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Elite Exploration

JohnnyDioxin
Expert Trustee
Getting well  into my second month of exploration along this route:

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If you get fed up with bugs or mundane missions in the Bubble, it's well worth heading out into the black. Taking your time, doing a sesh whenever you feel like it, with no stress, no time constraints or targets - just cruise and do what you like. I'm out here with Commander Hazardous Matt and another companion, and so far my undiscovered system count is at 134. Yes, that's 134 systems that will have my commander name on them - and an awful lot top-up for the bank, and I'm nowhere near the end of the journey yet.

First, we met up at the "bottom" of the galaxy (or top, depends which way you look at it!) and then headed towards the Lagoon Colonia Highway stop. From there we headed out towards the NGC/War & Peace Nebula. There were quite a few undiscovered systems along the way - but not much that was spectacular or particularly noteworthy - just regular systems, 65 undiscovered in all. When we got to NGC, I found that all of the systems from 20LY out had been discovered.

Whilst we sat there, wondering what to do next, I came up with the route in the picture above, and Matt was keen - so off we set. Since leaving NGC, almost every system I have come across has been undiscovered and there has been lots of nice screenshot material. Planets of all kinds of colours, werid huge gas giants and silvery, mirror-like rings, not to mention very spectacular looking nebula clouds.

Here are some screens from along the way. I'm only at stage 2 - and there are another 11 to go yet! Seey sometime around Christmas.... maybe! 😉

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See these clouds on the galaxy map?:

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Well, they are there in the galaxy, too:

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Planets are often coloured based on the clouds around them - like this one:

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A typical system, ripe for scanning and imprinting with my name:

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...and in many cases, they are just a few light years from each other, all in a nice, tight cluster:

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You can see the nebulae we are heading for - it's almost like joining the dots:

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these are a couple of the nicer ringed bodies - the second one is actually a shining Brown (Tauri) star and was very spectacular in-game:

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This is where we are now - was a little reluctant to enter this aggressive looking cloud - but no worries, apart from cutting out some of the light and actually obscuring some of the neighbouring stars, it's quite harmless:

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All of this, not even half as far away as Colonia - so you don't have to go that far to find it, and find 'fame' in the form of your name spread across astronomical bodies in the galaxy.

And it's so much more relaxing... B)

i5 9600k @4.5GHz; 16GB DDR4 3200; 6xSSD; RTX2080ti; Gigabyte Z390D Mobo
Rift CV1; Index; Quest; Quest 2
648 REPLIES 648

JohnnyDioxin
Expert Trustee
The way I generally go about detail scanning depends on what I'm doing. If I'm on an exploration trip, then I tend to scan just about everything - especially when it is as yet undiscovered (as most systems are in the areas I travel).
If, as now, I am merely travelling between two distant systems, I tend to jump and honk, and only scan interesting or profitable looking bodies.

That's what I'm doin right now - on my way back to the Bubble - so I was completely gobsmacked to see that my earnings for scanning in the trip between highway stations Gagarins Gate and Eagles Landing (about 1,800LY or 178 jumps for me) netted at 21.8 million credits! 😮

Considering my goal was to reach 400 million before arriving home, this is awesome news for me, with my balance now showing402.9 million and still some way to go. I'm trying to get enough to be able to fully mod and engineer an Imperial Cutter when I get back. I'm thinking I will have enough 🙂

Just underlines what I was saying about scanning stuff whenever you can. It might be a little tedious, but it's profitable and (relatively-)safe.

I just hope I like the Cutter - I haven't liked any of the other large vessels.

i5 9600k @4.5GHz; 16GB DDR4 3200; 6xSSD; RTX2080ti; Gigabyte Z390D Mobo
Rift CV1; Index; Quest; Quest 2

RattyUK
Trustee
@Brixmis  - I am (relatively) new to ED  and yet to play it in VR continually as I'm still trying to find a way to have the Galaxy map navigable in VR - I'll get there eventually... - but still have to quest for Engineer materials along the way.

I jump out from my Home system around 500 Ly - in my trusty Type 6 - in a random direction away from the bubble and scan everything I find marked 'Unexplored', it takes a while but has been handy for high metal landable bodies and some amazing bits of scenery.

What surprises me most is that even in the bubble region I have discovered a couple of systems first!  I'd imagined the area to have been well explored before I got my hands dirty...

I've come back to base a couple of times with 3 million plus in Cartographic bonus, brilliant, particularly as the Type 6 maintenance is dirt cheap too.

Agreeing with you completely, scan everything 🙂
PC info: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X - Sapphire 7900XTX - 32GB DDR4 4000 - 3 NVMe + 3SATA SSD - Quest 2 & 3

RattyUK
Trustee
A little time spent in re-mapping my Hotas and now I can navigate the galaxy map properly, my own fault in the original way I set things up!

Just spent a couple of happy hours flying around in various ships and appreciating the difference VR makes - a Krait MkII is big!  Also did a little exploration culminating in a planetaty landing and a jaunt out in the Scarab - chuckling away as it was the first time planetside in VR - I won't mention the total mess I made in leaving the station in VR - everything about the ship seems bigger and the letterbox so small 😛

X52 should arrive tomorrow so fresh learning curve ahead.

Pretty view from earlier:

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PC info: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X - Sapphire 7900XTX - 32GB DDR4 4000 - 3 NVMe + 3SATA SSD - Quest 2 & 3

JohnnyDioxin
Expert Trustee
Yeah, the Krait II is now my do-it-all ship (used to be the Python) but it has poor armour and shields. It's not the ship to get into any heavy combat with. I made a thread about using the Krait for exploring over on the FD forum and was amazed at how many people posted about it, with their own builds linked. It's even better than I thought, and will doubtless be the ship I do all future exploring with, too.

Unlike that durned Federal Dropship. Bought one for the Ram Tah mission yesterday and ended up taking it back for a 'refund'! What a useless piece of junk. I had tested one before, but years ago, when I was still a sprog. I thought I'd give it a second chance, with some top modules and engineering etc, but no - that just made it an expensive piece of junk!

I'm now continuing Ram Tah in my AspX (Chaz is doing it in his Viper - so doff of the cap to him). I had started in my DBX - but got blown to shreds by some poncy pirate in a Clipper who turned up out of nowhere.

Be warned - if you do the Ram Tah missions, once you have the artefacts on board you are a target for every scumbag in the Bubble. Chaz got 3 attempted interdictions within minutes yesterday (we blew two of 'em to shreds though 😄  ). So it's worth packing some serious heat when you set off. Either that or decent thrusters to get you out of dodge.

I forgot to mention @RattyUK - I had exactly the same issues and frustrations as you with that durned galaxy map in VR, but same as yourself, it seems, I spent some time playing around with the assignments and using all the axes and analogue bits on my controllers until I got a decent set-up. I'm reasonably happy now, but when using the cursor for route planning I have to turn the map flat, one way or the other (top or bottom-down, so it looks flat). Then I can move the cursor with two dials on my throttle, and use a mini-stick for zooming and the twist stick for slewing. I use the same two dials for the system map, too, and that works well enough.

i5 9600k @4.5GHz; 16GB DDR4 3200; 6xSSD; RTX2080ti; Gigabyte Z390D Mobo
Rift CV1; Index; Quest; Quest 2

Anonymous
Not applicable
DEVS need to go back to Gameplay design school. It is highly shocking seriously we can suggest far greater quality of life ideas than the 10yr than they employ!
Take Gunner Role for example...it really is designed for a kid! No use for any Captain and most kick Gunners!!! It should have been a proper turret position. At least make a SWITCH TO ENABLE GUNNER ROLE. Also allow Captain to use GUNNER himself as it is very useful when docking the fighters!!!! How hard is this to not see?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT61L8hbbJ4

Chazmeister
Rising Star
The new exploration changes have been revealed today. https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/447043-Chapter-Four-Exploration-Reveal

All looks pretty good. No more honk and scoop. There's actual gameplay there now to find the planets in a system. USS's will generate when you jump into a system and will be discoverable in the same way as the planets, although they will still have a time limit and there will still be the odd random ones too, but overall it should make finding the relevant USS's for materials gathering much less of a right pain in the backside now.

Overall I'm pretty excited about this one. Obviously there'll be more than just the exploration changes in the Q4 update. Looking forward to seeing what else the update has to offer. Well there is the mining changes as well of course, but there'll be more besides.

Here's Obsidian Ant's take.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AbGNzMjAyc

Anonymous
Not applicable
I worked something out yesterday. And it may shock some of you:

FRONTIER ARE IN LEAGUE WITH THE FUCKING THARGOIDS!!!

Think about it. I bought myself an Asp Explorer to do some exploring out in the void outside the Bubble. Then I heard about the Exploration update and decided to postpone my trip into the void until that update hits.

How many people are going to do the same thing? Leaving the Bubble short of ships to defend it.

I'm onto you Mr Braben. I'm not going ANYWHERE.

Just bought myself a Challenger after trading in my Asp Explorer and might give the Chieftain a test drive later too.

RattyUK
Trustee
@snowdog  - the Thargoids are our friends and should be welcomed with open arms....   (I'd have to say that as my combat skills are worse than naff!)

I've recently bought my first DBX as I read that they run cooler than pretty much anything else, apart from being an ugly little ship (which they really are) as an explorer not bad at all and dirt cheap to maintain.  I still prefer my T6 as explorer (got my Elite explorer rank using it) but the DBX is certainly cooler when scooping!

Just did the first of the Ram Tah missions and am back in the bubble kissing Imperial butt as I need to gain some rank with them, as a die-hard Federation supporter it is proving hard work...
PC info: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X - Sapphire 7900XTX - 32GB DDR4 4000 - 3 NVMe + 3SATA SSD - Quest 2 & 3

Anonymous
Not applicable

RattyUK said:

@snowdog  - the Thargoids are our friends and should be welcomed with open arms....   (I'd have to say that as my combat skills are worse than naff!)

I've recently bought my first DBX as I read that they run cooler than pretty much anything else, apart from being an ugly little ship (which they really are) as an explorer not bad at all and dirt cheap to maintain.  I still prefer my T6 as explorer (got my Elite explorer rank using it) but the DBX is certainly cooler when scooping!

Just did the first of the Ram Tah missions and am back in the bubble kissing Imperial butt as I need to gain some rank with them, as a die-hard Federation supporter it is proving hard work...



Fucking hippy!!!

The only good bug is a dead bug!!! 😮 😮 😮

Thargoids drew first blood in 1984, we should have finished the bastards off when we had the chance with the Mychoid virus.

I think I'm going to stick with my Challenger for now, get it loaded up with AX weapons when I have the cash to spare. Only got 8m credits or so at the moment so time for a bit of bounty hunting to get some quick cash. I quite like the ship but don't think much of the sound of the engine, needs a bit more oomph to the sound I think. Sounds a bit wimpy.

Anonymous
Not applicable
The Hauler is what you'll need if you simply need to do the 5000lys to unlock Palin. Strip it down and engineer the FSD etc. and you'll get 50 to 60 jump range. Seriously it will take over 120 jumps. I scanned all systems there and back and it only amounted to 1.8m cr. I seriously advise anyone to simply Self Destruct and get back to making money how you enjoy. Although this depends on your Rank for either Combat payouts (~5m per hour high rank or much much less is lower!) but Trading is worth more (especially Meta Alloys at 30m for just 1 jump!).