Ships Looking for Exploration/Combat Hybrid

Piwo

Piwo
Hi,

I mostly enjoy exploration & combat and I would like to fit a ship that fits both. I know a hybrid-build can't excell in either of both, but maybe there is a fit that does not suck in both :)
Here is a first attempt:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone s.orbis.zone

Is this fine or would you recommend a completely different ship/fitting?
 

Maymo

Maymo
It really depends how far out you’re planning to go. Unexplored systems start showing up when you’re about 1kly out from the bubble (give or take).

Personally, (and from my own experience) if I got 10,000ly out into the black carrying all that useless weight I know i’d regret it. There’s really nothing out there to shoot (yet).

It takes just minutes to change a ship from a combat fit to an exploration fit if you’re organised.

Each to their own though, quite a few people here go out armed for war.
 

Piwo

Piwo
No I'm not planning to go very far out of the bubble (got a DBX for that), but trips around 1~2kly are quite common (e.g. to Guardian sites etc.)...
 

Ashnak

Ashnak
And as you can see from your build, that gets you all the disadvantages in one package:
  • weak shields and a weak hull for a combat ship
  • low jump range for an explorer
You'll have to define where you want to compromise.
 

Bigmaec

Bigmaec
I have a pet project called "Project DG" (for reasons :sneaky:)

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone s.orbis.zone

I'd say it's pretty good at combat and exploration...

1424159x9340.jpg
 

Ceekay

Ceekay
This is an edited version of a Krait mk2 I use for pirate threat zones https://s.orbis.zone/9685 so it's got decent combat abilities and respectable range.

The three beams are fine for anything up to Python level add the MC's for big stuff.
 

Viscera

Viscera
Lots of ships would work for this. KRAIT MkII and Phantom are probably the best mediums.

Things I would certainly consider:

Military Armour with lightweight mod and layered plating... Cuts the weight off, but gives an excellent protection.

Ammoless builds... Slugged plasmas and laser combos perhaps. You have a scoop, and a decent fuel tank, why not consider it for ammo.

Fighter... Fun for canyons and good for adding to a fight. It looks like you are talking albout pve mostly by you build, so this could be a good investment for that. Hire a top rank pilot when you leave station, sack them before you cash in bonds or data. Makes them cheap, and yet still fine for npc work.

I would really look at a Krait mkII for what you want. It has the slots to cover most of your needs, plus a decent jump.
 

Tifu

Tifu
Piwo said:
Hi,

I mostly enjoy exploration & combat and I would like to fit a ship that fits both. I know a hybrid-build can't excell in either of both, but maybe there is a fit that does not suck in both :)
Here is a first attempt:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone s.orbis.zone

Is this fine or would you recommend a completely different ship/fitting?
Click to expand...

The Phantom is fine, a lot of explorers prefer it over the Mk2 because of the longer jump range.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone s.orbis.zone

I tweaked your design by lightweighting your military composite armor and swapping your hull reinforcement with module reinforcement.

The reason for the swap is the downgrade of the 7A powerplant to 6A + overcharge engineering. This saves weight but reduces the integrity which is why the module reinforcement is. necessary. It also protects the thrusters which are now class D (lighter and less power hungry) with dirty drives engineering.

For the weapons I applied the long range + scramble field mod to your pulse lasers. This will confuse the hostile ships targeting - at least for a little while.

The burst lasers have the short range + flow control mod which makes them punch harder (with reduced range) but more efficient.

Your regular class 6 shield has been replaced by a 5A prismatic shield with thermal resistance. It frees up more cargo space and gives you better protection than the old shield.

The shield boosters were reduced to 2 with heavy duty mods. This made space for a point defence that may be useful against thargoid/human missiles.

Hope the changes were useful. You're on the right track. In the deep black the goal is to give explorers with shieldless, weaponless ships time enough to escape. Killing the enemy is secondary.

Note: limited engineering to grade 3 to make it more realistic timewise & matwise.
 

Cmdr Nemo LXXI

Cmdr Nemo LXXI
Piwo said:
Hi,

I mostly enjoy exploration & combat and I would like to fit a ship that fits both. I know a hybrid-build can't excell in either of both, but maybe there is a fit that does not suck in both :)
Here is a first attempt:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone s.orbis.zone

Is this fine or would you recommend a completely different ship/fitting?
Click to expand...
If your gonna be exploring in the bubble, it's fine. But if your gonna leave the bubble and go into deep space. There's no one out there that would require the use of weapons. It pretty much boils down to what ever floats your boat.
 

baudelier

baudelier
https://s.orbis.zone/96dl

This is the build I took on DW2. A Krait MkII configured as an armed escort explorer. She can stand up against any NPC and is designed to force enemy commanders to focus on her allowing non-combat explorers to escape.

And, even with boosted prismatics, a full set of, efficient lasers and, a fighter bay she can still go 51 light years on the jump covering over 350 light years before needing to scoop.
 

Tifu

Tifu
baudelier said:
https://s.orbis.zone/96dl

This is the build I took on DW2. A Krait MkII configured as an armed escort explorer. She can stand up against any NPC and is designed to force enemy commanders to focus on her allowing non-combat explorers to escape.

And, even with boosted prismatics, a full set of, efficient lasers and, a fighter bay she can still go 51 light years on the jump covering over 350 light years before needing to scoop.
Click to expand...

Didn't really understand the current shield meta until I saw your build - thanks 👍

Were you there at the Conflux settlements during DW2 when some explorers accidentally triggered the spawning of hostile NPC ships? Watched a short video then of a large enemy ship trying to ram a player SRV into the ground 🔨

No one expected hostile NPCs that far away from the bubble. And of course the mining CGs at the Omega Mining corporation system triggered pirate NPC activity of all things.

Good thing some explorers and even some Hull Seals i hear were armed ⚔
 

Tifu

Tifu
I expect that when DW3 comes around that there will be a DG3 carrier shadowing the explorer fleet. Just an example of the unexpected "benefits" of carriers which includes the current tritium price inflation and the cluttering of the most popular systems among others 😉
 

baudelier

baudelier
Tifu said:
Didn't really understand the current shield meta until I saw your build - thanks 👍

Were you there at the Conflux settlements during DW2 when some explorers accidentally triggered the spawning of hostile NPC ships? Watched a short video then of a large enemy ship trying to ram a player SRV into the ground 🔨

No one expected hostile NPCs that far away from the bubble. And of course the mining CGs at the Omega Mining corporation system triggered pirate NPC activity of all things.

Good thing some explorers and even some Hull Seals i hear were armed ⚔
Click to expand...

I got off to a slow start thanks to life's interference and didn't catch up to the main expedition till about halfway through the second CG.

Once I arrived, I signed up for the bounty hunting CG and managed to squeak into the top 25% before it ended.
 

BurntJello

BurntJello
Piwo said:
Hi,

I mostly enjoy exploration & combat and I would like to fit a ship that fits both. I know a hybrid-build can't excell in either of both, but maybe there is a fit that does not suck in both :)
Here is a first attempt:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone s.orbis.zone

Is this fine or would you recommend a completely different ship/fitting?
Click to expand...
My combat/explorer Courier has higher jump range than that! (see sig if interested)


My Phantom looks like this.

60ly
580 boost (just shy of the ship's max speed)
740 shield (more raw focused for planetary bumps)
All the other exploration bells and whistles.

I went with low draw weapons so I could undersize the distributor to get that jump range.

The trick with combat explorers is to lower mass as much as possible without sacrificing too much firepower/defense/speed.
 
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