Are Engineered SCO FSD Drives Worth the Effort?

Cmdr Travers

Cmdr Travers
Okay, so I've bought some A-rated SCO FSD drives for my fleet but, being cautious about grind, I thought I'd just engineer one of them first to see the result.

From the videos seen online it looks like the basic SCO drives have a range of about 2ly more than conventional FSDs.

I engineered my shuttlebus Diamondback Explorer, which with a regular FSD had a range of 73.96ly using Increased Range and Mass Manager...

...but now it's got a range of just 74.18ly. That's an increase of just 0.22ly.

Given the grind in collecting mats for engineering I don't think this is going to be worth it on any ship you already have fully engineered and don't need to scrape the last final bit of range out of 😒
 

Ozric

Volunteer Moderator
Ozric
Isn't the point of them that you can travel in Supercruise quickly? Not trying to get more jump range on a ship. They fact that you can engineer them to also jump further than a standard FSD is the final nail in the coffin for the standard.

With all the changed made to them in the latest update realistically the only people who wouldn't benefit from having one is a long range Explorer without a Fleet Carrier.
 

Unknown Zombie

Unknown Zombie
Cmdr Travers said:
Given the grind in collecting mats for engineering I don't think this is going to be worth it on any ship you already have fully engineered and don't need to scrape the last final bit of range out of 😒
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Instead of looking at it from that angle, I look at it from the angle of "Oh, nice! I will get to enjoy the new SCO feature on my ships without having to sacrifice any range."

I think that is the actual point.
 

O'Roarke

O'Roarke
They're best-in-slot now.

It's eking out the double pre-engineered FSD from the Colonia Bridge CG in terms of jump range.
And you get SCO on top of that.

Sirius Corporation's board of directors now has to explain to their shareholders why, in the span of just one month, they not only lost a monopoly but also are selling the worst product on the market...
 

Cmdr Travers

Cmdr Travers
Ozric said:
Isn't the point of them that you can travel in Supercruise quickly? Not trying to get more jump range on a ship.

With all the changed made to them in the latest update realistically the only people who wouldn't benefit from having one is a long range Explorer without a Fleet Carrier.
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Wasn't the original point of Elite to be able to "Blaze your own trail"? I'm never going to use the overdrive function, but any increased range for a shuttlebus or for exploration can be genuinely useful, but only if the grind and outcome is worth it.
 

Cmdr Travers

Cmdr Travers
Unknown Zombie said:
Why wouldn't faster supercruise be useful to an explorer?

I have definitely looked at system maps and made a conscious decision to not DSS and exobio some targets because of how far away they are. Now you can get to them faster. Seems like a win to me?
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I can definitely see that, but fuel out in the black would be a concern, as would heat damage.
 

Ozric

Volunteer Moderator
Ozric
Cmdr Travers said:
Wasn't the original point of Elite to be able to "Blaze your own trail"? I'm never going to use the overdrive function, but any increased range for a shuttlebus or for exploration can be genuinely useful, but only if the grind and outcome is worth it.
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Yes and it still is the point. But the new drives were made specifically to travel quickly in Supercruise.

To say that a module isn't worth it, because you are using it for a secondary reason that has only recently been added, rather than the main purpose just seems a bit odd.


Cmdr Travers said:
I can definitely see that, but fuel out in the black would be a concern, as would heat damage.
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Fuel really isn't an issue unless you are careless, which is the same as normal flying. And the Heat Damage has been massively reduced with the update. Previously if you just feathered the SCO rather than held it down, you'd still get a big speed boost but without going over 100% anyway.
 

Cmdr Travers

Cmdr Travers
Ozric said:
Yes and it still is the point. But the new drives were made specifically to travel quickly in Supercruise.

To say that a module isn't worth it, because you are using it for a secondary reason that has only recently been added, rather than the main purpose just seems a bit odd.
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I never said it's not worth it. There's a question mark at the end of the post title. I don't think it's worth it... for me however. I don't doubt many other people will have huge volumes of fun with it.
 

Cmdr Travers

Cmdr Travers
metatheurgist said:
I think the way to look at it is "Oh joy, I get to redo all the FSD engineering on my ships!" 🤪
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Yup, that's why I tried it first on the ship in my fleet with the longest jump range. I think I'll skip it for the rest of the fleet as the overdrive bit makes me nervous. I'll have one on my Mk II Python, but whether I'll keep that ship either is also up for debate, due to the small number of module slots. Hey ho!
 

Cmdr Esteban

Cmdr Esteban
metatheurgist said:
I think the way to look at it is "Oh joy, I get to redo all the FSD engineering on my ships!" 🤪
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😱 I’ve only got one ship, but I don’t have the required FSD engineering materials on hand anymore (didn’t think I’d be likely needing them again, oops) so it’s still pretty daunting…
Unknown Zombie said:
If one thinks this way they might just hold off for a bit to find out what that engineering re-balance is like, I reckon.
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Yes, that is wise. I will do that.
 

MartinG

M
BTW, looking at the stats, the only difference between B- and C-rated SCO FSDs is SCO heat generation, which is higher for B-s, making them strictly worse than C-s for a higher price. 🤷‍♂️
 
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