So will we ever get a new Explorer ship... or is it ASP forever...?!

[Varrag]

I'll dare to say that we don't need new, more advanced exploration ship than Asp/Conda at the moment. There is nothing in game to justify its existence. Once/if they add more features and build deeper gameplay mechanics for exploration, and especially when we get atmospheric flight and planetary landing (full - not only on barren rocks without the atmosphere), then we can talk about it.

Check out my proposal for highly specialized exploration ship in my sig below to see what I mean.

 

[Soon(TM)]

Diamond back and courier seem pointless ships to me at pointless price points. What they should have done is made these ships bridge the gap between the ASP and the Clipper and above. There's no multi role ship between the 6 million and 22 million price points. And between that there's only the type 7 really at 17 million. One of those two ships should have been capable of 130 cargo space and average combat/jump range with the other being better at combat and jump range with a smaller cargo capacity. One should have been priced between 10 and 20 million to fill that massive gap and speccd accordingly.

I can't ever see the point of needing either in their current state with the Cobra and ASP being in existence.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

--- Deleted ---

 

[Oopsie Daisy]

You can explore in anything.


Morbad just went to the core in a combat spec FdL.

Exactly. You guys should stop your whining about the Diamondback not being as explorer friendly as you'd like. I'm out there in a Hauler. But then I'm new to the game and don't have bazillions of credits to throw around either (and I don't much like trading or fighting).

 

[Zulu Romeo]

If anyone tells you that the ship they are in is a terrible exploration ship, ask them this simple question: "What Would CMDR r4nger0 Do?"

 

[Armchair]

I don't care what that guy would do, but I would check to see if i can plot a route to my destination. If I can't due to inadequate jump range, then my ship is indeed a terrible exploration ship and I should buy a better ship.

 

[p.opus]

Too high a jump range and the galaxy will be explored in a year.

Ok maybe more than a year but it would make the galaxy feel far smaller than it is now.

I'm all for a jump booster that uses ammo (say 5) you fire it and it turbocharges your FD for that jump - doubling its range.

Unfortunately you posess a tremendous lack of scale. Most of us do when such large numbers are discussed.

Let's just say 10k of us devoted ourselves to exploring and we had the uncanny ability not to ever cross paths. (are there even 10,000 active players? but I digress)

400000000/10000

That would mean each of us would be responsible for 40000000 stars.

If you could inspect one star every 10 seconds it would take you 400 million seconds to complete your 40 million stars.

12.68 YEARS. And that's one star, every 10 seconds, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with 10,000 dedicated explorers never running into another player or entering a previously explored system.

A higher jump range has no danger of making the milky way too small. The only thing small, is our ability to comprehend just how mind boggling huge our Milky way galaxy actually is.

 

[Ziljan]

Unfortunately you posess a tremendous lack of scale. Most of us do when such large numbers are discussed.

Let's just say 10k of us devoted ourselves to exploring and we had the uncanny ability not to ever cross paths. (are there even 10,000 active players? but I digress)

400000000/10000

That would mean each of us would be responsible for 40000000 stars.

If you could inspect one star every 10 seconds it would take you 400 million seconds to complete your 40 million stars.

12.68 YEARS. And that's one star, every 10 seconds, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with 10,000 dedicated explorers never running into another player or entering a previously explored system.

A higher jump range has no danger of making the milky way too small. The only thing small, is our ability to comprehend just how mind boggling huge our Milky way galaxy actually is.

This is true but we aren't all starting at random evenly placed distributions doing a random walk from star to star. We are all starting off in the human bubble and heading off in not-so-random directions to certain points of interest, and occasionally heading intentionally heading off in direction that we imagine no one else has yet. The amount of overlap in the immediate radius around the human bubble and other points of interest is what we really talking about here. The odds and ends, nooks and crannies, and currently unreachable star systems may never be "discovered" even as players are tripping over CMDR discovery tags 10,000 LY from SOL. That will probably be the case inside 2-3 years tops.

The only way to slow this down is to make staying inside the star system you are currently exploring more interesting and more rewarding than moving on the next system. And incidentally, it would also make exploration more interesting and fun.

 

[NeoTron]

I'm pretty fine with the Asp for THE explorer. But I bet we'll get a similar ship dedicated to exploring at one point.

The thing is. There will be only ONE BEST explorer, so everyone will basically fly it. Makes the other one pretty pointless. There needs to be an advantage and disadvantage for either one.

We have two best explorers today - one has the best jump range, the other the best agility and economics.

 

[Musty]

Because the current max jump range is 41ly on an anaconda and there are stars outside the galaxy that are Unreachable at the moment, I've spotted stars all
alone around 200 Ly away from any star at the edge of the galaxy, there's even a cluster of stars that Is unreadable that is 53ly away from any star ( I spent about 6 hours circling the cluster and determined that the only way to this cluster of about 50 stars is to jump further than 53ly in one jump)
-
People want to go to places and claim them, that's what it is

I agree with this. I do a lot of fringe exploring and there have been places I just couldn't get to because I needed a jump range of 50+Ly. I don't think we need a new ship, however it would be nice to have modules you can add to your ship that enhance jump range. Something along the line of shield boosters.

 

[Gelbrock]

Don't expect better ships each update.

The classic ships all came out near the start, they are hardly going to make these ships redundant by bringing out better ones.

Once you accept this I think you might be less disappointed.

 

[Conestoga]

Don't expect better ships each update.

The classic ships all came out near the start, they are hardly going to make these ships redundant by bringing out better ones.

Once you accept this I think you might be less disappointed.

This is true. Ships are not added in a progression-type fashion as, say, World of Warcraft adds raid tiers. It is unlikely that any particular ship will be made wholly obsolete by new content.

So in response to the thread title. I find it unlikely that an exploration ship will be released that outclasses the Asp any more than an exploration-rigged Anaconda does. And I'd rather take a Hauler exploring than either the Asp or Anaconda. Personal taste for the different flavor. And that's all you can expect.

 

[Ziljan]

Ships are not added in a progression-type fashion as, say, World of Warcraft adds raid tiers. It is unlikely that any particular ship will be made wholly obsolete by new content.

Except for the original size-progression built into the ships already? The only profession where the size-based progression isn't as apparent is exploring, but that is only because exploring is a placeholder profession that hasn't been fully realized yet. Mining is no longer beneficial in a small maneuverable ship as of 1.3. Trading, obviously benefits from big expensive ships. And combat... ?

...As for new ships making old ones obsolete: Exhibit A: The Vulture. No reason to own a cheaper combat ship when you can fly one of these, except maybe for jump range. And most combat happens repeatedly in a single system, so jump range isn't very important.

Of course they will have a superior explorer ship once cargo space becomes important for exploration, it will be Anaconda. Always the Anaconda. They should change the name of the Anaconda to "42" since it the ultimate answer to all questions in the galaxy.

 

[Agarthan]

Come out, come out wherever you are....

OT: more choice is always good.

Second this, there does need to be a dedicated exploration ship, but balanced with enough fire power to defend itself if necessary.

 

[Arksun]

I too am looking forward to a more luxurious explorer, or one built by Zorgon Peterson, one which can feel like a home away from home when you're deep out in space.

I get Frontiers logic, an exploration vessel being like a serious science vessel but, if you're flying on your own, 20,000LY away from inhabited space, you don't want to be spending all your time surrounded by this harsh sharp metallic reflective industrial control panel cockpit design, you want some comfort!

As great as the jump range, visability out of the cockpit and ability to fit a huge fuel scoop is on the Asp, I wish it contained the elements of visual comfort and higher maneuverability of my old Adder. So please Frontier, if you do make another multi-role explorer or dedicated explorer ship, can you NOT make it a Lakon this time please.

 

[Alien147]

Maybe the technology to jump further just isn't available yet!? Maybe there will always be a tantalizing cluster of stars just out of reach. Or perhaps Lakon, Faulcon DeLacy and the rest will start an 'arms race' to develop the biggest jump drive! Community Goals could abound and those who like that sort of thing can get on board. Imagine, a swarm of traders supplying stock, pirates leaching off them, bounty hunters scalping pirates, and all with the aim of backing their favourite shipbuilder (or derailing the opposition) to fling their explorer heroes to the farthest corners of the galaxy in the name of...whatever.

 

[Zueuk]

A man can dream of a Gutamaya explorer with a 50Ly jump range...

I am dreaming that dream!! (Was hoping for the Courier initially...)

Same problem here... But it seems that the new Courier is completely useless.

 

[Dbrn47]

Always Survey Planets, forever and ever. Or if you prefer, Analyze Search Prospect.

 

[Lobstris]

As stars are procedurally generated there are probably always going to be a few that are out of range of all ships - but with 400 billion to chose from, does it really matter that you can't get to them? Did anyone moan about the limit in FFE or Frontier that your ship would fall apart long before you got to the other side of the galaxy? I really hope Frontier don't introduce 50ly+ jump ships - unless that's all the ship does (i.e. space for the huge jump drive, scanners and nothing else).
.
The wider issue with the small ships comes from the fact that they weren't available at launch so people feel they are redundant by the time that they are available. Using ships as 'level progression' in an MMO RPG where you can't really die and be sent back to square one sits really uneasily with the whole simulated universe thing to me. If every ship is just going to have be better than those preceding it in game then a lot of the Elite feel will be lost IMHO.
.
Having said that I do feel that both the Courier and Diamondback are lacking somewhat in speed and range (I'd up both by 10-25% ish).

 

[shadragon]

As stars are procedurally generated there are probably always going to be a few that are out of range of all ships - but with 400 billion to chose from, does it really matter that you can't get to them? Did anyone moan about the limit in FFE or Frontier that your ship would fall apart long before you got to the other side of the galaxy? I really hope Frontier don't introduce 50ly+ jump ships - unless that's all the ship does (i.e. space for the huge jump drive, scanners and nothing else).

The people who want 50+ LY jump range typically don't want to go anywhere near the fringes. They want a way to jump to all neutron stars / black holes or other systems of $$$ interest then pocket the proceeds. That's the worse form of exploitation exploration there is.

I've have more respect for an explorer in a Hauler than a wannabe who isn't happy with an 36 LY Asp.

Some people are never happy by nature. Give them a ship with eight Class 6 hardpoints and they'll be whining for more.