I've just come back from my first deep space run in my DBX, the Long View, and I can say that I found it to be an exceptional ship. Never got above 65% heat whilst scooping at max scoop rate, and with unnecessary modules turned off once out of the bubble I was flying round systems at under 25% heat. As for the potential for a dangerous interdiction, I can count on no fingers the times an NPC has successfully got me... I either out manoeuvre them in supercruise or drop into real space and boost away before engaging the FSD. All in all, its a winner of a ship (and it looks cooler than the Asp imo, but aesthetics are obviously subjective).
Diamondback Explorer or ASP - which one is a better cheaper exploration ship?
- Thread starter goemon
- Start date
my asp never gets above 61% and runs with 22% ... \o/
no, seriously: i think it's great, people fly and love the dbe.
i just don't see a money reason... "i will get an dbe till i can afford an asp"
beside doubtoutloud's very valid argument, if you scratch all money together you have and sacrife even setting up an 4A fuelscoope on the dbe. but than i still think you will do better with a cheaper ship. e.g. compare scooping time of an adder to a dbe with a class 3 fuelscoope - i guess you'll outrun the dbe.
no, seriously: i think it's great, people fly and love the dbe.
i just don't see a money reason... "i will get an dbe till i can afford an asp"
beside doubtoutloud's very valid argument, if you scratch all money together you have and sacrife even setting up an 4A fuelscoope on the dbe. but than i still think you will do better with a cheaper ship. e.g. compare scooping time of an adder to a dbe with a class 3 fuelscoope - i guess you'll outrun the dbe.
I recently bought an Asp and am loving it. The jump range, the view from cockpit, the seemingly endless supply of internal compartments.. Some have complained about the old prop plane sound, I kinda love it myself. I've fitted mine for exploration, using a 6B fuel scoop, best FSD, 3A power plant (just enough power with no weapons on my build, about 12MW), D rated sensors and thrusters, a light shield generator that's basically there for protecting me should I do something stupid, some heat sink launchers and of course all the scanners required. Compared to my old Cobra, this thing melts lightyears like nobody's business. 1000 ly doesn't seem that long a trip anymore with that jump range, and don't even get me started on that 6b fuel scoop that fills me up before my surface scanner even finished scanning the star I'm scooping from. The time between jumps is amazingly short. Seriously love the ship, it's worth every penny.
The reason I'm saying all this is that even though the time difference between jumps can seem trivial, it's not once you've gone several thousand ly and intend to keep going for a lot more. You'll really appreciate the ASP in that regard.
As for that 1.6 million price difference fully kitted out.. I wonder if this is counting the stock Asp's price, or the discounted one at Alioth? Because you can get about 1.2 million off that price there (need a system permit, real easy to get), which drives that difference down to completely irrelevant.. and seriously, even a 1.6 m difference is immaterial. It's about 1-2m hours in a RES, depending how lucky you get with spawns. If combat's not your thing, run rares for a few hours. 1.6m is not exactly a huge grind in this game, and really worth getting a better ship for.
tl;dr version - if you're not already emotionally attached to a DBE, go with the Asp, you won't regret it.
The reason I'm saying all this is that even though the time difference between jumps can seem trivial, it's not once you've gone several thousand ly and intend to keep going for a lot more. You'll really appreciate the ASP in that regard.
As for that 1.6 million price difference fully kitted out.. I wonder if this is counting the stock Asp's price, or the discounted one at Alioth? Because you can get about 1.2 million off that price there (need a system permit, real easy to get), which drives that difference down to completely irrelevant.. and seriously, even a 1.6 m difference is immaterial. It's about 1-2m hours in a RES, depending how lucky you get with spawns. If combat's not your thing, run rares for a few hours. 1.6m is not exactly a huge grind in this game, and really worth getting a better ship for.
tl;dr version - if you're not already emotionally attached to a DBE, go with the Asp, you won't regret it.
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You forgot to take into consideration the DBE looks way cooler than the ASP. And isn't the DBE supposed to have a better combat capabilities (which will hopefully be relevant in the future)?
As far as looks go, this is highly subjective. I personally don't care for the looks of the DBE. To me it looks like a short range search and rescue craft, certainly not a ship I'd want to spend weeks inside of while traveling many thousands of ly away from the nearest port. If it does have a crew cabin it must be tiny. I can only imagine (or try not to) what the ship's interior smells like after a long exploration trip 
Going to less subjective matters though, combat wise the Asp is an excellent ship with loads of firepower, largely thanks to excellent hardpoint placement, decent shielding, and more than enough slots for all the equipment you could possibly want. I haven't flown both in combat so I'll let people who have make definitive claims, but according to the builds you can try in edshipyard or coriolis.io, and comments from other people, I never got the impression that the DBE is superior in combat vs. the Asp.
But like I said, someone who fought in both should really comment on this. I can say the Asp is a good combatant if set up for it.
Going to less subjective matters though, combat wise the Asp is an excellent ship with loads of firepower, largely thanks to excellent hardpoint placement, decent shielding, and more than enough slots for all the equipment you could possibly want. I haven't flown both in combat so I'll let people who have make definitive claims, but according to the builds you can try in edshipyard or coriolis.io, and comments from other people, I never got the impression that the DBE is superior in combat vs. the Asp.
But like I said, someone who fought in both should really comment on this. I can say the Asp is a good combatant if set up for it.
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I'm actually not that fond of the DBE/S look - it doesn't feel like a 'safe' ship to me. I wouldn't want to spend two months in a BSG Raptor or DS9 runabout either.
As for combat, definitely not. A 4 laser / 2 kinetic Asp will eat a DBE, simply because it is a lot more maneuverable. What the DBE has is full combat ability with range - there is no ship I know of that can be fully A-spec'd and armed and still cover 29+ light-years.
To be fair, the DBX in full combat mode has some lightweight combat gear. As in "paper thin shields" and paltry weaponry. The DBX is actually 18T heavier than the Asp at base, yet it's armaments are so flimsy that it still jumps farther when specced to be shot at. That is quite telling about how well it does in a fight, regardless of lack of nimbleness.
Oh, I know.
It's 'okay' - and that's the nicest word I can say - with two A boosters, a pulse turret and two multi-cannons. I'd still rather take my old Asp setup - 5D shields, 2 D boosters, 2 med beams, have a better range and be pretty sure to survive any encounter with long-distance DBE pirates. (My opinion remains - the Asp is the better ship except in base heat management. And since I paid more for it, that's how it should be.)
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The DBE is more photogenic than the Asp. Plain simple. While the Asp design is, let's say simplistic, the lights of the DBE make it a lovely toy to make screenshots with. Other than that, I'd pick the Asp simply for the bigger fuel scoop. I'd then pick the Asp over the Anaconda for available skins. That also is a point against the DBE, which luckily comes in a beautiful colour by standard.
All well and good, posters.
But the cheapest explorer with a decent jump range is the always forgotten, always underestimated Hauler
no, we didn't, if you read the original post: "but with >9 million CR you can go for this:
hauler (3 mio - 26 ly jumprange - 4t fuel tank, no AMU)"
as for combat:
the dbe as one large and two medium hardpoints, the asp two medium and 4 small. size does matter gainst larger ships. so let's say you are facing an anaconda in a dbe or asp. asp's hardpoints damage will suffer 33% for both medium and 66% for all 4 small hardpoints.
so asp goes like 2x 66% + 4x 33% damage, dbe will go 1x 100% and 2x 66%. e.g. asp will have a little more firepower. add to this, that shield damage is not subject to size penalties, you'll directly see that the asp is superior in firepower. as it is in agility.
This would be a good time for me to whine about not that many really good looking Asp skins out there. They really need to add some variety there. I miss my hemicuda colored orange rattler
The only skin I kinda like for the Asp is the black one with the green stripe. Just awesome it can only be bought as part of a 10 pound pack. I'm not paying that much for a skin, not when FD are being so obvious by having the black (obviously a lot of people will want that) as the only one not obtainable on it's own. Come on Frontier, you don't want that image..Yea, was considering that too, then decided I don't like it significantly better than the default blue. I'll probably just wait to see if they release more skins for it, maybe something clicks
Also, in completely unrelated and irrelevant news, just flew into a 6 star system. Well, one of them's a brown dwarf so it's more like 5 stars and an almost star. Still, impressive amount of stars
Also, in completely unrelated and irrelevant news, just flew into a 6 star system. Well, one of them's a brown dwarf so it's more like 5 stars and an almost star. Still, impressive amount of stars
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Idk. The FD store website doesn't do it justice. It does look quite a bit sexier in black. But that is just one CMDRs opinion... judge for yourself.
Hey, appreciate the shot. That does look quite nice.. hmm.. I might give that a go when I get back from this exploration trip. They don't have spray shops out in the black
In my ASP with A powerplant, when i turn shields and power distributor off, i can charge the FSD at 60% heat without overheating. So 30% less would be completly useless to me since i can charge the FSD in the very moment the cooldown timer finishes, and unless the Diamondback has a shorter cooldown, it won't speed me up for nothing.
DBX is a very slightly worst ship than the ASP, for an insigifcant discount. They just released a ship that is almost identical to another one statwise and rolewise, at almost same price. I will never understand this decision.
