Do you carry weapons when exploring?

[marx]

So I'm curious. Now that light-weight weapons have been available for quite some time, how many people here do actually have weapons on their explorer ships? Please vote! Also, I'll count mining lasers as weapons too.

I'm even more curious about the ratio of armed vs unarmed explorers because I say that first contact with aliens is likely to be peaceful, mostly because it's unlikely that whoever finds them will actually have weapons. Unless the aliens will view ADS pinging or ship scanning as a hostile action. But I don't actually know how many people might be exploring with weapons on their ships, hence the poll.

 

[DukeIronHand]

Well I am a new guy to exploring but no.
Avoiding combat is not TOO difficult and you quickly leave everything behind when exploring. As for alien contact I guess one never knows but avoidance mechanics are in-game.
It doesn't take too much travel and I am turning my shields and PD off.
And I carry no offensive weapons and nothing defensive either except the shields.

 

[CMDR CHIGGY VONRICTOFEN]

I have a single mining laser, for gathering mats in planetary rings.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

With exploration data on board, I'd minimize risk - and the lowest risk is running away from combat. Perhaps in the future I'll consider taking mines, those work beautifully on the T7.

 

[Varrag]

No weapons, just passive defence. Having weapons might give you funny ideas.

 

[Lucius-Darcia]

My extreme jump annie hasn't any weapons because they would add too much weight for the performance
But i have an ASP as secondary explorer since she doesn't suffer this hard from weapons weight than the annie and she reaches still an acceptable jumprange.
So depending where i wanna travel or depending what's coming in future...i'm prepared

 

[Jackie Silver]

Nothing Ventured

I think I carry weapons more often than not, although not necessarily for combat: for me, weapons are tools of !!SCIENCE!!

Perhaps it's a legacy of too many bad 90's linear LRPs, but I feel a strange compulsion to be able to interact with any new object that appears through the lens of "what damage types is it affected by / resistant to", and so for my more dedicated science vessels I try to be able to poke things in as many different ways as possible. If that combination of weapons happens to suitable for combat (for instance, my pre-engineers DWE Python had a very eclectic mix of armaments, but I tried it out beforehand in combat zones and RES to reasonable effect), so much the better.

Further: I think the tools we have for peaceful interaction are limited. There's no "object scanner" to try against, say, an alien shipwreck. Only guns. I'd like a science suite. I'd like something to use a science suite on. ^^

 

[SpocksOddSocks]

With exploration data on board, I'd minimize risk - and the lowest risk is running away from combat.

I'm with you on this. I can't see being able to fight off any threat I'm likely to come across in game whilst in a ship geared for exploration - escape seems more plausible, even against an unknown threat. As such, weapons are a dead weight, and of no use in trying to escape. In fact, by adding mass, they reduce your speed and therefore your ability to escape.

 

[verminstar]

No guns because they too heavy and not needed...even were pvprs out here, selfies and connection rates are marginally better in solo anyway...especially at weekends.

Even if "winter is coming", (cue the little yellow minion in the background 'na na naaaa!') then there's plenty of time to worry about it later considering it's just the start of autumn, which gives me roughly 2-3 months before I start to give it any serious consideration.

I run a non engineered aspx, so weight is very important to me to get a 34ly range. Not only guns, but the entire setup changes which leeches upto a third of my range.

Another thought to consider perhaps, is that if the little green men can be dispatched using a compromised at best exploration/combat setup, then imagine the salty threads about how easy they are to fight. If they even half as bad as some seem to think they will be, then it probably won't make the slightest bit of difference if I fit guns or not. Best just to try and stay one step ahead of them, and for that I need range which guns reduce ^^

 

[Jackie Silver]

In fact, by adding mass, they reduce your speed and therefore your ability to escape.

It depends on your ship and loadout; provided your all-up mass is below half of the optimum mass for your thrusters you will be able to reach maximum speed. For instance, an Imperial Clipper with 6A thrusters has an optimum mass of 1440 tons, meaning that so long as the overall mass of the ship is below 720 tons (which is easily achieved even with a heavy weapons load) it will be able to reach its highest possible speed. With the right ship, adding weapons won't cut your speed, though it will of course cut your jump range.

 

[goemon]

small beam and small mining laser here, for the reason @jackie silver mentioned.

same reason i have wakescanner and a cargo scanner on my exploration ships.

 

[AnnuverScotinExile]

Even if "winter is coming", (cue the little yellow minion in the background 'na na naaaa!') then there's plenty of time to worry about it later considering it's just the start of autumn, which gives me roughly 2-3 months before I start to give it any serious consideration.

If I had to guess, I would say almost exactly 2-3 months. FD are surely going to want the first encounters to have happened in time for them to rah-rah it for Christmas - given that season 3 will not be out by then, and they will want to get some of the Christmas sales.

 

[Dregory The Crow]

Shock mines to get a few seconds while running away from combat.

 

[marx]

It depends on your ship and loadout; provided your all-up mass is below half of the optimum mass for your thrusters you will be able to reach maximum speed. For instance, an Imperial Clipper with 6A thrusters has an optimum mass of 1440 tons, meaning that so long as the overall mass of the ship is below 720 tons (which is easily achieved even with a heavy weapons load) it will be able to reach its highest possible speed. With the right ship, adding weapons won't cut your speed, though it will of course cut your jump range.

Something to add to this too: it's worth noting that you'll achieve the best flight stats (pitch/roll/yaw) when at optimum mass. And it's worth checking those, because it might turn out that your ship wouldn't benefit at all from higher class thrusters.
For example, when I was building my combat-explorer Anaconda, I saw that the flight stats maxed out at 6A thrusters, and 7A would give only slightly higher speeds, but the extra 40T would cut into the jump range considerably. Meanwhile, when I'm back on my bubble combat sprees, I can take the dirty-tuned 6A thrusters from the Anaconda and transfer them to my Clipper instead.

Also, it's actually quite fun that with the lightweight mods and the maximum of -90% mass (currently only for multi-cannons though), now the largest share of weight in a combat-explorer build comes not from the weapons, but from the shield generator and the thrusters. Thankfully, the LW mods are also among the easiest to get.

Finally, I'm a bit surprised about the current state of the poll: I expected the unarmed option to dominate more than it has. But we'll see in, say, a week.

 

[goemon]

Something to add to this too: it's worth noting that you'll achieve the best flight stats (pitch/roll/yaw) when at optimum mass.

...: I expected the unarmed option to dominate more than it has. But we'll see in, say, a week.

a) to be correct: at 50℅ optimal mass
b) because you included mining lasers. i guess poll would look different if you would have put "weapons to do combat"

 

[marx]

a) to be correct: at 50℅ optimal mass

Wasn't that changed with 2.1? I do remember that being the rule before, but I thought they changed that since. After all, it's quite unintuitive that your ship wouldn't turn best at optimal mass, but at half of it. But I can't check this in-game yet, so if I had it wrong, my bad.

b) because you included mining lasers. i guess poll would look different if you would have put "weapons to do combat"

To be fair, I didn't think many people would carry mining lasers on exploration ships, since it's quite difficult to get FSD boost materials with them. Also, for all intents and purposes mining lasers are weapons. They are very ineffective against ships, sure, but they can be used for combat, even if only as a desperate last resort. Then there are also mining lances.

 

[verminstar]

If I had to guess, I would say almost exactly 2-3 months. FD are surely going to want the first encounters to have happened in time for them to rah-rah it for Christmas - given that season 3 will not be out by then, and they will want to get some of the Christmas sales.

Glass half full as opposed to glass half empty...I'll worry about them when it happens...not gonna fall fer the hype and the spin. If I die, then I'll know I need to adapt or walk...right now, I see only my ship from the SRV sitting on a moon which was very good giving me ytrium and niobium today, but no little green men...so nothing to worry about right this minute ^^

 

[Aura Lorell]

I went into great pains (see engineers) to get my 52.56 Ly full-tank range on my Asp. That means 16T fuel tank, no weapons, paper-thin shields, no boosters or other utilities. I have faith the explorers will remain safe but unless I see hard evidence of the opposite I don't plan to change my loadout and cripple my range.

 

[iain666]

If you couldn't get it in the bubble this time last year I don't have it so I know nothing of your "light weapons"

My ship is lightly shielded and definitely in the Brave Sir Robin mould.

 

[CMDR Eryn Liamson]

My primary exploration Anaconda is very heavily armed - grade 5 overcharged multicannons and grade 3 focused pulse lasers, 2200MJ shields and a top speed of 355m/s. And it still does 38LY. If I'm out in the black with no backup I intend to survive any hostile encounter.