The need for an Authority Contact and Restock at Explorer's Anchorage for the DW2 CG

[RolloTreadway]

Isn't that a plus when it comes to exploring? Taking the path less travelled usually yields surprising good results.
I consider myself an "experienced" explorer and I'm zigzagging all over the place trying to take in tourist spots while ticking off the codex entries where possible.
My Wolf-Rayet, white dwarf and unusual exotic stars are all populated in the codex thanks to fishing around.

I think by 'don't know how to fly straight', Factabulous didn't mean taking the path less travelled, but rather 'haven't learnt how to fly the ship'.

It's something I moan about a lot too, I'm a bit of a broken record, all these pilots out there who have rushed to make money to buy a fancy ship but never learnt how to fly the ruddy thing.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

It's a tricky balance, I think, for a "build a station in the middle of nowhere" CG.

* You need Commodities and Outfitting for the CG to take place at all. The current ruling faction brings a Black Market in with that, though you can't actually access it until Contacts is enabled.
* In the event that someone manages to get this far out without a fuel scoop, they can buy one in Outfitting, so it might as well have Refuel.
* You're going to spend more time grabbing synthesis mats than actually mining if it doesn't have Restock - especially if the CG is for core minerals and you need to refill the mining missiles.
* You need Authority Contacts to avoid what in a normal situation would be a 100 credit warning fine turning into a 11kLY detour.
* You also really need a nearby detention centre, or a slightly bigger mistake can send you to Colonia anyway ... at which point you have a Shipyard to transfer to because Detention Centres must have one, so it doesn't matter if the station doesn't.
* With AFMUs in the Outfitting and Restock you can completely work around the lack of Repair for anything except power plant, so that's not really adding any challenge other than pointless clicking if it's missing.
* Doing a week-long mining CG with a 4k supercruise back to the station each time is probably more NPC pirates than most explorers want to face without selling their data first. So there's lots of demands for Cartographics, too - and that's not unreasonable, given the balance of risk on exploration data.

But once you've added all of those services, what's actually left for the "CG to get the station operational"?

For standard services, there's:
* Crew Lounge
* Shipyard (on the station rather than the Detention Centre for convenience)
...and that's it.

For enhanced services, there's potentially:
* Tech Broker (way too far from anywhere you could get most of the commodity requirements, but would let you buy things you'd already unlocked from Outfitting - the Guardian sort presumably more popular with explorers)
* Material Trader (somewhat useful for using the remote workshop, or if a Raw trader for juggling FSD boost synthesis materials)
...but again they're pretty marginal.

By the time you've got enough services to be able to comfortably do the CG "as if it was a normal one", you barely need to do it at all. Seems a bit of a waste of the concept if you get there and NPCs have already done all the work. But also a bit of a waste if no-one takes part because it's too much effort either.

 

[Ozmodion]

I dont get how Cmdr's dont get the concept of us doing the CG to get these things online. yes a few minor things just to get the ball rolling to assist in the CG at the start like restock and very basic gear to start "old school" mining, but thats it. We have to do the work to get the better things online. that is me and you getting out there shooting rocks, refining and transferring metals to the station so they can use it to open other things.

OK i dont know how receiving materials will bring Cartographics online, but hey, thats how this game works.

If people want to race ahead then let them, they can only go as far as the organiser wants them too as nobody apart from Dr Kaii knows the route. this isn't a race, agreed, but it isn't a convoy either.

 

[RolloTreadway]

I dont get how Cmdr's dont get the concept of us doing the CG to get these things online. yes a few minor things just to get the ball rolling to assist in the CG at the start like restock and very basic gear to start "old school" mining, but thats it. We have to do the work to get the better things online. that is me and you getting out there shooting rocks, refining and transferring metals to the station so they can use it to open other things.

OK i dont know how receiving materials will bring Cartographics online, but hey, thats how this game works.

If people want to race ahead then let them, they can only go as far as the organiser wants them too as nobody apart from Dr Kaii knows the route. this isn't a race, agreed, but it isn't a convoy either.

Maybe we have to build the Universal Cartographics office. Maybe we need to mine the stuff that will build them a desk, a couple of doors, a small windowless toilet.

 

[Ozmodion]

Maybe we have to build the Universal Cartographics office. Maybe we need to mine the stuff that will build them a desk, a couple of doors, a small windowless toilet.

yea i didnt think of that....or maybe they want platinum to sell to pay for the wages of all these office workers....

 

[avow555]

Hi, limpets and cartographics will be there when CG starts, will check about the rest

Good to know.

 

[avow555]

Why isn't there a support vessel there for the duration of construction with necessary facilities?

May add some realism.

 

[Micha]

It's a tricky balance, I think, for a "build a station in the middle of nowhere" CG.

* You need Commodities and Outfitting....

All very good points, and I do agree; the Station needs to be bare-bones for now. But as others have pointed out, it makes the CG a tad challenging.

The obvious solution would be have a support fleet along to establish the outpost. Have at least one megaship in that fleet for docking and rudimentary facilities needed to support the CG. Then once the Station becomes operational, it heads off to the next major construction project.


Eh; ninja'd by @avow555; should've read to the end of the thread before replying!

 

[Henkka77]

Maybe everything isn't supposed to be easy.

Agree. But this seems to be the current trend nowadays.. People need to get everything the easy way or else there pitchforks and barricades..

 

[Rat Catcher]

Can I play too?

Although not part of DW2 I'm heading toward the new station in my 'mining' T10 to join in the CG - looks like I may have to detour and sell off my explo data before getting there though, have been enjoying some good diversions from a straight line route (and the T10 makes for a lovely cockpit view!) and will likely have 'too much to lose' if I continue straight to the station.

Had to forsake a SRV bay in my equip when leaving the bubble, but getting quite adept at scanning POI's from the ship now

 

[Dagwit]

Agree. But this seems to be the current trend nowadays.. People need to get everything the easy way or else there pitchforks and barricades..

I think there should be limpets available for a mining CG. Dr. Kaii assured us there will be. But if perchance they're not available, I've figured out how I'll cope. I don't think that's "needing to get everything the easy way."

Nor do I think it's mere feeble whingeing to point out the absurdity of being locked out of a CG because you've picked up a Cr 100 fine which normally is barely an inconvenience, but at Explorer's Anchorage you currently can't pay off anywhere within eleven thousand lightyears.*

*Yesterday I was catching up with an Obsidian Ant livestream made on Sunday evening, during which he read out a Discord announcement by one of the DW2 organisers, and whoever it was seemed to think there would be an Interstellar Factor active for the Community Goal. I'd settle for an Authority Contact myself, but hopefully there'll be one or the other by the time the CG starts.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

*Yesterday I was catching up with an Obsidian Ant livestream made on Sunday evening, during which he read out a Discord announcement by one of the DW2 organisers, and whoever it was seemed to think there would be an Interstellar Factor active for the Community Goal. I'd settle for an Authority Contact myself, but hopefully there'll be one or the other by the time the CG starts.

Interstellar Factors would only be needed if you were picking up bounties as well, and wanted to pay them off without a trip to the detention centre ... in Colonia, if it doesn't get its own.

That said, if you push the station into Investment (pretty likely with all the mining that'll be going on...) and thereby lower its security state, you might get it to drop into the Low Security band and get an IF anyway.

 

[Dagwit]

Interstellar Factors would only be needed if you were picking up bounties as well, and wanted to pay them off without a trip to the detention centre ... in Colonia, if it doesn't get its own.

That said, if you push the station into Investment (pretty likely with all the mining that'll be going on...) and thereby lower its security state, you might get it to drop into the Low Security band and get an IF anyway.

You shouldn't need an Interstellar Factor for a mining CG, but if there's a combat CG as well ... I haven't heard anything about that, but I did read a post where it was stated that there are already CZs in-system, so....

 

[JosefK]

You shouldn't need an Interstellar Factor for a mining CG, but if there's a combat CG as well ... I haven't heard anything about that, but I did read a post where it was stated that there are already CZs in-system, so....

Who's gonna protect us miners if there's no combat CG?????

 

[Doc Seven Echo]

I hope we get a materials trader option as a CG reward. I need Basic conductors for heat sinks. Getting those sweet black hole pictures gobbles them up. I was a dunce and after engineering my ship, I left the bubble with only five.

 

[Dagwit]

I hope we get a materials trader option as a CG reward. I need Basic conductors for heat sinks. Getting those sweet black hole pictures gobbles them up. I was a dunce and after engineering my ship, I left the bubble with only five.

If we all put in enough effort we should get a Material Trader. I'd think that if there weren't plans to put one in they'd have made the station a Tourism economy, which is what would have made most sense in terms of its use.

But, since the station is an Extraction economy, it'll be a raw Material Trader.

Now for explorers a raw Trader makes sense, since nearly everything they'll want to synthesise uses raw materials.

Nearly everything. I'm afraid heatsinks are the exception that proves the rule.

So I'm sorry to say that I doubt the new station will be of much help for your particular synthesis needs.

 

[Kevin Kyle]

Arrived there yesterday but arrived at camp the day before. I did not race there. In fact, I scan every system I jump to and many surface scans too(even far out ones). While I am waiting, Im likely to go out in whatever direction and go scan more. Not really in a hurry. That is what I did at the previous CG location. When I leave the station, I wont dock again until after some services are there. Docking at stations has been the most dangerous thing I have done so far. lol

 

[Doc Seven Echo]

So I'm sorry to say that I doubt the new station will be of much help for your particular synthesis needs.

Sadface

 

[Ian Doncaster]

But, since the station is an Extraction economy, it'll be a raw Material Trader.

Now for explorers a raw Trader makes sense, since nearly everything they'll want to synthesise uses raw materials.

That's not completely guaranteed - the population of the system at 750k is too low to support a Material Trader (minimum 1 million required). Frontier can choose to add one anyway as a special case, but if they do, they can pick any of the three types. Two of the three Colonia material traders are not at the economy you'd expect them to be.

(I would agree that long-term a raw trader would be most useful for explorers, though)

 

[Doc Seven Echo]

(I would agree that long-term a raw trader would be most useful for explorers, though)

I would generally agree as well, and I see the point. However, everything you need to synthesize raw materials is available through surface prospecting, which is readily available around the area. Unless some USS plan to pop, (which I hope they do, because it would be nice to not be so stingy with heat sinks) there would be no other way to get manufactured mats out here. Having only one Heat sink launcher and refilling is a lot more economical then toting around four launchers, which was a common recommendation before refilling was available, with three deactivated to conserve power.

I'm sorta conflicted though because heat sinks are the ONLY recipe that explorers would use that requires manufactured mats. So I can also see how a raw mat trader would be more beneficial. And I realize that I may be projecting because that is what "I" need right now and not necessarily would be best.

Maybe a little bit better planning on my part for the future...