Do you think we will ever get a really long range exploration ship?

[D8ncer]

Think a few people miss the scale of the galaxy. Where I am the now it is like grains of sand as far as the eye can see.

If everybody in game were exploring with 100ly range ships, they still wouldn't put a dent in it.
.
As for cherry picking, you still have to stop and search. I have scanned a ridiculous amount of stars so far on my trip and have about 8 black holes.
Long range is good to get out to a target area and then you are still going to be down to small jumps over many, many weeks.
.
Just makes the 20,000, or 30,000 ly trip home a little bit quicker. Instead of 3 weeks it may be 2 week trip home.

 

[bamber]

Yes please how good will 100LY single jump ships be brilliant

Just think how easy rare trading will become

(oh maybe thats why..............)

 

[D8ncer]

If you had two drives fitted, it could be setup that you cannot carry cargo. The option to install cargo racks is removed unless for exploration drones.

 

[wstephenson]

I rather have them implement the "dark systems" they've talked about before. Rouge planets or other objects between star systems in more or less complete darkness. Systems that could only be found and jumped to by using special scanners. These could then potentially be used as "bridges" in cases described in the OP. They could also be discovered even inside populated space to expand on the exploration role. Maybe these can be very hard to find but still have the possibility to contain really rare resources close to populated world.

I love the idea of dark systems but I fear that the density of the Stellarforge-created galaxy is too high and too uniform to make them really useful except at the edges of the galaxy, which is away from the action of inhabited space.

Originally, I believed that inhabited space would be relatively sparse (like the 50 systems of the second 'bubble' during beta) with well defined corridors of possible jumps between clusters of systems. In this model, 'dark systems' would be valuable short cuts like jumping between corners in Mario Kart, reducing the number of jumps for a valuable trade run, or allowing a military sneak attack, at the cost of increased risk.

Think about where you can jump to using any general-purpose ship in inhabited space now - there is pretty much free choice of vector if you jump to your maximum range, and fuel is so cheap that it is not a factor in deciding where to go. FD are not going to change the layout of the galaxy now. So dark systems have lost their 'hard linear jump range' navigational purpose.

Perhaps dark systems would have a role if soft factors limited travel, ie if NPC factions were a lot more aggressive about keeping outsiders out of their territory, piracy was more rampant in Anarchies, or minor factions charged swingeing tolls to transit their systems?

 

[Freddie Mc]

ID like to see modules that boost FSD range. There are ones for practically everything else.

 

[lonewarrior]

Yes please how good will 100LY single jump ships be brilliant

Just think how easy rare trading will become

(oh maybe thats why..............)

I was thinking more along the lines of a ship that has 2-3 module slots so could only carry around 30 cargo max if you actually fitted it with cargo
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My idea is a ship that costs about 30 million, can be upgraded with a drive that can go 60ly but can fit a unique module that has 2 uses, each use would be used outside of supercruise like a heat sink and take 2 mins to charge, once charged it would double the range of your next jump, hence only 2 uses (one trip there and back) and if this ship could carry a max of 3 of these you would have to come back a lot to pull it off and also would mean you would have to pick the systems you choose to use this super jump with very carefully
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And of course would also require Elite explorer rank to buy the ship
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Also each super jump would cause insane amounts of heat build up that you would have to balance between hear sinks and super jumping, so each use of this could do 10-20% hull damage as a trade off, so only the hardcore explorers would find any use in the ship

 

[Allitnil]

That's exactly what it is today, only it takes 4 times as long. Time sink does not equal difficult.

Nope. But there again, time is the only real differentiator in Elite Dangerous. An Elite explorer isn't necessarily any better than a Ranger, an Elite trader isn't necessarily any better than a Merchant. Just more time spent. Take away the time factor and what's left?

That said though, time is a key factor when it comes to exploration. It requires a particular mindset to spend days, weeks or even months away from colonised space. It's man vs the galaxy. And a long jump range ship makes that much less of a factor.

One other issue regarding the time sink aspect. A hugely powered Explorer ship would presumably cost a lot. In that case all it would do is give even more of an advantage to those who can put in the large amounts of time required to purchase it. The time-constrained explorers are still taking ages to get anywhere whilst the time-free ones have not only the existing time advantage but a greater ship one too.

 

[Mufus]

I would hope that some form of non-field-repairable / or with expensive charges/ammo FSD range boost module would be the order of the day. e.g. Fit yourself an A rated FSD booster of a matching size to your FSD module and you can increase your range to 6 times your normal. Once the module is used it becomes toast and you have to either replace it or get it (expensively) repaired at a suitable space station. A B rated matching booster would be a lower multiplier, similarly a lower class to your FSD would reduce the multiplier and even a higher class module than your FSD would extend the multiplier even further.

This would allow an explorer to, for example, have a massive single jump into the galaxy and then explore from there and try to make their way home and equally would allow an explorer to take a 100ly hop into an isolated clusted... however make sure you have two of these modules fitted otherwise you ain't coming home!

 

[The Wallet Inspector]

Really would be nice to have an FSD/ship combo capable of reaching every system in the galaxy, as like you said, currently there is no way to access quite a huge number of them both above and below the galactic plane and it's outer edges. Only trouble being balancing between granting access to those systems and making the FSD/ship the way over classed option for doing any kind of exploration trip, theoretically more than halving the time it takes to cross the galaxy.

Only viable option may be to allow a new module type that creates some kind of "bridge" between one system and another for that player only, allowing them the ability to perform a set number of large jumps before the modules supply is depleted, maybe even maintaining that player created bridge for either a set number of time or permanently until the module is replenished back at a station, to prevent players from becoming marooned in a deep space system.

Every place in the galaxy? That sounds like a very bad idea in my opinion. I do agree with the idea of a very long range ship that can do a massive jump with all of its fuel, but I always assumed this was how the capital ships worked.

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If you had two drives fitted, it could be setup that you cannot carry cargo. The option to install cargo racks is removed unless for exploration drones.

I would imagine a rares run would not be worth it, or be uneconomical, at that level of tech.

 

[bamber]

I suppose one way around the longer range drive would be to make the booster pump for the FSD highly toxic so any cargo will be turned to toxic waste on use.
means the ship can only be used for exploration
.
Heh hee time to load up on slaves

 

[Reav]

I reckon a PURE explorer ship with no chance of being decent at cargo runs, 2 small wep placements to be on par with a sidewinder but with massive jump range would be quite ballanced.

They have pure combat ships now in high price range.. why not make some 10mil/50mil ship for exploring?
I am sure people would like it for getting around.

 

[CloneWarrior85]

I reckon a PURE explorer ship with no chance of being decent at cargo runs, 2 small wep placements to be on par with a sidewinder but with massive jump range would be quite ballanced.

They have pure combat ships now in high price range.. why not make some 10mil/50mil ship for exploring?
I am sure people would like it for getting around.

Because there is no need for it?

Anything with a bigger FSD is game breaking at the moment.

 

[Tinman]

Emphasis mine. Also, FYI.

Ok, rogue...phone...

 

[SteveLaw]

I might support a drive with a one-use 200ly jump. You can go, but you're not coming back...

 

[Muetdhiver]

I was thinking more along the lines of a ship that has 2-3 module slots so could only carry around 30 cargo max if you actually fitted it with cargo
-
My idea is a ship that costs about 30 million, can be upgraded with a drive that can go 60ly but can fit a unique module that has 2 uses, each use would be used outside of supercruise like a heat sink and take 2 mins to charge, once charged it would double the range of your next jump, hence only 2 uses (one trip there and back) and if this ship could carry a max of 3 of these you would have to come back a lot to pull it off and also would mean you would have to pick the systems you choose to use this super jump with very carefully
-
And of course would also require Elite explorer rank to buy the ship
-
Also each super jump would cause insane amounts of heat build up that you would have to balance between hear sinks and super jumping, so each use of this could do 10-20% hull damage as a trade off, so only the hardcore explorers would find any use in the ship

Nice idea, but why have a special ship for it ? I thing some kind amo based FSD booster that takes an internal slot
like a shield cell bank do would be a good solution. Higer class/rating = higher FSD boost. Also, since it would take
internal slot, traders would have to sacrifice cargo space for jump range, keeping it balanced.

A cool stuff for explorer would be to be able to use frame draging by fast rotating black holes to get a FSD
boosted range. Something like you select destination, SC skimming the horizon, engage FSD. Then you
would get out of hyperspace at some boosted distance in a system contained in a cone originating from the starting system and centered around the initial destination. The closer you skim the horizon, the farther you travel, and the better the
target is aimed at, the closer to the cone axis you get out.

 

[Rikk]

I actually like the idea of having something to boost the ships jump range, but there must be huge drawback.

Just throwing ideas around here

Single extended frame shift drive module (or FSD Overcharge module), class 5 or 6. Allows direct injection of fuel from a second tank which is also fitted and minimum class 5 or 6.
So, it needs lots of fuel. Ie one jump, one tank.
Maybe have a separate fuel scoop for the second tank which sits in place of the cargo hatch, and may only be filled from certain star types to ensure the purity of the fuel.
Also makes it reasonable that the ship cannot accept cargo.

Thoughts to expand upon...

 

[Beornfrið]

ID like to see modules that boost FSD range. There are ones for practically everything else.

Perhaps a compromise to would be to have a module that boosts FSD range but at a cost. You could carry a module and a handful of "Expanded jump capacitors". If you need to make an extra special jump as the OP describes then you select one of these 'Expanded jump capacitors' and choose your destination. Doing so burns out the capacitor (they would need to be pricey) and causes substantial wear and tear on the FSD drive.

Such a solution would give explorers the chance to plot routes in to the depths of space but would prevent people bouncing around in 100ly ships at ease.

 

[Lord_Crazy]

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So will we ever get a ship that can get there?
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I don't think it will happen. The galaxy in Elite was created to be accurate and reflect current scientific knowledge if I understood correctly. Which means starts are in the game because they might be out there in reality. Whether they are too far from each other to be explored is merely incidental.
That being said nothing prevents FD from offering us a ship with higher jump range. But I doubt it would be tantamount to make all the stars in range for exploration.

 

[Lodorenos]

There are two things from past games that could let this be implemented: Military drives and Thargoid ships.

I hope to see one of them happen! I'd love a long range huge ship dedicated for explorers, perhaps limited to Pioneers or Elite.

 

[lefty1117]

What about being able to jump longer distances as long as a nav beacon is present in the destination system. This would allow these long-range ships to move quickly around the civilized galaxy, but will still gate them for long range exploration.