Dolphin Iced-out Dolphin?

sinisalo

sinisalo
I bought another Dolphin, having sold one before when I couldn't work out a role for it. I bought this one to build my coldest ship. Still not sure what to use it for, but maybe for sightseeing missions, or smuggling if I get the itch. My Orca idles at 13% and I know the Dolphin can get more frosty.

Here's my first attempt at a mock-up


Iced-out Dolphin

It's mostly low-draw engineering. I built it also in EDSY, which is better than Coriolis for heat engineering, and this build is 11% idle according to that site. I seem to recall seeing some Dolphins here that were idling in the single digits. Anyone care to share their cold Dolphin builds? What do you use it for?
 

Three Stars

T

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone s.orbis.zone

Cold running, minimum thruster mass, Dolphin of Death. Drop the shields, take plant shots with the missiles, make dolphin noises as you triumph.

I also made one for exploration duty for landing on Skardee 1. Didn’t break a sweat going through the atmosphere. Resting heat in the surface was 44% iirc.
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
OK I see.

I mocked it up with D thrusters, which drops the idle one point to 10%. 9% is possible when the scoop and GFSDB are shut down.

But I always go for the fastest ship I can, so I think my limit here is going to be 10% idle with module priorities. I could go lower with no shield boosters, but I'll opt for the protection over a slightly cooler ship I think.

Got started on the build last night by transferring any required modules out of storage. Had quite a few of them surprisingly, including a 3A ELP shield generator. Helps to cut down the time needed to bring it up to spec.
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
Project is underway, and I spent time last night flying around doing the experimental tour. This is a G4.71 Dolphin haha. So painful spending those precious mats for a the tiniest sliver of engineering progress. The power plant is flush G5, but the rest is something less at this point.

Lo-draw Dolphin

I'm using it for sightseeing missions. These pay well, and often have G5 mats or Rep+++++ as rewards.

Idle right now is 11%, which is pretty frosty. I often read posts by other commanders about the scooping performance, and it really is great. Max rate on a class 4, as I quickly discovered is 343/s. This build attains that at 45% heat! That's awesome and it gulps it full in a few seconds.

Protection is adequate at the moment, good enough for what I want to use it for. Fast, light and cool is the way I like them and this Dolphin fits the bill.
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
A few alterations.... This is what I am targeting now, should I choose to go full G5

Lo-draw Target Build

Most everything was set, but it left several class 1 and 2 slots open. I don't use SCA or SDC, so I think sticking a collector controller and a rack or two will be useful for dropping in to any HGEs I come across. Sightseeing is pretty good for rewards on it's own. And it takes you to some of the best and most interesting systems in and around the bubble. Very often the target systems have earthlikes, water worlds and ammonia worlds amongst other interesting bit and bobs, which get probed for the cash. So since I'm scanning anyway, may as well look for HGEs.

Speaking of scanning, what's up with the engineered DSS v1 I see at the tech broker? It says something like double probe radius modification, but how does it match up against a bog standard G5 probe radius DSS?

I still need to decide on the utilities. I could add one more E booster. Or I could go with heatsink and maybe a wake scanner. It's all modular anyway and I can swap stuff in and out, but I'm locked in at 13.3 MW with the ELP power plant so it limited what ican do with less than one MW to play with.
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
Took the new Dolphin out and put her through the paces, flying a couple of sightseeing missions, the first of which featured a ringed earthlike. The ship is well-suited, but being limited to one class 5 cabin does leave out a few missions in the passenger lounge. I also flew to a nearby system to buy a class 5 Luxury cabin as I saw a couple of these missions on the boards.

This build, I think, is ideally suited for criminal transport and secretive fares, rebel leaders and criminal mastermind type missions. It's low heat presumably reduces the range at which scans can occur, and the high speed makes evading scans easy. I added a heatsink launcher to facilitate smuggling operations.

So I reckon this project has been a success. In the end I packed enough stuff on board that I didn't quite hit my theoretical heat target of single digits, but it's darn close. The ship is fast, jumps well and runs frosty. Great scooping performance and supercruise handling.

I did unlock one of the Engineered DSS v1 modules. It is +40% probe radius. A G5 DSS is +50%, so unless I am missing something I don't see much reason to go this route, unless I guess you don't have G5 DSS engineer unlocked? +40% is equal to a G4 DSS. The mats cost for this tech broker DSS is pretty high, and I won't get another. It now rides in the Dolphin.

All of my ships must have a specific role, justification for their place in my fleet and time spent engineering. To be honest, the Orca is better suited to this role and the Dolphin is stealing it away. But it had been a long time since I had a new build project and I had to justify it in some way. The Orca is faster, jumps farther, has better protection and has the slot versatility to accept more missions. The Dolphin runs two points cooler however. Small-pad capability doesn't factor in to these missions, so really I didn't have a need to do this. But I did want to build my coldest ship, and in that I succeeded. And of course Saud Kruger implies I am special. I can't settle on a name however, and that is key.

My Orca for comparison

Sunburst Orca -- Interstellar Style Magnet
 
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Surprize960

S
sinisalo said:
(…)

I did unlock one of the Engineered DSS v1 modules. It is +40% probe radius. A G5 DSS is +50%, so unless I am missing something I don't see much reason to go this route, unless I guess you don't have G5 DSS engineer unlocked? +40% is equal to a G4 DSS. The mats cost for this tech broker DSS is pretty high, and I won't get another. It now rides in the Dolphin.

(…)
Click to expand...

DSS V1 is better, description here:

COMPLETED CG - Engineered Detailed Surface Scanner Initiative (Trade)

Well that's just typical, sorry i cant help on this one but as a dedicated explorer I'm currently mapping out in the Formorian Frontier, good luck all guess I'm gonna be grinding materials in a few weeks when I get back to the bubble. Fly safe o7
forums.frontier.co.uk forums.frontier.co.uk
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
I said that EDSSv1 was two probes for a six-probe planet, but that depends on the planet. I had a few that each probe 'only' did 43% of the surface, so obviously those needed three probes to complete. Others do 50%+ so require two. And anyway you only need to hit 90% to finish it. Depends on the actual size and there's naturally some deviation among 'six-probe' bodies.

The sightseeing is going great, this Dolphin is really well-suited for it. Those secretive fares are a breeze, not that they were much trouble before. But I don't think I've even had a scan initiated since I built it. The criminal transport likewise goes smoothly. I don't think many commanders get in to this role, but it has a lot going for it. It pays well. The money is OK, and is supplemented by the fact that the destinations often have valuable planets. I just had four straight where the target visitor beacon overlooked earthlikes. That's usually 800k - 1.4m in additional profit to probe it while you're preparing to drop in to the target instance.

But money doesn't mean much anymore. Sightseeing also often has G5 mats (usually Modified Embedded Firmware or Biotech Conductors) and Rep+++++ as rewards.

The missions rarely are interdicted. These are also contributing towards a couple of Inara badges I am hunting, namely Traveller level 2 and Captain 3. Sightseeing fares are small, usually 2 to 7 occupants, so it's not like it contributes a lot haha, but the space miles are piling up.

So if anyone is looking for a peaceful mission profile with good pay and some of the most interesting spots in Elite, give sightseeing a go. When I started playing years ago, this is the thing I gravitated to, making it my first 'career'. I set up my Interstellar Transportation Company, running an Orca out of Daedalus in Sol. It was a roleplay thing and I had a lot of fun doing it. I've never stopped entirely, though I moved out of Sol since there are no missions on any board that go TO a permit-locked system.

Above, I have linked a number of Coriolis builds, most theoretical. This is the Dolphin as it actually stands, with a nod to Pink Floyd

Interstellar Overdrive

Fast, good jump, idles at 11%, cruises at 13%. Excellent scooping and supercruise handling. As mentioned my Orca is better suited really, better in most ways aside from heat. But it's fun to have a new build project and then turn around and put it to good use.
 

Northpin

Northpin
sinisalo said:
I bought another Dolphin, having sold one before when I couldn't work out a role for it. I bought this one to build my coldest ship. Still not sure what to use it for, but maybe for sightseeing missions, or smuggling if I get the itch. My Orca idles at 13% and I know the Dolphin can get more frosty.

Here's my first attempt at a mock-up


Iced-out Dolphin

It's mostly low-draw engineering. I built it also in EDSY, which is better than Coriolis for heat engineering, and this build is 11% idle according to that site. I seem to recall seeing some Dolphins here that were idling in the single digits. Anyone care to share their cold Dolphin builds? What do you use it for?
Click to expand...

This Python will also Ice out.
Even my Cutter is Ice-ing out from time to time
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
Heat doesn't display correctly on Coriolis. What are the idles on those ship Northpin? Can you export the build to EDSY (Inara has this function in the hangar as I'm sure you know)
 

Zieman

Zieman
sinisalo said:
I said that EDSSv1 was two probes for a six-probe planet, but that depends on the planet.
Click to expand...
The treshold is at about 5040 km radius.
I'm baffled why the DSS shows mass and not radius, when the amount of needed probes is radius dependant (well, probabaly 'surface' area, but radius is revealed by FSS).
 

Northpin

Northpin
sinisalo said:
Heat doesn't display correctly on Coriolis. What are the idles on those ship Northpin? Can you export the build to EDSY (Inara has this function in the hangar as I'm sure you know)
Click to expand...

Python - EDSY
Cutter - EDSY

The most common figure i remember seeing flying those ships is like 13% heat
Also some high 60-ies, even some low 70-ties when initiating a Jump immediately after the FSD cooldown while still rather close to the star
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
Nice mate, those are both 10% idle, which is quite frosty. I think the D thrusters are the key there, and the main difference that makes those ships run one point cooler. I considered it, and mocked it up that way, but I always go dirty A. Speed is life!

Thanks for sharing those. Low-heat ships are cool. Wait, that's obvious innit?
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
It's just curiosity so I understand it, but why do Northpin's ships idle lower than my Dolphin, but the FSD temp is 10 points higher? Do larger FSDs produce more heat?
 

Northpin

Northpin
sinisalo said:
Nice mate, those are both 10% idle, which is quite frosty. I think the D thrusters are the key there, and the main difference that makes those ships run one point cooler. I considered it, and mocked it up that way, but I always go dirty A. Speed is life!

Thanks for sharing those. Low-heat ships are cool. Wait, that's obvious innit?
Click to expand...

Well, i use both quite extensively
One is, obviously, my Robigo runner, the other is my CG/Carrier hauler.

The reason for using D-rated thrusters is jump range.
I need that Python to do Robigo in 4 jumps round trip and i need the Cutter to jump as far as possible (if needed i replace either a size 4 or a size 5 cargo rack with a FSD Booster and sometimes i even reduce the fuel tank to 32 tons)
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
Northpin said:
The reason for using D-rated thrusters is jump range.
I need that Python to do Robigo in 4 jumps round trip and i need the Cutter to jump as far as possible (if needed i replace either a size 4 or a size 5 cargo rack with a FSD Booster and sometimes i even reduce the fuel tank to 32 tons)
Click to expand...

Makes perfect sense. Identify what you need it to do, then build it to do it.

Do you feel the cool-running helps in any way on the mission profiles you're running? Like are you transporting wanted criminals at Robigo?
 
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