Ships Krait Phantom for exploration explodes easily (with class 3 shields)

[Pentotark]

My exploration ship is Krait Phantom. My only problem with it is I need to be extra careful when approaching planets surfaces as it can easily explode. And that is what I do (normally) but sometimes I travel for months into nothing and one second I get distracted, I accidentally touch the surface of a planet and Boom! That has happened a couple times to me and it is heartbreaking! XD I run class 3 shields and I was wondering if that is a bad idea and upgrading to a class 4 or even a class 5 could be good idea? I honestly feel like my ship is too weak and it should sustain touching the surface without completely destroy itself. Sometimes it makes me feel like I am not running shields at all!

Any advice?

Thank you.

 

[davinator791]

You could use a prismatic class 3 shield instead. I use a 5D enhanced low power shield and 3x class E heavy duty super-capacitors boosters on my Phantom, along with 2 SRVs, 2 AFMUs, 1 repair limpet and a cargo rack, never had any issues. With FSD v1, I still have 65Ly jump range.

 

[Bigmaec]

Use a non explodey Krait Phantom?

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s.orbis.zone

Engineering helps, also another "trick" to keep up the jumprange is using E-rated shield boosters.

 

[CMDRQuainMarln]

The hull mass of your (and my) Krait Phantom exploration ship is 270T.
If you put a shield on with less than 270T optimal mass, the protection you get is lower than the absolute MJ rating suggests.
I run a 4D shield currently with no engineering on my Krait Phantom. A short way into an exploration run, after I had been landing on a lot of low G moons collecting mats, I didn't pay attention to the G for the planet surface I was heading for. The Phantom literally bounced off the ground and I had time to look at my 16% remaining hull strength and think, 'no problem I have repair limpets'. Unfortunately I could not stop the ship dropping back to the ground and it exploded. My fault for not paying attention. On another occasion I smacked head first into a cliff at speed in the dark because I forgot night vision and ship lights were a thing in my early days of planet landing. The shields soaked up the collision on that one and the ship suffered no hull damage.
4D shields optimal mass is 285T, so you get proper coverage for your 270T hull. I will engineer the shields to at least grade 3 reinforced before my next trip because I have the mats and engineer access to do it. I'll get them to grade 5 sometime.

In my view 3D shields are so too weak and you would be better off having no shields at all to really focus your mind on the G of the planet and being super careful with your landings. 4D shields weigh only 2T more than 3D shields which has very little affect on jump range. So go for 4D shields and regard engineering them as a "nice to have" rather than essential.

My Phantom build - 4D shields not yet engineered.

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[EDIT on September 29, 2021: update since people still read this - sometime after I made this post I changed shield design again to something that survives a crash landing on high G planets. 5D shields grade 5 enhanced lower power with lo draw effect and 3 x 0E shield boosters with grade 5 heavy duty and super capacitors. Very strong, light weight and relatively lower power which means the ship can still run on a 3A power plant with grade 1 low emissions and thermal spread and has more than 70ly unladen jump range.]

 

[d8veh]

Always check the gravity number for a planet before attempting to land.

For anything say 2 or above, instead of landing with thrusters, lower your ship onto the surface by toggling flight assist on and off. That will set it down nice and gently.

 

[SPACEMEDA]

I don't know what your ship look like, but i run

• 3A shields - enhanced low power grade 5 - Stripped Down
• OE shield booster - heavy duty grade 5 - Super Capacitor
• Lightweight Alloy - Heavy Duty grade 5 - Deep Planting

I was not able to destroy my ship, on many occasions i smash into the ground when trying to land like an airplane on moons with steep cliffs, when approaching shards. I have boosted into the ground few times on high g planets (3-4G), or fall down via wing on high G planet when taking pictures. Because my thrusters are weak.

You better land a ship like described above on those really high G worlds - but they are super rare.. 5G and more.

Maybe not the best ship in a galaxy, maybe not best shields, but i need range aswell. This is the 5th month im 43000ly from the bubble, but ship still holds - flight carriers are on average 5000ly from you anywhere you are in galaxy.

It's always better to do your homework at "home" then go out.

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[torloisk]

Krait Phantom is a great ship for deep space exploration.

With this setup, incl. the double engineered FSD drive, I get a jump range of a little above 70 LY:
"Balfour" - Krait Phantom

The build is based on D2EA's concept: https://cmdrs-toolbox.com/ship-builds/exploration

 

[Pentotark]

I don't know what your ship look like, but i run

• 3A shields - enhanced low power grade 5 - Stripped Down
• OE shield booster - heavy duty grade 5 - Super Capacitor
• Lightweight Alloy - Heavy Duty grade 5 - Deep Planting

I was not able to destroy my ship, on many occasions i smash into the ground when trying to land like an airplane on moons with steep cliffs, when approaching shards. I have boosted into the ground few times on high g planets (3-4G), or fall down via wing on high G planet when taking pictures. Because my thrusters are weak.

You better land a ship like described above on those really high G worlds - but they are super rare.. 5G and more.

Maybe not the best ship in a galaxy, maybe not best shields, but i need range aswell. This is the 5th month im 43000ly from the bubble, but ship still holds - flight carriers are on average 5000ly from you anywhere you are in galaxy.

It's always better to do your homework at "home" then go out.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

I do have:
3A shields, enhanced low power grade 3
Lightweight alloy - lightweight armor grade 1

Maybe that is the issue? The way i exploded is: i boosted 3 km from surface but when i hit the ground I wasn't perpendicular to it, but almost tanget. Shields at 100% and hull at 76% before impact.

 

[Dreyski]

Well your lightweight alloy has a mass of 0 tons, so I can't see any benefit to engineering lightweight. Heavy duty + deep plating will give you more survivability for no drop in performance.

 

[Pentotark]

Well your lightweight alloy has a mass of 0 tons, so I can't see any benefit to engineering lightweight. Heavy duty + deep plating will give you more survivability for no drop in performance.

Thank you!

 

[Red Anders]

I do have:
3A shields, enhanced low power grade 3
Lightweight alloy - lightweight armor grade 1

Maybe that is the issue? The way i exploded is: i boosted 3 km from surface but when i hit the ground I wasn't perpendicular to it, but almost tanget. Shields at 100% and hull at 76% before impact.

Not trying to be funny but the answer is 'stop flying it into planets'. Seriously, you can land with absolutely no damage on a high G planet with no shield at all, it just takes a bit of attentiveness. If your build is a pure explorer with a shield there to basically just stop stone chips on the paint, you need to pay attention when landing and not pancake the thing into the ground.

You can wrap your car in bubble wrap to avoid crash damage, it's not as effective as just not driving it into walls though.

 

[Pentotark]

Not trying to be funny but the answer is 'stop flying it into planets'. Seriously, you can land with absolutely no damage on a high G planet with no shield at all, it just takes a bit of attentiveness. If your build is a pure explorer with a shield there to basically just stop stone chips on the paint, you need to pay attention when landing and not pancake the thing into the ground.

You can wrap your car in bubble wrap to avoid crash damage, it's not as effective as just not driving it into walls though.

That is totally true, and I try my best. But sometimes it happens, and I want to find a way to protect myself better when I am distracted or just take bad decisions

 

[Red Anders]

That is totally true, and I try my best. But sometimes it happens, and I want to find a way to protect myself better when I am distracted or just take bad decisions

That's fair enough - with any emergency provision you hope you never need it but you regret not having it on the occasions that you do need it.

 

[CMDRQuainMarln]

The best defence is having at least a mental checklist/procedure for planet landing (and any other task) that you never deviate from that includes things like checking G before descending etc.
Almost all my ship deaths have been due to loss of concentration during repetitive operations and forgetting something I should have done. I can't believe I still start charging the FSD too close to a star sometimes and have to pop a heatsink to reduce ship damage, but it happens.

 

[SPACEMEDA]

I do have:
3A shields, enhanced low power grade 3
Lightweight alloy - lightweight armor grade 1

Maybe that is the issue? The way i exploded is: i boosted 3 km from surface but when i hit the ground I wasn't perpendicular to it, but almost tanget. Shields at 100% and hull at 76% before impact.

Yes it is.
Like here was my idea. Build a ship, so you can never return back, but if i fail something, i will fail, but it will not obliterate me to the point i can't do it to nearest flight carrier.
I build three exploration ships, DBX, Krait, Hauler, engineered them to the max possible, all of them have same shields like Krait has, exept hauler has 2A.
Then i make 3 x 10 000ly round trip to check out those ships, land them on that 9G planet near bubble if i can do that, that's not my priority but i know i can.
When i set off, i take 3D and one extra sheild booster with myself, just in case i need better range - if i hang arround top or bottom of galaxy.

Yes, you can stop your ship 20km above surface and start turning flight assist on or off, so you can land on 10G planet or more, for me it takes 20minutes. (HD 148937 was my testing system, i dont remember how much G it was, but above 5G i guess).
I personally make mistakes, so i don't want paper ship that i die in if i make an error. I read lots of stories some guys make mistake 30k ly from the stations, or losing their months of data.

My advice is engineer your ship to max possible, test it, configure it to your needs, collect all materials you will need for synthesis, take spare parts (like bigger hangar and smaller shields or smaller afmu or things like that), then head to unknown. I have no idea where you want to go, but you can use flight carrier outfitting to send there your modules or ships, dont rely on a fact they will sell it, they dont in most cases exept mining equipment.

Yes you will curse me 100 times that i send you to do anonnying engineers some of them requireing combat or overwhelming mining. I cursed those guys who send me to do engineers like 1000 times, i spend 2 months only doing engineers.
But now i know why they tell me to do that, it's worth the effort.

 

[CMDRQuainMarln]

I came across another Krait Phantom explorer shield design that is strong, light and low power. It beats my 4D shield set up.
Start with 5D shield generator. Engineer it for enhanced low power 5 and lo draw. This also reduces it's weight to 4.04T almost matching the 4T 4D generator but with slightly less power draw and slightly more strength. Then add 2 X 0E shield boosters engineered with heavy duty 5 and super capacitors. They only weigh 0.5T each. I am told you can boost into the surface of a high G planet and not suffer hull damage with this - with 5A dirty 5 drag drives.

 

[Pentotark]

@SPACEMEDA @CommanderMarln Thanks for the feedback. I will def boost up the shields to something better!

 

[Anticon]

I've never had a nasty landing fright using my unengineered 3A shields on my exploPhantom. Maybe I need to be more adventurous.

 

[CMDRQuainMarln]

I've been engineering the 5D low power grade 5 + lo draw shields plus the 3 x 0E Shield Booster + super caps the last couple of weeks. Also just done heavy duty 5 + deep plate (aka magic fairy dust) on the light alloy armour.
For reasons I lost interest in by the time I finished doing it, I ground out the rank of Duke in the Imperial Navy. So I'm staring at Archenar 3 (Imperial permit needed), a 6G planet in the bubble.
HD 148937 is 9G and 26 jumps / 1400ly away. I might try that next.
I'm thinking boosting at the ground is a bit excessive for a test. I'll just try and pretend I'm landing on a low G moon and see how it goes.
Shield: 662MJ
Armour: 462
4D Thursters with Dirty G5 + Drag and Engine focus G5 3D power distributor - can boost every 8 seconds up to 479 m/s.

So the glide completes.
The ground is still rushing in very very fast. Last time I was in this situation the ship bounced of the ground with 16% hull left and I had enough time to think "I got repair limpets, this is fixable" but I couldn't stop the ship hitting the ground again... BOOM... Rebuy screen.
So I'm expecting a bounce now...
I'm not expecting skimming across the surface of Achenar 3 having my shields ground to offline, and now hull damage, and pull up, and boost and...

10.4km off the ground heading back into space with 32% hull left and the shields recharging.
This is fixable wherever the ship is in the galaxy.
Glad I did the armour engineering.
Also just learned 1 repair limpet restores 13% of a Phantom's engineered hull.
Don't know if the engineering on the armour makes a difference to repairing it, but you only get 5% of an Anaconda's stock light weight alloy armour health back with 1 limpet.
I'll have to declare that a great success. If it had been a bounce off the ground and go back up, the hull might not have been damaged.
One Krait Phantom skimming across a planet surface like a flat stone skimmed on the water.

 

[sleepfishl]

My exploration ship is Krait Phantom. My only problem with it is I need to be extra careful when approaching planets surfaces as it can easily explode. And that is what I do (normally) but sometimes I travel for months into nothing and one second I get distracted, I accidentally touch the surface of a planet and Boom! That has happened a couple times to me and it is heartbreaking! XD I run class 3 shields and I was wondering if that is a bad idea and upgrading to a class 4 or even a class 5 could be good idea? I honestly feel like my ship is too weak and it should sustain touching the surface without completely destroy itself. Sometimes it makes me feel like I am not running shields at all!

Any advice?

Thank you.

I love HighG planets and I test all my exploration ships on 6G (Achenar 3) and StrongG (10G planet, I forgot the system name) ...

I figured that you can safely land and leave if you use the highest D-Rated Thrusters you can fit with Dirty Drive tuning and Drag drives)

Everything below that makes mistakes almost instantly deadly.

(Unless you fly the Conda ... this ship falls like a brick, no matter what thrusters you use, as soon as you make a mistake.)