Last night I decided to mix it up. A few days ago I mentioned in RK's thread that I had noticed my max distance from start was 426 LY. That seemed rather pitiful. I have an Asp Explorer but I don't really explore in it. I say I do, but really I'm just 'discovering' systems that thousands have flown through before. So I started thinking about doing some deep runs far from anywhere. Actual exploring. One of the things I want to do in Elite is to get discovery credit for a new system. I have no idea how possible this is, or how far I might need to go. But it is one of the goals I set when purchasing Elite.

I decided to make a test run. The goal for this hop was to surpass that 426 LY and set a new personal record. I flew the Asp back from Sol to Cleve Hub to reconfigure. I thought about swapping my A-rated modules for D-rated, to decrease the weight and increase the jump range. If I'm serious about exploring and setting the ship up properly, this is the way to go. But I did not. The only thing I did was swap the first class passenger cabin for a 1A repair limpet, which I have no idea how to use, or even if I can use it on my own ship, but it did give some peace of mind. As outfitted, it was 31 jump range. That would work fine.

And off I went. I used the galaxy map, rolled the mousewheel to zoom out and picked a star on the edge on the visible ball and plotted a course. I picked a KGB FOAM star and started jumping. In each system I ran a scan (advanced discovery scanner) and also scanned the star. In some systems I scanned planets if they were fairly close to the entry point.

I continued to hop from system to system, venturing further in to the unknown. Near the edge of the Bubble I was being interdicted a few times, but simple enough to evade and I continued on. 200 LY, 300 LY, 400 LY and on. At one point I nearly met my doom. My standard practice was to throttle off during the jump. Upon system entry I would point at the star, run my scan and throttle up to get close enough to the star to scoop at about 110/s (I have no idea what unit of measurement the fuel scooping is). When full I just supercruise away and jump to the next system. But one time -- and that's all it can take -- I messed up. I don't know if I forgot to throttle back, or perhaps this star had a crazy amount of gravity, or whatever explanation is possible. But I got too close to the star and started taking heat damage. It also dropped me out of SC. If I tried to jump out, the heat would rise to unacceptable and dangerous levels. I'm stuck at 59% at this point, and the FSD would send that to 124%.

Eventually it seemed I had no other choice, so I jumped at 124% heat. And it worked. Lots of alarms and smoke. But it worked. Dawnbreaker was damaged, not seriously, but it can all add up, can't it? I had the limpet, but wanted to save it in case I continued to screw up. I kept jumping, scanning and scooping until my record was broken, and then continued to jump some more. At 518 light years I decided to start heading home. Mission accomplished, now to reach base without meeting a grisly end.

I plotted a course for Eravate, 518 LY away. It was 25 jumps. Scanned and scooped all the way home and docked at Cleve Hub. I had no idea how much my data would be worth, but I had 12 million in mind. Before checking, I had to walk the dog and other stuff, so just left Elite running while sitting in the hangar at Cleve Hub. When I returned I went to Cartography and saw that my efforts were worth 1,019,350 credits. Disappointing, but Explorers aren't in it for the money

In all it was about 3 hours, 1000+ light years round trip, with over 50 jumps and 53 systems scanned.

And I am going to relate a story that may reveal a flaw in my character, but I seemed powerless to stop myself. I'm not proud of what I did, but I felt like Karma had finally caught up and my cosmic ship had come in.

Anyone that was on last night saw that the servers went down around 9 PM eastern in the States. I guess when this occurs everything functions normally. You can fly around, land at stations, all seems normal. But when you attempt to do something like check the mission board, or the ship store they won't load. After walking the dog I sat down to claim my exploration ducats. I clicked Sell Page and the bank balance went up by one million, as expected. But, after a lengthy 'stand by', the exploration data didn't clear.

At this point I am unaware that there is a server issue. I just assumed that the game takes a while to process so much exploration data, and that something had glitched. So I clicked Sell Page again. Another 1 million in the bank balance, and the data still didn't clear. So I clicked it again. Another million. Hmmm.

I continued to click another 108 times, until I had 161 million in the bank. I'm sitting there thinking, can Frontier spot this? Will I be banned for doing this? I have enough to get an A-rated Python now! Is anyone looking? What will people think when I say on the forum tomorrow that I took my Python out. How'd you get that DBond? Well, err, I kinda cheated.

I went to the ship store to have a look in the shop window (and to buy a freakin' Python with my ill-gotten gains), but it wouldn't load. Uh-oh. I've been banned.

I logged out and then tried to log back in. Arrgghhh.....

Came here to see if anyone had posted about having server issues. Nada. Oh sh!t, they found me out. I've been banned. All those hours of play for nothing. Karma indeed.

I then checked the Frontier forum and it was filled with posts from folks having connection issues. Whew! Checked this morning and I have 51,000,000 in the bank and no Python. But I am now a 'Trailblazer'.

All's well that ends well!

I’d have kept clicking too! LOL
Exploration would be fun, but I want it to be more automated. If you could set it to scoop and jump, plot your own custom course, sit back and relax, I’d do it. I want to be able to avoid interdiction and have the ship travel back home overnight, unattended. Set the ship to jump, scoop, travel to orbit each planet in the system in a cinematic way, move to the next planet at random, jump...repeat. It would be fun to just leave it running like a screensaver to watch.
I saw a video that said only about .013% of the galaxy has been explored. It will take years just to reach 1%. If you could buy some advanced exploration systems like I mentioned, , even if they take up multiple slots onboard, I think you’d see more of it done.

Some of the bigger stars do that, I think. They're so big that the distance from the jump-in point and the area where you get pulled out of SC is very small and it can catch you unawares. Next time it happens, lock onto the star, put it right behind you, and fly outwards for a few minutes. Then jump to SC while releasing a heatsink beforehand. Should limit the heat damage, and with you pointed in the exit area already, you should be into SC straight away.

BTW, 25 jumps is nothing... one of the member here took about 3 days IIRC to get back to normal space.

Yeah I know, I wasn't thinking it was anything special. It was just a test hop. But a new PB, and a new rank, and almost a Python!

Heatsinks are something I should fit.

As you started an exploration thread...... I found out something surprising.






The Diamondback fit comes to 14.8M credits while the Asp fit comes to 41.4M credits. I think that just unseats the Asp Explorer from the best exploration ship available. Not only can the DB jump further, it also seems to have the best mileage. 226LY for 32T fuel compared to 184LY? What's up with that? Looking at E:D Shipyard, the Asp is more maneuverable, but that shouldn't be much of a concern for an explorer ship.

Very interesting Ice,thanks. I use my Asp Explorer for exploring (duh!) and running missions. I will check out the DB after looking at those figures.

The pricing alone allows new players to start exploring early or allows older players to try out exploring for just a few million credits. The only possible factor to skew in favor of the Asp is the ability to mount a 5A fuel scoop and how that would greatly speed up scooping and thus, speed up travel. Put in a fuel scoop and a detailed surface scanner and the Diamondback only has 1 slot left (SRV hangar?), so the Asp also has a little more versatility but again, at cost.

I've always read the Asp has the superior JR. If it's true the DB does, then yes, perhaps it might be a better ship for exploration. It is far less expensive and arguably better looking.

But in virtually every other way the Asp has it beat. And for the money, it should.

I will add that a few lightyears in JR makes little to no difference in practice. In the mission described in the OP, I had 31 JR, but virtually all of the jumps that were plotted were in the 25-27 LY range. Perhaps it saves you a few jumps on a long trip, but that doesn't make much difference, in my opinion.

The Asp can fit whatever you need, and do other stuff. But we aren't talking about multi-role, just Exploration. In that case the DBX is an excellent choice, especially on a budget.

For the Asp I'd do the following;
Reinforced Alloy
3A Power Generator
5D Thrusters
5A FSD drive
5D Life support
4D Power Distributor
5C Sensors
5C Fuel Tank
____________
6A Fuel Scoop
3D Shield Generator
Advanced Discovery Scanner
Docking Computer (hey no weight)

Jump range 31.1 LY, Max 33.4 LY

Jump -- Scoop -- Honk

Wingy

Speaking of scanners.....

I don't have a detailed surface scanner. Looks like I could have made an extra 300k or so on my trip. Will get one ASAP.

DSS is only good for scanning planets IIRC. If you've only been scanning stars, I don't think it'll give you any more money.

As for the Asp vs DBE, 42LY can be a big deal over 3 or more fuel loads and the extra legs can be beneficial once you get to the outer fringes where I hear stars are further apart and it looks like every additional LY jump capability would be useful.

I tried refitting the DBE similar to WingNuts' design but still with weapons and utility mounts and I end up with 37.43LY max, 34.59LY unladen, which makes me ask, what's the difference between max and unladen? I can understand the difference between laden and unladed (with or without cargo), but what's the difference between max and unladen?

As you burn off fuel you lower weight.

Wingy

Went out and bought my DBE on a LYR system 32.5LY jumps so a touch better than my Asp Explorer. Going around space now collecting previously-acquired rewards and bounties. About time I cleaned up my lists.

How do you like her Ice? I think having one of these set up as a pure exploration ship is a good idea. I'd like to hear your thoughts on the ship.

Good for travel, but I've not flown her in VR yet or with a TrackIR, so can't really comment very well. I like the idea of having better jump range and distance, but I've never really had the need for it yet. I just like having it, just like having a M.2 NVME drive compared to an SSD drive.

It's refreshing to fly a ship that doesn't drift as much as my Cutter, but then again that's mostly true for smaller ships anyway.

Do you have to make any compromises due to limited internals?

Bumping my Exploration rank has had an unexpected knock-on. I've been struggling to make what I would consider good profit per hour since I've come back to Elite. But I just landed from a good one, a sightseeing tour. These are linked to your explorer rank. This one took me about an hour. It was two stops, and the furthest was 152 light years. You need to go to whatever spot the tourist wants to see. Visitor beacons, terraforming sites, and so on. They tend to be to some of the most beautiful spots in Elite, as a nice bonus. The payout was 5.4 million, plus another 100k in exploration data. That's good money for the time investment. The Asp X is perfect, with a long jump range and the ability to carry good sized (class 6) passenger cabins. Plus the nice Lakon cockpit lets you enjoy the view along with your passengers.

Well now, I do believe I have found a new profession. Made over 20m today running these sightseeing tours. A word of warning though, the arrival distance is not displayed on the mission offer like some others. So you won't know until you get there, unless you already have the system data, and that could mean some long flights. The longest I had today was 189,000 Ls, or about 14 minutes real time.

If it's just for travelling, not really. The Asp is clearly more versatile, but for just going from A-B, the DBE makes it quite painless.

Ever get jumped on the passenger runs? The salvage runs bumped my explorer rank up a lot IIRC. I’ve seen some good paydays on passenger runs but I was wondering what the catch is. Is a big fuel scoop needed or just as a back up while mainly fueling at stations?
Maybe store the reinforcements in favor of fuel tanks? Need a big discovery scanner?

I like to have an Advanced Discovery Scanner in every ship. They cost over a million, but they will pay for themselves, and you can just honk it when you enter the system and reveal all of it. I added a Detailed Surface Scanner today and am now getting the level 3 scan credits. In the past few days I've gone from Surveyor to Pathfinder, and it's netted a good chunk of change. About a million in all I'd guess, but every bit helps..

My Asp has a 3C scoop. You can go bigger, but I opt for cabin and shields in the bigger slots. I actually just bumped my shields down from 5A to 4A and pocketed the 3 million. All I need is protection from bumping in to things. I do get interdicted a fair amount, but I've yet to not successfully evade in this game, unless I choose to submit. On these passenger trips I just evade.

If I am reconfiguring for deep exploration, I'll switch the cabin out for a bigger scoop, but I think for these passenger missions and sightseeing, 3C is fine. I tend to top off at every scoopable star, 'cause you never know when you'll get 3 or 4 unsccopable ones in a row. ya know?

I made a lot of money today doing this. The missions are a nice change of pace, better than A to B hauler hops anyway. And the fact that it's boosting the explorer rank is a plus. And with so few good paying solo cargo missions at the moment, these are awesome.