Ships Introducing the Diamondback Explorer

[puca]

Interestingly, I believe the best explorer ship for the scanner crowd is the adder. Why? Well, you don't care about jump range since you are scanning the roses anyways. It has a decent enough jump range anyways. But most importantly, it has the best maneuverability in supercruise out of all explorer ships.

Of course if you are the scanner type, you don't really care.

Also, it looks like the Planet Express ship. Which is the best ship. You see, the ship stands still, and its engines move the Universe around it.

 

[B33 ENN]

To be fair record breaking vehicles tend to be bespoke creations designed for doing only what they do and not mass market vehicles bought in a dealership! Elites shipyards are dealerships for spacecraft.

Trudat.

There is lots of room for different definitions and types of exploreres: Wanderers, adventurers, surveyors, sightseers, etc. Each to their own.

I myself might go "pioneering" soon.

 

[who?]

Tank size: capacity. FSD class/scoop size: throughput. Travel is about throughput.

That's too much of a generalisation. Throughput (i.e. fast scooping/lack of scooping delay) is key, iff:

- you want to travel fast, without scanning any bodies (where a 'better scanner' would be key, or a more agile craft in supercruise)
- you don't encounter voids/gaps/rifts where the next system can't be reached. (where longer jump range is key)
- you don't encounter large regions of unscoopable stars (where large fuel tank is key)
- you're not navigating a sparse region where your jump range forces you to take a circuitous route with additional jump(s) (where again jump range would be key)

The ideal explorer would have all these things, but then I don't think Frontier want to build an ideal ship. Each ship has its compromises which means each one appeals to different people/roles. If the above scenario is your exploring situation, then I don't think even the Explorer DB is for you, the Asp seems better. But, as has been said, different strokes for different folks.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

I'm tempted to make fuel scooping incredibly slower just to spite everyone that makes such a big deal over mere seconds when I'm sure going the toilet or just spacing out adds up to more wasted time in their 6 hour marathon sessions of Elite lol

LOL... nice one Mike. You are joking right... right?

 

[puca]

That's too much of a generalisation.

Yes, I understand all that. I am just responding to people who think travel speed has anything to do with tank size. It does not (if the tank isn't tiny such that you keep having to replot). It's about fuel consumption.

LOL... nice one Mike. You are joking right... right?

You know, the funny thing about that is if FD does decide to tone down scooping speed, that will make people complain about undersized scoops more, not less.

I actually wish they would make exploring harder and more skill based (not more time consuming).

 

[Ziljan]

Fair point, but in which way is it the ship's or FD's fault that it doesn't exactly fit (it still fits, just not as well as for example an Asp) that particular play style? Think if the DB Explorer being build exactly for the exploration style that doesn't rush and always scans at least the star and checks the system map while scooping, and suddenly the DB Explorer turns out as a pretty damn awesome explorer.

I dont blame FD at all. I think they're doing an amazing job. They have lots of people to please. I am just one person. I totally get that.

Btw, I am not rushing, but instead have specific stars I am visiting that are actually visible from earth. Once I get there I spend plenty of time scouring the region and scanning the main stars while refueling.

 

[bladebss]

Oh snap! Off to founders world I go!

 

[Nevarlan]

Here some screenshots.

Spoiler

edit: links fixed

 

[jabberwalkie]

Fair point, but in which way is it the ship's or FD's fault that it doesn't exactly fit (it still fits, just not as well as for example an Asp) that particular play style? Think if the DB Explorer being build exactly for the exploration style that doesn't rush and always scans at least the star and checks the system map while scooping, and suddenly the DB Explorer turns out as a pretty damn awesome explorer.

+1 to this. ED Shipyard has the ship on the site now, and an A-rated DBE outfitted with medium and a large pulse lasers will still jump roughly 29ly. That's not something to sneeze at.

 

[puca]

I gotta say, that ship is gorgeous. I should test a turret setup on it (since it doesn't exactly have dogfighter turning speed).

 

[Starender]

flew it for few hours, it has some serious fire power, but the very bad speed is a true weakness (330 boost speed), so i won't use it for pvp that's for sure, but for pve it's a good ship

 

[Sergio Smegolia]

It's hard enough get to untagged regions of space in the few hours we have to play. This actually is a more important issue than it seems. Please try to understand we aren't just being snotty ingrates. This is a real issue for serious explorers. Please reconsider.

an 18 second scooping time increases the travel time by ~20%

Use the Asp then. And please stop making out you're the only real definition of an explorer, in my book a serious explorer takes his/her time scanning everything he/she finds. In which case this ship is perfect.

 

[kb_Nomad]

I'm tempted to make fuel scooping incredibly slower just to spite everyone that makes such a big deal over mere seconds when I'm sure going the toilet or just spacing out adds up to more wasted time in their 6 hour marathon sessions of Elite lol

Hi Mike and greetings; My 2 cents on this is to stop the huge payouts on neutron stars, black holes and earth like planets. I run an ASP Explorer with class 6 shields, class 5 Auto Field-Maintenance Unit and a 3A fuel scoop. Make the players 'really' explore. Place hidden items in space that do the pay outs. Have these hidden items in a sector and randomly move every 24 hours in that sector. Let’s get 'real' Explorers in Elite Dangerous instead of database managers.

 

[Bladesteel]

Engines pointing down when landing gear extended

Anyone notice this on any other ships?

Edit: Just checked the scout and it does the same thing.

This makes me hope we can get ships like the previous imp courier with extending engine pods.

 

[jabberwalkie]

flew it for few hours, it has some serious fire power, but the very bad speed is a true weakness (330 boost speed), so i won't use it for pvp that's for sure, but for pve it's a good ship

I'm thinking most are going to stick to the Viper/Cobra for PVP, but I think the Scout may end up getting some decent play as well depending on the commander's playing style. I've mentioned it before here, but the Scout seems like it would be really effective in a wing as part of a blockade.

 

[Smoon]

And to think that, after giving up on the Diamondback Scout as my new exploration vessel, I just bought an Asp skin. Sigh

Don't feel bad, think of it as supporting the developers of Elite Dangerous. As for my Asp skin I wonder what color goes good with mining

 

[who?]

Yes, I understand all that. I am just responding to people who think travel speed has anything to do with tank size. It does not (if the tank isn't tiny such that you keep having to replot). It's about fuel consumption.

..and jump range. And fuel tank *if you do* run into fields of non-scoopables (detours take time) I do get your point though!

A while back, I tried a little experiment: plotting and following a ~500Ly route using economical mode. It's actually just an *extreme* version of what you're suggesting, non-ideal jump range and (since you use so little fuel) virtually no scoop time involved. However I quickly learned what you gain from no scooping delays, you lose out many times over in all the FSD cooldown and spin-ups, plus the route was ridiculously longer.

Obviously that's an extreme example, but it does show that for the fastest travel possible you need:
Great jump range + (very fast scoop / low fuel usage?) + (ideal star 'topography' / huge fuel tank).

I don't think Frontier ever want to give us all of those in one craft, as it would make the other exploring options obsolete. They could make a really expensive ideal voyager/explorer, but perhaps the problem is currency is so easy to make in this game, they can't really balance craft based on price. Every explorer would end up in that super-explorer, and probably some traders too!

 

[Ziljan]

Naw, just make those solar flares and magnetic field arcs 5000 degree Celsius armfuls of death that unpredictably splurge out at scooping Commanders. And make scooping speed more strongly related to ship velocity, so that CMDRs have no option but to fly around the things to scoop fast.

. Make the players 'really' explore. Place hidden items in space that do the pay outs. Have these hidden items in a sector and randomly move every 24 hours in that sector. Let’s get 'real' Explorers in Elite Dangerous instead of database managers.

Both of these ideas get an A++. I would love for there to be more danger in general and especially during scooping. It would also be nice if you needed special bulkheads to keep from frying up while scooping fuel if you did it as often as explorers (and cheapskates ) do.

 

[torc]

Please Fdevs... A new shiny viper variante in this way.

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

Beluga and Dolphin both shoud be in the cut. Panther is probably still there along with the Corvette. Not sure what the cutter is you refer to. But then that could be 5 of the orignal set. Then that still leaves 5 more additional - one of which we beta and earilier backers get "free access" to. (note the words... free access - does not necessarily mean it will be free as in credits, could just mean no requirements that others have to meet).

Thanks for reminding me of Beluga and Dolphin. They will probably come with passenger missions. I expect the Corvette around the time ships can get hangars for smaller ones. The Cutter is the third so far only rumored imperial ship, hoped to be the counterpart of the Corvette. But seeing how very different current imperial and federation ships are...