Worst. Boost. Ever.

[777Driver]

Make mistake in space like hiting neutron you got damage,hitting suns you got overheating,in both situations you have time to react,second chance call it,and a must part of exploration,but flying on planet canyons is optional thing which is very risky,and that risk is not worth for me after weeks put exploration,maybe after future exp, then there is very good reason for that.

Fair enough mate, just saying I disagree with you. IMO Exploring/visiting planets is part of the whole process, I wouldn't tell people to hide from that just because there is a tiny risk that you can crash.

Anyway, you didn't mention anything about doing canyon runs, you said never land on planets or drive around in the SRV.. completely different things.

@Jack, sorry to hear about the crash, at least you took it like a champ!

 

[WR3ND]

Landing on planets isn't risky though. I do it fairly often when I'm out exploring, even when I've been out for weeks or a month at a time – I haven't been out for months at a time since before Horizons. I've never had an issue with it.

Maybe that was Jack's problem, it wasn't risky enough and he dreaded having to do what he needed to survive, like not intentionally boosting into a cliff wall. Whatever the reason, space madness is a thing.

 

[CMDR Heisenberg B. Damned]

I can only rep you once for how you've taken this, wish it could be more.

If it helps any it's not like the stupid mistake of playing the original (spectrum version - yeah I know that's not the original) with a cheapo C90 cassette as a save game, making it to almost Elite and the tape failing! Now that hurt.

 

[Slack]

I'm not going to ticket this and try for the infamous Frontier do-over, partly because I always swore I wouldn't ever do that (admittedly I was talking more about combat losses than explorer stupidity) but mainly because I know Support can't recover exploration data and that's really all that was important on this trip. Otherwise I must admit I might have been tempted.

The fact that you would be temped to write a ticked if FD could retrieve your exploration data makes me laugh. Your OP is all about how it was nobodys fault but your own.

That would be like buying a brand new car, willingly smashing it into power line in middle of a field with nothing else around and even stepping on the accelerator before you hit. After coming to your senses, knowing this was obviously entirely your own fault, you would then be tempted to go back to the dealership and ask for a refund? [big grin] Youre funny.

 

[Jankules]

For an hour or so after the "incident" I was seriously considering abandoning the Approach Suite and SRV for my next trip out, just to avoid the temptation of a risky landing. But then I got some really nice screenshots from various moons that I wouldn't have had a chance to take without landing, and I'm a photo tart so if I stumbled upon something really photogenic but didn't have the ability to do a surface screenshot I'd be kicking myself.

Maybe I'll do one trip in a space-only vessel and do nothing but neutron and black hole harvesting just to get the Exploration rating to Elite (I'm at Ranger+14% at the moment), then switch to an SRV build for more leisurely ELW hunting and astrophotography. The problem is, if my maths is correct I need about 132 million credits which is between 1,800 and 3,600 neutron stars depending on how many are first discoveries.

That's a lot of farming. On the positive side I'd only be scanning the primaries, so it'd be honk-scan-honk-scan all the way with the occasional side trip to a scoopable star. No 30 minute grand tours of solar systems scanning random stuff. An average of 50 neutrons per night would be about two and a half months.

All this for the word "Elite" somewhere on the HUD. No wonder my wife thinks I'm barking.

I'm very,very sorry about your situation,harvesting neutrons and black holes,will get you to elite in notime,from every neutron you have 44k plus 50% first dicover,that is 66k,you need to scan under 1500 first touch,Plus every system you jump in honked,i hit untouch neutrons from 13k. Ly to Sag 1200-2500ly above gal. Plane,you can harvest them allway to the core,i can pm exactly cordinates
+1 rep for 1post

 

[Jack Schitt]

I feel ye. I myself crashed and smashed my DBX yesterday. [...] Ah, doesn't matter, I guess I was getting a bit frustrated and careless after all the mindless boring hunt for jumponium. Next trip I'm going without an SRV. The grind for materials is just waaaay to time consuming. I had been out there for 3 weeks and still hadn't found one Polonium..

My sympathies. You do get a bit space crazy out there in the black don't you? It's so easy not to spot that little g-indicator on the HUD when you're plunging towards the surface at three times what your thrusters will counter. At least it's easy the first time you do it. After that you watch it like a hawk.

IMO Exploring/visiting planets is part of the whole process, I wouldn't tell people to hide from that just because there is a tiny risk that you can crash.

Exactly. If you see a landable moon closely orbiting a ringed planet and you're not tempted to set down on it just to see what the view looks like, then you haven't caught the most virulent strain of the explorer bug. Risk be damned. I can't wait for landable Earth-likes so I can touch down on a beautiful lakeside and have the ship dragged into the water by a giant tentacle. As long as I get a screenshot of it first.

Landing on planets isn't risky though. I do it fairly often when I'm out exploring, even when I've been out for weeks or a month at a time – I haven't been out for months at a time since before Horizons. I've never had an issue with it.

That was how I was beginning to think, long after the pancake incident but shortly before the Wall Of Death. Not that I'm suggesting everyone will have a self-inflicted boost injury, I'm sure that's just me. But misjudged landings on high-g worlds seem to be disturbingly common among the fraternity. May your concentration always exceed your confidence, lest you join the club when you least expect it.

The fact that you would be temped to write a ticked if FD could retrieve your exploration data makes me laugh. Your OP is all about how it was nobodys fault but your own.

That would be like buying a brand new car, willingly smashing it into power line in middle of a field with nothing else around and even stepping on the accelerator before you hit. After coming to your senses, knowing this was obviously entirely your own fault, you would then be tempted to go back to the dealership and ask for a refund? [big grin] Youre funny.

I would agree with you if Frontier Support didn't already have form on this (see here and other places).

While I toyed with the idea briefly (you'll look for any way out in the few moments after a braindead stunt like this, believe me) I have already stated that I would never do it and have previously criticised Frontier for setting precedent. So I'm glad the temptation ultimately wasn't there. If it had been, and I'd have gone through with it, I'd have hated myself forever. Or at least until I wiped that save which would have felt tainted to me.

Similarly, after the crash I briefly chastised myself for having not done a quick log-out when I saw that I wasn't going to clear the ridge. I may just have had enough time to do that. But again I'd have hated myself for cheating, so I'm glad the thought only occurred to me after the fact.

The brutal punishments ED can suddenly hand out to the unwary or stupid are part of its strength. This game can be over-attentively holding your had one moment and clubbing you to death the next. Whether that's part of the design or simply down to inconsistent programming is really immaterial. There's no other game like it, and I love it for that.

 

[Slack]

I would agree with you if Frontier Support didn't already have form on this (see here and other places).

While I toyed with the idea briefly (you'll look for any way out in the few moments after a braindead stunt like this, believe me) I have already stated that I would never do it and have previously criticised Frontier for setting precedent. So I'm glad the temptation ultimately wasn't there. If it had been, and I'd have gone through with it, I'd have hated myself forever. Or at least until I wiped that save which would have felt tainted to me.

Similarly, after the crash I briefly chastised myself for having not done a quick log-out when I saw that I wasn't going to clear the ridge. I may just have had enough time to do that. But again I'd have hated myself for cheating, so I'm glad the thought only occurred to me after the fact.

The brutal punishments ED can suddenly hand out to the unwary or stupid are part of its strength. This game can be over-attentively holding your had one moment and clubbing you to death the next. Whether that's part of the design or simply down to inconsistent programming is really immaterial. There's no other game like it, and I love it for that.

I agree the punishment in Elite can be very severe in certain situations. I'm 15k ly out and have just scanned my 460th neutron star. I think im about spent, almost at a point of finding a nice asteroid to crash into and get me back to the bubble. Exploration I have to say isnt Elites strong point. Thank god for this forum and youtube to keep me busy. Something not right there, when you have to keep yourself occupied with something else while playing the game. Its that, or risk dying of boredom.

So I very much feel for your loss, as if I were to die now, I will be a "Ranger" forever, no way im ever going back out here.

 

[777Driver]

I agree the punishment in Elite can be very severe in certain situations. I'm 15k ly out and have just scanned my 460th neutron star. I think im about spent, almost at a point of finding a nice asteroid to crash into and get me back to the bubble. Exploration I have to say isnt Elites strong point. Thank god for this forum and youtube to keep me busy. Something not right there, when you have to keep yourself occupied with something else while playing the game. Its that, or risk dying of boredom.

So I very much feel for your loss, as if I were to die now, I will be a "Ranger" forever, no way im ever going back out here.

tbh it doesn't really sound like you've been doing much exploring. Scanning 460 neutron stars sounds like the perfect way to put yourself in a self induced coma.

 

[ForeverN00b]

Jack, I just made my second Sag A* run earlier this week and passed by the Great Annihilator a few hours ago, bound for the neutron fields. Your story is tragic, and hit close to home. It also made me chuckle. A couple weeks ago I lost an Asp in a pancake incident, luckily it was close to home and I didn't have much data to sell. I have made approximately 2,000 stops on this journey so far, so that would be several millions worth of data lost if I bought the farm with my ship. I did get close to one planet yesterday, it had what looked like canyons from orbit but it was just surface discoloration. My exploration build does have a small shield generator, but nothing that could withstand any canyon errors like yours. I will heed your warning and be careful!

 

[Malic]

You might want to put in a ticket if you landed prior to this event. There is a bug that the ship physics change if you land and the ship will slide around quite noticeably after taking back off. Ignore the title of the thread, was able to find out later that it happens in open private and solo play groups.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=239266

 

[Jack Schitt]

You might want to put in a ticket if you landed prior to this event. There is a bug that the ship physics change if you land and the ship will slide around quite noticeably after taking back off. Ignore the title of the thread, was able to find out later that it happens in open private and solo play groups.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=239266

That's interesting. There's definitely something going on there, and I've had a couple of incidents -- including this one -- where ships have felt like they're not responding in the way they normally do and it could well be due to this.

But in this particular case I still don't think it would be right or meaningful to put a ticket in, certainly not in at attempt to restore my ship. After all I did initiate it by accidental boosting (even if this bug may have made things worse) and the exploration data is lost anyway.

I'll add a note to your bug report though, just so FD are aware of it. Thanks for the heads-up. I'll certainly be watching out for this bug in future.

Addendum: having checked my loadout I did in fact have A5 thrusters fitted, not the underpowered ones I thought I had. So it's possible this bug was responsible for my inability to clear the ridge using vertical thrust. My power plant and distributor were lower class D-grade though, so the inability to escape using a second boost was all my doing. I've edited the OP to clarify the thruster situation.

 

[Ddraig]

So sorry for your loss, mate. There are days when simply waking up is a crime. Hope you enjoyed the chocolate. XD

 

[Mengy]

Sorry to hear it Jack.


This is how I minimize accidental boosts: I use a CH Hotas setup and I have one button on the throttle as a "shift" button, meaning I have to press this button down plus one other button to do certain things, like deploy heat sinks, and yep I have the boost set up this way too. It makes accidentally hitting things that I never want to hit by accident that much harder to do, and so far it's worked for me.

 

[Tetryl]

I had a similar incident recently. Just got myself a Python for the first time, and took a delivery mission to a planetary base. Gravity about 1 G, but I could afford the best thrusters, so hey, that should be no problem! When I drop out of glide, though, I drop fast. Pitching up didn't help, the Python kept sliding. Changed power management, full pips to engines. Nope, still descending rapidly, even though pointing upwards. I boost upwards just in time to slow the drop a bit, limiting the damage to a mere two shield rings lost and some bad noises as I bounce off the planet's surface.

And then I notice I still had flight assist off, from a fight (NPC interdiction) on the way to the planet. Oops. [uhh]

I'm thinking they should probably make flight assist revert to on by default after dropping out of supercruise or glide.

 

[Draxxen]

Could be worse, you could've made it to Beagle Point...

So true..
I am in the core now, halfway back from BP, and have to admit this reading got me sweating and goosebumping up at the same time.
2 months of exploration data.. omg.

 

[DanTheMan]

OMG
As I struggle with exploration (it makes my teeth itch and my eyeballs pine for some rusty-pin action) I cannot imagine how gutted you must be feeling to lose everything because of some autonomous action of a digit.
+Rep to you sir for taking it so well. I would be a blubbering wreck.

 

[CaptainKremmen]

Sorry to hear about the crash!

 

[hiasakite]

I had something similar on the far side of the Rift, one dodgy landing in my conda, 62% hull...

I beat a hasty retreat and made it back fortunately....

 

[Slack]

tbh it doesn't really sound like you've been doing much exploring. Scanning 460 neutron stars sounds like the perfect way to put yourself in a self induced coma.

You have a very good point. I just figured I would finish my explorer rank and do something different for a change. But certainly have found my self doing something I dont enjoy. By the time I got about 10k ly out, it seemed like a big waste of time to turn around and give up, so I just kept going. I'm almost done now and will be heading back in a few days, but I have to say im puzzled as to why people enjoy exploring. Once you do it for a while, you will really have seen it all very quickly. Aside from a few phenomena, I've seen almost every planet/star type already in the bubble. I didnt need to go thousands of light years out as there arent very many new things to see or explore. So (for me anyway) it became very repetitive.

I dont want to knock exploring as I know some love it, so it cant be all that bad, but for me it was the least enjoyable experience in Elite by far.