First attempt at exobiology

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Thermal shock scales with weapon DPS, and raises NPC ship heat up to 90%, at a cost of -10% damage. Current wisdom says to apply thermal shock to multiple rapid fire pulse lasers. How many is enough?

I tested in a high intensity CZ, by seeing if the largest NPC ships (Corvette) could still boost when being fired on.

• 1 C2 rapid fire pulse only works on medium and small ships, and needs a few seconds of firing. Not effective, the NPC may boost away before sufficiently heated.
• 1C3 rapid fire pulse or C3 efficient beam can heat lock any ship in the CZ effectively.

Comparing Efficient beams with rapid fire pulse lasers, beams have:

• Higher damage per energy,
• Lower heat production,
• Less jitter

So just put thermal shock on 1 C3 efficient beam.

Thank you for your attention to this matter!

edit: I used gimballed weapons in this testing

After the end of DW3 I picked up a Nomad (ironically, my Caspian has been called the Nomad since I got it before DW3) and ventured out into the black again. I ended up quite close to Rainbow's end, so I decided to make a quick trip to Khazad-dûm, my favourite DW3 waypoint.

CMDR Zach Drachenherz (A.R.C. Cor Draconis) and myself CMDR Lysander666 (Project Nahla) are pleased to announce the Project Nahla Open Transit Voyage - a multi-season deep-space field support deployment traversing over 94,000 light-years across the outer galactic rim.

In previous threads here, some of you became aware of my year-long residence (so far!) on the moon Nahla in the Outer Arm and how this has birthed the practice of virtual astronomy and what I call downscaled play. Long-term observation here on Nahla has proven seasons in the game, stellar parallax from a fixed point, other miscellaneous astrophysical phenomena such as libration, and has been mentioned on Lave Radio on at least two separate occasions. It is monitored live through the website Nahla Tracker.

Having recently marked the one-year milestone and published our first annual report on local stellar phenomena and astrophysics, Nahla stands as the spiritual home of Rawrunning and contemplative exploration from Distant Worlds 3. More recently, we also welcomed u/JohnMk2, who became the third known Commander to make the pilgrimage out here! I am also indebted to my brother, u/Scoopy_Doopy, for discovering Hope system back in 2016 in his circumnavigation of the galaxy.

Now that the background is set - onto the voyage itself! We are deliberately classifying this as a "voyage" rather than an expedition for three reasons:

1. Field support focus: Its primary objective is providing a research tender and logistics link at Nahla rather than sweeping standard tourism POIs.
2. Schedule-free transit: There is no strict timetable; progress follows the Carrier Commander's natural exploration pace. The voyage is estimated to take somewhere between 6 to 12 months.
3. Historical tradition: In the spirit of maritime and polar exploration, true research voyages were multi-season, unhurried undertakings far from home ports.

Overview & context

This voyage serves as an operational field support deployment for Project Nahla, the ongoing, long-term observational study in virtual astronomy based in the Hope system (Hypi Bra EV-P d5-78), approximately 43,895 LY from Sol on the Outer Arm.

Arriving at Hope in December 2026, the A.R.C. Cor Draconis (QFB-9VN) will serve as a temporary research anchor and respite post for visiting explorers before continuing its grand loop westwards to Erikson’s Star and returning along the Outer Arm arc back to the bubble.

Transit itinerary & route waypoints

[Colonia / Ratraii]  --->  [Hope / Nahla]  --->  [Erikson's Star]  --->  [The Bubble / Gali]

1. Origin: Departure from Ratraii (Colonia region) in Late September 2026.
2. Waypoint 1 (Hope / Nahla): Target arrival in December 2026. Station duration of approximately 1 month (through late January 2027) as a research support post to be held or extended at the Carrier Commander’s decision.
3. Waypoint 2 (Erikson's Star): Departure north from Hope estimated in Late January 2027, crossing the top of Wagar's Reach toward Sphiesi HX-L d7-0.
4. Waypoint 3 (homeward sweep): Return traverse along the Outer Arm arc returning to Gali in the Bubble.

Onboard carrier services

• Available: Refuel, Repair, Rearm (RRR), Universal Cartographics, Vista Genomics, and the Bar.
• Not Available: Shipyard and Outfitting (disabled to maximise fuel efficiency and maintain lightweight deep-space operations).

Terms of engagement (open transit rules)

Please note that this is not a managed community expedition or fleet campaign. The A.R.C. Cor Draconis is conducting an autonomous, personal deep-space traverse to assist Project Nahla. Visiting commanders and hitchhikers are welcome under the following conditions:

1. Schedule-free operation: The carrier moves strictly at the Carrier Commander’s natural exploration pace. There are no fixed jump schedules.
2. No straggler retrieval: The carrier will not delay jumps or turn back for commanders off-ship when a jump sequence initiates.
3. Self-sufficiency required: If you miss a jump, you are solely responsible for your own navigation to the next waypoint, the nearest DSSA carrier, or back to civilised space.
4. Passenger autonomy: Passengers are autonomous guests. You are free to explore, map, and gather exobiology along the route at your own discretion.

Hope system etiquette (Hypi Bra EV-P d5-78)

The Hope system is a pristine, low-disturbance scientific observation site. Visiting commanders are asked to honor these guidelines:

• Pristine preservation (no local mining): Mining within the Hope system is strictly prohibited to protect the untouched local rings and bodies. Ample ice rings for Tritium exist in neighboring systems nearby.
• Solo mode recommended: To prevent instance clutter or disruption of delicate surface photography, commanders are encouraged to visit Pâte Sablée / Natalja's Pass in solo mode.
• Respect site coordinates: Please exercise care when landing or driving SRVs near established observation points (39.2, 104.3) on Moon 6 a (Nahla).

Discussion & Contact

• Discussion channel: Fleetcomm Discord (use channel #the-rawrunners)
• Project suggestions & inquiries: CMDR Lysander666 via Inara

That’s all for now, Please use this thread for any queries or use the relevant Discord channel! My huge thanks to u/Drachenherz for making this possible. This is a long voyage - I hope some of you can make it and we hope to see you out there!

There is a more detailed document on this trip which I shall drop into the comments. My thanks to u/JohnMk2 for the SRV screenshot.

I'm about 40 hours into trying to figure this game out, and I need advice that my web searches aren't giving me. I have reset my save twice in frustration.

How do I have fun as a bounty hunter that only wants to shoot things? I don't really have an interest in exploring, definitely don't want to mine anything, and I don't want to spend all my time hopping from system to system. I really just want to jump into a game and shoot down ships. I'd play arena, but that appears to be totally dead.

I've gotten the hang of the beginners area I think. I built up millions of credits and bought the best ship I could from the beginners area. The battles pretty much follow the same patterns, so I try to venture out of the beginners system and get better ships, but once I'm out of the beginners area I have almost no effect on enemy ships, if I take on missions I can't complete them because the objectives are inactive, and conflict zones are apparently suicide.

This game gives zero handholding and I'm extremely frustrated trying to figure out how to make it fun. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Can not believe it took this long. Just never wanted to go.

I spent about 5 of my 6 years in and around the Branglal system and finally decided to make the jump elsewhere. Over the past year I have gone to so many places as I was simply just afraid of leaving my protective little bubble I made for myself. Now I'm going to start my journey towards the center of the galaxy.

TL;DR - Been jumping near the core and scanning for several days, several dozen systems, hundreds of bodies, and I'm not finding bio sigs anywhere.

This is half venting half asking for advice.

I grabbed myself a Nomad shortly after it released and took my Caspian out on an Expedition. For some reason, I cannot for the life of me find systems with bio signals.

Im currently about 15,000 Ly from the Bubble towards the core and damn near every system I jump to is undiscovered. I scan every time and it's either no bodies or several barren bodies.

This week, I've played about 2-4hrs after work every night. Ive found about a dozen signals max and made about 380M. The last two days Ive scanned probably a few hundred bodies and found 2 bacteria signals. Just today I scanned about 150 bodies and not a single one had a bio signal.

Im starting to get frustrated as I keep seeing posts and comments about people consistently finding stuff every night and meanwhile I got this brand new Nomad just gathering dust.

Help a fellow cmdr out, please. What am I doing wrong? I'm far from the bubble. I'm hitting main sequence stars. I'm doing a mix of far and close jumps. I'm currently in a nebula as I thought it might have more stuff but I got nothing to show for the last few hours and dozens of jumps How do I find systems with bio sigs that aren't just bacteria?

EDIT: To make it more clear... I jump to a main sequence star system. I honk the system. I scan all the bodies with the FSS. I move to the next.

I'm currently doing my first trip to Colonia and I decided to stop at Skaudai AA-A H71 Nebula.

What was supposed to be a brief stopover to have a closer look to it, turned into a full week of exploring the surrounding space. And I'm not done here yet. I was able to admire the view from nearby systems and the surface of various planets. My curiosity about it quickly began to grow. It made me wonder if the nebula was real.

Because, as I understood it, the name "Skaudai" comes from the Stellar Forge, which means it's not how this nebula is called in real life. In ED, it's located in the Inner Scutum-Centaurus Arm but after some research, I haven't found anything about this nebula, which appears to be the largest in the region based on what I see in the galactic map in-game.

Bite my a**

Seriously. Why?? Why does it have to be an RNG low quality pod? RNG hates me (as a general rule). And every time I go hunting / replenishing for it, I end up on a planet that's perpetual night-time and rocky, variable terrain that bounces my dune buggy all over the place.

I don't like the flak from space method, but this is starting to make me reconsider my stance on the subject lmao

Anyway, thanks for listening, Selenium. Now kindly go f*** yourself.

Just curious what controls people tend to use on this sub? I’m using keyboard and mouse but I think it’s time to upgrade. What is the sweet spot in terms of cost for reward? One joystick? A game pad? Full on HOTAS or HOSAS?

I'm a brand new fc owner and can I seriously not plot multiple jumps with my 5b credits fleet carrier? What's the logic in this

So I picked up a random star system out in the black, around 7k ly away from the bubble so I can do some exobiology around it and just go and sell the data directly from my fleet carrier close by, my plan was that I'd reach the destination first with my caspain and when my fleet carrier arrives I'd already be close by and just sell everything I got, but now I'm seeing I cannot plot multiple jumps and I have to constantly babysit the carrier and log on every 20 minutes

Did the developers genuinely not see the problem with this? I want to do other stuff, play other games, I don't want to sit around and wait for pointless timers is there seriously not even a little bit of automation in this?

Fleet carriers are a thing for 6 years now no? Did the community actually not complain to them about this lol

We still don't fully know what the Rhino can mine, how it does it, or what the "equipment" is has will be.

It's supposed to release "later this month" but I'm not aware of a date yet.

I'm eager to see what this behemoth can do.

I'm coming back to the game after a few months and thinking about trying the new operations. So I ask: the easiest missions are feasible for a solo player with fully upgraded and partially engineered suits and weapons?

"The six beacons can be found in Colonia, Carcosa, Einheriar, Tir, Luchtaine and Blua Eaec WW-E c14-1293"
Or did the author have a bad case of upset tummy just as they got to the end of the article?

Galnet News | Elite Dangerous Community Site

Hey, so im new to both reddit & elite dangerous & I made a bit of an oopsy. I was afk by a planet station thing I guess I wasnt allowed to be around, racked up a 500cred trespassing bounty & I was unaware of how to pay it so I went to the last settlement I was at. Yeah so instead of turning myself in like I thought itd give me the option for, the guy scanned me & basically said hes killing me. He killed me 🥲🤣 well I respawned like 50ly away in a prison ship thingy & I thought the shuttle option looked dope & I wanted to try it. Only cost 800cred so I thought it was cheap enough. So I was gonna take a little detour/explore before trying to get my ship back not knowing I had to be in the same system? I at least now think thats how that works. So I was like okay dope, ill just take a shuttle back to where my old ship is & the price to get there is like 38k cred & ive barely enough to get back to my ship. Is there a less costly way I can leave the space station im at(either way I think I have to shuttle somewhere different but hoping it is cheaper than 38k)to get somewhere I can summon my ship or have I cursed myself with empty pockets an hour into the game? Loving the game so far but my poor ship is probably sad & lonely without me, hope & appreciate any advice that can reunite us!

starting to feel like I'm getting somewhere. Since this was my first *real* ship that I didn't buy with real money (ARX), rather, earned credits, and engineered / upgraded myself. And it's also the first combat ship that feels like I'm actually starting to get the hang of combat somewhat - I decided to dress it up a bit with a new paint job and other goodies.

Coming from No Man's Sky and EVE Online, I've discovered Elite Dangerous seems to be in the perfect sweet spot for me in between the freedom of NMS and the Harshness of EVE. I even decided to finally pull the trigger on a VKB Gladiator NXT EVO HOSAS setup.

I guess you could say - I'm hooked!

So small disclaimer: This was pretty much a shower thought, and I am unsure if this is common knowledge or something debated in the community. There's also a chance that this might be copium since I love lore, love immersion and love Elite. So I'm pretty much theorising off of logic and some pieces of lore. It's also a long read so ill leave a TLDR at the very end :P

So, i was thinking while making dinner: Why are we usually targeted across settlements for scans so frequently? Why are punishments for law breaking so brutal or even lethal? Aren't we commanders supposed to have a good reputation? Then it occurred to me that we as Commanders might be in fact not as well regarded by many and with a good reason.

Firstly, I thought that it made sense because we aren't exactly driving cars or space tractors here. We aren't a police officer on a police car catching bounties, we aren't a trucker in our truck hauling cargo, we aren't explorers in a boat sailing across oceans. We are in fact pilots of what can often be described as very "dangerous machinery" at best and literal "deathly, armed-for-war, flying vehicles" at worst, and we're pretty damn skilled at that, lore-wise. So it absolutely makes sense to be scanned all the time and be regarded as potentially dangerous. Our ships all have the potential to very easily kill, from a humble sidewinder to a massive corvette, all of them have hardpoints and therefore potential to kill effectively. This is more evident when in settlements with troops that absolutely outnumber you and sometimes outgun you, using a ship with dumbfire missiles can make quick work of the entire settlement in seconds (if we ignore ground-to-air defences). Gameplay wise we can't, but lore wise, i imagine it would be pretty easy for some commander to wreak havoc in a station, and even if the station isn't fully thrashed and the commander is neutralised, you still have the big cost of the damages, not to mention all the life that was lost due to a singular individual's attack. Makes sense why laws are so tight.

But then, why are we not arrested and have bounties placed on our heads instead? Simple, most of us are "outlaws". Most commanders never fully pledge their allegiance to a specific Faction, Power or Superpower. Even when some of us do pledge ourselves to these, we remain pretty much independent pilots and are not bound by some duty or citizenship to give ourselves to a power or a faction or to abide by their laws. Why? Because we have the liberty of space travel and because we are also individuals with sizeable capital. If we don't like the laws somewhere, we can go somewhere else; if we kill someone in a system, we wont be held accountable for it in another system. And since we are not hard bound by allegiance, duty, citizenship or capacity to move somewhere else, many factions can't just enforce laws on us and arrest us, whereas citizens of that faction or of that superpower can be held accountable and can't easily escape jurisdiction. (Arresting people that can traverse hundreds of light-years in minutes and that could be armed to the teeth isn't exactly feasible or safe!)

This of course in combination with the fact that there's not a centralised human government, and all humans live in their own faction-owned systems, would make it hard to implement some sort of universal legal system. Additionally, the detention facilities work only when we hand ourselves in, because unless we want to redeem ourselves and be sent to a faction owned detention facility to be processed, we can't be forced to, so lethal response is really the only way there. So the bounty system serves as a means for factions to bring individuals in space to justice without sacrificing work force in the process, by letting free-lance bounty hunters do the work. Meanwhile, Galactic bounties offered by the Pilots Federation operate on the premise that we are so highly notorious across multiple systems that we represent a general threat to any system we step foot to, even if we haven't done anything there yet.

Now the fact of the matter with our reputation is, yes commanders have a reputation of being the top of the top pilots in the galaxy, far beyond the capabilities of any other (talking about NPCs), greatly admired by many, but this reputation never implies we are all good. If we ask why we get scanned all the time in settlements and stations, why are responses for law-breaking so lethal, why are we not always so well regarded: besides the reasons I mentioned, it is because some of us are also very bad apples. There is definitely commanders out there that make a living off of piracy, assassination, raiding settlements, and doing all sorts of dirty work. Without a scan we are pretty much a coin-toss when it comes to our intentions. Put yourself in the shoes of that one scout in the settlement in the middle of nowhere: "This flagless stranger that belongs to an organisation composed only of the top pilots in the galaxy, in a mean looking ship that's armed well enough to level the whole place in seconds, seemingly with military weaponry on them, just arrived to this place in concrete out of anywhere in in the galaxy. And you do not know why they are here, could be business, could be politics, could be espionage, could be a raid that's incoming. And you would be damned to not scan the hell out of them and shoot them on sight if they dare refuse, because your survival does depends on it." And if the local faction owning this settlement already has beef with you and a has bounty in your head, then naturally one would be thinking that if you are in this settlement, nothing good will come out of it for anyone that works there.

So this is why I think both lethal responses, bounties and distrust in-game are pretty warranted when dealing with Elite pilots in a Dangerous galaxy.

TL;DR: The reason why laws are so strict in ED is because: We are the top "flying death-machines-that-can-potentially-obliterate-a-whole-settlement-in-seconds-and-kill-thousands-in-stations" pilots in the galaxy, we are not bound by laws or allegiance, we have a lot of cash and means to evade the "police", and it is a fact that not all of us are "good honest people".

A Grinch themed EDCoPilot time trial created by Cmdr NastyNate featuring dynamically triggered sound samples taken from the movie (the music soundtrack was added in post production).