The Test flight which didnt end

[Kenneth McGrew]

Hello fellow crazy jumpers!

and no not the cashmere or knitted variety but those who jump beyond the misty edge of the bubble and out into the black

I started messing with engineers to up the range of an AspX and Dbx, undecided on which to take i had a fettle with them endlessly and took the AspX to Maia for a quick run, it was here i realised i just dont like the look of this un-aerodynamic cheese slice (no offence AspX flyers!) and went and fetched my DBx, i played some more and created this! 54LY with fuel management is pretty cool and a nice 49ly range for non-manual plots, i couldn't quite break 50ly with a full 32t tank and the build i had

https://coriolis.io/outfit/diamondb...v6432f2i.AwRj4zTI.Aw14IzqQ?bn=Ultra light DBx

Fully engineered i once again headed out to Maia on a test flight and once there i took this wonderful screenshot for comparison to my AspX - i decided i still loved my DBx - small ship large galaxy syndrome, and the lack of AFMU just added an element of danger

of course others may disagree on looks etc but i just like the DBx..

Anyway, i wandered around for a little while wondering what i could do as i didnt want to leave until 2.2

Warning image heavy!! click at your own risk

Spoiler

Turns out i couldn't do that...

Looks like disco stu!

i'm now some 17kly from Sol

some of the images are of potential basecamps for the SHEPARD expedition which i did a little scouting for while i was out, feel free to go on over to the thread as this is just a taster of what that expedition would offer!

and these are xbox images not even high res PC wonderfulness!

Clicky here for more info https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...ISSION-Elite-Dangerous-Deep-Space-Exploration

 

[Mad-Max]

Good colourfull pictures! And any ship can do exploration, doesnt have to be one of the two A's. Right now I'm cruising the vicinity of Jaques in my CobraMk3, the small-ish fuel scoop keeps the pace down so I don't get tempted to just jonking from place to place.
Sometimes it's not about getting to your destination, but about just enjoying the ride. I'm still learning that...

 

[Aura Lorell]

Oh such beautiful pictures, thank you for sharing. Liking or disliking a ship is a subjective matter. No one should be judged on such things. Do what pleases you and brings you joy. Hope you keep sharing beautiful pictures.

 

[Codger]

Awesome. I've always liked the DBX.

 

[roryclague]

The images are fantastic. Love the nebula depicted in the fourth image of the album hidden by a spoiler tag. The last image is amazing. Looks like Barad-dur.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

The images are fantastic. Love the nebula depicted in the fourth image of the album hidden by a spoiler tag. The last image is amazing. Looks like Barad-dur.

the 4th image is Bernard's loop in the background, you can also see the running-man and flame nebula mixed in there

the last is the eta carina nebula

i do wish i had the PC version though, they are so much more detailed!PC is like elite in HD

 

[Straha Yeagar]

I am with you about the AspX...not a huge fan of how it looks. Much prefer the DBX, though even that is too blocky for my best preference. I like sleek lines and gentle curves.

That said, I still had to keep my AspX because of the internals, but if they were to give the DBX a size 5 internal I would seriously consider switching....though the last few thousand light years have really gotten me attached to my Scarlet Buckeye...

 

[Mengy]

Awesome pics!

I absolutely love and prefer the looks of the DBX over the Asp, 1000%. I hate how I can’t fit all of the modules I want into the DBX though, if it just had one more size 1 internal it would fix that. However, I totally loathe the unacceptably slow scooping speed of the DBX. I think it has the worst scoop speed of any ship in the game? And it’s an exploration ship???

If I could just get an AFMU into it and double the scoop speed I’d fly the DBX full time for exploration. Sadly I am shoehorned into only flying the Asp 95%of my time with Elite. I’ve never owned an Anaconda but I think I have enough credits for one now, I may give the huge thing a shot…

 

[goemon]

amazing thread, amazing pics, amazing ship

if you are still around eta carina, don't miss the hypergiant x carinae!

 

[MrFailfactory]

Awesome pics!

I absolutely love and prefer the looks of the DBX over the Asp, 1000%. I hate how I can’t fit all of the modules I want into the DBX though, if it just had one more size 1 internal it would fix that. However, I totally loathe the unacceptably slow scooping speed of the DBX. I think it has the worst scoop speed of any ship in the game? And it’s an exploration ship???

If I could just get an AFMU into it and double the scoop speed I’d fly the DBX full time for exploration. Sadly I am shoehorned into only flying the Asp 95%of my time with Elite. I’ve never owned an Anaconda but I think I have enough credits for one now, I may give the huge thing a shot…

I've had the same thought regarding the Vulture - just one more Size 1 or 2 slot, and it would be my ship of choice for Exploration. Really. Jump range isn't that important to me beyond a certain point, and if it were, there are only a few ships to choose from anyway.

Having never flown a DBX, I have a question regarding the slow scooping that I have seen mentioned many times - does the ship itself have some kind of modifier that makes it scoop slower than another ship using the same scoop, or is it just a matter of the maximum scoop you can fit? Coriolis says it can fit a 4A, so I would assume that's what most people would use.

This is subjective, of course, but I don't think 1.5 minutes (at the most...) is a long time to wait, regardless of what I am doing. That said, 3 minutes using the 3A would be a bit of a drag, but dropping back to a 16T Fuel tank brings that back down to...1.5 minutes.

I always like your pics and adventures, Ken - hopefully, they continue

Riôt

 

[Mengy]

Having never flown a DBX, I have a question regarding the slow scooping that I have seen mentioned many times - does the ship itself have some kind of modifier that makes it scoop slower than another ship using the same scoop, or is it just a matter of the maximum scoop you can fit? Coriolis says it can fit a 4A, so I would assume that's what most people would use.

This is subjective, of course, but I don't think 1.5 minutes (at the most...) is a long time to wait, regardless of what I am doing. That said, 3 minutes using the 3A would be a bit of a drag, but dropping back to a 16T Fuel tank brings that back down to...1.5 minutes.

The amount of fuel an FSD uses is directly tied to it's module size, and fuel scoop rates go up with their module size too. The ideal setup is to install a scoop that is equal or larger in size than your FSD, that way it can replenish the fuel used per jump at a quick rate. A scoop that is smaller than your FSD needs to take much more time refilling the tank per jump because the FSD eats much more fuel than the scoop can refuel per second.

The problem that both of the Diamondbacks have it that their largest internal is one size below their FSD module size. This means the largest fuel scoop they can install is always one size lower than their FSD's. Most ships have internals that are larger than their FSD's, and the rest have internals that are the same size as their FSD's, but only the Diamondbacks have max internals that are smaller than their FSD's. The end result is that both of them scoop fuel terribly slow compared to all other ships.

For example, my Asp with a 6A scoop and half sized 16T tank can scoop to full in 18 seconds, while a DBX fitted with a 4A scoop and half tanks as well will take 46 seconds to scoop to full. That's over twice as long. Might not seem like too big a difference when talking about it, but when actually flying it makes a huge difference in travel speed. Not to mention just how incredibly sluggish it feels having to sit there waiting. A DBX with full sized 32T tanks will take 93 seconds to refuel, thats over a minute and a half of sitting still. An Asp can jump three times in that timeframe!

Of course this only matters if travel speed concerns you, for commanders who don't mind slower travel it isn't a big deal.



In keeping with the DBX pictures though here is the last pic I took of mine before I sold it back, somewhere out near the Flame Nebula:

Spoiler

I loved the ship but I just can't handle that slow scoop. [sad]

 

[MrFailfactory]

The amount of fuel an FSD uses is directly tied to it's module size, and fuel scoop rates go up with their module size too. The ideal setup is to install a scoop that is equal or larger in size than your FSD, that way it can replenish the fuel used per jump at a quick rate. A scoop that is smaller than your FSD needs to take much more time refilling the tank per jump because the FSD eats much more fuel than the scoop can refuel per second.

The problem that both of the Diamondbacks have it that their largest internal is one size below their FSD module size. This means the largest fuel scoop they can install is always one size lower than their FSD's. Most ships have internals that are larger than their FSD's, and the rest have internals that are the same size as their FSD's, but only the Diamondbacks have max internals that are smaller than their FSD's. The end result is that both of them scoop fuel terribly slow compared to all other ships.

For example, my Asp with a 6A scoop and half sized 16T tank can scoop to full in 18 seconds, while a DBX fitted with a 4A scoop and half tanks as well will take 46 seconds to scoop to full. That's over twice as long. Might not seem like too big a difference when talking about it, but when actually flying it makes a huge difference in travel speed. Not to mention just how incredibly sluggish it feels having to sit there waiting. A DBX with full sized 32T tanks will take 93 seconds to refuel, thats over a minute and a half of sitting still. An Asp can jump three times in that timeframe!

Of course this only matters if travel speed concerns you, for commanders who don't mind slower travel it isn't a big deal.



In keeping with the DBX pictures though here is the last pic I took of mine before I sold it back, somewhere out near the Flame Nebula:

Spoiler

http://i.imgur.com/5CtoFa9.png

I loved the ship but I just can't handle that slow scoop. [sad]

Thanks for clearing that up, Mengy. It has been mentioned so many times that I was wondering if there was something going on under the hood, but it really just comes down to what equipment can be outfitted.

One of the things I like most about Exploration in this game is the options available - depending on your goals, there are many ships and configurations that can be used to great success, and while there are a few ships that will do anything and everything you could possibly want to do in terms of Exploration, they are by no means mandatory for Exploration in general.

Riôt

Not so much with combat and trading, I think.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

Awesome pics!

Thanks!- The DBx is an odd beast and a bit of an underdog perhaps this is why i like it so much

amazing thread, amazing pics, amazing ship

if you are still around eta carina, don't miss the hypergiant x carinae!

i have bookmarked things further out from where i am already so not coming back just yet.

I always like your pics and adventures, Ken - hopefully, they continue
Riôt

I'll see how far i get, i like the idea of circumnavigation, but im just going to potter about and go to some areas i've not been to before, i find if i set myself a destination over 30kly away it becomes a race to get there so im trying to stick to 2kly chunks and zig zag across the Galaxy

 

[thundernuns]

Nice Pics [up]

The Diamondback Explorer was the perfect leg up into exploration for me. I did my first trip to Sag A* in it with a B4 fuel scoop back before Horizons was out on Xbox.The way it handles heat is fantastic, I would sit in a good fuel scooping range, scan the Star and look at the System map and then head off, and heat levels would rarely go above 67%

 

[Mostly Awol]

Ah! the DBX probably my favorite ship to fly for exploring. Took me to Sag A* and back. I really need to build another one and let the engineers go to town with it.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

DBX was also my first exploration ship (pre-Horizons), far from A-graded, but it did the job. The only dislike was the flashing warning light that was too much in the face.

I think it looks cool, like a lovechild of an Apache and an F-4 Phantom.
The Asp on the other hand, I think it is by far the ugliest ship in the game.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

Not much has happened really apart from lots of water worlds and a few ELW's but dropping onto a planet surface post 2.2....

well ill let you judge the difference

Spoiler

i also found this wonderful ELW hiding within a distant nebula, this was before selecting my next waypoint some 14kly away, progress is slow as i seam to be scanning everything in my wake, i hear rumours of coloured SRV's from the bubble but i am trying to ignore this and press on.

 

[dynamicbob]

those finds are always the most rewarding

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

This week i have mostly been....

Alas, i have been playing with neutron stars, i said i wouldn't without an AFMU but i did and i have :O

Firstly they are pretty stunning now compared to the neutrons of old

Secondly... range is wow

im not sure how the dynamic works though, i looked at my FSD module and it was roughly 96% after an accident (another story) and after supercharging its still at 96%....

now i may log back in to find it a lot less (log out / in resolves alot of stuff) but is this normal? i.e. not to take any damage from neutrons?

i did charge it like... very gently

 

[Duckfat]

Looks like the DBx has quite a cult following. I've never flown it but it does look much nicer compared to the ASP.. then so does every other ship, as mentioned earlier. I'm personally not fussed though. How often do you spend looking at your ship? But then I do understand people like to take a lot of selfies and I'm guessing that's where the aesthetics come in.