Mandalay too good for Exobiology and Exploration

[Morbad]

Fleet Carriers kind of ruined that already. Not the enormous size, but the 'civilization is far away, survive with AFMU and repa... what's that, a full service station 5 ly away, instead of the 30,000 ly back to the frontier of the bubble? Golly, I don't have to even try anymore!

Synthesis was enough to ruin this.

Back in the day I was mildly concerned about a two-month, six-thousand jump, excursion in a ship with a grand total of six irreplaceable heatsinks, no repair limpets, and no AFMU. The moment synthesis became possible, I knew that even if I lost the canopy I could likely circumnavigate the whole galaxy without any real risk.

As it stands, the only limit on endurance for a modestly well built and flow vessel is PP integrity and the only way for this to be damaged at a non-glacial rate is to really dumb stuff or habitually pick fights with wings of railgunners in one's exploration boat.

 

[Shir]

What the Sco drive actually did was stop systems with far away planets from being special anymore. With a Sco drive whether it's 4k or 400k away is irrelevant, you can reach it in a couple of minutes.

.. If you bought the new ships that is

 

[Rat Catcher]

What the Sco drive actually did was stop systems with far away planets from being special anymore.

I never considered systems with secondary or tertiary stars in the 400k special, quite the opposite, but used to visit those far off bodies regardless.
All it did was make an evening of sightseeing provide less progress to my destination than normal.
SCO will change that, when I get inclined to wander off on a jolly to the Abyssal Plains or whatever, it won't take away the satisfaction of visiting every body in a system, but will mean less time spent twiddling my thumbs, or fetching yet another Guinness from the fridge...

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

What the Sco drive actually did was stop systems with far away planets from being special anymore. With a Sco drive whether it's 4k or 400k away is irrelevant, you can reach it in a couple of minutes.

.. If you bought the new ships that is

"the players" asked for it, and in the end received. Long before SCO was introduced, there were two camps; the one with those who thought the same as above and that any kind of reductrion in travel times would trivialize the galaxy (I was one of those, kind of), and the other who wanted travel times nerfed to the ground.

In the end, I have to admit the SCO drives are kind of a good solution.

 

[Oberost]

Commanders, could you please give a link for an engineered Mandalay built.
I am going to buy it soon and use instead of current Krait Phantom.
Your help is appreciated.

Exploration Mandalay

 

[Joe Cool]

Commanders, could you please give a link for an engineered Mandalay built.

Tweaked, tweaked some more, then tweaked again!
Built specifically for space exploration, rather than surface work.

 

[DjVortex]

Tweaked, tweaked some more, then tweaked again!

While more jump range is always fun, I think that it's not the be-all and end-all of exploration, where you absolutely need to min-max it at the cost of everything else.

A year ago I would have said that once you achieve a 75 Ly jump range, that's more than enough, and you can spend the rest of your optimization on other things that are useful in exploration. Today, with the introduction of pre-engineered SCO drives and the Mandalay, I would increase that to 85 Ly, which is a nice increase. But the same principle applies: Would say that once you achieve that (fuzzy) 85 Ly line, it's better to spend the rest of your optimization on other things that are useful in exploration, primarily resistance to accidental collisions, boost speed, and boost frequency.

Your build doesn't even have shields. Even a minor accidental collision with the ground when landing will cause permanent damage to the hull. Over a very long exploration journey this damage will accumulate. Even just some tiny 3D shields (engineered) would be better than no shields at all, even if that costs you a whopping half a Ly in jump range.

 

[Yure]

Well, the Asp still has the best cockpit view.

False! The T-9 holds that title!

 

[Morbad]

A year ago I would have said that once you achieve a 75 Ly jump range, that's more than enough, and you can spend the rest of your optimization on other things that are useful in exploration. Today, with the introduction of pre-engineered SCO drives and the Mandalay, I would increase that to 85 Ly, which is a nice increase.

I'm still of the opinion that once you hit ~20ly jump range, you can reach the overwhelming bulk of the galaxy by traveling mostly a straight line, which is good enough to rapidly access areas no one has ever been. One only needs more if they are intent on exploring that sub-1% of stars at the sparse fringes of the galaxy.

 

[Joe Cool]

While more jump range is always fun, I think that it's not the be-all and end-all of exploration, where you absolutely need to min-max it at the cost of everything else.

A year ago I would have said that once you achieve a 75 Ly jump range, that's more than enough, and you can spend the rest of your optimization on other things that are useful in exploration. Today, with the introduction of pre-engineered SCO drives and the Mandalay, I would increase that to 85 Ly, which is a nice increase. But the same principle applies: Would say that once you achieve that (fuzzy) 85 Ly line, it's better to spend the rest of your optimization on other things that are useful in exploration, primarily resistance to accidental collisions, boost speed, and boost frequency.

Your build doesn't even have shields. Even a minor accidental collision with the ground when landing will cause permanent damage to the hull. Over a very long exploration journey this damage will accumulate. Even just some tiny 3D shields (engineered) would be better than no shields at all, even if that costs you a whopping half a Ly in jump range.

Did you miss the 2nd line of my 2 line post?
It kind of addresses your shield concern.

I agree with all your points.
For surface work I utilise a 3C Bi-Weave, but it's bolted to a small (Viper Mk IV) chassis as I can't park for toffee and my ADC's a little bit senile!
Oh and my jump range in the Viper? A very practical 53/56ly

 

[Kira Goto]

I built a Mandalay for exploration (with some freedom taken to reduce how prone it is to destruction on crash). By the time I finished the engineering loop I already felt bored by the ship's boost (and to lesser degree) engine sound and left it parked since.

The positives? It's not (as?) insanity-inducing ear grating as the Asp's ridiculous noise that is shared by some of the other Lakon variety (thankfully not the T8). And if I so choose I can put its thrusters to A rated because I kind of miss the (even just a little higher) boost speed the Phantom is afforded even with 'just' 5As without losing on the range too much.

... but yes, I'm that kind of person who won't fly a ship for exploring if the engine noise gets on their nerve too much and I find the Mandalay's to be extremely dull and boring. Almost the polar opposite of the Asp's making me want to pull my hair out after just a 5k trip to unlock Palin. I'm not sure why I haven't sold it. Anyway, the Mandy may be a good ship but the engine noise is making me not want to go into it. For actual exploring, at least. The case of exploring the various ways to blast something in the face with it, that may be another matter. Especially for once our flowers neighbors come back or that insane maniac in the Guardian network comes nosing into business that's not his, again.

*Build may not be fully accurate as I made it off memory for the optionals to provide the basic idea so I might've forgotten some bits. It probably does have an FSD booster even if I didn't put one there.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

I'm still of the opinion that once you hit ~20ly jump range, you can reach the overwhelming bulk of the galaxy by traveling mostly a straight line, which is good enough to rapidly access areas no one has ever been. One only needs more if they are intent on exploring that sub-1% of stars at the sparse fringes of the galaxy.

I kind of agree, but 20 ly is a bit too little to travel comfortable. But at a certain point, jump range just doesn't matter, and comfort and safety should take over.

Then again maybe I am not hardcore explorer enough, and maybe the Mandalay is too good, but I wouldn't leave the bubble in a paper Mandalay just for the sake of jump range. I just played around in EDSY, and with all exploration tools and without downsizing anything the Mandalay hits 67 ly while bringing over 800 shields and 1100 armor. With a neutron boost range of almost 270 and equipped with a size 6 scoop, that's very comfortable traveling while making no compromises in normal space in terms of agility and fun.

In my earlier days I explored in an Anaconda, and I hated every second of it - it was an unfun behemoth. Later I went exploring in a Beluga, which was awesome but tedious to land, and then settled on an exploration Dolphin. It jumped a bit less than 60, but was fun to fly and traveled well because of the magic heat capacity will, again, bringing some substential shields and armor just in case.

Maybe I just don't get the minmaxing for jump range unless you want to break some kind of speed record.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

I'm that kind of person who won't fly a ship for exploring if the engine noise gets on their nerve too much

Oh I totally get that. I had a hard time with the Mandalay's sound in the beginning and almost refused to fly one because I hated the boost sound. I also refuse to fly ships when I don't like the cockpit (FDL, I am looking at you). Don't care how good a ship is, if it sounds crap or the cockpit sucks, it's off to Stan's Previously Owned Vessels.

My favorite engine sounds are the Viper and the Vulture by the way. Unless an NPC flies them.

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

False! The T-9 holds that title!

Seeing that, the Krait Phantom is throwing a tantrum, right now.

 

[DjVortex]

I'm still of the opinion that once you hit ~20ly jump range, you can reach the overwhelming bulk of the galaxy by traveling mostly a straight line, which is good enough to rapidly access areas no one has ever been. One only needs more if they are intent on exploring that sub-1% of stars at the sparse fringes of the galaxy.

If it takes about 2 hours to go to Colonia with an 80 Ly ship, it will take in the ballpark of 8 hours with a 20 Ly ship. No thanks?

 

[Alaska Sædelære]

If it takes about 2 hours to go to Colonia with an 80 Ly ship, it will take in the ballpark of 8 hours with a 20 Ly ship. No thanks?

It's not the same thing whether you just want to go to a destination or test how much of the galaxy you can reach exploring. Often explorers go along a straight line to a random place maybe in a chosen area, because this is a simple way of having some kind of destination or limited task. More jumps along the way means you gather more data.

 

[Nathan84]

If it takes about 2 hours to go to Colonia with an 80 Ly ship, it will take in the ballpark of 8 hours with a 20 Ly ship. No thanks?

But is "going from A to B the fastest possible" really exploration ?

I mean he's right, jump only truly matters if you're trying to explore sparsely populated sectors (in terms of stars), or maybe if you explore with a specific, distant destination in mind.

Also if you're going back to the Bubble in a hurry because there's a CG with some fancy double-engineered module for rewards

 

[Alaska Sædelære]

Commanders, could you please give a link for an engineered Mandalay built.
I am going to buy it soon and use instead of current Krait Phantom.
Your help is appreciated.

Having both prebuilts, I made one for exploration (https://edsy.org/s/vSPwZLv - it doesn't have the new double-engineered FSD yet) and another for travelling on the highway (https://edsy.org/s/vnBLrhw). There are also suggestions around for AX applications, where this ship has specific advantages.

 

[DjVortex]

But is "going from A to B the fastest possible" really exploration ?

I mean he's right, jump only truly matters if you're trying to explore sparsely populated sectors (in terms of stars), or maybe if you explore with a specific, distant destination in mind.

Also if you're going back to the Bubble in a hurry because there's a CG with some fancy double-engineered module for rewards

But the thing is, having an 80 Ly ship doesn't stop you from doing the "slow" type of exploration. Having a 20 Ly ship does stop you from doing the "fast" type.

 

[Nathan84]

But the thing is, having an 80 Ly ship doesn't stop you from doing the "slow" type of exploration. Having a 20 Ly ship does stop you from doing the "fast" type.

I think the point was more that you don't need to sacrifice everything to gain some tenths of an LY.

I have flown a Phantom that couldn't boost at all and topped out at less than 300m/s just to get 70+LY (before SCOs or Titan FSDs), it was such a PITA