Mandalay too good for Exobiology and Exploration

[Red Rocket]

I have my carrier ont in the black stocked with all my ships doing Exobiology with my Mandalay.
The problem is it’s too good, let me explain.
Many times a juicy planet is found with bio signals out 100,00 to 300,000 LS out and the Mandalay will get you there in under a minute only using less that 1/5 of your fuel.
The Mandalay doesn’t jump around and mostly stays cool during long SCO drives.
I understand that the Mandalay has been fined tuned for SCO operation, this is a important improvement.

After using the Mandalay for a week I switched to the Aso-Exp. as this was my play all along. I quickly found that the Asp is badly outdated.
big difference between Asp and Mandalay during SCO operation with the Mandalay taking the crown.

The Mandalay also wins by letting you exit in front under the see through glass floor as the Asp exists in the back, obviously the front is way better when salad hunting.

I believe that the new ships are all optimized for SCO use and the Mandalay clearly the best choice for Exobiology.

I was planning on using multiple ships out exploring but after trying out other ships I will mostly be using the Mandalay of exobiology, it’s just that good.

Hopefully the older ships will get optimized for SCO drives, as now going 200,000 LS will use most of the fuel with heat-ups.

The Mandalay is the clear winner for exploring for now, although you can use any ship. But why would you want to?

 

[DjVortex]

If you want some variation, try the Cobra Mk V.

 

[Phill P]

If you want some variation, try the Cobra Mk V.

Second that, if you have your carrier out there already it's fun as hell for exploring planets.

 

[Nadreck]

Well, the Asp still has the best cockpit view.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Explorers: why no new ships for us?

FD: here you go

Explorers: its too good! I'm using an old ship again

FD: new PvP ship guys?

Explorers: we get no new ships!

 

[Dillon Fallon]

Explorers: why no new ships for us?

FD: here you go

Explorers: its too good! I'm using an old ship again

FD: new PvP ship guys?

Explorers: we get no new ships!

Are you a grumpy explorer looking to conform to a stereotype?

Is the Mandalay too good, making it the perfect exploration ship and leaving you unable to complain about it effectively?

Not willing to be grumpy about a ship whilst giving up supercruise optimisation?

Behold!:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

All the convenience of a Mandalay, just slightly worse in every way, giving you that warm fuzzy feeling that there's flaws you can pick out.

 

[angusmadmac1]

I'm not sure I know what you would expect ?
The Mandalay is ugly but I'm flying it , why ? because it fits everything I want and fly's nicely .
My explorer ship for choice before that was the dolphin .
Why wouldn't Fdev make it a better ship ? Made for the new SCO drives . Of course it's going to be better I was looking at the other new ships and they are just better than the old ships. You wouldn't expect a model a to rival an Austin Martin Valkyrie?

 

[Alaska Sædelære]

You can equip the Mandalay with a non-SCO drive (or is there a problem I don't know? haven't actually tried). It shaves off a few ly range but still good.

We had the discussion numerous times since its introduction, but this ship has sailed. Personally I find SCO immersion breaking, but a vast majority appreciates the time saving more, so here we are. If there was an alternative choice with a minijump feature (in-system jump to secondary star if distance > x), I would choose this instead. Development doesn't stop however, so maybe there is hope.

 

[Joe Cool]

A properly sorted Viper Mk IV knocks the socks off all these young SCO friendly pretenders for exobiology work.
Try it, you won't go back

 

[Alec Turner]

You can equip the Mandalay with a non-SCO drive (or is there a problem I don't know? haven't actually tried). It shaves off a few ly range but still good.

We had the discussion numerous times since its introduction, but this ship has sailed. Personally I find SCO immersion breaking, but a vast majority appreciates the time saving more, so here we are. If there was an alternative choice with a minijump feature (in-system jump to secondary star if distance > x), I would choose this instead. Development doesn't stop however, so maybe there is hope.

You opinion is your opinion and I totally respect that but I am really curious, why do you find it immersion breaking? Personally I find it the perfect solution to reducing intra system travel times, opening up those systems where much of the content used to be too far away to utilise effectively.

 

[thistle]

Choice. Never a bad thing.

 

[Ozric]

Explorers: why no new ships for us?

FD: here you go

I would 100% agree with you if the first two times they showed it off after announcing it, Frontier hadn't kitted it out for Combat to show what a great combat ship it is

 

[Cmdr Snuffler]

Cobra mk5 is better.
In sco it has less heat build up, less fuel consumption, way faster top sco speed, easier to land in rough terrain than the mandalay, more stable in sco.
While the mandalay is brilliant for exo the cmk5 pips it in all aspects.

 

[CMDR Lefty Jackson]

The Mandalay is the clear winner for exploring for now, although you can use any ship. But why would you want to?

I parked my AspX for the Mandalay. After a while, I decided I needed to make sure, so I bought a second Mandalay.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Its not perfect. For exobiology in rough surfaces a small ship is better.

That's why exploration with a fleet carrier is so much better in some ways, just pick a small ship for the exobio, doesn't matter about the jump range. Fit extra fuel tanks to cover the increased fuel usage of SCO.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

I parked my AspX for the Mandalay. After a while, I decided I needed to make sure, so I bought a second Mandalay.

 

[Bob McBobblehead]

It would only be too good if you could jump to any star system with just one jump.

 

[Rubbernuke]

I would 100% agree with you if the first two times they showed it off after announcing it, Frontier hadn't kitted it out for Combat to show what a great combat ship it is

True! Although I assume having lots of PA with fuel slug rapidly dumps fuel as all explorers do as they 'help' traders in need around Sag A.

 

[SteveWW57]

I parked my AspX for the Mandalay. After a while, I decided I needed to make sure, so I bought a second Mandalay.

Should have bought the company!

 

[Alaska Sædelære]

You opinion is your opinion and I totally respect that but I am really curious, why do you find it immersion breaking? Personally I find it the perfect solution to reducing intra system travel times, opening up those systems where much of the content used to be too far away to utilise effectively.

It is first and foremost of course a personal perception, but also supported by official statements (I don't remember if by Mr Braben personally) that the game wants to exude a sense of vastness and the enormous size of space, and how travel times were designed is part of that. I liked that and never felt pressed to do anything or get anywhere faster than it was already made to be. That changed drastically with SCO. As explained before, an ability to jump to secondary stars instead would have felt more "natural" within the existing virtual reality.

All this is pointless now of course, and I'm not deaf to what others are wishing for. A majority thinks differently, and this is what a business listens to, anything else is not rational. What causes a stale taste for me is just that the new feature was so overpowering that it made everything before it obsolete, instead of creating a more interesting situation where it would have been a viable choice to keep the original drive, e.g. with said minijump as upgrade feature or whatever, and where you can't have both at the same time. SCO came in handy also for me in trading and colonising, but as explorer I use it only very sparingly. It takes the chill out of the activity for me. Basically I have it only because it adds more jump range. I did however buy both versions of the prebuilt Mandalay to reward development, not just this ship but everything, the team is really doing great work. So not to be misunderstood, I don't want to heap crap on the company for a single thing I'm personally not totally excited about.