Imperial Explorer

Brrokk

Brrokk
It's not often these days I get excited about a new ship build, but this past week I think I've found a good one. We've often asked here for an "Imperial Explorer" - I think the new SCO drives have made the Courier into one. Over 50ly jump range, brilliant handling, a small AFMU on board and it can land in the trickiest terrain for those fungoida. Really fun exploring!
Here's my build:-

EDSY

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B.Roberts

B.Roberts
Good idea but I think 4A power plant in your build is overkill. You can easily go with 2A Guardian or engineered power plant and get 53 LY out of it. My "Imperial Explorer" was somewhat different. I wanted to explore in luxury, so I built this one https://s.orbis.zone/qMVa . It is nice to be able to bring your jacuzzi, couple of spare fighters and SRVs for fun and your loyal butler on the trip across the galaxy. LOL. You can still make over 51 LY jump with all that music on board. Made it to the Ishum's reach and back with no docking anywhere outside of the bubble and no issues what so ever.
 

Brrokk

Brrokk
B.Roberts said:
Good idea but I think 4A power plant in your build is overkill. You can easily go with 2A Guardian or engineered power plant and get 53 LY out of it. My "Imperial Explorer" was somewhat different. I wanted to explore in luxury, so I built this one https://s.orbis.zone/qMVa . It is nice to be able to bring your jacuzzi, couple of spare fighters and SRVs for fun and your loyal butler on the trip across the galaxy. LOL. You can still make over 51 LY jump with all that music on board. Made it to the Ishum's reach and back with no docking anywhere outside of the bubble and no issues what so ever.
Click to expand...
I like the Cutter a lot, but for me exploring always includes exobiology now, so landings in rough mountainous terrain.

I didn't undersize the power plant because I really wanted to use "low emissions" for easy fuel scooping.

I've just realised the build I've shown has a small cargo rack. I've actually replaced that with an AFMU in the latest.

EDSY is great like this, endless tinkering while juggling competing requirements. :)
 

Kzak

Kzak
Here's my iCourier explorer-build - 54.72 LY with full fuel tank, standard explorer amenities and a pre-engineered Titan SCO. No room for a jacuzzi and assorted luxuries, though.

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Starsong

Starsong
Mine is slightly shorter range (at the 50LY mark still, though) and has no AFMU since I tend to do long-range exploring from a carrier. Having the extra shields makes doing my kind of flying near planets a good deal safer...

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Archvillain

Archvillain
You (Brrokk) got me playing around in the ship builder and now I have plans for a nice Explorer Dolphin that gets 60LY despite carrying a 1st class passenger cabin in addition to being fully stocked with exploration equipment (SRV, Shields, repair limpet, AFMU, etc)

Until now I've mostly been using the Titan SCO drives to enhance my existing fleet, rather than thinking about what new directions I could try. Good call!

(My explorer Mandalay gets 86LY despite full equipment, so it'll remain my primary, but 60LY is still plenty and comes with small landing footprint and passenger options)
 
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Ashnak

Ashnak
Even without SCO FSD - I had an iCourier on DW2 (you can still see me in the "Let's jump together" music video as one of the two couriers who jumped the line in one of the mass jumps :) ).
And before exobio, the Dolphin was my favourite explorer ship. Yes, it has less single jump range than the DBX - but it can't overheat while scooping and has a very favourable ratio between scoop size and FSD size, so you can start the jump while still scooping immediately once the countdown has run down, so you can scoop-jump much faster than in the DBX. But for biology, I want a ship that has downward view as well as a small footprint, so I went back to the DBX for a while.
 

MPL3D

MPL3D
I do explore in my combat Clipper as well (I use the Clipper for everything), just fit SCO, fuel scoops, guardian frameshift booster, vehicle bay and DSS.
Plenty of shields and hull, even MRP and A modules for all, it still jumps 45ly, with amazing handling in both supercruise and normal flight.
Oh and it is able to land in three landing gears (of the five available) so it can land almost anywhere. Didn't want to tell you. This bird connects with the pilot.
And yeah, also that gorgeous style being at the other side of the galaxy.
 

Stealthie

Stealthie
A few years ago I decided to build a fast ship.

I bought an iEagle, a Viper 3 and an iCourier and built all of them to be as fast as possible.
Eventually, for various reasons, I decided that the Viper was "best" at going fast.
That left me with 2 other ships that were also very fast but with no obvious reason to exist.

I ended up turning the iEagle into a data-delivery ship (which I spent a lot of time in while gaining my Fed' rank) and I decided to turn the iCourier into a small scout ship.
It's not the ideal long-range ship because it is, basically, a tinfoil hull with honking great thrusters bolted to it but it'll jump 45Ly, do 760m/sec and it can shoot stuff (a bit) too.

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Cmdr Snuffler

Cmdr Snuffler
Each to their own and all that...but that build is paper thin. In fact paper is too thick, I'd go for graphene thin.
I'd be bricking it will every little bump and dink. I see a rebuy screen on the horizon :D
Also, recently almost all builds posted on the forums have training wheels still installed...my brain just doesn't understand why :(
 

Brrokk

Brrokk
Kzak said:
Here's my iCourier explorer-build - 54.72 LY with full fuel tank, standard explorer amenities and a pre-engineered Titan SCO. No room for a jacuzzi and assorted luxuries, though.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
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Click to expand...
Oh, "low emissions" with "monstered", I must try that!
 
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