I’ve had really cool running exploration ships, but my new Dolphin runs hotter than what I’m used to. I’ve seen a mix of clean and dirty drives, armoured and low emissions power plants in exploration builds. How do you decide what kind of engineering an exploration ship’s power plant and thrusters needs?
Engineers Exploration ships: how do you choose between clean/dirty, low emissions/armoured?
- Thread starter Branithar
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That depends entirely on what your trying to get out of it.
My conda has the absolute smallest power plant and thrusters I can put on it and I always do stripped down. No real need for other engineering on thrusters or PP on a dedicated explorer. I have most modules turned off when not in use, but ive still got a 75ly range with an SRV and SLF plus everything to repair any damage (less the power plant of course)
Corilois my friend
My conda has the absolute smallest power plant and thrusters I can put on it and I always do stripped down. No real need for other engineering on thrusters or PP on a dedicated explorer. I have most modules turned off when not in use, but ive still got a 75ly range with an SRV and SLF plus everything to repair any damage (less the power plant of course)
Corilois my friend
You could pick a ship you really like since you'll be spending a lot of time in it, you also need to consider where you're going to take it as outside of the galactic edge and other places around 50 LY jump range is more than enough add some "jumponium" for special occasions and you're covered.
For me a Krait mk2 (2nd account) with lightweight weapons and 50+ jump range worked all the way to Colonia and was capable of light BH when it arrived, essentially don't get caught up chasing max jump range and end up with a fragile ship that will be difficult to land on high G worlds, has weak shields and may end up being no fun to fly.
For any build put in all the stuff you need and then add a suitable power plant (armoured + thermal spread for me).
Here's my Krait explorer build (drop the ADS as it's inbuilt in the Beta)
https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/kra...cAgAA.EweloBhBmSQUwIYHMA28QgIwV0A=&bn=Krait X
Or a similar build with the Phantom
https://beta.coriolis.io/outfit/kra...EweloBhBmSQUwIYHMA28QgIwVyKBQA==&bn=Krait P-X
For me a Krait mk2 (2nd account) with lightweight weapons and 50+ jump range worked all the way to Colonia and was capable of light BH when it arrived, essentially don't get caught up chasing max jump range and end up with a fragile ship that will be difficult to land on high G worlds, has weak shields and may end up being no fun to fly.
For any build put in all the stuff you need and then add a suitable power plant (armoured + thermal spread for me).
Here's my Krait explorer build (drop the ADS as it's inbuilt in the Beta)
https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/kra...cAgAA.EweloBhBmSQUwIYHMA28QgIwV0A=&bn=Krait X
Or a similar build with the Phantom
https://beta.coriolis.io/outfit/kra...EweloBhBmSQUwIYHMA28QgIwVyKBQA==&bn=Krait P-X
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I usually go armored PP because heat is your worst enemy out in the black (and drunk flying). This is what I used on my Krait MkII build and she scoops quick and comfortable at 55-58 % heat. Call it insurance.
On the ASPx I played with both low e and armored. Good either way.
As for thrusters I usually go with dirty (again for safety insurance when getting back to the bubble). Last thing I want to happen is have some Cobra erase the millions in credits all because I can't boost away and jump out.
Is 5ly really worth it to go bare bones? 55 ly vs 60 ly? Figure up the difference over 25k LY...it is only an extra 50 jumps. Not much of a price to pay.
On the ASPx I played with both low e and armored. Good either way.
As for thrusters I usually go with dirty (again for safety insurance when getting back to the bubble). Last thing I want to happen is have some Cobra erase the millions in credits all because I can't boost away and jump out.
Is 5ly really worth it to go bare bones? 55 ly vs 60 ly? Figure up the difference over 25k LY...it is only an extra 50 jumps. Not much of a price to pay.
All the above. Also be aware that the difference between clean and dirty drive heat output is only an issue in normal space, not in supercruise. That removes most of the use cases for clean to be honest.
I would only use Clean Drives on ships that run hot even with good efficiency on the Power Plant (there are only a few of these, T7 iirc is an example) Otherwise Dirty Drives are the better choice imho.
Probably opening a can of worms by saying this but, for me, it's all about the jump-range.
I fit the smallest thrusters I'm comfortable with and the smallest/lightest PP and PDist that can make everything work because that gives me the best jump-range.
That being the case, it's always G5 DDs, a G5 engine-focused PDist and a suitably overcharged PP.
Both armoured and low-emissions PP mod's add weight so that's a non-starter.
Overcharged adds no weight and the Thermal Spread XFX almost negates any additional heat generation.
Back in 2.X, overcharged PPs ran pretty hot but the current Thermal Spread XFX changes all that.
You can now run a G5 overcharged PP with the Thermal Spread XFX and the thermal efficiency will only reduce from 0.4 to 0.45 (instead of the ~0.7 you'd often see in 2.X).
Similar thing with the thrusters.
DD5 to get maximum efficiency and then, if heat is a concern, apply the Thermal Spread XFX.
I fit the smallest thrusters I'm comfortable with and the smallest/lightest PP and PDist that can make everything work because that gives me the best jump-range.
That being the case, it's always G5 DDs, a G5 engine-focused PDist and a suitably overcharged PP.
Both armoured and low-emissions PP mod's add weight so that's a non-starter.
Overcharged adds no weight and the Thermal Spread XFX almost negates any additional heat generation.
Back in 2.X, overcharged PPs ran pretty hot but the current Thermal Spread XFX changes all that.
You can now run a G5 overcharged PP with the Thermal Spread XFX and the thermal efficiency will only reduce from 0.4 to 0.45 (instead of the ~0.7 you'd often see in 2.X).
Similar thing with the thrusters.
DD5 to get maximum efficiency and then, if heat is a concern, apply the Thermal Spread XFX.
I put a g5 low emissions / thermal spread 6A powerplant on my Conda, sacrificing some jump range (70LY) for some extra juice for shield boosters (1000+mj) and a fantastic scoop/heating ability. But I tested my shields in open against a fully engineered ganker Corvette and was able to survive, so it is worth it [up]
I’ve heard a lot of opinions that clean drives make a very minimal difference for exploration, but a lot of the testing was done on ships with excellent thermal handling. The Dolphin is known to get hot in normal space, whilst flying over planetary surfaces. Would clean drives make much of a difference? Or dirty drives with thermal spread should do the trick? I don’t intend to use it as a canyon runner, just a zippy Explorer that can land in rough terrain.
I did mess with the Beluga a lot (the Dolphin’s big brother) in the beta. That ship has atrocious thermal handling, and Low Emissions Power Plant made it significantly better at fuel scooping.
I did mess with the Beluga a lot (the Dolphin’s big brother) in the beta. That ship has atrocious thermal handling, and Low Emissions Power Plant made it significantly better at fuel scooping.
I use exclusively Clean Drives on my exploration and smuggling ships. They run a lot cooler, and on an exploration ship that makes quite a difference on high gravity worlds. I compensate the increase power requirements by using a Guardian PP. Works perfectly and i can still outrun pirates or land on those 5G+ worlds.
It depends on what you consider more important for a particular build, they all have distinct benefits and tradeoffs.
For the power plant:
Low Emissions: Really good if you value staying cool above all else for a negligible mass increase.
Armored: Good if your ship already runs cool enough and you want more power for a negligible mass increase, or more integrity in case of mishaps.
For the thrusters:
Dirty Drives: Good if you want to move the fastest and be the hottest in normal space. It runs colder than Clean drives in supercruise, but hotter than stock drives.
Clean Drives: Good if you plan on visiting hot planets near their stars and want to move a bit quicker. It runs the coldest in normal space, but the hottest in supercruise.
^This is a very good summary.
Only two thing to add to the PP discussion:
1) sometimes you can downsize powerplant because you go armored as you get a bit of power output boost from it. Then you actually get weight savings from it. If you do not have the materials for it, level 1 overcharged with thermal paste also gets about the same heat efficiency as normal PP, but 12% more power.
2) I normally go with low emissions myself even that that may end up me needing one size larger PP as there is power output reduction with low emissions PP. I just like the heat efficiency so much. I can scoop between binary stars and not overheat. I can even fly into exclusion zones of stars or many black holes and not suffer heat damage there or when I jump out of there. Low emissions PP makes one pretty immune to heat damage unless one wants to crash into jet cone of a neutron star or something else stupid like that... ;-)
And to the thruster discussion:
There seems to be some confusion with many that clean drives help when scooping, which is absolutely not the case: they consume more energy so they actually harm scooping performance. They are only helpful when in normal space. On the other hand: I have them on some of my explorer builds where I go for minimum heat levels on normal space. But that is mostly for fun really. My DBX runs so cold that I can have its cargo bay full of gold in a haz res and the ships just ignore me as they do not see me at all in their sensors.
For Dolphin, I would definitely give it a shot of having low emissions and clean drives when the planetary conditions are the OPs problem. https://s.orbis.zone/19_n
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