This may be common knowledge, but I just found out and verified it works.

If you go 1,000 to 1,500LY below the galactic plane (vertical 0 using the in-game grid) and then plot a route to almost anywhere else at about the same distance below the plane, the in-game mapper suddenly becomes very good at neutron plotting. No online plotter needed!

I verified this myself by comparing my in-game route to the neutron plotter route. 45 in game jumps versus 41 using the plotter. That’s pretty good!

Full disclosure: this was done with an engineered Caspian Explorer with a guardian FSD booster (76LY jump range when fully fueled). Your mileage may vary with a lower jump range.

Also, this apparently doesn’t work if you’re within 6k LY of Sol OR if you’re in an area with very few stars (like “The Abyss” or near Roefoo ZE-H d10-0).

    • NathanDerWeise@feddit.orgOP
      2·
      12 days ago

      I’m not an expert. But according to the official Elite wiki, when neutron stars were added to the game, they were intentionally added more densely in this region (between 1k and 1.5k LY below the galactic plane).

      One major difference between the in game plotter and the online one is that you can choose the “efficiency” of the route online. Efficiency in this case meaning “how closely does the path stick to a straight line between the starting and destination stars.”

      So, the online plotter can be LESS efficient on purpose, allowing itself to deviate from the path in order to find more neutron stars, resulting in fewer jumps.

      The in game plotter has some default efficiency value which cannot be changed. However, you can force it to include more neutron stars in its calculations by making your path begin and end within this area of higher neutron star density.

      In addition, I believe the area around Sol was given fewer neutron stars on purpose. The other regions I mentioned are just regions were there are fewer of all types of stars, including neutron stars.

      I hope that makes sense.