Best ship for discovering ?

[Markus]

Hi, i play since a few days and my best success was that i found out the sidewinder can have 10 cargospace

Anyway, can someone tell me what is the best ship for discovering and what equipment should i use ?

And: is it possible to have a good fighter ship with this best discovering-ship also ?

Don't have that much money anyway but i would know what to work for then.

 

[Skip Intro]

I think the way ship space and modules work is that you can have a ship that will do one thing really well or two things OK or three things badly.

 

[vicwolf]

asp or cobra with maxed out jump range and largest internal slot devoted to fuel scoop

 

[Nutter]

Hi, i play since a few days and my best success was that i found out the sidewinder can have 10 cargospace

Anyway, can someone tell me what is the best ship for discovering and what equipment should i use ?

And: is it possible to have a good fighter ship with this best discovering-ship also ?

Don't have that much money anyway but i would know what to work for then.

Lots of info HERE for you commander

 

[quasar_]

I think ASP is the best because its full name is Asp Explorer

 

[Matt]

The main thing is a big fuel scoop and the best discovery scanners you can get. What ship you fit these to is up to you - larger ships can get greater jump distances but exploration is kinda about coverage so you dont need to be making huge 20LY jumps - small jump range wont harm if you are jsut going for numbers of systems scanned, not distance from civilisation (distance adds no value to data)

Fuel-scoop numbers here: http://lavewiki.com/fuel-scoop#fuel-scoop-ratings
Discovery Scanner numbers here: http://lavewiki.com/exploration#discovery-scanners-types

 

[Markus]

Many thanks for all this infos, have to check it all now

 

[grae3107]

The Adder is good too. Jump range of 25ly and a lot cheaper than an Asp or maxed out cobra.

 

[Billy Chase]

My favourite is still the Hauler. With A-grade hyperdrive, large fuel scoop and all else D-grade components (lowest weight and therefore longest jump range) I'm at 27.5 light years of jump range. Good for getting where you want to be fast, especially if you want to go where stars are few and far between. At under three millions for the fully equipped one (much less with a cheaper fuel scoop and in the beginning a more basic scanner) it's also very affordable.

Right now I guess you don't see three millions as affordable, but if you play for a few weeks you eventually will ;-)

As for the best explorer that can also defend itself I'd guess the Asp. Don't know much about how well it fights as I'm always brave-sir-robining my way out of a danger zone, but it's got lots of hardpoints so I guess you can fare worse. And without weapons it's got a tremendous 35 light years jump range.

 

[Markus]

Actually saving money for the hauler, and what you stated about it sounded quite good, but don't you get attacked sometimes when exploring ? Cause i think the hauler is not a very good ship for fighting or am i wrong ?

 

[kurush]

so you dont need to be making huge 20LY jumps - small jump range wont harm if you are jsut going for numbers of systems scanned, not distance from civilisation (distance adds no value to data)

I saw people reporting that there are regions where stars are really far apart, so jump range will come handy there. So yes, Asp or Cobra would be the best fits as they both can be maxed on jump range.

 

[terminatahx]

The ASP is dubbed the explorer, but really any ship with the following abilities make a great explorer:
- ability to refuel in space from a Sun (fuel scoop)
- ability to scan systems (advanced scanner the best and most rewarding)
- ability to run or fight (depend on the ship, your skill and the outfitting)
- ability to make large FSD jumps. I like to for for 15ly or better.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Actually saving money for the hauler, and what you stated about it sounded quite good, but don't you get attacked sometimes when exploring ? Cause i think the hauler is not a very good ship for fighting or am i wrong ?

Hauler makes a great cheap explorer ship. And you don't have to worry much about pirates. Once you are a few hundred LY out, they stop appearing, so your first aim anyway should be to get away from civilized space before you start scanning (also a lot of closer systems will have already been scanned so not as interesting for bringing back new info).

And really, if you get the hang of handling interdictions, they are not too big a worry. If you do fail at avoiding an interdiction, just set engines to max (which since you are exploring they should be anyway), throttle to max and you are yanked out of SC, and boost boost boost until you can SC away.

Don't bother taking any weapons, you just lose jump range.

 

[terminatahx]

My favourite is still the Hauler. With A-grade hyperdrive, large fuel scoop and all else D-grade components (lowest weight and therefore longest jump range) I'm at 27.5 light years of jump range. Good for getting where you want to be fast, especially if you want to go where stars are few and far between. At under three millions for the fully equipped one (much less with a cheaper fuel scoop and in the beginning a more basic scanner) it's also very affordable.

Right now I guess you don't see three millions as affordable, but if you play for a few weeks you eventually will ;-)

As for the best explorer that can also defend itself I'd guess the Asp. Don't know much about how well it fights as I'm always brave-sir-robining my way out of a danger zone, but it's got lots of hardpoints so I guess you can fare worse. And without weapons it's got a tremendous 35 light years jump range.

I just got my ASP yesterday, but your comments on the hauler as an explorer are very interesting. I may buy one just for exploration. thx for the tip.

 

[Frankfort]

An ASP with Fuel Scoops , Automatic repair systems , Advanced discoveryscanners ,detailed surface scanner , Hig class power generator ,FSD drive , 30+ ly .
Mirrord armor prevening thermic damage near suns . long range scanners. that works for me .

 

[Billy Chase]

Actually saving money for the hauler, and what you stated about it sounded quite good, but don't you get attacked sometimes when exploring ? Cause i think the hauler is not a very good ship for fighting or am i wrong ?

Thankfully that's not a major problem. As Loki wrote the problem disappears once you're far enough out. And on the way out (or back home) what I tend to do is this:
- Jump into a system
- Do a scan with the discovery scanner
- Target the sun to get a detailed reading
- While doing so check the scanner for yellow dots. Pirates are usually very near the sun and will suddenly make a dash towards you. If that happens, drop out of hyperspace. This gives you enough time to plot a new jump and spool up the hyperdrive. (Actually, with current NPC mechanics, they don't drop in after you anyways. But I suspect that will be changed at some point.)

So in essence, if you get interdicted you already played it wrong. It's more difficult if you actually want to take the time to scan different planets in the system. This far NPCs can be tricked as described above. Once you're back into supercruise they're usually gone. But once that loophole gets fixed there's either more sweat involved or you just need to get past the first couple of hundred lightyears without doing much scanning.

 

[Zvanya]

Best exploration vessels IMO. From really cheap to expensive:

Hauler
Type 6 (poor mans asp)
Asp

I haven't bought an asp yet although I can afford it. I'm loving my Type 6. As far as I can tell it does everything the Asp does except fight, for a fraction of what it costs to run the Asp.

 

[Markus]

Explored around a bit in a hauler and got attacked near a sun. Luckily i had set energy management to engines so i escaped with 3% hull left. Second time he got me while fuel scooping, after scanning 1.5 hours a huge system, now data is gone and i have debts also, cause was close on money.
Thing is, when i explore i don't want to fly hundreds of lightyears away, want to explore whereever i like to, so ..guess i save for an asp. Better turn around and kill the attacker then fleeing and get shot anyway.

 

[SpacialKatana]

I just got my ASP yesterday, but your comments on the hauler as an explorer are very interesting. I may buy one just for exploration. thx for the tip.

You need a stack of coin to outfit an Asp for high end exploring, especially as the best FSD is 5Mcr. Also worthy of note it's 10x more at least to replace than a Cobra should something go wrong....

If you're going to explore local (500~1000ly out), take the Cobra.

 

[Markus]

You need a stack of coin to outfit an Asp for high end exploring, especially as the best FSD is 5Mcr. Also worthy of note it's 10x more at least to replace than a Cobra should something go wrong....

If you're going to explore local (500~1000ly out), take the Cobra.

My main reason for the hauler was his jump range but when i can have a decent jump range in a combat fitted discovery cobra also, guess i take the cobra then.