Damn Commies!
06 Feb 2020Scubadog
I am SO sick of these frickin' communists! I've been working as hard as I can to promote a faction that is a Democracy in Bisley Landing, in an effort--apparently futile--to oust these stupid Communists out of control of the station. But it's mostly just me working it. These lazy residents just refuse to join in the fight. I don't want to resort to piracy or other nefarious methods against the communist faction...that would make me just as bad as these fools. But they have the numbers to counteract all my hard work, it seems. Oh, sure, I might make a little headway here or there--I got them down to 44% at one point. But after running missions most of the night, I woke up this morning to find they were at 67%! SIXTY-GOD-FORSAKEN-SEVEN-PERCENT!!!! It's almost enough to make me want to blow up their ships on the pad. I'm at a loss as to what else I can do.In other news, I'm up to 4% along on my Deadly Combat rating, so there's that. I complained about how slow the going was from Dangerous to Deadly. Ha! The joke's on me. I'm beginning to think the best way to drive this mule train faster is to go out to the Witch Head Nebula and start throwing rocks at a ton of Thargoid Scout ships. I don't fancy that much.
So, at this immediate moment I'm tweaking some of the configuration on my Orca, optimizing it as my alternate exploration ship. I know some commanders who take considerable risk at skimping on some of the important modules. Running size 3 thrusters in a size 6 compartment, and other nonsense. And, sure, their jump range is impressive when they do that. But they aren't set to handle any serious issues along the way. And I figure that might be dandy as long as you can use that puffy jump range to scoot back to a station in a pinch. But I can't hold to that notion. When I'm way out in the black, no matter my jump range, self-reliance is the name of my game.
I can swallow getting by with D-rating most things on an exploration build. I'll take a notch down on my Power Plant, Distributor and such. I'll even drop down two levels on my thrusters, if I can sufficiently engineer them. But I won't fly without at least some shields--I've bounced hard on high-G planets or smashed into a mountain side enough times to teach me that lesson. The practicality of an SRV on board hasn't been lost on me, either. And with no stations in range, I won't go without an AFMU or Repair Limpet Controller (and an empty size 2 cargo rack to hold limpets). If I have the luxury of space, I'll carry a second AFMU.
So, right now my ExplOrca is riding at a hair over 63ly jump range. My Anaconda is almost 71ly. Not too hateful. Which ever ship I decide to head out with, I'll need to inventory my material stores and make sure I have enough of everything I need for the synthesizers to do their job. You've heard the saying "Don't fly without a re-buy"? Well, I have another one for you: "Don't fly without air supply".
Well, that's all I can think to record at this point. Eden--my ship's AI--reported that there was something odd in one of the voltage readings from the bi-weave shield genny that I installed in the Orca. The fact that it's a size 3 module in a size 6 slot shouldn't matter, but maybe some couplings are slightly mismatched somehow. Anyway, I've got to check this out by hand since the ship's AI doesn't have hands.