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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

RattyUK
Trustee

Digikid1 said:

hmm.... is there another cheap split hotas?  The Thrustmaster X looks good but not sure about an all in one unit. 

Also what are L plates?


The Thrustmaster X splits  - it arrives in the box that way.  It has about 70cm of linking cable (maybe more) built in.  It also 'feels' far better than its price!

'L' Plates are what Learner drivers have on cars in the UK 🙂  (when they have passed their driving test some display 'P' (new driver) plates for a while).
PC info: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X - Sapphire 7900XTX - 32GB DDR4 4000 - 3 NVMe + 3SATA SSD - Quest 2 & 3

Digikid1
Consultant
Sweet!  I’ll order one in then. May even grab a couple more for my store. 

Thanks for the advice @snowdog and @RattyUK

Anonymous
Not applicable
You won't regret it, it's a great stick for the price! I quite like the fact that it connects together because it makes it easy to sit on your lap whilst playing. 🙂

Anonymous
Not applicable
I was planning on playing it today but am waiting for a delivery of a magic cat fur picker upper thing that I ordered from a Facebook advert. I'm going to have to stop buying things from Facebook ads. Normally I'm NEVER tempted to buy anything from ads but this and my dodgy aerial were too tempting lol 😄 😄 😄

Anonymous
Not applicable
Wow. Just had it delivered.

WORTH. EVERY. PENNY.

Bloody hell. I just hope my dodgy aerial is just as good but I have my suspicions that it's just a bog standard TV aerial. Still, you never know lol

Digikid1
Consultant
It went on sale today so I canceled my order and reordered. Went from 79.95cdn to 59.99cdn. 

Score!

https://www.amazon.ca/Thrustmaster-2960703-T-Flight-Hotas-Flight/dp/B001CXYMFS/ref=sr_1_1?crid=QJZPT...

Greyman
Superstar
I've been unlocking all of the engineers, so that I can finish off a Krait Phantom Exploration build and that means doing some mining.  

Even though a smaller ship would probably have done the trick for a small amount of mining, I've gone for a Python, just in case mining is a more lucrative/interesting pastime.

RattyUK
Trustee

Greyman said:

I've been unlocking all of the engineers, so that I can finish off a Krait Phantom Exploration build and that means doing some mining.  

Even though a smaller ship would probably have done the trick for a small amount of mining, I've gone for a Python, just in case mining is a more lucrative/interesting pastime.

Core mining is very lucrative (and some spectacular explosions!) and conventional mining quite laid back and theraputic (YMMV) so both are enjoyable.  If core mining try to mount your Abrasion blaster and Seismic Charge launcher on central hardpoints (Seismic in particular) to make targeting easier.
Personally I'd mine in a Krait MKII against the Python as there is no long nose and the visibility is far better -but that is just a preference as both ships are adept at the task.
Have fun with the mining 🙂
PC info: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X - Sapphire 7900XTX - 32GB DDR4 4000 - 3 NVMe + 3SATA SSD - Quest 2 & 3

RattyUK
Trustee
Well, finally arrived at Explorers Anchorage, was interdicted twice on the way from the star by pirates as I had 12t of cargo...
New station is odd, being unfinished, but I was able to sell my cargo and exploration data (550 million, just from Shinrarta to Sag A* - crazy!) and prepare for the CG.
A couple of jumps (only 40Ly on the T10) before was Bio signs on a few planets - picked a moon for the job...  but did I take the red or the brown?

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There was about a moons width between them - really quite nice 🙂

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

Greyman
Superstar
Do you do detailed scans of every un-mapped body, just the earth-like/water/ammonia planets or do you not bother with mapping?

If there is a station out there now, which i must have just missed, i might be tempted to take another long trip, but in my Phantom this time.