How do you guys equip your exploration ships?

[Bruce Warren]

We all know that D range kits lets you jump further, but when you're out in the big black with only the the astrolabe for company how do you kit out your ships?

(I meant to attach a poll, never mind.)

Do you fly light, for maximum range or do you load for bear? After all it's dangerous out there and a navicomputer full of data isn't worth anything until you get back.

 

[Straha Yeagar]

Check out this thread...tons of Exploration info...

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=81653

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

Nutter (forum user) has produced 2 excellent YouTube videos on the matter.

One for the hauler and one for the Asp - both have 30LY jump range.

I just made and used the hauler version yesterday - nice little ship.

 

[poshblobfish]

We all know that D range kits lets you jump further, but when you're out in the big black with only the the astrolabe for company how do you kit out your ships?

(I meant to attach a poll, never mind.)

Do you fly light, for maximum range or do you load for bear? After all it's dangerous out there and navicomputer full of data isn't worth anything until you get back.

I get the smallest Shield gen I can, 2 gimballed pulse lasers, the biggest Fuels Scoop I can afford, and a decent Auto-repair module. Also keep heat sinks.

 

[Ravenov]

I load for bear, personally. The shields are useful within 500ly of stations when interdicted, and it just feels wrong to go out unarmed, even if there's nothing out there that shoots back ... yet.

 

[nbhamilt]

i took 2 class 2 beams and 2 class 1 beams, and it was worth it. for coming home - got interdicted twice near home...

class d3 shield, class a5 fuel scoop - any less really slows you down imo. class d everything else bar frame shift drive A.

advanced and surface scanners, and 4 point defences (only cos they weight nothing and wanted to fill the slots!)

 

[Bruce Warren]

I did try something similar to Nutter's exploration hauler. Staggering back to dock with 10% hull kind of put me off the idea a bit.

 

[Kalpa]

I started my current journey in this setup. It is slightly suboptimal, most notably has shield and oversized thrusters, and some extra things (heat sinks & countermeasures) - I would probably have fitted it with basic weaponry if I'd remembered too, but after gaining enough money for A-class Friendship Drive I was in too much of glee to just get out of inhabited space. I don't think the extra 12 tons (of weapons) really matter at that point, we're talking about 1ly difference in jump range. But of course, if you want the maximum amount of freedom in your roaming, you need to follow the bare-bones layout.

EDIT: Note, if you bring weapons you'll be wanting at least 3A powerplant instead of 2A, actually. Also this may have been a reason I forgot to add weapons too (or twiddled with them and realized I'd need to grind even more cash for bigger powerplant) ... and of course for combat you'd want better power distributor and so on so forth.