R2R Voyage to the Muska Dark Region
14 Jun 2021Dirkdjently
BackgroundSo begins my 1500Ly journey from Jameson Memorial to the Muska Dark Region in H-SOLO, my beloved and road-worn Krait Phantom. It's my longest journey from the bubble so far, by about 500Ly, but the R2R element will make it the longest actual journey I've ever done in my Phantom.
I'm convinced Han would hate the Phantom: she's too neat & clean, too high-tech, and all the equipment is functional and well-maintained. Chewy would appreciate.
H-SOLO is nicely outfitted with a 67Ly jump range, terrific boost speeds, an SRV, 2xAFMS, Thargoid shutdown neutralizer, and the best fuel scoop money can buy. She's my most-flown ship, serving as explorer, materials farmer, & passenger missions vessel, and is loaded with every conceivable convenience & safety feature while still maintaining a respectable jump range.
To create my itinerary, I used Spansh R2R to create a lengthy, but profitable journey. I expect to net nearly $100M from the Cartographics data. My plan is to FSS each system completely, and surface map each planet that has a value of $475K or more. The completed trip will include 102 systems with 155 surface scans.
I expect much of the trip to be quite uneventful, as most systems are, frankly, completely uninteresting save for their monetary value.
Purpose
Other than adventure, the purpose of this mission is to make money. After I arrive in the Musca Dark Region, it is my intention to get some nice tourist photos, then run back to civilization at top speed. I have specific destinations in mind for my return trip: Engineers requiring system unlocks. These systems typically require friendly or allied status to unlock the engineer's home system, and having such a large amount of cartographic data should allow me to unlock a number of factions.
Mission Status (Conclusion)
Done and successful. Made $130M from cartographic data. Used that to boost Sirius & Federation status to Allied. Had plenty to go do more unlocks elsewhere, but I was quite road-weary by this point, and wanted to be done. I sold the rest. Would I do it again? Not as a R2R tour. That was way too much dedicated scanning. In future, I might use the EDMC HabZone plugin & FSS to find high value scans while on a long exploration journey. That way, I don't have to loop all over the place like R2R does, but rather go straight to my destination as normal. If HabZone happens to ID high value targets along the way, and I'm interested, I'll scan them.
Lessons Learned
- Spansh R2R Router Planner is a better tool for R2R routes than EDTools R2R utility. It allows for more precise routes to be defined, filters for defining what planets you want to visit, how far to deviate from the destination for high-value scans, how much each planet is worth, both for FSS and surface scans, and in what order to visit them. EDTools is still a good utility if you're looking for a quick auto-generated R2R route that will make you money, but you can't even specify a destination.
- Engineer your Surface Scanner with "Expanded Probe Scanning Radius." I have G3 on my scanner and it now takes only 4 very easily targeted probes to get 100% surface scan of nearly all planets I've seen.
- The HabZone EDMC plugin plugin for the EDMC app can make every jump a possible R2R visit. Though I have to say, this screenshot was taken because the distances were so unusually huge, and it certainly doesn't represent a flight I'd enjoy making!!
- Learn to manage supercruise speeds manually. Git gud at dropping power to 75% at the moment you reach 7 seconds distance from a target and you will never do the loop of shame again. For me, this meant mapping my XBOX controller so that LPad+RPad (slow+fast) sets power to 75%. Of course, if you're busy B.S.ing on Discord like I have a tendency to do, you'll still miss plenty....
- Some bodies, like the Coalsack region, look more interesting in the galaxy map than they do from up close. I suspect this is true of most nebular objects. They look most interesting from a particular angle and distance. While this was still a great trip, you'll not see a lot of Coalsack photos down below. Not much to see, to be honest. Still, it sparked the exploration bug
- While my R2R did make me $130 million, it took me 3 real days of gameplay to complete everything (including these logs, which did add to the total time, for sure). Mining platinum, I can surely make the same amount in 2=3 hours. If the experience was FUN, it might be well worth it, but the truth is, the way the R2R tour works isn't particularly fun at all. It's just (a) fly to system, then (b) fly to one or more planets, 95% of which all look the same (and would in reality as well), , then (c) manually perform the same scanning procedure. Gain small joys from improving your technique and saving probes, I suppose. But it's not as effective as mining at generating income, and is more tedious than mining because it requires far less piloting skill and cerebral engagement. I really found myself wishing I was done with the list halfway through the list. No kidding, the most wonderful sight of the entire trip was when I noticed I had reached the final page of planets in my Excel list. The end was in sight! However, I'm not complaining: $130 million is a lot of money, I just know how to make it a lot faster than R2R.
Photos and notes
This scan is worth over one MILLION credits, but the view is about the same as it is for 95% of all planets I scanned. Most planets are smallish, uninteresting marbles.
This one had to be scanned by flying to each half. The probes got confused by the rings and wouldn't go to the back-side.
No such problems with this one!
In space can you create a solar eclipse merely by putting yourself in the right place. That's second-nature knowledge for any seasoned commander, but it's not the type of thought your average "planet lubber" would ever have the occasion to think.
Getting close enough to see the Coalsack in maps and even in FSS scans now. Trip is about 40% complete at this stage.
Coalsack sighting
Phantom-shaped nebula discovered near Coalsack!
This is one of the weirdest systems I dropped into. More stars than planets.
The starfield here has more unique characteristics than what you tend to see in the bubble.
An entertaining moment of discovery. Moments after this photo was taken, I ran into an invisible wall and could get no further.
My ship stopped moving, but the exhaust from my engines continued forward, trailing off down toward the planet like IT was on its way down there regardless of what the ship was allowed to do.
This is my favorite image from the trip for two reasons: (1) I've never seen one before and still don't know exactly what it is (megaship or station), and (2) It was the very last sector in the R2R journey, and I was road-weary. I layed-over here, and flew back home the next day with a fresh perspective.
