So I just looked up spansh, I have never seen that before. Thank you for that Orodruin! I was wondering what the hoopla with the neutron boosting was all about, I never found it to really change my travel times all that much. I would just enable jet boost in the galmap, I never knew about spansh. I'll check that out for sure!
Ships AspX Explorer Build, I think I'm finally ready to go on a long expedition
- Thread starter CptArcher
- Start date
So I just looked up spansh, I have never seen that before. Thank you for that Orodruin! I was wondering what the hoopla with the neutron boosting was all about, I never found it to really change my travel times all that much. I would just enable jet boost in the galmap, I never knew about spansh. I'll check that out for sure!
![[VR] Orodruin](https://d2aefvhu2f0gi9.cloudfront.net/data/avatars/m/237/237188.jpg?1614840532){kind=avatar}
Yeah, just enabling jet boosts in the galaxy map is not going to do much. Particularly if you keep to don't go up or down in the galactic plane.
You might want to collect a few mats to reloads your heat sink just in case you get a little to close to a star while refueling. I know the mats can be collected later but to be safe it is a good idea to have at least a few reloads. I completed Distant Worlds 2 in my Asp Explorer. I thought about taking my longer range Anaconda but in the end the Asp was the correct choice. The Asp has a better view out the cockpit and her turn rate is so much better.
Thanks Kort! I did visit a trader before I left and gave some rare mats for a fill up of heat sink mats. I'm good to go and have only had to synth some heatsinks once so far
Well I'll be darned. I came across a neutron star and it looks like I am going to be the first discoverer! Ahaha! I shall scan and map everything
Well, too bad it's in the middle of nowhere. I mean there is just nothing out here.... but a bunch of water worlds, plenty of those, plenty of terraformables. I suppose if mankind wants to make a settlement this way, there are plenty of planets they could make their home on.
Here is my alternate version of your build. Small changes for getting a sturdier ship. I noticed that with smaller ships, dropping the repair controller and cargo slot and replacing that with 1 heavy duty HRP makes a lot of sense. In this case the changes made doubles the hull, triples the shields, improves normal space handling a lot, hugely improves heat mechanics and adds 9 LY to jump distance while keeping the supercruise assistant. Basically you can make mistakes that would send you to rebuy screen with the other build and still carry on in better shape than you would have been while at 100% shape in the paper plane.
2 alternate builds:
Coriolis EDCD Edition
A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone
Coriolis EDCD Edition
A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone
If that is not enough, there is headroom for adding 2 more shield boosters and switching the shield to prismatic. https://s.orbis.zone/6kbq and still maintaining 62,4 LY jump range. With that build you can take a hit (with ground, asteroid, weird npc while returning to bubble) that would kill the original-original
build and only lose 1 ring of shields and you would still have the toughened hull below the shield.Anyhow, just food for thought.
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The build is very good for exploring but I would make some adjustments once all engineers and FSD boosters become available, if you haven’t departed yet for your exploration trip.
Here is one version, using full engineering access plus FSD booster, that will give you enhanced shields and protection, while keeping a good jump range:
s.orbis.zone
You can also use a regular 3A shield generator with reinforced/hi cap engineering to get 418 MJ, if you can’t wait the required 4 weeks while serving Princess Duval.
As I started the Elite Dangerous journey almost a year ago, I have seen video after video of griefers destroying unarmed and lightly shielded explorer vessels, and I also have seen posts about how high ranked NPC’s can also destroy a lightly protected explorer vessel.
it would be extremely frustrating, I think, to lose hundreds of millions on data as well as weeks and months spent exploring, to an NPC or a CMDR in a well equipped combat ship.You can see this for yourself if you have a fully engineered FDL, Corvette, FAS or something similar, and head to a low RES zone. Find yourself a wanted harmless or mostly harmless AspX and attack it. It took just a few seconds to kill, right? I believe that that low rated AspX was unengineered and had the stock base shields and armor. This, fellow explorer, is you in that lightly shielded AspX and just saw what that G5 engineered combat vessel or even a high ranked NPC can do.
Of course, one can avoid being griefed by exploring in solo mode but even there, there is the possibility of being interdicted by a high ranked NPC. Yes, it is possible to win the interdiction minigame against an NPC but just in case, I like to carry equipment that will let me permaboost and give me time to flee.
What makes possible a well defended exploration ship that can still retain a good jumping range is the unlocking of the guardian FSD booster.
Happy travels! Be careful out there. Fly safe.
Here is one version, using full engineering access plus FSD booster, that will give you enhanced shields and protection, while keeping a good jump range:
Coriolis EDCD Edition
A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone
You can also use a regular 3A shield generator with reinforced/hi cap engineering to get 418 MJ, if you can’t wait the required 4 weeks while serving Princess Duval.
As I started the Elite Dangerous journey almost a year ago, I have seen video after video of griefers destroying unarmed and lightly shielded explorer vessels, and I also have seen posts about how high ranked NPC’s can also destroy a lightly protected explorer vessel.
it would be extremely frustrating, I think, to lose hundreds of millions on data as well as weeks and months spent exploring, to an NPC or a CMDR in a well equipped combat ship.You can see this for yourself if you have a fully engineered FDL, Corvette, FAS or something similar, and head to a low RES zone. Find yourself a wanted harmless or mostly harmless AspX and attack it. It took just a few seconds to kill, right? I believe that that low rated AspX was unengineered and had the stock base shields and armor. This, fellow explorer, is you in that lightly shielded AspX and just saw what that G5 engineered combat vessel or even a high ranked NPC can do.
Of course, one can avoid being griefed by exploring in solo mode but even there, there is the possibility of being interdicted by a high ranked NPC. Yes, it is possible to win the interdiction minigame against an NPC but just in case, I like to carry equipment that will let me permaboost and give me time to flee.
What makes possible a well defended exploration ship that can still retain a good jumping range is the unlocking of the guardian FSD booster.
Happy travels! Be careful out there. Fly safe.
I already left but then came back. Started getting space madness in the Formidine. That disease is real man. There was nothing out there and I scanned and scanned forever. Everything started looking the same after awhile. I wish I would've seen that thread in the exploration forum before I left because I would have visited the ghost ship. Spent forever there even just looking for O class stars. In the end, I desired more jump range so I came home and built me a bad ass Anaconda. Finally have a use for that pig of a ship.
I agree with your rationale there for more defensive ships. I took the liberty to "improve" your design a bit for making a ship that is more durable, has better heat mechanics, is faster, has a better engine capacitor, and jumps farther. https://s.orbis.zone/6rtw
Allow me to respectfully disagree. That fuel scoop cost is a single run from Robigo to Sothis or 5 minutes mining in Borann.
The point being that credits are easy to come by and anything that decreases scoop time is a win in my book
It takes 10 seconds for your FSD to cool down after a jump.
It takes a 6A scoop 5.7 seconds to scoop one jumps worth of fuel. It takes the 6B scoop 6.6 seconds to do the same.
Either way, you'll still only be able to scoop 1 jumps worth of fuel by the time your ready to jump again. Why spend the extra money and have the higher re-buy for no real benefit.
Also, not every commander is rolling in the Mega Credits. Fully kitted out my 57.5Ly Dolphin explorer cost just 16.2Mcr, compare that to the 28Mcr cost of that 6A scoop.
You do not necessarily scoop every jump. Particularly not if travelling by neutron highway. Credits are so easy to come by that unless you are just starting out, a rebuy or an extra 28 Mcr should not really be much of a bother. Even doing R2R it is not difficult or very time consuming to get that amount of credits. I think we have different perceptions of the costs and benefits - or maybe it is just that I am blind to the cost. If there is even the slightest benefit and the cost is zero to you, you still get a cost/benefit ratio of zero no matter how small the benefit.
You can of course do whatever you prefer.
I agree with Orodruin here. At the same time I also remember when I was starting out that fuel scoops were expensive then, but so were power plants etc. Anyhow, when looking at a fully engineered ship, cost savings are really not the first thing that is at the fore front. To any commanders that do not have a lot of money: take your savings where you can and, as baudelier said, you can save some money with the fuel scoop. Having said that, I personally would never do that if I had the money to buy the best scoop that my ship can take. My last trip was around 200k LY or so. I would not want to spend any more time than necessary doing scooping on long trips.