Mandalay too good for Exobiology and Exploration

Are we furiously agreeing that ED provides amazing flexibility for a player to plough their own furrow and that the only 'right answers' are your own for your game?
The jury remains out on both the original question posed here and indeed whether or not the Mandalay is the current exploration meta.
😇
 
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.
Yes but then you're also routing by hand because the route plotter only works with your actual range. I'd also say 20 ly is a bit extreme for the purpose of this discussion, but I've been happily humming along in ships between 45-50 ly range -- first with a Clipper, not doing much exobio but scanning systems, another time Keelback with SLF for a more fun and efficient way to locate bios. A Sidewinder excursion is still on my to-do list.

There are many valid variations if people only get off the singular paradigm that an exploration build must be optimized for jump range. This is a fringe case, literally, because only in the galactic fringes do you need the range for reaching stars you otherwise can't. Only in that area, Mandalay is the undisputed best.
 
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Ah, the infamous range discussion again and also again completely ignoring that a ship with a very high jump range will use exponentially less fuel on short jumps. A 90ly ship exploring along a route with economy jumps can literally go thousands of ly without ever refueling once along the way.
 
Ah, the infamous range discussion again and also again completely ignoring that a ship with a very high jump range will use exponentially less fuel on short jumps. A 90ly ship exploring along a route with economy jumps can literally go thousands of ly without ever refueling once along the way.
Damn... one never stops learning. I thought it only reduces the average angle of deviation from a straight line which would mean a few percent shorter travel distance and proportional fuel saving. Where is a source for that information?
 
Are there even stretches of space without a single scoopable star that it'd be useful ?
I mean large enough that an actually enjoyable/safe/comfy/whatever to fly ship with 70LY range (or 60 ro 50) could find itself not able to reach a refuelable on eco ?

Because I don't think the discussion is "range is useless", rather "range is not EVERYTHING"
 
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It had never occurred to me to look up a wiki about my fsd 🤦

Thanks mate o7

Are there even stretches of space without a single scoopable star that it'd be useful ?
Yes, there are some relatively large "brown dwarf fields" that require some thinking to cross safely, e.g. on the way up to Beagle Point if you pass the galactic center on the western side.
 
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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.

I don't think the Mandalay is too good of an explorer, but it does appear to be a nearly ideal exploration craft. I do believe exploration is too easy, at least without setting arbitrarily difficult goals for one's self that the game doesn't particularly reward, and too easily divorced from other activities.

Most of my CMDR's exploration was done in a pre-Engineer FDL with just a bit over 14ly jump range. His second most used ship for exploration is the Federal Corvette. After that it's the Anaconda, Viper, and Courier. The Anaconda is more of a one trick pony when it comes to exploration and I used it more as long range ferry to get from A to B than an actual exploration vessel.

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?

Takes me way more than eight hours to get to Colonia, no matter what ship my CMDR is in. Usually get distracted a long the way. Needing to get somewhere as rapidly as possible is more racing than exploring.

Of course, if I had my way, logistics would actually matter, travel would have real dangers, and it would take more like 80 hours to race to Colonia for someone who knew exactly what they were doing (and most of those who didn't would never make it), but that's another topic.

Are we furiously agreeing that ED provides amazing flexibility for a player to plough their own furrow and that the only 'right answers' are your own for your game?

No.

Ah, the infamous range discussion again and also again completely ignoring that a ship with a very high jump range will use exponentially less fuel on short jumps. A 90ly ship exploring along a route with economy jumps can literally go thousands of ly without ever refueling once along the way.

I don't think that's being ignored as much as people tacitly acknowledging that refueling is both quick and easy.

Maybe it's the fuel scoops that are overpowered...

Are there even stretches of space without a single scoopable star that it'd be useful ?
I mean large enough that an actually enjoyable/safe/comfy/whatever to fly ship with 70LY range (or 60 ro 50) could find itself not able to reach a refuelable on eco ?

Yes, but they aren't exactly common. Most areas with masses of non-scoopable stars are sprinkled with scoopable ones...a detour to refuel might be annoying, but it's only going to take a few minutes most places.

It had never occurred to me to look up a wiki about my fsd 🤦

It's also immediately evident from jumping different distances in game than fuel consumption is no where near linearly correlated with distance.
 
Yes, but they aren't exactly common. Most areas with masses of non-scoopable stars are sprinkled with scoopable ones...a detour to refuel might be annoying, but it's only going to take a few minutes most places.

Yeah, I was asking because I never had the issue out there.
In the Bubble in a stock Vulture, sure, closest I ever was to a Fuel Rat call

I guess I'll stick to a full-option luxury explorer even at the cost of, gasp, 5 or 10LYs.
 
I made a thread when we first got the Mandy after i had taken her to Beagle, its an amazing ship, possibly too good, but after a while it got a little boring.
This was a shame because i loved the Mamba cockpit but i just felt like i should be exploring in something else.

E8lKeIG.jpg

However its crap at Exo!

When it comes to exploration its the major thing Elite excels at, you can fly what you want out there.

O7
 
I made a thread when we first got the Mandy after i had taken her to Beagle, its an amazing ship, possibly too good, but after a while it got a little boring.
This was a shame because i loved the Mamba cockpit but i just felt like i should be exploring in something else.
Try taking the Cobra Mk V to Beagle Point. It's a decent exploration ship with a great canopy view.

I know I did.
 
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.

Here's my Mandalay 77Ly Unladen

It has all that one would want I think for exploration and plant hunting. It could be a little longer jump range, but you would need to cut back on some things to get it there.

I just turned back towards Sol, on my maiden flight with this build. Reached 14.8KLy from starter point, with some deviations of course, so it's more like pushing 20k maybe. Ran up on a carrier out that way and decided to give them a little credit love and stopped in to drop off 1.7B in exploration and bio data. My ship integrity and paint was at 73%. Never touched the AFMU and repair limpets.

Other than a wide wing span which is an issue, sort of, this ship is excellent, just as good as my other Mandalay! :sneaky:
 
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Here's my Mandalay 77Ly Unladen
By the way, note that shield boosters do not follow the normal "D-rated is the lightest". Unusually, the weight goes up from E to A. (That's not to say it's somehow wrong to use D-rated shield boosters, but I just wanted to note this exception in case you chose that rating thinking that it would be the lightest.)

On that note, I don't think shield boosters are necessary at all in an exploration ship. A shield, yes, in order to protect from accidental collisions (which happen very easily even if landing carefully), but shield boosters are overkill. I myself have traveled the galaxy a lot (without any fleet carriers), gone to Beagle Point twice, and a bunch of other remote places, and I have never collided so strongly that shield boosters would have become handy. (As I linked to in a previous post my chosen build used 4D shields for that little extra protection, but 3D engineered ought to be fine.)

Likewise I have never needed a repair limpet controller. However, if you really want one, there's no reason to use an A-rated one rather than the much lighter D-rated one. You are repairing your own ship, not other ships. (You could also go through the trouble of unlocking the limpet controller lightweight engineering for that extra gain.) As for whether to use a class-3 or a class-1 controller, that does affect repair capacity, so I suppose there's a choice to be made there. (I myself wouldn't use a controller at all.)

Removing the shield boosters and changing the repair limpet controller to a 3D one increases jump range to 80 Ly. If you were to procure yourself a pre-engineered SCO FSD, that's 5 Ly more on top of that.
 
Are we furiously agreeing that ED provides amazing flexibility for a player to plough their own furrow and that the only 'right answers' are your own for your game?
The jury remains out on both the original question posed here and indeed whether or not the Mandalay is the current exploration meta.
😇
Agreeing! On the forums! Wash your mouth out.

Damn... one never stops learning. I thought it only reduces the average angle of deviation from a straight line which would mean a few percent shorter travel distance and proportional fuel saving. Where is a source for that information?
I did a lot of exploring using a Hauler and FC combination, on fastest it took around 11 jumps to get to the FC at its next way point and the Hauler would need to refuel usually twice. On economic the number of jumps was many more, depending where I was, but no refuelling was required.
Also plot a maximum range jump and look at your fuel gauge at the allocated quantity do the same with a minimum range jump the allocated fuel is barely noticeable.
 
By the way, note that shield boosters do not follow the normal "D-rated is the lightest". Unusually, the weight goes up from E to A. (That's not to say it's somehow wrong to use D-rated shield boosters, but I just wanted to note this exception in case you chose that rating thinking that it would be the lightest.)

On that note, I don't think shield boosters are necessary at all in an exploration ship. A shield, yes, in order to protect from accidental collisions (which happen very easily even if landing carefully), but shield boosters are overkill. I myself have traveled the galaxy a lot (without any fleet carriers), gone to Beagle Point twice, and a bunch of other remote places, and I have never collided so strongly that shield boosters would have become handy. (As I linked to in a previous post my chosen build used 4D shields for that little extra protection, but 3D engineered ought to be fine.)

Likewise I have never needed a repair limpet controller. However, if you really want one, there's no reason to use an A-rated one rather than the much lighter D-rated one. You are repairing your own ship, not other ships. (You could also go through the trouble of unlocking the limpet controller lightweight engineering for that extra gain.) As for whether to use a class-3 or a class-1 controller, that does affect repair capacity, so I suppose there's a choice to be made there. (I myself wouldn't use a controller at all.)

Removing the shield boosters and changing the repair limpet controller to a 3D one increases jump range to 80 Ly. If you were to procure yourself a pre-engineered SCO FSD, that's 5 Ly more on top of that.

Interesting. Thanks for the info!

Question...how does one input a pre-engineered FSD into Coriolis?

I'd like to verify that difference between a G5 FSD and a pre-eng FSD. In the end, I decided to do it myself since I was doing engineering anyway, and the collection of the TDC was a hassle.

Shield Booster? Uhm, OD is lighter than an OA. You get more range with the OD, and seems I remember it's cheaper too.

That said, I did infact engineer them for performance over weight, so being lighter is kinda cancelled out. Is it overkill? Only testing it would prove that out. Not interested in crash testing! But yes, it appears from my travels that I don't need quite that much shielding.

The main risk is tapping a wing on landing. Done that a couple times, and my shielding didn't even notice. Fly safe and shield need will be minimal, but I got it if needed and the range is still very respectable. Cake and eat it too sort of thing!

Limpet Controller...yeah, I needed to see the numbers for myself, so I went with more capability just in case. From what I'm seeing, I'm thinking a 1A would suffice. I hadn't really thought about engineering it. Interesting.

I also have Armour G5 Heavy Duty/Deep Plating.

and really cold AC! ;)
 
Interesting. Thanks for the info!

Question...how does one input a pre-engineered FSD into Coriolis?

I'd like to verify that difference between a G5 FSD and a pre-eng FSD. In the end, I decided to do it myself since I was doing engineering anyway, and the collection of the TDC was a hassle.

Shield Booster? Uhm, OD is lighter than an OA. You get more range with the OD, and seems I remember it's cheaper too.

That said, I did infact engineer them for performance over weight, so being lighter is kinda cancelled out. Is it overkill? Only testing it would prove that out. Not interested in crash testing! But yes, it appears from my travels that I don't need quite that much shielding.

The main risk is tapping a wing on landing. Done that a couple times, and my shielding didn't even notice. Fly safe and shield need will be minimal, but I got it if needed and the range is still very respectable. Cake and eat it too sort of thing!

Limpet Controller...yeah, I needed to see the numbers for myself, so I went with more capability just in case. From what I'm seeing, I'm thinking a 1A would suffice. I hadn't really thought about engineering it. Interesting.

I also have Armour G5 Heavy Duty/Deep Plating.

and really cold AC! ;)

You can overwrite the optimal mass manually with 2077.4 tons and you get the Titan-FSD values.

0E boosters with Heavy Duty weigh only 2 tons, so half the mass of the 0D.
 
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