To the centre, or back home to upgrade?

2Karl · Dec 11, 2017

Hi all, I'm hoping some veteran explorers can give me some sage advice.

I recently completed my first long distrance trip from Sol to Colonia in my Asp Explorer. It was a LONG trip, made slightly shorter by boosting off neutron stars (and much longer by exploring all sorts of strange systems, but that's by the by). The jump range on the ship is about 25 light years as I'm using 5B FSD.

Now, here's the bit I need advice with. I'm planning on heading to Sagitarius A* (because you have to do that right?), but I also want to fully upgrade my ship to 5A FSD in order to boost jump range by 10LY. So here's a question - do you think it's better for me to just head off to the centre on my current ship spec, or would it be better to head back to the bubble and upgrade (and maybe get some engineering work done too) before heading off?

Pros and cons for both?

iain666 · Dec 12, 2017

That jump range won't cause you any problems on a Colonia->Sgr A*->bubble route. It's about 40kly, if that, so 1,600 jumps with a 25ly range.

Colonia->bubble->Sgr A*->bubble is about 22kly at 25ly then about 46kly at 35ly - so about 2,200 jumps.

If it's just about jump range and you're heading back to the bubble for a long period either way then you might as well go to Sgr A* from Colonia and then head back.

If you're thinking about going back and getting upgrades then heading to Sgr A* and carrying on into the black for an extended exploration of the far side of the galaxy then pop back to the bubble and do the Engineer thing first.

Either way, you'll know the trip to Colonia isn't that long by the time you're done

khaos526 · Dec 12, 2017

Well before Colonia and when I didn't quite know much about exploring I did the Sag A* in my AspX (before engineering) and using Economical as I wasn't even aware that you could use Fastest method instead when plotting. I crashed into a neutron star by accident near the core and then re-started the journey right away again.

Once I finally got to Sag A* after a long long time, I stumbled on the fastest method and boom it was so much easier heading back to the Bubble.

So if you're already on your way go for it. Save the upgrades for future trips. You will get a lot of credit from all those short hops too and probably discover a whole lot more new discovery bonus's as well doing it the old fashioned way even with using the fastest method...

Sapyx · Dec 12, 2017

Pros: shorter jump range means you visit more stars while enroute, therefore more likely to discover something interesting and/or valuable.

Cons: shorter jump range means it takes longer.

I suppose it also matters whether or not you'll be exploring much after returning from your Sag A trip. If not, then there's no point in prolonging things just to get an expensive stardrive you're not going to use very much afterwards. But if exploring is going to become a major part of your gameplay, then I'd recommend getting the best drive you can ASAP.

Be aware that, whichever option you choose, sticking to the straight-line routes you're far more likely to visit stars already visited by others. The Colonia - Sag A line is still pretty good, even with the heavy traffic these days, since the stars are so dense there in the Core it's still fairly low probability of finding someone else's star by accident. But the Colonia - Bubble line is starting to get thoroughly picked over. Personally, I always pick a couple of side-destinations to avoid flying the straight-line routes.

acg515 · Dec 12, 2017

Depends how long you're willing to take. I've traveled 53k LY since I started my current journey and that was at the end of September. I haven't really been playing hard lately due to work. I have about a 45 LY range with my Asp Explorer. I'm happy with how my ship jumps. I'm not sure I would have gotten as far out with a 25 LY Asp.

osser · Dec 12, 2017

my vote is to stay out and jump your way Sag A.
why go all the way back to the bubble?
you are already out there.
press on.
(I can pm you a ELW within 62lys of sag A if you want to scan it)$$

2Karl · Dec 12, 2017

I had a dream last night where I travelled right to the very top of the galaxy and looked down upon it. It looked like some sort of lifeform and had these weird pulses of light traveling towards the centre through gaps in the stars. Maybe that's the next port of call after Saga. Or maybe it's a sign I've been playing too much Elite.

Thanks for the advice guys. I think my current plan is something like: fly from colonia to Saga, fly to the roof og the galaxy and see how accurate my dream was, fly back to Sol, upgrade as much as I can then go for Beagle Point. Maybe when I get back to the bubble I'll look at taking part in one of those expeditions. Exploring with other people sounds like it could be fun.

Jon474 · Dec 12, 2017

To the Centre, Cmdr.

Onward...

Flying happy
Jon
T-6E

Dan Bender · Dec 12, 2017

Sag A*. And make sure you swing around and hit Great Annihilator on the way back to the bubble from The Star at the Center - it’s almost on the way and you won’t regret it.

…well, don’t actually hit it; throttle back on jump-in because it’s pretty in-your-face.

Orvidius · Dec 12, 2017

Yeah, since you're already out there, swinging by Sgr-A* before heading back to the bubble doesn't add too much more to the trip, but it's enough that some people might not want to do that. Comparatively:

* Straight from Colonia -> Bubble is about 22 kly.

* Colonia -> Sgr-A* is about 11 kly, and then Sgr-A* -> Bubble is about 26 kly, for a total of 37 kly, or about 68% further travel distance.

As others have pointed out, the shorter jump range means it'll take longer, but you'll have more opportunities to scan and tag along the way. Plus, if you go straight back, then you'll have to fly all the way back out again later (which probably isn't an issue since you'd likely do that anyway).

After you eventually return to the bubble, with an A-rated FSD and some engineering, you can get that AspX jump range into the mid to upper 40s pretty easily, and into the 50+ range with a lot of optimization. And then, using the neutron fields, you can get around the galaxy pretty quickly for subsequent trips, if you choose to travel that way.

(As an aside, I agree you should make a point to visit Great Annihilator on the way back from the core. It's along the way, and you'd go right past it, so it's worth making a stop there).

Rudi Raumkraut · Dec 12, 2017

I think its not really the roof you'll get on with your current jump range but only the 3rd or 4th floor

Dont know for sure at which "height" the stars density is getting thinner or if it makes a difference optically if you can reach +2k or +2.5k, but for such adventures more jump range is always better imho

2Karl · Dec 12, 2017

Oh the Great Annihilator is DEFINITELY on my list.

Are there any parts of the galaxy which we know precious little about? Areas where few have travelled? Areas which need investigating? That's the sort of work I'm intersted in.

mtt9999 [Parabolus] · Dec 12, 2017

2Karl said:
Oh the Great Annihilator is DEFINITELY on my list.

Are there any parts of the galaxy which we know precious little about? Areas where few have travelled? Areas which need investigating? That's the sort of work I'm intersted in.

Plenty... given the grand scheme of things, we know nothing about the whole galaxy... (only 0.004817% of the galaxy has been discovered on EDSM, it will take 51,377 years, 5 months, 19 days to discover it entirely)

Some areas of course are more traveled than others. The Norma / Outer arm has been left relatively unexplored, with most high-mass systems untagged, etc... smaller regions like Ishtar, Angustia, Wagar's Reach, and Boreas are also relatively untouched... let alone the farthest parts of the galaxy, as well as up or down are pretty much untouched... once you get above +/- 1,500ly away from the plane, you wont see many cmdrs names anywhere, regardless of location.

For more on 'things discovered', and regions with little 'things discovered', I would encourage you to visit the EDSM Galactic Mapping project, which has an interactive map with thousands of Points of Interest:

https://www.edsm.net/en/galactic-mapping#3/-4/0/15039

khaos526 · Dec 13, 2017

I'd suggest if you are doing any deep exploration that you download and use EDDiscovery (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/138155-EDDiscovery?highlight=EDDiscovery). You can use the 3D map in there to see areas that aren't as traveled as much and hit those if you want to really be out on your own, but even though I've found a number of discovered systems in dark pockets and lots of undiscovered ones in heavily used areas.

But yes you have the right idea of jumping up or down in the galactic plane, most people like to stay normalized in the middle and that's where most the discoveries will be found generally...