The Planetary Circumnavigation Club

[Suni]

Loving these reports - haven't followed along with a circumnavigation like this for quite a long time.

On the lighting issue I'm afraid your supposition is correct, planets are only lit by the light of the primary star. It's not so bad in cases like yours where the secondary star is distant and quite small but it can look really quite daft when it's close and hanging over a pitch black surface like a giant neon elephant in the room!

And on the damage front, I generally repair whenever the hull drops below 50%. It only takes one hard smack against a rock at the wrong angle and suddenly your circumnavigation is over!

Good luck with your continuing journey.

Thank you!
Emboldened I'll risk spamming with some photos from today's event during my first ten degrees on the Northern Hemisphere.
The terrain was initially mostly flat and I had a good time driving full throttle (still in full night) until I came to an area of huge craters, and noticed it by driving full speed over the edge of one, and making my personal SRV-flying record.

Spoiler: Flight images

I approached an edge full speed, oblivious of how the ground would drop behind it...

Whoops - I'm off the surface...

Then already pointing at the secondary star and flying at 127 meters:

Then either me or the planet rolled, but I found the ground to be above me, over 200 meters away (I started using bursts of vertical thrust in the hopes of softening my eventual fall):

Eventually I came down once, and bounced up to the air again:

Then I descended from this bounce in a sideways orientation, which had me worried of exploding spectacularly:

But instead, surprisingly the SRV just magically stuck to the surface on its wheels, and after all this, the chassis strength was still 90 % - so only dropped 9 % from the initial 99 %

The entire flight from the rim until stationary on the ground took about 42 seconds .

Looking backward, it was this cliff I jumped:

By the way, I now have only one or two driving sessions left before I'm off to a real-world vacation for about two weeks (during which I'll incidentally end up driving about the same distance as this circumnavigation, albeit on roads and hopefully without flying ), so there will be a pause in my travel reports for that period.

 

[Suni]

Back in the saddle now after some real life vacationing

I proceeded about 12 degrees, which brought me to the 160 degrees point on the total progress - approaching half-way mark!
After the previous full-night sessions it was a nice change to now have the sun almost straight above me. Driving was otherwise pretty uneventful and slowish, with the terrain being on the rougher side and thus the going relatively slow.

 

[Suni]

Today had a nice drive with the rising sun on my left, with several flat sections allowing fast progress. Initially the sun was low on the sky, with some geysers for scenery:

With good conditions I managed to cover 20 degrees, bringing me to the halfway mark of the entire journey, at 180 degrees traveled!
By that time the sun had risen somewhat higher:

From now on, I can comfort myself with the fact, that I have less driving ahead of me than I have behind me

 

[Suni]

Today proceeded in some pretty steep terrain - I recorded a 72-degree incline upwards and a 64-degree downhill slope, and also some steep sideways hills to drive on.

Going up this hill right here:

The climb succeeded, even though it was 72 degrees steep at times, and I had to full-throttle the SRV to not have it stop (or fall back?) mid-slope:

Also some steep side-slopes:

 

[Suni]

Today my long journey north ended, as I reached the North Pole, bringing the total distance traveled to 219 degrees. Now it's back south again!

On the way the sun was just occasionally peeking over the horizon, while the land was dark. At one point some geysers were visible against the sun:

And on another point, the sun burst out an explosion of sorts:

The North Pole itself had little to show scenery-wise, but here it is:

 

[Alec Turner]

One thing I've always wondered about a pole to pole circumnavigation - how careful are folks about making sure they cross the pole fairly straight and continue driving up/down the opposite line of longitude? I guess it would be quite easy to get turned around at the poles (where the compass behaves oddly) and end up driving back down very close to the way you came up for example? Also - @Suni, I just realised I haven't yet created an entry for your circumnavigation in the OP of this forum thread. Do you have details for the planet you're on or are you preferring to keep them secret for now? No worries if the latter, presumably you'll be able to reveal them at the end so I can create the final entry for you?

 

[Suni]

One thing I've always wondered about a pole to pole circumnavigation - how careful are folks about making sure they cross the pole fairly straight and continue driving up/down the opposite line of longitude? I guess it would be quite easy to get turned around at the poles (where the compass behaves oddly) and end up driving back down very close to the way you came up for example? Also - @Suni, I just realised I haven't yet created an entry for your circumnavigation in the OP of this forum thread. Do you have details for the planet you're on or are you preferring to keep them secret for now? No worries if the latter, presumably you'll be able to reveal them at the end so I can create the final entry for you?

I try to be careful around the poles and go pretty slow etc. It starts to get increasingly tricky to hold the longitude after about 75-80 degrees latitude, as very small sideways movement changes the longitude significantly. But I believe to have stayed the course mainly by utilizing the waypoint creator excel from the link on the first page of this thread:
Excel Waypoint Creator
It basically gives me guidance like this:

And from that the main useful point is the two different Longitude values. So I drove first south until I got to the pole (latitude 90) keeping the longitude at 46.4230 (in my case), and then when I crossed the pole (slowly) the compass whirled around momentarily and then I was heading north and then just kept the longitude at -133.577, until reaching the north pole where the process was reversed and I'm now again driving south with 46.4230 longitude. And hoping to hit my original starting point eventually .

For the OP entry and the location details, I'm thinking of keeping it for myself still for now, as the planet was undiscovered before, so I'm thinking I could on completion then try to fly to a DSSA carrier which should be relatively nearby (maybe a 100 jumps or so) to try and ensure getting also the first discovery / mapping tags on the place. At the latest at that point I'll be happy to share all details I have!

If necessary, I can share earlier too, but this has been my plan so far.

 

[Suni]

After a couple of days driving down from the North Pole through mostly uneven - and for the last leg, even severely mountaineous - terrain, I reached today the halfway point between North Pole and the Equator, and have now driven 264 degrees of the entire journey (73 %).

The last session was driving in daylight, with both the nearby stars nicely visible, the further one with its orbiting planets also (this is a three-star system actually, but the third is 19 k ls away, so not visible as more than a dot really - it could be the dot to the left of the secondary star, but I can't be sure of that):

The terrain indeed had quite many big ups and downs, bringing me to some summits like this one:

And ridge-summits like this one:

With the terrain-induced slow going I tried to increase the throttle where possible, and at one point a small hump-jump landed me on the other side directly to a rock that wasn't visible before the jump, causing my SRV to end up on its side:

Fortunately no real damage & thruster boost turned the SRV back to its wheels.

Earlier on the journey I encountered again (and could confirm it from video) a similar experience as near the start of my journey, where I had a sudden 50 percent loss of chassis strength (from 89 % to 39 % this time), without even any significant-looking collision. This time it was a bit "humpy" terrain, but nothing too special and no great speed or anything. I don't know if it's a bug or a justifiable feature, but anyway it enforces the policy I've had in general of repairing the SRV before the chassis/hull strength goes below 80 %...

Another technical note: Earlier when driving near dawn/dusk I concluded that the game probably counts terrain as "lit" only if there is a line of sight from the midpoint of the star to the terrain in question. In my case when the star is so close, it can have quite a large bit of its "top half" visible over the horizon, but not lighting the terrain yet, while logically it would feel there should already be some light from that visible portion. Only when the center of the star comes over the horizon, then the ground "lights up". Logical from a coding-technical point of view, I guess.

 

[Alec Turner]

After a couple of days driving down from the North Pole through mostly uneven - and for the last leg, even severely mountaineous - terrain, I reached today the halfway point between North Pole and the Equator, and have now driven 264 degrees of the entire journey (73 %).

The last session was driving in daylight, with both the nearby stars nicely visible, the further one with its orbiting planets also (this is a three-star system actually, but the third is 19 k ls away, so not visible as more than a dot really - it could be the dot to the left of the secondary star, but I can't be sure of that):
View attachment 360934

The terrain indeed had quite many big ups and downs, bringing me to some summits like this one:
View attachment 360935
And ridge-summits like this one:
View attachment 360936
With the terrain-induced slow going I tried to increase the throttle where possible, and at one point a small hump-jump landed me on the other side directly to a rock that wasn't visible before the jump, causing my SRV to end up on its side:
View attachment 360937
Fortunately no real damage & thruster boost turned the SRV back to its wheels.

Earlier on the journey I encountered again (and could confirm it from video) a similar experience as near the start of my journey, where I had a sudden 50 percent loss of chassis strength (from 89 % to 39 % this time), without even any significant-looking collision. This time it was a bit "humpy" terrain, but nothing too special and no great speed or anything. I don't know if it's a bug or a justifiable feature, but anyway it enforces the policy I've had in general of repairing the SRV before the chassis/hull strength goes below 80 %...

Another technical note: Earlier when driving near dawn/dusk I concluded that the game probably counts terrain as "lit" only if there is a line of sight from the midpoint of the star to the terrain in question. In my case when the star is so close, it can have quite a large bit of its "top half" visible over the horizon, but not lighting the terrain yet, while logically it would feel there should already be some light from that visible portion. Only when the center of the star comes over the horizon, then the ground "lights up". Logical from a coding-technical point of view, I guess.

I'm sure I've had occasions in the past where I've started to see lighting creeping across the ground (or at least up the sides of hills, craters and mounds around me) long before I see the star itself appear over the horizon. I could be wrong tho' I suppose (or perhaps it changed in Odyssey). Nice going tho - you're making great progress and I think it's very wise to set yourself a value (definitely over 50%) at which you repair. Enjoying following this!

 

[Suni]

Thanks for the support!
Regarding the lighting, I may well be wrong also, but I meant situations like this (today I had the sun near the horizon again, providing similar opportunities):

Here as can be seen, the SRV is just barely on the lit terrain, while just ahead of it is a pitch black shadow (the SRV headlights illuminate part of it), even though the sun has lots of it showing above the ridge line. Maybe my sense of physics is wrong (that has also happened before...), but to me it would seem like the light from the top part of the sun should reach further ahead of the SRV, giving that area at least a partial illumination.

During today, I encountered again the sight most sought after for a circumventer (apart from the finish line ) - the full-throttle flat land!

I got some nice progress due to this, and got 25 degrees further, ending up 20 degrees above the Equator, which means 80 % of the entire journey is done.

At times the low-hanging sun looked as if it actually touched and burned the mountains on the horizon:

 

[Alec Turner]

Thanks for the support!
Regarding the lighting, I may well be wrong also, but I meant situations like this (today I had the sun near the horizon again, providing similar opportunities):
View attachment 361034
Here as can be seen, the SRV is just barely on the lit terrain, while just ahead of it is a pitch black shadow (the SRV headlights illuminate part of it), even though the sun has lots of it showing above the ridge line. Maybe my sense of physics is wrong (that has also happened before...), but to me it would seem like the light from the top part of the sun should reach further ahead of the SRV, giving that area at least a partial illumination.

That's an excellent illustration of your point and I agree, you're right. I suspect the lightning model is a single point light source with some diffusion and that a distant single point bright star centred on where your sun is there would illuminate the landscape in the same way.

 

[Suni]

Today was a day of good progress driving towards the Equator, in the darkness with the sun peeking from the side:

During this trip I encountered twice the 50 % chassis strength drop case, bringing the total count of those events now up to four. No problems, just repairs after each.
I was also driving a long downhill a couple of times, and coming a bit fast to a bump in a 30-degree slope caused my SRV to start rolling (tumbling) downhill for a while twice. Fortunately no notable damage on either time.

Eventually, ended the day by reaching the Equator - my last milestone before the end!
The equator (darkness, but notice on right edge the sunlight touching small parts of the uphill slope there):

Now I've got 51 degrees of journey left on the southern hemisphere, and then I should be back where I started!

 

[Alec Turner]

Three more sessions should do it? I would offer to come and join you for the final stretch (if you wanted) but I have a hunch you’re a long way from the bubble? Nevertheless pm me if you’re interested in the idea.

 

[Suni]

Three more sessions should do it? I would offer to come and join you for the final stretch (if you wanted) but I have a hunch you’re a long way from the bubble? Nevertheless pm me if you’re interested in the idea.

Three ... or two ... or four - depending on the roughness of the remaining terrain and my competing desires of completing this operation on one hand and getting some sleep on the other .

Thanks for the thought of joining, but I'm indeed quite far, about 45 thousand light years from the bubble, so it's probably not feasible

**** Update after today's session:
I had the good fortune of encountering long stretches of flat ground, full 3 degrees almost-constant full throttle. Also stretched the session otherwise a bit, allowing me to cover 32 degrees of ground today, bringing me to 341 degrees of total journey - only 19 degrees left. I'm feeling optimistic of being able to cover that tomorrow in my next - and hopefully final - session!

 

[Suni]

Today, I finally reached my starting point, and have now successfully circumnavigated this entire planet! (I'll provide the system name details a bit later after I've gotten myself closer to a UC location for first discovery, but some other details here).

Today's drive was almost ideal terrain-wise, most of the trip was flat full-throttle terrain, so the remaining 19 degrees went much faster than anticipated. I was hoping for a daylight drive for scenery, photos and comparison to the start which was in daytime, but this I didn't get - the last drive was full night.

Goal reached - back where I started:

Below the start and end comparison shots.
Start (on June 18th 2023):

End (on July 15th 2023):

Planet details:

Some statistics:

• The operation took altogether 3 weeks and 6 days, or 27 days real world time.
• Actual play time for this took in total 34 hours 57 minutes and 54 seconds (plus a few minutes or so - I video recorded the entire operation and counted the time from the video durations, but twice I forgot to restart the video immediately and had driven a small distance before noticing). In round terms, 35 hours is probably pretty close.
• I don't know how to calculate a more precise "distance traveled" but based on just the radius of 220 km, I can approximate the distance as the circumference (220 * 2 * 3.14), which gives 1381.6 km.
• I took in total 433 screenshots (457 MB) and 70 video files (95.1 GB) during the drive.
• I completed the journey on "normal driving", not using "flyving" or otherwise using the thrusters, except for when needed for getting my SRV back on its wheels, or for slowing down the descent (to reduce damage) after an accidental "high jump".

Thanks for all the support along the way!

 

[Alec Turner]

Today, I finally reached my starting point, and have now successfully circumnavigated this entire planet! (I'll provide the system name details a bit later after I've gotten myself closer to a UC location for first discovery, but some other details here).

Today's drive was almost ideal terrain-wise, most of the trip was flat full-throttle terrain, so the remaining 19 degrees went much faster than anticipated. I was hoping for a daylight drive for scenery, photos and comparison to the start which was in daytime, but this I didn't get - the last drive was full night.

Goal reached - back where I started:
View attachment 361261

View attachment 361262

Below the start and end comparison shots.
Start (on June 18th 2023):
View attachment 361263

End (on July 15th 2023):
View attachment 361264

Planet details:
View attachment 361265

Some statistics:

• The operation took altogether 3 weeks and 6 days, or 27 days real world time.
• Actual play time for this took in total 34 hours 57 minutes and 54 seconds (plus a few minutes or so - I video recorded the entire operation and counted the time from the video durations, but twice I forgot to restart the video immediately and had driven a small distance before noticing). In round terms, 35 hours is probably pretty close.
• I don't know how to calculate a more precise "distance traveled" but based on just the radius of 220 km, I can approximate the distance as the circumference (220 * 2 * 3.14), which gives 1381.6 km.
• I took in total 433 screenshots (457 MB) and 70 video files (95.1 GB) during the drive.
• I completed the journey on "normal driving", not using "flyving" or otherwise using the thrusters, except for when needed for getting my SRV back on its wheels, or for slowing down the descent (to reduce damage) after an accidental "high jump".

Thanks for all the support along the way!

Apologies for not seeing this sooner ... CONGRATULATIONS! To do this mostly on all 4 errr 8 wheels is quite an achievement. Do you have an account on EDSM. If so just let me know your Cmdr name there and I'll contact them and see if we can get the Planetary Circumnavigation achievement badge added to your account.

 

[Suni]

Apologies for not seeing this sooner ... CONGRATULATIONS! To do this mostly on all 4 errr 8 wheels is quite an achievement. Do you have an account on EDSM. If so just let me know your Cmdr name there and I'll contact them and see if we can get the Planetary Circumnavigation achievement badge added to your account.

Thanks! My EDSM name is "Antti Suni":

 

[Alec Turner]

Thanks! My EDSM name is "Antti Suni":
View attachment 361408

OK, should be done now.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Around 39 km/h. Sounds legit, the terrain was probably not always ready to speed across. You likely went farther because all the little detours add up in the end quite substantially. Did you time travel with certain day / night times in game?

 

[Suni]

Around 39 km/h. Sounds legit, the terrain was probably not always ready to speed across. You likely went farther because all the little detours add up in the end quite substantially. Did you time travel with certain day / night times in game?

I'm not sure what you mean by "time travel" in this context? I played my sessions more or less the same time in real life (not considering what time it might be in game), but the day/night situations in the game varied, although I have a feeling I had more night-time sessions than day-time sessions. Also, the planet had a quite close and fast orbit, so to me it seems natural, that there were varied lighting situations.

And indeed, the terrain also varied quite a lot, with much of it being non-full-speed-compatible.