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Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

Cowcaster posted:

Can you mess with HUD colors from in game or does it require .ini tweaking?

Requires ini tweaks, but this is helpful for ballparking things. Pro-tips: the values in the ini can go from -2 to 2 (-200 to 200 on the sliders for the web-thingy), so don't limit yourself to the default.

Do you need a cargo bay to collect space goop for making fuel boosts/ammo/truck gas, or is having the vehicle hangar enough. The longer version of my questions would be, is this a viable DBE build which will let me land on planets and collect rocks to make gogo-juice? It's essentially the same thing I am running now, but with A-thrusters and the vehicle hangar instead of an extra gas tank.

Also, what is the difference in the H and G versions of the hangar? Is it just mass/power draw?

Nostalgia4Infinity posted:



Mission accomplished :toot:



Now I wish I'd bought-in on Black Friday...oh well, surely they'll drop it again next year!

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Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro
Made it!



I'm assuming aliens will have killed everyone before I make it back.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro
^I'm hoping that I'll be able to stick a DBX inside my explor'vette when they let us put ships inside other ships. I'll take that mess to the core, where it's hobbled jump range wont be an issue.

Your Loyal Vizier posted:

I ended up with this. It's as disaster proof as I could afford, only thing I can't fix is hull damage. I'm just under the 33.4ly minimum jump range to make the last leg of the trip, but I'll have plenty of time to scratch up materials for a jump boost before then. And yeah, if I'm spending months flying 64k ly and back, I'm putting my name on some poo poo. Scan ALL the belts :derp:

I don't think I've flown either eagle honestly, the NPC ones shred like paper so in my early days I hopped straight into a viper. Will definitely check out the iggle when I come back, I was enjoying my Courier and it sounds like a high-octane edition of same.

At some point I want access to both the Cutter and the Corvette, because the Cutter is a beautiful space truckin' dream. But it remains to be seen if I have the stamina to reach the required rank for either, let alone both, and for the actual combat role they're supposedly designed for... that vette. :swoon: You're too right about the grind, I seriously hosed myself by grinding Chief Petty Officer for the FAS first. Now that I know how fast donations missions go the Imperial rep sources are loving agonizing.

If you're going to do planetary landings, I would really recommend the maximum, A-rated thrusters. With 4Ds, you will be crashing on even low-g worlds.

I would also recommend swapping one of the AMFUs for cargo or more fuel, in case you want to rescue thargoids or whatever, and dropping 2 of the heatsinks. Honestly, you could probably get rid of 3 now that you can also build more repair/heatsink ammo with your SRV.

So, something more like this. I suppose you can throw a heatsink on there if you are nervous about it, but more than one seems silly if you have an SRV. It's only 3 million more, but will suit you much better if you're heading way out into the black. You'll have to burn your tank down to make the last few jumps out to Beagle, but like you said: you should have found some go-go-juice by then.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

ZoDiAC_ posted:

"go do tutorials for $60 game you've played the poo poo out of".

Well, I do see why you say my posts are weird. I'm just trying to be descriptive.

Ship does go, but nowhere special.

Back to tutorial ZoDiAC go!

Dude, if you just want to jump right in and play shootyspacemans, do Arena/CQC. It drops you into instant multiplayer matches. Doing this makes money in the :turianass: real :turianass: game you're having such a hard time getting, so it will benefit you if you ever decide to go that route.

Watch some of this dude's youtube videos, he's a pretty entertaining pilot and infuses his videos with the right amount of lore to make you understand what is happening and why. The videos are all labeled with easy titles like "bounty hunting" or "rare smuggling" or whatever, so you can find activities you are interested in. If none of that looks interesting to you: welp.

Personally, I am attracted to the exploration aspect of the game. I like the concept of the 1:1 galactic scale and the fact that most of the stuff I've seen on my journey to Sag A* and back has only ever been seen by me. I mostly drive around, look for pretty stars and planets, scan them, and take screenshots. When I'm in the bubble, I'll take missions or shoot stuff, but that probably accounts for <10% of my game time.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

slidebite posted:

This might sound like a stupid question, but is there any way to tell where you have been before in the galaxy view?

Not easily, but if you have been to a system and scanned it, you will be able to see the system map from the galaxy view when the system is highlighted/selected. The button with the orbit lines on it will be white instead of red. Helpful when exploring so you don't visit the same place twice.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro
I think most Elite players would play NMS in addition to ED, but not instead of. They are both set in ~outer space~ but that seems to be the end of the similarities.

Anywho, I am not worried at all and think it's a little silly that some people seem concerned about it, like the Star Shitizen refugees loving off to another game would do anything but improve the ED community and this thread.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro
Water world, orbiting a water world, orbiting a neutron star. Finding all sorts of nonsense like this near the core.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro
This is a good idea, right?

Right....?

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

MoraleHazard posted:

Thanks for the tip.

Are different types of worlds clustered in different areas or did the game make earth-like worlds rare on purpose? I haven't seen a single one since leaving the bubble.

Lots of high metal ones though.

I'm about 60% of the way through a Sag A* trip and have found single-digit Earth-likes on my trip. I've found dozens and dozens of water worlds: the galaxy seems to be lousy with them. But ELs and black holes seem to be exceedingly rare. It was probably 2000ly outside the bubble or so before things seemed more "random." Lots of gas giants and ice balls before that.

I found this one near Sag A*, amazingly unscanned:


Same experience as you with metal rich and HMC planets. I find systems with ten or more all the time. Gas giants also seem very likely to have some kind of life floating around in them.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

HiroProtagonist posted:

All you explorers: are you checking the habitable ranges for the solar masses of whatever star you're at and moving on if no earthlikes/terraformable/waterworlds are there, or are most of you spot checking random planets, or is it actually way more common than I think for people to actually go and [horrified noises] scan everything in a system?

edit: Because I'm a huge nerd, I went and figured a sliding scale for how far out to scan planets while I was exploring and it made things way quicker. For the majority of stars, there's often simply no possibility for habitable planets based on the distance from the parent star. Things are obviously more complicated in binary/trinary/higher simplex hierarchies, and I have to spitball it there. IIRC from memory 1 solar mass in a simple system gives a range of about 250 ls - 1500 ls and its pretty simple math from there to adjust it.

For the first 5000ly or so of my journey, I scanned everything. loving everything.

Metal planets? Scanned.
HMCs? Hell yes.
Rocky planets? Done.
Gas giants? Easy.
Ice worlds? There should be a few thousand with my name on them when I get back.

After that I kind of had a feel for what is what in the system map. I mostly honk, check the system map (screenshot it for later), then scan anything that looks interesting. Water worlds and ELs can be spotted quite easily. I will usually still scan any metal-looking worlds and most gas giants (because you can get them from so far).

Unless I'm in a hurry, I'll usually scan everything like that within at least 50,000ly of the primary. Sometimes I'll go wash dishes if it looks like there is something good a few hundred thousand light seconds away and just leave the ship cruising. I think it's funny when people complain about distances <1000ls, because any distance less than that takes about the same amount of time to travel. Honestly though, since I've been in the neutron fields I've been kind of lazy: I'm only scanning the low hanging fruit since I've found dozens and dozens of unscanned neutron stars and water worlds.

TLDR: I just look at the system map and decide what is interesting.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

Libluini posted:

There are 400 loving billion star systems and, if I'm really generous, about 1 million players. And about a third of those are probably only playing in private groups or solo.

Let's be generous again and round up those two thirds of a million and say that's 750k players in open. Even with all those numbers pulled out of my rear end and far too high, there are about 533 thousand systems per player. Since most players are in or close the bubble, you can probably at a couple zeroes to that, though.

At the most generous, there's a 1:500000 chance of even meeting another player out there. If you take actual numbers and not just my mad hallucinations, this means there's a higher chance of real life burglars breaking in and killing you while you're doing the dishes.

The true dangers of exploration are:

1. Returning to the bubble.
2. Getting too close to a star/planet.
3. Crashing while trying to land on a planet.

1. is the only part where other players matter.


After a certain distance, you're too far out for NPCs to spawn. What happens in those rumoured cases is probably people jumping like 10 light years from Eravate into an empty system and then thinking that's "outside the bubble".

Yeah, I worry more about falling asleep at the stick than other players. Also, is it even possible to interdict someone going 2000c? I imagine most people get zapped at Alpha Centauri or Hutton, but not in between the two. I literally have not seen another person since October and I play in open exclusively. I was worried when I got to Sag A* in prime EST, but no one there. :shrug:

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro
The usual standard is you can bring your nerd-friends, but if they gently caress up: you're out too.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

Tippis posted:

Yes. The common rule of thumb is to go for F, G, and K-stars — M being possible, but a lot less common host for both terraformables and earthlikes (but they make up for it in number so you'll still come across a fair few of them). Any earlier sequence than that, and they're very likely to be too hot and too young to have formed the right type of planets.

Even if they're old enough, you have to look a lot farther out in systems that will already be very spread-out. It's not a huge obstacle, but it means a lot of scooting around in FSD to scan potential planets, which obviously slows you down if you're trying to find a lot of them.

I know this is the common parlance, but it has not been my experience. I have found the most WWs, TCs, and all of my unscanned ELWs around neutron stars or brown dwarfs of all loving things...and usually way outside the habitable zone.

Truthfully, if you are exploring to make money instead of just scanning everything, I feel like you are doing it wrong. Explorers are a cross between a space-goose and some kind of dog: flying through space honking at every star, pissing their name all over the galaxy.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro


A Water Giant. The description makes me guess it's a water world that has water with vacuum above it? Looks more like Jupiter.



Brown dwarf in a black hole system with pristine metallic rings. Not that it will do anyone much good ~15,000ly from the bubble.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

FronzelNeekburm posted:

Also, it looks like you're closing in on a SPACE CUBE there in the lower left.

Yeah, I assume those are spots where a survey has been done? Or are they just artifacts of Stellar Forge doing it's thing? They are actually quite common near the core. I can't find the screenshot of it, but I found a spot where three or four of them came together.



I also found this thing. It was red nebula when I got inside, but looked like some huge, alien superstructure as I approached. This was from ~50ly out:

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

Main Paineframe posted:

Rather than keeping a dedicated ship around all the time, just buy what you need when you need it and sell it back afterwards. Instead of keeping a DBE around all the time in case you want to explore sometime, just buy a DBE when the urge hits you, outfit it at the nearest high-tech system, and go off on your journey. When you get back, sell it back to the station. Sure, this does cost you a bit, but spending 180k credits to "rent" a DBE is peanuts compared to leaving a ten million credit fully-outfitted DBE rusting in some hangar somewhere just in case the exploration urge hits you.

Why does the thread consistently act like this is some insurmountable sum of money? I literally (and by "literally," I mean "precisely") made this much with 10 days of casual play doing smuggling missions around my starter system. I feel like some of the poopsockers on here could do this in a day or two. Am I missing something? Or am I just jaded because everything takes a month or two in eve?

Have I been in the black so long that they hosed up smuggling missions? Before I left, you could pick up two or three per station worth ~100k-200k each, and only be one or two jumps for delivery. Almost always to outposts.

Speaking of the black, jumped into this the other night:



Dropped in between the two stars in the background, fuel scoop already maxed out at the landing. I don't roll with heatsinks, so it was a harry few moments.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

MoraleHazard posted:

Does anyone know what this group of bright stars are? It's heading in the direction of the elephant trunk nebula.



Does the other end point towards Earth? If so, it is probably an area where an actual star survey has been done!

A. Beaverhausen posted:

Imperial slave trading in torval space makes bank, I know that.

Yeah, that's what I don't get. I've seen people complain about how long it takes to earn enough to buy a cobra3...that's about two smuggling missions or fifteen minutes in a res with a friend.

I mean, I understand it sucks grinding out the cash for an Anaconda or Corvette, but if you hate the grind, I'm not sure a slower, less agile ship will somehow cure that. :shrug:

Back in Outer Space, I'm a little mad that I can't land here:



Well, at least I know that a Water Giant (a world where the atmosphere is almost entirely water) is different from a Water World with no atmosphere. I'm not sure how, since it seems to me in both cases you would have water, then vacuum? Also, why can't I land on this? NO ATMOSPHERE FRONTIER! :colbert:

Also jumped into this system:



That's a neutron star with an M-class star ~4ls away. Catch that landing at the wrong part of the orbit and it would be bad news for my little Banana Boat.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

Plural Abysss posted:

Hi everyone I'm from the Star Citizen thread :gary:

Don't tell people this. :regd16:

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro
Just a friendly reminder: if you are exploring for money and not screenshots, you done hosed up.

Speaking of screenshots, found this 63 earth-mass ice world. :turianass: Only :turianass: had a gravity of about 7.3G, which seems surprising for something so massive. It was kind of silly being several light seconds away and having the planet loom large like a star.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

IAmTheRad posted:

When you're smuggling inside the bubble, you don't want to sit at a star for too long topping up your gas tank. It's even better if you fill up your tank completely while you're orientating yourself to the next jump. Stop the space cops/pirates from trying to take your precious load of Biowaste.

Yes, you CAN get by with a smaller fuel scoop when you're exploring outside the bubble. Unless you're exploring for money (don't do this)

I would really not recommend anything but the largest fuel scoop possible. If you are going to Sag A* (a 50kly round trip, or ~1666 jumps), the difference between a 5A and 6A fuel scoop in a stock Asp is more than an hour of extra time spent fueling on your journey. And that is if you somehow made a beeline there and back. Realistically you are looking at an additional 2-5 hours of time just waiting at stars. You would have way more fun earning the extra 20 million spacebux to get the 6A doing missions or in a RES with friends than you will listening to podcasts while not getting cool screenshots.

Don't get me wrong, I explore for the love of the screenshots, but even masochism should know its limits.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro
:shrug:

Let me rephrase for fragile sensibilities:

While you can certainly choose to spend your time in game however you wish, my advice would be to "maximize" your fun while "minimizing" your time spent doing "literally nothing."

The difference between a 6A and 6B is still going to add thirty minutes to an hour or more just to your buckyball run if your destination is >25kly from Sol. If you are going to Sag A* or beyond, those 6 seconds stack up over thousands and thousands of jumps.

So yes, you can run out into the void whenever you want (it is called "space madness," afterall), but maybe people want to enjoy the game, so let's not all pretend like going cheap doesn't waste significantly more time. Sorry if it's overly :spergin:, but I figured they might like the option of spending that time with friends, or otherwise more entertainingly, while in the bubble.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

Libluini posted:

A 6B on an Anaconda with optimized fuel tanks fills your tank faster than you can maneuver to your next target. Time you lose by not taking a 6A = 0 seconds.

Well...I guess the 4A on my DBE has left me jaded! :downs:

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

Your Loyal Vizier posted:

You're killing me, Frontier

I just went to Sag A*, not even Beagle Point like you did, and the worst part is knowing some poopsocker did in ~8 hours what has taken me the better part of 8 months. :ohdear:

Oh well...never not scan all the things. :colbert:

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

Tippis posted:

:D

Ok. What I mean is that they follow very simple templates, and that they do not break down at the drop of a hat for no apparent reason.

“Go kill dude; here is a waypoint” -> go to waypoint, dude is there -> kill him, return to base -> "Good on you, have cash.”
“Go capture dude; here is a waypoint” -> go to waypoint, dude is there -> blow him up and pick up the pod, return to base -> “Good on you, have cash.”
“Go blow up installation; here is a waypoint” -> go to waypoint, installation is clearly marked -> blow it up and RTB -> "Good on you, have cash.”

You fail them if you do something obviously wrong, like blow up pods and loot drops you are meant to tractor and return, not because of some hidden background flag that flips out of nowhere without explanation when you've got 2 hours left on the mission clock. The objectives are clear and the method for fulfilling them are spelled out; the objectives are marked, so you know what to actually do when you get there; the objectives actually appear in space as expected, rather than bug out half the time. If you pick a difficult mission, you get larger numbers and/or higher-levelled opponents; pick an easy one and you get fewer and lower levels.

The system is, in short, robust and logical, even if (or maybe because) the missions themselves are fairly simplistic.

Sorry, I just had a moment of irony when I remembered the vitriol surrounding that game, it's development, and everything associated with it when it came out. Now it's an example of a working product...

:barf:

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro
I hate it when you get a shipment of slaves and you put everything together and there is always an extra arm leftover. WHAT IS THAT ARM FOR?

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro
Never had a problem winging up with my friends. :shrug:

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

Is that a size 2 module that is both a discovery scanner and a detail scanner?

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

Your Loyal Vizier posted:

This, plus the previously mentioned time that you'll still lose to glitched load screens, plus the fact that increasing your range reduces travel time twice (it cuts the number of jumps you need to make over the same route, but it also frequently opens up better routes). You gotta get that double dip, girl. More range is an easy pick for explorers, even if you're just looking at reducing travel time and not considering the awesome ability to go places no ship has yet gone!

The timer reduction is for scootin' the loving boot when you're under fire in the bubble, but I'm excited for that too.

Does the navcomp account for the increased range, or does it still plot you 30-ly routes? My guess is the latter, but fingers crossed optimistically?

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

Nostalgia4Infinity posted:

You're better served using that exploration data to level up FSD engineers.

How does that work? Do I already need to be in-touch with them? I have about a year of exploration data (the new bookmark system is awesome for long-distance waypoints), so can I just land at their port and dump it all for rep gain?

Basically: should I get some meta materials and those artifacts BEFORE I see them, or can I just dump the data as soon as I get back to the bubble and then go searching for the stuff they want?

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

NoneMoreNegative posted:

You haven't died in a year of gameplay? You're risking your luck with all that juicy exploration data; any exploring I usually do I stop in at the very first station I hit inward that will buy and cash it all in.

I left the bubble last August, haven't been within 1kly of a mailslot since then. It took me about 3 months to get to Sag A*, but the journey back is taking much longer because ~never not scan everything~ and I only play a few hours per week. I found an unexplored neutron field and grabbed a few hundred of those, which didn't speed things up. There are also a surprising number of Earth-likes and WWs around neutron stars. My most recent EL was around an M-class of all things. Pro-tip: always look at the system map. :eng101:

I am probably playing with fate, and have talked a big game about returning to sell it all in open (didn't see other CMDRs when I was in the bubble unless I was winged with them), but I will probably cave and do the last thousand light years or so in solo. I do have the first outfitting station bookmarked so I can grab some class-A shields and better thrusters when I get back to the bubble. I'm guessing I have between 50-75M in data based on what other people have done with similar trips.

Libluini posted:

Every engineer has 1-2 methods of gaining reputation (there are some exceptions, apparently): Crafting and something else. For some, like The Dweller, it's selling commodities. Other engineers, like Felicity Farseer, accept exploration data instead. As a rule of thumb, 2 million credits worth of exploration data is enough to jump you up to almost level 4 from zero (I tried this with good old Elvira and jumped from zero to level 3 and ~66% of the way to level 4).

So, in your situation, the min-max way would be to collect 3 Soonthill relics, go to Elvira Martuuk and donate them to gain access, then sell exploration data to her until you are at level 5. After that, you can go to other engineers who accept exploration data and do the same thing again. Repeat until you run out of exploration data.

So grab the junk before I go to sell the data, good to know. The FSD upgrades are what I am most interested in, but I would also like to slap some thruster and perhaps a weapon mod or two for SnG. With the boosted FSD, I'll still be able to go farther than now...assuming the RNG doesn't gently caress me over.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

Bargearse posted:

Stellar remnants of any kind freak me out.

Neutron stars are the worst, just a little pinprick, a yellow circle on the HUD and me frantically pulling up.

Just set your throttle to zero during the FSD countdown. Most stars will take several hours for you to hit the exclusion zone, neutron stars take more than half an hour, and even black holes have three or four minutes to react if the throttle is at zero.

Even still, worst case is you lose a few percentage off of your hull and systems. It really isn't a big deal unless you make a habit of it or are already otherwise in danger!

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

Tippis posted:

…at least for certain values of “completely safe”. There's always the lurking danger of (very) close binaries. :D


It's not so much the actual danger as the sense of arrival. Neutron stars are just freaky to arrive at because it's as if there's nothing there. :cthulhu:

The scariest thing for me is jumping to a main sequence after being in a neutron field for a while. The first few neutrons are scary for the emptiness of it, I'll grant you that. But after going to a few dozen in a row, jumping back to a G-type and having it suddenly fill the entire canopy like you are going to smash into it before the FSD slows down all the way really wrenched my guts!

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

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NoneMoreNegative posted:

Welp; getting over halfway to the core presents a new challenge - waiting for the navcomp to plot a route :mad:

Go about 900ly (or your jump range * 30) in the direction you want to go on the galaxy map, then try plotting different stars, slowly edging back towards your current position. If it doesn't plot within ~10 seconds, it will likely take >5 minutes, so just keep selecting different stars and plotting them until the navcomp finds an easy one. I can usually find one within 5 or 6 tries.

This method has never taken longer than one minute to plot >900ly routes all the way to Sag A*.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro
Since we've been talking about crashing into stars, a friendly PSA/reminder to my fellow pilots in the black:

Being outside of the exclusion zone does ~not~ mean you are safe...

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

DreadLlama posted:

Were they changed in an update? I've flown through those and as far as I can tell they're just graphics.

Always been there, I believe. If you fly through them you will get a heat spike, which can be dangerous if you are already redlining from refueling! Definitely not static, you can see them moving, growing, and dying even in real time! :science:

Substandard posted:

I've had this game for months (only the base game, not horizons), but only yesterday managed to complete the tutorials / remap the controls more or less to my liking for my Xbox controller, successfully run a couple of delivery missions and dock without killing myself a few times.

Is there any advantage to playing "Open" instead of "Solo" mode as a new player? I tried open for a couple of minutes while doing the first run to McMahon station, but quickly swapped back to Solo because there were a couple of ships loitering in my assigned landing pad and I couldn't dock through them.

Also, I've seen a lot of people suggest the Eagle as a starting ship, but it seemingly has almost no cargo space. If I want to do some trading is there a different good starter ship I should be working towards?

The only difference from open vs solo is the potential of meeting random human players. I rarely saw any, you can judge for yourself the benefits of playing this way. I have always played in open, but since the only thing I gain is the potential to lose all of my exploration data, I may go solo/group when I come back to the bubble. :shrug:

About ships, the cobra mk3 is only a few hundred thousand. Back when I was in the bubble, you could make that in 2 or 3 smuggling missions to random outposts. It can do pretty much anything decently and is easily modifiable into different roles. A great all around ship if you are still playing with different styles. If trading is your thing, aim for a T7 long-term.

Personally, I'm partial to the DBX for smuggling: you can put a bunch of cargo holds in it (enough to get most of the larger missions) and still land on a small pad. The large hardpoint wont actually do you any favors, but with upgrades it may pack more punch now and you can always put a multicannon there to scare people.

If bounty hunting is your thing, get on discord and wing up with some DF guys and go farm bounties. No reason to wait until you have the "good" ship to play how you want.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

Ciaphas posted:

Refitting the Cobra 3 sounds like a good wheeze, especially since right now it's fitted for rares trading and balls to doing that again for a while. I'm not properly infected by Space Madness yet, not exactly booking for Sag A* or anything.

As far as optional internals go, I need the advanced discovery scanner, a good fuel scoop, an SRV hangar, shields... there's something I'm missing, right, something exploration related?

Detailed surface scanner is the other thing. It makes the payouts worth 50% or more over normal or some such. Helps level up the rank faster, too?

If you are doing a bare-bones exploration run, I'd recommend something like this to take advantage of Horizons: https://coriolis.io/outfit/cobra_mk_iii/0p5taFaldd0sdf4------33v443012f2f.Iw1-kA==.Aw1-kA==

If you don't want to land on planets, you can save ~2M spacebux: https://coriolis.io/outfit/cobra_mk_iii/0p0tdFaldd0sdf4------33-43012f2f.Iw1-kA==.Aw1-kA==

For a Sag A* journey doing planetary landings, you probably want an Asp. I really want to recommend the DBX, but you can't have a cargo bay and a lander bay at the same time while keeping shields, so it isn't really viable if you want to do ~everything~.

Also, just to disagree with Torak above me: the difference between the 4B and 4A fuel scoop is pretty huge. Once you get your total refueling time under 45-50s, it doesn't really matter since you can refuel before the drive spools back up. But on a Sag A* run, the extra seconds between those will add up to hours of time spent doing nothing other than being parked next to stars watching a bar fill up. It doesn't matter for this fit, because the Cobra's tank is so small, but on a DBX or Asp, smaller scoops waste time that could be better spent in the bubble making extra money to buy a better scoop.

If you absolutely have to get the madness on that budget, this is what I would go with: https://coriolis.io/outfit/sidewinder/0p3t3F0l3d3s3f1----2o3u2i2f.Iw14AxkA.Aw1-EA==

It'll get you to some of the local tourist spots and closer nebulas, but you can't do planetary landing stuff. Dems da breaks with that cash limit, afaik...

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

Blind Rasputin posted:

My vulture doesn't have the jump range to leave the system without an A class FSD?

FSDs are the only component which will always offer a performance bonus over the previous model.

In other words: a 4E FSD will always take you farther than a 3A and a 4B will take you farther than a 4C!

That being said, it would be classic FDev to put it up for sale in a system you couldn't get it out of...

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

SkySteak posted:

OK just before I make an exploration ship, is it a bad idea to put weapons on one? I understand that you really shouldn't be in a fight but being completely defenceless sort of rubs me the wrong way. On top of that, do you really need a cargo bay? I am looking a Dimondback Explorer and I am wondering weather to just load almost all of it with fuel tanks scans a decent fuel scoop and a discovery scanner.

Edit: Anyway to get permissions to see the Discord or do you have to be a DF member for that?

This is the one I've used for my SagA* trip: AMFU and heatsink haven't been needed yet, even crashing into a few stars. If I was making a run to Beagle Point, I would fit an AMFU (since you can reup with crafting), but would probably avoid the heatsink. Each one only has 3 shots(?), so they are of limited use anyways.

https://coriolis.io/outfit/diamondback_explorer/0p0tdFfldddsdf5-------32f4432i2f.Iw1kAziQ.Aw1-kA==?bn=Bananarama

After using this a while, I'd recommend avoiding the extra tank and either taking cargo for picking up pods, or a hangar for landing on planets.

When I get back, I will run it like this for planetary landings: https://coriolis.io/outfit/diamondback_explorer/0pataFflddfsdf52b1b1b----32v4402i2f.Iw1kAziQ.EwBjwkEYbMGYAscg?bn=Bananarama%20Mk2

I will swap the shields and thrusters out for the largest versions to make landings safer, and added weapons because I plan on upgrading the FSD, so I'm not bothered by the extra mass. I have never needed guns and haven't seen another human player (or an NPC) since I left the bubble.

Blind Rasputin posted:

Eek. I'm way outside the bubble right now in my first Asp and didn't put heat sinks on it and my distributor is kind of just big enough for one boost if I need it. I have already jumped into binary systems but thankfully on their outside edge.

How many jumps until I die from a tragic space accident?

Never? If you zero your throttle before you land, it is essentially impossible to crash into a star. Coming out of superluminal into a binary system is scary, but you have to try to break your ship via the heat mechanic. Someone had a video of them trying to kill themselves in a star and it taking, like, 10 minutes or something absurd. I'm too lazy to find it, or it's in one of the old threads.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

Fishreds99 posted:

Oh, also if anyone has been paying attention the whole API thing..

FD are actually working on this (pretty slowly) but using what they've showcased so far for the new API, we've been able to produce some cool rudimentary kill-mail type stuff, similar to EVE.

Finally us griefers are going to be able to have official records of our ~dank ganks~

mmmmmm..... ~dank ganks~

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Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

Panch posted:

Is there a hard and fast rule on how the engineers upgrades translate to plain English? Specifically the FSD range upgrade. Does the stage 1 mean I can expect 1-4% range, or do I have to do some math to figure out what my actual (in ly) gain will be based on my FSD size and the gain in optimal mass?

Trying to build a Clipper for Exploration but doing a few very short (~300ly) shakedowns made me feel like 25.22ly was going to be pretty lame for distant trips. I'd be fine if I could nudge this up over 30 (or more!) but I'm also afraid I don't understand what the potential FSD gains mean and I could be grinding for days to get like 2-3ly.

http://inara.cz/galaxy-engineers

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