Newcomer / Intro Unidentified / Unknown Phenomenon

[LordofGreasby]

I have recently returned to playing ED after a break which started in 2017. I am enjoying many of the game play developments that have been implemented whilst I was away.

Anyway, I came across a strange phenomenon whilst playing yesterday evening. I was flying my Krait Mk II to LP 355-65 to purchase my 1st Python from Barba Ring.

As I was making my final jump from LHS 1573 in to LP 355-65 the hyperspace animation changed midway through by a strange light and my ship announced a warning message. Something about an unknown / unidentified object. My ship arrived in LP 355-65 and was pulled out of supercruise taking some damage. Please see screen shots of what I saw.

When I tried to jump to supercruise another warning message was announced and my ship began to create a tremendous amount of heat. Luckily I had a heat sink launcher otherwise I think that my ship would have been destroyed before my FSD finished charging.

I made my way to Barba Ring safely and on the way I checked in my navigation panel and could not find the phenomenon listed. I bought my new ship and promptly returned to Luyten’s Star. Does anyone know what this object was?

Moderators: Apologies if this is not the correct sub-forum for this post. Please move if required.

 

[Factabulous]

That's called a 'star'. In this case a 'White Dwarf'. I'd stay away, they're dangerous.

 

[CMDR Jago Kain]

Yup, you just got too close to the star. "Too close" to some stars is closer than you might think.

 

[Machnette]

Your avatar seems pretty approriate right now. As does mine.

 

[LordofGreasby]

Thanks Factabulous & CMDR Jago Kain for the information. I had been hoping it was something to do with the Thargoids. Do you think that my FSD malfunctioned and that is why I arrived so close to the star? As usually the nav beacon is at a safe distances from the star. Or is this something that would always happen when arriving at a system with a white dwarf star?.

 

[Achtung-Goomba]

Thanks Factabulous & CMDR Jago Kain for the information. I had been hoping it was something to do with the Thargoids. Do you think that my FSD malfunctioned and that is why I arrived so close to the star? As usually the nav beacon is at a safe distances from the star. Or is this something that would always happen when arriving at a system with a white dwarf star?.

From my amateur understand WD stars have a rather large 'exclusion zone', as do some (less interesting) brown dwarfs. Even when I'm not paying attention to where I'm jumping to my SOP is as soon as I drop from witch space throttle down (I've got my controls mapped for 25% and 75% forward thrust) and immediately manoeuvre around the gravity well, then scope out the system.

 

[varonica]

Thanks Factabulous & CMDR Jago Kain for the information. I had been hoping it was something to do with the Thargoids. Do you think that my FSD malfunctioned and that is why I arrived so close to the star? As usually the nav beacon is at a safe distances from the star. Or is this something that would always happen when arriving at a system with a white dwarf star?.

No, your FSD warning was because you passed through the jet cone, that can sometimes be a fatal trip. Operating outside of design parameters or something similar, that super-charges your FSD and allows you to do really long jumps but does damage it.

 

[Achtung-Goomba]

No, your FSD warning was because you passed through the jet cone, that can sometimes be a fatal trip.

I've come across but a couple of WD stars on my ramblings through the galaxy, but I've yet to dare to FSD supercharge...

 

[Hawk of Battle]

Erm, is no one gona ask why it is op appears to have been hyperdicted by a white dwarf for some reason? Like, everything about getting too close to the star makes sense and is pretty mundane and all, but I've never heard of someone getting warning messages in witchspace for anything other than Thargs.

 

[CMDR Jago Kain]

I agree that bit does sound odd. If you're not familiar with these stars their light could be misinterpreted. I suggest the OP jumps into the system again to see if the same effect occurs.

 

[Para Handy]

Erm, is no one gona ask why it is op appears to have been hyperdicted by a white dwarf for some reason? Like, everything about getting too close to the star makes sense and is pretty mundane and all, but I've never heard of someone getting warning messages in witchspace for anything other than Thargs.

I think because most of us assume they arrived at the WD, throttle not zero, exclusion zone says hello and smacks them in the gob. Possible arriving into the jet but I thought F D had eliminated that at the same time as the safe entry to close binary fix.

 

[NorthernDevo]

Thanks Factabulous & CMDR Jago Kain for the information. I had been hoping it was something to do with the Thargoids. Do you think that my FSD malfunctioned and that is why I arrived so close to the star? As usually the nav beacon is at a safe distances from the star. Or is this something that would always happen when arriving at a system with a white dwarf star?.

Yeah, WD stars are NASTY objects. They look close enough to Neutron Stars to be fooled - bright white with jet-cones - but WD's are larger, their cones are quite a bit shorter and often fatter.

They are a lovely and fascinating phenomenon. While you will encounter MANY of these monsters, Greasby, I'm pleased to have read about your first encounter.

Now - about these beasties: White Dwarfs are NAAAASTY. They're beautiful, but they are bloody killers...probably the single deadliest star type in the library. Their small diameter can fool you and as Para noted, they have a large exclusion zone that can grab you before you blink. While you can Supercharge at a White Dwarf, it doesn't give you much boost - only 50% - and it is a LOT riskier than doing so at a Neutron Star. In some cases (like one of the ones which killed me) the end of the cone can be inside the exclusion zone...and in order to SC you need to be going slow enough that the Zone's gold ring disappears.
The problem is that when plotting your route, both Neutron Stars and White Dwarfs are classified the same in the selector: non-sequence stars. So you can (and will) be Jumping and Supercruising along, come upon a NS and whoops! It's a WD!

When you're exploring out of the Bubble, be CAREFUL. Always check your info panel when activating FSD - it will tell you the star type. If it says WD ZERO YOUR THROTTLE. You won't face-plant into the thing that way and yes, some WD's will grab you in barely 3 or 4 seconds. Stop, turn away from the thing, get WAAAAAAY away before recalculating your route.

Cheers!

 

[Hawk of Battle]

I think because most of us assume they arrived at the WD, throttle not zero, exclusion zone says hello and smacks them in the gob. Possible arriving into the jet but I thought F D had eliminated that at the same time as the safe entry to close binary fix.

Yeah, I would assume that's what happened too, but OP clearly seems to think he got some special message during hyperspace, so, shrug Who knows?

The problem is that when plotting your route, both Neutron Stars and White Dwarfs are classified the same in the selector: non-sequence stars. So you can (and will) be Jumping and Supercruising along, come upon a NS and whoops! It's a WD!

What, no, that's not true at all. White dwarfs can be filtered out desperately from non-sequence stars. I have them turned off all the time and never accidentally hit any. Heck I've just recently gone 20klys out and had about 100 neutrons and not a single white dwarf.

Still, always throttle down on either, and also black holes. Those aren't as scary, but it can still be annoying coming out of hyperspace at full throttle and getting dropped out of supercruise.

 

[NorthernDevo]

Yeah, I would assume that's what happened too, but OP clearly seems to think he got some special message during hyperspace, so, shrug Who knows?


What, no, that's not true at all. White dwarfs can be filtered out desperately from non-sequence stars. I have them turned off all the time and never accidentally hit any. Heck I've just recently gone 20klys out and had about 100 neutrons and not a single white dwarf.

Still, always throttle down on either, and also black holes. Those aren't as scary, but it can still be annoying coming out of hyperspace at full throttle and getting dropped out of supercruise.

Whoops, hang on - checking.
(Facepalm) Ohhh, you mean I've missed that all along?!

Source: https://media.giphy.com/media/gnJgBlPgHtcnS/giphy.gif