CMDR Aldarion 3TwoAlpha profiel > Logboek

Profiel
Commander naam:
Huidige schip:
honest tuck [AL-27A]
(Asp Explorer)
 
Lid sinds:
30 okt. 2018
 
Afstanden ingediend:
24
 
Systemen bezocht:
41.867
Systemen als eerste bezocht:
18.051
 
Saldo:
16.356.551.815 Cr
From Centre to the Colonies: C2C - First Journey - Entries until 17th March; 01:47hrs

Exploring Space Areas between Explorers and Colonia – On my Way There

The huge window panes of a Beluga were made for this:

Mid March I did start my way towards Colonia: I wished to explore new and more routes between Explorer‘s Anchorage and Colonia itself.

The first leg of the route:

Here Are some Impressions of this journey from Explorer's Anchorage to Colonia:

Folowing to the vision: I chose this route to possibly make it happen sooner or later. [The short version of the vision is: Some day, new impulses from the new, now very young systems in their infancy might affect future change on the origins in the bubble, possibly saving mankind from its extinction. To find its full description refer to my entry of 30th March 3305]

Some more impressions of the way towards Colonia:

For the first leg of the journey I followed a direction always keeping Andromeda in my view; Andromeda can be seen from everywhere inside the Milky Way and always is a nice ‘landmark’.

I found a Metallic World, Hypoe Pruae OM-U D3-5534, which presented a beautiful, stunning landscape, where I stood over night:

This was my way there. Later, once I would have arrived at Colonia, I would return towards the core region short off Explorer‘s Anchorage, then turning for a (successful) Long Range Rescue towards the southern hemisphere of the Milky Way – nearly 12kly away from my position.

Approaching and Reaching Colonia:

After finishing this rescue and heading (again) towards Colonia, I called for one more rescue mission with its destination one jump short of Giles Station at Colonia‘s mini bubble. This totally fitted the plan, unless I would have very less opportunity for exploration on my way there.

Finally, when saved one more pilot, I arrived at Giles Station. Touch Down at Giles Station was on March 17th; 01:47hrs.

From this position (Giles Station) I would head back towards Explorer‘s Anchorage – including a third (successful) mission on the way.

A Vision - Hopes Remain (Activity at the Center and Beyond)

Journey from Center to Colonia (C2C) part 1

Once finished the mining CG intended to develop Explorer's Anchorage (refer to the part related to the Beluga Miner) I decided to make a visit at Colonia.

When I started from Giles Station (Colonia) last October, I traversed the arms of the Milkey Way south to the bulge and the Center Region in a relatively straight line without visiting the central regions.

I easily could have made my way towards SagA but I didn't.

For now, I decided to go this way from the opposite direction, exploring the regions to cross and pave a way between these two points.

Since I made this way by classical navigation using neutron boost as a route option, this possibly would give me the opportunity to add new parts to the  evolving net of ‚Neutron Highways', taking part in the mapping of new branches and helping commanders in the future to find fast neutron routes through space (if wanted).

Since the construction of Explorer's Anchorage and the possibility of the growth of a third mini-bubble, there might be some need for better explored routes on these branches.

As well as I do hope for more independent systems away from the bubble, I am willing to take my part in the realization of this vision. Helping with the CGs to construct Explorer's Anchorage as well as developing it, I explore the landscape in which the independent systems  might spread out to unfold the vision in space and time.

Somehow it feels like the colonization of the North American continent: From a few known hot spots and anchor points humans explore unknown territories to create a new, independant society, where humans are able to prosper free of any influences of the old powers, which seem to have reached a climax so far, now being stalled in their own concurrences and threatened by the Thargoids.   Some day, new impulses from the new, now very young systems in their infancy might affect future change on the origins in the bubble, possibly saving mankind from its extinction.

Activity at the Center and Beyond

After finally reaching Explorer's Anchorage, there were some days left until the mining CG for the enhancement of the station would have been initiated. The aim: pushing it to a higher level of construction with more services for the pilots arriving here after their long and lonely journeys through the vast spaces of the Milky Way.

The Beauty of Central Systems

I decided to move as high as possible over the galactic plain to gain the stunning view over the spiral arms and the bulge. I got some views from higher vantage points during the days before.

After analyzing the possible routes to the – so far - highest known system above the plain level, I found out (and was advised by fellow commanders) I needed at least a jr of 66ly to successfully complete such a task: The problem was and is not to reach the target system, since neutron boosts allow to reach that system easily. The point is to be able to return from that system back to areas with a denser star field.

I checked my material storage and found out there were enough resources to synthesize grade 3 FSD injections, which allow a 100% raise in jump range. The problem remained: Since my Beluga's jump range is good enough for reaching 48.8 to 52 ly with one jump, which, by using Jumponium (FSD injection), means a maximum Hyperspace range of approximately 100ly, I am not able to make the jump back from the intended target system(s) to the first system(s) towards the plain on the way back. There is no neutron star to be found in the target system. Very few jumps prevented me from going there (highest elevated system above the galactic plain as known so far).

So I did work out an alternate route to a system as high above the galactic plain as I could get using the Beluga. I found the following system: Quemeou YE-A D17 (as shown in the link below). I did reach that target system at approximately 23:20hrs.

On my ascent over the galactic plain I invited CMD Hannah to my crew. She was new in the ED universe and as a member of my crew (Multi Crew) she was able to enjoy the view over the galactic plain and the Central region with its dense star fields.

I do not know how much of the exploration money she could claim when returning to Explorer's Anchorage but I hope she got the whole sum as well, which is very helpful for a new commander; I need to ask her if I meet her again.

The following night I stayed at Explorer's Anchorage at my favorite bar; this time, the personal there knew my taste even though not all luxuries are served at this station laying deep into uninhabited space. On the other hand I prefer these casual places: No snobs in this place, no persons blending and thinking being of highest importance, no FEDs, who think they were ruling humanity, no high born lords of the IMPs, who sometimes tend to think mankind were here to serve their comforts. Please, don't get me wrong, I am not saying they all were the same but there are some patterns of behavior to be found with specific characters existing on both sides, resulting in much more similarities of these super powers than each would admit.

Explorer's Anchorache as an independent, democratic society provides a resting place for everyone, who is mad enough, encouraged enough, capable enough, bold enough to reach this place and these characters can be found in every faction serving each super power. I, myself, was given the rank of an Admiral of the Federation as well as the title King of the Empire. There are all types of characters on each side, for sure but the point is: to have made it to Explorer's Anchorage at this time needs a specific, capable type of commander and there are very, very few, if not none, foul characters among this group, no big mouth', no wanna-bes.

So, at this time, Explorer's Anchorage is a great place despite of the lack of luxuries. I do hope it will remain like this for as long as possible.

The next day I decided to make a round trip around the central systems of the Milky Way. The exploration of these systems might be helpful as well to find places, where good mining spots of the coming CG can be found.

Beluga Liner - Beluga Miner - Part II - What Else to be Mentioned

What else to mention?

During the third day of the four mining days, I met my fellow pilot Skywayter, who was busy at mining Bauxite as well. After an hour of doing so together, I made the calculation and found: the spot we were working at, was not as rich as the claim I found for myself. So we discussed that matter and were swapping over to the mining location two jumps further out (one jump for CMD Skywayter using his Anaconda with a longer jump range than the Beluga).

After about ten minutes Skywayter having gained nearly 20 tonnes Bauxite confirmed a much faster mining process. Due to some real life responsibilities, I had to leave and landed the Beluga one the innermost moon to the gas giant, which is following the edge of the ring.

The small moon at the edge of the ring: a welcome resting place: https://imgur.com/bmwPNAX

My Second Day of the Core-Mining-Project: Supporting a LRR

This day of me as a miner was nearly finished. I followed Ratchat, the IRC the Fuel Rats establish their communication with. I was following the chatter on this channel, when a case came in: It was a LRR case. LRR is the Fuel Rats abbreviation for ‘Long Range Rescue’.

The client in this case got stranded deep into the Formidine Rift, a region I had visited a few weeks before: a couple of days after the DW2 CG at waypoint 2, Omega Mining, was finished.

There was only one rat assigned for this case, NivisOwl, a young rat, a rat, who just had joined the squadron, on his first LRR, being about to travel these regions for his first time.

The Formidine Rift is the contrary to the core regions: very few star systems and a lot of perm locked systems. CMD NivisOwl was clever enough to ask about some support for the route plotting due to the fact he was searching for the entry into the Formidine and a workable route. Nivis used an Imperial Cutter with a jump range of 45.8 ly, which was not making the job easier.

I gave him all the information about the perm locked systems as well as the entry and exit systems I did find before. In addition I sent him the URL to my EDSM travel map to guide him through the dark regions he had to travel.

As well I showed and explained the spansh-route plotter to support him further on but did not forget to mention, the plotter might fail due to the nature of The Formidine Rift with its low star field density and probably vast unexplored and locked areas.

Also I gave him the essential information of how to ride a neutron’s cone to supercharge the FSD drive, including the YT-link of CMD Exigeous very well done training source “Tutorial: Neutron Star Jumps & The Neutron Superhighway”.

It turned out, the fellow rat was not carrying an AFMU, which shall be used to maintain the FSD, which suffers during the process of super scooping. On the other hand, I plotted a route using Spansh’s index plotter and found out, there were only six neutrons for one way, resulting in probably 12 neutron jumps, which might not tear the FSD too much down – less than 90% integrity should be avoided while super scooping. As well, there always is the possibility of plotting a route using the GalMap without the option of neutron cone boost.

As a matter of fact, the route plotting through The Formidine Rift always is a challenge, even to the most experienced pilots. Due to this, during the following night I supported Nivis with the route plotting: one of his problems were some glitches of the index plotter making an easy plotting impossible.

So we stayed in contact during the next hours (from around 01:00 until 10 past five, when I was sure Nivis were able to manage on his own, which he perfectly did during the coming hours.

The next day, when I asked, if Nivis were good, he first sent me the GalMap screen shot showing his position in the target system, where the client was saved.

-- (log transmission) -- _Aldarion3TwoAlpha Hope you could manage the navigation through the Formidine Rift. It is different from navigating in areas with average or high star field density - it always is challenging. NivisOwl[PC] thanks to you :D _Aldarion3TwoAlpha I'll check, gimme a sec, pls - I just returned from work and had a too short N8 :) NivisOwl[PC] no hurry :) _Aldarion3TwoAlpha Well done, you reached the client. :DD \0/ \0/ \0/ \0/ NivisOwl[PC] now i just need to wait for them to show up, got 4 more hours :D _Aldarion3TwoAlpha Yeah, that is common for LRR... I am happy you made it :) NivisOwl[PC] wouldnt have made it without your help :D NivisOwl[PC] thanks a lot :) _Aldarion3TwoAlpha Plus, one thing of ED: one always is learning something new in some place one never thought of before :) NivisOwl[PC] this is true :) _Aldarion3TwoAlpha I might be a slow rat with not too many first limpets but I have my moments, some stuff I know from playing the game for a long time - literally since 1986 :) NivisOwl[PC] :O you played the original? one sec, ill be back :) _Aldarion3TwoAlpha So, being a FuelRat, I try to support, that is true for fellow rat as well - I support you as a fellow plus I take a part in rescuing an explorer, who is scared to death to loose all that valuable data he or she gathered during days, weeks, maybe month. It is worth the effort, even though I did not hear the alarm this morning :) So we - the FR - did manage to save one more soul and keep a player in game :D NivisOwl[PC] \o/ thanks for your support :) hopefully the rest of the rescue goes by smoothly _Aldarion3TwoAlpha Let me know, when you are back, safely, pls. -- (end of log transmission) --

As a remark, last night NivisOwl returned to the bubble safely.

Beluga Liner - Beluga Miner - Part I.II

The proof only could be achieved by using the Beluga for the mining mission.

The hard points are restricted to the use of class 2 modules, which could mean a disadvantage but I use three class 2 mining lasers and one abrasion blaster plus a seismic charge launcher with the Beluga’s hard-points.

As well I outfitted the Beluga with 256 t of cargo space, a refinery, two collector limpet controllers, one prospector limpet controller, a fuel scoop plus everything, which might be needed – I even left the shield generator installed to give me some protection by accidentally bumping into an asteroid. Since the Beluga has a very long hull shape and some wide wings at its back, one need to be careful to move it close to asteroids. This is true even more, due to the fact one has to put into regard that the view to the bottom and top are limited. So far, when returning from the mining missions, the Beluga had usually 100% of hull integrity, once 98% and one 75%. The lowest hull integrity was the result of staying too close to a spinning asteroid and the tip of its irregular shape , which had a huge impact on the hull of my ship; exactly for this reason it is good to provide some shielding.

To make the Beluga a mining ship, I exchanged the Guardian Booster, the SRV-Bay, the AFMU and the fuel and repair limpet controllers.

The Beluga as a mining vessel - just follow this link: https://imgur.com/UpbctFq

How did mining work, so far?

For the CG there is the demand of water, liquid oxygen and Bauxite. First I started to go for water and liquid oxygen, since both could be found in icy rings. I calculated, the chances to find any of these were higher then to find a single type of resource.

After a few hours of mining water and liquid oxygen, I found this was not very effective compared to the experiences I made using the Python for mining. So I started to seek for Bauxite.

Bauxite could be found in asteroids of the rocky ring type. As the other resources for the CG Bauxite is common and to be found in rocky rings.

Approximately two thirds of all asteroids in the rocky rings I visited contain Bauxite. Mostly, 80% to 90% of Bauxite containing asteroids do contain one or two other resources, mostly there are two components to be found inside an asteroid; in these cases the chunks gained from the asteroid surfaces contain Bauxite/something else, which means, there is more Bauxite inside the chunk, or the other way around. All other asteroids containing Bauxite (10% to 20% of the Bauxite containing asteroids) do contain Bauxite only.

There are as well very few asteroids having subsurface resources of Bauxite, but so far I used the abrasion blaster twice only to gather these, which then was only one piece of rock in each of these cases (equaling two tonnes).

The other time I did use the abrasion blaster as well was, when I cracked one asteroid to gain Alexandrite by deep core mining and the use of the seismic charges. In this case I had no problems to get 16t of Alexandrite out of the core using the Beluga: I simply wished to try how good the Beluga’s performance is to do deep core mining. The result: mot as good as the Python but good enough.

My first aim is to gather Bauxite, which, as said above, mainly can be found as a common resource at the surface of the asteroids inside rocky rings.

Due to the density of Bauxite sources inside the rocky rings, it is found in most of the asteroids (approx two thirds), as well as in asteroids, which are close to each other. To move the Beluga, I mainly use the thrusters, only correcting the course by using the mouse. In most cases moving the ship to the left and right or to turn it by a few degrees is enough to aim for the next target (asteroid). I even do not close the cargo hatch (rising the ships max speed or not limiting it) when transitioning from one asteroid to the other. Due to the fact these targets are close together, normally, and moving too fast bears the risk of crashing into an asteroid, this method seems appropriate. As well, the Beluga build I use is good enough to run the energy management with two pips on the engines and full pips for the weapons while mining – the thrusters are good enough to do so and keep the ship agile enough to navigate easily.

Using three class two mining lasers with 4 collector limpets works smooth, too; as a result, starting on day two for the CG, I recently gained 1319 t of resources for the community goal, which puts me at the top 25% for the mining CG using the Beluga so far. Considering this, I come to the conclusion, the Beluga can be used as a capable Mining Vessel.

Update 14th MAR 3305 – Explorer’s Anchorage

I did collect resources for the new station (Explorer’s Anchorage) until the last hour. or the last run, I carried a smaller amount of limpets since I knew there wouldn’t be sufficient time to fill the whole 256 tonnes of cargo hold of my ship.

Less than half an hour before the CG ended, I had fired the last collector limpets and headed back towards the new station: The calculation was easy since I had enough insight in how fast I was able to gather Bauxite from the claim I did use.

Impressions from asteroid belts close to the Milky Ways Core: https://imgur.com/oxpcaXk https://imgur.com/rRV1ENV

One last time – at least for a while – I left the rocky ring observing the light beams divided by the shadows of thousands, hundred of thousands and maybe millions of asteroids being partly absorbed by even more dust particles. During the last four days I’ve seen beautiful sun sets and sun dawns, while mining the ring, whereas there is no real darkness at the core region: due to the immense number of star systems densely crammed into the region. When watching out of the cockpit’s windows, the background presents the pattern of star distribution, which shows a very bright, light emitting cloud into the direction of the Milky Way’s bulge and less dense clouds at its edges or even relatively darker zones when the line of sight is perpendicular to the spiral arms.

This image gives an impression of how the area appears: https://imgur.com/JkjxKud

Minutes to go until the CG ends… After avoiding a last interdiction by a NPC-pilot, I dropped out in front of the Ocellus station with it’s nearly finished Habitat Ring. Only one segment is missing to close and finish that ring and several plasma flashes caused by the welding of the construction teams strafe the eye.

Arrival at Explorer's Anchorage: https://imgur.com/uH8WxAK

After docking, I sold the last load of 169 tonnes of Bauxite and went for a break at the only restaurant being available inside this station at its early construction phase serving the foods I like. Finally I did deliver 2.232 tonnes of resources using the Beluga as a mining ship

Beluga Liner - Beluga Miner - Part I.I - and More

Collecting Resources at the Galactic Core: Is a Beluga a capable Mining Vessel

I own my Beluga Liner since more than two years. Initially I used it successfully for bulk passenger transports and tourist missions in different layouts. On the one hand I stuffed as much economy passenger cabins as possible inside to transport as many people as possible. On the other hand, I as well used it in a layout with Luxury Cabins to transport VIPs on tourist missions, soon finding out the use of first class cabins made more sense due to the fact, there were more missions at stations available. I did a lot of transport missions in Caleta and Shasir, which made me a fortune.

The following link provides an image of my Beluga Liner, called Ahab's Desire https://imgur.com/uEbJpqx

Later, I also used the Beluga for rescue missions to get people out of burning stations, which were attacked by Thargoids before. Unless the Beluga is a very spacious ship, the rescue missions went very fine, even though I was told an Anaconda fits more economy cabins and therefore were the better option for rescue missions.

So far, everyone would consider these uses of the Beluga as mandatory.

Then, one day, I had the idea of using the Beluga for some exploration as well. I guess, most pilots would say, this ship might be everything else than an exploration vessel due to its limits in jump range, mainly. There are plenty of aspects of the Beluga’s configuration limiting its potential jump range: first, the ship has a high hull mass, added to the insane mass of a class eight life support system, which is the only matching life support module to be used with this ship. Then again, the FSD slot is not allowing the highest classes of FSD drives.

But then again: Exploration does not necessarily need maximum jump ranges due to the fact of millions of unexplored star systems within the Elite Galaxy. So I tried to find out about the capabilities of a Beluga as an exploration ship.

The Beluga on an exploration tour: https://imgur.com/aOQCTgR

First, I stripped out all not really needed modules including the heavy shield generator, using class D components wherever possible. The FSD, on the other hand, was the highest class and A rated to be purchased. The engineer Martuk provided me with a grade 1 FSD upgrade for maxed jump range and so I got my first version of an exploration ship with the Beluga. I do not want to forget the SRV bay I put into that early version of the Beluga; despite of all attempts of mass reduce I did not like to do exploration without a single SRV at least.

After a lot of engineering I finally got a Beluga I used for trips through a lot of parts of the ED-Galaxy: I visited the Zurara Megaship at the Formidine Rift, explored the Dynasty locations at the Hawking’s Gap, visited some systems of the inner spiral arm , systems I once investigated using an DBX or ASPX or took it to Sagittarius A at the galaxy’s core on the Distant Worlds Expedition 3305.

Beluga Liner short off the EZ of SagA https://imgur.com/M3qKnpW

So far, after Explorer’s Anchorage was constructed, not finished but at stage two and three of its building phase, I wished to take part in the project to gather even more resources at the core systems, to reach the final building phase of Explorer’s Anchorage as well as the installation of a Megaship at the center of the galaxy.

The image under the following link shows construction phase one of Explorer's Anchorage: The only parts being present at this stage were te Ocellus Sphere with the docking bays and the massive FSD drives being attached to it, still: https://imgur.com/LiHjHkU

I took part in the gathering of resources for the construction of this station at the galaxy’s core – the farthest station of mankind so far. Several weeks ago I used my usual mining ship, a Python named ‘Der Pott’ for the mining of the resources needed for the initial delivery phase of an Ocellus Sphere; this was the CG of DW2 at waypoint 2: Omega Mining.

But now, there is no dock yard to be found at Explorer’s Anchorage, yet. And even if so, transferring of equipment or ships to Explorer’s Anchorage would take 72 hours, three full days, and probably would cost a fortune; the mining mission would be half finished by that time, even if the final tier wouldn’t be finished before schedule.

Explorer's Anchorage with the first parts of its habitat ring as it looked three days ago: https://imgur.com/5biSStu

To take part in the mining CG at Explorer’s Anchorage means, to use the stations outfitting and morph the Beluga into a mining ship. So I do have two aims doing that: First I wish to take part in the CG, helping to colonize the core region. Then, as well, I wish to find out, if the Beluga could be used as a capable Miner, which should not be that hard since a lot the restrictions of the optional bays were taken away with the last update of chapter 4, now allowing the use of multiple cargo modules at the size 5 and size 6 bays, which originally were restricted to the use of passenger cabins.

Circumnavigation around the Core of the Milky Way

7th MAR 3305 – Circumnavigation around the Core of the Milky Way

I decided to circumnavigate the Center of the galaxy. While doing so, I – as well – landed on a moon, second of six around a class III giant.

I do like this moon, a small rocky world with a radius of 570km and a duration of 3.5 days for one tidally locked revolution around the gas giant.

There were some more systems with a multitude of interesting bodies I did travel to during my round trip around the central region of the Milky Way, which I did not totally finish during this flight but later during the coming days and weeks.

Anyway, this time I finished most of the round trip and the following links provide impressions and information of some of the systems I passed through.

These are a few of the worlds I travelled during this trip.

Sagittarius A and Explorer's Anchorage

After a detour of exploring I went back towards the recent waypoint(s) of the Distant Worlds Expedition 3305.

At the very moment I saty at waypoint 7, the new spaceport named Explorer's Anchorage. My first arrival and successful touch down took place at 05:27hrs of 28th FEB 3305 and I could convince myself about the result of the mining efforts back at Omega Mining: The material collection at Omega Mining resulted in this station close to the Milky Way's centre, which is known as Sagittarius A, the super massive Black Hole inside our Galaxy's core.

Earlyer on, I arrived at the supermassive Black Hole (28th FEB 3305 - 04:55hrs).

Some images of the famous Sagittarius A:

https://imgur.com/YYkMMkH

https://imgur.com/9X1G9BT

https://imgur.com/hBxB4KP

The following link provides a good impression of the strong lensing effect the supermassive Black Hole is causing:

https://imgur.com/M3qKnpW

The Galaxy Map is showing the constellation of Sagittarius A and the system with the young station, Explorer's Anchorage:

https://imgur.com/hetvfHh

The system, in which Explorer's Anchorage is located, is a binary star system:

https://imgur.com/LUzt2yF

Explorer's Anchorage at the moment is placed less than 4 ly away from Sagittarius A and at an early stage of its construction.

https://imgur.com/5e20l11 (early phase of construction)

https://imgur.com/LiHjHkU

https://imgur.com/VxL2AYd

PREAE AEWSY QO-Z D13-170

PREAE AEWSY QO-Z D13-170 07th FEB 3305 (01:32am)

This planet is covered with a thin layer of grey-brown dust. Astonishingly, only a few centimeters underneath this dark surface the soil is pink in color, which appears, when the SRV's weehls scratch the dust off the surface.

It seems like the surface material is transfomed by yet unknown processes, possibly oxidation but maybe something else.

The following link shows an image of my landing site: https://imgur.com/h4VRYB9

This body is classified as a Metallic Rocky World.

Distant Worlds Expedition (DW2): Conflux Abandond Settlements - Waypoint 3.

Distant Worlds Expedition (DW2): Conflux Abandond Settlements - Waypoint 3.

Returning from Hawkings Gap Region I headed towards the Distant World's Expedition Waypoint number 3.

https://imgur.com/zAoIsf9

Staying over night, I was able to get a beautiful view of the area the next morning, when the site got some light from its close star, a Brown Dwarf.

https://imgur.com/K8pMMb1

https://imgur.com/jZkwfDa

https://imgur.com/2fxOmoV