Long exploration advice please

[Safester]

Hi,

As the title suggests I'm about to embark on my first long term expedition into the black, my previous longest was only about 2 weeks long and approx 2500Ly from the bubble. So, before I set off I'm looking for some advice / reminders from the more experienced among you.

My first intent is to visit Colonia and unlock the engineers then possibly make my way to SagA and after that who knows where and I'm hoping to find my first undiscovered ELW somewhere along the way! I'll welcome suggestions about other interesting places worth visiting either on the way, while I'm out there or on the return leg. I'm particularly interested in weird looking planets, biological & geological or any other surface POI's and stations where I can take a well earned break.

I've just finished outfitting and engineering a Krait Phantom for the journey. I'm not great with the technical side of the game but I'm quite happy with the build. However, if anyone can see any glaring issues or something I may have missed, please point them out to me: https://s.orbis.zone/9v_-. Jump range is 65-70Ly but the build isn't completely about that.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Nathan84]

Just a couple details, it's a solid build overall.

First, I'm not sure you want to Double Brace your powerplant.
The only way to take damage to the PP as far as I know is A) being shot at and B) emergency drops from supercruise, whatever the reason.

Now, you most likely won't get shot at while travelling outside of the Bubble, and the damage from emergency SC exits is a fixed percentage. So more integrity just means you're going to take more damage but the percentage will be the same. (And if you're getting shot at, your hull will be destroyed before your PP anyway, I guess)

That's from what I understand, you might want some confirmation

Btw, on long trips it might be worth to go with a double AFMU (an AFMU can't repair itself, but 2 of them can repair each other).

Also more of a personal preference but I went with a class 4 SRV bay on my explo Phantom, just in case (I'm not sure it's really worth it tbh), so I'd go with 1-2 class 3 AFMUs instead (smaller capacity but you can synthesize "ammo" for them anyway).

My first intent is to visit Colonia and unlock the engineers then possibly make my way to SagA and after that who knows where and I'm hoping to find my first undiscovered ELW somewhere along the way!

Mmmmh, I'm not sure but the "road" to Colonia should be quite a well-travelled one, so discovering new systems might require to not get there using a more or less straight line.

 

[alexzk]

I used asp/phantom/anaconda.
For long trips like 3-4 months Anaconda only equipped with all repair tools (repair controller + AMFUs x 2). Because you will break something 100% guarantee.
Also Anaconda is steady in NS beam, this is important when 4 of 5 jumps you do using it.

Most of things must be D and engee for weight. Also power plant should be less grade so it is not enough power to keep all modules on. Then u manage it manually, for example you don't need to keep power on car in space.

 

[Go'Gen]

I'm particularly interested in weird looking planets, biological & geological or any other surface POI's and stations where I can take a well earned break.

Very interested in advices to this.
Had the same idea when went just-straight-line-west from the bubble, almost to the edge, scanning everything and and found - nothing. Later I've heard only nebulaes have living/bio things, so hope someone experienced will be kind to shed a light and you do find something cool on your journey.

 

[Nathan84]

Also what alexzk said, you can save some power by using priorities and simply turning some modules on and off manually.

ie you can power down the AFMUs when you don't need them (and you only need 1 to be powered at a time when you have to repair), and you can turn off the cargo hatch too.
Even better, you can put your SRV bay at the lowest priority. When you land on a planet, the thrusters get turned off automatically, which frees up power for the bay, which will turn on on it's own too (and the other way when taking off, again automatically). So there's no need to ever have to manually power the bay on and off.

Just remember you still want enough power to eventually turn on one of the AFMU while you're in space, so with thrusters on.

Oh, and I think you could save some weight with the Power Distrib, ie 2D Engine Focused + Stripped Down.
And that's if you really want to keep the ability to boost, otherwise you can go 1D grade 1 Anything But Shielded + Stripped Down to lower the weight as much as possible.

And one last thing, from personal experiences : don't go through repairs mindlessly when supercruisng, you don't want to see what happens if you try to repair the thrusters or FSD in that situation

PS : Lightweight Life Support

Another PS : have fun flying out there, Commander !

 

[alexzk]

So there's no need to ever have to manually power the bay on and off.

Can be unsafe. If ship flies out to orbit...SRV lost power On my ship guardian booster shut downs if trusters + srv.

 

[Nathan84]

Can be unsafe. If ship flies out to orbit...SRV lost power

Oh.
I never dismiss the ship to orbit when I'm out exploring, I never ever met anyone outside the Bubble so it's not an issue for me. But yeah, I think it could be a problem, good thing we can switch to non-Horizon to fix that

 

[Gully Foyle]

I used asp/phantom/anaconda.
For long trips like 3-4 months Anaconda only equipped with all repair tools (repair controller + AMFUs x 2). Because you will break something 100% guarantee.
Also Anaconda is steady in NS beam, this is important when 4 of 5 jumps you do using it.

Most of things must be D and engee for weight. Also power plant should be less grade so it is not enough power to keep all modules on. Then u manage it manually, for example you don't need to keep power on car in space.

All great advice Alex

 

[Gully Foyle]

Oh.
I never dismiss the ship to orbit when I'm out exploring, I never ever met anyone outside the Bubble so it's not an issue for me. But yeah, I think it could be a problem, good thing we can switch to non-Horizon to fix that

That doesn't work anymore because they've combined it

 

[Factabulous]

That doesn't work anymore because they've combined it

My launcher disagrees

 

[Nathan84]

Yeah, free Horizon or not you can still play "Old Vanilla". Which is great because the physics when hitting some objects are pretty wonky

 

[Gully Foyle]

My launcher disagrees

View attachment 197508

I thought it had happened already

 

[gorankar]

She is going to run hot with an efficiency of .50
You only give up 1 Ly of range to go with a 4A armored/stripped down, and get efficiency down to .35, and leaves enough extra power to go to a 5A AFM without messing with power priorities.
Lightweight the life support gets that Ly back, and then if you feel like it, add a second planetary vehicle hanger for redundancy. If you blow up your scarab, and it does happen, you have a second one. That still has you in the over 65Ly range.

 

[marx]

Had the same idea when went just-straight-line-west from the bubble, almost to the edge, scanning everything and and found - nothing. Later I've heard only nebulaes have living/bio things, so hope someone experienced will be kind to shed a light and you do find something cool on your journey.

It's not just nebulae that have NSPs (space life) or surface bios, but they are the majority of them. I'd recommend my guide to Notable Stellar Phenomena, most of it applies to surface life as well. The Codex maps on EDAstro will help you visualize it all.

And @Safester : the interactive galaxy map on EDAstro is a good place to look. Have fun!


By the way, about the double AFMU stuff: if you have only one AFMU, and somehow manage to break it down to 0% integrity, all is not yet lost. You can do an Emergency Reboot and Repair (see your ship menu) which will bring it up to a couple percents. Sure, it still won't repair itself, but at least it'll repair the other modules then.

 

[Nathan84]

She is going to run hot with an efficiency of .50
You only give up 1 Ly of range to go with a 4A armored/stripped down, and get efficiency down to .35,

The Phantom is quite cold though, and with a 3A and the current setup you can go with Overcharged 1 and an efficiency of 0.38 while saving weight. Tbh Armored feels really like a waste, especially since integrity doesn't matter.
It should be fine even at 0.5 anyway, when I bought the Phantom I was such in a hurry to explore I went away with a stock 4A (0.4 efficiency) and it had a biiig margin before being called "hot running".

By the way, about the double AFMU stuff: if you have only one AFMU, and somehow manage to break it down to 0% integrity, all is not yet lost. You can do an Emergency Reboot and Repair (see your ship menu) which will bring it up to a couple percents. Sure, it still won't repair itself, but at least it'll repair the other modules then.

Urf, true, had a complete brainfart.
...
Hey, free room for a repair limpet controller and a small (empty) cargo rack, better safe than sorry

 

[Maymo]

Hi.

So there’s a few things on your build I wouldn’t be personally comfortable with.

The PP is G5 overcharged, the Phantom is slightly below average when it comes to heat tolerance in my experience. I actually went above and beyond on mine to reduce the heat (it wasn’t worth it FWIW).
That said, I’d recommend increasing the size of the PP and going for G1 low emissions/thermal spread.

The power distributor is only allowing you to boost every 11 seconds. Not only is this 0 fun it’s also potentially very dangerous if you’re down on planets. Not having the energy to boost at the right moment can lead to an untimely death...
Boosting is almost an inherent part of flying a Krait, there’s a reason why they can boost so frequently, they use it for directional correction...

Your shield strength is also low for a ship as big as the Phantom. You can comfortably push that up with some small shield boosters.

Here’s what I’d change

Ship is 60m/s quicker, can boost twice as frequently and has more than double the shield strength. It’s also much much cooler... Loses just 2ly jump range.

 

[Nathan84]

I never got any heat issue with 0.4 efficiency, and there's a good margin of safety. I really can't see how prioritizing that over weight is going to help except maybe trying to land on very hot planets.

As for anything to do with thrusters/PD, it's not going to matter unless you want to land on high G worlds (which are quite rare anyway) or spend a long time flying in nomal "space" planetside.

And for the shields, basically anything is enough to prevent damage when landing, again unless it involve high gravity, if you just want a bit more shields, 0E Res Aug + Super Cap is good AND light. If it's to avoid getting ganked while going home, then I don't think going full size shields and 0E boosters is gonna make any difference anyway.

So yeah, unless you want to land on hot high G worlds, sacrificing (or just compromising) on shields/thrusters/PD makes sense to me.

 

[Phongsalt]

Neutron Stars and White Dwarves will degrade PP. You might also consider fitting a Hull Repair Limpet Controller, although you will need to add storage for the limpets. This might reduce your jump range somewhat, but since the idea is (presumably) to get back in one piece, it's a worthwhile trade-off, imo. The longer you stay out, the more the chance of accidents occurring. Watch out for those high G landings. . Good luck and safe travels.

 

[Nathan84]

Neutron Stars and White Dwarves will degrade PP.

Huh, I thought only the FSD was degraded by those. Are you sure ?

although you will need to add storage for the limpets. This might reduce your jump range somewhat

Well, he should go with an empty cargo and synth limpets, so it's just the weight of the controller dragging him down (0.5t for a 1D, that's fine)


Also I completely forgot, but if OP wants to be really safe on long trips, going for a big powerplant might be interesting, since a damaged engine will have it's output reduced to 40% (and you want that to cover the necessary stuff, ie what you need to keep flying and breathing.
Though honestly, I've yet to go back with a plant below 95%+ even on my longest trip (24-25k LYs) and the reduced power only happens below 80% out of my mind.

And I only took plant damage because I was sleeping at the wheel while scooping (emergency drop 1), then tried to repair the modules while supercruising including the FSD (that would be emergency drop 2).
Don't fly sleepy, OP

 

[Maymo]

I never got any heat issue with 0.4 efficiency, and there's a good margin of safety. I really can't see how prioritizing that over weight is going to help except maybe trying to land on very hot planets.

As for anything to do with thrusters/PD, it's not going to matter unless you want to land on high G worlds (which are quite rare anyway) or spend a long time flying in nomal "space" planetside.

And for the shields, basically anything is enough to prevent damage when landing, again unless it involve high gravity, if you just want a bit more shields, 0E Res Aug + Super Cap is good AND light. If it's to avoid getting ganked while going home, then I don't think going full size shields and 0E boosters is gonna make any difference anyway.

So yeah, unless you want to land on hot high G worlds, sacrificing (or just compromising) on shields/thrusters/PD makes sense to me.

Well, that’s why I prefaced my post with ‘personally comfortable’...

Improving thermal efficiency isn’t for hot planets, it’s for scooping quicker/more aggressively and to offer more survivability in the event of a binary star...

Improving thrusters and the ability to boost is certainly useful for high G work, but is also nice if you just go nosing around planets in general. The edge of a cliff is just as hard on a low g world and an 11 second boost interval is potentially dangerous unless you intend to fly your ship like a pensioner out on a Sunday drive...

I’d rather not be the guy fruitlessly mashing the boost button with an empty capacitor while drifting into a mountain.

Shield strength is just a no brainer. Just last month we had a post from someone losing a weakly shielded Phantom due to the ships auto pilot bringing them in hard.

If you’re going exploring for months (as OP is) dress accordingly.