Ships Just starting out

[ComradeUri]

Ok,unsure if this is the right place as I couldn't find a prefix I thought was right, if I have messed up, apologies


Would love to do the exploring side of things but while the views will be amazing, it might not pay the bills. Is it possible to have a miner, explorer hybrid or not? Or cross explorer with anything really. If not I know what I will stick with, gotta see those stars and new vistas

 

[deyot]

I see nobody answered you yet. So maybe I'll try.

From all possible combination I'm not sure combining explorer and miner is such a great idea. You see, for exploring you need a ship with at least 3 compartments. For discovery scanner, detailed surface scanner and SRV bay. It's also prudent to bring a shield and an AFMU. So that makes 5 optional slots. For mining you need additional 4. cargo rack, refinery, prospector limpet controller and collector limpet controller. That makes 9 optional compartments. Only the biggest ships have so many (like Python) and of all of them only the Anaconda makes a good explorer. So, I think that answers your question.

Also.
Mining is one of the least profitable activity. On the other hand after 2.3 patch exploring was made reasonably profitable. So you can make quite a buck from exploration alone.
Of course you can play the way you like. For example I like to have my exploration ships armed. It's rather pointless but I simply don't like to fly without weapons.

 

[PenguinActual]

Ok,unsure if this is the right place as I couldn't find a prefix I thought was right, if I have messed up, apologies


Would love to do the exploring side of things but while the views will be amazing, it might not pay the bills. Is it possible to have a miner, explorer hybrid or not? Or cross explorer with anything really. If not I know what I will stick with, gotta see those stars and new vistas

Explorer doesn't really pair well with anything other than Passenger missions. You need a low mass to get the most Jump Range so you can avoid nasty spots such as ending up in a veritable minefield of Brown Dwarves or reaching stars that are far apart. Exploration, however, can be very profitable in the long run. Travelling a few thousand Lightyears out, scanning every system you reach, and doing a detailed scan on any system that has rare finds (black holes, neutron stars, Earth-likes, etc.) can net a lot of money upon your return. Good way to start without too much cash is to grab a passenger cabin and an appropriate mission. Run some of those until you can venture further into deep space and soon you might find yourself dumping the cabin and missions just to see what's out there. Some CMDRs have circumnavigated the galaxy.

 

[Ceekay]

Even though I've been playing for about 3 years (pre-release Beta) I sometimes mess about in a stock Eagle just to prove the game is playable in an un-modded starter ship and as long as you manage your expectations it most certainly is, it's easy enough to earn decent money from exploration/cargo missions and even BH if you pick your targets carefully.

If you fancy exploration there's a good range of low cost ships that fit the bill, the Hauler can have excellent jump range for not too many credits, the Eagle can be an effective bounty hunter I know as I've used it for a "soft restart" (stock ship and 2000 credits for upgrades) with a little care it'll work fine.

https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/hau...19A===.Aw19A===..EweloBhAWGQUwIYHMA28QgIwV0A=

https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/eag...Rj4ySA.Aw18kA==..EweloBhAWMQUwIYHMA28QgIwV0A=

 

[Jethro49]

Exploration pays more than before but not as much as a passenger liner career, nor mining, nor bounty hunting... However as you said you get a non lucrative bonus through wonderful landscapes

CMDR Deyot said most for fitting your ship. The most expensive for your ship will be the FSD as you absolutely want the best one available (biggest A-rated). Next will be your fuel scoop to refuel as fast as possible. You can find a lot in the dedicated Exploration area of the forum, especially this old-but-still-relevant (well, most of it) guide on Exploration Ship building : https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=219633
I would also say that mining requests you to sell your cargo at one time (eg when it's full, obviously), so you can't go very far from the bubble. So much for exploring [blah]

For my part, I go exploring weaponless, but with a minimal shielding and D-rate and downsize everything for low mass except fuel scoop, FSD and powerplant for thermal efficiency, with the adequat engineering. Even for thrusters, I try to get the smallest ones while keeping some boost ability. They're enough to cope with gravity up to 2g if you're patient and careful (however never tried more, but other CMDRs did).

Finally, what I can tell from my little explorer experience is that a 10,000 Ly trip will take you ~250 jumps with a 40 Ly jump range, but net you a few millions with a DSS, only by scanning metal-rich, ELW and WW (even if already tagged) ! In order to collect funds to upgrade your ship or buy a new one, maybe you could first start a sightseeing passenger career ? It will let you practise the "jump in - refuel while flying on the other side of the start - jump out" technique