Ship for first Sag A run?

dray

dray
I'm ready to go to Sag A then return out to the rim, but I can't decide which ship. I quite like the idea of taking a stripped down Anaconda or Cutter but deep down inside my inner man child is screaming Cobra, all I need to do is hit up some engineers to get FSD range up and reduce mass on items and off I go.

I know there's other ships out there but it's down to these 3, I worry that the Cobra is a bit light on fitting for redundancy and may not be ideal for a first timer but it would be nice to use it for a first run. but I don't know, any advice from more experienced heads would be welcome.
 
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marx

marx
I'd recommend first taking up the ship you end up with on a shorter run, to see if you really do enjoy flying it. You're planning to go for a rather long expedition, so you'll definitely want to take a ship you like.

As for the Cobra, it has a good amount of internals, so it should be fine. You can fit a fuel scoop, shield generator, AFMU, SRV bay, detailed scanner and D-scanner on there - only a cargo rack would be missing then. The only thing you can't fit would be two AFMUs (unless you left an SRV bay out), but to be fair, you are very unlikely to need more than one.

Of course, the Anaconda and the Cutter both have lots of internals, more than enough for anything. The Anaconda has a much bigger jump range than either of the other ships, while the Cutter looks better, handles a bit better in supercruise than the Anaconda, and has better defences - not to mention looks.
The Cobra has much better forward speed than the others though, so if you want to fly around on planets for extended amounts of time, then it's the best in that aspect. Also the best in SC handling, of course.
 
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Crank Larson

Crank Larson
For long exploring missions, I would currently choose the AspX or DBX. I'm on Small Worlds 2 with the DBX. This is actually the first time I've ever owned/flown a DBX, and so long as you don't need cargo space (I don't), it is an excellent explorer.

I've been playing with the Cutter in the beta. I didn't get on with the Anaconda. But I like the Cutter. As soon as I get back from the current expedition, I'll be buying one to kit out for exploration (and trading while in the bubble). I like the fact that you can literally fit everything you want (and I love having a fighter hangar), and don't need to make any compromises (except for range).
 

dray

dray
Do I really need cargo? Wasn't expecting to find anything out there worth bringing back, or am I missing a trick?
 

newman1702

newman1702
dray said:
Do I really need cargo? Wasn't expecting to find anything out there worth bringing back, or am I missing a trick?
Click to expand...


You don't. If you have empty cargo racks you can use them to simulate a lower range on the galaxy map plotter, but meh. You need a lot more empty racks than you can mount on a CIII than you can fit with all the rest of the exploration gear to make a realistic difference. Another reason to bring it would be so you can pick up fairly worthless cargo canisters, or role play a rescuer in case you find some escape pods somewhere. But in all honesty it's not necessary at all. On an exploration Cobra III I'd bring a fuel scoop, AFMU, shield generator, SRV hangar, and ADS+DSS. That fills up all of your slots, and each of those modules I would say is way more important than empty cargo racks.
 
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dray

dray
newman1702 said:
You don't. If you have empty cargo racks you can use them to simulate a lower range on the galaxy map plotter, but meh. You need a lot more empty racks than you can mount on a CIII than you can fit with all the rest of the exploration gear to make a realistic difference. Another reason to bring it would be so you can pick up fairly worthless cargo canisters, or role play a rescuer in case you find some escape pods somewhere. But in all honesty it's not necessary at all. On an exploration Cobra III I'd bring a fuel scoop, AFMU, shield generator, SRV hangar, and ADS+DSS. That fills up all of your slots, and each of those modules I would say is way more important than empty cargo racks.
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I want to use the Cobra but after looking at the Anaconda in your sig link I might go for that instead and err on the side of caution for my first run.
 

Major Klutz

Major Klutz
If you're lucky with the Engineers, you could get 38/40ly out of the Cobra, without sacrificing any outfitting.
https://eddp.co/u/mlC3fEn9

The Anaconda is a big ship, more sluggish in Supercruise and IMO not as fun to fly as other ships.
IMO, the real advantage the 'Conda has is jump range (62/65ly) and fuel scoop rate (size 7). The trip will go much faster with the Anaconda, but it won't be any safer.
And the 'Conda costs a lot more. 170M vs 8M for the Cobra.

You might also consider the DBE. It'll get to 55/60ly, making the trip go faster. It's more nimble than the 'conda but it has a relatively small fuel scoop.
Alternatively the Asp can also get to 51/56ly and can fit a size 6 scoop so you'll spend less time refueling.

If you like the Cobra and don't mind taking your time to get there, it'll do fine. The only advantage of these other ships is they can get there faster.
 
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newman1702

newman1702
Basically, take whatever you want. There's not much risk either way, highest risk activity while exploring is probably landing on high g worlds, and for that you need to know what you're doing whichever ship you fly. So whatever tickles your fancy. Some say the Annie's no fun, I prefer her to smaller stuff for exploration, but as long as you can fit all the modules you'll need, anything will work.
 

dray

dray
Major Klutz said:
If you're lucky with the Engineers, you could get 38/40ly out of the Cobra, without sacrificing any outfitting.
https://eddp.co/u/mlC3fEn9

The Anaconda is a big ship, more sluggish in Supercruise and IMO not as fun to fly as other ships.
IMO, the real advantage the 'Conda has is jump range (62/65ly) and fuel scoop rate (size 7). The trip will go much faster with the Anaconda, but it won't be any safer.
And the 'Conda costs a lot more. 170M vs 8M for the Cobra.

You might also consider the DBE. It'll get to 55/60ly, making the trip go faster. It's more nimble than the 'conda but it has a relatively small fuel scoop.
Alternatively the Asp can also get to 51/56ly and can fit a size 6 scoop so you'll spend less time refueling.

If you like the Cobra and don't mind taking your time to get there, it'll do fine. The only advantage of these other ships is they can get there faster.
Click to expand...

If I'm honest time is an issue, not major but enough to swing it toward the Anaconda for my first attempt, I'll get to the Cobra but I think I'll use it for closer in exploration Nebula etc.
 

goemon

goemon
Qohen Leth said:
That path is not challenging at all, and you're going to spend a lot of time in your ship, thus I advise taking the one you want, not the one you feel like you should take.
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this. this all over.

do a shakedown cruise whatever ship you fly. eskimo nebula, veill nebula, something close.

there is no ship ingame which hasn't made it sag a*. love an eagle? take an eagle.

generally, the AspE is for exploration, what a vulture is for combat: the best tool for the job in general, getting boring fast. so, if in doubt, you can take an AspE.

but cobra - much much more interesting (at least for me).

Conda - some hate it, some love it. i love it, the floating feeling of steering it through the galaxy, what others call "bad supercruise handling". i still prefer my DBE.

try some ships and decide - jumprange is less important. you might spend 10 hours less jumping to sag a*, if you take a conda instead of a viper mkIV. but those 10 hours will be the minor part of your travel. most player spend "weeks" going to sag a.
 

Crank Larson

Crank Larson
If DBX becomes an option, then this is the build I use. It is fully loaded, and I still get just over 50Ly jump range (less than shown on edcd, but I think this is down to the engineering rolls). The only advantage the AspX has over the DBX (for exploring) is the fuel scoop.
 

dray

dray
I will probably head for the Coal Sack for a first run, but looking at the scoop times I think it will be the Anaconda for me, cash isn't an issue so the real pain of losing the ship if it happens will be how far a long the way I am.
 

goemon

goemon
dray said:
I will probably head for the Coal Sack for a first run, but looking at the scoop times I think it will be the Anaconda for me, cash isn't an issue so the real pain of losing the ship if it happens will be how far a long the way I am.
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with the new arrival mechanics from 2.1. you wont feel much of a difference between cobra class 4 fuelscoop and FSD, and condas class 7 fuelscoop and class 6 fsd. class 4 fsd (cobra) needs 3 tons of fuel per jump, so a class 4 fuelscoop needs 8 seconds to refill a single jump. class 6 fsd (conda) needs 8 tons, so a class 7a fuelscoop needs 6 seconds to refill a single jump. do not look at the refuel time of the standard tanks ;-). DBE is a whole different story, as it can only fit a fuelscoop smaller than the fsd size. the relation there is ~12,5 seconds to refill a single jump. still i fly a DBE.
 

osser

osser
The cobra is a fine explorer.
As far as I know the longest exploration trip (or one of the longest) was taken in a cobra.


As for me, the Asp Explorer is the best Exploration ship in the game.

It just has it all.
 

colprice2002

C
The real question to answer is this:-
Do you want to get to SagA quickly, or explore systems while heading that way.

If you want to get there quickly, then jump range and scooping speed are priorities ( Anaconda, AspX, DBX).
You'll discover more systems if you take​ a ship with lesser jump range, though good fuel scooping is useful.
For this type of exploration, any ship that can fit ADS, Surface scanner, SRV, some shields, fuel scoop is good. Pre-planetary landings, I used an Eagle without shields.
 
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