- notice the smoke hanging on the right side of my cockpit
The white star is not the main star, but in very close orbit. This system is full of stars, indeed. But I want to first have a well equipped ship, preferably with an advanced scanner before I start the sightseeing. Two big stations are here. Carey Colony has nothing to offer. Smeaton Port is out by 2500 ls. And no new ships neither. A bit irritating is that headtracking stays enabled in the station menu; I do not need it there so I toggle it off.
Via Hermitage to LHS 3262, a high tech system where I bought an Anaconda in beta1; let´s see if they can suit my needs. Other routes are difficult to plan; the galaxy map does not display any information on many systems. Explorers needed? Maybe I start buying data for getting a better overview? I sure do not want to spend my time scanning all 2400 systems here.
On my flights, I notice a lot of the fine tuning in this new beta client. Hyperspace looks much cooler, the exit is much faster and you really have to tone down your speed quickly lest you get grilled by the star. Which exactly happens to me in Hermitage. The star is a brown dwarf, and during the brief moments of me doing a screenshot, I am already so close that the emergency drop kicks in. My ship´s heat is at 180%, my hull down to 77%, oh my. Thankfully, the frameshift cooldown has also been finetuned i.e. shortened, so I can escape quickly!
- beautiful view, a bit too hot though
Arriving at LHS 3262, on my way to Lacaille Prospect, supercruise is much easier again to handle; drop out with destination lock is again possible with up to 300 km/s. It was roughly half of this in the last beta, making the approach longer and more tedious.
Docking goes wrong due to a bug, the landing pad does not recognize my approach, so I have to leave the station and redo the docking process. On my way, there is a Lakon Type 9 getting stuck in the docking cage; I wonder if I should ticket those issues, which do not directly affect me, too. While waiting for the docking timer to exire, I observe from the leaving ships that NPC ships apparently are not affected by mass lock. A new warning message "frameshift charge detected" is uttered the moment those ships leave the docking cage.
- probably my fault that the NPC here gets stuck; it tries to avoid collision with me while still being in the docking cage
Sigh. Again, no new ships. I better switch now to the Lakon Type 6, and be it just for the better jump range! Done. The outfitting screen is rich. I upgrade to 2x32-ton racks, 2x16-ton racks, a fuel scoop, and a D4 frameshift drive (which is much cheapter with only 50k Credits than before!). However, I remember having had a larger jump range with it. Could it be that Frontier meddled a bit with the classifications? I read in the ED forum that A class should be what D class was in the last beta. This would explain the lower price, too. The only thing I want and do not find is an advanced scanner. And I am not sure; should I equip again the mining stuff? I want a multi-purpose ship, after all, and the Lakon Type 6 is closest to it besides the not-yet affordable Asp.
For a virgin flight, I take some transport missions to Guangul. Three of them available, and the board does not replenish. Fuel scooping is a lot of fun; you enter the system close to the sun so no waste of time having to fly far. My approach to Laue´s Claim is hindered by a request denied. I study the outpost a bit. Quite sinister, definitely a pirate layout. Hm... I really hope that the "request denied" issue is not because of me not having enough reputation to be accepted here...? That would suck, honestly. A relog does not change the situation, all the while I see NPC ships come and dock.
- screams "I am a pirate ARRRH"
As I study the rightmenu, I see that I have neutral reputation. Then I see it! I have a fine of 7000 Credits with all factions here! How? More important: Where to pay it off if they do not let me dock!?? Ah, one of my three missions must have expired, the fine shows in the leftmenu. Weird. I am trying to go to Fossey Station; all my mission timers are lost by now, no way I can still make it in time.
Thankfully Fossey Station lets me land. The are also owned by the same faction, Gold Creative LTD. I assume I was victim to a bug. Costs me 10k Credits of fine by now; the last transport mission is still up with 30 minutes. The outfitting screen gives me C4 thrusters, optimal thust now at 350 tons. I also buy a refinery, for one million Credit, but it has 6 bins which means much less hassle in selecting the right asteroids. Hm, a bug, I hear my breathing mask, and when undocking, it has endless looping message about life system enabled. Relog.
Must try Laue´s Station again, to make sure. Again, request denied. Something is wrong here. Ok scratch that mission. Looking for the next big system in order to complement my ship equipment. Amongst all the non-information, I finally find and spot LFT 1446, a high population industry system. On my way out, I am far enough to drop all the "stolen" cargo; actually, I have to, in order to make the 12 ly jump to my target.
It is a bright white star. A small one. As I try to get closer for scooping, I get kicked out of supercruise, hull drops to 98%. I see, so no scooping off small white stars! Oh, oh, but my heat is rising! Quick, enter supercruise... whew... 200% heat and my ship is down to 96%.
- oooh, shiny... (moments before the BAM)
And another inconvenience: Bosch Settlement is 20.000 ls away. Hrmpf; time to grab a coffee, I guess. Bosch is in planetary orbit around a yellow and a brown star. I try fuel scooping at the brown star; no, does not work. The yellow star again does work. I overdo it a bit and get a lot of smoke on my amatures, and my hull drops to 88%. Docking in Bosch Settlement, repairs are 1000 Credits, and refueling the rest fuel is 500 Credits. So I guess it was a zero sum game this time. A bit more cautious fuel scooping and I might indeed save some money!
- finally a reason to play with fire...
- nice arrangement
Better results here; they sell the Asp (6 mio Credits), and the new Federal Dropship (38 mio Credits!), which I personally believe to be very very ugly. No luck again finding the Empireal ship. In the outfitting screen, I update to a C4 frameshift drive, which propels my range from 14 ly to 17 ly. Much better! However, still no advanced scanner. This tool is important for exploring; if it works as it did in beta2, its scanning range is a multitue greater than the measly 500 ls of the basic scanner. If I want to go into all those systems which do not have any information yet on the galaxy map, I better have the advanced scanner aboard, lest I will need a lot of time just for the need of flying around scanning.
An announcement of a server shutdown leaves me 10 more minutes. I take my chances and grab a load of crop harvesters and head out for Pi-Fang, a rich agricultural system. Arriving there, I manage to fuel scoop at a sweet spot which keeps my heat at 98%. Arriving at Brooks Estate, I seel the harvesters for a profit of overal 60k Credits. Nice! Comfortably, there is also a black market, so I can ssell the rest of my "stolen" goods which are still in my hold from the unsuccessful transport missions.
- note the planet having a new and improved graphic; gorgeous (need to look up more synonyms for ´beautiful´...)
Then servers are shut down and my game session so far finished.
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