Do I NEED to take an SRV?

[Old Duck]

I see two uses of the SRV in exploration - 1) driving around for the sake of "sightseeing" at ground level, and 2) Collecting materials for synthesis and AMFU.

Regarding the first, I can fly really close to the ground for that kind of sight-seeing, and I can land and use my camera mode to "pretend" I'm walking around outside my ship in a space suit. I actually find this more rewarding, visually, than using the SRV.

So really it boils down to materials for me. If I load up ahead-of-time on mats that I need for AMFU and perhaps a little jump boost here and there (I normally just jump the old fashioned way), I should be good, right? I can also take a mining laser. Is it possible to get any material from space rocks that are found on planet rocks?

Leaving the SRV behind frees up a slot and sheds some weight. I tend to explore in smaller ships, at least until Frontier gives us some NPCs to keep me company on my big ships.

 

[Hasaf]

When exploring I almost never used the SRV. When I did use it, the purpose was to address boredom, not for any need. As far as, "seeing the sights," I was never able to find anything worth going and looking at. I stumbled across a downed ship once, that was all.

 

[Aura Lorell]

It depends on how long you plan to be away, where you want to go, and what kind of dangers you are going to put your ship through. For example if you do a lot of NS jumps, the AFMU will go down quickly. That may not be an issue if you plan to stay for short to medium periods of time but it may become an issue if it's an extended stay. Additionally if you plan to reach areas that are sparse and you need jumponium it's prudent to have an SRV. Yes you could get some of the mats from mining but the drop rate is atrocious.

Edit: In general your question is too generic to be answered in a precise way and it's a bit subjective too. For example I'd never go anywhere without an SRV. But that's me.

 

[Deluvian]

Aura has a good point. My two cents: CMDRs still find interesting stuff on planet surface.. my guess is that:

#1 - Planetary overhaul will give a boost to surface exploration
#2 - Exploration overhaul in "Beyond" may give even more

One thing I strongly agree with: WE NEED LEGS!!

 

[Old Duck]

It depends on how long you plan to be away, where you want to go, and what kind of dangers you are going to put your ship through.

I'm definitely not a hard-core explorer yet. I usually just go out for a couple of weeks to visit nebula and such. I've yet to push into places so sparse that my 50 ly range is not enough (I prefer my skies have stars in them).

Also, doesn't leaving the SRV behind change the profile of some ships? The smaller ships, for example, sit much closer to the pad when I land at a station, whereas when I land on a planet with the SRV equipped, they look like they are up on stilts in order to provide room for SRV to drive out under them. On some ships, it looks weird, so for "selfies" I wouldn't mind the non-stilt look.

 

[Aura Lorell]

I'm definitely not a hard-core explorer yet. I usually just go out for a couple of weeks to visit nebula and such. I've yet to push into places so sparse that my 50 ly range is not enough (I prefer my skies have stars in them).

Also, doesn't leaving the SRV behind change the profile of some ships? The smaller ships, for example, sit much closer to the pad when I land at a station, whereas when I land on a planet with the SRV equipped, they look like they are up on stilts in order to provide room for SRV to drive out under them. On some ships, it looks weird, so for "selfies" I wouldn't mind the non-stilt look.

Fair enough then. I suggest that you use your own experience from past trips to try and answer your question. Did you use the SRV much? If not and you don't plan to go to areas navigated with jumponium only, then it's possible to leave it behind. Try it for a few days and see if it works for you. If it does then it's fine.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

If you want to leave the SRV behind, you can always bring a mining laser that can be used to gather mats if needed. It weighs 1 ton or so, so it won't make much difference in your jumprange.

 

[Hasaf]

To get more use out of the SRV frontier needs to improve the process of finding things on the planets surface. A detailed surface scan should actually provide a detailed surface scan.

If that were to happen, then a SRV would be an obvious thing to bring; however, when I decided to make a real go at getting my elite in exploration, I didn't even bother bringing an SRV. Yes, I think it is a broken mechanic, I think exploring rank should actually involve some exploring. However, I don't make the rules.

 

[ASC]

Regarding materials, some of the rarer ones - polonium, yttrium and cadmium - can't be mined from asteroids and are only found on planets. You can check in the inventory panel. So you might eventually run out of all but basic boosts.

 

[Jon474]

As Mr C would say,

"I don't need an SRV, Cmdr. If there’s one thing you should know about me, Cmdr, it’s that I don't need anything. I want, Cmdr. I want an SRV".

With a nod to Twin Peaks.

Flying happily
Jon
Type-6

 

[Non Grata]

polonium, yttrium and cadmium

You can find cadmium, albeit rarely.

 

[Yaffle]

No you don't.

Back in my day we didn't have them at all, nor that fancy synthesis stuff.

But we were happy.

 

[Cpt Shadow Wolfe]

Simply put...its better to have and not need then to need and not have. The jump range is minimal when dropping the SRV bay, 1 to 2 Lys is not all that significant, specially if you are jumping at around 50 anyways. I made my Conda an explorer, and I have a fighter bay and an SRV, and I'm jumping at 60 Lys, which is plenty for anywhere you want to go pretty much, with a neutron boost, I'm jumping 235 give or take. Haven't had to resort to jumponian yet for anything, but will probably be using my stock pile when I get to Beagle Point region......

 

[Old Duck]

Simply put...its better to have and not need then to need and not have. The jump range is minimal when dropping the SRV bay, 1 to 2 Lys is not all that significant, specially if you are jumping at around 50 anyways. I made my Conda an explorer, and I have a fighter bay and an SRV, and I'm jumping at 60 Lys, which is plenty for anywhere you want to go pretty much, with a neutron boost, I'm jumping 235 give or take. Haven't had to resort to jumponian yet for anything, but will probably be using my stock pile when I get to Beagle Point region......

For a big ship, I agree. On my DBX when I take a quick "four day vacation" to some neighborhood nebula, I'm thinking that I don't need it. Now when I fly my DBX to the Formidine Rift someday, then I'll definitely take it.

The main reason I'm not using big ships right now is because they feel incredibly "lonely" for one person. I desperately want ED to give us NPC crew for our big ships. The Conda has 8 escape pod bays, so give me 8 NPCs - two on the bridge with me, one to fly SLF, and the rest can maintain engines and cook dinner and all that. Until then, my DBX feels much more appropriate for one man going alone on a space camping trip.

 

[Scubadog]

Deluvian, you bring up an excellent point. Personally, I just can't imagine not taking an SRV on long exploration trips. And, don't you just figure, it will be while I'm WAY out in the black that Frontier drops the updates that enhance planetary exploration. I would seriously kick myself for not having an SRV just when the sightseeing gets good.

If you get what you need from a flyby, then by all means, don't take an SRV. The beauty of this game is how much you can tailor it to your style/needs.

As for needing legs, I don't see the value-added piece to this idea. I suppose, if they actually create ship interiors and things on patforms, stations and planets that being on foot would be the appropriate way to interact, that would be one thing. They might start running perilously close to turning into Destiny.

 

[Scubadog]

LOL, 50ly jump range? Don't I wish! Of my six ships, my DBX has the largest range at 22 (and it's what got me to Colonia). I'm afraid there simply are some modules I won't live without and I hate the way engineering is implemented: gambling for upgrades is just stupid. So, I just settle for working out the best combination of available class modules. Sadly, right now, not a lot of options out around Colonia.

 

[Scubadog]

What I'd really like to see happen...

...is for Frontier to just get rid of the non-Horizons version altogether and then just make the planetary landing module built-in and give me that 1x slot back. More than once I've found that one slot was the only thing standing between me and the perfect (for me) configuration of my ships.

 

[iain666]

They added a 1x slot to every ship for the planetary landing module, if it wasn't a module then why would they not just take it away again?

 

[Sapyx]

I'm just returning to Colonia after a 12,000 LY jaunt towards the far side of the Galaxy. I've been away from the Bubble for six months. And I don't have an SRV with me. Only missed having it the once, when I got myself stranded in an edge system 70 LY from the nearest star and needed to be rescued by Chiggy (scooping up polonium from a planet surface in an Asp while trying to avoid crushing the helpful guy driving his SRV beneath you, is about as cumbersome and awkward as it sounds).

Mats harvesting in advance before you go out should give you plenty, so long as you're not planning on fringe-hopping all the way around the galactic circumference or something else equally wasteful of mats. But I'm starting to run out of the basic mats (used in AMFU topup) now, so I'll probably rent an SRV and top my mats up before heading back to the Bubble.

 

[marx]

So, what are the pro-s and con-s in your case of taking or not taking an SRV bay? What do you gain if you don't take an SRV bay?
For example, during the time when I took a Courier to Semotus Beacon I had to ditch it: losing that 6T mass meant around +5 ly for me, which I required to make it there. Personally, I didn't miss it - I knew roughly how many mats I needed for FSD boost and AFM refills. Like Sapyx said, unless you're planning to do something where you don't know how many materials you'll need, you should be able to prepare just fine.

On the other hand, if in a different ship ditching the SRV would have given me only +0.5 ly, I don't think I would have.