 22-25Ly) which I interpret as the route laid gets further and further off the ideal line.

Now for the images! First the routes travelled in EDiscovery 3D map:

As you can see, there's plenty of space in the middle of the route. I predict the route plotter will give up when the first system is too far off from the ideal line, but that remains to be seen.
Also, the jumps are grouped in 18 "plates" across the route, nine each way, and about 22 Ly apart, most visible in the middle, less so at the ends.

Next, an update to the blue and red systems in ED galaxy map:

By Sagittarius, there's so many unvisited systems... And the groupings are visible here too, just need to zoom in a bit.
Well, the show must go on! Any guesses on how many routes the route plotter can calculate before it gives up?

And finally, a small graph showing all routes overlain on each other with all start points to the right... You can see the divergence in the final jump distance, all the way from 13 Ly (one of the first routes) up to 27 Ly (one of the last ones)

 

[Mad-Max]

Oh yeah, I almost forgot!
One system on route 43 was a real scare, a veritable pit of fire! When I jumped in, the screen went almost all white and I hurriedly snapped a photo after diving away from the stellar flames:

Spoiler

And another as I got away a bit and turned around:

Spoiler

 

[Cdr Voorheez]

First of all, thanks for your feedback, makes it feel more meaningful to press on.
To answer Cmdr Voorheez, I'm doing it now in the nick of time to get some benchmarks before 2.4, and plan on doing the test again some time after 2.4. I'm not sure on how much time I have, given that the tests need to be done before Yanicks Minerva Centaurus Expedition in mid-November.

Now for the data so far:
I've jumped back and forth 50 times now, which translates to 450 jumps and 18,468 light years traveled. I could've been at Sol now...
There's no appreciable increase in neither workload nor "route linearity", the next jump is often behind the primary, though I think I see an increase in the final jump distance (from 13-17Ly to 22-25Ly) which I interpret as the route laid gets further and further off the ideal line.

Now for the images! First the routes travelled in EDiscovery 3D map:

https://imgur.com/43YpuUx.png

As you can see, there's plenty of space in the middle of the route. I predict the route plotter will give up when the first system is too far off from the ideal line, but that remains to be seen.
Also, the jumps are grouped in 18 "plates" across the route, nine each way, and about 22 Ly apart, most visible in the middle, less so at the ends.

Next, an update to the blue and red systems in ED galaxy map:

https://imgur.com/vmI7QG9.jpg

https://imgur.com/Gg8kLTG.jpg

By Sagittarius, there's so many unvisited systems... And the groupings are visible here too, just need to zoom in a bit.
Well, the show must go on! Any guesses on how many routes the route plotter can calculate before it gives up?

And finally, a small graph showing all routes overlain on each other with all start points to the right... You can see the divergence in the final jump distance, all the way from 13 Ly (one of the first routes) up to 27 Ly (one of the last ones)

https://imgur.com/fQsUKrk.png

Awesome Cmdr. Wasn't being a plonker just didn't want you wasting your time. Figures should be interesting

 

[Mad-Max]

Update by the end of the weekend

It's going to be a long haul... 100 routes so far. Here's the progress from EDD

The last jumps are nearing 30Ly, but that's about the most exciting thing about this madness. My S.O. asks why I keep doing these trips back and forth, and I can only answer her "for the Endurance".

 

[Mad-Max]

Short update

I've not had much time for flying this week, but I've managed 20 routes more and the exciting thing here is that the last jump in each route is now mostly over 30Ly.

There's not much time left before patch 2.4, so this weekend will be hectic. I will not break first!

 

[Mad-Max]

Update - 168 routes

First of all, documentation on the routes, plucked directly from the 3d map in EDDiscovery:

Now, 168 routes might not seem like a lot, but each one has nine jumps in it, each jump taking on average about a minute, so here's the math: 168*9=1512 jumps and minutes, 1512/60=25,2 hours of flying back and forth.
I don't think I'll have to tell you how tired I am of doing the same routine over and over again.

I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, though; the start jumps are getting smaller now, some as small as 36Ly, and the last jumps on each route is mostly around 33Ly, so I've soon used up all the easily reached systems. So far all the routes have had 9 jumps each, but I think that when I get the first route with 10 jumps, the end of the route plotter is near! As I've said earlier: "For the Endurance!"

 

[Mad-Max]

Update Sunday night - 209 routes!

First the route map:

Then the thought process:
I've attacked this part of the galaxy pretty hard now, 1881 jumps within a 360Ly long cigar-shaped corridor. The route plotter still just thinks about the route for a few seconds and then merrily plots a 9 jump route. No 10 jumpers yet, I think I've unluckily chosen a too dense part of the star fields around here. Maybe I should've went further up a few hundred Ly from where I am trundling back and forth now, but with the patch coming the day after tomorrow, I don't have enough time to test it. I also feel that I've put too much time into this to just abandon it when I have a few hours more tomorrow evening to widen the path network.

Anyway, if tomorrow evening doesn't give a good result, at least I have nearly 2000 systems honked under my belt, that should be a decent amount of cash when I turn them in late November.

 

[Mad-Max]

Results!

Ok, I gave it all I had yesterday, but the star field was simply too dense; the route plotter kept giving me 9 jumps, even at the last route I plotted. So here goes:

Number of routes: 225
Total distance jumped: 84329 Ly
Number of unique systems visited: 1802 (8x225+2)
Star class distribution:
O 0
B 9
A 85
F 53
G 102
K 464
M 887
Y 103
T 74
TTS 16
L 9

I have some nice diagrams to show you, but Imgur is overloaded at the moment, so they'll come later.

Conclusion!
In retrospect, I should've chosen a less dense field, a shorter distance between the endpoints or somewhere right up against a permit-locked sector, so that the route plotter would have less options to make a route. If I had the time, I could continue jumping, but I predict I'd need at least twice the amount of routes to exhaust the options for the route planner. But now the patch is coming, as I write this, so the new programming for the route planner changes the conditions/prerequesites (don't know the precise word).
I could continue jumping this area of space later on with the new route planner, because there's already a big amount of systems visited, but I think I'll prefer a less dense area somewhere further off the galactic plane.
My choice to do fast jumping was really just for morale, I think economic mode would be just as good; it's all about visiting all the systems between the two points, not turning your ship around often.

- Which brings me to this; the use for this test:
If you want to thorougly map out a star field, visit all the stars, then I don't yet know if you can rely on the route planner, it might leave a few systems in the middle which just happened to not be on a good spot for the route; they might be clumped together so not all of them is included in all the routes. I would still like to try that out, but that will have to wait a week or two untill I recover from this jump-fatigue.

 

[Mad-Max]

The details!

Here's a 3d plot over the jump distances; nearest is the first routes, start jump from the right, end jump to the left.
You can see that the route plotter has an easy job at first, but has to do shorter start jumps and longer end jumps in the end (at the back of the graph).
The yellow parts in the middle are the full range jumps at around 43-44 Ly.

Here's a graph over route distance (vertical) vs route number (horizontal) with a red trend line.
It naturally trends upwards, as the plots get further and further from the ideal line between the end points.