Is jump range really king for exploration?

[Ashnak]

Another one for the "nice to have" crowd.

Important? Yes, somewhat. But King? No. It's important if you want to get anywhere in a hurry. Otherwise, since while exploring you're going to spend a long time on your ship:
- view from the bridge

Spoiler

[video=youtube;VOQ8KadjolI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOQ8KadjolI[/video]

- SC handling
- fuel scooping: how fast can you scoop the fuel for one jump, how cool does she stay while scooping
- internal space: can you take along everything you want to have
- does the ship have a coffee machine

 

[Red Anders]

I've been thinking about it and I had to ask myself this question. Yes, having a longer jump range means you will get to your destination faster, maybe even much faster. but, that really isn't the point of exploration is it? I just moved from an asp explorer to a clipper, been farming the rep for awhile now, and I wanted to explore in this clipper. I see it as a shorter jump range, about 30 LY, is possibly better than the 40ly range I had on the asp because it means i'll be visiting more systems, gives me more chances to encounter strange, interesting a profitable things. I realize that there is a drawback of time overall, but I'm honestly not in a huge rush

what do you guys think?

You can jump 1 LY in a ship with a 50 LY range. You can't jump 50 LY in a ship with a 1 LY range. Better to have range and not need it than need it and not have it.

 

[goemon]

the best exploration ship is the one you enjoy flying for extended time. /close thread

more seriously, other factors like fuelscoop-size/ fsd-size relation, heat efficiency, supercruise handling, normal space speed for surface exploration, difficulty to land a ship etc. might play a role depending on your style of exploration. searching for fumaroles make other ships top than surveying a whole sector, or going to beagle point.

when i took part in the the silly ships expedition https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/315562-The-Silly-Ships-Expedition i renewed my love for a DBS as an exploration vessel and kept it as a surface explorer, found the cmkIV perfect for shortrange exploration with cargo, and enjoyed a viper mkIV later on for the ancient ruins mission.

jumprange plays a role when you attempt some record breaking travels (races, or highest, lowest, furthest)... but even 1 circumnavigation of the galaxy has been done in a 26 ly jumprange ship.

there is an interesting thread on jumprange and traveltime: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...nge-and-travel-speed-based-on-over-5700-jumps --- tl;dr: diminishing returns in terms of jumps per 1000 ly hit really hard beyound 40-45 ly, and this is not even taking fsd-size/fuelscoop-size into account. there are a lot of ships now which can easily reach 40+ ly jumprange, including python, dolphin and orca, opening up to take the ship you love without much drawbacks.

 

[verminstar]

You can jump 1 LY in a ship with a 50 LY range. You can't jump 50 LY in a ship with a 1 LY range. Better to have range and not need it than need it and not have it.

Ah but heres the thing...if one despises the bubble and all that is contained within it, but adores exploration...can the range truly justify the long painful weeks of tolerating that hateful place to get it fer x number of weeks/months?

Its a luxury item but not necessary and certainly not the king of anything unless yer a buckyballer or a tourist on a sightseeing tour. To read some the comments, one would almost believe the career of exploration didnt even exist until rngeers were introduced ^

 

[Nutter]

Ah but heres the thing...if one despises the bubble and all that is contained within it, but adores exploration...can the range truly justify the long painful weeks of tolerating that hateful place to get it fer x number of weeks/months?

I spent nearly two months (not in game time) just grinding a set of extreme FSDs and light weight modules - Then another two weeks with the new light weight sensors. Now I have left the bubble to enjoy myself, knowing I can go where no human has been before - Max Jump 270ly and enjoying every bit of it

 

[goemon]

one would almost believe the career of exploration didnt even exist until rngeers were introduced ^

... absolutely. today i look at ships with ~ 25-30% % more jumprange than the first AspE i took to sag a* as non-suited for a longer travel...

 

[verminstar]

I spent nearly two months (not in game time) just grinding a set of extreme FSDs and light weight modules - Then another two weeks with the new light weight sensors. Now I have left the bubble to enjoy myself, knowing I can go where no human has been before - Max Jump 270ly and enjoying every bit of it

Do you despise the bubble and everything in it? Does playing there make ye wanna play something else or just use exploits to get creds as fast as humanly possibly to keep at a bare minimum how long ye stay there?

Look at it from that perspective and then answer...not saying other perspectives are wrong, just saying that not everyone will come at it with such a simplistic point of view.

I admit it would be nice to have...I would love to have it but...rngeers and the bubble...nuff said. Its just not worth the hassle and Im lazy ^

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

^This!

When you are 0.2 ly out of range of a juicy binary black hole system that leads to multiple exciting systems untouched by humans... Ask the question again... Is range important? The answer will be almost certainly 'Yes'!

#DropsTheMic

o7

There's another side to that story. When doing passengers I had to deliver one to ngc 6357 in me dolphin with a 38 LY range. With 560 LY to go, all stars went out of range and the puzzle to get there began. Spent a lovely evening figuring out a way, with the help of 2 neutron stars. At the end I made it there and back with 4 FSD boosts remaining. One of the hops needed was 67 LYs (I think).

In that case, 38 LYs was perfect. If it had been less than 34, the trip couldn't be made. If I had taken the Conda, it would be a straight forward trip.

Sometimes you want a mega range, sometime you want a goldy locks range. In both cases though ... the range was important.

 

[CMDR MERANGO]

Exploration is not necessary about distance. It is for many players rather what you discover. The key is to decide what your objectives are and set achievable goals to realise those objectives.

Good luck and have fun.

CMIV

 

[MarkAusten]

You will know once you have a star you cannot reach.

^This!

When you are 0.2 ly out of range of a juicy binary black hole system that leads to multiple exciting systems untouched by humans... Ask the question again... Is range important? The answer will be almost certainly 'Yes'!

#DropsTheMic

o7

These are both non-arguments and totally irrelevant. Whatever your FSD jump range there will always be stars that you cannot reach or really interesting objects 0.2ly too far away from you.

 

[CMDR Pugwash]

My asp does about 32 and I think that's loads. Most jumps are sub ten when you're exploring. The longer range just helps you get home faster and, more significantly, helps you get to harder to reach places. 30 is fine mate, just make sure you have enough materials to get you out of trouble. I have just fitted a mining laser for this reason.

 

[Red Anders]

Ah but heres the thing...if one despises the bubble and all that is contained within it, but adores exploration...can the range truly justify the long painful weeks of tolerating that hateful place to get it fer x number of weeks/months?

Its a luxury item but not necessary and certainly not the king of anything unless yer a buckyballer or a tourist on a sightseeing tour. To read some the comments, one would almost believe the career of exploration didnt even exist until rngeers were introduced ^

Truthfully mate, you can get grade 5 FSD mods from scratch in about 3 hours. You literally need to pick up some arsenic, fly to a system in famine and blow some T9s up at a POI and then scan some wakes outside a station. You can spam your way to grade 5 access with Farseer just using common materials that you'll pick up all the time on planets in the SRV.

OK you can't spam hundreds of rolls to try to get some maxed out superdrive in that time and my own exploration ships have loads of lightweight mods too to further enhance the range but a grade 5 FSD mod is one of the fastest things to get, intentionally I imagine. It's a fairly boring few hours granted, expecially getting the wake scans, but with no loss of engibneered gear if you happen to lose a ship the way I looked at it was I do it once and then every single jump I ever make, I have that advantage.

My Asp used to jump 30 LY before engineers ever arrived so it's in no way essential; having said that I managed to get first discovery on a real catalogued carbon star last time I went out on a longish trip, purely because it was somewhere that needed a long jump to reach and nobody had been that way since engineering. For getting out to a distant point quickly, jumping 1,000 LY in 5 jumps along the neutron highway also has its advantages. I still do economic jumps in an area that I want to explore, I can just get there quicker.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Truthfully mate, you can get grade 5 FSD mods from scratch in about 3 hours. You literally need to pick up some arsenic, fly to a system in famine and blow some T9s up at a POI and then scan some wakes outside a station.

Yep. Engineers made me quit my pacifist role as an explorer. I was checking out USS after USS for 5 days when I went: Ok FD, you win, no more Mr Friendly Explorer Guy. Shot down some T9s fighting a famine and felt the karma I so carefully built up over the years go poof!

Screw hungry kids, I need my FSD upgrade.

 

[kofeyh]

y'all talk too much. More range is good.

I have 60LY for anaconda, with a class 5 hanger. Couldn't be happier; that combined with neutrons means I can spend less time getting to places, and more time screwing around in those places.

My second commander account is having a h*cken good time, they're good neutrons, Brent. 12/10

 

[Gavin Burke]

Edit: No strikethrough here, huh? Weird.

Just s not strike

 

[trollson]

Jump range itself isn't the win-all attribute, like others have said, survivability and longevity are more important. Exploration isn't a race, and I've earned more winding my way back to the bubble than getting to a "out-there" target (lots of overlooked earth-types). The ability to *work* to make an extended jump (jumponium or other) is more satisfactory than just having long legs. With longer base jump ranges the galaxy becomes "homogeneous" - you can travel in roughly a straight line to most destinations (fringe excluded). If jump ranges where shorter then you'd have to follow the stars more - space gets a "texture" and empty systems become strategic bottlenecks.

 

[kofeyh]

Jump range itself isn't the win-all attribute, like others have said, survivability and longevity are more important. Exploration isn't a race, and I've earned more winding my way back to the bubble than getting to a "out-there" target (lots of overlooked earth-types). The ability to *work* to make an extended jump (jumponium or other) is more satisfactory than just having long legs. With longer base jump ranges the galaxy becomes "homogeneous" - you can travel in roughly a straight line to most destinations (fringe excluded). If jump ranges where shorter then you'd have to follow the stars more - space gets a "texture" and empty systems become strategic bottlenecks.

Yeah, but 60LY is pretty good. And it means I don't have to be insufferable about my paltry jump range instead, and find reasons to explain why that's better than having better range that opens more of the universe to explore.

But you do you, it's all good.

 

[Lightspeed]

I spent nearly two months (not in game time) just grinding a set of extreme FSDs and light weight modules - Then another two weeks with the new light weight sensors. Now I have left the bubble to enjoy myself, knowing I can go where no human has been before - Max Jump 270ly and enjoying every bit of it

How do you get 270 lyrs? A paper light Anaconda with nothing on board except a couple of scanners and a fuel scoop?

 

[kofeyh]

How do you get 270 lyrs? A paper light Anaconda with nothing on board except a couple of scanners and a fuel scoop?

Do you have a moment for our Lord and saviour, Neutron, and his prophet the Neutron Star?

 

[CMDR MadRaptor]

For me it all depends on the kind of exploring you are doing, for going out into the edges of the galaxy or the top and bottom, than yes, Jump range get's you to and back from those further reaches. HOwever, if you are heading corewards, or staying within the galactic plane then really it doesn't matter. As for getting to scoopable stars, as long as you pay attention to where you are and your gas you shouldn't really need to worry.