You cannot use a mining laser to procure materials for standard and premium boosts. The only materials tou can get with a mining laser is Vanadium and Germanium for a basic boost (+25%) range. Additionally the drop rates are much worse than when prospecting with an SRV.
I want to be an explorer
- Thread starter maboleth
- Start date
You cannot use a mining laser to procure materials for standard and premium boosts. The only materials tou can get with a mining laser is Vanadium and Germanium for a basic boost (+25%) range. Additionally the drop rates are much worse than when prospecting with an SRV.
Still beats a stick in the eye. I agree that SRV is best for this, but mining laser can be a decent enough back up option in the right situation.
That is an excellent addition to the discussion. Kudos.
I'd say that when it comes to sparse regions, number one rule is to always have more boosts than you need. Which means spend more time prospecting with the SRV. However, what you say is also true in certain conditions and situations. Personally, I've never carried a mining laser and I am always in sparse areas.
Fair enough.
I don't claim to be an authority on exploration. The only exploration stuff I have is from honking the system while on fuel rat stuff (barely over 1 mil). On a exploration trip right now Bubble > Sag A* > Colonia > Bubble. That should go a long way to improving that rank and it will also buy me some time to figure out the intentional bugs (see what I did there?) in 2.4. And it will give me some spending money too.
Heh, heatsinks I never carried and never plan to. AFMUs on the other hand are handy. Love them. I never go anywhere without at least one.
And if you get stuck in a situation where a mining laser would be useful, someone will come round and help with the rescue.
When it comes to sparse area exploring, there is sparse, and then there is REALLY sparse. The obvious places are out on the rim, but don't overlook going high and low in the outer gaps between the arms. I have spent a considerable amount of time out there, and manually plotting all those jumps after breaking out the trig to calculate distances between stars to find a full route, jumponium, trimming and scooping fuel down to the .01 ly jump range difference...good times! These are the situations where a larger jump range is for something other than just travelling faster.
As far as weapons go, there are no defensive weapons in Elite Dangerous. While any ship can, and has been used as an exploration ship, any ship with an exploration load out is not going to survive an encounter with a combat loaded vessel. Any kind of combat engagement is only going to waste time that would be better spent running...either run or fight, but not pretend to be able to do both well.
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The most popular ships to use are the Anaconda, ASPx and DBX. So those might be a good starting base for new explorers at least. I would probably start out cheap with either the DBX or ASPx for the lower cost and to get a handle on things. Anaconda for exploration usually sacrifices a decent thruster making it a bit harder to move around and get into a good fuel scooping angle if you aren't familiar with fuel scooping. The ASPx has a great view wish helps new people see the bottom of the ship better for fuel scooping while exploring as well...
I see cargo hold mentioned as "optionals". Wouldn't it be best to avoid them entirely? Having stuff to steal invites interdictions. Most exploration ships have minimal shields and weapons (if any). Why risk millions in exploration data at the end of a long trip for a tiny bit of loot? Unless there's some amazing loot out there I'm not aware of?
If I am anywhere that there is actually going to be anything random to pick up, I am far too close to other ships to be just tootling around in my exploration vessel.
Just my $0.02 but I think a cargo rack is a good thing to have if you have room. Personally, I always pick up escape pods when I come across them to return them to the bubble. It's an RP/Immersion thing but I like to know my ship is capable to rescuing an unfortunate explorer and safely bringing them home. But if you don't play with that sort of mentality than I would agree that cargo racks have no real purpose/benefit on an exploration ship.
Regarding heat, take your power plant and a big stash of iron to Felicity and spam G1 low emissions until you get the god roll. It is possible to get a really good efficiency boost and end up with the same (or even slightly more) power. I have this; I’ve been out in the black for 5 weeks and the only time I overheated was my own fault (tried to fly between very closely paired white and red dwarves).
Isn't it actually better to go overcharge? this way you can have 3A for Anaconda and run everything Priority 1 saving tons of weight and gaining on a jump range..
thoughts?
You shouldn't leave empty slots if you can put a zero mass thing in them (if you face plant a star then damage gets spread around and you want soaks in every slot to protect the important stuff).
Given that cargo racks you will never use give you the slider in the galmap to adjust the range for plotting. That can be handy for some purposes.
Definitely optional components to consider but not necessarily to actually load cargo into...
What a brilliant thought.. I've never thought about it this way.. and indeed empty racks weigh nothing.. but will absorb a part of damage :O
verminstar
Banned
Never once carried weapons into the black...why would one need them? Theres nothing out there to shoot at and the chances of meeting other players are somewhere between unlikely and hilariously unlikely. Theres nothing to defend against.
Ive also never had a cargo rack installed...why would I need cargo? Where does one get the cargo? Occupied escape pods? Useless and not worth the effort and possibly illegal enough to get ye killed on yer return...so cargo racks are just not practical in any shape or form.
Ive also never mined anything...honestly I dont even know how to. The joy of mining was destroyed in a different game and I swore Id never ever subject meself to. that level of boredom in any game henceforth from that. An SRV is literally all ye need as mining wont give ye high grade jumponium materials so mining itself becomes fairly pointless unless ye just love mining fer the hell of it.
Plenty of guides on the sub forum fer an asp ex, but my own reply wont be relevant as I dont do engineers. I also dont use an asp ex anymore as the DBE is just better...better range, better handling, and looks better. Easy to land just about anywhere and requires small pads. Rule of thumb being a small 2A or 3A PP and the biggest fuel scoop one can find, then D rate everything else.
Doesnt really get any more complicated than that unless ye do the engineers in which case fitting options are something others are better qualified at answering. Good luck in the black cmdr ^