Road trip......

Here I go starting off on the journey to my new base. There are a few things to consider before starting, number one on that list is how the heck am I going to get there. I'm still using my trusty Sidewinder with all the starting gear. To say its travel capabilities are limited is an understatement.

Notice the Jumprange at the bottom right hand of the screen, this is the biggest factor in keeping me from my goal. With a range of 7.56 LY I won't be getting very far at all, the route planner in the Galaxy Map refuses to plot a route of any useful distance as it dead ends when it reaches a jump I'm not able to make.

So I look in the equipment list to see what I can find to increase this range with my limited funds and find the following:

This increases my range to 9.21 LY which is more respectable but I know I can do better even though I only have 2,111 credits left. Surely there is something here which will help me out and I can afford.

Bingo!
Now I can hear most of you whispering in the background about how crazy I am buying a Life Support System instead of maybe bigger Thrusters or something, but wait...... there is a method to my madness. Notice how the new Life Support System decreases the mass of my ship by .5 tons. It also increases my jumprange by .17 LY to 9.38LY. All this for a paltry sum of 1,293 credits.

This will have to suffice for now and with my new equipment firmly bolted in place I can now plot a route to my destination. (Before I equipped these two items the route planner refused to even attempt it as I couldn't reach the destination).

My destination is the Altair system, this is some 62 odd LY away and will take me quite a few jumps. (This is a bad picture as I should have moved the "orange" marker to the destination system for clarity sake, I have noted this down for future reference). One interesting thing to note is that at system "Core SYS Sector SO-R B4-4" the solid orange line changes to a dotted orange line. At the time I wasn't really sure what this meant but figured it couldn't be good. ( I'm assuming that this is the limit of my fuel tanks unless I refuel).

With my route plotted and a fresh flight suit I jump into my ship and set off, I plan to explore each system that I can on the way to make money to help fund my trip.

Starting out....

Exploring a system.....

Sunbathing.......

Seems to be a lot of people out there "Seeking luxuries" must be a party in this system.

Everything is running along smoothly I'm clicking along scanning in each system with the Basic Discovery Scanner stopping for fuel once. I know this is going to be a close trip if I hit a series of systems with no stations to refuel and .........

I do

Here I sit in LP 634-1 almost out of fuel with very few options. I can't make it to Pyredi due to insuffiecient fuel and am left with two options. Furbaide or LHS 3511; do I flip a coin or go with the named system as they usually contain a station or outpost.........what the.....!

While I was sitting here debating on what to do it appears I have flown right in to the pull of this White Dwarf. Stupidity at its finest, I didn't get but two screenshots as I was fighting desperately to pull away from the star and cool my systems back down after being dropped out of Supercruise. I quickly lock Furbaide and engage the FSD. I cross my fingers and wait to see what appears when I drop out of this jump.

Luck is with me and when I drop in to Furbaide I spot a station! I turn my battered ship toward the station and increase the throttle nervously watching my fuel gauge the whole time. (Notice my fuel gauge is below a 1/2 a pip while still 2060ls out of Effinger Port.

I make it though barely, I had only 28% showing in my Reservoir tank. My ship is also at 52% hull from the heat damage of flying into a star when I finally docked at Effinger.

I patch up my battered ship, sell what scan data I have, and refuel wondering how I made it out of this alive and what the heck was I thinking keeping my ship aligned toward the star while I was off poking around in the Galaxy Map.

With an Outfitting shop in this station I decide to sell off some of my hard earned scanning data and buy some more upgrades for my ship.

With a new Power Plant, Thrusters and Power Distributer I have increased my jump range to 10.25 LY. The D grade equipment is lighter than the E grade I had equipped reducing the mass of my ship from 44.6 to 40.8 tons.

(Here is a sensible option for those of you with more common sense than me. Use this while travelling to top your tanks off in each system with an scoopable star. I will write up a separate post dedicated to fuel scooping at a later time. I've been close enough to stars for the time being).

I debated on buying one before I undocked but I'm down to 1,029 credits and wouldn't have enough to cover insurance if I run myself into another star. I decide against the scoop and continue on my journey.

With a fresh flight suit, clean drawers and a full tank of fuel I continue on my way scanning systems always watching out for stations in each one in order to keep my tanks full. At one such stop I came across a sight that reminded me what might have been if luck had not pulled me from the clutches of flaming doom.

A couple more jumps and I make it to Altair, this is where I will be making my base for the immediate future as I stock up on credits and upgrade my ship. ( Several posts in the works on how I go about making credits, I will cover the process in some detail soon).

A quick trip through  the system brings me to Altair 2 and Tereshkova Dock, a small Industrial Outpost owned by the Altair Purple Mob. It is currently not under the control of the mob but they still lay claim to the outpost. Altair 2 is a highly volcanic world and another interesting sight in it's own right.

Having made the monumental journey ( not really but it sounds good when retelling the story) in one piece (mostly) I relax and start checking out what there is to do around here ........

Fly Aimlessly!