The long voyage ahead.

Hegario · Jan 16, 2017

Ship's log. 16th of January 3303.

I've finally reached my homeport of LP 128-32 but I still can't get over what happened a few hours ago. I was searching for unknown fragments in Mel 22 Sector GH-C b13-1 when I received a distress call from a Cobra that had run out of fuel and I decided to see if I could assist in any way. Shortly after I entered the area, three other ships jumped in and tried to destroy me. I high waked out only to be ripped out from hyperspace into a remote area in my target system. 22000 lightseconds away from the main star and that was where I encountered what can only be called the thing from my nightmares and old wives tales. Even though it did not destroy my ship, I doubt it would've pulled me that far from my jump location if its intentions were good. It probably thought I was nothing but a gnat. A heavily damaged Cobra Mk IV with disabled systems.

If it meant to scare me it succeeded.

Things are going to change and this might be the perfect time to do that trip I had been planning for. When stuff hits the fan it might be better to be anywhere but here. Thanks to Palins modifications I have finally gotten the boat perfect for my needs. "The Paladin" can jump over 30 LY per jump and carry everything I need to be truly self-sufficient during my trip such as 2 SRV's and 2 AFMU's. I was originally planning on leaving a few months from now but self-preservation says that I should leave as soon as possible. As soon as I get some prime quality FSD boost materials I should go. I estimate I'll be ready in two weeks and set course for Eta Carinae as I've always wanted to see it.

This is actually what happened to me today and while it felt dramatic and seriously cool it's actually not the reason I'm embarking on my first long duration exploration trip. I reached Pioneer yesterday and for some time I've been thinking of heading out on a counter clockwise trip around the galaxy and figured I would do it in the boat I've enjoyed the most out of my inventory and that's my Cobra MK IV which I've used to make several long distance passenger trips already. I was thinking of following the Sagittarius-Carina arm and on towards Beagle Point while scanning as much as possible as my intention is to be Elite by the time I reach Colonia sometime in the distant future.

And an obligatory shot of the ship I'll be using.

I'm sucky at taking screenshots but I'll be using this thread to document my travels along the way.

SpaceMonkeyz · Jan 16, 2017

Hegario said:
Ship's log. 16th of January 3303.

I've finally reached my homeport of LP 128-32 but I still can't get over what happened a few hours ago. I was searching for unknown fragments in Mel 22 Sector GH-C b13-1 when I received a distress call from a Cobra that had run out of fuel and I decided to see if I could assist in any way. Shortly after I entered the area, three other ships jumped in and tried to destroy me. I high waked out only to be ripped out from hyperspace into a remote area in my target system. 22000 lightseconds away from the main star and that was where I encountered what can only be called the thing from my nightmares and old wives tales. Even though it did not destroy my ship, I doubt it would've pulled me that far from my jump location if its intentions were good. It probably thought I was nothing but a gnat. A heavily damaged Cobra Mk IV with disabled systems.

If it meant to scare me it succeeded.

Things are going to change and this might be the perfect time to do that trip I had been planning for. When stuff hits the fan it might be better to be anywhere but here. Thanks to Palins modifications I have finally gotten the boat perfect for my needs. "The Paladin" can jump over 30 LY per jump and carry everything I need to be truly self-sufficient during my trip such as 2 SRV's and 2 AFMU's. I was originally planning on leaving a few months from now but self-preservation says that I should leave as soon as possible. As soon as I get some prime quality FSD boost materials I should go. I estimate I'll be ready in two weeks and set course for Eta Carinae as I've always wanted to see it.

This is actually what happened to me today and while it felt dramatic and seriously cool it's actually not the reason I'm embarking on my first long duration exploration trip. I reached Pioneer yesterday and for some time I've been thinking of heading out on a counter clockwise trip around the galaxy and figured I would do it in the boat I've enjoyed the most out of my inventory and that's my Cobra MK IV which I've used to make several long distance passenger trips already. I was thinking of following the Sagittarius-Carina arm and on towards Beagle Point while scanning as much as possible as my intention is to be Elite by the time I reach Colonia sometime in the distant future.

And an obligatory shot of the ship I'll be using.

http://i.imgur.com/GDdVHor.png

I'm sucky at taking screenshots but I'll be using this thread to document my travels along the way.

I thought that was a pretty great screenshot. If it was an example of your suckage, I greatly look forward to more SS in the future as you get better. Also, love the travel logs in this section of the forums, I shall follow yours as well.

Fly Safe Commander!!

o7

iain666 · Jan 16, 2017

Not tried the Mk IV, but it's a Cobra so it's bound to be great.

Fly safe and send pictures

MrFailfactory · Jan 17, 2017

Good luck on your journey, Commander!

You did well with that shot - taking good screens is about perspective, and making sure that what you want highlighted (to stand out, in other words) is closer to the center of the screen.

Kasper doesn't like Imgur, which means I don't either - otherwise, I would show you some examples of how to make your ship, or the environment, the focus of your shot. Once you have that down, you can, for example, start rotating the screen to give the illusion of a swooping approach, even if that isn't what you were actually doing.

Have fun

Riôt

Hegario · Jan 17, 2017

iain666 said:
Not tried the Mk IV, but it's a Cobra so it's bound to be great.

Fly safe and send pictures

The Mark IV isn't a bad exploration boat. What you lose in speed you gain in versatility and survivability. I've used it earlier on long range passenger missions to the Neutron Nebula and the Black Treasure among others and it was less engineered back then. I will be armed and I will also bring a mining laser with me.

I'll be posting my complete boat specs here later today.

Thanks to you all for your comments and suggestions.

Hegario · Jan 17, 2017

17th of January 3303.

After a few hours of extremely lucky mining, I've now got enough jump boosters to last me for a while in case I run into problems. I can also mine more of them during my trip. This is a sudden decision but I might as well start my journey once I pick up some provisions for the trip. A.K.A plenty of reindeer jerky and beer. I don't want to run out before I've even reached Beagle Point. Once I have those, there's nothing holding me back.

Ship specs are here.
The Paladin
It's not specced purely for exploration but seeing as it is so heavily engineered, I feel like I don't have to strip off all the dead weight.

Corbin Moran · Jan 17, 2017

Nice piece of writing there

If you do intend to travel to Beagle Point along the Sagittarius-Carina Arm, you might want to consider checking this out

Safe travels CMDR and hope to see you out there (not entirely unreasonable, since I will be traveling along the Arm towards you

)

Hegario · Jan 19, 2017

Corbin Moran said:
Nice piece of writing there

If you do intend to travel to Beagle Point along the Sagittarius-Carina Arm, you might want to consider checking this out

Safe travels CMDR and hope to see you out there (not entirely unreasonable, since I will be traveling along the Arm towards you )

Thank you very much and some of these locations seem excellent. Ultima Centauri seems exactly the sort of a place I'd like to see. Once work allows I'll be heading that way at breakneck speed.

What route would you recommend towards Beagle Point from U.Centauri? Would it be easier to take the long route via Tyros Ridge and Roncevaux Crossing with a 30 LY ship than to follow the outer edge?

Hegario · Jan 23, 2017

19th of January 3303.

In a day and a half I've done 1500 lightyears. I could've gone faster but the disease that is typical for me struck again. Everytime when I enter the black, I get sidelined by the first few systems that are not in any navigational databases and this happens every time. Fortunately I seem to be hitting a boring patch of class M stars with only icy bodies. Good thing about this though is that I don't even have to sort the plotter for scoopable stars.

The good thing is that I found a system with two ringed Class Y brown dwarves and a few excellent high metal worlds. Later in the day I hit my second kylie marker and encountered a third ringed brown dwarf. And shortly after that I found another system with two ringed brown dwarves. I used to think these were previously rare as I had seen mostly ringed T-Tauris but they seem to be abundant here.

I also accidentally fired off a heat sink so now I'm down to two. I really have to pull my head out of my butt or this will be a short trip. I disconnected power to the heat sink to avoid this happening in the future.. There's still 6 kylies left till Eta Carinae and that's only the first destination on this long trip. Current location at the end of the day is somewhere in the SIFEAE Sector.

20th of January 3303.

The day begins with more jumping and after a few jumps I encounter yet another ringed brown dwarf. This one was actually fairly impressive as it had 7 moons and the 3 outer ones had their own moons.

During the evening I was almost startled as one jump ended in a system with an L-class instead of a scoopable star. First in almost 3500 lightyears. Ended up jumping onwards till I hit the 4 kylies travelled marker and decided to call it a day and hit the bunk after I found a system with two terraformable bodies. Current location: somewhere in the PRO EUR Sector.

21st of January 3303.

More jumping and more boring systems. I have a feeling I might call it a day today after not so long and finish the keg of pale ale I had in the cargo hold as there hasn't been anything of note to scan. Ship is performing admirably. I'm honestly very happy with the results of the engineers. The only results of the day were two waterworlds in back to back systems about 800 LY in.

22nd of January 3303.

I started the morning jumping a few times when I happened upon a system with the first interesting find of my trip so far. I stumbled upon a red dwarf with a terraformable waterworld orbiting at a distance of 70 LS. From my usual experience, M-class stars are too cool to have a large habitable zone so this is something that I find to be rather rare as I haven't previously come across one in the almost 4500 systems I've visited during my travels.

I should really push it towards Eta Carinae but I've been so swamped at work so it's been hard to move forward. I've been thinking of posting some of my important places I'll be visiting here as videos so you get to see what I'll be seeing too.

Hegario · Jan 24, 2017

23rd of January 3303.

After soldiering on for about 500 lightyears, I came across something I had never seen before. A ringed L-class star. The system was very funky in the first place. A B-class orbited by six other stars and a pair of lava strewn rocks. The ring system was bigger than anything I had ever seen before. I flew into the belts outer edge and I was still 4.38 LS away from the star. I stayed around to grab a few pictures and carefully noted the system in the ships computer. The weird part was that this system had been previously explored but the person who was here before me hadn't even bothered with this object. In the next system the fella had forgotten to scan a terraformable water world aswell.

A few hundred lightyears later I stumbled upon a pair of water worlds, of which the first other one was terraformable. A few jumps before the 6 kylie mark I found something else I hadn't seen before. A class I gas giant being orbited by another class I gas giant. The orbiting one was tiny though. Only 2.1854 earth masses and a 14000 km radius.

24th of January 3303.

I was approaching my first important waypoint so I kept on jumping forwards and managed decent speed. I did about 1000 LY in a few hours in the morning helped by the very boring systems I encountered in the TYRIEDGOEA sector. Later in the evening I reached the final waypoint before my first target during this expedition. I decided to press on as I wanted to reach Eta Carinae today. Boring findings continued till I found an ammonia world after several jumps. Didn't see any lights when I orbited the night side but I did get a nice view of a sunrise.

I kept on going and hit a 300+ lightyear long field of non-scoopable stars about 400 LY before E.C so I had to do a minor course correction to avoid running out of fuel. I wasn't surprised to find that the K-class that I eventually hit was already surveyed by another commander. When I finally jumped into Eta Carinae I was awestruck by the beauty of the star. A true diamond among the stars.

Now I'll have to think about the exact route I'll be taking towards my next destination which is a bit in the open aswell. I've been thinking of going through the route of the Sagittarius-Carina mission but skipping the camp 6 at Pueliae nebula and take the shorter but not so travelled route through the arm itself.

Hegario · Feb 3, 2017

25th of January 3303.

I have decided to set course towards a nearby B-class star and to continue to a black hole in the neighbourhood. Very shortly I noticed that the road ahead was already charted by what I assume were previous expeditions. One system had an earthlike but it had been previously charted. I stopped by anyway as I needed a break from staring at space all the time. After so many jumps of systems that had already been surveyed, I decided to change course towards the Eta Carinae nebula. If this area has already been thoroughly surveyed, I might aswell enjoy the sights. I started off going through a few of the systems that had been found in the ancient Two Micron All Sky Survey program over a thousand years ago and some of the similarly aged Pan-Carina YSO catalog.

26th January 3303.

The targets I picked the previous day had been mostly surveyed but some of them were stunningly beautiful. Later by chance I came across a huge ringed 3.01g high metal world orbiting a B-class star and I decided that I have to make this place the first landing of my trip. It was not that hot in geological terms but the sights were just too stunning to ignore. The planet looked like a hyperbolic version of the magnificent desolation that Buzz Aldrin saw when he set foot on the moon. The whole system is beautiful. I spent the night admiring the view and driving around. Driving the SRV in a high gravity environment is fun. This place could be a buckyball location.

27th of January 3303.

In the morning I drove around a bit more. I then launched and scanned the other 50+ objects in the system. I set course to the other side of the E.C nebula and started jumping. The area has lots of unscoopables but fortunately the stellar density is high enough so you don't have to make massive detours. However I'm not making much progress today as I went full vegan for more than a few systems.

28th of January 3303.

Continuing my strategy of slow progress. Found a few interesting places but I won't be going into too much detail here. Later in the evening while jumping into a G-class system, I discovered my first earthlike of the trip. Stats indicated 0.24 earth masses and suitable for water-based life. It looked extremely beautiful especially considering the rugged nature of the nearby systems.

29th of January 3303.

I cleared the Eta Carina nebula and began my traverse towards the Sagittarius-Carina arm. The road ahead has no real focal points for thousands of lightyears before the Eock Prau nebula which I'm not even sure I want to visit as the nebulas are usually well surveyed already.

I expect the next few weeks to be rather uneventful as I'll be just jumping onwards.