You might want to seriously consider getting your drive engineered- from what I understand, there are a few places out towards Beagle Point that can get you in a tight spot, and the extra jump range might give you a bit more safety margin. Plus, it’ll more than compensate for the added mass of an SRV and hangar.
Also, if you take the SRV, you can now scrounge for materials to craft more parts for the AFMU. Might also want to add a heat sink launcher. DB’s run cooler than Asps, but it can’t hurt.
Cool I didn’t think about engineering my FSD, I haven’t even started with engineers. Might buy the DBX and make a trip to sag a and back just to see what I got and unlock one of the engineers
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Plus, that’d give you enough scratch to start buying upgrades.
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Nice looking weather balloon
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Oooh, is there anything to salvage from that?
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I’d be really cautious about that. That egg on its tip looks suspiciously grabbable but wouldn’t want to incur in the Thargoid Rage…
Nice one!
I don’t expect to bump into anything like that out here - but you never know. I’m packing a nice plasma accelerator and a rail gun - just in case. OK, won’t do too much against the Thargs, but should keep anyone else with ill intent away.
@weaponz248 - I only wanted the second AFM unit as it would give me more repair capacity and also you can repair an AFM module with another one - otherwise they can only be repaired at a port. The only other thing you can’t repair is the powerplant (and your hull).
Yes, you want the SRV for materials off planet surfaces. There is no real way to tell which system is good for the materials you want, but if you scan a planet quite close to the centre and it comes up as mostly metallic content, then it’s likely you will find one with the materials you want on it. I’ve been through several hundred systems now - but I have only detail scanned 4 of them. One was to look for Vanadium (needed to refill the AFM) and the other three just because the systems looked interesting.
I don’t know how much you know about these things, so forgive me if you think it’s obvious, but you need to look in your right UI panel. Find the synthesis tab and it will tell you exactly which matterial you need for verious things such as FSD boost or refilling the AFM or making ammo for your weapons (you can make ammo with increased effectiveness, too).
Each item has three stages that you can synthesise if you have the materials. For example, the FSD boost - you get 25% increase in jump range at stage 1, 50% at stage 2 and 100% at stage 3. The AFM stages are only increases in how quickly it repairs, and imho are not worth it - I stick with stage 1 as it will double the refills you can do. When you are exploring, who cares about speed? I’d rather take my time and have more available.
Regarding the jump range - I think yours is well within the acceptable range. Just because you can jump 40 LY, doesn’t mean you have to. So you can jump to wherever you like - I was just pointing out that although my jump range is limited (my FSD is engineered, but I am carrying a lot of gear), it can have advantages. You always want the longest range you can get.
Regarding repairs - damage is mainly caused by 4 things - getting too high a temperature whilst fuel scooping; getting too close to a neutron star (never fly straight at one when you drop from a jump - it’s a lot closer than it looks), and lastly, flying into a planet!!
Don’t laugh - I have done that twice! Once when I actually fell asleep while supercruising and woke up when I hit the target planet, and once on a high-G planet while trying to land.
Also, each time you make a neutron jump, it uses up 1% of your FSD. When you get to 79% left, your FSD will start to malfunction - this is when you use the AFM unit to repair it.
The materials you need to refill the AFM unit with synthesis are nickel (commoon as muck) zinc (same) chromium (same) and vanadium. Vanadium is a lot rarer than the others, but not hard to find on metallic planets - just be prepared to put in a bit of time in your SRV.
sorry for the spelling errors - the letters on my keys are wearing away!
Oh one minor point - the data I scanned on my way to the half way port was enough to get me up to allied at 50% with the Colonia faction - that’s some serious promotion in one go - and it got me from 6% trailblazer to 45% pioneer explorer rank (in addition to the 15 million credits) - exploration is well worth it.
edit - sorry for the long post - anyway, one important thing I forgot - get the best life support upgrade you can. I had my canopy crack on one occasion and was able to repair it with the AFM - wouldn’t have been possible on the default life support module. Okay, mine is probably overkill - it gives me about 25 minutes! 
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Detail surface scanning the star you jump to, and likely metallic, water, or earthlike worlds, can land you massive amounts of credits, and honestly doesn’t take that long. Also, driving on landable bodies in the SRV helps in exploring progress - the further from the bubble, the more experience.
At this point I scan every local star I jump past, but only planetary bodies that are potential for the above. If it’s a T-Tauri star I won’t bother with any orbital bodies.
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I’m a bit confused with the new galaxy map router.
I did some scavenging on a planet this evening - spent a long time collecting the bits for FSD boosting, so it wouldn’t impact on AFM refills.
I then went into the galaxy map and tried to set it to include the 50% increase in jump distance that these boosts would give me, but it just wouldn’t accept it.
I could raise the boost setting to 50%, but trying to set the destination was impossible. I hope we don’t have to name a system which we can reach with the boost. I have 19x50% boosts available, but I have no idea how to work out where that will get me, without clicking in random places on the map and seeing how far they are away. That’s a pain as it is, with the mouse in the map, when using VR.
The systems I’m going through just now aren’t being recognised by any of the online planners I use, either (1st finder bonuses?).
I ended up going back to standard route planning. On the plus side, only 157 jumps left - I expect to reach Colonia tomorrow.
*update: Saturday evening and, tempting as it was, I couldn’t make the final 72 jumps to Colonia today. I’ve had a medical issue for a month or so and had some very bad nights - I did some jumps this morning, but I am falling asleep almost every jump and then again, while scooping. Too much at risk - I’ll do it tomorrow.
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I’ve requested the formation of an official Mudspike PvE group. I’ll let you know when I hear back from FD.
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good idea … from the sounds of it space has become a bit dangerous with the thargoid threat … I think I will head into imperial space for a bit to grind up towards the imperial cutter thing
Something is just not right since the update. Every time I save and exit at a certain amount of jumps from Colonia and when I go back in for the next session, there are many more jumps than there were.
As I posted earlier, Friday I closed with 97 jumps to go. Yesterday, I was feeling pretty awful and still slogged through to 72 jumps (as noted here). Today I logged in and found it telling me I had 97 jumps to go!
That’s 25 more than at close yesterday - so it’s not just a minor adjustment. I tried doing a couple of jumps and replotting, but it made no difference. It’s very frustrating.
Anyway, what I have done is decided that I am where I want to be. Colonia is now just 89 normal jumps away and I’ve been back on the planets, finding materials to increase my FSD boosts enough to cut that number in half if I plot it manually. I always said Colonia is not my destination - it’s just the place I want to operate out from in the area, so now I am simply exploring and when I need to, I’ll pop over to Jacques port and get what I need and sell data, before going out again.
It would seem I am the first player in most of these systems in any case, as none of the ones I’ve been to in recent days are registered with any of the online route planners, and being a first finder was my intention when I started this journey.
So I have achieved my aim already - the rest is just for fun 
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Servers the last couple of days have been hammered. The bug/exploit/opportunity (delete as applicable) around the passenger mission payouts in some places has caused a gold rush, and people are bringing the servers down over the weekend due to pure board refreshes and transactions. It might be related (or might just be a bug as well).
Congrats on the system finding. That’s something I really want to do, as in head out in a direction and do some proper exploring. I’m not sure about if the timing is right though, with a lot of the 2.4 stuff still to be revealed and Thargoid stuff to collect in the bubble…
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Yes - that was a concern for me, too, but then I had put it off for weeks and it was time to just pack a bag and get off on my way
This evening I found another two crash sites (while looking for polonium - which I found at last!) - and with them my first live beings since I left! Unfortunately, they are all in escape pods, so I can’t even offer the poor things a cup of tea…
Don’t even know what to do with them - I 'spect they’ll end up as slaves.
I find it rather disturbing those things look like coffins 
Was a lovely sunset…
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You know, you don’t need to go far to find new systems. I had already found about a dozen new ones before I even got half way to Colonia.
There are 6 ‘stops’ on the way from the bubble to Colonia:
Hillary Depot – Blu Thua AI-A c14-10, planet A 4A
Amundsen Terminal – Lagoon Sector NI-S b4-10, planet 1
Eagle's Landing – Eagle Sector IR-W d1-117, planet 2 A
Sacaqawea Space Port – Skaudai CH-B d14-34, planet 1 A
Gagarin Gate – Gru Hypue KS-T d3-31, planet 4
Polo Harbour – Boewnst KS-S c20-959, planet A 2 A
I recommend against anyone going along these as a route to Colonia if you want to get there as quickly as possible, as they are not in any kind of direct line - far from it. That’s why I am going from half way ( Sacaqawea Space Port) directly there - or was until I changed my plans. Only go to each one if you want to take your time.
Anyway, back to the point - you can discover new systems as a first finder not that far away from the bubble. You could do maybe a two or three day jaunt out in an unusual direction and probably find something. I headed out in a direction I thought it unlikely others would have gone, then used route planners (or the galaxy map) from there, and it has worked very well.
You could just go to one of the closer stops, then go back ‘home’ as well.
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You can also add Rohini to this list - first system occupied from the community challenge a few months ago. It’s about halfway between Sacajawea and Eagle’s Landing. I was only a couple thousand light years from there before I had a… landing accident… last night.
I’ll try again when I can look at my computer without wanting to curse at it.
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One idea of a group thing to try is we try to take down a Thargoid? It’s possible in a wing with enough weapons. There is a cargo reward you get for doing it apparently.