The complacency of the two-SRV explorer

Jack Schitt · Oct 13, 2017

I've done many exploration runs since Horizons dropped. Some short, some longer, but nearly all of them in an Asp Explorer with a single SRV bay. And in all that time I've never lost an SRV. Lost the whole ship once, but that's a different story. Never lost a rover though. Always played it safe.

The a couple of months ago I outfitted my first Anaconda for exploration and for the first time knew the luxury of being able to carry a two-SRV bay without having to compromise the fuel scoop or the shield. Two SRVs. An extra insurance policy, I thought. A bit of cover for the unexpected.

A couple of days ago, after several shakedown trips and on my first proper excursion to the bottom of the galactic disc, I stumbled upon a 0.2g planet with an unusual crater formation. A huge complex crater had an uplift peak that itself had been partly destroyed by a smaller impact, leaving a crater-within-a-crater with a cliff-like central peak. I couldn't find a suitable spot atop it on which to park the Anaconda, so I landed at the bottom and had great fun scaling the wall using an SRV...

...at which point I logged out.

So far so good. So what in the name of all that's holy convinced me to do this the instant I logged back in...?

[video=youtube;xav67xAvIEs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xav67xAvIEs[/video]

Clearly I wasn't thinking straight. I didn't even four-pip the shields before the first impact. And there's absolutely no way I'd have even considered this if it wasn't for the "emergency" SRV back on the mothership. This was complacency, pure and simple.

So remember, folks:

Carry a spare,
but still take care.

This has been a public information broadcast on behalf of complacent explorers everywhere.

-VR- Max Factor · Oct 13, 2017

You did it because it is fun.

Taranis Dekker · Oct 13, 2017

You did it because you could

It's a shame you didn't hit rock bottom before exploding.

ahem

Red Anders · Oct 13, 2017

I've always been a two-SRV explorer on everything other than my DBX. I actually have a class 6 bay (four SRVs) on my Anaconda just because I'm very hard on them; in particular I have a propensity for jumping across canyons in them and sometimes it doesn't go quite as planned.

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead · Oct 13, 2017

Worth it.

100% worth it.

I carry many SRVs for this very reason.

After all, what's the point in having a cliff in game, if you don't jump off it?

I lost two SRVs near a barnacle site.

First was similar to yours. I felt the overwhelming need to jump off. And did. And blew up.

Second one, was actually shortly after managing to land like this;

Yes, I'm completely landed.

See?

It turns out, if you deploy your SRV like this, you fall to your death. Lol

That was the end of my barnacle run. I ran out of SRVs.

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

Alec Turner · Oct 13, 2017

LOL - epic!

Where was that planet? that's a hell of a drop off.

Ever since I did this ..

[video=youtube_share;cQRnMqEpU4Y]https://youtu.be/cQRnMqEpU4Y[/video]

.. on Njokujinun 1 I've been on the lookout for nice big base-jumping mountains (with an area you can land a decent sized ship on top) but they seem few and far between.

Edit: on re-reading I see you didn't land on top .. the question still stands tho.

Straha Yeagar · Oct 13, 2017

Jack Schitt said:
I've done many exploration runs since Horizons dropped. Some short, some longer, but nearly all of them in an Asp Explorer with a single SRV bay. And in all that time I've never lost an SRV. Lost the whole ship once, but that's a different story. Never lost a rover though. Always played it safe.

The a couple of months ago I outfitted my first Anaconda for exploration and for the first time knew the luxury of being able to carry a two-SRV bay without having to compromise the fuel scoop or the shield. Two SRVs. An extra insurance policy, I thought. A bit of cover for the unexpected.

A couple of days ago, after several shakedown trips and on my first proper excursion to the bottom of the galactic disc, I stumbled upon a 0.2g planet with an unusual crater formation. A huge complex crater had an uplift peak that itself had been partly destroyed by a smaller impact, leaving a crater-within-a-crater with a cliff-like central peak. I couldn't find a suitable spot atop it on which to park the Anaconda, so I landed at the bottom and had great fun scaling the wall using an SRV...

http://ed.pubimg.co.uk/crater1.jpg

http://ed.pubimg.co.uk/crater2.jpg

http://ed.pubimg.co.uk/crater3.jpg

...at which point I logged out.

So far so good. So what in the name of all that's holy convinced me to do this the instant I logged back in...?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xav67xAvIEs

Clearly I wasn't thinking straight. I didn't even four-pip the shields before the first impact. And there's absolutely no way I'd have even considered this if it wasn't for the "emergency" SRV back on the mothership. This was complacency, pure and simple.

So remember, folks:

Carry a spare,
but still take care.

This has been a public information broadcast on behalf of complacent explorers everywhere.

Ok...complete sidenote to this, and without being able to see the video at work, presumably the four pips referenced are on the SRV? but I was always under the impression that the SRV shields did nothing with regards to taking collision damage with rocks and the ground, which is why I always turn them off to conserve fuel.

Alec Turner · Oct 13, 2017

straha20 said:
Ok...complete sidenote to this, and without being able to see the video at work, presumably the four pips referenced are on the SRV? but I was always under the impression that the SRV shields did nothing with regards to taking collision damage with rocks and the ground, which is why I always turn them off to conserve fuel.

Me too. Full pips to ENG for SRV driving so you've got as much boost available as possible, shields will avail you nothing against a determined rock.

dape · Oct 13, 2017

haha, epic

I lost an SRV on my last exploration trip by jumping geysers. It threw me up 2km in the air. I survived jumps like that before. When you land on the front wheels it seems not much damage is done.

IndigoWyrd · Oct 13, 2017

Ah, the SRV... I've demolished quite a few myself. Perhaps the most spectacular took place at one of the Guardian Ruins sites. I was working with another Commander, and showing off some SRV tricks. In one particularly daring stunt, I launched myself high into the no-air, did a nice triple-front-flip, bounced off the top of his ship, into a tight triple-roll and into a double back-flip. Quite impressive, but eager to top myself, I had him move his ship a bit higher, this time planning to use him as a spring board to bounce myself up to around 10km. My start was flawless and I launched myself high with a triple-roll into a quad front-flip and BOOM, right into the belly of his ship.

And I was only packing one SRV. Fortunately it was only around 20 jumps back to Meene for a replacement. 30 jumps later I found myself wondering - if Fighter bays can produce a whole new fighter in just few minutes time, why the frell can't an SRV bay produce a new SRV?

Jack Schitt · Oct 13, 2017

Red Anders said:
I've always been a two-SRV explorer on everything other than my DBX. I actually have a class 6 bay (four SRVs) on my Anaconda just because I'm very hard on them; in particular I have a propensity for jumping across canyons in them and sometimes it doesn't go quite as planned.

I nearly went for a 4-bay myself but ultimately didn't want to sacrifice too much in terms of mass, or losing the larger internal slots. Kind of regretting that now!

Alec Turner said:
Where was that planet? that's a hell of a drop off.

I thought I'd lost it 'cos I didn't bookmark, but it's actually on the HUD in the video. It's FLYOOE DRYEIA AX-I D10-1 6A and the coordinates of the crater are 17.9832, 27.1919.

(Someone else has already First Discovered this system so I've nothing to lose by publishing this).

The area is almost directly below and slightly to the east of the bubble, near the edge of the disc. Probably less than 2000ly from Sol. My 55.41ly Anaconda needed some jumponium to get down there but there may be alternative routes. Many of the out-of-range stars were in the 56-60ly range so a lighter ship or one with a more godly FSD should do it easily.

I'm reasonably certain this shot was taken in the same area, on a less steep section at the base of the impact peak, looking up at the wall of the larger crater. It's a spectacular location.

Edit: on re-reading I see you didn't land on top .. the question still stands tho.

Yeah, the side is hellish steep but not truly vertical and the gravity is only 0.28g (not 0.2 as I first thought) so it's possible to snake up there with an SRV if you get a good run at the more vertical bits and keep it gripping with the thrusters. It slid back once or twice but thrusters and the handbrake kept it in place. It's now quite obvious what would have happened had it fallen. I'm only sorry I didn't Shadowplay the ascent as well. It was probably more impressive than it seemed at the time.

I'm guessing you could also ascend on the other side of the peak, which is not as steep.

A smaller ship would possibly be able to land on top of the peak. It's relatively flat, but very narrow and I just couldn't get the Anaconda to blue light the landing zone.

straha20 said:
Ok...complete sidenote to this, and without being able to see the video at work, presumably the four pips referenced are on the SRV? but I was always under the impression that the SRV shields did nothing with regards to taking collision damage with rocks and the ground, which is why I always turn them off to conserve fuel.

You might be right, it's not something I've really put to the test before. I just noticed after the first bang and automatically put all the pips in in desperation. The fact that they apparently did nothing to mitigate the second impact would also seem to back you up.