Anaconda vs Asp Explorer for Exploration

nanite2000

nanite2000
I'm debating whether it's worth upgrading from an Asp Explorer to an Anaconda for exploration purposes, and I've been comparing the Pros and cons of an Anaconda build.

Pros:
  • Fighter bay (for fast planetary surface runs)
  • Extra vehicle hangar
  • Cargo/passenger slots
  • Fractionally longer FSD jump range (around 5% more).

Cons:
  • Slow/weak thrusters (around 30% slower than an AspX)
  • Fewer total jumps per fuel tank (4 vs 7).

Here's my current AspX build: https://goo.gl/HLu4Nm
Here's my proposed Anaconda build: https://goo.gl/GDJiKP

To any explorers with experience of both ships - is the Anaconda really worth it? Could you share your experiences?
 
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CMDR Corlas

CMDR Corlas
My main problem with exploring in the Anaconda is the terrible supercruise agility compared to most anything else. For me, it just makes it frustrating in any long-distance scenario. I took a Python out to Colonia and ended, quite unexpectedly, loving it more than ever. In comparison, well before I got back from the Formidine Rift in my Anaconda I couldn't wait to get into a different ship.
 

goemon

goemon
i have explored in both a lot; AspE got boring, it is for exploration what a vulture is for combat. the very best tool for the job.

i prefer the floating feeling of a conda (what other call bad supercruise handling), or my DBE, or my explo-courier (faster than any fighter for surface exploration).

but non-subjective reasons to change from an AspE to a conda i know none.
 

nanite2000

nanite2000
HappySlayerUK said:
The Anaconda makes a great long range explorer/passenger liner. The Asp is a much better pure explorer.
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That seems to be the feeling I'm getting too. If I decide to (one day) do some long range passenger sightseeing missions, an Anaconda is definitely the way to go. But when I go exploring, I don't want to be under any time pressure from prickly passengers, so I'd have no need for cabins nor cargo racks.

Think I'll stick with the Asp for now... :)
 

Bryan K

Bryan K
I could never get past the fact that the AspX just has no personality. You fly around in a big sterile bubble with dull flight characteristics and minimal style. Sure, it's technically brilliant, but I want to fly a ship with more zing.

The Anaconda feels awesome to fly. It's a proper full-size starship, roughly half the size of captain Kirk's Enterprise. Plus, it has the internal space to do anything you could ever want to do while exploring. Also, the fighters make great scouts. I've been on long distance trips in both ships, and the AspX had me on the verge of space madness after only 1200 LY. The Anaconda got me all the way out to Amundsen Terminal 4700 LY out before I had to rush back home to keep my home system from destabilizing. Once I get around to proper exploration, the Asp will stay in the hangar.
 

dylman

dylman
I've been to Colonia in an Asp and to Sag A in an Anaconda. Both are entirely viable in my opinion, except that the 7A fuel scoop the Anaconda can equip is a literal game changer. I'll never again venture out into the black without one.
 

CMDR Corlas

CMDR Corlas
Bryan K said:
I could never get past the fact that the AspX just has no personality. You fly around in a big sterile bubble with dull flight characteristics and minimal style. Sure, it's technically brilliant, but I want to fly a ship with more zing.
Click to expand...

Yes, a thousand times yes. The Asp is so mind-numbingly plain and dull.
 

Klab

Klab
dylman said:
I've been to Colonia in an Asp and to Sag A in an Anaconda. Both are entirely viable in my opinion, except that the 7A fuel scoop the Anaconda can equip is a literal game changer. I'll never again venture out into the black without one.
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I agree. The Asp 'sips' whilst fuel scooping, the Anaconda takes huge great glugs.
 

GJ51

GJ51
It really comes down to what your objectives are. If you want to get there fast and hit the outer reaches, the Conda can't be beat.

If you want to stay in the denser regions and land often, the Asp will work better.

They both work great, but are each better suited for different tasks.
 

nosleepdemon

nosleepdemon
Annie is the ship for me! I flew the AspX for a bit as an explorer, but back in the day I found it to be far more suited to smuggling. The Annie is the perfect end game exploration vessel: lots of internals, huge fuel scoop, excellent range and if you smash your buggy to bits there's always another. I took some passengers with me to Colonia and back and made a cool 150 mill to boot. It does however have two nasty drawbacks: First, with a long range build your engines may end up being junk, a 2.5g world damn near killed me (tourist destination). Second, your risk of getting scanned when leaving a station can seriously ruin your day. At least on an approach you can burn your remaining heatsinks and powerslide through the slot.
 

Red Anders

Red Anders
nanite2000 said:
I'm debating whether it's worth upgrading from an Asp Explorer to an Anaconda for exploration purposes, and I've been comparing the Pros and cons of an Anaconda build.

Pros:
  • Fighter bay (for fast planetary surface runs)
  • Extra vehicle hangar
  • Cargo/passenger slots
  • Fractionally longer FSD jump range (around 5% more).

Cons:
  • Slow/weak thrusters (around 30% slower than an AspX)
  • Fewer total jumps per fuel tank (4 vs 7).

Here's my current AspX build: https://goo.gl/HLu4Nm
Here's my proposed Anaconda build: https://goo.gl/GDJiKP

To any explorers with experience of both ships - is the Anaconda really worth it? Could you share your experiences?
Click to expand...

If you want to look for things on planetary surfaces from your ship, the Asp is better. That is literally the only thing it's better for, other than the obvious cost.

You mentioned the lower number of jumps that an anaconda can make; I have an additional class 4 tank on mine which gives me 6 jumps and I've never come close to finding myself in danger of running out of fuel. Yes it's a little extra weight but for all but the most hardcore range fiends there's a balance to be had between weight saving and quality of life and personally I've found there's a fairly wide area of the curve for that with the Anaconda. Mine is jumping 49.75LY in full exploration fit-out; you can get it to 60 with a totally optimised low mass build and a good roll on a level 5 range-enhanced FSD but I've never found myself thinking that 50 LY isn't enough.

The Asp is a great explorer, no question about it. I've done a trip of over 50,000 LY in mine and I can honestly say it never felt limited but the Anaconda does everything the Asp can do and more.

Having said that, I didn't choose between the Asp or the Anaconda, I still have my exploration Asp as well as a DBX, although I won't be going on long distance trips in the DBX until we get fuel scoop engineering to increase the flow rate, a class 4 scoop is torture on an exploration ship.

GJ51 said:
It really comes down to what your objectives are. If you want to get there fast and hit the outer reaches, the Conda can't be beat.

If you want to stay in the denser regions and land often, the Asp will work better.

They both work great, but are each better suited for different tasks.
Click to expand...

That's a great summary.
 
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nanite2000

nanite2000
GJ51 said:
It really comes down to what your objectives are. If you want to get there fast and hit the outer reaches, the Conda can't be beat.
Click to expand...

Can I ask why you feel the Anaconda would "get there fast"? It seems to me that the fewer jumps off a single tank would require more time spent fuel scooping.

This is my main query really - does the bigger fuel scoop offset the smaller fuel tank? Especially now that we have to navigate around a (scoopable) star to get to the next star system in a jump route anyway?

GJ51 said:
If you want to stay in the denser regions and land often, the Asp will work better.
Click to expand...

I must admit - I do like scouting planet surfaces up close, but if a fighter can fill this role, then I don't *need* the AspX for that. Also a second SRV hangar is good, especially as I killed my SRV on my last expedition. :eek:
 

Red Anders

Red Anders
nanite2000 said:
Can I ask why you feel the Anaconda would "get there fast"? It seems to me that the fewer jumps off a single tank would require more time spent fuel scooping.

This is my main query really - does the bigger fuel scoop offset the smaller fuel tank? Especially now that we have to navigate around a (scoopable) star to get to the next star system in a jump route anyway?
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What is this 'time spent fuel scooping'? :D Even with a 7B scoop you have to work at flying round a star to your jump out without refuelling a jump's worth. If you're someone who runs empty and then fills up you will notice the increased speed even more because you only have one 'speed up' until you're scooping at maximum speed rather than having that each jump and once you're at maximum rate yeah, it's very fast.

Plus as I said earlier, what's the insistence on sticking with the stock tank anyway? Add a class 4 secondary tank and you're up to six jumps, the additional weight has a negligible effect on an Anaconda with a level 5 engineered range enhanced drive. As an example, the optimised mass for my Anaconda's engineered FSD is 2,559 tons. Do you think the extra weight from a 16 ton fuel tank makes much difference to my jump range? ;) I think it might have gone from 49.75 to 49.7...

The main reason the Anaconda will get there fast though is the jump range. My Asp can jump 45Ly, the Conda burns it off. Even with 2 class 6 passenger cabins stuck in it at the moment which takes 5LY off my usual range I'm jumping 180LY with neutron star boosts on the way back from Jacques. My 49.75Ly ship is nothing like a fully mass-optimised exploration build, I could add probably another 5 LY to it if I stripped it down and engineered a couple of things and it would still be on a par with the Asp in terms of equipment.

nanite2000 said:
I must admit - I do like scouting planet surfaces up close, but if a fighter can fill this role, then I don't *need* the AspX for that. Also a second SRV hangar is good, especially as I killed my SRV on my last expedition. :eek:
Click to expand...

I once flew 8K Ly back to the bubble and 8K back to where I was as a result of blowing up both SRVs on my Asp (class 4 bay) and having to buy new ones. I use a class 6 bay on the Anaconda which can carry four of them.

Klab said:
I agree. The Asp 'sips' whilst fuel scooping, the Anaconda takes huge great glugs.
Click to expand...

This was just an Anaconda's fuel scoop embedded in a mountain.

[video=youtube;WYtRuOz4Wvw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYtRuOz4Wvw[/video]
 
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Doc_Holiday

Doc_Holiday
I've used both but I always lean more towards the Conda.

I was crushed though when the announcement finally came that the only ship launched fighters would strictly be fighters.
I was hoping for a sidewinder sized, unarmed ship carrying an srv and a little cargo room so I could leave the Conda in orbit.
 

Mengy

Mengy
I've flown an Asp Explorer for 90% of the past two years, taking her all over the galaxy. Then, I bought my first Anaconda a month ago and I've been putting her through the exploration paces ever since, getting a feel for the ship in various situations. And my conclusion is this:

I love the Anaconda's extra jump range and quicker fuel scoop, and it's ability to carry a fighter, but I HATE flying this frackin ship!!!!!! [mad]

I mean, I literally hate flying it. Even after a month I still scrape paint off the hull flying through the slot. I can't see below that huge nose out front, so planetary exploration and landings feel uncomfortable. The beast turns like a slug in molasses in the cold wintertime in supercruise. I often have a hard time finding a spot to land the ship on any kind of terrain that isn't perfectly flat.

By comparison, in my Asp I can see everywhere, situational awareness is superb. The Asp turns like a nimble sprite, it can land on practically any kind of terrain. Sure it can't carry a fighter but who needs one, the Asp itself is nimble enough. It boosts faster across planet surfaces, it handles heavy gravity better, she can land on outposts, I can zip out of the slot like an Eagle.

For myself, part of why I play Elite is for fun, and I just don't have fun flying the Anaconda. I have a blast flying my Asp. I've pretty much decided that my Anaconda will be relegated to long range passenger missions and bubble trading. For me it's just not worth flying into deep space for exploration. I frown when I fly the Anaconda, I smile when I fly the Asp.

So IMHO no the Anaconda's not worth it over the Asp. I know a lot of people will disagree with me, but they are allowed to, this is my opinion! :cool:
 

[VR] Merkir

[VR] Merkir
Asp Explorer all the way. I love the Anaconda for passenger missions, but the Asp for exploration for all the reasons Mengy gave. But the even more important reason is that I use VR, so visibility makes it a no contest.
 

lefty1117

L
The Asp just seems the more logical choice, but boy is it a bland ship. I was really hoping the Cobra Mk IV would have been a direct competitor to give us a bit of variety in that space.
 

mp4x

mp4x
Good info in here as I'm on the edge of doing some exploratoin myself, and I did wonder about waiting until i get a larger ship and the jump ranges.
As it was said in here, I play for fun and that means I don't aim for the biggest and best ship, and I keep every ship I buy because I still enjoy them... But It's great to get a bit more confidence in the AspX, because I really like flying it

Thanks :)
 
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