To the explorers: Head home to change ship or press on?

Beornfrið

B
Hi folks,

I have a T7 and a Vulture and when I decided I wanted to head out in to the void my natural choice was an Asp - but as I enjoyed my Cobra Mk III so much I decided to buy a new one and fit it out for exploring instead. I've reached the Elephant's Trunk nebula and thanks to the wonderful advice of some of the forum members have identified my next target but I keep getting "Route unavailable" when I try plotting a route.

My jump range is just shy of 25ly so, to the explorers out there: Do you think I should press on and try to find a path or should I cut my losses and head back to civilised space to get myself an Asp - then come back?

Thank you :)
 

TriumphANT

TriumphANT
The route plotting can be a bit crazy at times, especially if it thinks it has to double back. Are you definitely unable to proceed further without one or two 25Ly jumps? I've never seen the star density drop so low that I can't get somewhere by manually plotting 2 jumps and then it straightens out beyond that. Jump sideways 50Ly and try again maybe?

EDIT: I meant to say that I used a Cobra for some lightweight exploration. I had an Adder too, but didn't have the money to really spec it out, so only had about 22LY range. I came across the same basic issue a few times though, but manually plotting/moving finds you just as much interesting stuff as a 500LY "economy" journey in a straight line.
 
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AnnuverScotinExile

AnnuverScotinExile
Since we don't know where you are going, it is hard to answer.

The Asp is certainly a better explorer than the Cobra. Depending on your components, it is easy to get a jump range of comfortably over 30 LY. So the question really is whether you need a better jump range to get to your destination. That is likely to be the case if it is in a relatively sparse area of space with stars well apart. You get those high above or low below the galactic plane, or on the edges of the galaxy. If your destination is there, then get a bigger jump range.

If it is not, then perhaps just get a bit closer first. The route plotter is not very sophisticated, and in particular does not seem to always find routes when there is a long distance to travel, but the route cannot be very direct.
 

Beornfrið

B
Sorry; I should have said I am heading to NGC 7822 which is well on the way to the edge of the galaxy. The star density there does seem to be remarkably low. It feels like a case of whether I can trust the route plotter to give me a route once I get closer or not and I don't have the exploring experience to really know that! Thanks for the quick replies already :)
 

puca

P
CMDR, my head tells me that the asp is what you want to be safe in your quest. My heart cannot say a bad word against the Cobra MkIII, however. I would press on, and if you had to turn around, well, at least you would be safe in the knowledge that you pushed your Cobra to the very limit!

:)
 

AnnuverScotinExile

AnnuverScotinExile
Beornfrið said:
Sorry; I should have said I am heading to NGC 7822 which is well on the way to the edge of the galaxy. The star density there does seem to be remarkably low. It feels like a case of whether I can trust the route plotter to give me a route once I get closer or not and I don't have the exploring experience to really know that! Thanks for the quick replies already :)
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Well, you should never need to 'trust' or rely on the route plotter, since you can always do it manually. When I'm exploring I never use the plotter, because you cannot filter the systems it visits. So it takes you through 'uninteresting' systems like those with just a brown dwarf, and you cannot prevent it from doing so. So when I am exploring, I plot one jump at a time, picking out the 'most interesting' looking system 'in approximately the direction I am heading'. I only really use the plotter when I am in 'fast travel' mode, and not really interested in what systems I will visit as all I do is blow the horn, scoop (if scoopable) and jump on to the next one.

Amongst the may annoying limitations of the galaxy map/route plotter, is that you cannot really use it to find out distances apart of systems that are not close to where you are. So looking at a target area, and working out if you can get there is not as obvious as you would like it to be. If necessary, you can always fall back on good old Pythagoras, and work out the distances systems are apart, using their coordinates. I have not visited NGC 7822, and am not in game at the moment, so cannot do any checking for you.
 

Whiterose

Whiterose
Beornfrið said:
Sorry; I should have said I am heading to NGC 7822 which is well on the way to the edge of the galaxy. The star density there does seem to be remarkably low. It feels like a case of whether I can trust the route plotter to give me a route once I get closer or not and I don't have the exploring experience to really know that! Thanks for the quick replies already :)
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You will need a good jump range to jump the arms. It is possible in a Cobra but you could spend weeks finding a route. I did it in an Asp and sometimes there was only one path. My advice is to manual plot, that is what I did when the star density got low, that way you can optimise.
 

Nutter

Nutter
You will be wanting 30+ly - I went out that way and found a black hole 38ly from any other system, so will go back When I can afford the Conda.

Anyway, I would go get something with better range.
 

Allitnil

Allitnil
25 LY should be fine to get into NGC 7822. But there's only really one route into it and part of the fun is finding it ;). I went there in A cobra back when we could only plot routes of 100 LY or so and I ended up a few dead ends before I found the route. I think I had just over 26 LY range but I don't recall actually needing all of that once I did find the right route.
 

VanQ

VanQ
I barely reached it with a 28ly jumprange... not sure but maybe you get a lightyear short, that whould be ... unlucky.
 

Beornfrið

B
I was hoping there would be a consensus but there's not :D I have therefore tried to take onboard all the advice; I've decided to try and get to NGC 7822 in my Cobra but approach from the Sol-side. That way, if I can't find my way through I should at least have an easier route back home to get something with a longer range.

I am really very inexperienced with exploring so I shall hope for success but plan for failure!

NGC 7822, here I come!

Screenshot_0204.jpg

PS: Although I do wish there were sub-categories to discuss each 'profession' I am really pleased that there are a lot of friendly, helpful people here. It makes me wonder why I didn't join the forum years ago when I first put my money where my mouth is. I will have missed out on a lot of interesting conversations.
 

Whiterose

Whiterose
Good luck, and let us know how you get on. I have just sold my soul to the Tsu community project, so will be looking to get back out again.
 

puca

P
Nutter said:
No - Can't afford one, will do one day though, it's all about range for me, I know places only reachable with 40ly jump... so... :)
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I find the maneuverability annoying for scanning. Also I heard the new rules for wear and tear in 1.2 will be very punishing for explondas, compared to the asp, since they seem to take base ship value into account now.
 

Beornfrið

B
I had wondered about getting back to hand in my data for that goal but I was hoping that selling it to the Federation might help my rank with them. Part of my problem is that I have a lot of issues with my memory and am prone to forgetting game dynamics (as well as IRL dynamics :D )
 

Beornfrið

B
puca said:
I find the maneuverability annoying for scanning. Also I heard the new rules for wear and tear in 1.2 will be very punishing for explondas, compared to the asp, since they seem to take base ship value into account now.
Click to expand...

That raises another question I had meant to ask! Is wear and tear a genuine issue on an exploring mission? I suffered slight heat damage when I forgot to throttle back during a jump and most of my modules lost several per cent. It wasn't something I had even considered before setting off. What a naive sod I am :D
 

Hellhawk666

Hellhawk666
I tried for a while to find a path into NGC 7822 with a 31 LY Asp and failed - but I was approaching from spinwards and "underneath" on the return from the Bubble Nebula. I believe the path in is from the opposite direction, but I didn't persevere.

If you're heading mostly into the centre of the galaxy and sticking to the galactic plane a 20LY Cobra is OK - if you want to head a long way "up" or "down" a Cobra won't get much past 500LY up or down relative to Sol. I did go to Eta Carina in a 20LY Cobra back in December, and could have pushed on to NGC 3199 which is about 15k LY away, but I decided to head back. A 20LY drive would probably get you out to around 7k LY rimwards from Sol, as a guess, but you'd most likely be spending a lot of time in the brown dwarf clouds.

In my Asp I reached a maximum distance of over 9k LY almost directly on the Z axis relative to Sol. There were still systems for another 2-3k LY, but you'd need a much bigger drive to head out that far.
 

puca

P
Beornfrið said:
That raises another question I had meant to ask! Is wear and tear a genuine issue on an exploring mission? I suffered slight heat damage when I forgot to throttle back during a jump and most of my modules lost several per cent. It wasn't something I had even considered before setting off. What a naive sod I am :D
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Do not worry about wear and tear costs for anything equal to or below the asp in price. It will be minor expenses compared to the money you make exploring. I paid slightly in excess of half a million credits for 100% wear and tear on my asp after returning from Sagittarius A*. And made something like 53 million credits.
 
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