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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

Chazmeister
Rising Star


so maybe i am being stupid but how do i import engineering and ship loadouts and names into inara?
i use ED discovery but happy to scrape data from another app



The best thing to use for that is ED Market Connector https://github.com/Marginal/EDMarketConnector/releases/tag/rel-320

Follow the readme instructions a bit further down the main page, and you shouldn't have too much trouble. https://github.com/Marginal/EDMarketConnector

You will need to provide your ED username and password on install for it to work, as it needs to read your journal to provide the data.

For INARA you'll need to generate a key for it, which you can do under the settings menu in INARA and at the bottom of the list you'll see INARA API. You'll need to use that to generate a key to link EDMC to it.

You can also use it for websites like EDSM https://www.edsm.net/en_GB , which you can use to keep track of your travels and various other stuff such as your earnings and how much you are paying your SLF pilots etc. You can also open up current ship builds in things like ED Shipyard and Coriolis, although the data sometimes doesn't always come through correctly.

Once you've set it up with INARA, you'll need to hop in and out of each ship in your fleet in order to update it with their details. Other stuff such as your finances, materials, engineers etc should update shortly after a quick login to the game. Usually it doesn't take more than a few minutes for INARA to get updated with your current stats and things.

All you have to do after that is to remember to run EDMC before you start up ED. Personally I find the info it transfers over to INARA to be invaluable, especially when it comes to Engineer mods and blueprints, as you can use it to see at a glance what materials you have or are missing for individual blueprints. You can also use it to find the nearest commodities, material traders, star ports etc etc to where you are.

If I have any complaints about INARA, it is that it can be a real pain remembering where to find particular features, as there are menus within menus within menus and it gets a bit confusing at times. It needs a bit of a sort out and streamlining.  

JohnnyDioxin
Expert Trustee
You can also send us a friend request on it 😉

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

RattyUK
Trustee
I've just had an hour in VR on today's update, tthings aren't perfect by any means but are much more useable than they were.  I was able to scan a 30+ body system as quickly as on pancake (minus blue balls) so not bad at all.

The floaty blue bits are still a little odd, but overall not intrusive.

Got distracted from mining as my T7, newly equipped with the shiny new stuff has forgotten how to mine as I can't fire any of the new or old lasers no matter how I try - hoping it is just a bug...  The distraction was in explorer outfitting a Beluga...  Just doing the rounds of the engineers but reckon with a guardian FSD booster it will hit 50+ Ly jump range.  Already cruising at 19% heat (shields on) and a couple more engineers to visit.
Really proud of myself as I didn't catch its fat arse in the toast rack on the way out either!

As Brixmis mentioned - you can meet all sorts of weirdo's on Inara  >:)  (not that we're looking at you, Mike...)
PC info: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X - Sapphire 7900XTX - 32GB DDR4 4000 - 3 NVMe + 3SATA SSD - Quest 2 & 3

Anonymous
Not applicable



Brixmis said:

Fuck me, Mike - that's waaay too many ships in one hangar! 😄

Chaz is the best guy to ask about INARA - I've only just started using it myself.

This is my X56 set-up, with the new exploration functions added:




Should perhaps mention that I don't use the gaze UI or whatever it's called - I like to have my views clear, and use a 4-way control for the various cockpit UI panels.


thanks for that...... as for ships, I play Elite in a "strange" way.  Elite is my desert island game, ever since KSer i knew that it was going to be the game i play more than any other for years. I am also a progress based gamer.  i like skinner boxes i guess. my dread is the day i get to triple elite and money no longer matters and this is why i have given myself very strict rules of play.  i never sell a ship i do not own another version of, i never strip a ship to outfit another one, and if i feel a mission template is borked and is paying too much i ban myself from doing it. It is a tough thing tho, because obviously i want to try to be "good" at my job, so it is a constant struggle to earn as much as i can, but WITHOUT doing it in a way i think it cheesy or exploity.  Elite makes it harder than it should be because there are so many loopholes in the game, and the game practically throws money at you now 😞

one of my pilots goals is to own and outfit to a specific purpose one of every ship in the game.  I also periodically use them, so for a session i may just use my sidewinder  or adder for instance.

i am into the 1000s of hrs into the game any yet my progress (and certainly my bank balance) is relatively puny compared to others.   I own 23 ships, i am not exactly sure how many are in the game right now - at a guess 38 or so, so i have a ways to go yet.



Yup, it's way too easy to earn money in this game. Most people complain about the grinding but I don't think it's grindy ENOUGH lol

It's nowhere near as grindy as the first game in the 80s!

I tend to play the game the same way I played the first game in the 80s and just trade and do haulage jobs with a bit of bounty hunting and mining to break things up. I tend to stay away from Community Goals and exploits to earn cash.

I also only own one ship at a time too.

JohnnyDioxin
Expert Trustee
That's how I played up until my reset last year.

I have to admit, since I stopped playing a week or so ago, my interest has been waning. I don't know if I can be bothered to learn the new stuff now - especially with the bugs. Every time I sit down for a session, I end up doing something else - and haven't had my headset on for a week, either. The longest 'break' I've had since I had it replaced.
Considering the crap state of DCS World in VR, I'm seriously considering going back to TrackIR for that, because each time I put on the headset and start up a mission, I end up ditching it in disappointment before I've even taken off (sometimes before even starting the engine(s)).

I had to take a few days' break due to feeling crap, but now that's over, to my own surprise, I just don't feel like jumping back in - and if I do, I think it will be for FSX, P3D or IL-2 BoX. The stuff that a) runs well, and b) is actually relaxing. Yes - I find IL-2 relaxing!

I no longer find Elite:D relaxing, even in exploration - just tedious.

Hopefully just a phase. I think I'll give Elite a miss until after public release of the update. Hopefully won't be too many bugs left by then, and I'll be able to learn the new stuff at leisure.

Edit: Over recent weeks I've thought more and more about resetting my profile again - that may be the way to go.

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

bigmike20vt
Visionary

Brixmis said:

That's how I played up until my reset last year.

Edit: Over recent weeks I've thought more and more about resetting my profile again - that may be the way to go.


i could not do that, however i have had a couple of semi resets.... ie fly to an area of space i have never been, blow all my money on a ship and mothball it, then buy another low end ship that i want to "start" with.  (in my case it was an imperial eagle as i wanted to go through all the cheap ships which i missed out on or did not exist when the game entered gamma).

and go from there.  most of the advantages of starting from scratch but without losing everything which is just too hardcore for me. The problem is even with an E rated imperial eagle and less than 100 credits, i was still in an A rated asp scout within a few hrs, and well on the way to a federal gun ship within 5. (admittedly i still had my federal rank)
Fiat Coupe, gone. 350Z gone. Dirty nappies, no sleep & practical transport incoming. Thank goodness for VR 🙂

Chazmeister
Rising Star
That's where the big ships come in, as they're real money sinks to fit out well. My Anaconda had been a work in progress for ages until I had it fitted to a final spec I'm happy with, and it's still not 100% A rated just because some of the parts are still so darn expensive. Luckily a bit of minor engineering now easily makes up for any shortfall and then some, of not going full A spec. My next one will be the Corvette once I've got the rank (only one more to go), and I can see that being another one that's going to sit in the hanger for awhile being worked on as and when I have the surplus funds to buy bits for it. Although that might have to wait a short while, as that new Mamba looks very nice.

I've spent a few evenings now just making back the 50 mil I spent just outfitting my Challenger. I've used an Orca and last night my trade Cutter to do that, running passenger and delivery missions. In smaller ships without their capacity, that would have taken another couple of evenings probably.

Certainly it's easier to start from scratch now than it ever was, but I don't think that's a bad thing. However I do think that the progression from small to large ships has been lost in the process. I think the cost of the ships and modules needs a bit of a rebalance, certainly at the lower end as they just feel way too cheap now. Buying a ship at the lower end doesn't feel like a meaningful purchase any more. Fit an ADS to a Sidewinder and you've increased the base value by nearly 50 times, that's crazy. The higher end medium and the large ships still feel like an investment you have to consider though, as the fitting costs soon add up. The cost of refueling could probably stand to get a rebalance too, as that hasn't been changed since they drastically reduced the cost ages back before all the mission changes and rebalancing. If I'm running trade I don't bother to stop and scoop, as what's the point? To refuel my Cutter is just a measly few thousand creds; it's hardly cutting into my profits when you're making a few hundred k per drop at the very least.

I think the mission payouts are about right now, it's just that a few things could do with adjusting to reflect that a bit better. Also I really like the new system of choosing either the money, rep or commodities/materials for the rewards.

JohnnyDioxin
Expert Trustee
Absolutely. I remember when it felt like it would take forever to get to 6 figures (using normal play methods and not the get rich quick ones). Just having enough to finally buy a Hauler or Cobra III felt like a major achievement.

During my first career, I spent virtually the entire time just learning the prices of all the materials at the stations in my "home" system and those of the systems all around it. I used an android app called Elite Dangerous TradePad Pro and entered the prices for every commodity at every station I visited, manually. Just like the orriginal game, really. Built up a picture of what was required where and worked out the most lucrative trade routes and did some mining and bounty hunting on the side.

The problem was, it very slowly got me nowhere. Did nothing for my promotion and not much for my rep - but it was all I knew and I was comfy with it - so that's what I did.
I was getting sick and tired of the multiple interdiction attempts going on back then - it was crazy, and it was only after reading about exploration that I decided to head out to Colonia in an AspX, both to get away and as a big adventure - with a really crappy, small fuel scoop which took several minutes to fill up after even just one 30LY jump. Yet I loved the trip out there. The 80 million credits I got in cartography data was what persuaded me that exploration was something I should do a lot more of in future. It was like hitting the jackpot.

Colonia itself, at the time, was very underwhelming and I soon found myself heading back - which was when I had the neutron star incident and ended up resetting. My second career bore zero resemblence to the first, because we had big changes in updates, new style, high-paying planetary scan jobs you could stack and earn silly money from, no end of websites with info to help me along and ranking up had never been so easy. It was a lot more enjoyable than the first, but also in recent months, it got far too easy. However, some of the easy money missions have now disappeared or are nothing like they used to be (and not fun any more, not just because they don't pay as much). I never do planetary scan missions now, because they have become tedious crap. Same with salvage missions.

The game has completely changed this year, and I think many of those changes have not been for the better, at all. Despite the positive vibes surrounding the coming update, I also just see it as making us jump through more hoops to achieve almost the same thing. Also, being able to scan the entire system from the core, does not appeal to me. Not after all the hours and hours I've spent in supercruise to detail scan hundreds, if not thousands of systems across the galaxy. Now some oik is going to turn up, stick their head in their FSS thing for a few minutes and be done? No thanks.

I also noticed that the description of the new mining system - such as it is - on the FD forum is a quick overview paragraph, followed by a more detailed, but still leaving you very much in the dark, paragraph. Then comes Squadrons (da-da-da-daaaah!) with an overview paragraph followed by nine(!) explanation paragraphs telling you every possible thing about it.

Congrats, FD, you just made me start considering giving the game up that has kept me busy for 4 years and that up to a couple of weeks ago, I was still enjoying. Also, because I'm really pissed off with having to watch videos to find out how to do things in this game. Where to find things. Having to use external apps to know what I need to complete something, or fidn information, that should all be available in the game, or it's manual. FFS we're not talking about an early release game, here, the game is 4 frikkin years old and we still have to go to other websites to find stuff out! I also seem to be getting the same voice actor at every single planetary base I go to these days (the Irish bloke). Did a bunch of them withdraw their permission for FD to use their voices or something? Seriosuly, I'm getting the same guy so many times now.

Anyway, that's why I'm not playing right now. I did take almost a year's break once and I'll likely do it again.

Sorry for the moan. Seeya round.

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

bigmike20vt
Visionary
i think my main gripe (I have a few) but my main one is how irrelevant piracy is, and this is a shame as it is meant to be one of the core tenants of the elite universe. actually save retyping here is a post i made on the forums about how i think FD could improve piracy

Piracy was borked the moment that the economy got so silly that it is
not worth the players time to stop and scoop a few tons of even precious
metals because you can earn 10 -100x more by doing a 1 jump delivery
mission.




It can be fixed imo bit will need a total rethink of what missions pay
in ED as well as the costs of hardware etc and not sure it is something
FD want to do.


1)a lower pay of traded based missions accros the board to 10% (the extreme payers, the lower payers reduced less)
1b) lower cost of other missions to 30% of current prices (assault/assassination missions etc)

2) lower cost.of ships currently above say 1 million on an increasing scale so a conda is say 35 million (same with outfitting)


3) keep comodities same price


4) add in docking fees 3 tier price small, medium and large.


5) add in trade tax on purchasing which is reduced.based on rep with
system and reduced more if you deliver items in demand at that station


6) implement more complex.supply and demand chains in BGS so need to do 4
or 5 loop runs but with good profits on all commodities possible not
just the top few)




There you have it... Piracy worth while, because it does not matter what
they drop, it will fetch proper money somewhere, and the relative costs
of pure profit from piracy would make it a legitimate money earner.




A mission to deliver 10 tons.of goods no longer pays more than buying and delivering goods yourself


Bulk trade pays really well but running costs of large shipping business are a thing but can be rediced with good planning


And economy makes sense


BTW word of warning incase you have not tried beta... pirates are a lot more piratey, the are very quick to fire off the hatch limpets... over all i like this but it does mean if you want to carry around your precious guardian artefacts etc you are a lot more likely to lose them!.

Fiat Coupe, gone. 350Z gone. Dirty nappies, no sleep & practical transport incoming. Thank goodness for VR 🙂

Anonymous
Not applicable
I'm soooooooo tempted to try out this Mining Beta but am resisting it. I'm going to let the great unwashed do this Beta testing instead lol 😄