Where to next?

[JonathanBurnage]

I am coming back after a few months out of the game - my plan had been to prepare for Fleet Carriers (ie earn an obscene amount of credits), but they have now been delayed. I am open to suggestions regarding other new Exploration objectives as I am lacking in a bit of direction - what's going on in Exploration right now, and the game more widely?

My intention for Fleet Carriers had been to try and explore further the extreme highs and lows of the galaxy (assuming their implementation allowed for this); some of you may recall my earlier adventures to Vahsel Point and The Great Escape. As such I was keen to ensure I had enough cash (only about 3Bn in the bank right now). But with at least five months to wait, this seems a bit premature.

I had been thinking of heading to some lesser-explored regions and trying to find some new hard-to-reach places; I'd love to get my name on a planetary nebula in such a location. I would also quite like to make an exploration video.

I did load up a few weeks ago and do something I had been meaning to for ages - rig the ship for maximum range and jump a ridiculous distance. 337.41LY to be exact . I'll try and make a little video on that soon for interest.

 

[LifesAJourney]

I'm asking the same question myself at the moment. Now I'm in Ishtar. Even though it's not very often visited by Cmdrs, the huge majority of more interesting systems (O/B/BH/NS/carbon/proto stars) have already been visited. It barely reaches 2 kylies from the plane, so there is no point in looking for highest/lowest systems.

I'm not a super-experienced explorer but as for me the lesser-explored parts of the Galaxy generally all look the same. Basically nothing interesting there. That's the reason they are lesser-explored.

Having said that, I think the direction depends on what do you want to look for. If you're after highest/lowest systems, both 3kpc Arms (referring to the old-school Galaxy map) are a good place to be. If you want to discover millions of Herbigs, go to the core. There are also several NS/BH/WD fields if you're after such stuff. I wouldn't count on unexplored planetary nebulae, though. They catch expolorer's eye at quite a distance so the chances for a 'fresh' one are pretty low.

On the other hand: there are still billions of unexplored systems everywhere and each and every of them may contain something extraordinary.

I think my answer to your question would be: go to any direction and explore.

 

[recrudesce]

Just start to set yourself challenges. I recently went to all 4 "corners" of the galaxy, and now I'm visiting every region.

 

[Orvidius]

Yeah, it can be hard to choose what to do next. Do you have any "bucket list" items? I know you mentioned Planetary Nebulae. Undiscovered PNs are getting scarce, but I'm pretty sure they're still out there. Especially since some are so small, that you can barely see them even when zoomed all the way in, in the galmap.

Since the larger nebulae are quite heavily tagged, there's not a lot to "discover" for yourself inside of them, but they're still scenic. Plus, many of the systems haven't been re-visited since the new Lagrange Clouds and space life have been added. There's also a lot that can still be mapped for tags as well. And, some of the larger nebulae in the core area still have untagged, pristine systems too... believe it or not.

Figuring out where the neglected map areas are can be a little more tricky, but my interactive map can show you where the relative hot-spots are. Anything that's black or more dimly blue tends to be untouched or only lightly traveled through. If you zoom in, each "dot" represents a 10x10 ly square. Since that's only 2D, in reality a pixel can represent thousands of systems that you could visit, particularly in the core areas, since that 10x10 square might actually be more like a 10x10x8000 lightyear column.

 

[JonathanBurnage]

Yeah, it can be hard to choose what to do next. Do you have any "bucket list" items? I know you mentioned Planetary Nebulae. Undiscovered PNs are getting scarce, but I'm pretty sure they're still out there. Especially since some are so small, that you can barely see them even when zoomed all the way in, in the galmap.

Since the larger nebulae are quite heavily tagged, there's not a lot to "discover" for yourself inside of them, but they're still scenic. Plus, many of the systems haven't been re-visited since the new Lagrange Clouds and space life have been added. There's also a lot that can still be mapped for tags as well. And, some of the larger nebulae in the core area still have untagged, pristine systems too... believe it or not.

Figuring out where the neglected map areas are can be a little more tricky, but my interactive map can show you where the relative hot-spots are. Anything that's black or more dimly blue tends to be untouched or only lightly traveled through. If you zoom in, each "dot" represents a 10x10 ly square. Since that's only 2D, in reality a pixel can represent thousands of systems that you could visit, particularly in the core areas, since that 10x10 square might actually be more like a 10x10x8000 lightyear column.

I think that relatively unexplored region north-west of Sag A* has my name on it! A PN would be nice, but I'll settle for somewhere suitably spectacular. Tonight I shall rig the ship with a sensible fuel tank and head out!

 

[Hedy]

I generally look at my travel map and head out to an untouched area for myself. Just passed the Bubble Nebula and will follow a curve and zig back in eventually. Never really plan too much.
Hardest part for me is picking a ship. I finally put aside the Krait duo and took out the Orca, which is excellent to fly and handle.
Perhaps the Beluga next trip?