Logbook entry

20,000 Leagues "North" of the Bubble

From a practical perspective, the Phantom is ideal for passenger missions of this sort. It still has a very respectable 60+ jump range even with the largest module being taken up by the 1st Class Pax Quarters. But if you've ever looked at a Phantom, you'll know there are no windows other than the cockpit. No view at all from the passenger's quarters. Thinking from a role-play perspective, passengers would have to take the co-pilot's chair if they wanted to see anything. Makes me wish it were possible to actually have a passenger or crew-member appear in that chair. It would provide some much-needed immersion & ambiance to ED.

One early note: Canonn, Habzone and RSE are tools that, used together, can give you a quick idea whether or not someone has ever explored the system before. If everything comes up blank, it's probably 100% unexplored. If you've been in the black a long time and a system pops up with info, you know someone's been there before and logged the Carto data.

• Canonn - Primarily useful when visiting systems that have already been visited before, however it also displays icons about the current system (once fully scanned), giving a quick heads-up about the existence of POI's, high-value planets, harvestable materials, and mining opportunities.
• Habzone - Most useful when visiting systems that have previously mapped high-value planets. It provides no information on systems whose data hasn't formally been uploaded at Cartographics.
• Cargo Manifest - A nice reminder if you have something in the holds reducing jump range. More useful on gathering missions.
• Fuel Status - Of questionable use. Shows how much fuel you have, but so does your cockpit display.
• Jump Speed - A trip-time calculator that shows jump-rate (# jumps/hr), speed (Ly/hr), and total distance traveled. Has a reset button. Very useful for collecting baseline data on the factors that affect distance traveled per hour. There are enough lessons learned about this topic to merit an entirely new Log Entry.
• Landing Pad - Shows the location of your assigned docking pad from an outside-the-mailslot perspective. Removes docking-pad location confusion (for rotating stations, doesn't help with other station/outpost configs).
• Red Star Eliminator (RSE) - Shows the number of scanned vs. unscanned planetary bodies (i.e. 0/12, 16/16) in a system. The jury is still out on this plugin. It's somewhat informational, but depending on your FSS process, you might never look at it. It is most useful as a device for quickly determining how many, if any, planets have already been discovered in the current system. Also nice if you forget how many bodies you just scanned, instead of re-opening the FSS and waiting for the total to re-appear, you can just glance at EDMC.

1. Continue on as planned, finding a new route back to Ceos, collecting as many new system discoveries along the way. Original plan, but also the slowest.
2. Go to Colonia instead. Collect as many new system discoveries along the way, sell carto data at Colonia, unlock some engineers. Be a tourist for while before returning to the Bubble.
3. Go to either Ceos or Colonia, but at top speed, skipping new FSS scans in lieu of much quicker change of pace. (quickest)
4. Go to SagA before going to Colonia or back to Ceos. (riskiest)

Opportunity presented itself in the strangest of ways. Colonia is pretty much a lawless system. You get interdicted and scanned a lot. My passenger, the "Earl" who has been with me for over 37,000Ly, had something of a mental breakdown over the ship being scanned, cancelled the already completed mission, and got off at the next station, the dirty womprat. Do I care? Not really. Now I can sell the passenger quarters and recoup some long-lost jump range! While I'm completely unconcerned about the money loss, it's a programming oversight: a passenger can skip paying the bill -- after the destination of 20,000Ly has been successfully reached AND for the pettiest of reasons (he was annoyed by a sound) -- it's probably not what the developer intended. In RL, such a passenger would be charged as a thief or scammer or both, and if the game is to allow such a thing, I wish it also would allow me to track him down like a bounty hunter I am

1. Exploration can earn significant coin, but it pales in comparison to the earnings potential of other activities (like mining). Really, there's no comparison. Do exploration for the sake of exploration and you shouldn't be too underwhelmed by the earnings potential.
2. Spend real time thinking out your exploration ship. It's tempting to bring things like an SRV for screenshots and ambiance, but in 37,000Ly of travel, I only used my SRV a small handful of times. At no time did I require it and could have trimmed considerable weight off the ship by not bringing it. I kept 2 PD turrets installed because they weigh a fraction of a ton, so, hey, who cares? After 50,000Ly of travel, any fraction of a ton impacts how far you could have gotten to the next step of your journey. Really think about it. Do you NEED it? If you just WANT it, will you still be happy to be lugging it around 25,000 Ly from now, especially once you realize you've never used it once and never will? Think hard before you bring it. Some toys sound great at the start of a journey, but you begin to resent the dead weight after a few thousand Ly.
3. Low-Emissions vs. Overcharged power plants: Many explorers default to a small overcharged power-plant to trim weight and add jump range, but I have been trending towards slightly heavier Low Emissions plants. The reason is because Low-EM dramatically improves heat-dissipation during fuel-scooping, and reduces the distance needed to travel away from a star before re-engaging the FSD. This directly reduces the # of seconds it takes to jump from system to system, increasing distance traveled over time. Explained further:
4. People tend to focus on jump range as a primary statistic in an Exploration ship. While true, it's only half of the equation. The other half is time; specifically, the amount of time it takes to (a) arrive in a new system, (b) refuel, (c) recharge fsd, and (d) jump out. That part is often overlooked but you can actually build your ship to maximize jump range and minimize jump times. In practical testing, I was able to increase my jumps-per-hour from 62/hr (62Ly range) to 74/hr (71Ly range), simply by re-arranging a few components, using LowEM power plants, and re-thinking the way I refuel. That explanation requires its own topic, which I will explore soon in a future log entry.
5. All ship-build concepts are situational. What is profoundly game-changing in one situation may be completely unnoticeable in another. The previous two points regarding jump speeds are supremely important when you are in a hurry to get from one point to another as efficiently as possible. You'll never notice the benefit if you're scanning systems for new discoveries. Why? Because you'll be in system for a while. The only time the LowEM benefit becomes noticeable is once you want to cover distance fast. Then, not only will the difference be noticeable, it may save you literal hours of time. A good ship build needs to cover all mission requirements, and a core requirement for a long-range ship is the ability to get there as fast as possible when the need arises.