What are the chances?

[Gorf]

I've been out exploring for two days now. Got to 437ly from home before I found my first undiscovered system. Another couple of hundred light years and I found one worth scanning.

Continued on in a straight line away from Azrael - now at 6½ K ly from there. For the last several thousand ly I've not found any prediscovered systems. Then, I just found a neutron star - someone else had beaten me to it.

[smartroad]

Unfortunately there are a lot of people who head for 'signpost' stars - those rare ones, neutron stars for example. But they either miss all the ones fixating on the destination or have taken another route to it. Still you will get a pretty penny for it anyway

[Gorf]

Just had exactly the same with a black hole. I only knew it was nearby because of the dancing dot.

[JohnLuke]

Congrats on finding a black hole, Gorf! I'm about 18k ly from Sol, and have only found one so far. I must be doing something wrong.

[Schmobius]

As someone who hasn't done exploring beyond the minor systems within known space that still give me money while trading, but wants to get into exploring probably after getting an Anaconda...

How do you monitor your ship's integrity? It seems to me the only way to tell is when you dock somewhere that offers repairs. Just want to know how to know when I need to turn around vs. meeting an unfortunate end.

[Gorf]

Congrats on finding a black hole, Gorf! I'm about 18k ly from Sol, and have only found one so far. I must be doing something wrong. :roll:

Cheers JohnLuke. Mine was just luck. I didn't see it on the galactic map, even when I disabled all the other star types. I got the dancing dot in a system I'd discovery scanned and there were no neutron stars or black holes in the system map. I knew I had to hunt around the galaxy map and saw it 102ly away.

How do you monitor your ship's integrity? It seems to me the only way to tell is when you dock somewhere that offers repairs. Just want to know how to know when I need to turn around vs. meeting an unfortunate end.

I don't know. I think that ship integrity just dictates how much hull damage a damaging event will inflict, so (for example) being dumped out of supercruise at a star might do 3% hull damage but with 50% integrity it might do 5% damage.

My last exploration trip was in an asp and I got back with about 15% hull damage. Integrity was at zero %. I don't think it has a massive effect if you stay sober and don't get distracted by YouTube while jumping. I'm currently using a DBX but wish I'd stuck with the asp - this build is what I'll use next time.

Be careful using the 'conda for exploring. You may get three more light years per jump with this build, but you get 100ly less range from a full fuel tank. True you can add extra tanks, but that reduces the indiviual jump distance so you're no better off than with the asp.

[Schmobius]

Congrats on finding a black hole, Gorf! I'm about 18k ly from Sol, and have only found one so far. I must be doing something wrong.

Cheers JohnLuke. Mine was just luck. I didn't see it on the galactic map, even when I disabled all the other star types. I got the dancing dot in a system I'd discovery scanned and there were no neutron stars or black holes in the system map. I knew I had to hunt around the galaxy map and saw it 102ly away.

How do you monitor your ship's integrity? It seems to me the only way to tell is when you dock somewhere that offers repairs. Just want to know how to know when I need to turn around vs. meeting an unfortunate end.

I don't know. I think that ship integrity just dictates how much hull damage a damaging event will inflict, so (for example) being dumped out of supercruise at a star might do 3% hull damage but with 50% integrity it might do 5% damage.

My last exploration trip was in an asp and I got back with about 15% hull damage. Integrity was at zero %. I don't think it has a massive effect if you stay sober and don't get distracted by YouTube while jumping. I'm currently using a DBX but wish I'd stuck with the asp - this build is what I'll use next time.

Be careful using the 'conda for exploring. You may get three more light years per jump with this build, but you get 100ly less range from a full fuel tank. True you can add extra tanks, but that reduces the indiviual jump distance so you're no better off than with the asp.

That helps. I have an Asp, but it's pretty tanked out to repel pirates on smuggling runs. Besides, something just feels more right about doing deep space exploration in a ship with DECKS, you know? That, and I want to raise the money before I go exploring just because it will be a much longer time before I get the anaconda if I don't, since you don't get paid along the way or visit shipyards beyond the bubble. Maybe there's a certain appeal to flying around in a turret bubble out there, but I'd rather be in a giant ship that seems more built for exploration in a cinematic sense.

That's all touchy-feely garbage of course, but I will be following that rather than just stats. Thinking perhaps running an anaconda stripped down for exploring/jump range may save me a bit of money buying it, and then perhaps I can put in more upgrades with the data I cash in when I get back.

Which brings me to another question... is there anyway to check the value of your exploration data without visiting a station?

[JohnLuke]

Which brings me to another question... is there anyway to check the value of your exploration data without visiting a station?

This may help. I didn't make it and I take no responsibility for it's accuracy or lack there of.

[Gorf]

...and you need to be making your own tally of what systems you've discovered. I started - inspired by VictoriaG's meticulous record keeping. Then I thought: "You know what..."

[Falcon_D]

Which brings me to another question... is there anyway to check the value of your exploration data without visiting a station?

This may help. I didn't make it and I take no responsibility for it's accuracy or lack there of.

I would have really have preferred it is there was an in-game (on board ship) way of checking things like this rather than visiting a station or using a third party tool.