The no name fleet carrier expedition to Beagle Point

[DarkPaladin]

The fleet carrier NEUROMANCER is currently located in the Colonia region, in the system Kojeara.

After taking a 5 month break from the game due to mining my rear off, I flew from the bubble to Colonia and transferred a fleet of ships and a few modules to Jaques just in time to arrive before the update today. I have purchased a fleet carrier, set it up with station services (all but redemption office and black market, although not stocked with any ships/modules/etc), transferred the fleet and modules to it and am currently filling the rest of the available space with fuel before heading out to Beagle Point. I did install a commodities market with a buy order for Tritium at 75000cr/ton which is about 10000 profit from the station Tolagarf's Junkyard in the same system as my carrier.

I have no idea how far my fuel with take me, no idea where I'll stop to explore and mine for more fuel and no schedule at all. I will be setting the upkeep balance to 5 billion before I head out, so the carrier should stay in game for quite some time to come. I currently have about 10000 tons of fuel left until the carrier is full.

If this sounds like the kind of reckless adventure that you'd like to join, feel free to hop on or off at any time! I play in open and my docking facilities are also open to all. Or just make bets on how far I'll get before I run out of fuel, get the carrier stuck or give in to the space madness!

Cmdr Dark Paladin

 

[DarkPaladin]

Carrier filled up with 19200 tons of Tritium in the hold, 1000 in the tank and 720 in a Cutter. Approximate credits spent to transfer my fleet from the bubble, buy the carrier and fuel is 12.5 billion although I'm not sure if the 5 billion I have in the carrier bank for upkeep gets deducted from my credit balance once placed in the carrier bank since it hasn't technically been spent yet. Maintenance is a hair under 10 million a week.

Time to take a gander at the galaxy map and figure out my heading. I have been to Beagle Point 3 times, so it's not like I'm going into it totally blind.

 

[DarkPaladin]

The routine is settling in now. I'm 14 jumps into the journey to Beagle Point. After I get to Beagle Point I'll head galactic East and start actually exploring. Right now I'm simply setting up a jump, sitting at the carrier management screen while reading the forums, then doing it again for the next jump.

I need to decide when to start looking for some Tritium to mine. I still have around 16000 tons so I'm not worried about it yet but I'm certainly keeping it my thoughts so I don't end up forgetting about it.

 

[DarkPaladin]

About 26 jumps in. Starting to loose track as I'm dozing off during the 15 pre jump and wake up without being sure I marked a notch in my notebook. Counting the fuel in my Cutter I have about 13k left. When I get to 10k I'll start thinking about scouting for a refuel system.

I had been setting up one jump at a time but reading some of the DSSA threads made me change that to plotting bookmarks for several jumps ahead. I'll be glad once I reach Beagle Point, so I can do some actual exploration. Yes, I know I could be doing it now but I'd like to get this stretch done as quickly as I can.

 

[DarkPaladin]

Time to start looking for fuel. After 46 jumps from Kojeara (give or take a couple) and 22,997ly traveled, I've decided to stop and look for some fuel. I currently have 8975 tons of fuel on board and 23,332ly yet to go. With luck I'll find someplace good to mine fairly quickly, and won't have to spend too much time mining. I haven't decided how much fuel to mine, it depends on what I find.

I found one tiny Tritium hotspot but decided to look for a bigger one. I found a fair sized one that also has a double LTD hotspot in the same ring. After server maintenance I'll bring the carrier over and give mining a shot in a single Tritium hotspot and see how it goes.

Fleet Carrier arrives at the Tritium hotspot!

 

[DarkPaladin]

Time to get some sleep. Unfortunately mining didn't go quite so well. In one hour mining in my Cutter, which is set up for good old fashioned laser mining, I managed to mine 142 tons of Tritium. I then swapped over to my Krait Phantom which was set up for core mining and a sub surface missile launcher as well. In one hour I just managed to fill the hold with 136 tons. This is going to take a lot longer than I thought.

I had tried sub surface mining a week or two ago, to make sure I knew how to do it. I had picked an ice ring close to my home system and just fired at whatever sub surface material the rocks had, I think it was Bromolite. I thought 'this is easy!' as I was able to hit the blue target lines fairly well. What has changed is that my practice run was showing 3 or 4 blue lines wide for the target whereas the Tritium has been showing 1 or 2 with a fairly rare 3 lines.

Let's just say that my reflexes are not what they used to be! I was having a heck of a time hitting the blue target lines. I was also fighting with hitting the sub surface deposits due to the spinning rocks. I ran out of missiles and had to synthesize more. I did improve as the hour went on but I have to say that I much prefer laser or core mining. Now I'll have to sleep on what to do next. Having spent a couple hours and only managing to get 278 tons is a bit depressing! I could do some more exploring and see if I can find a double hotspot, or I could replace the seismic launcher with one of my spare sub surface missile launchers and try to get better at my timing along with choosing better rocks that have a slower rotation.

I'm almost exactly half way between Colonia and Beagle Point now, and it's tempting to just push on until I have no choice but to refuel, although I know that's not the smartest thing to do. I think someone is trying to teach me a lesson about patience.

 

[DarkPaladin]

I did some more mining today and did a bit better. Better aim, better timing. Still it will take ages to mine enough to make a dent. I've decided to push on some more until my fuel gets to 5000 tons or so, then start looking for mining opportunities again. I might get stuck out here yet!

 

[DarkPaladin]

Time for some rough math.
I had 8,975 tons of fuel (not including whatever was in my Cutter) and 23,332ly left to Beagle Point.
I now have 5,822 tons (not including carrier) and 16,946ly left to go.
This means I used 3,153 tons to go 6,386ly which means I get about 2.02ly per ton.
In order to travel the remaining 16,946ly requires 8,389 tons of fuel.

I am 2,567 tons short of reaching Beagle Point, not to mention being able to start the trip back out.

Ugh, that's a lot of mining. Now that the numbers are staring me in the face, I need to buckle down and spend the time to refuel. I honestly don't care for sub surface mining, I'd rather laser mine. If I can't find a double Tritium hotspot, sub surface is quicker. I might have to take one of my other ships, the Python most likely, and outfit it for sub surface rather than the Krait so the larger hold will allow more time in the rings and therefore better tons per hour.

As I've been taking a straight line from Colonia to Beagle, I'm now in the Formorian Frontier and will be heading into the Abyss. A few more jumps and I'll be into the area with the best chance of finding good systems for fuel between where I am and my goal.

 

[DarkPaladin]

For the past few hours I've been circling around the system my carrier is in, looking for a double Tritium hotspot. No luck so far. I have found enough single hotspots to realize that they're fairly common as hotspots go. I've reached the point where I'm starting to doze off as I use the FSS (more than I usually do anyway), so I'm calling it a night. I have to work the next few days, so I won't be able to log on that much.

I currently have 5000 tons of fuel in 'reserve', just over 500 in the tank and my fingers crossed that I find a double hotspot to speed up the refueling or it's going to be brutal.

 

[DarkPaladin]

My fuel calculations were wrong and the way I fueled my carrier was wrong. If you're going to use a carrier and haven't done any real research on how they work, do yourself a favor and read the 'Fleet Carrier FAQ' post by Factabulous, located as a sticky in the main discussion forum!

I thought I had to place a 'buy order' for fuel on my carrier in Kojeara in order to get the fuel from my Cutter to my carrier. This is not the case. In the right hand panel of your ship UI, not the carrier UI, there is a new 'transfer' button at the top of the inventory panel. You use that to transfer goods from your ship to your carrier, and the other way around. I had set a 20,000 buy order for Tritium and was selling it to the carrier market when I filled my carrier with fuel. For nearly 50 jumps, I was also buying the fuel from the market to get it into my Cutter, and then donating it to the Tritium Depot when I needed to refuel the carrier.

Evidently, when you place a buy order you are increasing the amount of fuel used due to the mass of the buy order - even if you don't have that much fuel stored! I've now canceled my buy/sell orders and am using the ship transfer to move fuel from carrier store to Cutter to fuel depot. I'm going to do 10 jumps and see if my last 5,000 tons of fuel might just get me to Beagle Point after all.

 

[DarkPaladin]

Route planning - another mistake I made didn't have an that big of an impact, it just wasn't the smartest way to do it. Partly because I hadn't planned this trip out, and partly because I don't want to delete any of my existing bookmarks, I have been plotting 4 to 10 jumps ahead during spool up and cool down phase. The way I did it was to go to the galaxy map and pick a point just under 500ly from where I was and bookmark it, then find the next system just under 500ly and so on. What I didn't think about was that each jump under 500ly will add distance to the next plot.

As I went into the map to check the bookmarks, they would end up needing to be pulled back by a few ly as the error compounded along the trip. A little annoying but no big deal. Today I'm doing it differently. First point is close to 500ly then add 500 to that number and so on. So 497 for first jump, next jump should be a little under 997, just ad 500 to where your bookmark lands and get as close to 500ly from there for the next one, then start the process over again. Probably stupid simple but I only thought of doing it that way today.

Between spool up and cool down there is so much time to mess around with bookmarks that it really didn't cause an issue other than not being as efficient as the new way I'm doing it.

 

[DarkPaladin]

I'm still horrible at figuring my fuel usage. I'm entering the Abyss anyway, Beagle Point or bust!
Last stop for this group of plots is a planetary nebula -
Pyrie Eurk QX-U e2-0 (Distant View in Blue)

 

[DarkPaladin]

I've never used Spansh before, but found that it can calculate for fleet carriers. According to Spansh, I have 10 jumps left and will have 515 tons left in the tank. Woopie!

Ah, that's using the route shown, which is the point of the tool. I'm making a side trip to the planetary nebula, so I'll have to recalculate from there. I'd also rather keep plotting my own course since that's what I've done the whole time. Still, I should be able to make it there. Getting out is another matter! I plan to leave the carrier there for at least the next week anyway.

 

[DarkPaladin]

At game time 13 Jun 3306 03:54 the fleet carrier NEUROMANCER joined the fleet carrier NANACHI at Beagle Point!

 

[Steyla]

I really like the story of your journey. Thanks for sharing and congratulations for making it to Beagle Point.

o7

CMDR Steyla

 

[DarkPaladin]

Thanks Cmdr! Sorry the story wasn't more exciting! The last 2.5 hours of the trip I was flipping between my gaming PC and my work PC (doing it again now).
Some more facts:
Approximate carrier jumps = 92 (I might have missed marking a couple down due to exhaustion).
Fuel cost from Colonia region = 1.1 billion.
Fuel left over = 1224 tons (see above for why I used so much).
Cost to transport my fleet from the bubble to Colonia = 1.7 billion.
Other carriers met on arrival at Beagle Point = 1.
Cost to ship a Corvette from the bubble to Beagle Point = 2 billion.
Amount of time for a ship to transfer from the bubble to Beagle Point = 7.5 days.

Got to get back to work!

 

[Dr. Nagi]

Ah, you're the 2nd one! Perseus Reach Expedition is finishing today, I'd love a ride about 10kly southwards through the abyss tomorrow, would that be an option for you?

 

[DarkPaladin]

I'd like to help out but I'm not sure I have enough fuel for that! I also work 12 hour shifts on the weekends so I won't be able to put much if any game time in until late Monday.

You could ask Thauma, I know he's got more fuel than I do anyway.

I've recalled an exploration fit Asp and was going to keep the carrier there for the 7.5 days until it arrives as I hunt for Tritium hotspots in the area. That raises a question:. If you transfer a ship to your carrier and then move the carrier, does it still take the same amount of time/credits?

 

[Dr. Nagi]

I'd like to help out but I'm not sure I have enough fuel for that! I also work 12 hour shifts on the weekends so I won't be able to put much if any game time in until late Monday.

You could ask Thauma, I know he's got more fuel than I do anyway.

I've recalled an exploration fit Asp and was going to keep the carrier there for the 7.5 days until it arrives as I hunt for Tritium hotspots in the area. That raises a question:. If you transfer a ship to your carrier and then move the carrier, does it still take the same amount of time/credits?

Ah ok.
And to your question, the costs are for where the carrier currently is, as you instantly pay when requesting the transfer.

 

[DarkPaladin]

The NEUROMANCER has now moved to system CEECKIA SD-R C21-0.

I am low on fuel (just over 900 tons total), and this system has a ring with a Tritium hotspot around planet AB 4. Unfortunately, when I plotted my course to that planet I ended up orbiting a planet of one of the secondary stars some 150k light seconds away. I performed my first ever in system jump and was successfully able to obtain an orbit around planet AB 2 of the primary star. If anyone comes to this system for fuel, I suggest you target planet AB 2 and not AB 4.

That's all the free time I have to before work today. My next steps will be to mine Tritium here, and maybe do some exploring around the area looking for a double Tritium hotspot.