Newcomer / Intro Dumb Ship/Build Questions

[Jace Harriman]

So just to preface, I have a chronic illness that (among other things) means my brain RAM is faulty. Try to put too much information in there at once, and you get freezes, crashes, and blue screens. I played Elite Dangerous when it was new, but stopped before Horizons and Engineers came into play... and sweet cheesecake, there is a lot of stuff. I have been chipping away at it over the last week or two, but there's a few packets of knowledge and understanding that got dropped amid all the brain RAM stuff, and I could use a little "explain it to me like I'm five" help to get things straight.

The ship I'm working on is an Asp Explorer. I know that a Krait (or eventually an Anaconda) will make a better explorer eventually, but an Asp is what I played in Frontier: Elite II, so an Asp is what I'm flying for now. I know that to be a good explorer I need as much jump range as possible, which means a) Grade 5 FSD, b) the Guardian range booster doodad, c) stuff that is as light as possible, d) a bigass fuel scoop. I've looked at as many AspX explorer builds as I can find, and hopefully I've managed to link my target build below... but Google has been giving me builds stretching back 4+ years, so I'm not sure if what I'm aiming for is "best" for the current version of the game.

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I've then sat down and gone through that build, looking at which Engineers I need to unlock. I'm close to getting Grade 5 for that FSD, I know I need to get through Marcus Qwent to get to Palin for Grade 5 Thrusters stuff, and I know I need to go through The Dweller to get Lei Chung who has shields and sensors and things.

Dumb Question #1: I know that you progress Engineers by modding your stuff, but in some cases you can do it by selling exploration data, or selling commodities at their base. Which is faster? I'm about an hour or so away from being able to afford a Type 7: is dumping a load of Tritium on their faces an effective way of progressing through those ranks quickly, or am I better off putting FSD mods/etc on everything until I ding Grade 5? I'm mostly thinking about stuff like Marcus Qwent: can I realistically get him to the point where he'll introduce me to Professor Palin without needing to buy any mods from him, because he doesn't offer anything that a different Engineer won't do better?

Dumb Question #2: Some Engineers are on the opposite side of a lot of hoops. Trying to get my Life Support to Grade 5 means finding Etienne Dorn, who as I understand it is out in Colonia (which is way far away from the Bubble, right?), and even getting it to Grade 4 means hitting Elite so I can go find Lori Jameson. I can click around in coriolis dialing back mods to Grade 3 and such, and I can see the numbers changing, but I don't really have a feel for it in practical terms. Which mods (making things lightweight, etc) are absolutely essential, and which are just finishing touches that I can get there when I get there?

Dumb Question #3: I have Clean thrusters in this build, because that's what everyone else has. I presume that's because they reduce heat, and heat is bad. Dirty thrusters on the other hand are faster, but hotter. When would I pick Dirty over Clean? Is Dirty for combat situations, or is heat a problem there too? Just for flat out speed/racing? Is that something I'd want to slap on a big lumbering cargo ship because every little speck of escape speed helps?

Dumb Question #4: I have regular shields rather than bi-weave shields on this. Is that the right call? As I understand it, bi-weave shields regenerate faster... am I good with a regular 3A, or should I load in a bi-weave and some of those booster utility doodads? I shouldn't expect much in the way of trouble while I'm out in the black exploring, but I also don't want to get pancaked and lose all my exploration data on my way back home, right?

Dumb Question #5: I know the mining laser is there because sometimes you come across Guardian stuff in space, and you need to shoot it with a laser to make it do things. The Rail Gun on the other hand... in the (old) builds I read, that was something to do with ditching fuel somehow? The Plasma Slug experimental effect takes ammo from your fuel tank... I think the idea being that it's a way to empty out your tank and reduce weight. Is jump range really that twitchy, where a few tons of fuel is going to make a significant difference, or is this a crazy weird min/max situation and not worth worrying about too much?

Dumb Question #6: The last piece of the puzzle is the Guardian Booster. I have seen (old) videos of how this process works, so I know I need to go to the place, shoot the things, scoop up the crystals, and blerp them out at the glowy thing... but the videos I've seen mention "active" Guardian sites. Is that something that changes? Are they moving, becoming active/inactive over time, etc? Or is there just one specific place/planet I need to go to that will always work? Google has been pointing me at things that are a couple of years old, so I don't want to go flying off into the aether only to arrive and find the place isn't the right place anymore, etc.


Thanks for the help / patience / indulgence!

 

[Codger]

1) Doing mods is usually the fastest way to rank up an Engineer. Just do throw away stuff if you really can't find anything you want from Marcus.
2) Do the important stuff first. FSD range, mainly. Then prioritize what you want from there. Life support can wait a looong time.
3) Dirty thrusters always. Clean draw more power, and thus make more heat in an exploration build.
4) Regular shields are fine. Bi-weaves are also fine and can sometimes draw less power and thus allow other builds. They're just for the occasional bump into a planet or something, they don't have to be much.
5) Yeah, I guess that was a thing once, using Plasma Slug to drop fuel. It's a very niche case, I wouldn't worry about it.
6) There's a good video about it on Exigeous' YouTube site. It's still accurate. It's also brief and to the point.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9C9a00-rkQ


It's still entirely possible to go exploring with NO engineering at all. So don't stress too much.

 

[aRJay]

To check how worthwhile pushing on to the higher grades is look at the range at the level you can reach and compare it to the range at G5 anything less than 1Ly improvement is not worth chasing at first. On the build you posted going to G3 life support would lose you 0.12Ly per jump which is not a very significant loss.

If you are going to be in a series of fights then you want shields that recover quickly such as Bi-Weaves however if you just want to deal with one off incidents then conventional will be fine.

 

[Jace Harriman]

Thanks for the answers! I've done some exploring already, so I'm not too stressed about it per se: I'm just using this particular ship/build to brute force my understanding of how Engineering works, etc. I'm at the point where I'm starting to move away from an everyman ship to specialised ships, and since I alreay have the Asp, it seems like a good place to start.

Exigeous is one of the videos I'd already watched! Good to know that it's still valid, that'll save me a lot of trouble.

3) Dirty thrusters always. Clean draw more power, and thus make more heat in an exploration build.

Then what is "Thermal Load", that Clean thrusters drastically reduce? Coriolis is showing it as being -50% and blue, which I assume means it's a good thing. Dirty thrusters draw less (extra) power, but that shows a thermal load of +60% and red. Is thermal load just something else entirely that has nothing to do with heat, in the same way that thermal resistance doesn't have anything to do with it either? And if Dirty is what I need here, when hypothetically would someone use Clean? What's the (intended) difference?

 

[Jace Harriman]

To check how worthwhile pushing on to the higher grades is look at the range at the level you can reach and compare it to the range at G5 anything less than 1Ly improvement is not worth chasing at first. On the build you posted going to G3 life support would lose you 0.12Ly per jump which is not a very significant loss.

I guess what's tripping me up is not having a practical in-game feel for what those numbers actually mean. Though doing some maths... going to Sagittarius A* a difference of 0.12Ly makes about one jump's worth of difference in the end, so I guess that's not very significant at all. Is ~70 Ly a respectable amount to be getting out of an AspX? I've heard you can squeeze about ~80 Ly out of an Anaconda, but my finances aren't quite there yet.

 

[Fr33k]

dude, that asp exploration build is hardcore. if max jump range is all you care about, that pretty much nails it. 65/70ly jump is crazy good. personally i think any ship with over 55ly jump range is great for exploring.

also, if you've been away a while, i think the addition of neutron star jumping (using them as 'neutron highways' to get places quicker) and more recently fleet carriers (just thumbing a lift), means absolute max ranging is not as important as it used to be (though still handy). that said, cool build.

as for clean/dirty thrusters, at the temperature of that build, and the reduced size of your thrusters, the extra heat from dirties (when boosting) will make little difference, but the extra thrust dirties offers will probably be appriciated, particularly on any planet greater than 1g. also, power requirement of dirties is lower than clean. in fact check it for yourself, in that build link you provided, check out the power table with clean drive type, then try dirty with drag drives, then look at the boost increase. less power means less ambient heat of your ship, useful when scooping near a sun, but to be honest, at the low temp of your ship, heat is unlikely to be a major issue.

also, aspX is my favourite explorer ship. perfect size and great views.

oh, and welcome back to elite!

 

[[VR] Orodruin]

Thanks for the answers! I've done some exploring already, so I'm not too stressed about it per se: I'm just using this particular ship/build to brute force my understanding of how Engineering works, etc. I'm at the point where I'm starting to move away from an everyman ship to specialised ships, and since I alreay have the Asp, it seems like a good place to start.

Exigeous is one of the videos I'd already watched! Good to know that it's still valid, that'll save me a lot of trouble.



Then what is "Thermal Load", that Clean thrusters drastically reduce? Coriolis is showing it as being -50% and blue, which I assume means it's a good thing. Dirty thrusters draw less (extra) power, but that shows a thermal load of +60% and red. Is thermal load just something else entirely that has nothing to do with heat, in the same way that thermal resistance doesn't have anything to do with it either? And if Dirty is what I need here, when hypothetically would someone use Clean? What's the (intended) difference?

Thrusters’ thermal output only occurs when they are actively thrusting. However, they also produce a constant secondary heat through their power draw (ie, power plant needs to produce more power leading to more heat generation). Dirty drives sre therefore generally better in terms of heat.

Not all engineering mods are useful.

 

[Dommarraa]

Dont bother with all that lightweight engineering. Handy if you have it, but not worth a lot of effort if you don't. Just pick class D or undersigned A where you can.

 

[Shir]

Some things can be improved on your build, mainly about heat management. I don't like overcharged power plant and dirty drives on exploring vessels as they don't handle heat as efficiently as other mods.

I like to use armoured and thermal spread on power plants. Power plants and canopy are the two modules you can't repair out there (you can repair life support, but if the canopy completely breaks down you can't fix it). Eventually you will have supercruise dropouts (armoured probably doesn't help with them), and planetary crashes.

Lots of players believe dirty drives are better than clean drives, cause of numbers, spreadsheets, forum posts etc, but if one actually takes the time to try both in game with identical ship builds, the difference in heat management is abysmal, and much better with clean drives.

Don't be so sure a Krait Phantom or an Anaconda will replace your Asp, as it is a ship with much better view and handling than the others (although the other two do have better internals and range).

Here's my Asp build. It can scoop and jump at the same time, navigate high g planets, jump out while hitting the boost, it's great in handling white dwarfs and neutron stars, can park full scooping while you scan the system, can even handle two suns that you find in some systems. A lot of these won't work with dirty drives, where you would have only seconds before damage starts.

One last thing about my build. These days a Dssa carrier will always be close no matter where in the Galaxy you are, if in dire need of hull repairs. So I've replaced the repair module with a supercruise assist, which is a great luxury for exploring. You can set a course for a distant planet and work out your next destination, check out the system, or do whatever, and it will bring you in orbit. It enhances your gameplay and I often use it, so it replaced the repair module on all my exploring ships.

Regarding power capacity. If your power plant gets heavily damaged, it will operate at 40% capacity. So if min maxing the ship it does make sense to have a big enough power plant that can handle basic systems at 40%. However I don't do that any more, as I've had all sorts of disasters while exploring and never needed it.

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[aRJay]

I guess what's tripping me up is not having a practical in-game feel for what those numbers actually mean. Though doing some maths... going to Sagittarius A* a difference of 0.12Ly makes about one jump's worth of difference in the end, so I guess that's not very significant at all. Is ~70 Ly a respectable amount to be getting out of an AspX? I've heard you can squeeze about ~80 Ly out of an Anaconda, but my finances aren't quite there yet.

A 70Ly ship is more than respectable, I have an Anaconda, AspX, Diamondback Explorer and a Krait Phantom none of which go that far. Though to be fair the Phantom is the only one I have felt comfortable with such a build, it jumps just below 60Ly in the game, I could get more from some of the others but I like being in the Phantom more which I consider an important factor for an exploration ship.

 

[Ashnak]

Let me start with your build.

One thing you wouldn't want in a long range explorer is an overcharged power plant. Especially not if the thermal difference between clean and dirty drives matters to you. Your build has plenty of spare power, so you can go for an armoured power plant with either the Stripped Down or the Thermal Spread mod. One of the problems with the power plant is that that's the only module you can't repair without being docked, so a lot of integrity there helps.

The other thing is your fuel scoop. The scoops are massless, so the only reason not to use an A rated scoop is if you can't afford it. In that case, use a B rated scoop.

Of course, the AspX is not the best explorer any more - at least not if you have Horizons. A Krait Phantom can carry more stuff, a Krait Mk. II can carry a fighter bay (with lower max jump range), but my favourite is the Dolphin. More internals than the AspX, it can easily take two SRVs (one backup), and, with a reasonably cool build, you can jump while scooping .

Ah, forgot one thing - since you're already going for lightweight engineering for the Life Support, consider an A-rated life support. Since we can (since some time) synthesize life support refills, an A-rated Life Support would mean you only need to synthesize every 25 minutes (instead of every 7 minutes) while racing a few thousand lys to the nearest station (or carrier) after blowing your canopy.

Getting to your questions:
#1: Yes, you can improve your standing with engineers through exploration data, goods, bounties or combat bonds (depending on the engineer). But - it's usually not worth it. Upgrading modules is faster, even if you don't need the specific modules.

#2: Essential mods. Strictly speaking - none. People (including myself) have been to Sgr A* before we had engineers, others had been to Beagle Point in unengineered ships. There's currently a race on - Fullerene C60 (in the Bubble) to Colonia - where one of the two ship classes is "unengineered". Expected time for those would be around two (2!) hours.
The most important comfort mod, in my opinion, would be the FSD range boosts, Felicity and Guardians.

#3: Clean or dirty thrusters. In my opinion, in practice, for an explorer, it doesn't matter. You'll spend most of your time in supercruise in any case, so thruster heat itself is not much of an issue. Clean thrusters use a little bit more power, so you'll get a little bit more heat in supercruise (and while scooping) instead. Clean thrusters can be beneficial for stealth ships, getting you a bit more time in silent running, but that's nothing that would concern an explorer. And, for best effect, you'll need to fly in FA-off.

#4: the shields are there to absorb bumps from planetary (usually) landings. Unless you're in the habit of bumping across surfaces like a rubber ball, any shields, including regular D-rated, will help there. Just don't put too much trust in small shields, though - yes, people in Imperial Cutters with maximum size prismatic shields can ram a 10 g planet and not even scratch their hulls. You really shouldn't do this in an explorer ship with minimal shields. If you get attacked by an NPC on your way back, you need to evade the interdiction. If you get attacked by a player, you're dead. If you find yourself in combat with an NPC, you might be able to run - but your shields will be gone with the first salvo.

#5: both. Yes, the jump range is that twitchy, and a few tons of fuel in the tank can make the difference between being able to make a jump or not. But - that's only for those few special cases where a few tenths of a lightyear will actually make the difference between getting there or not. And mainly, that issue tends to target min-maxed Anacondas (since those are the ships with the largest jump range - if you strip them down to the bones). I've never bothered so far. Even getting to Ishum's Reach only involved to take care when refuelling to not exceed half a tank (and some FSD injections).

#6: Guardian Booster: Exigeous' video is still a very good reference.

 

[Jace Harriman]

Thanks for all the insight, guys! This is exactly the kind of stuff I was peaking out my brain RAM trying to figure out!

So to paraphrase the advice so far:

- Don't stress the Lightweight stuff, that's min/maxing, and I'll get to it when I get to it.

- Power Plants can't be fixed while out and about: protect the eff out of that puppy. Also be mindful that things work less well if they're damaged, so build in some redundancy.

- Dirty Thrusters are hot when in use, but generate less passive heat. Clean Thrusters are less hot when in use, but generate more passive heat. The jury is still out on which is better, (though on paper Dirty > Clean because you spend a lot of your time in supercruise?), but again it's a min/max thing, so worry about that later. (I'll probably get one of each and swap 'em in and out until I get a feel for the difference.)

The other thing is your fuel scoop. The scoops are massless, so the only reason not to use an A rated scoop is if you can't afford it. In that case, use a B rated scoop.

Oh whoops, good spot on that. I already have a 6A, I must have just clicked the wrong thing in the dropdown!

Of course, the AspX is not the best explorer any more - at least not if you have Horizons. A Krait Phantom can carry more stuff, a Krait Mk. II can carry a fighter bay (with lower max jump range), but my favourite is the Dolphin. More internals than the AspX, it can easily take two SRVs (one backup), and, with a reasonably cool build, you can jump while scooping .

I do have plans to get a Krait, but I'm tempted to save that for PS4: I'm planning on getting Playstation VR for when Star Wars Squadrons comes out, ED+Horizons was in the store for cheap, and I know that the Krait is one of the best window options, so that seems like a good combo there. I'm going with an Asp Explorer on PC purely out of Elite II nostalgia (can't tell you why it was my favourite back then, it just was). Plus, the paint job and body kit I have on mine makes it look like Thunderbird 2, and who doesn't want to poop out SRVs onto planets out of Thunderbird 2?

A Dolphin is super intriguing though, that's not one I've seen coming up a lot in the list of recommended explorers. I'd be interested in seeing your build on that, if you have it handy!

Ah, forgot one thing - since you're already going for lightweight engineering for the Life Support, consider an A-rated life support. Since we can (since some time) synthesize life support refills, an A-rated Life Support would mean you only need to synthesize every 25 minutes (instead of every 7 minutes) while racing a few thousand lys to the nearest station (or carrier) after blowing your canopy.

Synthesis is another new thing that I haven't looked into yet. I knew you could refill ammo and I'd heard about the FSD booster business, but I didn't even realise life support materials was on the list! So how does that work: you synthesise the stuff, and it refills your air supply? Does it recharge it all the way (ie. let your air get as low as possible before you use it, so you get the most out of each recharge), or is it only a partial refill? A quick Google says it only needs Nickel and Iron as well... I'd better get stockpiling then!

 

[MishaTX]

(though on paper Dirty > Clean because you spend a lot of your time in supercruise?)

Specifically for an Explorer, heat will only be an issue when scooping, and you'll be in SC there so the Dirties really are better (although not terribly much). Only time you'd be in trouble would be if you hit the exclusion zone of the star and got dropped from SC and switch to thrusters, but in that case you'd be using your heat sinks like crazy and worry less about the heat from your thrusters, at least that's been my experience.

Synthesis is another new thing that I haven't looked into yet. I knew you could refill ammo and I'd heard about the FSD booster business, but I didn't even realise life support materials was on the list! So how does that work: you synthesise the stuff, and it refills your air supply? Does it recharge it all the way (ie. let your air get as low as possible before you use it, so you get the most out of each recharge),

Yes, and yes.

That might also have been the reason for the mining laser on the build you referenced (which had me scratching my head a bit). You can mine all the raw mats in rings, so that's one way of refilling. Of course, you'd be well advised to have a collector limpet controller as well to keep from losing your mind manually scooping them

But that's really marginal, I'd never bother hauling mining equipment with me on a deep space explo journey. You're just as well off farming raw mats from Geo/Bio sites and, being an Explorer, you will be doing a lot of landing, won't you?

 

[Ashnak]

...
A Dolphin is super intriguing though, that's not one I've seen coming up a lot in the list of recommended explorers. I'd be interested in seeing your build on that, if you have it handy!

MAybbe because the Dolphion's advantages are a bit more subtle, and you can't get the raw jump range that you can get from an Anaconda. I like them, though, because they are small - you can land them basically anywhere you can put down a towel.

I don't have my currently in use exploration build stored any more - I've built that three years ago and have been out in the black since then (on a second account), before we had Guardian modules, and while the large compartments were still locked for passenger (or cargo) modules. Still got me out to Salomé's Reach with a little care (filling the tank only halfway, and using a few fuel injections).

Spoiler

What I'm currently using for racing and passenger missions is this:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

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Designed for speed and jump range, with an eye on keeping her cool. I wouldn't use this build for long range exploring, though.

My current theoretical exploration build would be similar to this:

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"Similar", because I'd be fiddling with the configuration until I leave the last outfitting station behind. I'm sacrificing quite a bit of jump range here for some added comfort - 2 SRVs, a mining laser, reasonable shields, the full size fuel tank, a robust power plant. When we helped people to set up the ships for DW2, I would tell them that 35 ly jump range is sufficient, 45 is comfortable, anything above that is luxury. The number of stars you can't reach with 45 ly base range, but can reach with 70 ly range, is very small. And some of those 70 ly candidates are one way trips - you can get there thanks to a neutron boost, but you can't get back. Furthermore, considering that carriers now are able to jump 500 ly, the question of reaching the outliers has reached a different dimension.

That Dolphin would be in competition with this Krait Mk.II, though:

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Similar range, a bit slower to jump (I'm reasonably sure that one couldn't jump while scooping - I still think the exploration Dolphin above should be able to; Funky Cold Medina (my racing Dolphin) can.), a bit less agile, no fuel transfer limpets (or whatever I decide to put in that slot), requiring a bigger landing spot - but carrying 16 fighters with possibly two different types, enough to smash one or two against some canyon walls out in the black, or try to really provoke a reaction from some of the biologicals.

 

[Thwarptide]

"So just to preface, I have a chronic illness that (among other things) means my brain RAM is faulty. "

I'm so glad. I didn't want to be the only ONE.

"I know that to be a good explorer I need as much jump range as possible"

That's a rotten assumption toss down that line by more than a few. If you have a ship with a jump range of say 40-50 lys you'll be more than fine. Just get in the galaxy map and select stars KGBFOAM and you can go pretty much anywhere you want.
People screaming that you want longer jump range seem to many, but let's say you make on 50ly jump. You probably passed over 20 systems worth cash.
Long jump ranges are fine if you're in a hurry to get from point A to point B. But why rush when theirs cash to be made on the way?

Be mindful that you can select economical route, you'll jump more stars and systems that afford to opportunities to make more cash.
If your in a rush, select fastest route possible. The difference between 40ly and 60ly jumps doesn't offer benefit worth mentioning. 20 lyrs is spit on the grand scale of the galaxy.

How do I know? Once you've been gone in the black deep for even a month and you come back to the bubble, a 20ly jump will seem like nothing (because it is) even if you take it in economic route.
The goal of being a good explorer, is to make money, relax, see the sights. . It's hardly a race.
Having said that, a ship with 65ly jump range has a certain envelope of advantages. But not many. Certainly not to write a few paragraphs about. I've never once experienced a situ where I needed anything more than 40ly. My ship will do 53, but I didn't chose the jump range. I was merely shooting for 45. I spend most of my time in economical routing.

 

[Jace Harriman]

"I know that to be a good explorer I need as much jump range as possible"

That's a rotten assumption toss down that line by more than a few. If you have a ship with a jump range of say 40-50 lys you'll be more than fine. Just get in the galaxy map and select stars KGBFOAM and you can go pretty much anywhere you want.

In terms of exploring for credits, then absolutely jump range doesn't necessarily matter. One of my mid-term goals though is a sightseeing tour. I'm either going to try and hit every star in Orion (my favourite constellation) in order, and/or - to cut a long story short - I had a weird theme of naming my characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic after obscure(ish) names for well-known stars, and I intend to "visit my characters", some of which are thousands of lightyears away. Because that is more of a "the destination, not the journey" approach to exploring, being able to shave off a few jumps here and there is a bit more of a priority than it might otherwise be.

I'm quite content to have a garage full of spaceships, so I'll almost certainly end up with a Krait or Conda eventually, fitted out for "proper" exploring where the real journey was the credits we made along the way, or what have you. I even have names picked out, because weird naming themes is a recurring affliction.

 

[CMDR X]

3) Dirty thrusters always. Clean draw more power, and thus make more heat in an exploration build.

Is this correct? Am I interpreting my Coriolis Beluga build all wrong?

X.

 

[Cmdr Nemo]

So just to preface, I have a chronic illness that (among other things) means my brain RAM is faulty. Try to put too much information in there at once, and you get freezes, crashes, and blue screens. I played Elite Dangerous when it was new, but stopped before Horizons and Engineers came into play... and sweet cheesecake, there is a lot of stuff. I have been chipping away at it over the last week or two, but there's a few packets of knowledge and understanding that got dropped amid all the brain RAM stuff, and I could use a little "explain it to me like I'm five" help to get things straight.

The ship I'm working on is an Asp Explorer. I know that a Krait (or eventually an Anaconda) will make a better explorer eventually, but an Asp is what I played in Frontier: Elite II, so an Asp is what I'm flying for now. I know that to be a good explorer I need as much jump range as possible, which means a) Grade 5 FSD, b) the Guardian range booster doodad, c) stuff that is as light as possible, d) a bigass fuel scoop. I've looked at as many AspX explorer builds as I can find, and hopefully I've managed to link my target build below... but Google has been giving me builds stretching back 4+ years, so I'm not sure if what I'm aiming for is "best" for the current version of the game.

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I've then sat down and gone through that build, looking at which Engineers I need to unlock. I'm close to getting Grade 5 for that FSD, I know I need to get through Marcus Qwent to get to Palin for Grade 5 Thrusters stuff, and I know I need to go through The Dweller to get Lei Chung who has shields and sensors and things.

Dumb Question #1: I know that you progress Engineers by modding your stuff, but in some cases you can do it by selling exploration data, or selling commodities at their base. Which is faster? I'm about an hour or so away from being able to afford a Type 7: is dumping a load of Tritium on their faces an effective way of progressing through those ranks quickly, or am I better off putting FSD mods/etc on everything until I ding Grade 5? I'm mostly thinking about stuff like Marcus Qwent: can I realistically get him to the point where he'll introduce me to Professor Palin without needing to buy any mods from him, because he doesn't offer anything that a different Engineer won't do better?

Dumb Question #2: Some Engineers are on the opposite side of a lot of hoops. Trying to get my Life Support to Grade 5 means finding Etienne Dorn, who as I understand it is out in Colonia (which is way far away from the Bubble, right?), and even getting it to Grade 4 means hitting Elite so I can go find Lori Jameson. I can click around in coriolis dialing back mods to Grade 3 and such, and I can see the numbers changing, but I don't really have a feel for it in practical terms. Which mods (making things lightweight, etc) are absolutely essential, and which are just finishing touches that I can get there when I get there?

Dumb Question #3: I have Clean thrusters in this build, because that's what everyone else has. I presume that's because they reduce heat, and heat is bad. Dirty thrusters on the other hand are faster, but hotter. When would I pick Dirty over Clean? Is Dirty for combat situations, or is heat a problem there too? Just for flat out speed/racing? Is that something I'd want to slap on a big lumbering cargo ship because every little speck of escape speed helps?

Dumb Question #4: I have regular shields rather than bi-weave shields on this. Is that the right call? As I understand it, bi-weave shields regenerate faster... am I good with a regular 3A, or should I load in a bi-weave and some of those booster utility doodads? I shouldn't expect much in the way of trouble while I'm out in the black exploring, but I also don't want to get pancaked and lose all my exploration data on my way back home, right?

Dumb Question #5: I know the mining laser is there because sometimes you come across Guardian stuff in space, and you need to shoot it with a laser to make it do things. The Rail Gun on the other hand... in the (old) builds I read, that was something to do with ditching fuel somehow? The Plasma Slug experimental effect takes ammo from your fuel tank... I think the idea being that it's a way to empty out your tank and reduce weight. Is jump range really that twitchy, where a few tons of fuel is going to make a significant difference, or is this a crazy weird min/max situation and not worth worrying about too much?

Dumb Question #6: The last piece of the puzzle is the Guardian Booster. I have seen (old) videos of how this process works, so I know I need to go to the place, shoot the things, scoop up the crystals, and blerp them out at the glowy thing... but the videos I've seen mention "active" Guardian sites. Is that something that changes? Are they moving, becoming active/inactive over time, etc? Or is there just one specific place/planet I need to go to that will always work? Google has been pointing me at things that are a couple of years old, so I don't want to go flying off into the aether only to arrive and find the place isn't the right place anymore, etc.


Thanks for the help / patience / indulgence!

FYI: Lori Jameson only requires a "Dangerous" rank.

 

[[VR] Orodruin]

Is this correct? Am I interpreting my Coriolis Beluga build all wrong?

View attachment 185798 View attachment 185799

X.

That’s G3. Look at G5.

 

[CMDR X]

That’s G3. Look at G5.

Fair enough. Glad G3 is plenty for her.