Una, Hoard Orbital - Amahu, Clifford Station: 5 minutes. The retour takes a bit longer because of 2100 ls to cross from the central star to Hoard Orbital, but it is surprisingly negligible: 6 minutes overall. In between, I make a habit of scourging the database for new alternative routes. A good route for a large ship like the Lakon Typ 7 would probably be LTT 15278, Zholobov to Tetonang, Yaping, as both stations seem to have large landing pads, according to Slopey´s database.
Once I am ready, i.e. still have enough cash for a full load of palladium, I buy the class 5A frameshift drive for my Asp and switch to an alternative route from and to Amahu, which brings a bit more of a profit: Amahu, Clifford Station (palladium, 1640 CR/unit) to LTT 15278, Zholobov Enterprise (performance enhancers, 1193 CR/unit).
An interdiction by a security ship robs me of 3% hull=9700 Credits repair costs; another reason to have shields, but I am too greedy! These ancounters happens more often than I wish. Trying to evade interdictions definitely has become more difficult since gamma.
- my latest trading hub
During my trade routes it becomes apparent that a new landing pad bug has appreared; sometimes the landing navigational aid does not appear, you have to aim and set down by eyeballing the proper touchdown position, which is rather difficult without shields if you do not want to scratch your ship hull.
After a while, my cash is 4.3 million Credits again, I get bored and decide to look up the community event in Furbaide, Effinger Port, where basic medicines are required in order to quell a deadly disease. So I load up with basic medicines and plot the course. It is a bit away from where I am, so an upgrade back to the 32 ton-fuel tank is needed in order to do the trip non-stop. Unfortunately, I realize only after launch that I would have needed to fuel up after installing the fuel tank and I have to take a pit stop nevertheless.
In Furbaiden, Effinger Port, I am a bit confused. There is no community mission displayed in the bulleting board and, moreso, basic medicines are in supply here (although at zero at that moment). This is so typical for the ambigous state of Elite: Dangerous. Full of red herrings and bugs and you never know how something is supposed to work. So, I sell the medicines, which are then for sale at a supply of 128 tons...
Well. Let´s see the system where the space station project from Yembo is going to be built soon, instead! I first need to reconfigure my ship for safer long range travels, i.e. weapons and shields, and scanners, while we are at it. My four million Credits melt away too fast; only a measly class 5C shield is what I can afford if I also want advanced and surface scanners and a good fuel scoop. Maybe I should also equip a refinery for some mining, if I should be chance encounter one of those "pristine" platinum asteroid belts (yeah, fat chance, but you never know...). I am taking a risky approach: Only 473,918 Credits are left when I am done shopping, and the rebuy value for the insurance of my ship is 669,893 Credits. Which means, if I get attacked and destroyed, I am in debt to the maximum allowance 200,000 Credits. Of course this will not happen to me. Right?
- good to go on an extended trip
As I start to plot the course, I can already see that the target system, HIP 101110, had been renamed to New Yembo. Neat! So it is really about time to visit it before it finally gets settled!!! Off we go!
The first three systems are still inhabited, some ships patrolling around there, inclusive some CMDR Cobras, but then I am already out in the unknown. Once I realize this, it feels weird. Empty systems. No civilisation, it is the wild wild west. I am tempted to stop by and scan everything I encounter; however, I would never arrive at my destination, there is simply too much to take in. Besides, so far all objects were already marked as discoverd with some CMDR´s name (a feature which got introduced with one of the game updates).
I soon have to start scooping, after I realize again that not every star is suited for this; I do not want to get stuck in a system with a non-scoopable star. And then, rather quickly, I have already arrived in New Yembo. The huge primary star blazes in a beautiful velvet-blue-white fire!
- normally, fuel scooping is not possible at white stars
My advanced scanner reveils 40 astronomical objects. Let´s have a look around and finally make my detailed surface scanner work! There is another player Asp, as well as numerous ships. Damn, I guess I am too late to be one of the first-comers! I try to contact the other CMDR but I am rudely interrupted by an interdiction. Good that I installed some weapons, after all! My class 2 pulse lasers make short work of the NPC Cobra. Then I am off exploring.
There is a belt very close to the star, my ship heats up considerable in order to get even close. My scanner scans it once, twice, thrice, then it is finally labelled. The system map shows it as pristine, but, alas, only of the rocky type i.e. there should be no metals to be found in there. But scattered around the system, every ringed planet is littered with exctraction sites. It is fun to explore this new system thouroughly, knowing to be a spearhead for its stettlement. I am so glad I stopped trade grinding, this is a change of play style which I did not realize I needed!
I am slightly dissappointed that there is no "pristine" ring or asteroid belt, but there are quite some "metal rich" ones. As my last step for this game session, I land on the space station, which is still labelled "Under Construction". And it indeed only consists of the barebone, attached with a hughe rocket engine.
- it seems the core of the station has just arrived
The market is of course still small, so no good trade opportunities yet. Selling the data from my scans, Universal Cartographics pay me 43k CR for the systems on my way here, and offer 135k for a full scan of Yembo, but I need to be 20+ ly from here to actually being able to trade that data.
In the meanwhile, Frontier has launched a nameing contest in order to find a good name for the starport. I tried to participate, but the confirmation Email did not make it through. Aquaeus Port.
Time is up, logout.
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