Exploration jump range

[crouzilles]

Hi everyone,

Every ship build I find when looking for exploration builds have as big a jump range as possible. Forgive me if I am being a complete tool, but isn’t the point of exploration to explore as many systems as possible, and therefore not need long jump range?

Don’t hesitate to call me a tool, but please explain why, I am obviously missing some important info.

Thank you

 

[CMDR_UKmouse]

Good question.
I have an AspX with just over 70ly jump range. The longer the jump range you can get, the quicker you can travel to a specific part of the galaxy. Then you can start exploring.
Another good reason for as longer jump range is it uses less fuel for shorter jumps.
o7

 

[uncle bulgaria]

Everything near inhabited space is already discovered, you need to get out there to find new stuff so a big jump range makes it much easier. Especially coming back to cash it all in unless you have a carrier.

 

[Kissamies]

Better to have it and not need it rather than need it and not have it. As said, people might want to explore a specific region. Also exploration is likely to take you far from home and imagine if you suddenly want to return for some reason. Good to have the jump range then. Some people go exploring, get bored of the game and quit for few months. Harder to pick it back up if you are middle of nowhere and getting back will take too long.

 

[angusmadmac1]

My first trip to Beagle was 44 lyr dolphin 2017, my second trip to beagle was a 55lyr dolphin 2020. The biggest jump range explorer I have is 60 lyr. I have visited all 42 regions in the map. I don't hold to the long jump range is best idea. I have hit undiscovered two jumps from the bubble because everyone heads out with huge jump range and misses out the systems closer. I get twice the chance of getting undiscovered to a huge jump range . I don't do POI as that's where everyone heads but that's just me I have multiple explorers who are fast good shields and lovely to fly. I tried the jumpconda and no it was terrible it nearly put me off exploring it was that bad . And I also managed to get to the blue snowball with my smaller jump ranges .

 

[DemiserofD]

The main thing is if you get bored, it's nice to be able to zoom home if need be. I don't bother with absolutely maximizing my jump range anymore though. Better to maximize other aspects of your ship instead.

 

[robbyp]

If your like me and like going out to the edge, the stars are far apart
You need a good range to be able to get there

 

[Mako The Grey]

Hi everyone,
Forgive me if I am being a complete tool, but isn’t the point of exploration to explore as many systems as possible, and therefore not need long jump range?

If exploring well above/below the galactic plane (stars can be pretty far apart) and far from help...longer range can be a make or break. In the real world when I explore far from resources, I take extra food, water, and fuel to increase my range

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Every ship build I find when looking for exploration builds have as big a jump range as possible. Forgive me if I am being a complete tool, but isn’t the point of exploration to explore as many systems as possible, and therefore not need long jump range?

There's a few different reasons involved.
1) There are very few modules which are really useful in exploration anyway (and a lot of the useful ones are either massless or very light), so if you're building a pure exploration ship rather than a multirole you can also do some exploring in, it's going to end up fairly lightweight anyway once you've thrown out everything you don't need in deep space.

2) If you specifically want to explore systems near the galactic core or out the other side of the galaxy, sure, you might switch to economic routing once you get there but it's going to be a lot quicker to get there with a 50 LY jump range than a 20 LY one. There are plenty of things you'll never find within a few thousand LY of Sol no matter how many millions of systems you jump through.

3) As others have said, in a lot of the sparser bits of space every extra LY of range can be the difference between being able to make a jump or not (or needing to use FSD synthesis on a particular jump or not)

4) You're not going to explore fewer systems with a longer jump range, they'll just be further apart.



On the other side:
1) Especially once you get above about 50 LY range, the extra travel speed you gain has very diminishing returns. So there's usually plenty of room to take a few extra bits without seriously affecting your time per 1000 LY or similar.

2) If you're going on a weeks-long exploration trip by far the most important thing is that you enjoy flying the ship. So, sure, the Anaconda has the best jump range but other ships are nicer to fly and/or have better cockpit views and/or are easier to land on planets.

3) If you're willing to return to the bubble occasionally to refuel or mine Tritium, then once you get established you can take a Fleet Carrier and not need to worry about how long range your ships are.

 

[IstvaanDCIV]

Travelling through thickets of brown dwarves is a nerve-wracking experience with a shorter-ranged ship. I had some close calls when I made an abortive attempt to head to the galactic rim in my 21ly Type-10. Having a decent jump range means I don't have to worry so much when traversing such regions of space.

 

[aRJay]

Hi everyone,

Every ship build I find when looking for exploration builds have as big a jump range as possible. Forgive me if I am being a complete tool, but isn’t the point of exploration to explore as many systems as possible, and therefore not need long jump range?

Don’t hesitate to call me a tool, but please explain why, I am obviously missing some important info.

Thank you

As others have said it is in part because they want to be able to travel far and fast in addition to exploring.
There are also lots of stars too far apart to easily reach, there used to be quite the thing about ensuring you had enough mats to synthesise two long range jumps when visiting an isolated system in case they weren’t available there and you would get stuck.

To be honest some of it is because they can, and some are quite competitive.

…

2) If you're going on a weeks-long exploration trip by far the most important thing is that you enjoy flying the ship. So, sure, the Anaconda has the best jump range but other ships are nicer to fly and/or have better cockpit views and/or are easier to land on planets.

…

^^^^^This.

Actually it is good advice for anything in the game but especially so for exploring, also consider the sound the engines make some perfectly good exploration ships have engines that can get annoying after a while.

 

[Kissamies]

1) Especially once you get above about 50 LY range, the extra travel speed you gain has very diminishing returns. So there's usually plenty of room to take a few extra bits without seriously affecting your time per 1000 LY or similar.

Yes, this is a good point. Even though it's good to have range, I've never been obsessed about maxing it out. I would never build a stripped out Anaconda for exploration. I don't think Anaconda is particulary fun ship to fly, even less so for exploring. For my power plant I go for maximum low emissions engineering instead of making it as light as possible because making the thousands of fuel scoops as easy and stress free as possible is more important than some fractions of light years more to the jump range. My exploration Krait has all sorts of frivolous stuff.

 

[Northpin]

Hi everyone,

Every ship build I find when looking for exploration builds have as big a jump range as possible. Forgive me if I am being a complete tool, but isn’t the point of exploration to explore as many systems as possible, and therefore not need long jump range?

Don’t hesitate to call me a tool, but please explain why, I am obviously missing some important info.

Thank you

With long jump range, you have only benefits like: you can get there faster, you can return back faster, you can easier reach stars at the edge of the galaxy.
Basically there are no disadvantages to longer jump ranges.

The "argument" against longer jump ranges, that you will explore "less" it's a non-argument.
You cad do jumps as small as you like if you are in an area you like to explore thoroughly,. but a small/medium jumper will bever be able to do as long jumps as a long-jumper, if the need arise

So no, you're no tool if you focus your exploration build on getting long jump ranges

 

[Northpin]

1) Especially once you get above about 50 LY range

Yes, this is a good point. Even though it's good to have range, I've never been obsessed about maxing it out. I would never build a stripped out Anaconda for exploration.

Well, i can easily counter this simply by saying that most often than not, the difference between a ship with 50ly jump range and one with 70ly jump range is actually notable more than 20ly.
It's a difference between 40 and 80ly in the favor of the 70ly ship (jumponium or neutron highway considered)

Not saying that one cannot explore in a 50ly ship,. just that it can be better to do it in a 70ly one since it has only perks.

 

[nemolomen]

Hi everyone,

Every ship build I find when looking for exploration builds have as big a jump range as possible. Forgive me if I am being a complete tool, but isn’t the point of exploration to explore as many systems as possible, and therefore not need long jump range?

Don’t hesitate to call me a tool, but please explain why, I am obviously missing some important info.

Thank you

However, getting outside of the bubble far enough (2,000 to 5,000 LY) for there to be mostly untouched systems (where the money is) requires a ship with a large jump range or a carrier or lots and lots of patience...

I'm currently exploring in my 60ly DBX, and I'm less than 1,000 ly out, but I've set my auto route setting to use efficient jumps so my last 500ly took 53 jumps...nearly all of the systems I've been to this week have already been explored, but I'm also collecting salad samples along the way, I should have around 1 Bil CR in Vista Genomics data to turn in atm...and my carrier is waiting for me in about 10 jumps or so...

 

[Frankymole]

Hi everyone,

Every ship build I find when looking for exploration builds have as big a jump range as possible. Forgive me if I am being a complete tool, but isn’t the point of exploration to explore as many systems as possible, and therefore not need long jump range?

Don’t hesitate to call me a tool, but please explain why, I am obviously missing some important info.

Thank you

To reach as many systems as possible around the edges of the Galaxy (including the top of the disk and the bottom) you need to cover increasingly sparse regions where stars are further and further apart.

A long jump-range ship can always jump smaller than its max. A short jump-range ship can't jump further...

 

[Riverside]

Hi everyone,

Every ship build I find when looking for exploration builds have as big a jump range as possible. Forgive me if I am being a complete tool, but isn’t the point of exploration to explore as many systems as possible, and therefore not need long jump range?

Don’t hesitate to call me a tool, but please explain why, I am obviously missing some important info.

Thank you

The first ship I went out exploring beyond the bubble in jumped 25ly. My second ship jumped 35 ly because on that first trip I found a 'barrier' I couldn't easily get past with only 25ly.

About 5-6 years ago I built a 75ly conda for fast travel. I've never found a situation where 75ly wasn't enough but (eg) 80ly would have been.

As others have described a long range build is primarily for fast travel. You can do small local jumps in a high range ship too.

I travel with a carrier now. I'm in no rush & I can choose from a number of different builds stored on the carrier, including my fast travel conda if I want to get somewhere quickly. I spend most of my time in a ~47ly Viper MkIV because it's fairly tough for lazy landings and has a really small footprint for landing on rough terrain.

Go on a short trip & figure out what you personally find important (better shields for example, or good supercruise manoeuvrability) and what you think you can do without (eg the ability to boost). A paper thin ship maxed for jump range can be pretty stressful to fly.

 

[JCCarven]

Once I started on PC 1.5 years ago, I bought a Dolphin and was flying it around the galaxy (Colonia, Core, Beagle). She had about a 42-45 LY range in those days, and it was enough for me. This Dolphin bought me a Carrier.

Before this, on PS4, I took a Beluga Liner on the DW2 expedition with a 45-48 LY range all the way to Beagle Point and back — I could have done a lot more than this but decided not to. That wasn't an issue during the expedition, only when it was over at Beagle Point and I had to go back alone. All day jumping and no play..

So yes, jump range matters for explorers for at least two reasons: first, you get faster to the sector you want to explore and back with all that data; and second, you can easily jump through voids between galactic arms or at the edges. But Fleet Carriers are now affordable with exobio payouts, so in most cases, you don't have to bother about these two anymore.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Does a long jump range prevent you visiting as many systems as possible?

 

[angusmadmac1]

My advice for an exploration build , get a ship that you like the cabin view and the engine noise , put what you think you need in it and then engineer it . My exploration ship build is fairly decent shields ( I crash a lot) really good speed so I can canyon run when the urge takes me and I can outrun those who wish to blow me up.
Yeah you can min max but that comes with it's own issues ( hence my hate of anaconda ) .
And when you are out exploring at 6 months to a year at a time then the rush to get out there becomes a non issue or irrelevant .
Yeah it takes a bit more planning and a lot more dead ends in a smaller jump range to get to the edge but remember beagle point was first gotten to by a 33? Lyr Asp .
But in the end it's down to the player build and fly how they want .