Voyage Unknown - DBX

[Christian-A-Hill]

Finally, the day of departure is here. After my last voyage to Ishum's Reach with Crusader, I knew it would not be long till I am out in the black again. This time with no specific destination or time limit. This is a personal log of the Voyage Unknown.

Took me a month to decide on a ship and do the prep work for the journey. My choice was between DBX and Krait mk2. At the end DBX won the points purely because of the love I have for this ship and utility of it. Really, the main reason for me to even consider the Krait was that SLF. So decided to bring my DBX up to speed of SLF, somewhat to fill the void. I have done some engineering, some tweaking and this is the end result:

DBX : VIKI

Since I went with Low Emissions+Thermal Spread, I used 4A PP. Engineered the 4A Thruster to squeeze as much as speed out as possible for those planets surface skimming or canyon running. Everything else is just standard.

Freshly painted

Doing a workaround

This is for sure a thing of a beauty!

Although I am not going to have a specific destination for this journey, I do have a general idea of the route. I will follow route similar to the following with lots of side exploration:

Journey will start from Colonia and head towards The Fallows. Then I will slowly make my way to Crystal Chard through The Formidine Rift and make a pit stop at Sol. I got Sol Permit 3 months ago but never visited before I moved to Colonia. I have pretty much used up all high grade materials for the engineering and converted the rest to have enough for Synthesis for the journey. After I am back home again would like to further engineer the Crusader for combat. A quick stop at Crystal Shard should top up all my raw mats needs. Also going to farm a bit of high grade Manufactured materials from bubble space.

From Sol, I will head towards Hawkin's Gap then make my way back home through The Norma Expanse. I will travel using manually plotted path through space slightly above galactic plane and FSS/DSS only the ones has not been discovered/scanned yet. I am not setting a date of return as this won't be a fast paced exploration. I do not know yet how long this voyage will take. The pace will only be set by satisfied surveys of the area I will be in. I will do a lot of surface prospecting, so I will have to be extra careful with my only SRV. I have brought enough Synth mats to keep the SRV going, but I am still going to collect mats from the surface occasionally.

Let's see what the galaxy has in store for me. Logging off for now as I hit the thrusters and lift off from the dock................

 

[Nordmarken]

Good luck and happy trails!

 

[Kamicosmos]

o7, and good luck, cmdr!

I am also about to start my first long term exploration. Mine isn't going to be quite as ambitious as yours, I just plan on going to Colonia, and then maybe on to Sag A.
Our DBXs are very similar! I built mine for DW2, but wanted the booster first. That experience frustrated me a bit (trying to get the booster stuff), and life (and other games) got in the way so I didn't go on the expedition. But, now I feel ready to tackle one of my own! Almost identical loadout, other than I have the FSD Booster installed (after a second, better planned, and hence more productive mission). And, we even have similar paint jobs! We're like DBX-Brothers!

Again, good luck, safe travels, and see you in the black!

 

[Jaymundo87]

Good luck CMDR o7

 

[Christian-A-Hill]

I am also about to start my first long term exploration. Mine isn't going to be quite as ambitious as yours, I just plan on going to Colonia, and then maybe on to Sag A.
Our DBXs are very similar! I built mine for DW2, but wanted the booster first. That experience frustrated me a bit (trying to get the booster stuff), and life (and other games) got in the way so I didn't go on the expedition. But, now I feel ready to tackle one of my own! Almost identical load out, other than I have the FSD Booster installed (after a second, better planned, and hence more productive mission). And, we even have similar paint jobs! We're like DBX-Brothers!

Ahoy Bro!
My favourite paints are white, blue or mix of 2. For exploration, I think white makes the ship pop more during photo shoot. Also, I think bright colour brings out all the curves and angles of the ship. She is a beauty!

I wanted to load the FSD Booster but because of the duration of the journey, I did not want to get stranded with broken AFMU thus the second AFMU instead.

Day #1 : May 13, 3306
Wanted to get away from the Colonia locale so did couple neutron jumps to cover some distance. I was awed to see my range after the first neutron in the DBX. A whopping 221 ly!
Since I will be doing a lot of FSS, wanted to brush up the FSS skill and recalibrate the buttons. This HMC planet seemed to be a good start.


After several FSS decided to land on a planet to check out some Geographical POIs and recalibrate the SRV as well. I am going to have to be super careful with this SRV. Only brought one. After touch down I was thinking if I could bring a stronger Shield Generator with lot more points instead of the Repair Controller and Cargo for limpets.

The sight of this ship does not seem to get old!


Looking over the valley of Carbon Di-Oxide geysers.

 

[Christian-A-Hill]

Day #4 : May 16, 3306
Distance travelled : 1592.22 LY

Life aboard the DBX is becoming somewhat routine. Without the pressure of zooming through space to reach a destination, I am getting to enjoy the process of real exploration.
There has not been anything to log as the systems were pretty standard, till I reached this Icy planet with unusual green.

Decided to check it out closely after doing a surface scan. It had quite few geological POI of Water Geysers. I picked one on the bright side of the planet to see the geysers up close. There were about a dozen of them so picked the largest one to check out.

As I flew closer to the geyser, I noticed something I have not noticed before in this galaxy. I could hear the hissing sound of the geyser getting louder and louder. As I got really close, the sound was almost deafening. I did not expect the sound effect to this real.

I know, it's atmosphere less planet without air so sound could not really travel to my ship. But..... tried not to think only about the 'immersion' and take in the scenery instead. It was great experience nonetheless!

One last drone photo shoot before left the planet behind. O did I mention I love this little ship?

 

[Christian-A-Hill]

Day #10: May 22, 3306
I have been slowly ascending above galaxy plane and spending a lot of time just scanning. I stopped counting number of scanned bodies. It is totally different experience not to rush and just take time moving through systems. Most of the system I am going through have not seen any humans before. Hopefully I will be able to get to a station in one piece and permanently tag those bodies with my name.

During one of the scanning session, one of the planet caught my eyes. Entire planet surface was except this small patch of mountains. I fly in VR and really got to appreciate the size of this mountain range.


Strange solar flare, never seen before.


4 Suns in one system and no planets!

 

[Christian-A-Hill]

Well, believe it or not, I headed back to Colonia home to park for several months back in June. In real life, I had to relocate to a new property and handle all the bells and whistles that came with it. I knew I was not going to be able to do a single ED moment.

Also, I was missing my Crusader. Is it odd?
My Crusader, Adri took me all the way to Beagle Point and back. As far as I know, this was the first Crusader ever to visit Beagle Point. I love my DBX very much too, without a doubt. I already know it's ability. It got nothing to prove. Also missing the SLF too. I came across a Canyon planet right before decided to head back and did not want to dare running through the canyons with DBX. Probably not an issue at all, but still.

My real life has settled and I am now back in ED to reboot my exploration. This time in a shieldless Crusader with beefed-up Hull. I know, I am one of those who loves the unloveable ships. Also, I really hate snakes named ship. DBX is the only one I am willing to tolerate.

I will continue my journey on a new thread.