And it'll yet be another medium. Makes sense, as there isn't am medium luxury cabin ship yet, but I would have wished for the explorer to actually be large....
New Ships 2024
- Thread starter AEBRAM
- Start date
I hope for very special new ship for 10th/40th anniversary.
Boa (bigger anaconda with S landpad) or Panther Clipper. Multiroles big ships.
Boa (bigger anaconda with S landpad) or Panther Clipper. Multiroles big ships.
I don't really understand why you would want a large exploration ship.
An exploration ship doesn't need all that many modules, nor much cargo space. (Theoretically "exploration" could be thought to benefit from cargo space. After all, if you stumble across stuff while exploring, it would be useful to take it with you. But in ED you don't stumble across commodities that require cargo space, unless you are explicitly mining. But nobody explores for mining, as there is no advantage in going far distances to do that.)
The biggest disadvantage of a large-sized exploration ship is, of course, that it makes it harder to land on rough terrain. If your exploration involves exobiology, then you definitely do not want a large ship.
I see no advantages (over a medium-sized ship) and only a huge disadvantage. So why would you want a(nother) large exploration ship?
A big research ship can hold everything ! Because there's no telling what might be in its path.
And if the main difficulty is landing, then you should take a small ship instead of a medium-sized one.
Fuel scoop, SRV hangar, fighter hanger for zooming around canyons, dual afmu, shield, DSS, repair/refuel/research limpet controllers or at least two mulicontrollers to get all those functions, cargo for limpets, FSD booster. That's 11-12 internal slots required, but most of them don't have to be very big. Still hard to squeeze into a medium frame, so a large that doesn't move like an oiltanker and doesn't put half of the ship into your view. Gutamaya Imperial Explorer.
Even the DBX can fit a fuel scoop, an FSD booster, an SRV hangar, an AFMU, a shield, and a DSS, and still have spare slots for cargo racks (not that you'll ever need them.)
You don't need a fighter hangar because the ship itself is small and nimble. Nor do I know what you would need repair/refuel/research limpet controllers in an exploration ship. You aren't refueling anybody, nor are you likely to get to research any Thargoid interceptors. Repair limpets might theoretically be useful, but I am Elite 4 in exploration and never had the need. Just fly carefully and don't boost into the ground.
Moreso a medium ship like the Phantom. (In fact, my min-maxed exploration Phantom has a lot of unused module slots that I don't need for anything. Only reason I am using the ship is because it looks cool.)
I literally cannot see any reason to use a large ship for exploration.
Research limpets are not only used to scan Thargoids. Dual afmu, so they can repair each other. Fuel limpet depends. It might come in handy if a friend or squadron member runs out of fuel near you. And if you're a fuel rat, you want one anyway.
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Are you seriously claiming that a medium-sized exploration ship (like the AspX or the Phantom) cannot comfortably fit all of that?
Even the DBX can fit most of that, not to talk about the Phantom.
(Also, how exactly do you expect an AFMU to get damaged in exploration? The only thing that may get damaged in exploration is the FSD, if you do neutron jumping. If anything else in your ship is getting damaged, you are definitely doing it wrong. And yes, even a fully min-maxed exploration DBX can fit an AFMU. Much moreso the AspX and Phantom.)
Dual AFMU-s are really not needed. Even if you take so much damage from overheating while fuel scooping or crashing into planetary exclusion zones that you bring the AFMU down to 0%, you can reboot the ship to bring it back up to 1% and continue using it. The only benefit of dual AFMU-s is having more repair capacity and/or repair speed, but a single 3A on Phantom is enough to do a Colonia neutron highway run. And if you consider DSSA, there's very little reasons to bring repair limpets, especially if you use a half decent shield that can absorb full non-boost speed flight into terrain.
Unless they go with another ship by FD, Lakon or ZP (Develop and release two new ships at the same time? Are you crazy?), it would make sense that next ship is a SK (passenger/rescue?).
I would like a Gutamaya or CD, but would we see one manufacturer get ahead of the other?
Silly thought: when new ships were announced, they said "at least" four were being released.
What if it's a double whammy, with both a new Fed and a new Imp ship being released together? In that way, neither manufacturer gets a head start.
This is without any considerations as to whether it would make sense to release two ships in early access at the same time.
I would like a Gutamaya or CD, but would we see one manufacturer get ahead of the other?
Silly thought: when new ships were announced, they said "at least" four were being released.
What if it's a double whammy, with both a new Fed and a new Imp ship being released together? In that way, neither manufacturer gets a head start.
This is without any considerations as to whether it would make sense to release two ships in early access at the same time.
The integrity of a G4 Shielded 2A AFMU is 201.
That's way more than the integrity of most core modules, actually it's very close to that of a G5 Armoured + Double Braced 4A power plant.
The AFMU is probably one of the last modules you'll ever lose.
Commanders,
as a explorer and exobiologist.
The minium amount of optional is 8. That's true. But if you want to be prepared totally, even without 2 AFMU there is nice to have things like repair and research limpets, cargo for "souvenirs" from notable stellar phenomena etc.
And... yes, you can fly carefully, but there are different style. I fly and watch VOD or YT at the same time, landed tousands of times and hitted maybe 3 times, but... it happened. It could happened even if you have 10k hrs of crefully playing, so totally agree about "more than you need stuff" as a "nice to have idea". And I like modules like SuperCruise Assist, because I llike to put SA through the planet and use that time for making tea, dinner, or lurk at some website. I preffer long, slow sessions of game than shorter and more intensive.
But of course, you can fly even Sidwinder all the time.
About large ships for exploration/exobiology. I preffer small ships and flying without SRV, but a lot of cmdrs use universal M-pad phantom or similar. Many of them forget that Dolphin is the best chocie between S-pad and all-might M pad, because of many optionals and decent jump range (like 65 Ly fully equipment). But I had a time in my exploration life when my favoiurite ship was Belgue. It is very good-looking, very luxury and comfortable ship. It is enormous big, but because of small landing gears and a lot of space under it, it could land suprisly good even in the mountains. You don't need a big emptty place for land, you just need 4 small pieces of land, like for 4 simulatenusly landing sidewinders
And literally this is pretty nice and funny way to exploration. I used SLF to find a good spot and then lande them on Beluga and use SRV to find all three probes (of course i think about lovely fungoida ).
In the Elite lore there is a ship called Boa - it is a larger version of anaconda and have S landing pad, so you can literaly fly above planet surface and use sidewinder to land and collect bio probes
And I wanna say, I can't wait for the new Mandalay ship. This is the situation, when my wishful thinking meets reality.
I love Zorgon Peterson ships for how they looked. I spent a lot of time doing explo in Hauler, even if I had a lot of money for any ship. It is just so nice to fly. I hope Mandalay will have even more than 9 optionals.
as a explorer and exobiologist.
The minium amount of optional is 8. That's true. But if you want to be prepared totally, even without 2 AFMU there is nice to have things like repair and research limpets, cargo for "souvenirs" from notable stellar phenomena etc.
And... yes, you can fly carefully, but there are different style. I fly and watch VOD or YT at the same time, landed tousands of times and hitted maybe 3 times, but... it happened. It could happened even if you have 10k hrs of crefully playing, so totally agree about "more than you need stuff" as a "nice to have idea". And I like modules like SuperCruise Assist, because I llike to put SA through the planet and use that time for making tea, dinner, or lurk at some website. I preffer long, slow sessions of game than shorter and more intensive.
But of course, you can fly even Sidwinder all the time.
About large ships for exploration/exobiology. I preffer small ships and flying without SRV, but a lot of cmdrs use universal M-pad phantom or similar. Many of them forget that Dolphin is the best chocie between S-pad and all-might M pad, because of many optionals and decent jump range (like 65 Ly fully equipment). But I had a time in my exploration life when my favoiurite ship was Belgue. It is very good-looking, very luxury and comfortable ship. It is enormous big, but because of small landing gears and a lot of space under it, it could land suprisly good even in the mountains. You don't need a big emptty place for land, you just need 4 small pieces of land, like for 4 simulatenusly landing sidewinders
And literally this is pretty nice and funny way to exploration. I used SLF to find a good spot and then lande them on Beluga and use SRV to find all three probes
(of course i think about lovely fungoida ).In the Elite lore there is a ship called Boa - it is a larger version of anaconda and have S landing pad, so you can literaly fly above planet surface and use sidewinder to land and collect bio probes
And I wanna say, I can't wait for the new Mandalay ship. This is the situation, when my wishful thinking meets reality
.I love Zorgon Peterson ships for how they looked. I spent a lot of time doing explo in Hauler, even if I had a lot of money for any ship. It is just so nice to fly. I hope Mandalay will have even more than 9 optionals.
Which is why I'm a sightseer, not an explorer... Half of my last Colonia run was done with 40% hull... and shields of around 1,000 Mj... If that mountain hadn't jumped out on me, I'd have been fine!
Brilliant idea!
Yes, yes it would! All that rivalry between filthy fed & imp supporters would be sublime...
Naturally, as an anarchist, I ensured I am both King & Admiral so that I can have all rank-locked ships to impress the rubes I'm going to fleece...
These are the fundamental optionals for a long-range exobiology exploration ship:
- Fuel scoop.
- Guardian FSD booster.
- Shield generator.
- AFMU. (Although this is not 100% mandatory if you don't intend to neutron-hop.)
- Planetary vehicle hangar. (Also not 100% mandatory, even for exob, but highly convenient.)
- Detailed surface scanner.
Cargo (can be caustic) and a repair drone.
I dont think so, because Frontier need new players, so ships behind rank-wall aren't the best option for that,.
Cargo and repair limpet. And yes, you can say it isn't mandatory, but for me explorer should can operate for months even if you do a mistake.
To do exploration/exobiology stuff in fact you can use even sidewinder build like that:
If you are getting damage because of boosting towards a mountain, I don't think the AFMU is the biggest concern at that point.
(If the damage to modules is caused by the ship overheating while fuel-scooping, I repeat the same sentiment: You are doing it wrong. Even with a very heat-inefficient build it's perfectly possible to fuel-scoop at full or almost full rate without overheating. You just have to be careful about your distance to the star.)
I suppose. (And I also suppose they don't even decrease your jump range in any significant way. A limpet controller can be engineered for weight, and limpets can be synthesized when needed, so you don't need to carry them around, decreasing your jump range.)
Incidentally the DBX has exactly 8 optional module slots, so I'm sure even it will be sufficient for all that, if you fiddle around enough. Not to talk about the medium-sized ships.
Yes, that's whay I said "at least 8 slots". I like to have more to have 2x AFMU, and research limpets because of stellar phenomena. Of course, then we are not talking about maximize jumprange, but still if they compares that to explorer conta it will be more than enough.
I think it boils down to mindset. Are you the one who would take a moderately sized motor ship and cram it to the quills with everything you might need on an expedition, the more the better? Or are you the one who takes to the ocean in a Six Metre sailing yacht to go around Cape Horn, taking with you only what you really need to survive?