I am able to read twixt the lines and am not falling for such chicanery!

Stop reading and start recording!! My popcorn is getting stale!

No skimmer action yet, sorry to disappoint. But you never know.

All of my ships have an advanced discovery scanner and a surface scanner. I don't like arriving in an undiscovered system and not having them. I feel compelled to scan stuff. So as I fly around the data keeps on accruing. My most valuable system had been about 400k and that was back in the summer when I really wasn't paying much attention to it. Must have just honked a really good one. Since coming back to Elite I've been religious about it, but of the many systems scanned since, none had broken the 400k. Until tonight when I hit a good one. I'm not sure why it was so valuable, The three high-paying planets here are all water worlds. 600k for one planet! 1.2 mil in all and I left 5 or 6 distant planets unscanned. Turning in this single system to Elvira got me to grade 3 rep all by itself. It's worth a visit for any explorer.

Sorry, why are you giving her exploration data for rep? You'll build enough rep with her by upgrading your modules; you're basically just giving her the data for free.

Well, not exactly free, since she pays the same as everyone else.

I arrived at her station with a Asp X that already had a grade 1 FSD. I wanted to upgrade it to grade 2. Turning in exploration data meant I could do so without any other upgrades.

I have a lot of it, and I like to keep it on hand to quickly boost rep wherever I need to. Arrive at a new station, turn some in and go to Cordial, get better missions. A little more and you're at friendly. A nice bullet to be carrying around.

I mean free as in you were going to get the rep gain anyway.

If you docked with a Grade 1 FSD, then you can upgrade it to Grade 2 straight away if you have enough rep for Grade 2 work. If you docked with a Grade 0 FSD (stock) and you have enough rep for Grade 2 work, you'll still need to get that module to Grade 1, then Grade 2. Any reason you're working on Elvira anyway? Shield Gen? Felicity Farseer can do FSD and Thrusters. Persoanlly, if I wanted Shield Gen work, I'd go to Lei Cheung. I'd unlock via the Dweller but that's fine as he can do Grade 5 Power Distributor which is always handy, plus he can do Grade 3 Beams.

Are you giving me the optimal path?



The answer's in there, somewhere

Yes, I wanted to upgrade shields.

If you want to pay for the same thing twice...


So you could've gotten by with selling a much less valuable set of data, just enough to get rep for Grade 2. Besides, how can you get a Grade 1 Shield Generator but not have enough rep for Grade 2? Again, if you've not modded your Grade 1 Shield Gen enough to qualify it for a Grade 2 mod, it doesn't matter if you have enough rep for a Grade 5, you'll still have to mod that Shield Gen through all the other grades.

Still, why work on Elvira as she can only get to Grade 3 shields? Lei Cheung can go up to Grade 5, and you'll have the same issues again with him. You'll get to him and you'll have a Grade 3 Shield Gen but zero rep with Lei, so you'll either have to sell commodities to build up more rep or bring a Grade 0 module to mod up through the grades and gain rep that way (or both).

I've been working on my Asp X, engineering the FSD and other bits to increase the jump range. There is still a bit of room to improve, but this is what I've managed so far with the explorer build





It's grade 4 FSD and has the mass manager experimental effect. It's fully mission capable with the SRV, wake scanner, ADS and surface scanner, AFMU and shield boosters. You can go with an even smaller shield generator and increase jump range further, but I need the safety margin and even with two boosters, it's not that strong. But it is enough to save me when I do something stupid. I also have an A-rated life support. All of my other ships have D-rated, which should be enough for any activities in the bubble. But the Asp is my deep diver and I opted for the heavier life support just in case, to buy me extra time should it all go very wrong. I also opted to keep weapons on all six hardpoints. I never use them, and could jump even farther by shedding some. But you never know!

I'm also running it for sightseeing, as the increased jump range makes these a good quick money maker. I swap the SRV for a 3A scoop and with a class 6 passenger cabin it gets a jump range of 39. There is still one grade to go, so can squeeze a bit more out of her. Before starting engineering, my Asp X was getting 26 light years with the class 6 cabin, so we've gained almost 14 light years, which is fantastic.

Ended up pushing 50 light years jump range, depending on configuration. What a difference that makes. It shrinks the universe a bit anyway.

Here'a shot I liked, my Asp X returning to pick me up after a moderately successful SRV deployment to find phosphorous and arsenic.

Great view DBond!
While on the subject, when one has filled the SRV with stuff - are you supposed to use that solely to upgrade the SRV or can I access and sell it once back at a station (I fail to see all my collected goods when in station)?

Well, there are at least two types of things you can gather, commodities, and materials.

The SRV can only hold two units of commodities, but a lot of materials. Commodities will show as cargo. materials can be seen in the right panel (4 key) under inventory>materials. You can't sell it per se, but you can trade it at a materials trader. Materials are used for engineering.

If gathering commoditiies, you can make multiple trips back to the ship and upload them to make room for more, up to your ship's cargo limit in tons. But at 10k per unit or whatever, I don't even bother. It's the materials I am after. Most everything is useful, but for the engineering paths I've gone down, arsenic and phosphorus seem especially precious. Still, I recommend you scoop up everything.

Personally I don't bother with any commodities when in the SRV, but I do scoop up any occupied escape pods I find. Makes me feel good to rescue these poor lost wayward souls

Another screenshot of my adventures. I could have taken a much more striking shot, but I was too busy admiring the beauty of this planet. I changed FOV a bit to 65.

I managed to turn those "orbital lines" off somewhere, makes for an even more immersive view.
You can really feel the deep space.

Yes, I considered that but left it on for a few reasons. But no doubt the screenshots would look better without them. I just snap 'em as I see 'em

The time is drawing near, when I take my Asp X in to the void. I need to go on a trip at least 5,000 light years from my starting location. I have not been more than 518 light years from my starting location! So that is like 10 times farther. Goodness gracious.

I am wondering about a good destination for this trip. Where did you guys go to unlock Palin?

Also, I keep reading about the potential deadly hazards that I might encounter. Like jumping in and being in the middle of four stars. Or neutron stars, they are dangerous? What does it mean to use a neutron star to jump farther? What perils and pitfalls might await me? What might a white dwarf do to me and my precious ship?

I'll take the Asp, which has been engineered to have a jump range of 49 light years in the configuration I plan to use. I'll take the SRV, a class 6 scoop, a heatsink launcher (maybe more?), A-rated life support (costs one light year jump range over the D-rated), an AFMU.

Who has done a trip like this? Where did you go? What did you take? What did you regret you left behind?

I am pretty sure I have a long walk before I can advice you on things like this, but.
Here's hoping you log your adventure in detail, with pictures.
and autographs.


Good Luck DBond, we believe in you!

Wanna come with?

Yes, I will chronicle this journey for posterity, as my grandkids will want to know what became of pop pop.

First, I need an interesting destination. Something to look forward to at the end of the outward leg. 100+ jumps to see a potato planet just won't cut it.

I would still need to fly back. Let's see, carry the 13, divide by three, and err, that's like 10,000 light years!

I just had an idea. You thought you smelled smoke right?

Maybe I should just take one of those obscenely long sightseeing trips that exceeds the 5,000 ly line. I'm going to make a lot of explo data money, and may as well get paid to take someone along with me. Will have to stop ignoring those insane potentially perfect missions and see if one fits the criteria.

Man did this forum die a quick death! Everyone burned out in like two weeks. Not giving up, and I will somehow decide on a destination for this expedition on my own.

Been thinking most of the day about various little alterations I will make to the build.

I will have a look at the passenger board, but I'm not sure about making this a sightseeing jaunt. Maybe if I can find one that is going about the right distance, isn't averse to danger, has no schedule to keep and is not demanding..., then maybe I will take him or her along. But a cabin will cut in to the jump range a bit, and force a rethink of shields and or scoop. So we will see.