Exploration, ships and wear & tear

Jedirogue

Jedirogue
I'm planning to do some exploration (out 1000 to 2000 ly and back) and was wondering about the following.

I have a few ships, one being a Cobra and a bit of cash so could get an Asp. Which ship is best for exploration? I see some people using the Cobra and can see some advantages to this (decent jump range, low rebuy/repair cost if things go wrong and enough internal space for ADS and DSS). The Asp clearly has a better jump range but repair and rebuy costs are considerably higher. SO what ships are you guys using?

Also the wear & tear mechanic has me worried. Do smaller ships suffer wear & tear faster than bigger ships, does the quality of components affect it. I don't want to be heading out into the great black only to find that the ship starts to fall to pieces and I can't make it back. I'm a fairly competent pilot so fuel scooping doesn't worry me and I plan to fully upgrade whichever ship I take to make it as survivable as possible (including taking a repair module). What are explorers experiences with wear & tear and how to minimise its effects.
 

WalterHWhite

WalterHWhite
I'm about to start exploring too, I have a hauler with a range of 25LY.

Advanced discovery scanner, middle range fuel scoop, detailed surface scanner... no weapons.
 
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Ragnol

R
I used an ASP on a ~8000 Ly trip to the lagoon Nebula wich earned me 5.5M Cr but cost me around 500k in wear and tear costs. (It wasn't a stripped down asp though, it was combat ready with A rating stuff so a stripped down might cost less in repair.) However i didn't notice any difference in ship handling before and after the trip, perhaps because i adjusted to these changes while they were happening to my ship. I also remember a comment by a FD game designer saying that even with a ship that is completely down to 0% (so its worn down completely) should still be flyable by a decent CMDR and even stand its own in combat.
 

Erimus Kamzel

Erimus Kamzel
Jedirogue said:
I'm planning to do some exploration (out 1000 to 2000 ly and back) and was wondering about the following.

I have a few ships, one being a Cobra and a bit of cash so could get an Asp. Which ship is best for exploration? I see some people using the Cobra and can see some advantages to this (decent jump range, low rebuy/repair cost if things go wrong and enough internal space for ADS and DSS). The Asp clearly has a better jump range but repair and rebuy costs are considerably higher. SO what ships are you guys using?

Also the wear & tear mechanic has me worried. Do smaller ships suffer wear & tear faster than bigger ships, does the quality of components affect it. I don't want to be heading out into the great black only to find that the ship starts to fall to pieces and I can't make it back. I'm a fairly competent pilot so fuel scooping doesn't worry me and I plan to fully upgrade whichever ship I take to make it as survivable as possible (including taking a repair module). What are explorers experiences with wear & tear and how to minimise its effects.
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The Cobra is an excellent low cost explorer. Ideal for ranges out to 10,000 light years. If you go further then you want an Asp with at least 30LY range to save travel times, and help you cross awkward low star density sectors.

Wear and tear mainly effects your hull. After so long without maintenance wear and tear will degrade your hull by a maximum of 30% - although you won't see it visually represented. So even if it says 100% hull, in reality it will be 30% weaker. What I've noticed is that with a degraded hull every time you take heat damage or exit supercruise too fast your subsystems seem to be hit harder, sometimes losing up to 5% integrity a time instead of the normal 1-2%.

You can fit auto-field maintenance repair units to fix certain subsystems but form my experience they are only needed if you plan on staying out in deep space for days or weeks at a time.
 

Chevy66

C
I'm using an Adder, 25ly range with decent FSD and no weapons, Not as good as an asp, but more affordable to the likes of me
 

anikaiful

anikaiful
Jedirogue said:
I'm planning to do some exploration (out 1000 to 2000 ly and back) and was wondering about the following.

I have a few ships, one being a Cobra and a bit of cash so could get an Asp. Which ship is best for exploration? I see some people using the Cobra and can see some advantages to this (decent jump range, low rebuy/repair cost if things go wrong and enough internal space for ADS and DSS). The Asp clearly has a better jump range but repair and rebuy costs are considerably higher. SO what ships are you guys using?

Also the wear & tear mechanic has me worried. Do smaller ships suffer wear & tear faster than bigger ships, does the quality of components affect it. I don't want to be heading out into the great black only to find that the ship starts to fall to pieces and I can't make it back. I'm a fairly competent pilot so fuel scooping doesn't worry me and I plan to fully upgrade whichever ship I take to make it as survivable as possible (including taking a repair module). What are explorers experiences with wear & tear and how to minimise its effects.
Click to expand...

If you're not going to engage in combat, W&T doesn't much affect you.
 

Jackie Silver

Jackie Silver
I use a Cobra and I cover a lot of ground (distance traveled and systems visited) but I stay fairly close to the inhabited systems and fairly close in to the galactic plane. I'm rarely over 1000ly from Sol or more than 300ly out of the plane (furthest I've been was about 5000ly from Sol.) At some point I'll bite the bullet and take an Asp out for a long-distance trek, but I prefer to fly and fight in the Cobra.
 

Obsidian Ant

Obsidian Ant
I've just come back from a ~20k Ly trip. Wear and Tear cost me nearly 500k cr. I make 4.5 million credits on data sale. So around 4 cr million profit. Wear and tear isn't too much of a problem in that sense. I did it all in an Asp, certainly the best ship to do it in without doubt!
 

Knot2clever

Knot2clever
Currently out on mega exploration trip in a python. Fuel scoop, advanced discovery scanner, detailed surface scanner, field maintenance unit, very well armed. Just over 17Ly jump range.

I don't want or need a big jump range as I try to explore as many systems as possible. Currently 1800Ly from Sol , so far the longest jump I've made/needed was 11Ly.

I stop every now and then to check my modules and repair the critical components on as the maintenance unit uses up its resources. At the moment I am at 94% hull due to "bumping" into 3 plantes/moons. It easier than you'd think.

Can't see what my ship integrity stands at, as far as I'm aware you can only see this when docked, that's obviously not going to happen if you're out exploring.
 
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interfector

interfector
if you don't have enough money to buy asp with best fsd and fuel scoop, i'd go with hauler. has decent jump range, low wear and tear cost and not so bad view.
 

Archgeek

Archgeek
Head to a system you're friendly or allied with for integrity repair. It's significantly cheaper.

I've a question regarding ship integrity though...just what activities induce wear and tear, save for supercruising which I know darn well does, in spades (attempting to close distance with a 10.4 LY jump I only just barely couldn't make in my adder without dumping a cargo can...made 2001C, closed to within .1LY closer than I ostensibly needed to be, 'still wouldn't let me jump...integrity down to 40-odd percent afterwards).

But does jumping incur integrity loss? What about boosting? Getting shot? Heating and cooling the weapons a lot? Heat sink usage? Bonking landing pads or clipping other ships when tearing out of a station? Playing Icarus by getting too close when scooping the woop? Vexing your FSD with masslock by ripping past a planet too close and fast? Having a lemur loose in the cabin? Using high helium-content fuel? I wish I knew.
 

Spiridon

Spiridon
Yes getting shot, yes supercruising. And accidents while scooping. All the rest - if you provoke it.
 
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