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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:


RattyUK said:

So the CG to build a shiny new station next to Sag A* - which completed Tier 11 was rewarded with this....


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and no, my T10 didn't damage the bay....


I don't understand....what were you rewarded with?


A shabby, 'several previous careless owners', rusty station that looks like it was bought from a scrap dealer - the screenshot is the ship bay - in what is supposed to be a new, not finished yet, station!
Just grumbling....
Looks like any of the other extraction stations that have been around for years...
T10 'James Bolivar DiGriz' on the landing pad.
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PC info: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X - Sapphire 7900XTX - 32GB DDR4 4000 - 3 NVMe + 3SATA SSD - Quest 2 & 3

Greyman
Superstar
i've just spent a half hour or so learning how to mine and at the speed i'm going, towards that 500T target, i'll probably be 5 years older and an expert by the time i get there.  It looks like i'm only going to be pulling around 50T/Hour, so it probably is a good job i have some time on my hands.  :smile:

Maybe my efficiency will improve with practice???

Digikid1
Consultant
Just spent a few hours ( HS how time flies! ) in ED getting used to my HOTAS.  It is easier but I have to reassign some buttons.  Straight up and down is keyboard for now ( R & F ) and will get those assigned later.

Did a few carrier missions and now have to do laundry and ice removal.  yay 😞

RattyUK
Trustee
@Greyman  - what time zone are you in?  I'd be glad to come along in my alt account and keep you company / lend a hand 🙂
PC info: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X - Sapphire 7900XTX - 32GB DDR4 4000 - 3 NVMe + 3SATA SSD - Quest 2 & 3

Greyman
Superstar

Digikid1 said:

Just spent a few hours ( HS how time flies! ) in ED getting used to my HOTAS.  It is easier but I have to reassign some buttons.  Straight up and down is keyboard for now ( R & F ) and will get those assigned later.

Did a few carrier missions and now have to do laundry and ice removal.  yay 😞


For thrust up and down, as well as left and right, there are some control settings that only apply to when you have the landing gear down, so maybe set those to the hat on top of the joystick.  Instead of using a modifier, I've been a little lazy in mining and just drop the landing gear to allow me to manoeuvre more easily around the rocks.

Greyman
Superstar

RattyUK said:

@Greyman  - what time zone are you in?  I'd be glad to come along in my alt account and keep you company / lend a hand 🙂


From your name, I'm guessing that I'm in the same TZ as you, ie GMT (I'm old, what can I say.)

I'm from the north of England, where london's proposed HS2 commuter line might or might not reach.  😉

Greyman
Superstar
Well, the mining suddenly got more productive.  Blowing asteroids up, with just enough nukes, certainly yields a major amount of high value minerals and is helping me get quickly towards that 500T mined and refined target.

I just look at the strength of all of the fissures and average them out.  Using that graph in the top right is pretty useful for letting you know when you've got there too.

Also, thanks to @RattyUK's advice, the AI isn't bothering me when i'm in the belt.  I should be able to get this task out of the way pretty quickly now and move on with the other engineers, so that i can get set up for my next long exploration trip.
 

Digikid1
Consultant
Graph?  What Graph?

RattyUK
Trustee

Digikid1 said:

Graph?  What Graph?


The bar with the pretty coloured boxes on the top right when you are loading up Seismics to make a pretty boom!
PC info: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X - Sapphire 7900XTX - 32GB DDR4 4000 - 3 NVMe + 3SATA SSD - Quest 2 & 3

Greyman
Superstar
....and remember, never return to a lit firework. 

With Seismic charges, it's best to back off a fair distance, to avoid unnecessary damage to your ship, when detonating..