Like the title, which would you go with. Super range is great but I don't want to be driving a boiling teakettle. So I put this to ye.
Engineers ASP explorer drivers only. Clean or dirty drives. Your thoughts.
- Thread starter Captain Willard
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Philip Coutts
Volunteer Moderator
I've always gone for clean drives and have no issues with good results but I can't really tell you much about the dirty ones other than they sound..well..."dirty".
Dirty drives and low emission power plant. For every ship. Biggest speed bonus and NPC heat mod weapons no longer affect you. Plus you can start jumping while scooping.
I have clean drives 5 on the Python and it's meh at best. Gonna take another trip to Palin soon to fix that.
I have clean drives 5 on the Python and it's meh at best. Gonna take another trip to Palin soon to fix that.
I usually run high heat weapons (multis with incendiaries or missile launchers plus beam turrets) on most of my ships and I use dirty drive tuning on the engines which means that I am usually running fairly hot in all of my builds. My Python also uses an undersized 6A power plant to save on weight and rebuy cost so I find that the low emissions plants aren't viable in any of my builds as I need more power than they can generate. What I've done for my Asp and Python as a middle-ground has been to roll the Grade 4 Armored power plant mods until I got one that had an improved heat efficiency by around 5% which dropped the effective heat efficiency to 0.38 for those ships. It's not as big an advantage in terms of thermal efficiency as the low emissions power plant but there is no decrease in power generation and the only real penalty is the weight. In the case of my Asp the added advantage of the Grade 4 Armored power plant in addition to the modest improvement in heat efficiency is that the power plant is much less vulnerable to damage as the integrity is increased by around 50%. I haven't tested this to see if it makes a difference on module damage to the power plant when doing an emergency drop out of SC or overheating near a star but given that you can't repair the power plant when exploring I suspect that the increase in power plant integrity will dramatically increase the effective "endurance" of my Asp and Python on long trips if I don't have access to repair facilities.
That's good for undersized power plants. But don't worry about losing the PP, you'll lose other vital modules looong before that. Like the drives
Need more info, what are you planning to use it for? There's advantages to clean drives for exploration builds but for everything else dirty is generally superior and the heat issues generally fairly bearable.. I have DD3 on my mission Asp and it boosts to around 444.. That's enough to make an Asp completely invulnerable to interdiction... The jump range is around 42LY which isn't bad considering it has weapons and A rated DD thrusters etc..
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this. it also depends what you use with it (a class thrusters? d-class thrusters?).
i run L5 clean drive tuning on my explonda, which has (unusual build ;-) ) undersized 6A trusters. it is now running at 19% (!) heat in supercruise, and can highwake from blackholes without overheating.
i run L5 dirty drive tuning on my DBE with A class thrusters. it is now running at 23% in supercruise, and can't jump while scooping at max without overheating anymore, needs to low wake from black holes and neutron stars, but does 409 m/s boost speed.
there is also a diminuishing return of speed pve. an AspE could already outboost almost any ship ingame, more so npc; i'd see that i keep that 390-400 m/s boost speed with the modding on an exploration ship. in most cases, clean drive will be enough for it. while if i would run a mission runner AspE, I'd maybe go for dirty drive tuning, which will give you 460+ m/s boostspeed ... and will let you be in and ot of a station quicker.
^ This. Dirtier the better
Doesn't afffect smuggling either because bits and bytes can see everything.Viajero
Volunteer Moderator
*Mod hat off
I dont think that would work well in power starved ships such as the Vulture or Eagle. As long as you have plenty of spare power capacity I agree though!
But for my Vulture I am going Overcharged Powerplant all the way!
I dont think that would work well in power starved ships such as the Vulture or Eagle. As long as you have plenty of spare power capacity I agree though!
But for my Vulture I am going Overcharged Powerplant all the way!
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Explorers or silent running commanders (maybe)..
For exploration, clean drives.
Yes, has to be done with care though.. too much clean drives and you might find you need a bigger power plant which will reduce jump range..
Very nice, there are more ways to go than I had forseen. Exactly the kind of responses I was looking for. My ships are ever changing, my former Aspx had no shields and 3a pp. Now it carries 3a prismatic shields, 4a pp, class a thrusters and a big enuff pd I can actually use boost now. More food for thought.
That's good for undersized power plants. But don't worry about losing the PP, you'll lose other vital modules looong before that. Like the drives
You can repair all modules except the hull and power plant with the AFMU so having more integrity on the power plant or armoring the hull should make them last substantially longer when exploring. I'm not certain if dropping out of SC inflicts a set amount of damage to your hull/modules but I suspect that the increased integrity of the power plant with the Amored modification and the increased hull boost from the military alloys will make both of them last longer from SC emergency drops, heat damage and also any landing mishaps or combat damage that might happen.
yes, i assumed the same ( heavy duty armour mods on lightweight armour come without penalty ;-) ) --- but others claim, that sc emergency drop, heat damage and crash damage are percentage damage without any effect of grade or armour. needs testing!
I would not be suprised if SC drops and heat damage to power plant were a fixed percentage, but at the very least the military alloys will help with landing on high-G planets and the armored power plant should help against power plant damage in combat which may become relevant if the Thargoids eventually show up and start attacking explorers on their journeys. So I will probably be leaving my armored power plant and military alloys on my Asp regardless but it would be nice if it provides some protection from SC drops and heat damage as well.
I went with grade 3 on 4D trusters and a 3A power plant. Turned off unwanted modules and am sitting at 78% power usage.