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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
I reckon they'll release 2D Starfield and charge at least $60, then 6 months to a year later they'll release StarfieldVR and charge the same - hoping that many will cough up twice.

I won't pay that for either version. If they release a VR version, I'll have that (depending on reviews) but won't pay above sale price (say $25-30)

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

JohnnyDioxin
Expert Trustee
Well, I've not come across more than 1 bug so far, with the boom transport missions and it isn't related. Just an AI ship getting stuck on the outside of an outpost. Always the same place they get stuck, always the same outpost. Managed to bump it clear once, but each other time it has "restuck" itself more firmly! This happened in both solo and open play - but it was in open that I was finally able to get my ship in the pad 3 slot.

So, up to an Orca, a Cobra III and a Type 6 all modded to the max (no engineers in standard Elite) and now 65 million sitting in the kitty, However, I didn't realise that the Orca is such a poor exploration ship with standard modules. Not much over 18LY. So I reckon I'll bin that (shame - otherwise about my fave ship) and get a Krait Phantom. That's about 28LY - laden. I'm up to Baron now, so I could use a Clipper, which are ace for exploration, but I used one last time, so keen to try something a little different.

That will easy be enough. Been doing a lot of FSSing - one good thing about the crazy number of USS is that it's allowed me to collect a large number of materials and data in a short space of time. Not too impressed with the exploration payouts, though, as I thought they were supposed to be getting a hike.

Tried a CZ properly for the first time ever, in my Cobra - killed a Vulture, but then got blown to smithereens by someone I didn't even see, in the craziest furball ever invented! Also the last time I'll be going into a CZ! 😛

Managed to kill a couple of assassins in my T6 - that really made my day 🙂 One in a DBX and the other a Courier. Have to say that the frag cannon I was packing was completely useless, though, even at close range and seeing the frags hit the other ship's shield - had to rely on seeker missiles. Then went straight back to station and binned the frag cannon for a pulse laser. Oh yeah!

So, I'm doing quite okay in "Mrs Brix" new profile. Will set off into the black, sans SRV, shortly.

If there's a queue, waiting to leave the starport, it's a good idea to simply put yourself at the back of it and then scan each ship, from the front back, before it exits the port. You'll be amazed how much data you can farm if you do this every time.

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This is one of the doofers stuck on the "magnetic" outpost...

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Does any one actually wait for the scanning to finish before they exit the FSS?

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I don't, cos it never seems to finish. Once the materials start going round a second time, I'm off.


Is this a futuristic Hippie Farm?

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

JohnnyDioxin
Expert Trustee
Here's some more news.

This evening I switched between my two accounts - logging out and then in with each in the main UI. I did not have to authenticate between the two accounts. I had read on the FD forums, some guy complaining because the authentication had to be carried out with each profile swap - this is not true. Maybe it's been changed since, maybe he didn't actually know, but it is not necessary, which is good news for me 🙂

Secondly - @Chazmeister - I tried the wiki today, and chased a long distance around 4 starports to shipyards that the wiki claimed were selling Krait Phantoms. None of them had such ships on offer. Then I realised I had not seen any of the 2018 released ships for sale at all, anywhere. Then it hit me - they are only available to Horizons owners.

I had sold my 3 ships for nothing 😞

However, I bought a Python and still have 60 million in the pot, so I'm going back to the "golden triangle" and gonna ramp it right up and earn a few dozen million and then maybe bugger off in a Clipper, or maybe buy Horizons and use the Krait Phantom... :smiley:

What really shocked me - I bought that Python and thought it would be useless for exploration anyway, due to the low jump range, right? Well, I jumped into my Brix account to do some friends/group admin and guess which ship I was in? Yup - a Python. Had completely forgotten I even bought it - and the range is, da-da-da-daaaahhh! 40LY! 😮

Oh yes... I'm going exploring in my Python 😉

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

Anonymous
Not applicable
Don't talk to me about bloody hippies!!! Global warming my arse. It was snowing here earlier and it's fucking freezing. I'm going to find myself some fossil fuels to burn tomorrow so that we can all warm up a bit lol 😮 😄

Chazmeister
Rising Star

snowdog said:

Don't talk to me about bloody hippies!!! Global warming my arse. It was snowing here earlier and it's fucking freezing. I'm going to find myself some fossil fuels to burn tomorrow so that we can all warm up a bit lol 😮 😄



Ahhhh.... but ahhhh..... paradoxically global warming could actually lead to an increase in colder winters, which will lead to even more global warming as we burn more fuels to keep warm. Oh, there's just no escaping from it. I'm taking the next ship to Mars. There's very little atmosphere there, so none of this will matter, you can stick the heating on full blast and not give a shit.

JohnnyDioxin
Expert Trustee
Luuvin my Python - even though I've not managed to get any decent modules for it.  There's something really refereshing about just travelling the systems and doing what I like, not bound by contracts or anything else. Collected a huge amount of high grade materials now - I'm only dropping into the encoded USS, which always have the good stuff. Mind you, there's always someone wants to take it away. Got a Challenger, a Crusader and a Type 10 this evening - well pleased. Almost added a Python, too, but he escaped with 30% hull left (I forgot I still had my scoop extended when I was trying to boost after him.

After my trials and tribulations with the missiles and pulse laser, I decided to swap my hardware for something a bit more aggressive. I kept the pulse laser on fire 2, and had two groups of cannon on 1. Works very well, I can tell ya. Especially when my fire button got stuck and emptied two entire magazines' worth of rounds into the guy. Loadsa fun! Actually, do those turrets auto fire? If so, that'll explain it. Awesomeness 😄

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Python gunship:

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

Digikid1
Consultant
Ok @Brixmis....help me out here. You quit the game only to turn around and use another account to play the same game...

 😕 

JohnnyDioxin
Expert Trustee
I had got to an impasse in my first profile. I need something to aim for and achieve - after all, I've been playing this game for around 4½ years. Starting afresh was the only real solution, but I didn't want to throw away all that I had achieved in the last 2 years, since I last reset my profile. So I made a new account so that I could start from scratch. Plenty to achieve and much to aim for. I will have two commanders - one at each end of populated space (22,000 light years apart).

The gameplay I'm doing right now is very basic stuff. Transporting goods - a little bounty hunting, and not much can go wrong with that. If a new player were to start playing right now, I think he'd very quickly become frustrated, because he (or she) would come across the many bugs present when carrying out various tasks or missions within the game, that I'm deliberately avoiding, because I know they are broken.

If you are happy to put up with bugs and things not working as they should, go ahead and buy it. Normally I would recommend buying Elite and Horizons together, but I am managing very well with just the base game (but then I know it well and knew what I would be missing from the start). Might not be a bad idea to do that. Get the base game and see how you get on. A lot of the bugs are present only in Horizons, though, so that's another reason, perhaps, to leave that until later.

As long as you know what the situation is, you can make an informed decision 🙂

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

Digikid1
Consultant
No cash right now.  Will wait until it is on sale. 

Anonymous
Not applicable
I've just rebound Thrust and Pips on my 16000m HOTAS. Before I had RightJoystick Hat as Thrusters and Left Joystick Top Thumb Hat as Pips. Then I thought it was counter intuitive having a sideways orientation hat to the Pips which show up on the Righthand side of the HUD. So it clicked these would probably work best the other way around.
I've got the Throttle's Finger Joystick for Lateral & Vertical and found it best pulling up as DOWN due to the way we can swing further down as we are also pulling the R/H Pitch backwards so they act in the same directions. The only thing with this is coming to land so I use Landing Override which changes Throttle's Finger Joystick from Vertical to Forward/Backward. It's just nowhere as fast to land as I had it before but I do prefer the Pip on the R/H.
How do you set yours CMDRs?