Back to exploring after years on a DBX.

[CMDR Mr S]

Hello fellow CMDRs... I have been away for a while and am now starting to get the hang of it again.

Last time I ventured out must have been 2014-15. We had no DSS, no FSS, not even landable planets. No AFMU or repair drones. Nothing. It was daunting.
I did go to Sag A* (and have nothing to prove it!) in the best the tech could offer at the time (I think it was a ASP explorer made as light as possible with an A rated FSD and that was it...). Took forever also to compute the route when in the center of the galaxy, so we used third party tools.

Oh, and exploration paid peanuts.

My question here is:
would this be a sufficient build to go explore for a while?
what am I missing? What should I be looking for?

Thanks for any advice you might want to throw this way.

o7

 

[Zieman]

Looks very capable.
I might replace one of the PDs with chaff and add a size 1 Rail Gun with Plasma Slugs experimental, but that's just personal preference.
And then there's the "hit-by-lighning-three-times-in-a-row" chance of needing a mining laser:

End of the Road

I've messed up. I am less than a thousand light years out from Beagle Point beginning a slow-boat journey home. Using the new feature in the galaxy map which highlights previous systems you have visited, I was retracing my jumps back and made a 50% boost into a system. It has one landable...

forums.frontier.co.uk

 

[Orvidius]

Why so much point defense? You're probably not going to see a lot of missiles out there. But if you just like to have them, then of course that's fine.

It looks like you're still over the power budget even with the AFMU turned off. You'll either need to turn more off, or change your power plant. It's using overcharged-3, so I'd probably avoid adding to that, since it'll be getting warm. The DBX needs to scoop a lot longer than most ships (size-4 scoop for size-5 FSD), so you'll probably want to run cool instead. I'd favor going with a 3A or 4A power plant to cover it, and put a low emissions mod, so that you can scoop longer without overheating.

Double-braced on the power plant is useless, since any damage the PP will take will be percentage-based damage from emergency stops. (It can't take heat damage, and you won't get shot at).

Engineering the scoop is similarly useless. While it can take heat damage, you'll have plenty of time to repair it, and more "toughness" to absorb that damage means more repairing, so you don't really gain anything. And it'll work normally down to 1% health.

Otherwise, it looks pretty good.

 

[Zieman]

Oh yes, for example monstering the PP would be better than double-bracing, unless you're planning on returning from the trip in open.

 

[Nordmarken]

I would skip the shields, repair limpets, and point defence. If you would find the need to emergency repair the hull there are a lot of fleet carriers out there that are part of the DSSA initiative. They are all marked out on the EDSM galactic map.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

Dump the Point Defense. You will never need them. Also, re-jig your power priorities, set your scoop to 5 and turn off Limpet Controller, Distributer and AFMU until you need them. Turn on the AFMU should auto-turn the scoop off, which is fine as you can't use both at the same time anyway.

In fact, getting rid of that shielded mod on the scoop is better anyway, saves power and means you run cooler, for better scooping.

 

[Nordmarken]

Dump the Point Defense. You will never need them. Also, re-jig your power priorities, set your scoop to 5 and turn off Limpet Controller, Distributer and AFMU until you need them. Turn on the AFMU should auto-turn the scoop off, which is fine as you can't use both at the same time anyway.

In fact, getting rid of that shielded mod on the scoop is better anyway, saves power and means you run cooler, for better scooping.

You can't fit anything bigger than class 4 in the internal compartments on a DBX. So fuel scoop 4 is max limit.

 

[Zieman]

Power priority.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

I would

• replace one of the Point Defenses with Chaff (three Point Defenses mean you're literally expecting to be facing Packhound Missiles frequently)
• replace another Point Defense with either an additional Heat Sink or a Xeno Scanner or a lightweight/small engineered Shield Booster
• total lack of Weapons is a personal decision but it means you can't even sample Bios for Traits i.e. by shooting at them
• Power Plant G3 Overcharged and a special that isn't Thermal Spread doesn't seem optimal (thermal handling) - especially since you risk Ship loss due to Power Management exceeded when recalling your Ship on Planets under certain conditions

You'll see that going to a Class 3A Power Plant already affords a more manageable G1 Overcharge with Thermal Spread, hardly costs any jump range.

 

[Oytis57]

Go like this , you won't need any defence at all in the void.

 

[CMDR Mr S]

Looks very capable.
I might replace one of the PDs with chaff and add a size 1 Rail Gun with Plasma Slugs experimental, but that's just personal preference.
And then there's the "hit-by-lighning-three-times-in-a-row" chance of needing a mining laser:

End of the Road

I've messed up. I am less than a thousand light years out from Beagle Point beginning a slow-boat journey home. Using the new feature in the galaxy map which highlights previous systems you have visited, I was retracing my jumps back and made a 50% boost into a system. It has one landable...

forums.frontier.co.uk

I'm not going to boost at all (synthesize fuel etc...) nor I'm going to use neutron start etc to supercharge my jump range... I barely grasp those mechanics and I wouldn't want to mess it up...

 

[CMDR Mr S]

Why so much point defense? You're probably not going to see a lot of missiles out there. But if you just like to have them, then of course that's fine.

It looks like you're still over the power budget even with the AFMU turned off. You'll either need to turn more off, or change your power plant. It's using overcharged-3, so I'd probably avoid adding to that, since it'll be getting warm. The DBX needs to scoop a lot longer than most ships (size-4 scoop for size-5 FSD), so you'll probably want to run cool instead. I'd favor going with a 3A or 4A power plant to cover it, and put a low emissions mod, so that you can scoop longer without overheating.

Double-braced on the power plant is useless, since any damage the PP will take will be percentage-based damage from emergency stops. (It can't take heat damage, and you won't get shot at).

Engineering the scoop is similarly useless. While it can take heat damage, you'll have plenty of time to repair it, and more "toughness" to absorb that damage means more repairing, so you don't really gain anything. And it'll work normally down to 1% health.

Otherwise, it looks pretty good.

Eh this is what I have in the hangar, not a project. So I guess I'll run with it. All your points are valid (the heat issue kind of worries me a little, but I think it is something I can manage with carefully watching the thermometer) but look like minor issues to me. And yes, some engineering was pointless but I did it anyway.

The reason why I chose to have all that PD escapes me as well. I can't remember a single good reason why I would have wanted that...

 

[CMDR Mr S]

Thanks for the advice. I guess I might tweak something. I'm almost out of the bubble (but not quite) so I can still turn back and implement those changes before I set out again.

 

[Orvidius]

If you're already out there, it's up to you as to whether you want to change things now, or wait til later. You don't have any major "gotchas", just tweaks at this point. So you can always do it "next time"

 

[tolm]

You appear to be missing a Krait Phantom ...

 

[CMDR Mr S]

You appear to be missing a Krait Phantom ...

Got a Krait but it's for Bounty Hunting farming...

EDIT: Ontop, my first and last exploration journey was with an ASP, very similar class to a Krait. I'd like to go smaller this time.

 

[znôrt]

Eh this is what I have in the hangar, not a project. So I guess I'll run with it. All your points are valid (the heat issue kind of worries me a little, but I think it is something I can manage with carefully watching the thermometer) but look like minor issues to me. And yes, some engineering was pointless but I did it anyway.

The reason why I chose to have all that PD escapes me as well. I can't remember a single good reason why I would have wanted that...

godspeed, sir. that's the way!

 

[Dragotha]

I'd take a Phantom or an Asp instead, so you can have a decent fuel scoop :/

In any case though I'd recommend dumping the PD and taking shield boosters instead (class E's with heavy duty/supercaps are quite nice on explorers).

Lightweight 5 the life support (and consider taking class A, you can fly across the galaxy with class A life support and a broken cockpit if you load up on iron and nickel first). You might need to drop by Colonia to unlock that though.

You can engineer your surface scanner. Even a couple levels makes it dead easy to hit the efficiency bonus every time.

I would personally take a bigger power plant and low emission it. But I guess the DBX might be good enough on heat to not need that? Overcharged PP = hot though, generally speaking.

A lot of this is just personal preference. Unless you face-plant a lot of planets you don't really need much safety margin to explore.