Newcomer / Intro What are you up to?

[Lieutenant Dan]

Poking around in NGC 1817. Not an easy place to get to, an open cluster that is almost as far "down" as you can go around that part of the Perseus arm. Took me 1 premium, 1 standard, and 1 basic fsd synthesis to get into it - I did spot a neutron star I could have overcharged at, but I haven't done one of those yet, and I am chicken

From here, there is absolutely nothing outwards, and the Magellanic clouds glow uninhibited in the darkness. In the other direction, the galactic plane, it's dust clouds, and a sprinkling of nebulae span the vaulted sky, making a stark contrast against the true black. In some directions, the other members of the open cluster make bright pin-pricks of the only stars in the vicinity to be distinguishable individually. I like it here, it's like being on a summit, and surveying the landscape beyond.

I have "a few" pictures, I'll add one or two when I've sorted them out a bit more!

Goodnight from the edge,

Si.

Pics will be appreciated, but almost not needed after such a beautiful account. Nicely done, my friend!

 

[Chris Simon]

Took me 1 premium, 1 standard, and 1 basic fsd synthesis to get into it - I did spot a neutron star I could have overcharged at, but I haven't done one of those yet, and I am chicken

It was a smart decision.
Not just that the refueling is dangerous. The NS boost can get you into trouble if you're not careful. More precisely - it can get you to places with no way back. Sticking with the synthesis boosts ensures that you can always return the way you came.

 

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

Poking around in NGC 1817. Not an easy place to get to, an open cluster that is almost as far "down" as you can go around that part of the Perseus arm. Took me 1 premium, 1 standard, and 1 basic fsd synthesis to get into it - I did spot a neutron star I could have overcharged at, but I haven't done one of those yet, and I am chicken

From here, there is absolutely nothing outwards, and the Magellanic clouds glow uninhibited in the darkness. In the other direction, the galactic plane, it's dust clouds, and a sprinkling of nebulae span the vaulted sky, making a stark contrast against the true black. In some directions, the other members of the open cluster make bright pin-pricks of the only stars in the vicinity to be distinguishable individually. I like it here, it's like being on a summit, and surveying the landscape beyond.

I have "a few" pictures, I'll add one or two when I've sorted them out a bit more!

Goodnight from the edge,

Si.

That sounds awesome! Yes, pics please!

I took my Clipper out for her maiden voyage last night. I love the way the station ramps to the launch pad sound bigger and meatier under load. Not sure how to do it yet, I'll work it out, but Tiffany Aching needs more cargo racks. She cost me an arm and a leg and needs to pay her way.

 

[Spaceman Si]

I'm delighted you liked my "pen-picture", Dan

And as requested by Tyres and Dan, here are just a couple of pictures. I am going to spend a good bit of time in the cluster, now that I am here, so I expect there will be more

 

[aRJay]

I'm delighted you liked my "pen-picture", Dan

And as requested by Tyres and Dan, here are just a couple of pictures. I am going to spend a good bit of time in the cluster, now that I am here, so I expect there will be more

You should post them over in the screenies thread in the DD stickies IIRC, beautiful but lonely.

 

[Spaceman Si]

You should post them over in the screenies thread in the DD stickies IIRC, beautiful but lonely.

I'll go and take a look later! Thanks for the tip, and the kind words

"Lonely" is something I am drawn to. I was once in Iceland, over 100 miles from the nearest farm, let alone village, and it was the most peaceful and dleightful place. I always want to see the view from the next furthest / highest / interesting place; I think this is why I like exploration so much.

 

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

I'll go and take a look later! Thanks for the tip, and the kind words

"Lonely" is something I am drawn to. I was once in Iceland, over 100 miles from the nearest farm, let alone village, and it was the most peaceful and dleightful place. I always want to see the view from the next furthest / highest / interesting place; I think this is why I like exploration so much.

Rep for exploring the remote . I'd like to see those places but I think the long journey would drive me nuts; the 5K Palin run was almost too much for me

 

[Rock Hunter]

Nice pictures, from a professional photographer I have to say that first one is a very nice composition. With regard to Neutron boosting, I'd recommend visiting some that are just outside the bubble in a nice cheap Sidey to get some practice in, Jackson's Lighthouse* is also useful if you want a boost heading out to the Guardian sites.

Some nice views of Barnard's Loop too, I haven't gone out in that direction yet so haven't seen that view myself. After visiting Sag A I headed up as far as I could get, from sniffing around the exploration sub-forum it looks like I'm not far off as far as the experts have got but I didn't really try too hard as my Krait just isn't engineered or kitted out for for extended jumps and I haven't done any surface prospecting in the time I've been out - I've been too taken with the views but I've bookmarked a few planets to head back to for some synthesizing materials. Annoyingly I took some snaps but forgot to take any with proof that I was there, so I've now visited with both my accounts and each time forgotten to get proof to get my name on the visitors thread.


*I think thats the name.

 

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

Just out of curiosity, why do you - or anyone else for that matter - have more than account?

 

[Andy Whapham]

Completely lost interest in ED... so nothing

 

[Chris Simon]

Just out of curiosity, why do you - or anyone else for that matter - have more than account?

The same reason why you have two characters in an MMO. Be someone different. Try different things.
Plus sometimes I use the secondary account to hold some valuable cargo for me.

But generally, I use the secondary account when I'm exploring and feel the immediate need to do something bubble-related. Bounty hunting for fun, interesting CGs, that kind of stuff.

Completely lost interest in ED... so nothing

Thank you for your contribution to the discussion. You are free to go, now.

 

[Rock Hunter]

Just out of curiosity, why do you - or anyone else for that matter - have more than account?

I can’t speak for anyone else but for me it was an easy decision after my first really big trip out into the Black. I came to Elite wanting to explore but found so much more to do and quickly realised that being ‘out’ was an epic undertaking for a game. Days, weeks and potentially months or years without undertaking missions, shooting stuff or seeing anyone else can lead to space craziness and make you wish you could just ‘transport’ back. Which of course you can’t and is part of what makes exploration great in my opinion. That said, a second account means I can log in as Rock Hunter and do whatever I want or log in as Lig Lury Jr and pick up my exploration journey where I left off.

I also hit Elite in exploration as Rock Hunter very quickly by taking long range VIP passenger missions without realising they had a big impact on your ranking, so the second account was a way for me to hit Elite Explorer from purely exploring. At some point I’ll probably bring Lig into the bubble, to unlock Engineers and do ‘stuff’ and take Rock Hunter back out to do things/ go places I didn’t with the second account.

When there’s a sale it’s quite cheap to give yourself the option of what you want to do and when, but you probably need to really enjoy the game to bother

I’m sure others have very different reasons. I hope that makes sense, I’m tapping on my iPad whilst cooking and I really can’t multi task!!

Yeah. Wot Chris said

 

[Spaceman Si]

The very last star.

Nice pictures, from a professional photographer I have to say that first one is a very nice composition. .

Wow, thanks very much I have a Canon 6D and make some attempt at landscape photography, so that makes me well chuffed

Here are a few more records from the edge:

Firstly, just to remind myself how completely insignificant where we come from is in the grand scheme of things...

This is it. This is the last star before you get to the Magellanic clouds that dominate the picture here. Beyond this, the galmap has nothing. (Well, except some pulsars that no one can get to without being teleported there!). I was still over 100kls from the star when I stopped to take this, lest the star's light overwhelm the clouds and the inky depths. If there was a planet in this system, I'd happily call it home.

The clouds do call to me though... If only I could press <CTRL>-H

A Type II Sudarksy, enjoying it's vantage point.

A great deal more survey work to be done here before I head anywhere else, and a thoroughly enjoyable location to be doing it in

 

[Para Handy]

Just out of curiosity, why do you - or anyone else for that matter - have more than account?

It starts off with being tempted by a sale offer to get another account for doing different stuff / play with a different focus / pursue a particular career.

Then the GF gets a brain-wave and buys you a copy in a Steam Sale for your birthday - so you go "OK, one Fed, one Imp and one Alliance - yeah, I can handle that".

Then one night, on noticing yet another damned sale offer, you decide it would be a bit of a laugh if Para Handy's trusty "Vita Spark" had a full crew of Mate, Engineer and Deck-hand so you end up juggling four accounts, playing iron-man, repeatedly doing the engineer stuff and to top it all you can't allow even one account to not have any repaints.

.... that way madness lies ...

[arrrr] ♯ ♪ ♫

 

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

It starts off with being tempted by a sale offer to get another account for doing different stuff / play with a different focus / pursue a particular career.

Then the GF gets a brain-wave and buys you a copy in a Steam Sale for your birthday - so you go "OK, one Fed, one Imp and one Alliance - yeah, I can handle that".

Then one night, on noticing yet another damned sale offer, you decide it would be a bit of a laugh if Para Handy's trusty "Vita Spark" had a full crew of Mate, Engineer and Deck-hand so you end up juggling four accounts, playing iron-man, repeatedly doing the engineer stuff and to top it all you can't allow even one account to not have any repaints.

.... that way madness lies ...

[arrrr] ♯ ♪ ♫

Ah, I see... one day, it's just a game; the next, hardcore addiction, alienation of friends and family and then a sectioning order is placed on your head. "Please, I just need one more hyperspace jump to catch up to that Thargoid warrior so I can deploy my Guardian Plasma Cannons and blow it's insctoid rear into Sag A*. Wibble". The men in the white coats just don't understand...

 

[aRJay]

Ah, I see... one day, it's just a game; the next, hardcore addiction, alienation of friends and family and then a sectioning order is placed on your head. "Please, I just need one more hyperspace jump to catch up to that Thargoid warrior so I can deploy my Guardian Plasma Cannons and blow it's insctoid rear into Sag A*. Wibble". The men in the white coats just don't understand...

The way around that one is online shop for your ship skins, extra accounts, booze, snacks, groceries and clothes then stop going out and meeting people that way nobody notices that you are saner than them so they don't lock you away in a fit of jealousy.

 

[Rustnsawdust]

Not much exciting to report from my commander. After making it to Colonia a couple of weeks ago I did my usual - looked at the mission board, looked at the passenger board... and then flew 10,000ly in a random direction.

Although it wasn't really random. I decided I should check out some alien lifeforms - since I never have - and noticed that there's a couple of systems with braintrees southwest of Colonia in the Prai Hypoo sector, which looks a bit odd; they're very far from the other Guardian stuff. So that's where I'm headed. Pretty much unexplored territory so far - endless untagged systems (with one ELW, one AW and a bunch of WWs to date). Most of the trip has been pretty uninspiring, though; endless runs of red dwarf systems with little or nothing in them.

The glamorous life of the ED explorer!

 

[Para Handy]

Since people had mentioned that the T-9 had been given some lurve since I last flew one of these slabs I decided to give one a try yesterday.

Now I have to decide whether to abandon my iron-man rule, adopt a plastic-man rule or clear save.

Wow that thing is hopeless, 7A G5 dirty drives and it can't evade an interdiction - not even close to following the blue circle - so submit (to save cool-down), select next system, start to charge high-wake - BOOM!

My fault for using it with a couple of missions active so collected a Deady anaconda with a vicious fighter.

5M rebuy, lord knows how much the cargo was worth - first death in yonks. Really don't want that engineering nonsense again so going to abandon iron-man now to decide whether to do plastic man or just live with an inn-sever-ants claim in the stats.

Still, I can re-use the G5-modded Thrusters, FSD and Shield Gen but still a waste of money.

 

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

Since people had mentioned that the T-9 had been given some lurve since I last flew one of these slabs I decided to give one a try yesterday.

Now I have to decide whether to abandon my iron-man rule, adopt a plastic-man rule or clear save.

Wow that thing is hopeless, 7A G5 dirty drives and it can't evade an interdiction - not even close to following the blue circle - so submit (to save cool-down), select next system, start to charge high-wake - BOOM!

My fault for using it with a couple of missions active so collected a Deady anaconda with a vicious fighter.

5M rebuy, lord knows how much the cargo was worth - first death in yonks. Really don't want that engineering nonsense again so going to abandon iron-man now to decide whether to do plastic man or just live with an inn-sever-ants claim in the stats.

Still, I can re-use the G5-modded Thrusters, FSD and Shield Gen but still a waste of money.

This is handy (sorry for that) info as a T7 was on my list. The inn-sewer-ants are a bummer, so I blame Twoflower.

I'm also wondering about my Clipper's viability with it not being to land on platforms. Mind you, she's a very recent purchase so it's really early days.

At present I am stacking missions in Ceos and Sothis in an attempt to be a chummy with the Fed's. Last night, I managed to hit the max limit of missions being attempted in one go - think it was about 25 although not sure. Already practically allied everywhere in these systems and now a "Post Captain," which is a military rank I'd never heard of before.

 

[Para Handy]

This is handy (sorry for that) info as a T7 was on my list. The inn-sewer-ants are a bummer, so I blame Twoflower.

I'm also wondering about my Clipper's viability with it not being to land on platforms. Mind you, she's a very recent purchase so it's really early days.

At present I am stacking missions in Ceos and Sothis in an attempt to be a chummy with the Fed's. Last night, I managed to hit the max limit of missions being attempted in one go - think it was about 25 although not sure. Already practically allied everywhere in these systems and now a "Post Captain," which is a military rank I'd never heard of before.

It was a T-9 not a T-7. The sevens are supposed to be OK at interdiction evasion. I never really expected a nine to be any good at evading an interdiction but being wiped by a deadly anaconda and fighter before I could engage h-jump disappointed me a I thought they had upped the survivability. I had G5-modded the armour, but only kept to a size 6 shield gen (6A) modded to G5 thermal and two 0A heavy-duty boosters - didn't last long at all.

I don't like the T-7 as it offers insufficient cargo space for a large-pad ship but you can give it a go and see if it suits you.

(Re Post-Captain - you should read O'Bian's Aubrey - Maturin series of novels - good reads and made a good movie "Master and Commander".)