Exploration Builds..?

[Tarm Wallunga]

Knowing that there are quite a few options for exploration, what builds should I aim be aiming for maximum efficiency ?

I ask because I would like to have a target credit amount to aim for, a goal number of credits to acquire before purchasing a well kitted out exploration ship. So, what kind of explorer builds do you guys have?

A few notes: I'd like to carry a little cargo, just in case the option for returning samples comes up. Shields are a must, in case of rough landings and the like. Some light armament would be nice too, I like multi-cannons. Other than shields these are up for debate however.

Thoughts?

 

[Satsuma]

Most people don't go armed, mainly for the weight savings. That said, I've done some exploration in an armed explorer ship, and it's really not bad. You loose a little off your maximum jump range, but that only really matters if you're trying to cover ground as fast as possible (or travel out in the fringes).

The basic strategy for exploration builds is this: You want the highest jump range you can get without gimping your chosen style of exploration. This means fitting an A-rated FSD and D-rated everything else. Lots of explorers (myself included) like to carry an A-rated power plant, because it's got the best heat dissipation. Fit the smallest you can, for weight. I personally downsize shields on exploration ships now, because I'm not going to be sticking around in a fight. If you want to go armed, though, you'll probably want decent shields, too. I tend to always want to be able to boost, so that dictates a minimum on my power distributer. My old exploration Cobra fitted a big A-rated power distributor, mainly because I wanted to be able to boost constantly if I got into trouble. My current Asp has a D-rated distributor, but it's not undersized.

Here's Holy Fire, a Cobra I've used for medium range (~25 kly) exploration trips. This set up has Fuel Rat gear, but you can also run it with an AFMU (unpowered) for limited self-repair at a very reasonable cost.
You can swap out the fuel limpet controller for a hangar, allowing you to carry a buggy. Though for longer range trips, I'd personally drop the cargo rack for an AFMU, too, but that can be pricey. With the ability to synthesize AFMU reloads, though, you could swap those around to carry a bigger hangar and a smaller AFMU. That gives you a little redundancy on the buggy and lowers your cost. The maximum jump range for all of these is in the low 20s, which isn't bad at all.

If you have more to spend, the better internals (and view from the cockpit) of the Asp Explorer give you a lot more options. Here's Strix, which I'm flying on Distant Worlds. It's unarmed, but it's easy enough to arm it without taking a huge hit in maximum jump range. If I flew armed, I'd probably want to up the shields a bit, as well, adding a little more weight.

 

[Tarm Wallunga]

Looks pretty good and gives a few options - not to mention a price range which is really what I needed most at this point. Sounds like bounty hunting in RES, missions and some trading to build up capital all while shooting for about 20mil is the plan. Thanks!

 

[SpaceMonkeyz]

Looks pretty good and gives a few options - not to mention a price range which is really what I needed most at this point. Sounds like bounty hunting in RES, missions and some trading to build up capital all while shooting for about 20mil is the plan. Thanks!

Hey if you did not know most(not sure if all) Li Yong-Rui exploited systems have 15% discount in shipyards and outfitting and most of them carry Asp Explorers.(Lembava is where I built mine)
save you a few credits when it comes time to build it.
Good luck with the grinding credits, I was there just a few weeks ago myself so it's still fresh for me.

 

[Hanekura Shizuka]

Looks like you're looking for credits.

Anyone who's offering a Cobra is probably not the style of explorer you're looking for. Whenever I hear anyone offer a Cobra as an explorer vessel, my usual response is to twitch violently. There are two types of explorers: the straight-line explorer, who's willing to fly anywhere, get the discoveries they want, and go home, and the meandering explorer, who, well... meanders around, scanning whatever they run into. If you're wanting credits, you're almost certainly intending to act as a straight-line explorer. A Cobra is decent for a meandering explorer, but is not a good choice for a straight-line explorer because of the short jump range. If you're looking for a target number of credits, you're going to want an explorer with decent jump range - which means a Diamondback Explorer, an Asp Explorer, or an Anaconda.

If you want armament, I would recommend leaving the weaponry at home for exploration, then remounting them when running missions in inhabited areas.

Not sure how much you have in the way of credits, but I'm guessing you could probably afford this ship, a Diamondback Explorer with top-of-the-line FSD, fuel scoop, and DSS and ADS. Didn't put a landing package in, because at this point you're looking for credits.

http://coriolis.io/outfit/diamondba...1D3D4C-------320o432i2f.AwRj4lS6SA==.Aw1-kA==

You then take this ship out to the neutron star fields about 14000-15000 light-years from Sol, and scan neutron stars and black holes until you reach your target credit amount. And yes, you can earn exploration credits VERY quickly in the neutron star fields.

Observe that a slightly-smaller fuel tank is installed in this build; the DBX's fuel tank is oversized for its FSD anyway. By switching to a 16T fuel tank, we increase the jump range to 35ly, while still keeping a 3-jump-and-safety build.

If you can afford a slightly-better explorer and want something with an SRV, you go with the Asp Explorer, here:

http://coriolis.io/outfit/asp/02A4D5A4D1D5D4C----------3c0t0i-v62i2f.AwRj4jRZYo==.Aw18WQ==

Again, we've gone with the smaller fuel tank, to increase the jump range. Again, take this ship out to the neutron star fields about 14000-15000 ly from Sol, and have fun.

I'm guessing, if you're asking about credits, that you're not in the range for an Anaconda. If you are, then this build will work:

http://coriolis.io/outfit/anaconda/...-----3h1211----v4432i2f.AwRj4yVTjqxA.Aw18ZlA=

Anyway, main takeaway: If you're exploring with an eye for hunting for credits, that means getting to where the credits can quickly be gained - and that means using a ship with a good jump range.

 

[Sysmon]

Spoiler

Looks like you're looking for credits.

Anyone who's offering a Cobra is probably not the style of explorer you're looking for. Whenever I hear anyone offer a Cobra as an explorer vessel, my usual response is to twitch violently. There are two types of explorers: the straight-line explorer, who's willing to fly anywhere, get the discoveries they want, and go home, and the meandering explorer, who, well... meanders around, scanning whatever they run into. If you're wanting credits, you're almost certainly intending to act as a straight-line explorer. A Cobra is decent for a meandering explorer, but is not a good choice for a straight-line explorer because of the short jump range. If you're looking for a target number of credits, you're going to want an explorer with decent jump range - which means a Diamondback Explorer, an Asp Explorer, or an Anaconda.

If you want armament, I would recommend leaving the weaponry at home for exploration, then remounting them when running missions in inhabited areas.

Not sure how much you have in the way of credits, but I'm guessing you could probably afford this ship, a Diamondback Explorer with top-of-the-line FSD, fuel scoop, and DSS and ADS. Didn't put a landing package in, because at this point you're looking for credits.

http://coriolis.io/outfit/diamondba...1D3D4C-------320o432i2f.AwRj4lS6SA==.Aw1-kA==

You then take this ship out to the neutron star fields about 14000-15000 light-years from Sol, and scan neutron stars and black holes until you reach your target credit amount. And yes, you can earn exploration credits VERY quickly in the neutron star fields.

Observe that a slightly-smaller fuel tank is installed in this build; the DBX's fuel tank is oversized for its FSD anyway. By switching to a 16T fuel tank, we increase the jump range to 35ly, while still keeping a 3-jump-and-safety build.

If you can afford a slightly-better explorer and want something with an SRV, you go with the Asp Explorer, here:

http://coriolis.io/outfit/asp/02A4D5A4D1D5D4C----------3c0t0i-v62i2f.AwRj4jRZYo==.Aw18WQ==

Again, we've gone with the smaller fuel tank, to increase the jump range. Again, take this ship out to the neutron star fields about 14000-15000 ly from Sol, and have fun.

I'm guessing, if you're asking about credits, that you're not in the range for an Anaconda. If you are, then this build will work:

http://coriolis.io/outfit/anaconda/...-----3h1211----v4432i2f.AwRj4yVTjqxA.Aw18ZlA=

Anyway, main takeaway: If you're exploring with an eye for hunting for credits, that means getting to where the credits can quickly be gained - and that means using a ship with a good jump range.

As a meandering explorer, usually with a fuzzy goal I never get to anyway, I approve of this message!

S

 

[Ziljan]

This is my current build.

http://coriolis.io/outfit/asp/02A4D...siOSg=.MwBj4ywJio==?bn=Bessel Meridian (lite)

It has enough fuel to avoid replots after hitting a triplet of brown dwarfs, or if you want to run lite on fuel for longer range boosts and still have a jump in reserve. It also has just enough shields and boost to safely navigate medium-high gravity planets. Of course, if you're the kind of pilot who never makes mistakes, sticks to the safe zones, or if you plan on staying fairly close to civilization, the Hanekura's advice above is solid and risk-free.

 

[Tarm Wallunga]

Well, I certainly appreciate the feedback guys! Thanks. Got plenty of options and credit target goals here. Hoping that there'll still be stars out there unexplored by everyone else by the time I get going!

 

[Atebits]

I set out a few days ago with an Asp Explorer.
I threw 28,000,000 into an A6 Fuel Scoop: I feel it is worth it, but it hurt. Everything else, is just a copy paste of Obsidian Ant's loadout for Distant Worlds.
I'm currently having no problems with it and am on the edge of the core right now looking around at BYAA AIN FB-X F1-100. I'm not actually going to go there as it's a giant black hole, but I wanted to see if the distortion could be seen from afar.

I bought several different ships: Vulture, Asp Explorer, Diamondback Explorer, Adder and even Imperial Courier.
I had intended to go with a max jump range Anaconda, but determined it would scuttle my progress in other aspects of the game and goals I've set for myself there.

My best estimates for a ship are 14,000,0000 for Diamondback Explorer or 100,000,000 for a grossly over-fitted Asp-Explorer.
For 64,000,000 you could have everything you need out of an Asp-Explorer and it's by far the most dedicated ship for a multi-week journey as far as I can tell. This is probably personal preference, however. I've found the Diamondback runs very cold, 27% with the usual D-rated things besides FSD.

p.s.
Ziljan... when the Cylons arrive I will both hate and love you. Please ask Six to kill Cavil though. No more Luddite fantasy endings.

 

[Satsuma]

Anyone who's offering a Cobra is probably not the style of explorer you're looking for. Whenever I hear anyone offer a Cobra as an explorer vessel, my usual response is to twitch violently.

While I can understand this, I think it's never good to tell new explorers "Grind away at something else until you can afford this high priced thingy".

I've explored in a Sidewinder. I've done trips to the edge of the thin disc in my Freagle. My Cobra took me partway along the Sagittarius-Carina expedition route, then back towards the Sagittarius root and then home, funding my Asp. It wasn't as efficient as grinding straight into an Asp, but it was certainly fun.

I'll point out, too, that everyone who visits Sagittarius A* sees Zulu Romeo's name on it. He made that trip in a Cobra Mk III in a week, with no route planner at all and no guidance from people who had been down that way before.

 

[Rikk]

Knowing that there are quite a few options for exploration, what builds should I aim be aiming for maximum efficiency ?

I ask because I would like to have a target credit amount to aim for, a goal number of credits to acquire before purchasing a well kitted out exploration ship. So, what kind of explorer builds do you guys have?

A few notes: I'd like to carry a little cargo, just in case the option for returning samples comes up. Shields are a must, in case of rough landings and the like. Some light armament would be nice too, I like multi-cannons. Other than shields these are up for debate however.

Thoughts?

What do you mean by maximum efficiency?

Also, can you clarify, are you looking to get a target amount of credits through exploration, or is your target amount what you want to get in order to buy your exploration ship?

You will get a lot of Diamondback and Asp recommendations which are indeed very good vessels, they have the jump range to go long distance quickly. But if you don't like flying either ship, they will not be very good. Do you have a ship you really enjoy flying?

 

[goemon]

this is a very good thread on outfitting exploration builds: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=219633

assuming, by effiency you mean "ranking up in exploration fastest", the fastest (and most boring imho) way to do this is neutron-field-farming, which can be done in an exploration hauler, if you decide between AFMU and shields. in terms of CR investment and payout, that's probably the most efficient exploration ship. next would a t6, than an AspE.

if you are not asking for "ranking up in exploration fastest", the answers will differ a lot - because each style of exploring makes different ships viable. want to do tours really deep into the black and back fast? want to do a lot of planetary landing? do you want to scan every planetary body in a system? do you want to visit systems which require a massive jumprange?

you will visit the same number of systems in an Adder, FDL (! best heatmanagement ingame) or AspE in about the same time. fly, what you love to explore with - this will maximize your exploration experience and efficiency.

 

[Tarm Wallunga]

I don't have any clear goals as for as exploration itself goes right now. A few stars in mind, sure, but anything more specific - no rea solid plans yet. As for any other goals I am referring to a specific amount of of credits to earn towards a more suitable appropriate exploration vessel. Granted, the 15ly or so range I have on my viper isn't bad either but I would like to have a range of 20 to 30 as a minimum. In fact, I'm curious as to what the furthest jump range anyone might have been able to accomplish but that is more novelty/curiosity than anything else. I would like to do some landings and roving around in an SRV (think I failed to mention that earlier).

I think there's enough options presented already to give me a bit of a focus. The one problem I've had with sandbox games such as ED and a few others that I won't mention here is that with so many options one can easily become ... well, lost so to speak. This corrects that. I have a target number of credits and still have flexibility to change paths by which I get to that number of credits before investing into an exploration vessel.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

And for clarity's sake I'm not looking to grind up exploration really fast or anything like that. If anything motivates me in this game is money and the visual appeal of some of the wonders that are out there that I can see.

 

[goemon]

I don't have any clear goals as for as exploration itself goes right now. A few stars in mind, sure, but anything more specific - no rea solid plans yet. As for any other goals I am referring to a specific amount of of credits to earn towards a more suitable appropriate exploration vessel. Granted, the 15ly or so range I have on my viper isn't bad either but I would like to have a range of 20 to 30 as a minimum. In fact, I'm curious as to what the furthest jump range anyone might have been able to accomplish but that is more novelty/curiosity than anything else. I would like to do some landings and roving around in an SRV (think I failed to mention that earlier).

I think there's enough options presented already to give me a bit of a focus. The one problem I've had with sandbox games such as ED and a few others that I won't mention here is that with so many options one can easily become ... well, lost so to speak. This corrects that. I have a target number of credits and still have flexibility to change paths by which I get to that number of credits before investing into an exploration vessel.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

And for clarity's sake I'm not looking to grind up exploration really fast or anything like that. If anything motivates me in this game is money and the visual appeal of some of the wonders that are out there that I can see.

usefull clarification

you want to do planetary landings. so you need a ship where you can fit a srv modul into it. and, maybe, want to have a good look on the surface. and a okayish jumprange.

a good tip for a cheaper deepspace explorer with all necessary moduls (including AFMU and srv) would be a t6 - around 28 ly jumprange, great cockpit, bif fuelscoop. if you go with a class b fuelscoop and a class b afmu for saving money, you are looking at costs around 8 mio total.

for what you are looking for, an AspE is undisputable the best "allround"-explorer, around 35-36 ly jumprange. mine would 45 mio without discounts, but this is with a class A6 fuelscoop, and a class a AFMU
- on my first trip to sag a, both were B-rated, to save money, then you are looking towards 20 mio.

ship with the most jumprange is an anaconda, jumprange above 41 ly in extreme builds (there are people actually flying those builds) - even in a comfortable build with srv, mine does 38 ly - with a cost of over 280 mio without discounts, more than one third for its class 7A fuelscoop.

___


i earned my first exploration AspE in an exploration adder. i have been out exploring in a DBS (!) a lot. ships aren't really a goal when exploring - if you want to, pick the following: which is the higest system above sol you can reach?

or set up a trip to all hypergiants which are ingame - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypergiant --- for at least one you need jumponium.

 

[Sunn09]

While I can understand this, I think it's never good to tell new explorers "Grind away at something else until you can afford this high priced thingy".

I've explored in a Sidewinder. I've done trips to the edge of the thin disc in my Freagle. My Cobra took me partway along the Sagittarius-Carina expedition route, then back towards the Sagittarius root and then home, funding my Asp. It wasn't as efficient as grinding straight into an Asp, but it was certainly fun.

I'll point out, too, that everyone who visits Sagittarius A* sees Zulu Romeo's name on it. He made that trip in a Cobra Mk III in a week, with no route planner at all and no guidance from people who had been down that way before.

i'm a new explorer, i can relate to this post. to be quite honest i'm a little confused as to why you guys are spending tens or hundreds of millions on exploration ships when i just spent like 300k on a hauler that jumps about 25ly and has enough fuel to make something like 10 of those jumps, and a fuel scoop that refills it in seconds. You can also still affix scanners to it. What else do you really need? I flew about 1000ly out in a few hours and will make tons of cash just finding and scanning nice planets. Can someone tell me how an asp explorer that costs 100,000,000 is 100x better than my current ship? Not trying to be a smartass, just honestly wondering why I should spend all that cash if I don't really need to.

 

[Duckfather]

i'm a new explorer, i can relate to this post. to be quite honest i'm a little confused as to why you guys are spending tens or hundreds of millions on exploration ships when i just spent like 300k on a hauler that jumps about 25ly and has enough fuel to make something like 10 of those jumps, and a fuel scoop that refills it in seconds. You can also still affix scanners to it. What else do you really need? I flew about 1000ly out in a few hours and will make tons of cash just finding and scanning nice planets. Can someone tell me how an asp explorer that costs 100,000,000 is 100x better than my current ship? Not trying to be a smartass, just honestly wondering why I should spend all that cash if I don't really need to.

Simple answer : you don't need to spend tons of cash. You can go exploring in absolutely anything. The difference is the jump range and ease of use (this is especially important for people who can't dedicate more than a few hours a week to E: D). The bigger the ship, the more 'nice to have' stuff you can fit (eg, a second AFMU to repair the first if it gets trashed).

Personally, I like my creature comforts these days. I'm not spending months in a tiny tin can when I can be in something with a zero-G hot tub

Edit : How did you manage to get a 100 million Asp Explorer?

 

[goemon]

i'm a new explorer, i can relate to this post. to be quite honest i'm a little confused as to why you guys are spending tens or hundreds of millions on exploration ships when i just spent like 300k on a hauler that jumps about 25ly and has enough fuel to make something like 10 of those jumps, and a fuel scoop that refills it in seconds. You can also still affix scanners to it. What else do you really need? I flew about 1000ly out in a few hours and will make tons of cash just finding and scanning nice planets. Can someone tell me how an asp explorer that costs 100,000,000 is 100x better than my current ship? Not trying to be a smartass, just honestly wondering why I should spend all that cash if I don't really need to.

a) number of internal. you can't fit an auto-field-maintenance unit + srv + shield for planetary landing on a hauler (for exampel). and cargo, in case you find something to bring back...

b) fuelscoop size in relation to FSD size. the bigger your FSD is, the more fuel it needs. the bigger your fuelscoop is, that faster you can scoop the amount you need. if you want to achieve the fastest travelling (one jump every 45 sec) you'll want to get your fuelscooping under 30 secs. which is possible on a hauler (class 2 FSD, class 3 fuelscoop), but for exampel not on a DBE (class 5 fsd, class 4 fuelscoop)

c) heatmanagement. the cooler your ship runs, the earlier you can initiate your next jump

d) total jumprange. there are a few systems at the edges which you can't reach with lesser jumprange. exampel: with an AspE or anaconda i can get 1000 ly above sol on our galactic arm. with an eagle only around 750 ly.
if star density goes down, routeplotting gets complicated or impossible with lesser jumprange, and some systems you can't reach at all

e) and other "subjective" reasons, like cockpit view (you spend a lot of time in there), the "feeling" - for exampel: i like the floating feeling of exploring in an anaconda. turns like a whale in supercruise.

but if you like exploring in a hauler - that's a great ship for exploring!

 

[xdemetrios]

My 2 cents, if you're exploring you won't need weapons like most said. When you do decide to come back to the bubble make sure to do it in solo so you don't get a random griever interdicting you. I had the same idea when it came to cargo but in all reality there isn't anything out there you would really find worth taking back if your sole mission is exploring. I took an asp explorer about 12,000 LY last month out to the Statue of Liberty Nebula. Depending on how far you go out I'd carry at least one AFMU, if you're going for the 65,000 LY mark I'd carry 2 just in case. Equip all your extra slots with heat sinks for those unexpected events like black holes, binary systems, etc. A rated everything except for Sensors, and Life Support. Also bring an Advanced Scanner and Detailed surface scanner and if you plan on going on planets bring the lightest hanger. BAM, as far as money it'll be around 25-30 mil to outfit an Asp Explorer for all of this.

Additionally a trick I found while exploring, so you can only plot a route max of 1000LY away, if you plot to a scoopable star the route will try and keep you on a path with majority scoopable stars, if you route to a brown dwarf, your entire route will most likely be brown dwarfs.

 

[AJW]

Additionally a trick I found while exploring, so you can only plot a route max of 1000LY away, if you plot to a scoopable star the route will try and keep you on a path with majority scoopable stars, if you route to a brown dwarf, your entire route will most likely be brown dwarfs.

Are you sure about that? It seems unlikely that FD would have done it that way and not told anyone about it, given the number of times people have asked for an option to only plot scoopables in the route planner.

 

[Duckfather]

...Additionally a trick I found while exploring, so you can only plot a route max of 1000LY away, if you plot to a scoopable star the route will try and keep you on a path with majority scoopable stars, if you route to a brown dwarf, your entire route will most likely be brown dwarfs.

Hmm, are you sure? I don't get that at all. I normally try and find an end point that is a Neutron star or Black Hole, and even passing through Neutron Star rich areas, it seems to miss most of them on the route.

Edit : LOL, ninja'd