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Count Nerfedalot
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Reply #2240 on: May 07, 2019, 08:08:10 AM

I tried a bit more laser mining in the Python and was finding it tedious so I swapped back to my Asp and started puttering around the bubble doing ranking missions and looking for a good system to base out of. Currently Jameson Memorial is home, or at least it's my garage. Handy for Federation stuff but less so for Empire and downright inconvenient for Alliance. I decided to try some new stuff and picked up a Planetary Scan Job and a Mine Praseodymium mission, both +++++ Rep.

Getting a bounty on me, losing Rep and being wanted by the Federation for doing the scan job did not align well with my long-term goals so I don't know that I'll be doing much more planetary scans. At least not unless there's some way I haven't figured out yet to tell who I'm going to piss off BEFORE accepting the mission. But my friendly lawyer got me out of that one easily enough.

So, faced with more laser mining and having over 2 billion in the bank now I bit the bullet and dropped a quarter billion on A-rating a Type 9 Heavy I've named "Greed Is Good" and fitted it out for mining with 512 cargo, 3 medium lasers, controls for 9(!) Collector limpets, prospector limpets, DSS, and big honking Shields and fuel scoop. LOLOLOL what a beast. It's like going from a Spitfire to a B-17. But without the giant trail (thank goodness!) So maybe more like a YB-35. LOL. It's got a jump range of 20ly, and a cruising speed just over 100 though it boosts to double that. It rolls and turns like a 747 and can stop on a dime as long and that dime is about 5 minutes away from you.  why so serious?  If I put 4 pips to Shields and 2 to engines for negotiating the mail slot I can blast through at full throttle without exceeding the speed limit! LOL

I took it out for a shakedown cruise and went to a good Painite site. I had a blast. It took me about three hours for the whole round trip.  That included jumping out 5 hops (scooping instead of having to dock to refuel) mining till the hold was full (dumping 150 of the 400 limpets I started with LOL), jumping 5 hops to the nearest high price sell system (dodging at least one attempted interdiction solely because I scoop and jump so fast he couldn't get a line on me in time), selling 460 Painite then jumping another 4 hops to turn in the Praseodymium (fighting off another interdiction attempt that I missed escaping completely by less than a second). And made over 350 million, more than paying for itself in just one run.

Yes, I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
01101010
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Reply #2241 on: May 07, 2019, 09:05:48 AM

Now that it has been mentioned, I did notice an increase in limpets getting stuck on the rocks and then timing out which is basically a crash, but without the ability to send out another one till the dumb one dies off.

Likewise, I noticed that sometimes a chunk of material would pop off the rock, but the asteroid would 'absorb' it so the material would be inside of the rock. Not sure why there were no collision physics put on all the materials or more likely something caused the collision physics to glitch out. No matter... I'd still take this type of mining over the old school surface shooty thing any day.

Does any one know where the love of God goes...When the waves turn the minutes to hours? -G. Lightfoot
Count Nerfedalot
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Reply #2242 on: May 07, 2019, 10:06:00 AM

Yeah, they supposedly tried to fix the chunk-inside-the-asteroid problem with the last patch by shrinking/smoothing the bounding box and making them pop out more vertically from the surface. I didn't see any chunks get stuck inside last night, but I did still get a couple stuck against the body of the rock that killed limpets until they drifted away a bit. Though with 9 limpets running the only way I'm likely to notice is when it suddenly tells me it's programming a new one. Oh ho ho ho. Reallllly?

I've configured my firegroup to have all mining lasers AND all collector controllers on one button, and the prospector controller on the other. Works very well, I never changed firegroup the whole time I was in the ring, and never once worried about if I needed to launch another limpet as they Auto launched if needed every time I fired the mining lasers.

Another trick to minimizing limpet stupidity is to keep them on a tight rein. I use all D-rated collector controllers so they can't wander very far, I think it's only 0.75km. That keeps your limpets close with very little room for a rock to get between you and then. Any chunks that drift out of that range can just wait till you've finished mining the rock and collecting the stuff near it, than you can move towards them and the collectors will dash off to get them as soon as they are in range.

Yes, I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
Count Nerfedalot
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Reply #2243 on: May 09, 2019, 09:16:31 PM

Nearing 3 billion now. Puttering around with this and that, trying out different mission types for faction.  Still haven't gotten the guardian FSD booster or most of the engineers yet, though I've done a lot of the prep work for the engineers and have tons of mats.

Lots of sights to see in the bubble and vicinity, the cool stuff isn't limited to the great beyond. Which is a good thing because they broke the FSS in several different ways with the last patch and I can barely stand to use it now. Would really suck if I was still out exploring systems!  I'm good for maybe one or two systems a night now before I get stabby and start imagining dropping black holes on whatever idiot thinks zoom out on a telescope/scanner should go anywhere but RIGHT WHERE IT BLOODY WELL WAS. Idiot.  I am pretty sure whoever did that doesn't use a mouse to play, and it either wasn't tested with a mouse or any feedback from mouse users was ignored/overruled.  QA and testing in general do not seem to be this lots strong suit.

This moon has an interesting view of it's deep blue parent. And it seems to be outgassing a little bit of wispy atmosphere as well, maybe caused by the sunlight? Kind of hard to check and tell if it's misty at night! LOL 


Yes, I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
Count Nerfedalot
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Reply #2244 on: May 10, 2019, 10:48:42 PM

Well.


That was interesting.  I got pulled over by the Thargoid cops! LOL  Yanked me out of witchspace while warping between two systems, shut down everything, and scanned me, then turned the ship back on and warped away.

Other news for the night is I got Professor Palin unlocked and pinned Dirty Drives blueprint.

Yes, I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
Count Nerfedalot
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Reply #2245 on: May 15, 2019, 05:26:15 PM

It looks like yesterday's patch fixed the worst of the FSS bugs they introduced with the last patch to fix the previous patch. The jury is still out on what they broke in this patch to fix what the patch to fix the patch broke!   awesome, for real

I'm still having a blast with two very different kinds of mining, laser mining Painite or Low Temperature Diamonds and cracking Void Opal cores.  You can make decent money at either just by going out and doing it with a minimum of thought and preparation, though finding cores takes more skill and patience than finding rocks with painite in them. Lots and lots of money with a bit of practice and knowledge.  https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteMiners/ is an active and valuable resource for doing the grunt work of sifting through all the ED mining facts, myths and outdated info.

I've over 3 billion in the bank now so I'm thinking of buying a Beluga and outfitting it for mining. LOL I renamed my Type 9 to "A Bigger Boat", then swapped it for the Python "Failure To Communicate" which I refitted for both laser and core mining with 3 Medium Mining lasers and controllers for 10 limpets plus 128 tons cargo. So I may reuse the name "Greed is Good" for the Beluga. I still haven't fired a single shot from a ship. I'm eligible to get Federal Assault Ships now, but I'm just not interested in combat for now.

So here's a couple mining pics:







I'm also still puttering around ranking up in both the Imperial and Federation Navies and working on engineers. I tried a couple +++++ rank mining missions which were kinda OK but not as efficient as, say, doing data missions on the Maiani - Ngalinn route which got me two Imperial ranks in a couple hours.

I still haven't done the Guardian stuff at all. 

I've spent a lot of time cataloguing planetary rings for potential mining spots, which gratifies my OCD side and annoys my ADHD side.   why so serious?


Yes, I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
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Unreasonable


Reply #2246 on: May 15, 2019, 07:07:43 PM

I jumped back in for the first time in ages, I managed to remember how to take off and land, and that was about it. Such a complicated game, need to have a laptop open next to me with a cheat sheet.
Count Nerfedalot
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Reply #2247 on: May 16, 2019, 11:05:05 AM

Yes, I'm running two monitors and always have several windows open in the second with various reference materials or tools for ED, usually including a keyboard map although I'm needing that one less and less.

Remembering how to land is a pretty good first step! From there you can at least start doing non-combat stuff.

I gained two more Imperial ranks last night doing the Mainani - Ngalinn run (plus buying some indulgences/bribing officials/donating a few millions to Noble causes), making me a Baron and allowing me to buy the Corvette Clipper (doh!), so I may be getting that instead of a Beluga next.

I also did a little 9 hop trip to a new mining spot I wanted to check out, scanning, mapping some rings, and searching for HGEs as I went. I ended up having to make a little detour to a Material Trader, twice (!), as I found (and traded) over 100 Imperial Shields (grade 5 manufactured material for engineering) just on that trip.

When I arrived at my target destination it was already pretty late so I decided to postpone mining and just map all the rings there. But I encountered the same old DSS bugs which slowed me down a lot and I didn't even finish that before I went to bed.
« Last Edit: May 16, 2019, 12:00:10 PM by Count Nerfedalot »

Yes, I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
Count Nerfedalot
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Reply #2248 on: May 25, 2019, 12:45:09 PM

Still playing this every night, having a blast puttering around. Mining a lot (over 4 billion cash now, plus several A-rated ships of all sizes), prospecting some, material gathering some, running missions for rank some, and unlocking engineering some. I've still not started the guardian stuff though! LOL

I got tired of mining with my Type-9 dredging barge, though the refitted Python has been a lot of fun for both laser and core mining. The barge is too slow, too hard to maneuver, has too short a jump range, crummy brakes, horrible convergence pattern on the lasers, and is way too stressful taking twice as many jumps to get anywhere as my Python while trying to avoid interdictions to get a hold full of valuable ore to market.  Nice view though.

So i finally bought a Beluga last night and fitted it out for mining. Yes, I went and bought a brand new state-of-the art luxury liner (top 1% you know!), gutted it, and replaced the carpeted walls and luxury suites with bulk ore holds and a mining refinery and took it out to break rocks.  Oh ho ho ho. Reallllly?



It's almost as much fun as the Python, and holds twice as much.  I spent last night running around the bubble to the varous engineers I've unlocked, and leaving some paint on the mail slot of every station I've been to I think.  That's why I don't fly without shields!  Well, that and the 25% hull damage I took on top of the shields when I boosted into an asteroid this morning on it's shakedown cruise.  And an otherwise very successful cruise it was, to the triple overlapping Low Temperature Diamond hotspot. Two hours pad-to-pad and I harvested 250 tons which sold for 303 Million, more than covering the 200 million or so it cost me to buy and outfit it after discounts.

Unlike the Python, this one can't really be well-equipped for both laser and core mining, so it's a dedicated laser miner.  I'm thinking of getting an Imperial Clipper for core mining, as I can't figure out anything else to do with one and I worked so hard to get the rank for it! LOL

Yes, I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
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Reply #2249 on: May 26, 2019, 06:09:09 AM

Great pic!
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Reply #2250 on: June 13, 2019, 07:53:49 AM

I have just completed the Distant Worlds 2 expedition. Made it to Beagle Point. Now all I have to do is get home.

MahrinSkel
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Reply #2251 on: June 13, 2019, 09:01:02 PM

So, yeah, I've been playing. Didn't do the "Road to Riches", ran missions until I could fit out an Asp Explorer (yes, I know the DBX is better ranged, but the AspX maneuvers much better in cruise, that lets me make up in time between jumps what I lose in jump range, and it can carry a 6A scoop so that fuel stops are short). Ran out to Cupid's Arrow, shooting every O or A system in the series. No engineering yet, so that took a while (25ly range, 2500ly away). Came back with about 120M worth of data, which I spent on a Fer De Lance. Didn't like the Ferdie, maneuvers like a beached whale and doesn't have enough cargo space for fetch-it missions or mining. I traded it in on a Python so i could do some mining for engineering mats. Really like the Python as a GP boat, mined myself enough mats for decent engineering. Found an...anomaly in the pricing for Painite in one system (selling for nearly 1M per unit, galactic average is 80K)) and milked that for a quick 200M before the system caught up and dropped the price.

Bought a hot rod with the profits: Mamba, fitted out for pure combat. Burst Turrets with Scramble Spectrum and Long Range Weapon, a 4F gimballed multicannon with LRW and Auto Loader, shield tanked with a chaff launcher and point defense. If i can't outshoot it, I can run away from it, and most of the things that can potentially crack my tank can't keep a bead on me with their heavy guns while I spin around them. Found out that if you accidentally shoot a pirate victim while trying to kill the pirate, things quickly spin out of control. Oh well, never liked the Alliance anyway.

Figured out that the corridors on the way to points of interest (labelled nebula, galactic center, outer rim) are heavily explored, took my now partially engineered (35ly range) AspX 3000ly in the least interesting direction I could find. Sure enough, everything is completely unexplored. Set a routing filter to exclude the trash systems (anything smaller than K), just puttered around for a weekend seeing the things nobody has ever seen. Turns out, most of them aren't that interesting.

Most of them. Found a system with literally *every* rare/very rare Raw material, about half of them in crystal gardens, the others in Geological POI. Turns out that "Crystal garden on hillsides" is 'hard mode' for SRV's. Two *long* trips because I had to blow my SRV's after they got irrecoverably stuck, wedged into a crystal. On the third trip, I realized that if I swapped the 6A scoop for a 6G SRV hangar, I will have 3 spares. Takes 20 minutes to fill the tanks from a 3A soda straw, but that's better than these stupid runs to get a new car.

So, of course, I never get stuck again, even when I'm playing mountain goat trying to pick a Selenium crystal off the top of a 70+ degree slope. But my AspX is now a 50ly ship, even with the ginourmous garage bolted onto it, so whatever.

On my third (and probably last for a while) trip to the bonanza system, after converting most of the first two runs to lesser metals, I'm running out of room for Raws. Hoping if I don't turn in the survey data on it, it won't go in the database and I can keep it to myself.

--Dave (don't ask, the answer is 'no')

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Tale
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Reply #2252 on: June 13, 2019, 09:24:58 PM

I like reading your adventures. You're in your own story, kicking the goals you set up, having fun. Which is what Elite: Dangerous is for.
Tale
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Reply #2253 on: June 15, 2019, 05:09:58 AM

DW2 numbers after cut-off day for the decal.

FLEET ROSTER: 13,605
REACHED BEAGLE POINT: 3,640​

It's a long way. There are still people en route. Most abandoned it.

Here's the view looking back at the Milky Way from Beagle Point. It's 40,000 ly to the nearest starport (the new one near Sag A), or 46,000 ly to Colonia. And then the trip back to the Bubble.

There are a few systems even further out than Beagle Point, reachable now with FSD injections. I went two hops beyond Beagle, then doubled back because reaching the furthest requires a number of jumps without refueling, and I don't want to cut it that fine out here (even though there are probably Fuel Rats around).

« Last Edit: June 15, 2019, 05:41:43 AM by Tale »
Count Nerfedalot
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Reply #2254 on: June 19, 2019, 04:15:31 PM

Congratulations on making it out there Tale, that is really cool!

And Mahrin, I mine a lot and never sell Painite for less than 750K (Inara is my friend), but I've also never seen it for over about 820k, so near 1m is incredible. Nice find!

Meanwhile, speaking of mining, I've bought another ship and converted it into mining.  why so serious? 

It seems that the magic NPC pirates who come after me EVERY time I drop into a ring and often when I'm trying to haul ore to market scale based on my being Elite in Trade, in spite of still being Harmless in Combat.  I'm encountering wings of Deadly pirates, or they're in Anacondas or Type-10's or the like.  I haven't lost a full load to any yet, though I did lose my ship when a second(!) wing(!) of magic pirates dropped in on me right as I was mining my first rock one trip.  Pissed me off, so now I've got a moderately engineered Type-10 miner with massive shields and hull.  I won the interdiction game on my one mining trip so far, so still remains to be seen if the ship can make up for the clueless pilot enough to get me out alive if I ever do get interdicted.

Yes, I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
MahrinSkel
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When she crossed over, she was just a ship. But when she came back... she was bullshit!


Reply #2255 on: June 20, 2019, 09:49:21 PM

Just got lucky on the Painite (it was 915K, as I recall), I've now discovered the buggy goodness of the Triple Low Temp Diamonds Hotspot (buggy because it's clear that everyone is depleting only the center LTD hotspot, even though they get the benefit of all three, meaning what should be a mined out dead zone is still an effectively unlimited double LTD). Planning on making a billion or so before they figure it out and fix it.

Noticed today that I shot through the California Nebula without even stopping to wave. This was significant to me because once the California Nebula seemed way too far away, now it was a blink-and-you-miss-it tourist trap on my way back from a trip 5000+ LY into nowhere to unlock an engineer I don't even really need (Clean Drives 5 would be nice, but not game-changing). And that was a 'day trip', as in that is how I spent my leisure time today.

Noticed a weird formation of A-class stars, what was weird was that not only were they arranged in a rough line (not as neat as Cupid's Arrow, but similar), but the axis of the line pointed straight at the bubble (which is also true of Cupid's Arrow). Not sure if it is coincidence, a bug in the procedural generation (you can't see any of these from Sol, they're 4000+ LY away and behind a nebula, so these are strictly fictional stars), or maybe a clue to something. Going to have to strike out in different directions and see if there are any more like them. Nice thing about 'clues' made of OAB stars is that they stand out 1000 LY away.

--Dave

EDIT: The Ring NPC pirates only spawn when you first approach the ring. If you wait until they turn their nose up at your limpets, or run away before they can scan you, you should never see another (unless you crash/log out).
« Last Edit: June 20, 2019, 10:06:46 PM by MahrinSkel »

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Count Nerfedalot
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Reply #2256 on: June 21, 2019, 07:59:44 PM

OK, here's some info I've learned about the galactic simulator with regards to mining.

Planetary rings (and asteroid belts) are part of the stellar forge world generator output. They are completely static.  A rock with, say 60% Painite, will always spawn in that exact same spot every time anyone moves into that area. Same with cores.  Laser mining is not shared between players, each player gets his own version of the rock to mine with the exact same contents whether they are winged together in the same private group staring at the same rock at that same moment, or in completely different instances with one in Open today and another in Solo next week.  And laser mine-able contents respawn after 2 hours. So if you can get back to the exact same spot 2 hours later you can mine that exact same rock with 60% Painite again. There is NO depletion of rings over time.

Cores are a little different. They are shared across instances, so if you crack one, everyone else will see it as cracked and be unable to crack it for themselves. Cores regenerate after 6 days though. If you are flying around in a ring and see a small dust cloud (not the general overall dusty cloudiness) that is a core that someone else cracked within the past 6 days.  So cores can be temporarily depleted, but not permanently.

What this means is that it is possible (and some have done it and even published the results on the EliteMiners subreddit) to prospect out and map a set of high grade rocks using a hotspot marker as the fixed starting point, which they (or anybody else) can go back to over and over again every two hours (each).  They call it map running and I think they are reliably getting up to 250MCr/hr doing it in the overlapping Painite spots.  Some also do that with VoidOpal cores, though nobody shares maps of cores since someone else running them would deplete the cores for them also for 6 days.

Belt clusters (as opposed to planetary rings) are also static. Cluster #7 around star XYZ will always have the exact same 6 or 12 rocks with the exact same contents. If it's a 12-rock cluster, exactly one of them will have a core, again always exactly the same every time, but if it's been cracked by anyone within the past 6 days it will be a dust cloud and chunks instead of a rock with a core.


Regarding weird star formations, there are several artificial sources of unrealisitc star formations in ED. One is a really weird consequence of using real-world data and the resolution of Earth-based telescopes. This results in grids of stars in certain dense formations which correspond to the pixel resolution of the mapping telescope.  Another is the Stellar Forge algorithm's "voxels" (I forget what they call them).  Essentially an artifact of "pixelization" again, the galaxy is mapped out by the stellar forge in voxels with parameters defining the mass/density of each of these voxel regions.  At places where there are high density stellar clusters adjacent to much lower density regions like between the arms, the result is very obvious cubes of stars with straight line borders. You can get next to one and have half the sky filled with a super dense array of stars and a perfectly straight line separating that from the adjacent low density region with just a few scattered stars. It's really ugly and they are pretty much stuck with it as any change to smooth or blur those lines now would not only wreak havok with the Stellar Forge calculations for literally everything in the galaxy, but it would wipe out all the exploration and mapping that has been done by the players to date.  Another possible source is there is some kind of bug in the client skybox graphics generation that results in stars of certain classes not showing in high density areas after a few jumps, varying based on your graphics card and memory. Once that bug hits, the sky will be vastly less dense until you relog, at which point all of a sudden you will see gazillions of stars from the exact same spot where before you only saw a relative few.

Globular Cluster, minecraft style!


I know about, and rely on the static spawning habits of the NPC pirates in rings.  I've made close to 8 billion credits mining in unarmed ships while dealing with them roughly 4 out of 5 times I drop into a ring. I'm also seeing more and tougher pirates almost every time now than I used to a month ago. Wings of 3 or 4 usually, Deadly or better combat rating and much nastier ships like Anacondas and Type-10s and FDLs instead of Asps and Cobras and Eagles. I'm not sure if this is due to my being double-Elite (though that's been true for a couple months now), or if FDev are tweaking things in the back-end to make it harder on miners to balance how easy it is to get insanely rich by mining.

That time I died to NPC pirates I either encountered an exception that breaks some rules I thought I understood, or I had a VERY unusual roll on the original spawn.  Shortly after I first dropped in on the ring I saw three groups of ships spawn around me.  That in itself is unusual but not unheard of, usually it's one or two groups of 1-4 ships each.  Two of the groups were miners, the third was pirates. I boosted over to the pirates and let them scan my hold full of limpets, then left them complaining about how their children would go hungry that night. While I was boosting away from them, they started attacking one of the mining groups, and then got attacked themselves by security forces.  I boosted quite a ways away even after all contacts had vanished from radar, then settled down into the ring and started prospecting. Found a good rock and was just finishing it up when a wing of pirates showed up and scanned me. I'm 90% sure this was a different wing with different ship and pirate names, but I'm old and maybe I misremembered everything from 5 minutes before. It does happen. This wing caught me with my pants down, cargo bay open, focused on herding the limpets with the remaining chunks of ore while avoiding getting crushed by the 2 spinning rocks in close proximity to the one I was mining, etc.  And a few tons of irresistable pirate-bait Painite in my hold. About two seconds after I realized they were there, they were shooting at me, and continued to do so even after they got attacked by more security forces, and I died before I could get away because I couldn't boost at first and then I had taken too much damage from the lot of them mass firing on me.  

Now, one of three things happened. Either they spawned many (5+) minutes after I dropped into the ring and all the other groups spawned, or it actually was the same group I first saw which I misremembered AND which survived the other miners and the security forces that counterattacked them AND managed to track me down afterwards AND for some reason decided to scan me again even though they already had earlier, or it was another group which spawned at the same time as all the others (making a total of at least 4 separate groups spawning from that one ring entry) but out of my admittedly D-rated sensor range and they avoided getting involved in the other pirate/security kerfluffle while still managing to track me down quite a ways away from where I dropped in. Regardless, somehow I got attacked by NPC pirates several minutes after dropping into the ring and after I had boosted well beyond the point where I had nothing on radar.


Oh, and sadly, Nebulae are not only magnets for every explorer in the history of ED, long-since fully mapped and with little tourist trap pit stop stations set up and all, they also are about the only places to have a decent chance of finding roughly 90% of the cool and unusual stuff that you can't find in the bubble (mostly biological POI's like the crystals at lagrange points and those weird stump things on airless bodies with vulcanism).  It would be nice if there was more new exotic stuff for us latecomers to find and it was in places other than nebulae, but they seem to be more interested in creating new paint jobs than in developing that much explorer content, or if it is out there it's so rare it's literally a one-in-a-million chance to find it.  Admittedly it's a pretty tall order to develop enough content that every snowflake explorer would have a decent chance of finding something new in a game that's got hundreds of thousands of players over many years. But it sure would be cool!
« Last Edit: June 21, 2019, 08:44:53 PM by Count Nerfedalot »

Yes, I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
MahrinSkel
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When she crossed over, she was just a ship. But when she came back... she was bullshit!


Reply #2257 on: June 21, 2019, 08:51:04 PM

One of my thoughts was that the "behind a nebula" was the key, the mixture of observational and procedural data was "packing" these high brightness stars into the blind spots behind nebula. I didn't look behind the Coal Sack when I went looking for the Moties, but it's not that far so I will probably take a look next time I decide to break out of the bubble.

Right now I'm grinding LTD's for a billion to build a pimped Anaconda for going to Colonia. Need to take a few random Neutron Star rides first. I have this vague feeling I should check out Guardian stuff first...but why? Other than the FSD boosters, is any of it worth it, since it doesn't work on Thargoids (which seem to be the Live content focus)?

Making new paint schemes makes money in a very traceable way, although fixing their abortion of a store site would be a better boost to revenue. Having seen how mobile handles "product management", the number of pants on head retarded decisions by PC devs on that front is just staggering, and having a website that actively tries to keep you from giving them money....

Really, should not even be a web site, should be client integrated. But if you just have to use a web site (because Steam IAP support is ass), at least make one that doesn't require stupid tricks before it is willing to take my money.

--Dave

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Count Nerfedalot
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Reply #2258 on: June 22, 2019, 08:05:28 AM

I'm not giving them another dime until they fix some of the blatant bugs that I run into every time I play. Like the disappearing hotspots in brightly lit rings, or the constantly changing FSS bugs (at least the FSS is a good deal better now, only mildly annoying every once in awhile instead of nearly unusable).  It is blatantly obvious that all the A-team developers that have a clue how their 10-year old spaghetti code works have moved on to other projects while ED maintenance and whatever joke of a QA team they have has been relegated to interns and new hires.  They aren't a small startup struggling to make payroll, they're quite well off. No excuse except greed.

I still haven't done Guardian tech yet myself. The Ram Tah mission line is supposed to be fairly interesting content that I'll probably do just for fun if I get bored. And supposedly you can do just enough to get the Frame Shift Boosters in a couple of hours, so I'll definitely do that before my next trip out into the black. I'm starting to feel the call again, but I'm still having fun exploiting figuring out the mining mechanics. 

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Reply #2259 on: June 22, 2019, 05:35:20 PM

So it turns out that the Anaconda actually sucks as an exploration ship. Needs so much fuel per jump that by the time you're carrying enough to be useful, the legs aren't much better than the AspX, and ships that have just enough fuel for one really long jump aren't useful (the 90LY build downgrades the tank, but even the stock version is only good for 4).  Add a 6C fuel tank for 10-12 jump endurance, and range drops below 60. Maneuvers in cruise like a barge (weird, because it's really lively in normal space when you're not using understrength thrusters to save mass), which means maneuvering around stars for jumps takes forever and threading through a system for scans would be painfully awkward.

There are tweaks I can make on my AspX that will chip away most of the gap, and the faster time between jumps will make up for the rest, so I guess I will stick with that as my distance ship. Might try an Orca out, but I suspect it will maneuver like the Beluga, and that's just not good enough when you're making 100+ jumps in a row, instead of 4 to go to market with a load of shiny rocks.

If the placement of the Huge hardpoint was better, I could replace the Mamba as my main combat ship. I might try fixed weapons for it and the Large right next to that, it's got enough maneuverability it might work, but the DPS gains over the gimballed multi cannon are questionable when compared to the higher usable engagement envelope.

Of course with a 7A shield and room for 4-5 shield boosters, it would have one hell of a tank. But if I'm going that way, I'd probably be happier making rank for a Corvette.

Speaking of rank, I made Elite for trade grinding the LTD's, and I'll make it for exploration as soon as I finish doling out the data from that last deep run (at 91% now).

--Dave

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Reply #2260 on: June 22, 2019, 07:08:51 PM

grats on Elite! 

And you sell your data 10MCr at a time in systems you want to gain faction with the controlling faction to get Ally in several places. Also it counts towards Superpower faction (but not rank) so choose wisely.

I loved my Krait Phantom for deep explorer, it's like a roomier AspX.  But with the new slots I think I can refit my AspX without any compromises this time and I'll probably take it out.  Cockpit view is incredible is unbeatable in the Asp, and given that the scenery is what it's all about it's hard to sacrifice that.  Just don't forget the moon buggy :)


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Reply #2261 on: June 23, 2019, 10:11:16 AM

Another advantage the AspX and DBX have over the bigger ships when exploring is the smaller the ship the easier it is to find a parking space.  I was suprised at how hard it was to find a landing spot sometimes even in the Phantom, I can't imagine what a pain it would be in a big ship.

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Reply #2262 on: June 23, 2019, 11:42:52 AM

I don't land very often, and with already having the secret stash, I have even less incentive now. I'm trying out the Orca, it has some tradeoffs, but in balance it's very similar to the AspX:

1) Very similar slots for internals, the Orca has a 4 in optionals where the AspX has a 2, which means I can carry a spare SRV without having to choose between endurance, fuel scooping, and the spare truck.

2) Doesn't pitch in Cruise as well as the AspX (far better than the Anaconda), but has much faster yaw. Star avoidance is slightly slower, but threading planets for scans is easier.

3) Faster in normal space by quite a margin (390 vs. 305). Again, not quite as maneuverable, but not painfully so.

4) Slightly shorter jumps (about 49 vs. 52 LY once all the engineering is done).

5) Runs much cooler, which increases the margin for error on star avoidance.

I think I'll keep them both, when the point of the trip is getting from Point A to Point B as fast as possible use the AspX, when I plan on doing a lot of scanning take the Orca. I built both with the margin for running the Guardian FSD Booster baked in, so when I have that, I just drop a fuel tank for the extra 10 LY.  Distance between tank fills will work out to about 20% less, but distance over time will go up about 20%.

--Dave

Edit; Minor "quality of life" factor: The Orca engine doesn't sound like a dryer full of pots and pans, and overall it flies smoother than the AspX.
« Last Edit: June 23, 2019, 11:48:52 AM by MahrinSkel »

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Reply #2263 on: June 23, 2019, 07:01:58 PM

Heh, I just spent today tooling around in my AspX (starting the Guardian stuff among other things) after a week in my Type-10 and I was slewing around all over the place oversteering like crazy.  And marvelling at having brakes, poor though they may be.

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Reply #2264 on: June 24, 2019, 03:17:01 AM

I did my trip to the core and back with a Diamondback Explorer. Had a great jump range, did handle the heat well and was quickly topped off again for the next jump. If you can manage without automated field repeair units it's in my opinion the best explorer. Fast, nimble, long jump range. I called mine grasshopper.
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Reply #2265 on: June 24, 2019, 04:03:10 PM

I did Colonia and back in a very pretty Diamondback Explorer, for the jump range (back then it was just under 50 ly). On returning to the bubble, I immediately swapped it for my Asp Explorer.

Two reasons: the cockpit view in a DBX is obstructed by two chunky bars that block too much space, and the maximum fuel scoop is slower than the Asp's. The fuel scooping rate makes a massive difference when you have hundreds of jump scoop honk systems to pass through.

Having now crossed the galaxy in the Asp (at 68 ly thanks to today's engineers and guardian tech) I'm still happier in it. The alternatives I'd consider are the Krait (a bigger Asp, as noted) and the Anaconda. You have to really engineer the shit out of a Conda to make it passable as a replacement for those nimble ships, but its jump range and capacity is unchallenged. Mine is back in the bubble though, rigged for mining and a bit of combat. The Asp always feels like home.
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Reply #2266 on: June 24, 2019, 04:54:53 PM

The AspX is definitely the best for me when it comes to putting down tracks, I can maintain a 2 jump per minute pace almost indefinitely. But it runs hot, so you can't get the full potential out of the big scoop. With Guardian FSB, I should be able to get 64ly (with the SRV bay and some other QoL compromises).

The DBX doesn't have the endurance of the AspX, is not much more maneuverable in cruise than the Orca (less if you consider yaw rates), and along with the soda straw scoop means it loses more progress to those than it gains from the range, and it doesn't have the space for either AFMS or an SRV without serious compromises elsewhere.

The Orca can run the same scoop as the AspX, but is so much cooler you can dive straight to the bottom, walk away, and not worry about coming back to heat damage. It loses a little on pacing because it needs about 3-5 more seconds to get perpendicular to the star, but it can make it up with faster fuel stops. I should be able to get it to 61ly with guardian booster and the double garage. It has a decent view (not as good as the AspX, but nothing does).

The Anaconda is just a non-starter as far as I am concerned, in the time it takes to steer past the star, I'd already be on the countdown in any of the others. It would not actually be much faster on long trips because of it, and it would be a continuous aggravation to feel like I was steering through syrup. The *only* thing it would be good for is reaching systems that are just not possible without the range.

--Dave

Edit: Got my double Elite, going to be a long time for Combat, if ever. Going to do some Guardian stuff, get the booster, then look towards Colonia or the deep black.
« Last Edit: June 24, 2019, 05:01:25 PM by MahrinSkel »

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Reply #2267 on: June 24, 2019, 05:57:40 PM

You absolutely can get the full potential out of the 6A scoop with engineering and power management. I can circle suns almost endlessly in my Aspx. Never use my heat sink, never have to pull out of scooping before I'm full. Linked my build a few pages back (posting from mobile and can't go looking for link.)

The steering on the Anaconda also is fixed with engineering.
« Last Edit: June 24, 2019, 06:00:36 PM by Tale »
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Reply #2268 on: June 24, 2019, 07:31:36 PM

You absolutely can get the full potential out of the 6A scoop with engineering and power management. I can circle suns almost endlessly in my Aspx. Never use my heat sink, never have to pull out of scooping before I'm full. Linked my build a few pages back (posting from mobile and can't go looking for link.)

The steering on the Anaconda also is fixed with engineering.
You can't fix supercruise maneuverability, it's baked in. Dirty Drives makes my Mamba dance like a prima ballerina in combat, but she's a fat pig on ice in cruise.  And I can go deep with the AspX, but I can't walk away, take a bio break, go for a soda, figure out why the kids are fighting, mediate a peace treaty, make the youngest a sandwich, realize I don't even know how long I have been AFK, and expect anything other than an insurance screen when I get back. With the Orca, I can.

"Quality of Life" compromises, man.

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Reply #2269 on: June 24, 2019, 08:17:43 PM

*hits "Like" on post above and leaves it at that*
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Reply #2270 on: June 26, 2019, 10:40:54 AM

So I managed to land at the Guardian Temple in the Orca, so close that the turret exclusion zone was actually an issue, so it might not be that hard to find parking spaces. The landing conditions detection seems to be pretty exact, looking at the actual touchdown points of the gear rather than just some arbitrary measure of flatness.

And, yay, now I have the Guardian FSD Booster. Taking the Orca paid off when I lost the first SRV finding out that you can't raise the turret too close to your own ship.

Guess it's time for a trip to Colonia.

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Reply #2271 on: June 27, 2019, 01:06:10 AM

Maybe I'm just weird because I don't like the AspX. I can't even put my finger on it but every time I have to fly mine it subconsciously pisses me off even though it's fully engineered and upgraded. Yes the DBx has a smaller fuel scoop but the last time I did exploring you could basically park it inside the corona of a star without it overheating.

AspX might top up quicker but the constant "Warning! Heat!" and dipping in and out to manage cooling were way more annoying to me than just waiting a little longer. I also had a few close calls where I nearly exploded my ship because I lost concentration after the hundredth jump or so and somehow ignored the heat warning.
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Reply #2272 on: June 27, 2019, 07:14:39 PM

the constant "Warning! Heat!" and dipping in and out to manage cooling were way more annoying to me than just waiting a little longer. I also had a few close calls where I nearly exploded my ship because I lost concentration after the hundredth jump or so and somehow ignored the heat warning.

There should be no constant "Warning! Heat!", and there should be no dipping in and out. I think I had two heat warnings total on my trip to Beagle Point. Build to prevent this, e.g. take the lowest possible power plant and engineer it up. An Asp Explorer rigged for exploration goes something like this.

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Reply #2273 on: June 27, 2019, 08:12:03 PM

the constant "Warning! Heat!" and dipping in and out to manage cooling were way more annoying to me than just waiting a little longer. I also had a few close calls where I nearly exploded my ship because I lost concentration after the hundredth jump or so and somehow ignored the heat warning.

There should be no constant "Warning! Heat!", and there should be no dipping in and out. I think I had two heat warnings total on my trip to Beagle Point. Build to prevent this, e.g. take the lowest possible power plant and engineer it up. An Asp Explorer rigged for exploration goes something like this.
You don't have a cruise AI or docking computer, but you do have a chaff launcher, a mining laser, and a cargo bay? Try This.

Currently on my way back from the bonanza system, figured I would give the Orca a proper shakedown and try neutron boosting, while topping off my materials.

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Reply #2274 on: June 27, 2019, 09:33:35 PM

An Asp Explorer rigged for exploration goes something like this.
You don't have a cruise AI or docking computer, but you do have a chaff launcher, a mining laser, and a cargo bay? Try This.

Solid reasons for all of the above:

DW2 expedition (or me at least) left before cruise AI was introduced. Heading out for potentially nine months on a group activity, I chose cargo bay over docking computer to have the ability to carry any weird finds or pass things between players, like when Thargoid-related items first appeared. This has not been needed.

Chaff is used as sparkly fireworks in group screenshots, which is why I took a launcher. Many explorers carry a small mining laser to get items for synthesis if you get stuck somewhere without enough fuel, range boosts or materials to get out. There was a famous thread on the official forums where a stuck person was saved this way. The mining laser also helped me to quickly participate in the DW2 community goals by handing in one mined item so I qualified for the rewards.
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