Ships FC based explorer with fighter bay

[Cohen the Worrior]

I thought this Keelback would be fun to fly around and try my hand at the fighter.

Any suggestions?

Also, what should I put in the fighter bay?
The goal is to have fun exploring with the FC in tow.

 

[sinisalo]

If I apply my biases to your ship the suggestions I would make are to add mass manager (which I'm sure you have planned) and set those thrusters on fire before jettisoning them to history. I get it, folks like D rated thrusters, and blaze your own. But let's look at what happens if you go with dirty drag As.

Making this change results in the loss of less than one light year in jump range, but your speed goes from 206/308 to 315/473. That's a massive gain for virtually no loss to jump range and negligible increase in heat, and cruises faster than the original design boosts. One grade of armored covers the power, and if you were to go enhanced low power for the shield even that won't be needed. I'm no fan of shields that offer so little protection, but it's better than nothing. But if it were my ship I'd want to boost my shield effectiveness.

I'd also suggest going A class for your scoop. D class saves money, but not mass.

Here's the ship with my suggestions. New scoop, HD/deep plate stock bulkheads, dirty drag As, ELP and hi-Cap on the shields, G1 armored and thermal spread PP, and mass manager. Much faster, slightly better jump, slightly better protection. Just a few tweaks.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

coriolis.io

Here's the same ship with three HD E-rated boosters. Lose a little jump, and G2 armored to cover the power, but shield mj is nearly tripled. This is insurance in high-G worlds that you may explore.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

coriolis.io

 

[Zieman]

But let's look at what happens if you go with dirty drag As.

Making this change results in the loss of less than one light year in jump range, but your speed goes from 206/308 to 315/473.

And G5 dirty drag D4 goes 295/443.

 

[sinisalo]

That's more but less

But yeah, I didn't take that in to account did I? My contempt for D rated thrusters is such that I cannot even bear to look at them!

 

[Cohen the Worrior]

Thanks for the tips guys.
But for fiscal reasons, I have to pretend to be poor.
I'll test out the Keelback and report back to you, that's why it's mostly un-engineered.

Any suggestions on the fighter?

 

[sinisalo]

Money is the cause and solution to all of our problems.

I like the fixed beam GU97 fighter. It's very agile and NPCs are great with beams, but it's not very robust. If you can try them all and pick your favourite that would be good. Do you have Guardian bits to go that route?

Honestly I haven't used any fighters in a very long time, and I've never hired a minion, so my claim that the NPCs are great with beams is simply from observing them flying out of other ships or from forum comments. But I used to have a Keelback with a fighter to do canyon runs and that sort of thing.

I did get what I need for Guardian fighters but never got around to unlocking them since I rarely use a SLF.

 

[Innocentius]

Thanks for the tips guys.
But for fiscal reasons, I have to pretend to be poor.
I'll test out the Keelback and report back to you, that's why it's mostly un-engineered.

Any suggestions on the fighter?

I personally like the guardian fighter with plasma repeater, but otherwise I would just go with the fastest ones from here:

Ship-Launched Fighters

For similar named ships used in the Close Quarter Combat Championship, see CQC Championship. Ship-Launched Fighters are small combat ships that are launched from a host ship's Fighter Hangar. They are controlled by the host ship's pilot, NPC or a secondary crew member via telepresence. SLF are...

elite-dangerous.fandom.com

And that would be

F63 Condor

Core Dynamics

Aegis F

327 (554)

If you want some other considerations then try out all the fighters and see which one has the best views out of the cockpit and feels fun to fly in.
Anyhow on your build. If you pretend to be poor and do not engineer it more either, then I guess its fine. I would only add a heatsink or two to it and call it the day in that case.

 

[Astaran]

I thought this Keelback would be fun to fly around and try my hand at the fighter.

Any suggestions?

Also, what should I put in the fighter bay?
The goal is to have fun exploring with the FC in tow.

+1 for Keelback love

You could use the empty class 2 slot for either a small cargo rack (in case you find something "interesting" you want to bring home) or for a Super Cruise Assist for convenience/quality of life.

Personally, I like the Federal Fighter (the design reminds me of the Narn fighters in Babylon 5). If you have access to them, the Guardian fighters are good for fancy screenshots.

I turned my own Keelback into a "short range" explorer with an emphasis on Guardian ruins. That's why I have better shields, point defense, and dumbfire rockets installed. IIRC I have a cargo rack instead of the fighter bay, but since other exploration ships come with fighters anyway, I think I can get away with it this time.

 

[Northpin]

Any suggestions on the fighter?

Taipan
It looks and feels like a real ship/fighter. Being sturdier than the rest might help a bit with survivability in case you miss a corner in a canyon... or something