Travelling to Colonia in a Multirole. Crazy?

Adaris

Adaris
I've been wanting to travel to Colonia for quite some time and with the next major expansion being so far away, this feels like the best time to travel. At first, I was thinking of outfitting a Krait Phantom for long distance travel. I have the credits and materials stored back. However, I really want to emigrate from the bubble to engage in some real frontier life, at least for awhile. That's a lot harder in a single purpose ship.

My "preferred" ship out of all of my fleet is the Calamity Hawk, a Krait Mk II that I have fully engineered as a kind of generalist mission runner and salvager. It has a 31 ly jump range, 3 G5 double shot frags (each inducing a different effect) and a pair of plasma slug rails. I carry a fighter, some really strongly engineered biweaves geared for resistances with four shield boosters and a Guardian Shield module. I can carry 96 tons of cargo and have a 4A fuel scoop. I can even drop 2 Collector Limpets and an SRV to help with salvaging, and with the most recent patch, even have a DSS in the additional size 1 slot, which normally I use to find geological features to quickly gather raw materials. It does almost everything well and boosts to over 550 m/s.


So it occurred me, this thing is roughly as competent in exploration as my old pre-engineering T6 explorer that could jump around 29ly from years ago. I got that thing over 15k ly out back in the day. So why not take it instead?

The only modification I would want to make is perhaps trading in my size 5 cargo bay for a G5 FSD Booster to gain an additional 10ly at the cost of 1/3 my cargo space, but it'd be an easy refit back to my stock configuration at Jacques as they have a E5 Cargo Bay in stock.

It's sorta scary, as I have no AMFU, a somewhat curtailed jump range compared to most explorers, and a barely adequate 4A fuel scoop, but it really seems like carting this fully armed multirole ship to Colonia to live out there is almost reasonable. Am I crazy for attempting this?
 
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Rat Catcher

Rat Catcher
Great idea, but you could sacrifice most of your cargo space to fit FSD Booster and AFMU then jump on the Neutron Highway if you wanted to speed things up... If you weren't bothered with rapid transit you could drop up/down by a few 100Ly and grab some exploration credits on the way too.
 

Deleted member 182079

D
Not crazy at all, prior to my last Colonia holiday I considered almost exactly the same (Krait Mk2 fully geared up, alternative would've been a Python but that lacks the fighter bay if you're into that).

Went with an explora-Phantom in the end via the Neutron highway, with a view to 'make do' with whatever hardware is available in Colonia. While that was fine for a little bit (just to see how awful stock/non-A rated ships can be) I soon missed my fully engineered combat ships in particular. And yes, the engineers at Colonia are pretty decent, but wasting mats on sub-par modules felt a bit like a waste to me, given I only wanted to stay there for a few weeks (have returned to bubble since).

Transferring ships is another very expensive option and I wouldn't do it (especially if you want to travel back to the bubble, you need to consider the return shipping costs - my Vette was 1.1bn - each direction). But you could store and ship certain modules from the bubble out there. It's still expensive but not quite as much.
 

Adaris

Adaris
ObiW said:
Not crazy at all, prior to my last Colonia holiday I considered almost exactly the same (Krait Mk2 fully geared up, alternative would've been a Python but that lacks the fighter bay if you're into that).

Went with an explora-Phantom in the end via the Neutron highway, with a view to 'make do' with whatever hardware is available in Colonia. While that was fine for a little bit (just to see how awful stock/non-A rated ships can be) I soon missed my fully engineered combat ships in particular. And yes, the engineers at Colonia are pretty decent, but wasting mats on sub-par modules felt a bit like a waste to me, given I only wanted to stay there for a few weeks (have returned to bubble since).

Transferring ships is another very expensive option and I wouldn't do it (especially if you want to travel back to the bubble, you need to consider the return shipping costs - my Vette was 1.1bn - each direction). But you could store and ship certain modules from the bubble out there. It's still expensive but not quite as much.
Click to expand...

I'm kinda in the same boat as you. I'm really starting to think taking something out there that's already capable of doing everything well is the way to go.

One really important priority for me is is to make little to no modifications to my ship to make it out there. Anything I modify I want to be able to undo when I get there with what's available if I choose, so I really think the best option is adding just a Guardian FSD and dropping down to 64 tons of cargo capacity. If I want to go back up to 96, that's an easy fix in Colonia, unlike all my fully engineered, A-ranked modules.
 

Bigmaec

Bigmaec
I brought a fully milspecced A-Conda to Colonia, with a jumprange of roughly 30 LY.
So nope, it's doable.

But you can get cargo bays in Colonia, so by all means switch the GFSD Booster, scoop and an AMFU in, and use the neutron highway.
 

ADAMtheWELSHMANz

ADAMtheWELSHMANz
Spent 3 days last week flying out a 26ly combat Vette, about 1000 jumps all told. Re-mapped buttons so I could honk, scoop and jump holding my (PS4) controller in my left hand while I used my other hand to ...................





........................read my book, you dirty minded buggers ;)
 

Stealthie

Stealthie
Just for the sake of suggesting something different, you could strip all the modules off your Krait, put them into storage, fly to Colonia in a jumpy ship and then buy another Krait and transfer the modules to Colonia and fit 'em to the new ship.

Given the way the economy currently is in ED, a couple of hours of mining should set you up so you can do whatever you want.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of moving ships around or reconfiguring them for different roles.
Buy a ship, build it to do a job and then, if necessary, buy a different ship to do a different job - or for an entirely different region, such as Colonia.
Again, with nu-mining, buying and outfitting a 2nd Krait is only ever a couple of hours away.

Trouble with the Phantom, IMO, is the only thing it's especially good at is travelling and it's not the best at that.
If you build a Phantom for travelling and then want to use it for something else, the Mk2 will better.
Equally, the Phantom won't be as good at travelling as an Annie would be.

If you're okay with making the effort, I'd strongly suggest "biting the bullet" and buying an Annie for making the trip.
On the bright side, most of the modules you'll need to buy for a jumpy Annie will be cheap ones.
Once you've got it, and engineered it, you've got a ship that's always (probably) going to be the best thing for getting around the galaxy.

Beyond that, if you're heading to Colonia, make sure you've got all engineer blueprints you need pinned and make sure you buy all the modules you might need for different ships in the bubble just in case you can't buy them in Colonia.

In a nutshell, there's nothing bonkers about heading out to Colonia in a multirole ship but you might want to think about what you intend to do when you get there and plan accordingly before you go.
 

Ethaidan

Ethaidan
You'll be fine. I'm nearly at Beagle Point in a combat MkII partially retrofitted for long distance travel (dropped a few HRPs for AMFU, FSD booster, SRV, etc. But kept the fighter hanger, 3x APAs, 2 Imperial Hammers) and I havn't gone insane. Yet.
 

kurush

kurush
What jump range can you tune it for? You don't really need repair modules unless you are tend to fall asleep a lot and run into stars. if you can get it to 50ly range, you will have a comfortable trip. I can totally go there in my "multi-role" cutter that has 45 jump range on empty.
 

Vedmo

Vedmo
My last trip was in a ~35 ly Cutter built for mining, and then I continued to Sag A in it. You'll be fine, and once your getting closer you could still do 20 or so neutron jumps before getting FSD errors, and there are plenty of stations on the way to repair if need be. There really isn't a need for AFMU or repair limpets for a Colonia trip these days.
 
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Stinja

S
Do it.
My first trip to Colonia, before it was even called Colonia and just Jaques at Eol Prou RS-T d3-94, was in a 17Ly Python. Neutron boosts didn't exist, no Guardian FSD, no engineering. Made it fine, mild space madness.

I'm just returning from Beagle Point in this Krait MK2: https://s.orbis.zone/1o33 which is an explorer build, with PvE capability and Fuel Ratting, but shows you can go to the literal other end of the galaxy without an AMFU in a multirole-ish ship.
Obviously now one could jiggle things about and fit one, but at the time...
 
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Lightspeed

Lightspeed
There are reports that, since the update, mining pulse wave analyzers cannot be found. So before you go, maybe store one or two and ship them later.

Maybe as a precaution store some A-rated modules that you don't have on board in case you need them there.
 

SiriusStrider

SiriusStrider
You may want to check out the Prison Taxi Service for efficiency: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/colonia-prison-taxi-14k-ly-to-colonia.477424/

The Kraits and the Python all share the same core internals, so unless you want reactive armor, you should use a Phantom and then switch ships again in Colonia.

I flew a Krait there, basically fitted for combat. I threw out the heavy but relatively cheap stuff, and transferred that later, including the 7A distributor, 80t that really hit your range.
 

Adaris

Adaris
DrKalv said:
Once upon a time, 31 ly was a typical jump range for a purpose built explorer rather than a multi purpose ship :)
Click to expand...


I know, right? It makes me laugh sometimes. These days people balk at anything less than like, 55 lightyears. My big exploration days were years ago shortly after release. I had a Type 6 I had light-weighted (though this is pre-engineering by several years). I had a 28 light year jump range and that was considered fantastic for anything not an Asp Explorer, or a Conda...not that many people could actually afford a Conda back then.

I made it 15k lightyears out coreward and explored several nebulae. I'm sure I still have some first discovered's out there somewhere. Compared to that, my Krait feels positively luxurious, especially when considering that I dropped the cargo from 96 down to 64 and fit a big Guardian FSD booster in it, giving me a total jump distance of 41.7ly with a full tank. That was positively unheard of back then, even among exploration ships.,
 

Phongsalt

Phongsalt
Adaris said:
I've been wanting to travel to Colonia for quite some time and with the next major expansion being so far away, this feels like the best time to travel. At first, I was thinking of outfitting a Krait Phantom for long distance travel. I have the credits and materials stored back. However, I really want to emigrate from the bubble to engage in some real frontier life, at least for awhile. That's a lot harder in a single purpose ship.

My "preferred" ship out of all of my fleet is the Calamity Hawk, a Krait Mk II that I have fully engineered as a kind of generalist mission runner and salvager. It has a 31 ly jump range, 3 G5 double shot frags (each inducing a different effect) and a pair of plasma slug rails. I carry a fighter, some really strongly engineered biweaves geared for resistances with four shield boosters and a Guardian Shield module. I can carry 96 tons of cargo and have a 4A fuel scoop. I can even drop 2 Collector Limpets and an SRV to help with salvaging, and with the most recent patch, even have a DSS in the additional size 1 slot, which normally I use to find geological features to quickly gather raw materials. It does almost everything well and boosts to over 550 m/s.


So it occurred me, this thing is roughly as competent in exploration as my old pre-engineering T6 explorer that could jump around 29ly from years ago. I got that thing over 15k ly out back in the day. So why not take it instead?

The only modification I would want to make is perhaps trading in my size 5 cargo bay for a G5 FSD Booster to gain an additional 10ly at the cost of 1/3 my cargo space, but it'd be an easy refit back to my stock configuration at Jacques as they have a E5 Cargo Bay in stock.

It's sorta scary, as I have no AMFU, a somewhat curtailed jump range compared to most explorers, and a barely adequate 4A fuel scoop, but it really seems like carting this fully armed multirole ship to Colonia to live out there is almost reasonable. Am I crazy for attempting this?
Click to expand...
Deffo pack the gaurdian boooster ,unless you wanna pay arms and legs for shipping costs.Its a long way back to get one if you didnt get already.
 
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