Favorite Exobiology Ship

Greasetrap42

Greasetrap42
What is your favorite dedicated exobiology ship?

There is lots of personal preference. I tried several. I found the small landing footprint allowed me to usually land right at the bio sample significantly reducing onfoot time, and now I hardly ever use the SRV. I generally step out of the ship, scan, get back in ship. No need to min/max for jump range, I outfitted with good power plant, thrusters, and shields for nice flying experience.

For me it has become Eagle MK II (launched from carrier)
Eagle MK II
  • Very small landing footprint.
  • Great cockpit visibility. Good sideview.
  • 4A engineered thrusters, great speed and maneuverability.
  • Enough internal slots for 3A fuel scoop, SRV hangar, shields, guardian shield booster, and flight assists for lazy me.
  • 29Ly jump range (good enough).
  • Fuel range okay, but need the scoop every couple systems. Scoop fills tank fast.
  • Enter/Exit on foot at front.

My second choice which I also very much like is Viper4 (launched from carrier)
Viper 4
  • Very small landing footprint.
  • More internal slots.
  • Better jump range (41Ly).
  • Better fuel range.
  • Less visibility. Side windows not as good.


Edit: Improved formatting & typos.
 
Last edited:

Lhorndra

Lhorndra
Without a carrier, the jump range of the Eagle is a little bit to short for me. I like the Dolphin nowadays. Both as a multipurpose bubble shuttle and as a standalone mid-range explorer. Lots of internal space, narrow landing footprint (though a bit too long), great visibility, ample ground clearance for the SRV.

That being said, I always seem to return to my very first real exploration vessel, the Diamondback Explorer. I don’t own a carrier, so that’s my ship for long-range exploration, although it does feel a little cramped. It doesn’t have a lot of ground clearance, so returning the SRV to the hangar in rugged terrain is a PITA sometimes. Still, I can do exobiology far, far away from the bubble. And on a budget.

If you want to do exobiology in style, then the Courier would be a good choice. I never bothered so far, because it’s locked behind a rank, meh.
 
Last edited:

Chaparral

Chaparral
Dolphin. The high landing position ensures you can deoply and pick up the srv in rough terrains. Cool running, decent jump range, lots of space for optional internals, smart looking interior, and has more style. You're going to be looking at it for a loooong time.
 

CMD Malandark

CMD Malandark
Darrack said:
Really? that's an awful build, the main reason to use the Krait is for 2 SRVs 🤷‍♂️

O7
Click to expand...

I use to carry 2 SRV's until i realised it was pointless carrying 2 since we can refuel, rearm and even repair SRV's on the go without needing to fly back to inhabitable space. In fact SRV's automatically repair themselves the moment you return to your ship, which I'm assuming that's a game bug.
 

Anders Seclusive

A
Darrack said:
Keelback, small easy to land, great view of the ground for spotting, 2 SRVs and 53LY jump, its all you need 😉

O7
Click to expand...
As a lover of the Keelback you are an inspiration.

As for my favourite EXO ship, I've been using the Clipper as a general short range explorer and landing thing. It's a pain to land some times but I love it.
 

Greasetrap42

Greasetrap42
torloisk said:
As I stated it's for exploration and exobiology in the black, with 71 ly jump range (fully engineered) the Krait Phantom is perfect.
Click to expand...
That is a long distance exploration ship. I'm not sure, but I think this might be from before exobio was introduced. Weird the DSS isn't engineered. Certainly this build can be used for exobio. I would not find it ideal for however because of its large landing footprint, D-Rated thrusters and distributer. But it was designed for long distance exploration.
 

Faded Glory

Faded Glory
I do much of my exobiology (to be honest I only bother with high value bodies and usually only scan high value signals) with the two exploration ships, an Asp Explorer and a Phantom, that I use exploring up and down from my carrier. However if I find a body with an interesting atmosphere and a lot of signals on it I bookmark it and return in my DBX with a 60+ Ly jump and then do a session just doing exobiology.

I should from time to time use some of my other ships, maybe a Viper III or IV, but they have smaller jump ranges, so it would need to be a body not too far from the carrier. I did try once in one of my many iCouriers - my favorite ship - but for me it goes too fast, you need to give things time to spawn, and I find the view to be quite obstructed by the long nose!
 

Darrack

Darrack
torloisk said:
As I stated it's for exploration and exobiology in the black, with 71 ly jump range (fully engineered) the Krait Phantom is perfect.
Click to expand...
Completely agree i love the Phantom and im currently roaming Hawking's in mine atm

CMD Malandark said:
I use to carry 2 SRV's until i realised it was pointless carrying 2 since we can refuel, rearm and even repair SRV's on the go without needing to fly back to inhabitable space. In fact SRV's automatically repair themselves the moment you return to your ship, which I'm assuming that's a game bug.
Click to expand...
My point is with D2Es build why not use that extra class 5 for 2 SRVs, its belt and braces in case one accidentally nose dives into a crater, never happened to me of course, no Sir, never 😊

O7
 

marx

marx
Having tried many ships again after Odyssey, my favourite ended up being the Imperial Courier. In a nutshell, I needed the following:
  • small landing footprint
  • good directional (lateral) thrusters
  • decent jump range for traversing the galaxy on its own (not on a fleet carrier)
  • strong enough shields to survive the inevitable lithobraking
So this meant the Courier, the Diamondback Explorer and the Dolphin for me. However, I just dislike the Dolphin's cockpit view - and it's also a middle-of-the-road between the former two. The Courier flies better, the DBX jumps better. Then there's also that the Courier's shields are excellent, outperforming the other two twice and thrice. The only clear advantage that the Dolphin has above both (as well as almost every other ship) is its heat management. But for planetary flight and exobiology (lots of quick landings), the Courier performed and felt the best for me. However, I'm aware that since I'm flying stick, I likely place more importance on the flight characteristics than many others.

There's also that that in the collision test I did, the Courier performed far better than the other two. No surprises there though.

A shout out to the Asp Scout though, of all things. It performs surprisingly well planetside, significantly better than the Asp Explorer, and let's not forget that it has the second-best supercruise handling in the game. Unfortunately, its landing footprint is still a bit too large for me, but I think I've been spoiled by the small ships. And yeah, the Asp Explorer can jump +9 ly farther than the Scout, but to be honest, 62 ly is perfectly fine for me.
 

wolfhelius

W
The Type-6 because the Asp is too fat, the Dolphin too ugly, and the DBX doesn’t have size 5 internals. It has the footprint of a DBX and almost double the yaw rate of an Asp X. A true joy to fly!
 

HRDiagram

HRDiagram
My Hauler ❤️

She has enough autonomy, speed and jump range to do long Exobiology trips, without the need for the FC to follow, and she lands everywhere.

The only downside is the limited view from its cockpit (nothing beats Lakon ships at that)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom