The neutron route-plotter is quite wonderful!

[Orvidius]

Nothing new here that you probably don't already know. But I just wanted to post a comment about how useful I'm finding the new neutron-boosting option in the route planner.

Prior to 2.4, I didn't bother with neutron boosting. In the time it would take to look for neutron stars, manually plot the jumps, scoop the cone, and so forth, I could much more easily just make the extra three jumps. It wasn't convenient enough to be worth anything to me.

But now I've had a chance to use the new route plotter in the neutron fields of the core region. I'm on my way to Beagle Point, and skirted around the eastern edge of the core, and made far more progress than I had expected. I left the bubble Friday night, and as of last night (Monday), I'm only 12 kly away from BP, without buckyballing it. That is, I'm still taking time to scan some things, look at some of the sights, stop for screenshots and repairs, bounce around inside some of the nebulae, and landed once for mats.

Across the core region, it reliably plotted routes for me that would follow a sequence of "neutron, neutron, scoopable, neutron, neutron, scoopable," etc. Always 2x neutrons and then a scoopable. And with my exploraconda's fueled range of 62.6, those neutron jumps were almost always 250 ly, with a few dipping into the 240s. I had a 26 jump / 4.5 kly course plot, and another that was 56 jumps for 9.5 kly.

I'm now well past the point where the neutron stars are in such high abundance, so its back to "business as usual" for the remainder of the journey. But when you just need to cover some distance, the neutron plotter has made it easy.

Anyway, as I said there aren't any new insights here, I just wanted to share my experience in how much of a time saver it's been for a long distance trek.

 

[EUS]

I don't have the guts.
My one and only experience with boosting was when the mechanic was first implemented.
In the bubble, traveling in my python, and dropped into a system with a white dwarf (unbeknownst to me).
Dropped into its cone, that is, because the mechanic shipped out bugged. Couldn't escape, couldn't do anything but watch myself get destroyed, and suffer a 6M+ insurance fee for it.

 

[dape]

Is it possible to exclude White Dwarfs with the neutron boost plotter. Or does it do that by default?

I have no probs with Neutron Stars but white dwarfs are just mean and too dangerous when out exploring

 

[ThomasWJames]

Is it possible to exclude White Dwarfs with the neutron boost plotter. Or does it do that by default?

I have no probs with Neutron Stars but white dwarfs are just mean and too dangerous when out exploring

Whats the difference between Neutron stars and white dwarfs? Don’t they look about the same? You’re supposed to enter the stream about half way, not too close to the star and then exit via one of the sides when boosted right?
ive done Neutron boosts before but I never payed attention if it was Neutron or white dwarf to be honest.

 

[Orvidius]

Is it possible to exclude White Dwarfs with the neutron boost plotter. Or does it do that by default?

I don't think you can specifically exclude the white dwarfs, but so far in practice this doesn't seem to be an issue. I don't think it's given me a single one, crossing the galaxy, or if it did it might have been only one. I don't recall for sure. You totally CAN filter them out (and I also had them turned off in the filter. Duh.) A few of the neutron stars have had relatively large exclusions zones compared to the size of their ejection cones, resembling white dwarfs, but most have been pretty predictable. The route planner favors distance jumps (assuming you're on fast routing, of course), so if there is a Neutron star available, it seems to favor that.

Whats the difference between Neutron stars and white dwarfs? Don’t they look about the same? You’re supposed to enter the stream about half way, not too close to the star and then exit via one of the sides when boosted right?
ive done Neutron boosts before but I never payed attention if it was Neutron or white dwarf to be honest.

With white dwarfs, the exclusion zone is very large compared to its size, and the cones are relatively small. So only the outer tips of the cones usually extend far enough to safely get to them. They're still pretty "easy" to use, except that you have to be sure you're getting past the danger zone, and then make a sharper turn into it. All that, for a much smaller boost.

 

[EUS]

Does this mean WDs are more dangerous than neutrons?

 

[Orvidius]

Does this mean WDs are more dangerous than neutrons?

Rather than more inherently dangerous, I would say they're trickier to use safely. There's just a smaller target to hit to get your boost, and it's a smaller boost.

 

[Aura Lorell]

I don't think you can specifically exclude the white dwarfs, but so far in practice this doesn't seem to be an issue. I don't think it's given me a single one, crossing the galaxy, or if it did it might have been only one. I don't recall for sure. A few of the neutron stars have had relatively large exclusions zones compared to the size of their ejection cones, resembling white dwarfs, but most have been pretty predictable. The route planner favors distance jumps (assuming you're on fast routing, of course), so if there is a Neutron star available, it seems to favor that.

...

With white dwarfs, the exclusion zone is very large compared to its size, and the cones are relatively small. So only the outer tips of the cones usually extend far enough to safely get to them. They're still pretty "easy" to use, except that you have to be sure you're getting past the danger zone, and then make a sharper turn into it. All that, for a much smaller boost.

You can exclude White Dwarves from the filters on the fourth tab of the galaxy map.

And WD are trickier to navigate safely and they only produce limited supercharge, if I recall correctly around 75% of the jump range. I've done over 200 NS jumps but never bothered with WDs.

 

[Orvidius]

You can exclude White Dwarves from the filters on the fourth tab of the galaxy map.

Oh right, I'm thinking of black holes and neutrons being grouped as non-sequence. Total brain fart there.

 

[Arthur Spooner]

I used the new plotter from near Colonia to Sag A* and nearly back to the bubble now. I did not exclude white dwarfs in the filter list and still did not come across a single one. So my guess is that white dwarfs are excluded from the automatic boost-search-plotting by default.

Of course the fact that I didn't come across one is not a proof, but was anybody actually lead to a white dwarf as part of the boost search? If you came across a white dwarf and the boost was necessary to go on with the plotted route it would be safe to say that it was due to the automatic boost search. In case the boost was not necessary it was just coincidence.

Another possibility is that the weaker boost just isn't enough to give your route any advantage. It's all about numbers of jumps. For a boost you usually have to take a little detour and additionally the last jump to the neutron star/white dwarf is usually substantially shorter than the jump range of your ship. So maybe white dwarfs just don't pay off enough in terms of jump numbers to make up for these downsides.

 

[meusmc]

Whats the difference between Neutron stars and white dwarfs? Don’t they look about the same?

In my daughter's words, "Neutron stars are the ones that dance," (now hold your arms together over your head and wiggle), "and white dwarfs are the ones that look like they want to eat you," (now make an angry face).

I think that is pretty accurate.