Exploring and cargo?

[Stealthie]

Most of the stuff I've read about this is quite old so I'm wondering if anything's changed...

Is there any reason to fit a cargo rack to an exploration ship?

Conventional wisdom seems to be that you make your money from the exploration data rather than anything you might find out there but I'm paranoid that I'm going to stumble across something interesting that I could've brought back if I'd had a cargo rack available.

 

[DukeIronHand]

I've explored plenty but would hardly call myself an expert.
With that said I have never taken a cargo rack nor ever found myself needing one.
The only reason I could possibly see is if you stumble across some uber hard to get material for Engineering - but I don't Engineer...yet.

 

[Ophion]

Better have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Empty cargo rack = 0t. You never know what you might find out there.

 

[CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost]

…
Is there any reason to fit a cargo rack to an exploration ship?
….

Suicidal tendencies?

Cargo is a NPC pirate bait. Depending on how much you want to get interdicted after a long exploration trip for something that might be worth a few thousand credits take that cargo

More seriously, it doesn't hurt to have cargo racks as they weight nothing. If you really find something unique and are prepared to evade some NPCs on the way back in the bubble you have the option. Otherwise, there is absolutely nothing known out there that is valuable enough to justify the (minimal) increase of risk.

 

[fademist]

Suicidal tendencies?

Cargo is a NPC pirate bait. Depending on how much you want to get interdicted after a long exploration trip for something that might be worth a few thousand credits take that cargo

More seriously, it doesn't hurt to have cargo racks as they weight nothing. If you really find something unique and are prepared to evade some NPCs on the way back in the bubble you have the option. Otherwise, there is absolutely nothing known out there that is valuable enough to justify the (minimal) increase of risk.

and more importantly u cant store that anywhere

 

[Riverside]

If you go really way out there, there is nothing, no USS, no poi on planets, nothing. I'm currently 27,000ly away from the nearest inhabited system & haven't seen anything to scavenge for at least 10kly. I have two cargo racks & all the cargo i have on board was collected within 10kly of the bubble, after that it was only escape pods for another 5kly or so, then nothing.

I can't pass by an escape pod, so for me cargo space is essential, and as it slowly fills my jump range is reduced.

The risk of returning to civilisation with any cargo on board should not be underestimated, plan your build to handle that too if you fit those racks

 

[GammaZ]

One reason to have cargo racks is the fact that you can adjust your "maximum jump range" in route plotter if you have them.
Probably only usefull for bigger ships.

 

[NascentChemist]

The only reason I ever brought racks on my short exploration trips were for the odd escape pod.

Small survey caches are worth very little and large ones can only be sold for ~70k credits. That isn't enough of an incentive for me to pick them up.

 

[RandomGun]

Is there any reason to fit a cargo rack to an exploration ship?

Most probably no. Definitely no as far as money, reputation and game mechanics are concerned.

The only reason I see is role play. I have hauled some unfortunate pilots (occupied cryopods) back to civilization from about 4000 ly (I think). I wish the game would recognize this. I have also taken some food and company (uh... slaves) with me to short trips. (Blaze your own trail without the game supporting it.)

 

[Stealthie]

Fair enough.

If, however, I ever stumble across a batch of Tharglets and cannot carry them, I'm afraid you're all going on "the list".

 

[RandomGun]

If, however, I ever stumble across a batch of Tharglets and cannot carry them, I'm afraid you're all going on "the list".

About twenty years ago I gave an advice to my friend who was playing a game called Nethack. Now, this is an iron-man mode RPG (rogue-like) where death is permanent. No save-game is loadable after death.

He had been playing for several hours and had just defeated a monster that petrifies anyone who touches it. But he had gauntlets and I told him that he can pick up the corpse of the monster since there won't be any skin contact. And I adviced him to use the corpse as a weapon. "It will be fun."

So he took the corpse, wielded it and started to kill other monsters with it and created stone statues everywhere. But suddenly he fell into a pit trap. The corpse slipped from his hands and fell on his neck. Of course, he was turned into a stone statue on the bottom of the pit trap. Game over. Permadeath. Hilarious.

Where was I again... oh yeah...

Good luck to you on your exploration. Make amazing discoveries.

 

[Stealthie]

So, I'm now 5,000Ly outside the bubble.

I hadn't seen a USS in ages but I saw a "degraded emissions" USS and went for a look.

It turned out to be a debris-field with a single item in it called a "Huge Exploration Data Dump".

It was a cargo cannister so I couldn't pick it up. [sour]

 

[IndigoWyrd]

So, I'm now 5,000Ly outside the bubble.

I hadn't seen a USS in ages but I saw a "degraded emissions" USS and went for a look.

It turned out to be a debris-field with a single item in it called a "Huge Exploration Data Dump".

It was a cargo cannister so I couldn't pick it up. [sour]

And now you know the value of having a cargo rack on an exploration ship. Those data dumps are valuable. Never seen a Huge one, but I have seen Large ones, and they list at something like 150k credits each.

 

[StiTch]

One reason to have cargo racks is the fact that you can adjust your "maximum jump range" in route plotter if you have them.
Probably only usefull for bigger ships.

And tucked away in here, the real reason many explorers take them.

They let you plot alternative routes by adjusting the maximum jump range. This starts to get more useful in certain areas of space.

 

[AgamemnonWhen]

I've found crash sites with Occupied Escape Pods well over 2,000LY from the bubble, and even the odd cargo cannister of something moderately expensive... but nothing that would make it worth my while to haul back over hundreds of jumps.

Losing some range (however small) because you're carrying a few hundred credits of someone's 'lost' cargo doesn't seem to be a good use of my time when I'm days away from civilisation.

With cargo racks, take 'em if you want 'em, but personally I'd recommend you use that slot for something more useful like a spare AFMU or additional fuel tank.

"Huge Exploration Data Dump" ... a cargo cannister so I couldn't pick it up.

Oh, hang on - I never heard of this until now! These are a thing? What is this? I'm still not convinced I want to weigh my jumps down with extra tonnage for a few hundred credits.

 

[Suteksio]

I always fit a Corrosion resistant bay. You never know what can you find in the black.

 

[Watcher]

I wouldn't expect to find too much of interest but, you never know.
On my first trip out I took a cargo bay and ended up collecting a few escape pods for instance. Not very profitable but certainly fitted the role - not very happy about those being illegal salvage though, that meant dropping them off more fun than it should have been. I live in hope of finding something of note.
For the ancient ruins stuff they are pretty much essential and probably worth having along if you are more generally exploring in that space and want to help map a new site.
So all in all they probably aren't that useful and I wouldn't expect to get much credit value out of them but the expectation always has me fitting them anyway