AspX Exploration build - advice and comments needed and welcome

[Jarsil]

o7 cmdrs,

I'm patiently unlocking engineers and guardians to obtain better tools for the trade of exploring the galaxy (I've already made the trip to Sag A* and traveled for about... five years - i started out with the first Elite: Dangerous, before Horizons, and just came back last week ).

I created one exploration build to be used in two ways for my Asp Explorer to get out again this time with a lot more juice and tools. I'd like to submit them for your review and suggestions.

Build variant 1: The Supercruise variant, to be used when in SC or flying around some USS

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

Build variant 2: The planetary landing variant, to be activated before entering orbital cruise and while landed.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

As you all can see, the ship is the same, I just "play around" with toggling power on and off to some module in order to be able to use the smallest PP available. I managed to squeeze more than enough juice from a 2A PP with Overcharged 2 / Stripped Down to get around 64LY jump range.

The reason behind the choice to have 2 2G hangars instead of a 4G is to preserve the class 5 slot to fit the Guardian FSD Boost.

I'm absolutely open to suggestion.

Besides, ship's name is The Puddle Jumper One (For all SG:Atlantis lovers, yes, it's an homage to those puddlejumpers )

 

[Jarsil]

I just realized I may have posted in the wrong forum. Can a moderator move to the appropriate place, with my apologies?

 

[Speedcuffs]

Engineer your current hull, there is no weight cost.

 

[Jarsil]

Engineer your current hull, there is no weight cost.

Something like HeavyDuty/Reflective Plating?

 

[Northpin]

Something like HeavyDuty/Reflective Plating?

no- heavyduty with deep plating, no penalties, only benefits

Also be careful with power priorities and low power builds.
If you go farther than 2km from your ship, it will fly off... Make sure it has a build with enough power to take off and land. Else Kaboom!

And those shields - they really won't save you from a missed landing nor from an encounter with a native in a NSP

 

[Speedcuffs]

Make sure it has a build with enough power to take off and land. Else Kaboom!

Oof! Yes. After all the complaints about dismissed ships crashing, I've upped the powerplant and thrusters on my explo ships. It's cost a small amount of jump range, but better safe than sorry.
As regards power... Beware extreme min/max builds, it will come back and bite you on the Asp!

 

[Jarsil]

no- heavyduty with deep plating, no penalties, only benefits

Noted

Also be careful with power priorities and low power builds.
If you go farther than 2km from your sthip, it will fly off... Make sure it has a build with enough power to take off and land. Else Kaboom!

That should be a thrusters issue, isn't it?
Putting a 5D Thruster with Clean 3 / Drive Dristibutors I'm able to keep the 2A PP on without overcharging, I guess it could be done.

And those shields - they really won't save you from a missed landing nor from an encounter with a native in a NSP

I take your word for it. I never slammed myself on a planet, yet, just minor bumps and the shield didn't flinch.

 

[goemon]

1. with the DSSA FC everywhere, i think you can safetly reduce to a single srv - (almost?) all of them have restocking, so loosing your srv 40k ly from the next station isn't much of a thing now.

2. if you like to get tissue samples and such from molluscs and other - fit a research limpet controller instead.

3. i personally like to have a plasma slug railgun or plasma slug plasma accelerator on my explorer ships - for fueldumping jumping on fumes.

4. i personally also bring other tools - like a mining laser to help a stranded explorer ... a small pulse laser to activate guardian beacons ... an ax missile rack for explosive and ax damage... stuff like that. totally not usefull. xeno scanner. manifest scanner (find a megaship deepspace but can't check its cargo ...)

 

[Northpin]

That should be a thrusters issue, isn't it?
Putting a 5D Thruster with Clean 3 / Drive Dristibutors I'm able to keep the 2A PP on without overcharging, I guess it could be done.

No. It's about power usage and setting priorities right. Not about engines types (and clean drives use more power than dirty ones) so they're quite a trap.
priority 1 everything that keeps your ships flying, then go up in priority for less and less important stuff - and use all those levels (priority 5 for fuelscoop and sca)

still, safest is to make sure you can run everything and still have power (well maybe not for that afmu, but still - it needs to be set on correct power priority)

I take your word for it. I never slammed myself on a planet, yet, just minor bumps and the shield didn't flinch.

Landing at night can be disorienting.
Or you might miss the fact that planet you are going to land is a 1.5g planet and not a 0.2g one. And AspX has notoriously bad brakes

 

[Hawk of Battle]

I wouldn't bother with the wake scanner or those point defense honestly. You'll literally never use them. Even the heatsink is rarely used and is more for extreme unexpected emergencies. Stick a mining laser on and a railgun with Plasma slug, for extra utility and again, rare cases where you might get stuck if you go really far out. And switch to Dirty drives. Dirties are just better.

 

[goemon]

the shielddiscussion is never ending

i'm a sloppy lander sometimes, that#s why i have a 3a enhanced low poer shieldgenerator on my dbe.

i know people who can land shieldless on 6G worlds.

 

[goemon]

the discussion of dirty vs clean drives is also never ending.

dirty lead to a lower resting heat due to less power consumption.
clean leads to lower heat during thruster usage.
if you intend to land and hoover a hot higher g planet - you'll take clean.
if you don't intend doing so, dirty is a possibility (but in that case you could also go for G1 clean drive, as that adds no additional MW, with stripped down for less mass).
you can test your build easily ad achenar 5 (high g) and skardee 1 (heat) - both in the bubble.

 

[Pat Healy]

I take your word for it. I never slammed myself on a planet, yet, just minor bumps and the shield didn't flinch.

In my experience you should be fine. My build is very similar to yours - I've had lots of rough landings with no issues. Once crashed full speed into the side of a station at around 200 m/s and it was OK. By "OK" I mean the shields went offline and I suffered 20 points of hull damage, but certainly survivable. That's happened once in 2 years of flying this build.

 

[Jarsil]

No. It's about power usage and setting priorities right. Not about engines types (and clean drives use more power than dirty ones) so they're quite a trap.
priority 1 everything that keeps your ships flying, then go up in priority for less and less important stuff - and use all those levels (priority 5 for fuelscoop and sca)

still, safest is to make sure you can run everything and still have power (well maybe not for that afmu, but still - it needs to be set on correct power priority)

Ok. So basically, if I understand correctly your point, I should go for at least a 3A PP able to power the entire ship with even a bit juice to spare. Would you go for a 3A with enough overcharge if it obtained the same results? I'd really stay max at 3A for thermal reasons.
Maybe I can go for more overcharge and fit a better shield

Like this:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

 

[Jarsil]

In my experience you should be fine. My build is very similar to yours - I've had lots of rough landings with no issues. Once crashed full speed into the side of a station at around 200 m/s and it was OK. By "OK" I mean the shields went offline and I suffered 20 points of hull damage, but certainly survivable. That's happened once in 2 years of flying this build.

I just came back after years of exploring, and had to use heatsink once. And AFMU came back at 75% ammo capacity (used mainly to top up at 100% some wear and tear on the fsd due to some wrong supercruise exit).

 

[Jarsil]

That's another variation:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

It should be efficient enough thermal-wise, I'd still keep unnecessary module powered off in SC to reduce heat signature, and I still have more than 60ly of range.

Question: fitting two small pulse lasers could be useful to shoot some skimmers from above on the surface? Or it's a complete waste of (little) energy?

 

[goemon]

Question: fitting two small pulse lasers could be useful to shoot some skimmers from above on the surface? Or it's a complete waste of (little) energy?

it's hard to hit them. fo skimmer you'd want fixed beams (but power distributor), fixed frags, or fixed dumbfire missiles.

 

[goemon]

Would you go for a 3A with enough overcharge if it obtained the same results? I'd really stay max at 3A for thermal reasons.

powerplant size has no effect on heat.

grade (a) and engineering has - all down to it's heat efficiency.

a 5A powerplant will run as cool as a 3A powerplant, if same total MW powered.

they are heavier though.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

• why 2x Point Defense? I'd settle with 1x Point Defense and 1x Chaff
• why a FrameShift Wake Scanner on an Exploration Ship? There are no Wakes to scan in Deep Space. A Xeno Scanner or lightweight Shield Booster might make more sense
• the 2nd Vehicle Hangar draws power and adds considerable weight... why not drop one? Restock of a lost SRV is available at most Carriers if needed
• the tiny Power Plant forced into Overcharged G2 is costing you heat tolerance and it still can't handle all Modules. Dismissing and Recalling the own Ship on Planets can occasionally cause the Autopilot to lose control of the Ship (i.e. Cargo Hatch is notorious for silently self-activating together with a power cycle on SRV Bay - so that's an additional risk)
• having no Weapons means you're unable to fight (which is obviously not intended anyway in such a build) - but you're also unable to i.e. check for Traits on Biologicals in Space, just something to keep in mind if you're interested in that - you also can't manually shoot & scoop Mats on Planets with the Ship, should you ever lose the SRV(s) and urgently need Mats
• 4D Life Support only offers 7m30s O2, meaning you'd frequently have to synth Oxygen if things go very wrong... 4A only costs you 0.2LY range G5 Lightweight but offers 25m O2; you'll be glad you picked it over D-Grade the moment you need it
• you can save some power by using a B-Grade AFMU, it's weightless after all, repairs will be a tad slower but it adds 15% Ammo as well

 

[Jarsil]

The reason behind 2x PD is what i've read about guardian installations and the missiles sentries there launch. I'll be more than happy to remove one of them.
The Wake scanner is there just because I'm still not headed outside, and I need materials still, but you're right, it will be removed as soon as I head out again.
The 2nd vehicle ... you're the second to say to remove it because of the FC... I'll think about it
I already changed the PP to 3A, which is more than plenty to power all modules without the need of shutting down something (except for the AFMU, but it's ok)

Care to explain a bit more in detail, or point me in the right direction, about Biologicals and why I should need to shoot at them?
Thanks a lot!