Never be sorry for this awesomeness!
I enjoy your updates more than I enjoy playing the game. Keep em coming.
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I could be down for this. Are we stopping back in the Bubble first so I can swap out ships and modules, and get some builds ready first?
We’re currently in the LTT 4487 system which is inside the bubble in Federation space. The shipyard and outfitting services are currently suspended but I will restart them before the weekend (when I get the chance to log in) so that you can reposition and adjust the outfitting of your ships.
I’ll have to sort out the fuel situation before we leave so probably won’t leave for a couple of weeks or so. I’ll give plenty of notice before departure.
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Just saw that- thanks!
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Ok, it’s Yamiks so I expected a certain amount of criticism but wow this is salty. Unfortunately he makes a number of very good points …
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To prepare for the upcoming voyage into the black this week I have focused on addressing the fuel issue.
As I mentioned before FEI PAW needs 1 ton of Tritium for every 4 LYs she travels. A full cargo of 20000 tons would cost a whopping 1 BILLION credits at average market value. Spending that much space cheddar before we even depart would effectively remove the contingency fund, meaning a severe limit to mining buy orders while out in the black and significantly reduced time until decommissioning rears its ugly head.
On the other hand my tests with Deep Core II showed I can consistently mine about 100 to 125 tons of Tritium per hour in a hotspot. So that would take around 200 hours of mining to fill her up. Well that’s not happening before departure next week!
So, a compromise: I’ll buy around 10000 tons as cheaply as I can and then if we come across a Tritium hotspot out in the black I’ll mine some extra. 10000 tons will give us a 40 KLY range anyway, which should allow plenty of scope to womble around the Galaxy before having to worry about heading back.
So, I increased FEI PAW’s buy order for Tritium to 60000 credits per ton and jumped to a system with plenty of Tritium supply. By this point it was late so I appended FEI PAW’s name with “buying Tritium” and went to bed. The following day as I was busy with work I thought of the hundreds of players I imagined steadily filling up our fuel reserves. When I logged in I found that FEI PAW had gained a total of … 0 tons of Tritium. Huh 
. I checked the local stations and the supply had dropped overnight from 28000 tons to just 22 tons.
OK. Right. Let’s try again. I found another system - Geras - with a large supply at reasonable price and jumped there. Upon arrival I was surprised to find the entry point to the system is not by the primary star but by its companion neutron star. “Very pretty!” I thought. “I’ll just check the distance to the station … 1 MILLION light seconds!” Thankfully there was room around the ‘A’ star for another carrier so it only cost 15 minutes delay.
I switched to the old Tofuchop Express, my bulk cargo carrier, and made a dozen or so trips back and forth carrying Tritium and some of a local rare good. After a couple of hours there were 10000 tons of best quality Tritium on board - job done. Smug face engaged 
. I left the buy order on for a couple of extra thousand tons because, well why not?
Now I had a little time to play. I hopped into my Asp and started to explore around the system. Not too far away, in fact orbiting the next planet over, was a very interesting looking moon. It had this weird blue zone that was strikingly noticeable from quite a distance away.
As I got closer I saw some mountains just on the border. Well, this is exactly the kind of thing that I’m going out into the black to find - I couldn’t resist having a look.
Having landed on a foothill I tried to start climbing the mountain but it was super slippery! In fact I think it was all ice, or at least covered in ice. I tried for about 30 minutes but every time I thought I was making progress I would slip down one side or the other and inevitably roll over and hit a rock. Once the hull was down to 50% I gave up. I took one last look at the view and then recalled my ship.
I finished up a fun afternoon with a couple of fly-bys. The peak of the mountain is over 4 km above the foothills!
The current plan: I will relocate to Lave in a couple of days so anyone who wants to board can do so without a 45 minute supercruise. Then FEI PAW will depart for the black at some point over the weekend. First leg will likely be a few thousand LYs to get us away from well travelled space.
o7 for now
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Oh wow, I have two weeks of vacation-
I’M.
SO.
IN!
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Do you need Tritium mined for the return trip fuel? Or do you buy enough to cover the full journey?
I ask because I was considering going along to mine. It’s been a while since I did any mining, and that might be a fun and relaxing revisit to my early days in Elite.
Not sure if I’d be selling it to your carrier, or donating it, or how that even works. Never traded with a carrier, or if I did, I’ve forgotten!
Yes and no. I’ve filled up the carrier with about 10000 tons - enough to travel 40 KLYs. I’ll keep an eye on our reserves when we’re out and if it looks like we’re going to run low head back to the Bubble or Colonia to re-stock. If we find a Tritium hotspot while we’re out we can mine some more to extend our range. This will allow us to explore further and stay out longer.
While the carrier finances allow it I will leave buy orders for Tritium and other valuable minerals so you can sell those to the carrier as you mine them. The prices will be a reasonable compromise so that you can make some money for your work and the carrier can make some profit when it returns to civilisation.
If you are feeling really generous and there is sufficient space in the fuel tank you can just donate Tritium for free. This will not be required though unless everything goes completely pear shaped and the carrier runs out of money and fuel at the same time and can’t get back. This is not a likely outcome!
I’m going to shift the carrier to Lave tonight, so anyone that wants to join can do so. The shipyard and outfitting services are running so you can bring all the ships and modules you want, but I have no stock. So bring anything you might want with you.
o7
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Flying to Lave tonight.
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This what I said to the DHL receptionist when they tried to BS me because they couldn’t be bothered to deliver my parcel 
But seriously, glad to have you aboard 
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What’s your Carrier ship Callsign again? FEI PAW, right?
Yes. FEI PAW XHY-N1X. I’m just about to jump in to Lave - around the ELW if there’s room.
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This looks a little more positive:
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I prepared the ALLANON for mining and exploration ops.
Livery is SAR Yellow.
I found your Carrier, inbound in 5.
Hey, she’s a beauty!
Inbound for landing, Pad 9.
Safely tucked in the hangar.
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Welcome aboard commander, that’s a good looking ship.
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Oh man… I forgot I took my mining ship apart to build a Xeno hunter. Then switched to a different hull mid-process. Then that new hull used FSD and other parts from my explorer ship, and is now parked way out in the Coal Sack.
Not sure I will (or even can) sink the time to get those two ships put back together right now.
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I feel your pain. I hopped in to my laser mining T9 the other week to test it for Tritium mining and had that “oh damn” moment when I tried to plot a course and realised it had a 4 LY jump range. I had previously scavenged the FSD for another ship and replaced it with a random small one that would fit.
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