Exploration jump range

[DjVortex]

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?

I'd say there are two types of exploration: Long-range exploration, and short-range exploration.

Long-range exploration is when you see an interesting system somewhere really far (usually thousands of LY away) and want to get there with as few jumps as possible / as fast as possible. You aren't really all that interested in the in-between systems.

Short-range exploration is more meticulous, where you want to get first discovery of every single system near you (quite often near your fleet carrier).

Rather obviously the first type benefits a lot from extreme jump ranges.

(Very large jump ranges also sometimes allow reaching systems that are very far from nearby systems, as well as jumping over gaps that are extremely sparse in star systems, which helps in getting to places.)

 

[angusmadmac1]

I think it's a very personal thing I was never in any rush to get somewhere or get back so I just went with the flow .

 

[JCCarven]

I think it's a very personal thing I was never in any rush to get somewhere or get back so I just went with the flow .

Yes, choosing a ship is a very personal thing. Everyone wants an Anaconda (or Cutter), but I personally prefer the Beluga Liner since it is much better controlled in hyperspace than the "brick-conda." Brickness is a showstopper for me. I better jump less but fly comfortably. And that was before Odyssey; now I'm a Dolphin/Courier fan enjoyer — it is better to fly comfortably and faster, than jump further on a brick.

 

[Greasetrap42]

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?

Several thoughts:

1) "... as big a jump range as possible" is often not literally desired. Websites might show min/maxed ships to obtain the absolute best jump range possible, but in reality its best to make trade-offs for QoL, functionality, and safety. Examples: shields, SRV, flight assist modules. A ship can be much nicer by sacrificing a couple light years.

2) An explorer might want to make regular planetary landings. Especially with exobiology. Not a great idea with a paper-thin min/maxed ship. The risk of losing your ship, all your data, and your current location. Plus a min/maxed ship has awful performance.

3) With the introduction of fleet carriers cmdrs such as myself have several dedicated special purpose exploration ships. I still have my long distance travel ships but I mostly explore in much better equipped mid-range ships. Better shields so I can safety smack into rocks. Better performance with A-rated thrusters and distributer. Small size so I can land easier in challenging locations.



Edit: For newer players that don't have a fleet carrier, there is an easy solution. Build two exploration ships. A long distance traveler, and a good medium range exploration ship. You can zip far out into deep space using your long distance traveler and dock at a DSSA fleet carrier. They are reliably placed around the galaxy. You can then transfer your exploration ship to the fleet carrier. If your exploration ship is small like Viper4 the ship transfer won't cost much.

 

[Frankymole]

2) An explorer might want to make regular planetary landings. Especially with exobiology. Not a great idea with a paper-thin min/maxed ship. The risk of losing your ship, all your data, and your current location. Plus a min/maxed ship has awful performance.

I've got a nice tough little DBX, but last night I tabbed out of the game to watch someone play on Twitch. I didn't notice I'd parked slightly near a star, scooping fuel (rather slowly). I idly tabbed back in and found I was down to about 16% on most modules, some had already reached 0%, everything was on fire and heat was up around at least 200%. Oops. Thank goodness I'd sacrificed an SRV for AFMU and Repair limpet, you don't need an SRV in a DBX...

 

[DjVortex]

2) An explorer might want to make regular planetary landings. Especially with exobiology. Not a great idea with a paper-thin min/maxed ship. The risk of losing your ship, all your data, and your current location. Plus a min/maxed ship has awful performance.

I have done huge amounts of exobiology in an extreme "paper plane" and never had any problems. Just be careful when you land (check the gravity of larger planets; if it's over about 0.5, be more careful; the larger the gravity, the more careful) and avoid hitting that boost button by accident.

That being said, if you are really paranoid about it, it's actually possible to get decent armor and decent shields (via heavy amounts of engineering) without sacrificing jump range too much. I'd say sacrificing about 4-5 LY can give a huge boost in both armor and shields, when properly optimized. (If your ship had about 70 LY of jump range, dropping to 66 or 65 LY isn't a huge sacrifice. And you can of course always compromise and sacrifice less jump range for slightly less armor or shields.)

 

[angusmadmac1]

0E shield booster heavy duty super capacitor only weighs 2 ton and gives you +50% an explorers friend.

 

[Kira Goto]

I have done huge amounts of exobiology in an extreme "paper plane" and never had any problems.

Yeah, I’ve done most of my exploring in a Phantom with a 5D low-power engineered shield, it’s never been an issue aside from that one time I didn’t pay attention at all and smacked a .5G planet at about 550 m/s. Reflexes did kick in quickly enough to put 4 pips to it and survive the bonk with about 44% hull (lightweight armor with heavy/deep engineering).

Been a bit less careless since but the shield’s still enough to use planetary surfaces at low-medium gravity as an improvised brake… should I want to. Also carry a repair limpet just in case, plus AFMU if using neutron hops now and then… still got space for the SRV hangar at that.

I downsized the thrusters a little (5A), but it still has a good amount of speed. Doesn’t hold much to the fun Courier which I’ve dubbed ‘Speed Demon’(and am probably not the only one to have)… won’t be tempting any planetary collisions at its maximum speed though. I think it would need a really beefy prism to survive that… and it doesn’t.

But to stick with the thing of my Phantom, it has around 68 ly, or extremely close to with a full fuel tank. Got pretty much all it needs to be self-sufficient*, runs a 5A low emissions plant, two heatsinks… could of course run some shield boosters switched off unless committing to a planetary landing, but as I agreed to above, the only time I ever had a problem was somehow paying so little attention I bonked a planet at near the max speed which the ship can do.

Maybe I wouldn’t have downgraded the power distributor as much if it hadn’t been my first time experimenting with such a build, but, well… it can still boost reliably enough after a bit of support from the engine focused mod. Overall it’s a package I’ve come to quite like and works right within my general ‘style’ of exploration which is to set a random point further away and then just go there, see whatever comes up along the way.

*This of course isn’t necessary with DSSA carrier coverage but I prefer the ability to fix up everything bar power plant in a pinch, rather than needing to travel several thousand light years potentially off my intended route, while the area around such a carrier will almost certainly be mostly covered, its radius albeit depending on the region’s popularity.

 

[marx]

Short-range exploration is more meticulous, where you want to get first discovery of every single system near you (quite often near your fleet carrier).

Rather obviously the first type benefits a lot from extreme jump ranges.

However, when you're doing a short-range survey, you'll often benefit from a higher jump range too. Surveying mass code D boxels is quite popular, and those are 80 ly-sided cubes: so, when going from system to system in sequence, it does matter whether you can reach the next one with one jump, or often need to make two jumps instead.
I'm not saying that it would matter a lot, but it's certainly more convenient, and takes less time to go through your targets too.

That said, I prefer to have a more well-rounded ship than min-maxing for jump ranges. (And hey, even Felicity Farseer recommends this in-game!) Bonking planets can be an accident too, not just not paying attention. Once, I had my stick fail partially on me just as I was flying low over a planet, at speed. Of course, said failure wasn't the inputs cutting out entirely, but the pitch and roll axes maxing out completely... and of course in the direction of the ground, not away from it.

Since then, I test my new exploration builds out in the same way: head-on collision with the ground after boosting. If the ship can survive that, then it's good. (Which is another reason why I like exploring in a Courier, as it's great for exobio, can have a decent range, and it's not difficult to make its shields strong enough.
Besides, colliding with fauna in NSPs can destroy your ship too. A famous explorer once lost his cardboard-build DBX when they boosted away to leave, and a pod (or a mollusc?) swam in from the side just then. Two collisions in quick succession, boom.
Sooner or later, everybody makes mistakes, and it's better to stare at 20% hull remaining than it is to stare at the rebuy screen.

 

[angusmadmac1]

However, when you're doing a short-range survey, you'll often benefit from a higher jump range too. Surveying mass code D boxels is quite popular, and those are 80 ly-sided cubes: so, when going from system to system in sequence, it does matter whether you can reach the next one with one jump, or often need to make two jumps instead.
I'm not saying that it would matter a lot, but it's certainly more convenient, and takes less time to go through your targets too.

That said, I prefer to have a more well-rounded ship than min-maxing for jump ranges. (And hey, even Felicity Farseer recommends this in-game!) Bonking planets can be an accident too, not just not paying attention. Once, I had my stick fail partially on me just as I was flying low over a planet, at speed. Of course, said failure wasn't the inputs cutting out entirely, but the pitch and roll axes maxing out completely... and of course in the direction of the ground, not away from it.

Since then, I test my new exploration builds out in the same way: head-on collision with the ground after boosting. If the ship can survive that, then it's good. (Which is another reason why I like exploring in a Courier, as it's great for exobio, can have a decent range, and it's not difficult to make its shields strong enough.
Besides, colliding with fauna in NSPs can destroy your ship too. A famous explorer once lost his cardboard-build DBX when they boosted away to leave, and a pod (or a mollusc?) swam in from the side just then. Two collisions in quick succession, boom.
Sooner or later, everybody makes mistakes, and it's better to stare at 20% hull remaining than it is to stare at the rebuy screen.

I lost my First Dolphin "fersit " whilst boosting between 4 penduncle pods admittedly I was sure the dolphin would fit in the gap .

 

[K Olley]

I both explore and mine from my carrier, none of my regular ships are min/maxed, they are all built to survive the occasional upset which can happen from time to time.

I am also in the habit of cashing in expo and bio data on a regular basis, it's better to be safe than sorry

 

[Darrack]

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

I wouldn't get too hung up on jump range for exploration, anything 50LY+ will be fine for getting pretty much anywhere but the extremes.
My main solo ships are my Beluga (52LY jump), a fully fitted Anaconda that does 64LYs and a 65LY Asp Ex.

But having just spent the best part of a year flying around the centre, this is by far the best exploration ship I've ever flown and its only a tad over 50LY

Just fitted her with an SCO and she handles really well.

Best advice, fly what you like best, forget about it actually being the best.

O7

 

[Commander Biscuit]

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

No you're right, but good jump range will always be useful to explorers. Say you want to quickly reach some unexplored space, that's what the range is for. Once you get there you can make smaller hops to explore thoroughly.

Ideally you'll pair jump range with a ship that can scoop fast relative to the size of its fuel tank.

 

[nemolomen]

... you don't need an SRV in a DBX...

I beg to differ...

 

[Rat Catcher]

Everyone wants an Anaconda

Maybe 'almost everyone'?
I loathe the ship immensely, but do like how many passengers can be executed without ever leaving the landing pad...

But then, I don't have the vanity to call myself an 'explorer' either, although I have been sightseeing in excess of a million LY travelled...

 

[varonica]

Maybe 'almost everyone'?
I loathe the ship immensely, but do like how many passengers can be executed without ever leaving the landing pad...

But then, I don't have the vanity to call myself an 'explorer' either, although I have been sightseeing in excess of a million LY travelled...

Wouldn't touch one with a barge poll, oh hang on, that's perfect thing to push it away with.......

 

[K Olley]

Maybe 'almost everyone'?
I loathe the ship immensely,

I have got one, flew it once and then demoted it to module storage

 

[Darrack]

Well im going to have to defend the Annie even though its not the first ship i choose to head out in.

Its the best carrier based extreme jumper in the game, i have one stripped down and with the new SCO its 83LY, ideal for scouting remote systems to jump the carrier to.
My exploration Annie at only 64LYs has everything for never coming back to the bubble ever, 4 SRVs, AMFUs, repair limpets, operations limpets, utility slots for everything, 1300+ hull, 1000mjls shields and a huge fuel scoop.
Yes its hard to park sometimes and the handling is bad compared to the Luga but its safe and forgiving and taken me all over the galaxy.

Which is why the Python for me is the best, 4 SRVs (i tend to go for rallying on rocky planets!), AFMU, repair limpets, decent hull/shields/scoop and half the size.

In a good light (dark) the Annie can be pretty majestic

O7

 

[marx]

No you're right, but good jump range will always be useful to explorers.

Exactly: more jump range is always useful, it's just that min-maxing it isn't always useful. Once diminishing returns start getting large (around 50 ly), one might be better served strengthening the ship elsewhere instead.

Well im going to have to defend the Annie even though its not the first ship i choose to head out in.

Its the best carrier based extreme jumper in the game, [...]

Also, before fleet carriers, the Anaconda was always The ship to fly if you wanted to explore the farthest reachable systems. If you wanted to push those extremes, that was your only option, whether you liked the ship or not.

 

[Darrack]

Exactly: more jump range is always useful, it's just that min-maxing it isn't always useful. Once diminishing returns start getting large (around 50 ly), one might be better served strengthening the ship elsewhere instead.


Also, before fleet carriers, the Anaconda was always The ship to fly if you wanted to explore the farthest reachable systems. If you wanted to push those extremes, that was your only option, whether you liked the ship or not.

The Annie is just like our football team (England), it looks good on paper, should be amazing, but always leaves you disappointed and wishing you were in something else

O7