More good E3 news on Elite: Dangerous

Since I do not participate much on the ED forums these days, I got a very good summary of where it stands and some very nice news from this excellent ARS article. The title is misleading, there is a whole lot of good information for PC gamers, too.

- An arena-style gameplay is upcoming, but seperate and probably similar to the tutorial missions; I agree, it is a perfect hook for console players or those who like less complicated and more action in a shorter timeframe. Having played myself for some time the SWTOR fighter module, I am not averse to this kind of playstyle and I recon it especially cool that all this will be possible within the same game!

- Braben himself agrees with and understands players like me, who are not very hooked on the latest update "Powerplay". It is to accomodate a certain taste of certain players, and we will get more and different things. Quoth Braben: "You should do what makes you excited. I don’t want there to be a ‘right’ way, because then you’re not necessarily playing the way you want to play." Thanks, David, this restored a lot of faith for me!

- Moar ships still coming. The dearly awaited "walking in ships" and "planetary landings" features are clearly on the list and will be coming. Oculus Rift will continue to be supported. I WANT IT ALL, NOW!

Addendum: Here also an excellent ARS "hands-on" article about the Oculus "Half Moon" controller. Feel the need of a time jump into next year, anyone?

Thoughts and anticipation

Soo... another session in the Kerbal Space Program passed with me trying to figure out a vessel which can bring an actual, full "jumbo" fuel container into orbit. The general issue here is that you need fuel to bring mass out of the gravity well into orbit, and more fuel means more mass, which is a kind of self-amplifying problem. The more fuel you want to bring up, the more engines and fuel you need to use in order to do so, which in turn, also add to the total mass. So, if you need 2 tons fuel for 1 ton mass, the total mass for fuel required for 1 ton payload is not 2 tons fuel because the mass of the fuel has to factor into the calculation, too. You need to calculate the fuel requirement for the total mass of 3 tons. Mathematics mathematics, no idea, but guys like Mr. Moore or Mr. Tsiolkovsky had the idea, and in the end they came up with that famous deltaV formula (Mr. Moore already as early as in 1813, 15 years before Jules Verne was born!) which gives you an idea how much change of speed you can get out of a certain combination of fuel+payload+enginepower, and this is also why staging a rocket is so efficient, despite the waste.

Anyhow, one full session, three completely new and different spaceplane designs, and all failed to reach orbit efficiently via exploiting the highly efficient jet engines. One spaceplane design kept diving nose down once it reached 7km height, even though I experimented with a center of lift way in front of the center of mass; probably a bug. Another time, I put 8 inline airscoops per jet engine, throttled them down as much as possible from 25km+altitude and still they had their burnout at 34km maximum. Similarly, I couldn´t bring my rocket SSTO to higher altitudes than 25 km with jet engines, even though I saw some videos where people where able to do this. And, hell, even I managed to do this two or three times, but it seems really really like balancing on a hair.

Ah, well, it is probably unrealistic anyways to have jet engines which can propell you into orbit and "air hogging" (a very familiar term for long term Kerbal gamers) might be also unrealistic, thusly this kinds of spaceplanes could be considered more as cheating than "playing by the rules". After all, the Kerbal Space Programme is rather about having a almost realistic physics to wrestle with! I guess the mixed LF/jet engines at higher tech levels are really first intended for the spaceplane-design-approach. To get them, I still need to upgrade the science institute, which costs a whopping 6 million of cash...


In the meanwhile, some news on Elite: Dangerous. Frontier has finally unveiled the biggest feature of the coming update on Elite: Dangerous, "Powerplay". Factional warfare, in a much larger scale than this term is used in EVE Online. I can´t say I am surprised, since David Braben always has stressed his idea of a "living" universe where the players can influence power struggles.

I think this is a great idea which will for sure engage and be fun for many players! I am curious about it, too. However, I asked myself if this would make me come back into Elite with the full intensity of my last year´s conviction? No. Re-reading some of my blog entries, it is very clear to me that Elite is for me about being able to have your own goals and being able to interact with the galaxy as a virtual/physical world. Society, human factions and human politics is not something appealing for me out there. Quite the opposite. An immersive virtual world via the Occulus Rift, a realistic galaxy, spaceflight and a certain unexplored "wild west" feeling with the possibility to settle into some of its endlessness for yourself, is more to my liking.

So, by all means, guys, play your powerplays, but I want to goddamn land on a planet and found and build new stuff. I want to be a pioneer and not a pawn as a spy, merchant or soldier, and the pioneer is a little bit of all of those archetypes.

One of the other bigger changes is a revamped mining system. Finally! I wonder if that would serve to make expeditions into the unknown even more profitable than just by selling data?

Indeed it is difficult to explain. I love space games not as a tool for a story about continued human struggles against each other (we will never change, will we?), but as a story itself about the marvel and endless possibility of human existence. Of course there should be struggle, but the goal of the struggle needs to be more for me than just changing a coloured line on a map.

So, Frontier, bring out that "landing on planets" expansion, already! Let us discover things, build our own stuff, and make our own fortune!

As usual, my time is too little to play every game as much as I´d like to... but I am really curious about the final release of the Kerbal Space Programme on Monday and it will surely eat up all of my game time for some more time! What I especially like about the announced new features is that the science module will be now actually useful and give us a reason to have orbital stations (beyond being a meeting point for re-fuels). And of course, more and lots of different contracts: Tourism, science, part recovery, scanning and mining; the latter will also serve to provide for resources like fuel, so hopefully this will alleviate all those attempts to bring up the required significant amounts of fuel into space!

Uneventful

Wregoe EU-K B39-0. I am about 792 ly away from my "home" system Yakabugai. It sure feels farther. My goal was to continue exploring for a bit and reach HIP 46659, a system with a black hole. But first, as usual, I have to get reaquainted with controls and stuff, which takes some time. However, I am a bit screwed. I must have mistyped the system, because the navigation tab does not find it. How then was I able to plot my course already last session? Weird. And very very annoying. Some more tries and I find the culprit: An empty space in front of the first letter. Sigh. It seems I am spoiled by the so much advanced google search interpretation.

I usually do not bother to surface scan gas giants, but sometimes I do when they are close by anyways. As such I discover once more a gas giant with ammonia based life. I am not sure but I think rewards for discoveries have been modified during my absence. Let´s see if Frontier made gas giants a bit more attractive for explorers.

After I scanned about a dozen systems, this session ends uneventful.

 - "sunset"











Quite a break later, I dip again into Elite Dangerous. I just had told some friends about that amazing computer game which tries to simulate our whole galaxy, and by doing so, I suddenly wanted to see it again. So, log-in, and I spend quite some time just browsing through the galaxy map, admiring this wonderful piece of computer programme, knowing that I can visit everyone of those goddamn plenty of stars. By chance, I stumble upon Gliese 398.2. This is another system which contains a black hole, just 498 ly away from current position in HIP 53627, but I cannot reach it with my frameshift drive; too short ranged.

Four systems farther, I think that the two gas planet´s moons look different and resolve to scan them. Nine surface scans later, I am disappointed; its just your standard pieces of rock. Since I am getting a bit bored (such a masterwork of a virtual galaxy, and virually no consequences attached) and I log out again. The latest newsletter about the next update for Elite: Dangerous, called power play, looks very interesting. Apparently, Frontier is going to overhaul the mission system, and it is not going to be the main change, which they still hold back!

- pilot is absent for a little while

Dipping into Patch 1.2

So, my excursion through Kerbal, the new Sid Meier´s Starships and some refreshment of his Beyond Earth are done. The advertised connection between the latter two games is neigh inexistant. A story logic neither. But those games are ok if you want to do some tactical game.

Elite: Dangerous greets me with the installation of a new launcher. The latest update is out, "Wings". And, the game insists again that I play it in German; no, thanks. Of course I am very curious about all new features... wow, the starting screen looks better and better, for once!

The funny moment is always when I have to get to get used again to the specific way the mouse reacts to input for each different game.

 - ah I had almost forgotten the nice view










Arriving in Wregoe IL-P C2 1, I swoop down to scoop some fuel. Ooops, that could have easily gone wrong. The heat mechanic has changed, and I realize it it time when I wonder why the heat does not mount as quickly to 100% as it used to. 100% is bad, under the new game mechanic, already melting my ship modules. I get out of the star´s atmosphere just in time at around 90%.


Nice is also that my head look is not whisked straight forward anymore when the hyperjump countdown starts. And when I look around in the cockpit, my view does not clip throught the seat anymore.

The system I am arriving in has some beautiful blood red double stars; that´s when I remember that Frontier also now allows an external camera for beautiful screenshots. Surprises, nice surprises only, you can also assign a hotkey for the system map, amd also one which re-targets the next system for hyperjump after I scanned something in the system! I am a happy explorer now!

 - very moody






 



It takes some time to assign all keys and it sure still will do so until I feel really comfortable with all those new keys. I need more than ten fingers to play this tune. I happily cruise owards, which takes a while since I just have to play around a lot with the external camera view. 

- yesss, great tool










While I jump and scan, for some systems, I seem to follow the tracks of CMDR Izza. In order to not do so, I have to deviate a bit from my course here. There are plenty of stars for everybody!

And such passes by an uneventful, with some new buttons to play with, game session.

Having climbed the stair of stars

This thread has another report of a longer exploration and some hints where valuable systems are.

From another thread I take it that HIP 63835 is a black hole, so I can finally look up one and see how it is supposed to look in the galaxy map. Ok, an appearance of a kind of blueish giant star, good to know.

This game session goes slow and serene, while I spend my time also chatting, reading, watching some videos. I do some long jumps through a bundle of red stars with only ice planets around (I can tell from the way they look in the system map), until I find a cluster of stars with some more interesting planets about. No earth likes, though, but I scan everything down anyways, since they are still undiscovered. Now and then, I spot another water world, sometimes also a metal rich world with an atmosphere which can be terraformed.

At one point, I enter a system which has a brown dwarf as the last "planet" of the system; it has a ring which does not identify by a surface scan, so I get close to see whether it is ephemeral.
 

It is not, and my ship computer initiates an emergency drop, which costs me 1% of my hull structure. However, the scenery my ship falls into is simply gorgeous. The twilight purple shine intermingles with that immense a vast dusty asteroid belt, which probably should be more kind of a protoplanetary disk, and the light of the milky way permeates this gloom with a golden shine. It sure looks like something proto...

I now really regret that the external camera is not ready before next week. Of course I could fly in the separate beta 1.2 client, but then my exploration would not count on my character name, which is part of "the game" for me. Nono, I am now "at home" in this game, no more beta for me! But this scenery, this was really worth coming here, best moment for this game session!

There are other sights which capture me, and so it goes on and on. This session will consist more of pictures than text, I suspect.

All the while, I was headed again upwards, but now I have landed in another dead end; the next star up there is 40 ly out. There might be other routes, though. I am 1,114 ly away from Yakabugai, the system I had spent most of my time in civilised space, and I have climbed my own stair of stars up to this point. I think I am content about this spontaneous venture. Now, what to do next?

I understand now that travelling to the farthest outer shores require the longest range jump drive I can get. I should rather use my Cobra for a shorter range trip and do some sightseeing. For example, the Horse Head Nebula (about 1400 ly from my current position). A bit farther away still is the Soul Nebula and right next to it the Heart Nebula; about 8,000 ly from here. Whew... I still do not get how big all of this here is.

I spend a very long time just floating through the galaxy map, trying to get a better read on its data and a sence of location. At some point, zooming backwards from Barnard´s Loop, I spot a system with two black holes in it; HIP 11792. A system on the path over there, HD 16440, has a strange denomination called "AEBE5 VI". I think it is a worthy venture to travel the 1,775 ly over there. I probably arrive in time for the new patch next week, to have an external camera for some awesome screenshots.

I get a bit despaired for a moment when I cannot find again my target system; the galaxy map shows different stars, even though I type the same name each time. So I better note down also a neighbouring system, just in case; Wredguia AE-T C3-2. Now the difficult taks is to plot a good course, since the pathfinder resets everytime when I start a surface scan. Very, very annoying. I choose Wredguia KG-O D6-17 as a 978 ly away half-way nav point and start ploughing my way through the stars. This might take a while.

As I plot the course and follow it back to my current location, another star system with a black hole comes into view, HIP 46659! How convenient, so I do not need to travel that far, after all! The first jumps I have to backtrack through my already explored systems, how annoying. Climbing down the stairs of stars. Time for a new soundtrack, Divine Divinity, very well suited for exploring. It was a fantastically moody game in that regards.

So time passes again, I have my course and heading, and if all goes well, those systems on my way are going to be bearing my name as the first discoverer. Logging out.

Getting darker

Wregoe UL-C D13-16. Scans here are still unfinished and I slowly pick my way through the system, while I alt-tab to my web browser and sift through the first reports about impressions from players of the beta version of the 1.2 patch. I finally see the form of the Vulture, a nice little fighter, it seems. If everything goes according to plan, it should be life next week, along with the external camera and the "wings" feature. With it, up to four explorers could share data if working in the same system. I guess anything more would disadvantage the solo player a tad bit too much.

Concerning my unsuccessful tussle with that elite Anaconda some sessions back, I found a very helpful thread in the ED forums. I will for sure follow up on this, but in the meanwhile, I still haven´t satisfied my desire to play explorer. I would want to go out at least by 1000 ly, scan as much systems as possible, and my faint hope is also to find something rare and exotic, not only an earthlike planet, but, say, a neutron star, a black hole, or something I did not hear of yet.

In the meanwhile, two potential winners of the triple-elite contest have emerged. CMDR Onepercent answered some questions and told the community that he needed about 65 days, 12 hours each day. Wow. I knew I would not stand a chance to win this one.

Snap out of revery, interdiction, a Sidewinder was on the scanners before, but got replaced by a Cobra while I was reading the forums during supercruise. Boom, bagging 20,000 CR. I fear at some point alt-tabbing out will cause my destruction, when an Anaconda catches me thusly being unawares... but come on, supercruising for hours is a tad bit too monotonous, even for a relaxing do-nothing evening, dont you think?

- turned out, this was my last interaction with "civilised" spacefor this session








HIP 63420, a double star system with a class G giant star, check. The sky above me has become quite empty of stars. It will soon be time to shift over to a more horizontal heading, I guess.

For some time, I skip surface scans, just to get a bit more ahead; though, the word "ahead" hardly has much of a meaning. Not to sound overly romantic, but also from an achievement perspective: unexplored star systems are near and far now, and being the first discovering a system becomes more and more a normality. Ship encounters seem to have ceased by now.

While scooping fuel, I check the galaxy map for some anomalies, something which is different than the accumulation of red, yellow, white dots. Some black inkish cloud far below me is labelled "Coalsack", too far away from where I am headed. No black hole or neutron star, so far. Earth like worlds still elude me, too. HIP 62112´s last two planets are terrestrian virgin water worlds and two more with atmospheres which are terraformable; I had not seen one for some time now. If this simulation of our galaxy should be remotely right, any future colonist should plan for bringing sea-borne settlements with them. Pure water worlds seem to be a better choice for colonizing, anyways. Never can have enough water, right?

After a while, I check for my modules. The lowest condition is 87%, which is already bad, considering that I did not travel really far yet. I wonder, how did the CMDRs do who went out 10,000 ly and more? They probably just jumped very quickly without much pause in supercruise. Or maybe fuel scooping too close also causes module decay?

- apparently, Cobra does not compare to a german car









Plotting still courses upward, it is a bit weird with only mostly blackness in front of your cockpit. In truth, it varies from system to system; sometimes almost nothing is visible against the blackness, sometimes there are still enough stars so that you don´t think you are just floating around in a dark room. It is probably only the graphic lightning playing tricks, or it might be some dark matter which obfuscates the view a bit from this system, or it might be the angle of view containing only few stars.

The selection of systems becomes smaller, which probably lessens my chances to actually find something interesting. The best thing is probably to continue now anti-spinwards (i.e. counter-clockwise to the galaxy´s rotation), or rimwards. I am not so sure anymore if I should really try to reach some kind of outer rim; chances are I won´t reach it with my Cobra´s jump range. This should probably be postponed to a later expedition, with a super light and long range Asp? After all, I have learned now that ship encounters seem to totally cease after I am out from about 500 ly of settled space, so I do not really need a heavily armed Cobra as I though before; just quickly jump through the first 500 ly and it should be fine.

- seems I did by now cover a little bit of distance to home

Some jumps away, I spot an unusually named system, setting itself apart from all those Wregoe-xxx designations, namely 38 G Carinae. However, google does not give me an indication that or why it was named in real life like this, too. As I arrive there, of course, someone has already before me, and the system does not contain anything special.

It starts to feel a bit lonely, and add a bit of disorientation. As such, I am almost glad to see the occasional system where another CMDR already had left his mark. My expedition feels a bit aimless by now, I might want to re-think my goals for this one. Since it has gotten late, this is a good moment to log out.

- never leave without a fuel scoopable star

Time passes out there

I had a long relaxing weekend (to avoid confusion: I publish my blog entries on a n+1 scedule - editing takes a bit of time!). Coming home late night on Friday, which was an unusual bright and sunny day, I looked up and saw the stars. And I realised, it has been rather long time since I saw the real ones. One of the drawbacks of living in a bigger city, I guess, but also large part due to the largely crappy winter weather which we had the last monthes.

And I also realized that, even though Elite: Dangerous is already a very nice simulation of what could be up there, with some very nice graphics, they never can do justice to the real thing. I realized also, I would be scared to fly up there all alone.

And on top, floating in just a bathtub, which all those cute little vessels in Elite: Dangerous actually are. Hell, even an Anaconda seems to be not much bigger than a Boeing 747. And I am sitting out here in a Cobra, which is merely a little bigger than your average modern combat yet. I think this is one of the few aspects which EVE: Online actually did better; the spacecrafts are more sizeable and thus feel more realistic to me. This galaxy is too big for rowing it in a bathtub.

Wregoe VG-C D13-30. Another white star is close by, but it is only accompanied by gas giants and ring planets, so I move on. By hindsight, probably a mistake, since all those rings could be high metal content and thus bring in some cash. No matter, I want to move on.

My hull is at 94%; leftover from an interdiction where I somehow could not submit properly to. Or maybe already part of the "usage-decay" system?

Some star systems further, again some findings. Even though CMDR Tryfan explored a part of this sytem already, a lot of planets are still "virgin", and many of them have a blueish aura about them. This means again quite some travels in supercruise, but, hey, it is exploration, this is what I am here for, right?

But first, I have to deal with a pesky Cobra pirate. It is nice how they come at you and deliver you their bounty voucher, this time only ~9,000 CR, though. Then I sweep the close-by planets, about 1,000 to 5,000 ls out. Then those close to the next star; about 48,000 ls out. Then the third star; 237,500 ls out...

- this perspective on orbit lines relays a sense of correspondence










This is where I am glad that I installed a second monitor, so I can do something in parallel while doing so... and music, to feel in the Elements. Yes, it sure is a different way to play a computer game. Reminds me of all those old turn based games where you acted when you felt like and thus complemented perfectly to watching that movie or series in parallel, which you always wanted to know but was not too exciting for itself alone. Well, let´s say without a TV, it is just a more serene way to have your leasure.

A bit annoying are the countless asteroid belts, which the nav system treats as a stellar object each. You have to click though all of them to find out whether there might be a planet amongst them. They are not shown in your view either, and I wonder what would happen if they actually were there and you flew through one of them in supercruise with 40.0c... aand maybe that´s exactly the reason why Frontier did not implement them (yet)?

Well, anyways, after about 45 minutes later, having surveilled more than a dozen of high metal content planets and one water world, it is finally time to move on. KK, thx, goodbye Wregoe VG-C D13-28.

- without the illusion of actually sitting in a cockpit, the long travels would be only half as immersive








I move on, this is my third session out there; checking how far I have made it out, it is only about 500 ly from Yakabugai. Amazing. How long did those CMDRs travel to make it so far out as 17,000 ly? I get the feeling that being a that far-out explorer would make me unsuited for continuing this blog on a per-session basis. After all, there is only so much which can happen.

Zooming a bit farther through the galaxy map, upwards where I want to go, the star population thins out notably after about 1,000 ly and finally seems to end at about 1,200 ly out. This is not far enough "up" in order to appreciate a full view of the galaxy with all its spiral arms. More so, I can´t find a route higher up than 500 ly more from where I am; distances between stars increase, and from there on seems to be about 30 ly already. I guess an Asp would be in order to really really get out farthest possible. Yes, I should have thought about this before, but this is the inherent disadvantage of my moment-to-moment playstyle; I just want to get up and running and do something entertaining. After all, real life is full of planning issues already. So, it takes me 500 ly out from civilisation to realize the limits of this trip. Of course I can and maybe will then continue on a horizontal course, as long as I feel like doing so.

- about 1000 ly more up from where I currently am, this star is one of the highest above the galaxy








And such the time passes. A few interdictions, but nothing dramatic; I am not ungrateful, as with each jump, the burden to actually bring home this accumulated mountain of data increases.

Log out.

Lots of nice impressions out there

There, I found an Elite blog which is similar to mine, but focusing on exploration. Great! Welcome! CMDR Zulu Romeo sure has been at it from the very beginning and expertly does wonderful screenshots from his expeditions. I am envious and immediately added some them to my deck of desktop backgrounds. The next update of the game will have an external camera and I am pretty sure that I am going to make use of it!

HIP 66740.The primary star is one of those beautiful class F elven white-golden main sequence stars. 10,000 ls out is a seconday class K yello star, and there are some planets over there which look interesting, although already explored before by CMDR Sturn. Nevermind, there could be an earth like and I want to see it! As I approach, i see one planet with a vertical orbit; it is metal rich. Then, 1,000 ls out there, twin planets, seemingly without an orbit but around themselves. Cute, little dance. One is a water world; the other high metal. Keep them coming! Yep, another water world! And another! All of them are nitrogen-oxygen based! A pity I am not first explorer anymore. But just imagine, imagine, guys, if this game´s simulation had a core of reality in it. How many worlds out there are waiting for us?

- forget about Mars, I say!!!










Their frequency in some systems show that twin planets, just revolving around themselves, without an orbit around the star, seem to be a common occurence, if Elite´s modelling of the galaxy is remotely correct. Ah, see, I found this article about it; it seems worth to look them up.

I take a lot of screenshots. This system fascinates me; probably because I somehow a have a very good "orery like" view on it, which makes for a really good "bird perspective". I jump about a lot, there are many white or yellow star systems on a planar level, so I do not get "up" much yet.

- white star class A in COL 285 Sector NY-Q D5-47










Then I am suddenly again out there, alone. It feels good. The next system is the first virgin system; COL 285 Sector CS-H C11-7. It even has a water world, which is mine now.  But it seems I was luky, after this, more already discovered systems.

A deadly Eagle interrupts. Kill scan costs me another shield cell, and it is not worth it. I must remind myself to stay on my toes, lest I fare the same fate as on my first expedition!

Slowly, imperceptly, the night sky above me gets darker, as fewer and fewer stars dot the sky. Below me, the galaxy glows brighter and more beautiful than ever. all those dust clouds are out of the aay

Wregoe VG-C D13-30 is another virgin system, and it is big; three stars, no planet looks earth like. But it is mine again. Sigh. How long can I continue to surface scan every virgin system? But the work is worth it; another water world. Seems I am a specialist on water worlds. Some earth likes can pop up sometime!

 - Imagine we would live in a solar system like this, instead










Exploration is slow, trance-li... if not suddenly a Viper would snap out and grab you. This one again is rated deadly and I have respect out here; one mistake and my hull suffers and my expedition is in jeapardy. I fight carefully, since my shield cells are already exhausted. I works well, and the bounty is sizeable; 32,000 CR.

As I am finally finished surface scanning everything in this system, I realise a little difference in terminology which escaped me before: there are metal-rich planets, and there are high-metal-content planets. The latter are probably worth most.

Well, time passes by quickly and I have to log out. I have probably traveled though only 20 systems, but most of them had indeed metal planets to scan, so it should have been worth the while.

- first planet of this kind for me to encounter

Out there again

Following up some of my confusion from the last session, this thread in the ED forum explains how reputation losses work and clarifies some points for me. However, this still does not explain why I got "wanted" by shooting the "wanted" Anaconda from the assassination mission. The prospect of obscure mission or boutny mechanics is not very appealing, so I´d rather do something else.


Considering my exploration stories, an also very helpful guide has even more thourough information, e.g. on scanned profit, than I managed to gather myself.

 - a look at the star color and classifications can help to determine the chances to actually find some valuable planets




During the last sessions I kind of instinctively followed the options I had outlined some time ago. Trading, community events, exploring, missions; check! The action-y last session has a pull of attraction on me, but also showed, this can cost me dearly. While I still have a financial cushion of about 4.4 million Credits (and my Cobra being worth ~9 million Credits), I feel I am closing in towards a point of "spiral of downgrading". I am looking at economic losses over my last seven sessions, whereas the gains where mainly due to three intensive trade sessions. Those trade sessions where only possible with a financial input (ship value plus liquidity for commodities) of about three million Credits (Lakon Type 6) respectively eleven million Credits (Asp). I have to be careful to not cross that line and maybe I should already start to earn again some savings via trading.

Thanks to Colin´s hint, I know now I could sell my Cobra with only little loss if I first manually downgrade it in the outfitting screen. Which liberates enough cash to be back on a comfortable level of trading with an Asp as a 128-ton long range freighter. With it, it should not take long to pile up money for a long-range explorer, for my goal to reach the outer end of a galaxy arm; most explorers seem to go for the galactic center or some nebula, so I want something different. Same thing for a truly specialized combat Viper or an almost equally capable mission Cobra.

As I log in, in comes also the spontanity effect. The first thing I want to do is to participate in the explorer community event Lambda Andromedae. It is still in the News so I should make haste. I am thinking about this in order to get a little bit cheaper Asp later on. Also in the news is that this story about the dead pilot with the ore in his hold actually pointed to a pristine gold site and the gold rush was on in LAWD 26. Well, with the current mining game mechanics, they can do without me. But what is kind of cool is that those community events indeed give me the feel of following a story that matters, whether I participate or not.

Before I launch, out goes the heavy mirrored armor, back a lightweight alloy sheathing, in order to get back to a jump range of >20 ly. I want to grab some exploration data and then travel to Lambda Andromedae. My planned course this time should lead me "up".

- up, upwards, to see the galaxy extending its spiral arms for me at some point... (ahem)








Some systems out I am interdicted by a particular Adder, the first ever NPC ship which I see uses chaff. I first do not get it and wonder why the gimbals buzz around like crazy and my kill scan does not complete. The chaff can be recognized by a kind of confetti trailing the ship. I even have to waste a shield cell because I am so confused that the Adder almost manages to disable my shield.

Systems I pass through like Balie are a typical borderland; one station is fara out there, a pirate station by its faction´s name "Hand Gang of Balie". It seems that at the borders of civilised clusters, many such outlaws have established themselves.

There is another giant star system, Izar, which are nice lightning house systems to aim for. Onwards, upwards, and, yes, my plans went out of the airlock, I am now here purely for the view; I want to see the galaxy´s disc from above.

My experience from previous trips as well as the above guide made it much more transparent and easy for me to determine as to what to surface scan and what not. I pass by a lot of systems and can easily recognize systems with high metal planets, water worlds and hopefully, once upon a time, also earth like worlds. COL 285 Sector OT-Q D5-47 is such an example; I know from the looks that it could provide some yields. And indeed, it has two water worlds of half the size of our earth which are in a twin orbit, both "ready for terraforming". And it is interesting that the outermost planet is also a water world, and terrestrial and of considerable size (6times earth radius) at that. With the rest of the planets being high metal content, this system is more valuable than anything I found ever before! The next system, very close, again is similarly valuable.

- one of three water worlds in this system









However, I am not so enthusiastic anymore as before. First, I am not the first one to discover any of those worlds, but this should not yet diminuish the value of the data too much, as I learned from my last expedition. For the final profit, it is now just a matter how often it has already been scanned by passing-by CMDRs, I guess. Second, I let myself be spoiled by all those reports of incredible frequent earth like worlds; so, water worlds just feel just like second hand now. Indeed, the first thread popped up in the ED forum which lists some discovered earth like worlds. Part of me regrets this; reminds me that I did will to write this blog, in order to capture my initial enthusiasm, the exhilaration of newness, of my "first contacts" with the game´s experience.

I think this is the reason why I just skipped all planning and just went out there again; at some point, all of it will be discovered and bland, and I would like to savour the spirit of true discovery while it lasts.

Besides, I think water worlds look nicer than earth like ones.


Before I can succumb into a too moody mood, a "master" ranked Viper decides to shake me up. It attacks also with a bunch of missiles! How glad am I that I installed one point defense system. However, I still need to use up another shield cell; two are left. And I am not really far out yet. Hrm, at least a good bounty of 21k CR is attached to the final explosion.

 - boom, with credits attached










I am close to Upsilon 5, another giant star, and pay the obligatory visit. Big stuff seems to lure us in, does it? Exploration has me in its gríp again. My original plan was just to take a quicky tour out there, grab the data, and arrive in Lambda Andromedae to turn it in for the community event. However, the prospect of going back now, or hasting onwards with just some advanced scans feels like gobbling some fast food. But this, this is a fine filet steak, and it has to be savoured!

Since I am a bit tired today, I decide to quit here and rather savour these bits afresh in a new session.

Wrestling with an elite-ranked Anaconda

Near a gas giant, Basile. An unidentified signal (US) contains Wraak, a pilot of an elite Anaconda who sometimes is the subject of an assassination mission. No, thanks, I am currently not payed for that, I am rather looking for Imran Jung, the target of the assissination mission which I accepted during my last game session. The fact that Wraak here sits an Anaconda makes me hope that Imran will probably fly a different ship type.

But first, a little warmup. Some Sidewinders in the nearby extraction zone make for a meager breakfast of bounties.




- too easy, more challenge is in order...









After four or five such quick terminations, let´s get down to the business of finding Mr. Jung. I know from earlier experience that you need to look in USs in order to find him. And I also know that the old concept of the US from the beta phase has not changed (lamentably so); they appear randomly in your vicinity, so you do not really need to search for them. So I resort to the same old trick; let the US come to you. Throttling down my supercrusie to 30km/s, I do not have to wait long for the first US to appear. Thanks to me already having minimum speed, it appears very close to me and I can immediately drop into it.

Four US pass by, some with one or two "wanted" targets, but not Mr. Jung. This indicates that he is probably not in this system and I have to look into the two other systems which are mentioned in the mission statement. Engage jump to Gabrani.

The second US already nails it. It contains a "clean" Adder who starts to chat to me the moment I target and scan it. You looking for Imran Jung? Oh yeah, they scanned his energy wake which pointed towards Ari Hesa. Neat! First level of the mission ladder is done. Jumping onwards. Unfortunately, I then also discover that shooting the two "wanted" target from the first US somehow caused a negative hit on my reputation with the Federals. Dear Federation, you and me, we are simply not made for each other, it seems!

In Ari Hesa, I just have to wait a bit, and the second US is my jackpot. Or his. Imran Jung unfortunately also sits in the pilot seat of an Anaconda and is also rated Elite. He could be Wraaks twin-brother, I guess. This will be a very challenging fight. I know that some people boast to routinely kill elite Anacondas, but I have no idea how, since I already got some bloody noses from encounters like this during beta2 and gamma. Although, I am hopeful, since I do pilot now a perfectly combat equipped, all-class-A Cobra (instead of the Eagle I used back then). The challenge is on!

Imran Jung is marked as neutral, so I try to kill-scan him first and while also vertically strafing to get out of his firing arc. With no success; his guns constantly point in my direction no matter how much vertical/forward thrust I apply. This is my standard maneuver of circling an enemy while still being able to face and shoot at an opponent. Well, here it does not work at all. Instead, Imran Jung opens fire and hits me well enough, even if I manage to dodge his plasma launcher (its whitish ball of energy is easy to recognize).

After a few moments I am already without shields, wasted all my shield cells, and no matter what I steer, I always seem to be hit. Damn turrets. Boosting out of firing range, he sends some missiles my way, but I can evade them. Going back into the fray, I first have to deal with his firing arc and again take enough hits to take out my shield again. Since I try to get him into firing position, most of his hits land on my front. For the first time I realize that the cockpit seems to be a seperate hit zone. My canopy is cracking and I hear warnings about the condition being damaged and then going critical. I must break off, at this stage my hull is already at 60% and I did not even scratch the shields of the Anaconda.

Docking in Atwater Port, I pay 8600 CR reparature costs, and 2400 ammo costs (the shield cells). Despite me being aware of the very challenging situation of a single Cobra versus an Anaconda, I am a bit baffled. This is an Anaconda? Its thrusters make it turn rather like a perfectly outfitted nimble little Eagle!

Next try. I am skipping though some US until Imran Jung appears in one. This time, I skip a kill-scan and fully concentrate to circle-strafe out of his gun sight. This again goes horribly wrong, even when I try to roll and vertically move on his horizontal axis. This Anaconda follows effortlessly. What the hell? And to top it off, I even manage to catch the white ball of plasma from his first bowside barrage, instantly killing my shields. Ai.

I guess I am very lucky that I installed a mirrored armor alloy, which is especially good versus lasers. Besides the plasma launcher, Imran Jung´s Anaconda sports only beam lasers. Like this, I can continue without shield, as my hull withstands an enormous amount of the Anacondas firing lasers. However, my canopy does not seem to be as reflective as my ship armor and my ship computer calmly informs me soon again that it has critical status.

Suddenly, two security ships jump in. Neat, they can help distract his fire and whittle him down. I am not worried anymore of them kill stealing, Frontier has tweaked the settings so that it is no problem anymore to score the decisive final hit for yourself. However, Mr. Jung seems to be not that stupid. Energy surge detected and a few seconds later he frameshifts out. Grrrrreat.... otoh, with my critical canopy, 70% hull, I had already lost this second encounter, anyways.

This time, I pay ~3,000 CR for reparature and ~1,300 for ammo. I am irritated. My quad-gimballed-pulse-laser setup still did not help getting the Anaconda´s shields down, even though they are supposed to be strongest versus shields. A visit to the ship outfitter is in order. Out go the class 1 pulse lasers, in come two class 1 cannons. Unfortunately I have not enough power grid to accomodate class 2 beam lasers and I do not want to kick out some of my class A outfits to free enough power grid to do so.

The feedback from the ED forum is that cannons have been made weaker since beta, but on the other hand, they are meant to be and supposedly indeed are more effective against big targets.

While in the outfitting screen, I also flip to the decal menu and find a new decal which was not there before; a skull design. This probably came into my inventory because of the pirate mission from my last session, which I abandoned and instead joined the pirates. Good to know that the supercruise to that pirate station across 460,000 ls actually brought a meaningful reward! I briefly consider putting it on, as a symbol for the seeming suicide mission I am currently on...

- morituri te salutant










Onwards to the next encounter with Imran Jung, after some few US have passed. I am very well aware that I should set the setting in the right menu "report crimes against me" to off. This is what I did. Now, on to the dance! I adapt my tactic and do not try to circle-strafe anymore, and instead use a mix of blue speed and max speed to get to and stay behind my enemy. It goes way better now. The cannons are a huge help, even agains the Anaconda´s shields, which I indeed manage to break down this time. However, I again have to heavily rely on my reflective armor, as the Anaconda quickly busts my shields after I ran through all my four shield cells. The reason for that is the goddamn turrents. No matter from which angle I face the Anaconda, at least one laser beam finds me.

I get also even more irritated because the cannons do not seem to fire consistently. Sometimes they go off, sometimes they don´t; in the hectic of combat I am unable to find out why that is. A later test in undisturbed environment shows, they should fire alright about each 3-4 seconds. Well, in combat they somehow don´t; in hindsight, it is probably because I have a trailing target view, so sometimes I might think that they are on target when in reality it is only the gimbals from my pulse lasers buzzing around the targeting reticule?

Nevertheless, thanks to the cannons and my changed flight patterns, I indeed manage to whittle the Anaconda down to 50% hull, while I still have about 60% hull.

In are jumping two security ships, which I realize only the moment when they turn into red blinking blips. WTF is going on here!? What are they doing here, firsthand? And why are they shooting at me?!? There I no way that strayfire of mine could have hit them, my guns are all gimballed and on spot! I have to clear the grounds; my canopy is again the culprit and I doubt that I could sustain myself against two more enemies. Once in calmer waters, I realize that I am indeed shown as "wanted".




- victory is so close, until something makes me "wanted" and the random generator decides to throw some security ships in the fray







I pay 5,000 CR for repairs, 5,000 CR for ammo and again 1,200 CR for a new stash of shield cells. Then I launch, and realize too late that I forgot to pay off my bounty. Some more minutes pass for re-docking and rectifying this mistake.

Next try. Once I find him again in an US, I immediately open fire on the Imran Jung´s Anaconda, still neutral, but that should not matter since it is shown as "wanted". But this time I payed attention, and I immediately notice that the system flags me as "wanted"! Aha! Bug!!! I nevertheless continue the combat, since the scenery is not joined yet by security forces. I am again seeing an improvement, because this time I manage to whittle Mr. Jung´s vessel down to 37% hull strength. Then the typical flash from a disengaging frameshift drive, and two security Eagles are joining the party, again. Damnit, what is this? They are still shown as neutral, so I still hang on to the Anaconda like a terrier on a bulldog. But all of this weakened my concentration; the Anaconda turns into my direction and accelerates, I accelerated, too, because I wanted to get quickly past his bow. And we collide.

1% hull left on me. Alert, alert. On top, the security ships now did scan me and turn red, too. OMG today is really not my day, is it? Frankly, with things going wrong as they to, I am surprised that I actually get away. Maximum energy to engines allows me to quickly get out of range and not even a laser turret hits me. Amazing.

- close escape, closer not possible










Landing at Atwater Port is now a critical maneuver, too, because the numerous security ships could pick up my "wanted"-scent anytime. So, it is a good thing that I boost very close and rush through, because the moment I enter the station, my computer informs me that I was fired at. Phew!

My repair costs this time are 14,000 CR, 5,000 + 1,200 for reload. BTW, the reqard for this assassination mission is 150,000 CR. Profit is slowly waning... Impatiently I launch for the next round and have thereby AGAIN forgotten to pay off my bounty. Arrrrrgh! And just to add injury to the insult, the security ships apparently have been waiting for me and instantly open fire the moment I leave the station. Boost away, enter supercruise, drop back, re-request docking, fast approach... sigh.. the minutes pass with just nonsense. I should have never been marked as "wanted" firsthand. And, besides, my "wanted" price is how much? 300 Credits! This all seems to be so much out of proportion.

Finally, I can seek out Imran Jung once more. Thank god, he always appears quickyl in an US and I don´t have to skim though many of them. I never move away much from the station in supercruise and just throttle down and wait for an US to appear. It is almost like Imran Jung is awaiting me there for another round.

It is interesting; once I start getting annoyed or impatient, my piloting skills immediately drop noticeably and considerably. Cannon fire seems to be still erratic, still no idea what could be the reason; I even check if the reason could be some too-emtpy capacitors from my pulse lasers, but they are filled enough. Confusing, irritating. Still, I now routinely manage to get the Anaconda´s shields down and I immedeately set out to do so once more. The events so far did have this effect on me, and thus it takes just moments to again loose shields. I don´t bother, since my armor can hold out quite some time.

But this time, I have become too reckless and emotional about the whole business. All these inconsistencies in between, the fact that an Anaconda outturns a Cobra even when trying to fight with three pips for engines. Well, in short, I just screw this one up badly and collide into the Anaconda´s broad side. The game algorythms dispassionately reward me with total destruction.

- 319,917 Credits less; double of what this mission would have earned me








The time for this session is up, but I do not want to leave like this. It is only after I dropped into five more US before I realize: destruction of my ship terminates the contract. Noob, I knew that already. So, this is defeat; Imran Jung slapped me around and into the ground and stomped mightily on me. For once, Elite: "Dangerous" shines through. Although I would have wished less confusion from obscure "wanted" game mechanics and weird cannon behaviour to enjoy the challenge more.

All in all, this was a very, very challenging game session, which served to reach - and collide with - the limits of my piloting skills. Good night and log out!

Dumbfired missions

A video like this is sometimes what I need to get back into the mood for Elite: Dangerous; it features a very challenging escape of a Lakon Type 6 from a pirating CMDR in a Cobra. This guy is successful in a situation where I miserably failed during my action around Yembo, some game sessions ago. It is all about a tactic and the proper equipment, and this video entertainingly shows some good tricks.

Atwater City, Ari Hesa. So here I am in my misery about the astounding financial stupidities at the end of last session. What I need now is some venting, some target practice. Or even more immediate some moment-to-another gameplay. So I accept two fetch missions, without knowing where to source the stuff, trusting on the databases in the internet to tell me so. But, Ari Hesa is a white spot in the databases which I know (Thrudds Website, Slopeys Best Price Calculator). Grrrreat. Thank god I do find 14 hydrogen fuel very quickly in the neighbouring outpost. However 2 tons of personal weapons might be more difficult to source.

Back in Atwater City, there is another mission to hunt 5 pirates in Ari Hesa and another codified system. No idea how they work, am I supposed to drop into unidentified signals (US) and see what I get? Well, the internet tells me to try US, the nav beacon at the sun, whatever. But it does not tell me how to differentiate between just "wanted" targets and the pirates which will qualify for this mission. This was like this already in the beta and gamma versions of this game and I guess it did not change.

Wait, something interesting happens. As I travel to Gemar Station and look for the commodities for my other mission, on a hunch, I drop into an US. A lonely Lakon Type 7 is there and I start do kill scan it, because its status is "clean" so far. Suddenly, the pilot chats to me, asks to not attack and kill him and instead come to Fung Landing, claiming he was innocent. Wow. I read about these changing mission goals and am mighty pleased to finally encounter one myself. I continue my kill scan, which, completed, makes my decision to abandon my hunting mission easy: This particular pilot is very obviously one of the "pirates" sought, but it has no bounties on it whatsoever, which means I would have lost status by attacking it, incurring a fee on top of it.

Gemar Station has not the personal or non-lethal weapons or food cartridges I need, so my next stop might be as well Fung Landing. This station is not in this system, but a mission marker in the navigation menu shows me which system I have to go to: COL 285 Sector GS-J C9-5. Oh, wrong, it leads me even further, to EWE, Tong, Skegasaei, and, finally, waitaminute.. looking up the galaxy map, a course is plotted across at least 20 systems! What is this? The reward for going there and doing so is stated in the updated mission description; 1525 Credits. This is in no relation to the effort of such a long travel! Is there something more waiting at the end of the tunnel? Well, I have to find out now, but I suspect just another red herring waiting for me in the end. And in the meanwhile, the mission counter for my other missions is ticking... one hour left.

The thing is... according to the system map of the final nav point, Fung Landing does not even exist in that system. My only hope is that the mission marker will show me the right way and not just abandon me in the middle of nowhere. In the meanwhile, I use my advanced scanner on all those systems on my way. Some exploration profit at least to be made just by doing this trip. And there I thought I would have some dogfight action...

- end station of the falsely plotted course









Finally there, it happens as it must, the mission marker is gone. Last try, I will dock at every station here and see whether I can still finish in this nonsense properly. Kennedy Port; no, but at least the food cartridges for my other mission. Herjulfsson Orbital; nope.

I abandon the mission. And, clicking the "abandon" button, you know what happens? The mission updates again and now mentions also the system where Fang Landing is supposed to be!!! It is in Gabrani! This is the whole way back, right next to Hesa Ari! The mission marker which lead me here was a bug, obvious now. Way to go, way to go...

I don´t think I can keep my two fetch missions with the weapons anymore; 39 minutes left and still no idea where to source them close by. Oh, how the completionist within me does suffer! But my reputation with the Federation is screwed, anyways, so who cares.

During my trip back, in between I nevertheless search Thrudds website for close systems which could source me the commodities. Yes! 24 minutes to go and Asaro Dock in Koledo has the stuff! This is a race, now! 20 minutes left... 16 minutes as I arrive back in Ari Hesa, yes, made it! Now the same for the non-lethal weapons... 50 minutes left. Amarak is four jumps away, gogogo. And I make it again, all missions completed!
This was a very chaotic ride. Thinking about it in hindsight, I guess the in-game trading map of the galaxy map might have helped me better to locate stuff. The internet data mainly is about finding out precice price levels of commodities.

I accept a new mission: Kill Imran Jung, ~150k CR. Let´s see how I fare. In the meanwhile, I make way to Fung Landing to finally see how a "turncoat" mission plays out. Arriving in Gabrani, I have to laugh again, because Fung Landing actually is 464,700 ls out there... while travelling there I can go fetch multiple coffees (the real life one, not the commodity...), or even go to bed? Sometimes, the hickups in the design of this game are amazing. Where is the goddamn in-system jump which they inteded to do?

Once I arrive, I get the promised 1525 CR and am told that I should be grateful that I do not get a bullet between my eyes and that I can stick around and wait for the boss to have something for me to do if I want. Oh yeah well, welcome to the pirates... ARRRRRH. And my reputation with the Federation is going down again.

 - ARRR, washing my hands off innocent pirate blood









A last trip tp Mbera, which according to the galaxy trade map is supposed to sell food cartridges, to bring it back to Ari Hesa. Good to note that Litke Orbital also offers personal weapons and battle weapons, there, it was there just around the corner, but me was hopping halfway across the galaxy, thanks to incomplete data.

After this run, the game session is over. And I am over, too; this must have been the most unmotivating, non-sensical game session I ever had with Elite: Dangerous... I took missions without a clear goal or direction, like a dumbfire missile, jumped cluelessly through about 100 systems and followed red herrings, earned almost nothing in the process. Some 50k Credits thanks to regular advanced scans on my way, but that´s about it.

In order to also implement my first and last idea for this session, I go hunting for bounties in Basil, an independent system. After about five kills and 60k CR as bounties within 15 minutes, I log out close to the ring planet with the extraction site which was my hunting grounds.

- going for some satisfying explosions in this pile of dust

This clearly went wrong

Naddodur Terminal, Yembo. I was still in the same game session from my last blog entry. Very tired after this long way back, tired from analysing the data, from typing my story in this blog. What I should have done, is log out and get some sleep already. What I did is to hang on and dawdle in the internet and in the game without sense. So the following story happened.

From this thread in the ED forum, I gathered that there must be quite many earthlike worlds, which I just did not find yet. One system in particlar, Myriesly RZ-DE D13-2140, even seems to have five of them! I have to admit that reports like this relativise my pride in my little successful venture from the last two sessions. Then again, this guy had started his expedition on 18 January, so he was out there about a month (and playing each evening as he wrote). His income was an astounding 43 million Credits. Even if I scaled up my 700k Credits gained from two game sessions out there up to, say, 22 days, I would only  have earned only about 7.7 million Credits. All those seeming more frequent earthlike planets, which eluded me so far, must be worth quite a bit, then!

The Galnet news read that the Sirius Corporation offers sizeable monetary rewards for explorer who bring data to them at Nourse Orbital, Lambda Andromeda. If I just had seen these news earlier! However, according to this thread in the ED forum, the goal is already almost through. The forum thread tells also that the News on the ship-building seem to be another red herring or bug.

I was not sure what to do next, maybe some trading again so that I can re-afford a well equipped Asp? The 5% bonus from the community event saves me 300k Credits on buying the Asp here. This is what I promptly did, after all, my blunder with the reputation gain at this station for just one faction instead of the whole Federation, was because I wanted to profit from this discount.

After the sale, this left me with about 9 million Credits to outfit it. Then I had to realize that the shop here only offers a class 5C frameshift drive. Then I also realized that I already missed the sleek red design of my Cobra. And on top, I realized I did not really feel like trading.

So I re-sold the Asp and bought back a Cobra. Re-fitting everything with class A components failed regarding the trusters and a fuel scoop. So I tiredly went on a shopping tour again, through some systems. After a visit to two different systems I found what I wanted. It was just weird that my cash seemed to be less than it was before I followed my mislead whim and bought the Asp. Fact was, I just had 4.1 million Credits left, and with my Cobra from before, I had had 6.4 million Credits. I dearly hoped that I did not just throw my cash away with this little confused buy-and-sell deeds? Maybe I had bought some more exensive components? No idea, I though my old Cobra had been also all-class-A-equipped...

Then I caught a posting in the ED forum which talks about a 10% loss when selling a ship. Let´s see, the value of my Asp was about 15 million, and my Cobra was about 9 million. This would mean 2.4 million loss. Roughly this amount indeed did correspond to the difference in my cash level. So it was kind of official for me that I just had thrown 2.4 million Credits out of the window.

You know what is annoying me? Obscure information! Buying and selling ships and equipment was reimbursed 1:1 all the time through the beta and gamma game, maybe even at launch, and at some point, Frontier apparently snuck in that 10%-loss "feature"!


All in all, with the destruction on my first expedition and this shopping session gone horribly wrong, I now had incurred losses on two sessions, which will have to be re-earned, by trading best profit routes roughly two sessions, more sessions if I follow other activities instead. It also means that I have to look on overall four sessions without any economic gain. I am so glad this is just a game and not real-life! I guess if I was a self-made entrepreneur, I would probably quickly land on the streets...

For my gameplay, this revelation also means I am now practically stuck with my Cobra, because there is no way I can switch ships to an 128 ton long range Asp freighter anymore without incurring a financial loss of about 1 million Credits. Sigh.

So, this is why I hereby swear to in future leave a game session when it´s done and don´t hang on when I should have known better. Some things just don´t go well, especially when you undertake them when already too tired.

Return

Out there. Going onwards with my plan to visit HIP 110021, then heading back "home" and analyse the data as to its profitabilty.

Am I a lucky son of a bitch today. The next system, COL 285 Sector PZ-O C6-9, is completely unexplored and again contains another water world, and some mineral rich planets.

- argon rich atmosphere, carbon-water based life











Upwards, onwards! A little deviation around here is in order, since it seems to be an area with a bit more of non-brown dwarf systems. The twin star system which I arrive in, with a red dwarf and a brown one, could yield good results, at least concerning the planets orbiting the former.

Interdiction during the fuel scooping process. A Federal Dropship. Damn it is getting hot here. I cannot evade the interdiction, probably because that damn ship type has very good turn rates as well. And indeed, the resulting dogfight makes me work a lot. First, the ship stays neutral and I use this occasion to squeeze off a kill scan. 24k CR of bounties await me on this one. It starts firing but misses, I retaliate. Some furious circles are ensuing.

- just finished scanning about its bounties, now the dance can start!





 

This time, I am very attentive to keep my shield well sustained, so I do not dare deviate too many pips to the engines. A jolt of panic surges when, on a close pass-by in order to get out of the Dropship´s firing arc, the missile alarm goes off. Boost! My Cobra´s superiour speed carries me out of range of those blinking white triangles. They soon stop to blink, so it seems they were just dumbfire missiles, anyways. Huff. I misselect the subtarget and am distraced in finding the power plant amongst the list. Again cracking laserfire, but my shields hold just fine. Just to be on the save side, I spend one of my few shield cells. After a while I realize that, although this bigger, heavier Dropship still manages to constantly outcircle me, its fire power seems to be negligible. It has probably too many pips in engines... Anyways, its destruction comes suprisingly early; I had lost track of the status of my subtarget. Boom. This battle alone so totally validates my ship choice and equipment for this second exploration attempt!

Some 9 planets surfaces scanned, they yield only icy rocks and I jump onward. The next system was already discovered by CMDR Fambaa, so I do not bother. I switch to a fast pathing in the galaxy map, and directly jump to my last target which I had foreseen for this expedition, HIP 110021, already discovered by CMDR Tequila. After I am done with re-scanning everything, it is time to make home!

- this water world has a co2-atmosphere, carbon water based life and "is a candidate for terraforming"






A white star system catches my attention. CMDR Sinoe Patton was there, but he did not scan the last outer ring planet. However, this one looks in the system map as if it had ice caps. Definitely worth investigating. Well, ok, it was worth a try, but this turns only out to be another icy planet.

Most white or yellow star systems on my way back have already been explored. Fine with me, I just move on. COL 285 Sector JS-T D3-64 is still unexplored and I make use of this fact and discover a lot of metal rich planets. I should remember that there are still a lot of white star systems around here and maybe come back later.

I am interdicted on my way back, and this makes me realize that, apparently, every interdiction takes away a bit of my hull strength. The Viper gets hit hard by my pulse lasers at its bow part, and it hastily jumps away.

- lots of fuel scooping required on a fast path back home










On my path, the galaxy map shows another depiction of a huge star, 52 Cygni. I think this is worth getting sidetracked again. And then there is 31 Vulpeculae, which has a little surprise, namely an independent outpost. Indeed far out from civilisation, it is owned by "The Blue Mafia", those are most certainly pirates; they export slaves, gold and palladium and import fruits, grain and animal meat. I guess this would be an ideal starting point for a career as a pirate! With my valuable data aboard, I do not dare to get close right now; besides, I want to drop off my data in a Federal system, in order to repair my reputation with them.

The fast path route from here only leads via brown dwarves, no thanks, I need scoopable stars, preferrably. So I deviate to a white star, a bit below the plane. Close to it, there is also Heria Pared, a name where I cannot find a real life correspondant; probably a system used in one of the science-fiction stories? Anyways, there is also an outpost here, controlled by independent "Super Comms Services". It offers the same export/import market as the pirate outpost, just silver instead of slaves.


CMDR Afleabyte (a name which is fun for English language people, I guess) and CMDR Kryphinzclo (a name which is fun for German language people, I guess) have discovered most systems here, notable one probably earth like. I want part of that share and go for it. However, it is just a metal rich planet, albeit worth terraforming.

I am then finally in Federation space, Duwar system. Weird enough, it is said to be a terraforming system, but there are no planets to be terraformed. Huh, whatever. I jump onwards, Dundbhai, also Federal space with only outposts, and again onwards. Where to? Well...now it is time to get back where they have space bars and celebrate! And I have in mind one particular in Yembo, Naddodur Terminal, because I get 5% off all drinks there!

Touchdown! My first successful expedition has ended. Commander Falkenherz, an interview please? Uhm. How is life out there for an explorer. Uhm, calm. Dangerous. Can you tell us more, commander? Well, all I want to say at this point, I need a shower, and be aware that all our civilisation is just like fleashit in the sea. Thanks, baba.

Aaaand here is the data, from roughly 100 systems.

- COL 285 Sector UZ-P D5-60: 38,155 CR; did not note it down
- COL 285 Sector HH-V D2-43: 70,574 CR; this was the previously unexplored ("virgin") system which I took as nav point, which had lots of metal rich planets and one water-world;
- HIP 110021: 73,400 CR; this was the system which had lots of metal rich planets and one water-world but was already explored by another CMDR. The planets No. 4 and 5 yielded ~17,000 CR, no idea why that is so much higher than other mineral rich worlds (maybe because they also had a particular atmosphere?)
-  COL 285 Sector PZ-O C6-9: 27, 237 CR; a virgin system with lots of mineral rich planets and a water-world
- COL 285 Sector JS-T D3-64: 37,606 CR; a virgin system with a lot of metal rich planets
- COL 285 Sector FY-H C10-35: 20,707 CR; I have no notes about that one; first discovered by CMDR Ysron Starr, I am sure I did not surface scan much of it. System view is there but no planetary data displayed. The three last planets (gas giants) around star "A" yielded ~3000 CR, again I have no idea why. Weird.
- Pegasi Sector SF-U A4-D: 3,258 CR; this was the brown dwarf system which got explored by me as first explorer. Ahem, I guess I did it for the fame.
- COL 285 Sector OH-M a23-D: 4,964 CR; this was the comparable brown dwarf system which was already explored by another CMDR.
- COL 285 Sector JB-O A22-2: 5,366 CR; another virgin brown dwarf system which I completely surface scanned down, the same goes for COL 285 Sector UI-T A 19-D: 5,152 CR
- COL 285 Sector KN-T D3-64: 19,042 CR; this was the system with the terrestrian water world at the end of my last game session; the profit for this is bit disappointing

The data breakdown shows me the following facts:

- advanced scan of a planet: 250 Cr
- surface scan of a star: 200 - 1260 CR
- surface scan of asteroid belts: 0 CR
- icy planets: ~400 CR
- mineral rich planets: ~2900 CR
- water world or any planet "ready for terraforming" (latter seem to earn more): 12,000 - 26,000 CR

As I cash in the data, a window pops up and I get bonus cash for "first discovered" systems, which ranges from 500 to 1600 Credits. Neat! What I am not entirely sure is, whether the bonus is just for objects which I also surface scanned or whether an advanced scan already is enough.

- "first"











Total earning: Roughly 700k CR. Not much, I had hoped for about 2 million Credits, about half of what I would have earned by just trading in roughly the same amount of game time. Like this, I just got back roughly the loss from my first failed expedition. Ah well.

On the other hand, my reputation instantly jumped now to "friendly". Wohoo! Then I realize my mistake: Unfortunately, I forgot that Yembo is not affiliated to the Federation. All my reputation gain catapults me on "friendly" for Yembo Interstellar, and that faction only. I be damned, that went very much wrong! I so much needed that rep boost for the Federation!

Ah well, at least I know that you can jump up in reputation very nicely by doing one or two exploration sessions. That´s it for this session; I think I have learned a lot.