Couldn't dive to claim beacon?

[Geck0]

I'm new to the game, and was under the impression beacons allow you to deploy to them at a dive.
Is that wrong, or is there something I'm missing here? I deployed one, mined around it, returned to the station, tried to get back to the beacon, and just wasn't allowed.

[Luke]

Do you have an Astrogator? Without one, you can only track known locations for a few hours. If you hire one, it should be possible to get back there.

If you already have and Astrogator and could see the claim beacon on the map of the rings, do you have enough money to get there? Until you get a very skilled astrogator, it can be very expensive to have the station insert you anywhere besides the very edge of the rings and you might not have been able to afford it.

The more cost effective way is to go from the station to the edge of the rings, and then from there to astrogate to your specific claim beacon or other point of interest.

[Botji]

Originally posted by Geck0:

I'm new to the game, and was under the impression beacons allow you to deploy to them at a dive.
Is that wrong, or is there something I'm missing here? I deployed one, mined around it, returned to the station, tried to get back to the beacon, and just wasn't allowed.

You are probably missing something, when you deploy a claim beacon you also have to contact it and pay money depending on how long you want the claim to be for.

I do not think you can travel to it as a astrogation target unless you do that, it will still be there though if you fly there but if you left it somewhere random in the rings it would be hard to find it.

[Geck0]

Originally posted by Botji:

Originally posted by Geck0:

I'm new to the game, and was under the impression beacons allow you to deploy to them at a dive.
Is that wrong, or is there something I'm missing here? I deployed one, mined around it, returned to the station, tried to get back to the beacon, and just wasn't allowed.

You are probably missing something, when you deploy a claim beacon you also have to contact it and pay money depending on how long you want the claim to be for.

I do not think you can travel to it as a astrogation target unless you do that, it will still be there though if you fly there but if you left it somewhere random in the rings it would be hard to find it.

Yeah, I was missing something. I didn't realize that diving to a deeper location costs extra money even if you have a beacon there; and that what I was meant to do is to dive to the rim like normal then astrogate to the beacon myself.

[Stellar Remnant]

Originally posted by Luke:

Do you have an Astrogator? Without one, you can only track known locations for a few hours. If you hire one, it should be possible to get back there.

An astrogator is not needed to travel to claim beacons. I have a crewless save and claim beacons work fine.

[Geck0]

Originally posted by MiniHerc:

Originally posted by Luke:

Do you have an Astrogator? Without one, you can only track known locations for a few hours. If you hire one, it should be possible to get back there.

An astrogator is not needed to travel to claim beacons. I have a crewless save and claim beacons work fine.

How does being crewless actually work? It's just a solo act with only the captain/player character doing the dives?

[Stellar Remnant]

Originally posted by Geck0:

Originally posted by MiniHerc:

An astrogator is not needed to travel to claim beacons. I have a crewless save and claim beacons work fine.

How does being crewless actually work? It's just a solo act with only the captain/player character doing the dives?

Yep. That save plays on peaceful, so I do dives and hoover up every asteroid in sight to be refined, then return and repeat. It's oddly relaxing.

[Geck0]

Originally posted by MiniHerc:

Originally posted by Geck0:

How does being crewless actually work? It's just a solo act with only the captain/player character doing the dives?

Yep. That save plays on peaceful, so I do dives and hoover up every asteroid in sight to be refined, then return and repeat. It's oddly relaxing.

Not me doing that on balanced difficulty

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by Geck0:

Originally posted by Botji:

You are probably missing something, when you deploy a claim beacon you also have to contact it and pay money depending on how long you want the claim to be for.

I do not think you can travel to it as a astrogation target unless you do that, it will still be there though if you fly there but if you left it somewhere random in the rings it would be hard to find it.

Yeah, I was missing something. I didn't realize that diving to a deeper location costs extra money even if you have a beacon there; and that what I was meant to do is to dive to the rim like normal then astrogate to the beacon myself.

Thank you for your brave research into "Oh it was bad on purpose after all" gameplay.

No wonder so many ships try to ban you from using the beacon or strangle your equip options for it to hamstringing yourself to bring one.

Maybe you could get some mileage if you save the beacon for "The game has zero landmarks out here I can use/made a station declare 'we are moving BYE' again." But at that point you would probably need to be flying a titan with at least 3 cargo pods minimum to make the fees worth it. Even a Cothon maxed on everything but Be would be annoyed by dive fees.

[Geck0]

It's quite strange, considering how trivial it is to astrogate to those landmarks once the dive's commenced. It's quick, cheap on fuel, and much less costly than diving any depth into the ring.
But yeah, since that original post, I've completely stopped using claim beacons since it's reasonably easy to just use existing landmarks - I haven't researched if there's any kind of prospecting/locational mineral ratios (like more Beryllium in specific regions)

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by Geck0:

It's quite strange, considering how trivial it is to astrogate to those landmarks once the dive's commenced. It's quick, cheap on fuel, and much less costly than diving any depth into the ring.
But yeah, since that original post, I've completely stopped using claim beacons since it's reasonably easy to just use existing landmarks - I haven't researched if there's any kind of prospecting/locational mineral ratios (like more Beryllium in specific regions)

It makes it extra insane how many ships are hamstrung to equip beacons at all, if not outright banned. Or with arbitrary limits.

Eagle can't equip beacons on the drone bays, only the highly risky front mounts if you give up a gun/mining tool. Prepare for people to scream at you "You want to collect ore slower in exchange for a beacon? Sounds like you just want things handed to you on a silver platter and hate realism!"

see also the Cothon, dumb and wasteful to put on the front, willing to give up ore collection drone power/extra cargo pods with a rear mount beacon? well guess what you can't put a beacon on the rear because... guess you are a casual who hates realism.

OCP is a wacky gimmick "But at least it has the best H20 in one bite in the entire game" so would be PERFECT for long range exploration... oops can't equip beacons at all even if you wanted to give up a high stress point. You can equip a nani nuclear death weapon, but a BEACON? Guess you would prefer world of warcraft huh?

Special custom secret unlock research and exploration titan... oh right they replaced all the bays with main engines.

REGULAR titan. I thought it could not equip a beacon due to not seeing it on the list. Turns out it can, but only in the front two docking bays which are the ones you are most likely to fat finger activate on accident in a hurry to toggle your #1 and #2 low stress hardpoints (Be it powering on your energy hog manual railgun, or disabling microwave PD before bounty hunters fly in front if it on purpose again). But hey, at least it isn't entirely banned from using them in anything but the front guns, or banned from using them ever.

So yeaaaah.

[Setimu]

I think the idea is that you'd take a ship out specifically to scout and drop a claim beacon, rather than hauling one around at all times on your mining rig. I could be wrong though, I haven't used a claim beacon yet so I'm not familiar with your frustration yet.

[Stellar Remnant]

Originally posted by Geck0:

It's quite strange, considering how trivial it is to astrogate to those landmarks once the dive's commenced. It's quick, cheap on fuel, and much less costly than diving any depth into the ring.
But yeah, since that original post, I've completely stopped using claim beacons since it's reasonably easy to just use existing landmarks - I haven't researched if there's any kind of prospecting/locational mineral ratios (like more Beryllium in specific regions)

Yeah, it's dumb. I don't know why the lore has the station XASERing a pathway for incoming ships rather than the ships just doing an insertion slightly out of plane with the rings.

Same goes for traveling from one point to another within the rings. Just travel a few km out of plane then a straight shot wherever, rather than dodging asteroids as current.

[Geck0]

Originally posted by Setimu:

I think the idea is that you'd take a ship out specifically to scout and drop a claim beacon, rather than hauling one around at all times on your mining rig. I could be wrong though, I haven't used a claim beacon yet so I'm not familiar with your frustration yet.

You'll never need to, its so easy to just use existing landmarks, and some are really good (especially phage stations, which can refuel the player's ship at cost)

[Stellar Remnant]

Originally posted by Geck0:

Originally posted by Setimu:

I think the idea is that you'd take a ship out specifically to scout and drop a claim beacon, rather than hauling one around at all times on your mining rig. I could be wrong though, I haven't used a claim beacon yet so I'm not familiar with your frustration yet.

You'll never need to, its so easy to just use existing landmarks, and some are really good (especially phage stations, which can refuel the player's ship at cost)

Claim beacons are an excellent way to ensure you always arrive in a dense part of the rings. Also, they spawn events at a high rate.

[Luke]

As your astrogator gets better, your insertion costs go down. With a maxed out astrogator, xaser burn fees are almost nothing. So they are probably plotting that out of plane insertion, but if you have a crappy astrogator then the station has to burn more of a path for you.

As for claim beacons taking up mounts, you can remove the mount after the claim beacon is deployed. You can put two down, then never mount them again and just keep paying the renewal fees to keep them in place.