Fellow Explorers. Asp kit. Your thoughts appreciated.
- Thread starter Grawbad
- Start date
Seriously, a large fuel scoop for an explorer ship is civilization. It basically turns your Asp into this.
Thank you all very much.
I am currently tweaking this kit, taking into account what has been said thus far.
I am curious about a couple things while I am doing this.
I thought thrusters were also used in super cruise. Take that back, I was 100% sure prior to this thread. Every ship I have have used benefited greatly when installing a better thruster as it pertained to gaining speed when coming away from the jump in star towards my goal in the system. Wouldn't lowering my thrusters to the amounts suggested in this thread make it very hard to get up to speed after jump in? I mean, upgrading the thrusters on my Type 6 netted me roughly 5 or 6 seconds less time to get the ship far enough away from the star to start seeing speed increases. Or was something else causing this? I don't think I changed anything else at the time though.
As it pertains to jump range. Are there places I won't be able to go if I don't have X jump range? I mean, might I find a system out there, that no matter where I am at surrounding it, I can't jump to it without a certain jump distance?
Also on jump distance, is .12 LY's really going to harm me that much when out there? I ask this because it was suggested I lower the power plant. Which will set me up to need to have systems turned off. I have no problem with that, but I can have enough power for everything and only go from 34.56 to 34.44 in the current kit I am tweaking based on what has been said here.
I will post up a new kit after I wrap my head around those couple of things.
Really though, thanks a ton guys. This is really helpful.
I am currently tweaking this kit, taking into account what has been said thus far.
I am curious about a couple things while I am doing this.
I thought thrusters were also used in super cruise. Take that back, I was 100% sure prior to this thread. Every ship I have have used benefited greatly when installing a better thruster as it pertained to gaining speed when coming away from the jump in star towards my goal in the system. Wouldn't lowering my thrusters to the amounts suggested in this thread make it very hard to get up to speed after jump in? I mean, upgrading the thrusters on my Type 6 netted me roughly 5 or 6 seconds less time to get the ship far enough away from the star to start seeing speed increases. Or was something else causing this? I don't think I changed anything else at the time though.
As it pertains to jump range. Are there places I won't be able to go if I don't have X jump range? I mean, might I find a system out there, that no matter where I am at surrounding it, I can't jump to it without a certain jump distance?
Also on jump distance, is .12 LY's really going to harm me that much when out there? I ask this because it was suggested I lower the power plant. Which will set me up to need to have systems turned off. I have no problem with that, but I can have enough power for everything and only go from 34.56 to 34.44 in the current kit I am tweaking based on what has been said here.
I will post up a new kit after I wrap my head around those couple of things.
Really though, thanks a ton guys. This is really helpful.
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Saw a tip the other day that said go for the B-rated AFMUs as they have more ammo than the A-rated version and all AFMUs don't have any mass so you don't get the normal "B penalty" of loads of extra mass to lug about.
Thrusters only apply in normal space - you may have had reduced mass through better thrusters that gave you better acceleration in SC but I've never noticed much difference (if any)
With ref to your power plant question go for the lowest class A-rated unit that will power your needs -they have much better heat characteristics which is more important than the .12 ly jump range bonus. There are places you won't be able to jump to - but .12 of a Ly won't make much difference to your trip.
You don't need to power your AFMUs and when you do use them drop out of SC and turn your thrusters off to free up the power requirements.
Thrusters only apply in normal space - you may have had reduced mass through better thrusters that gave you better acceleration in SC but I've never noticed much difference (if any)
With ref to your power plant question go for the lowest class A-rated unit that will power your needs -they have much better heat characteristics which is more important than the .12 ly jump range bonus. There are places you won't be able to jump to - but .12 of a Ly won't make much difference to your trip.
You don't need to power your AFMUs and when you do use them drop out of SC and turn your thrusters off to free up the power requirements.
I went for the 6B fuel scoop. You can go for 6C also if you want to keep the costs down, there's no real need to go for the A version as it only improves a little beyond the B and C versions.
Here's my explorer loadout: http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=60g,mpT01QmpY4yH7OX,2-8S8S7_6u6u8S8I,52C7TC0Ky05UmpT2UI2jw
With some weapons and shields in case of Thargoids or annoying pirates. As for AFMUs, I have one class 3 that I did use up most of during my two-week journey recently. You probably won't need more than one unless you're constantly running into stars and whatnot, in which case you might need to rethink your scooping strategies.
Here's my explorer loadout: http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=60g,mpT01QmpY4yH7OX,2-8S8S7_6u6u8S8I,52C7TC0Ky05UmpT2UI2jw
With some weapons and shields in case of Thargoids or annoying pirates. As for AFMUs, I have one class 3 that I did use up most of during my two-week journey recently. You probably won't need more than one unless you're constantly running into stars and whatnot, in which case you might need to rethink your scooping strategies.
CMDR Grawbad, I am not aware of any testing showing the class or rating of thrusters have any effect in supercruise (except you have to have them turned on ). To my knowledge the only thing affecting the handling of your ship in supercruise is the inherent maneuverability rating of your ship (6 for the asp, 2 for the anaconda, 3 for the type 6, 8 for the adder, 6 for the cobra).
Zulu Romeo once made the claim thrusters had an effect on turning speed in supercruise, I think, but never followed up on that, to my knowledge.
). To my knowledge the only thing affecting the handling of your ship in supercruise is the inherent maneuverability rating of your ship (6 for the asp, 2 for the anaconda, 3 for the type 6, 8 for the adder, 6 for the cobra).Zulu Romeo once made the claim thrusters had an effect on turning speed in supercruise, I think, but never followed up on that, to my knowledge.
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The A rated AFMU's have a higher repair capacity regardless of the ammo they carry.
Definitely agree with the fuel scoop. You want a size 6, cost/performance starts to become an issue with the 6A as it is much more expensive for relatively little gain. You will thank everyone that tells you to get a bigger scoop.
The thing that will determine the length of your trip will be the things an AFMU can't repair - canopy, hull, power plant. Most likely it will be the canopy.
Taking two AFMU is good, not because you can use one to repair the other, but because you will get more ammo for your credits. Sure, they can repair each other, but don't waste your ammo repairing your AFMU when you could be repairing modules that really matter because you'll run out of ammo before your AFMUs are dead.
Also - disable all AFMU before you leave. Turn them on when you are in normal space and wanting to repair a module. Accidentally repairing your thrusters or FSD while in SC will cause you to drop out and take damage.
Thrusters - I'm not aware that they make any difference in SC.
Jump range - the practical difference between 32ly and 35ly once you're out there is not going to cause you problems. There are systems you won't get to with 32ly rather than 35ly, but those are systems out on the edges of the galaxy - either very high, very low, or maybe some systems between the spiral arms.
Disabling systems - turn of all modules except the FSD, life support, scanners, thrusters, and scoop. You don't need the other modules when you're in SC, and lowering power draw helps dissipate heat when you're scooping. I'd go with the larger power plant and take a fraction of a light year hit in max range.
Fill any spare slots with Cargo. You can then use the Nav Slider to decrease your max jump a little, but increase your fuel economy a LOT.
I dont this use of this strategy very often as I have a 6B scoop and it is more useful with rubbish scoops, but when near the core or other dense area it might help, or maybe if you hit a region with a lot of non-scoopables.
If you have slots, this would be more useful than extra AMFUs (a single Class 5 really is quite sufficient)
I dont this use of this strategy very often as I have a 6B scoop and it is more useful with rubbish scoops, but when near the core or other dense area it might help, or maybe if you hit a region with a lot of non-scoopables.
If you have slots, this would be more useful than extra AMFUs (a single Class 5 really is quite sufficient)
Okay, taking into account a lot of factors in this thread I have set up a kit that looks like this:
http://goo.gl/IkAE1U
Gets me 34.44 on a full tank.
Has decent fuel scooping capabilities. Raising up to the top one only serves to save me 15 seconds from full drain yet raises the cost to astronomical levels. Roughly considering the extra 6 or so million credits to bump it to 6B instead of 6C.
I added a heat sink. As far as I now this will only factor if I accidentally get to close to a star correct?
Tweaked other things people mentioned to gain some jump distance.
I really don't want to lose the shields, I don't use a shield as a trader and there have been a couple times where I have not been able to get away from an intradiction. I accept the risk as a trader. This risk is not acceptable to me when returning home.
Now, going from there, any thoughts?
http://goo.gl/IkAE1U
Gets me 34.44 on a full tank.
Has decent fuel scooping capabilities. Raising up to the top one only serves to save me 15 seconds from full drain yet raises the cost to astronomical levels. Roughly considering the extra 6 or so million credits to bump it to 6B instead of 6C.
I added a heat sink. As far as I now this will only factor if I accidentally get to close to a star correct?
Tweaked other things people mentioned to gain some jump distance.
I really don't want to lose the shields, I don't use a shield as a trader and there have been a couple times where I have not been able to get away from an intradiction. I accept the risk as a trader. This risk is not acceptable to me when returning home.
Now, going from there, any thoughts?
CMDR,
That build looks great! You can save even more weight by downgrading the power plant to 2A (remember you can turn off AFMUs when not use, and cargo hatch also). If you have a spare slot, I like adding the docking computer because I always forget how to dock after being a few weeks out
. Some people would put an extra AFMU in that slot, or perhaps a cargo module so you can have some control over the efficiency of your route planner jumps via the cargo slider.Heat sink launchers are for rare cases where you hyperjump between stars and get dropped out of SC. With a heatsink you can reset your heat level while finding the escape vector and jumping out. How many heat sinks you run depends on how comfortable you are being able to avoid dangerous situations without them. On my first long trip I ran 4! I only run 1 now as I learned to be careful.
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Looks good to me.
I'd add a cargo rack to the empty bay for the reason that Puca gives above.
I'd add a cargo rack to the empty bay for the reason that Puca gives above.
5D power plant - poor heat characteristics from the D rating which will make fuel scooping and recovering from flying too close to star more difficult, also a class 5 and heavy - run a 2A power plant instead and keep the auto field maintenance units offline by default (you can do this in the modules tab of the right panel).
5D thrusters - Why? They're just extra weight, run 4D thrusters instead. You save 4 tons.
4D power distributor - Why? A 3D power distributor can still boost a 4D thruster, and is much lighter. You can go all the way down to a 1D, but the difference between 1D and 3D is only 1.5 tons an 0.1 LY jump range, so I'd keep the boost with a 3D distributor.
3A Fuelscoop - Why spend more time scooping? Instead use a 6D, 6C, 6B, or 6A fuel scoop depending on your budget.
Some people here might recommend running without a shield, but I'd keep the 3D shield. No telling when you might get interdicted by an NPC with railguns or make a slight error docking on the way home. It costs very little in weight (2 tons) and gives so much security, no reason not to have it IMO.
Also cargo bays can be useful for adjusting jump range as needed. Overall, this is what I would recommend for an asp (downgrade rating of fuel scoop and maintenance units as needed to get within your price range):
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=60g,,2-3I6u7_6u5K8S8I,52C08c0KU0KU7Q42jw2UI
With both auto field maintenance units turned off it runs at 88% power, gets between 37.37 and 34.54 Ly, has a shield, can boost, has cargo for adjusting jump range, has auto field maintenance units, and a class 6 fuel scoop.
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I'm of a similar mindset to PotatoOverdose but I find you can equip a great rig for under 16 million. I like one heatsink and a minimal 3D shield for "insurance" but have never needed either. Nor have I needed or ever fitted the Auto Maint units as they can't repair hull or canopy - never been in a situation where one would have helped, but that's just me.
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=60g,0Wg,2-3I6u7_6u2C8S8I,mpT50empU7Q42jw2UI
A great tip for starting explorers is when you make the long journey back and finally sell your carto fill up those internal compartments with cargo racks at the nearest Hi-tech system, and do a quick rares run or some straight commodity trading - that 116 cargo can make you another little fortune immediately with that 34-37ly range and the massive fuel scoop!
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=60g,0Wg,2-3I6u7_6u2C8S8I,mpT50empU7Q42jw2UI
A great tip for starting explorers is when you make the long journey back and finally sell your carto fill up those internal compartments with cargo racks at the nearest Hi-tech system, and do a quick rares run or some straight commodity trading - that 116 cargo can make you another little fortune immediately with that 34-37ly range and the massive fuel scoop!
I honestly think they are not needed. I have been wishing they - along with my thrusters and distributer were of a much lower class for about 30k Ly now... Pretty much saying what I am saying from experience. But anyway, the reason for lots of advice is for th eOP to make up his own mind.
Z...
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=60g,0Wg,2-3I6u7_6u5K8S8I,52C08c0KU7Q4mpT2jw2UI
Id consider this "the build" if i went out again. Turn off the cargo hatch, AMFU and power distrtributor for delicious gains in heat management.
Id consider this "the build" if i went out again. Turn off the cargo hatch, AMFU and power distrtributor for delicious gains in heat management.