Running on fumes
18 Feb 2021Gregorio Cortez
After this whole Q question thing I finally reached the Eta Carina nebulae.I docked the fleet carrier H6M-8VZ HERMIT'S RESPITE stationed in Tr 14 Sector LX-T c3-3. Well equipped place, with plenty of mining equipment in outfitting shop.
For me it was just a quick refreshment, and repairs, and off into the nebulae.
Most of the systems in nebulae are already discovered and mapped, so it was mostly tourist attraction to fly through the yellow cloud.
For those who might not know, there are a few Guardian systems nearby. I didn't bother this time about them. Maybe other time.
I just pierced through to the bottom of the nebulae and then took a turn onto the neutron highway towards DSSA Kraut a few thousand LY away.
Here I would like to share other CMDRs an interesting and usefull information. Sometimes its worth to (reasonably) fly on fumes... here is why.
When you plot the flight route on the galaxy map, the ship navigation computer plans the jumps taking into account the weight of the ship.
So far so good. BUT, if you have 50% fuel in your tank (which effectively makes your max jump range longer) nav-com doesn't recognize this piece of information and behaves as if your ship was fully tanked. This might make no big difference for a normal jump but if you make neutron boosting your FSD that makes the difference.
If your base jump range fully loaded is for example 37Ly, than with 30% fuel in your tank it might become becomes 40Ly, after FSD boosting in neutron jet this range multiplies 4x40=160Ly. The nav-com however assumes that your range is still 148Ly and plots the first jump closer than your real available range.
So the conclusion is that if you do neutron boosting it might be worthwile to jump to neutron star with just enough fuel to jump out, and manually plot the boosted jump.
In normal travel that might not be time effective and secure but if you plan to reach distant stars, that might make a difference.
So that's it for now. Logging off - currently in Byeia Thae LM-V d2-7 11208Ly from Sol