Could you post a screen shot of the view out the cockpit so we can see too?
Would like a new, different exploration ship from FD:
- Thread starter n13L5
- Start date
My exploration ship shopping list
Personally, I'd like to see a conda sized exploration ship with the cockpit and manuvability of the AspX or better.
Plenty of optional internal slots for all of the lovely new shiny toys that FDev are going to give the exploration community this year...[woah]
Just a couple of hard points needed for a class 1 plasma slug rail gun and a mining laser.
A decent jump range would be nice (in the 50s would be great).[cool]
Plenty of utility slots (12?) for even more shiny toys that FDev are going to give us this year [yesnod]
Excellent SC handling would certainly help scouting out the ELWs!
Good clearance distance under the ship to get the SRV underneath and board while on bumpy planets.
Room for a size 7 SLF bay so we can 3D print more after trashing a few canon flying!
Large fuel scoop, preferably size 8, for those A to B moments.
At least a size 6 shield for those 'little' bumps on 20g planets.
Repair and refuel limpets, AMFU etc for fixing up the ship after all those neutron star highway jumps.
Room for all the shiny new scanners that FDev are going to give us this year
Decent speed circa >300m/s (preferably 500m/s) so I'm not waiting for my ship to keep up when I'm in my SLF.
A PP that can run all the shiny new toys that FDev are going to be throwing our way! [up]
Oh and it's got to look super cool too! [haha]
I was kind of hoping that the Chieftain would be all of this but I suspect I'm going to be disappointed...:O
Perhaps an Explorer version of the Cutter would be awesome! At 30ish Ly range it's a bit limited atm, but give it some legs and a few more optional bays and it can be Amazing! Of course it's turning ability is Legendary already... [haha]
Personally, I'd like to see a conda sized exploration ship with the cockpit and manuvability of the AspX or better.
Plenty of optional internal slots for all of the lovely new shiny toys that FDev are going to give the exploration community this year...[woah]
Just a couple of hard points needed for a class 1 plasma slug rail gun and a mining laser.
A decent jump range would be nice (in the 50s would be great).[cool]
Plenty of utility slots (12?) for even more shiny toys that FDev are going to give us this year [yesnod]
Excellent SC handling would certainly help scouting out the ELWs!
Good clearance distance under the ship to get the SRV underneath and board while on bumpy planets.
Room for a size 7 SLF bay so we can 3D print more after trashing a few canon flying!
Large fuel scoop, preferably size 8, for those A to B moments.
At least a size 6 shield for those 'little' bumps on 20g planets.
Repair and refuel limpets, AMFU etc for fixing up the ship after all those neutron star highway jumps.
Room for all the shiny new scanners that FDev are going to give us this year
Decent speed circa >300m/s (preferably 500m/s) so I'm not waiting for my ship to keep up when I'm in my SLF.
A PP that can run all the shiny new toys that FDev are going to be throwing our way! [up]
Oh and it's got to look super cool too! [haha]
I was kind of hoping that the Chieftain would be all of this but I suspect I'm going to be disappointed...:O
Perhaps an Explorer version of the Cutter would be awesome! At 30ish Ly range it's a bit limited atm, but give it some legs and a few more optional bays and it can be Amazing! Of course it's turning ability is Legendary already... [haha]
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You totally missed the point.
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I want something with a big jump range to check the fringe stuff. But let's face it that kind of travel is a very small % of the jumps you make.
A true exploration vessel needs to be quick at jumping and occasionally make long jumps.
What we perhaps need is a drive that with a bit of "effort" can be configured for extra long jumps via some balancing factor?
So normally you pootle along with 40-50 ly then spend a bit of time configuring the ship and pow 180 ly.
How?
Access to extra level(s) of jumponium use balanced with slight permanent(?) FSD damage per jump.
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You totally missed the point.
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I want something with a big jump range to check the fringe stuff. But let's face it that kind of travel is a very small % of the jumps you make.
A true exploration vessel needs to be quick at jumping and occasionally make long jumps.
What we perhaps need is a drive that with a bit of "effort" can be configured for extra long jumps via some balancing factor?
So normally you pootle along with 40-50 ly then spend a bit of time configuring the ship and pow 180 ly.
How?
Access to extra level(s) of jumponium use balanced with slight permanent(?) FSD damage per jump.
In that case then, we don't need a new ship... how about a Jump Boost Cell Bank, like a Shield Cell Bank?
They could come in a range of classes and grades and augment the jump drive when needed, but it has a permanent weight that will slightly reduce regular jump range and increase fuel usage. not to mention require, like shield cell banks, some MW from the power plant.
They would generate heat which might either damage modules including the FSD and/or require heat sinks.
That could work, no set format.
In my example I was thinking of either an engineer mod you could stack onto increased range fsd mods - to give access to further levels of fsd boost.
Or perhaps an advanced FSD that would only fit a few ships ie AspX, Annie, DBX etc
A dedicated explorer absolutely does need excellent jump range. Quite often people want to explore a particular region or remote feature of space, and the random stuff on the journey out is of little interest.
For those of us that have limited playing time, being able to actually get somewhere is worth a bit of manoeuvrability.
In my exploration suggestions thread down in my signature I propose a new utility module called a "neutron capacitor" which can store charges while neutron scooping to be used at will later on. I'd like to see it be a long process while severely damaging the ship to charge the capacitor, but afterwards it would give the pilot a few neutron boosts to be used wherever.
Such a module would open up fringe systems for exploration that are now impossible to reach.
Now this is something I could get on board with! I still think there should be some degradation to the stored charge so that you don't fill it up, go back to a station to repair and then never look at it again for month. There might even be constant but slow degradation to the neutron capacitor itself, proportional to the amount of charge stored and its integrity (Grade B for the win).
Moreover a fully charged Neutron capacitor would start to overheat and explode your ship like a PP if it ever took critical damage or if the module lost power.
But there should be a large dedicated explorer vessel to knock the Anaconda off its pedestal but maintain Beluga level supercruise agility...
Hell, how about a Beluga Explorer instead of the Beluga Liner.
It adds a Class 8 FSD.
Loses one restricted class 6 slot.
Replaces the other restricted Class 6 slot with an "Explorer slot" limited to fuel scoop / fuel tank or for example future Neutronium Capacitor / Jump Cell Bank etc.
That wouldn't take much effort from FDEV...
Beluga Explorer... Hmmm. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea.
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verminstar
Banned
Hows about this...when ye dock, its gone entirely. Docking anywhere means it vanishes...reasons. Thats along with the degradation over time ^
Simple... It's too dangerous and/or explosive to enter the station so you have to dump it before entering the no fire zone or get taken out by the station weapons as if you were shooting.
verminstar
Banned
Yup...that works. Itd be the same as a crime to even try docking when super charged...punishable by instant death of course. Perhaps while the charge is stored, it degrades the pp significantly more than using it with the normal 2% drop when using neutrons. Store it fer a month and ye lose possible a third of yer pp HP, maybe more.
Ive seen Mengy suggest this before and its a cool idea...just needs a few details filled in but its definately workable ^
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Any ship is an exploration ship.. what are you on about?
Some of the smaller ones have too few optional internals sure, but thats about it.
If you want to commute somewhere without seeing anything catch a bus?
Some of the smaller ones have too few optional internals sure, but thats about it.
If you want to commute somewhere without seeing anything catch a bus?
verminstar
Banned
Any ship is an exploration ship.. what are you on about?
Some of the smaller ones have too few optional internals sure, but thats about it.
If you want to commute somewhere without seeing anything catch a bus?
Did ye read the thread? Im guessing not ^
I reckon it is quite viable actually.
But but... the Hauler
Just a thought. You'd think that large military ships like the corvette would have long jump ranges to be able to get to war zones quickly?
On one of the topics at hand.
Yes technically exploration ships don't need a long jump range for everyday exploration but if your on a long unknown exploration trip you'd want the longest possible jump range in case you want to jump to some distant system or if you find yourself stuck in a unscoopable sector without enough fuel. It doesn't mean you have to use the long range jump. But its there if you need or want it.
Just like if you were out in a desert exploring you'd want to bring extra fuel and parts for you car just in case.
Or if you are out exploring for a second time towards the same direction you'd want to jump past what you have already explored as quickly as possible.
Most other sci fi ships in shows, movies, books etc etc dont have a distance jump range. They just stay in ftl, warp, hyperspace etc longer or until they need fuel or resources or see something they want to stop for. Or have to release built up energy or heat or radiation.
On one of the topics at hand.
Yes technically exploration ships don't need a long jump range for everyday exploration but if your on a long unknown exploration trip you'd want the longest possible jump range in case you want to jump to some distant system or if you find yourself stuck in a unscoopable sector without enough fuel. It doesn't mean you have to use the long range jump. But its there if you need or want it.
Just like if you were out in a desert exploring you'd want to bring extra fuel and parts for you car just in case.
Or if you are out exploring for a second time towards the same direction you'd want to jump past what you have already explored as quickly as possible.
Most other sci fi ships in shows, movies, books etc etc dont have a distance jump range. They just stay in ftl, warp, hyperspace etc longer or until they need fuel or resources or see something they want to stop for. Or have to release built up energy or heat or radiation.
I made a proposal about that a few months back. What I'd love to replace it with is a reworking of the data system.
So you put your scanners in the utility slot, what do you put in the internals bays? My take was processors.
Say you can sell raw scan data for about 25% of its current max value, and an A rated processor would act as a multiplier. Raw data is one thing, putting a nice well finished report collating and tabulating the data for easy publication increases the size of your boundy because it's less work UC has to do with the information to get it ready for their own customers.
I also toyed with the idea of a transmitter. Assign a max capacity to data storage and borrow a page from KSP with the ability to radio your data home to UC. Done that way some explorers would never touch down in a port again -- which I think would be a good thing. The bigger the transmitter internal, the longer the range so there would still be some point in Exploracondas.
I was also flirting with the idea of different kinds of scanner data. Taking a page from the free game Seedship, what if you had different scanners for gravity, water, atmosphere, temperature and resources? What if you had to wing up in order to have enough different scanners to record all the possible data?
What if there were different science roles, if your honk-and-scanners could play a role in a wing by reconnoitering and finding systems worth scanning, and then the heavier science vessels would loiter in the good systems collecting data?
What if you actually had to mount a science expedition to a stellar cluster in order to record all the anomalies and data available, and could share credit for that data?
Say you might be able to have one "honker" in a light ship roaming out in front scanning and identifying finding the interesting star systems, and then the rest of the wing, 2 heavier ships kitted out with all the scanners they needed between them filled out the balance of the raw data, spending time in the sectors the honker identifies to maximize the wing's exploration profit?
And perhaps one Anaconda with a massive processor bank and a max range antenna to serve as a server ship, process all the data for maximimum profit, and send the report back to UC and everyone in the wing gets their name on the published document/equal credit?
Solo expeditions could still be done, but the benefit would be maximized by operating in expeditions, 1 honker, 2 scanners, 1 server ship. Exploration wings could actually be a thing, something that helped and benefitted the wingmates, which is something this game needs. I really think FD need to look into something like that.
Anywho, that's an idea I've suggested in the past. I might write it up again sometime.
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As for me and my style of exploration, a decent jump range is crucial. I like exploring areas far above/below galactic plane. From this point of view the difference between 29Ly Dolphin and 50Ly AspX is really whooping. Ability to move fast from one area to another is also important, but not crucial.
If somebody could pimp AspX to have better design (but not spoiling canopy view!), less hardpoints and 2 additional restricted slots for scanners - that would be my ultimate exploration ship forever.
If somebody could pimp AspX to have better design (but not spoiling canopy view!), less hardpoints and 2 additional restricted slots for scanners - that would be my ultimate exploration ship forever.
IMO it's not much, 40 Ly is doable by most ships.
I disagree, first of all, less jump range won't allow you to see more things, after all, all ships take roughly the same time between systems while jumping.
Second of all, even with jumponium or neutron stars, there still are systems that are particularly hard to access even with top notch exploration ships and jumponium, some examples include Star One, Ascent, Descent or the Box Nebula.