Ships Making the best explore ship

[Murishani]

http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=60g,,2-3I6u7_6u3I8S8I,5220Nc7Q405UmpT2jw2UI
This is my personal target ASP although the scoop will be the last to get fully upgraded as having a 6A is a luxury, the best you can afford at the time is good but it will just take a little longer to refuel.

That looks very similar to my ASP, I run a B scoop and it's just fine, I may upgrade to A but at this point Im not sure its even worth it. Also I run two AFM's so one can repair the other.

The question is simple, does sensor grade affect the range you can initiate a DSS from?

I have tried several sensor grades and seen no effect on DSS at all. I always run the lightest I can get away with.

The tactic is a work around for the fact that you can only plan journeys in either MOST economical or FASTEST. By having an empty cargo space I will be able to adjust the "max range" used for planning a route slightly and thereby have a third option of "still pretty efficient but fairly quick too"

I actually run a cargo rack simply because there's no reason not to do so in an empty slot and Ive never even thought to try this. I just looked at it in game. If youre going to try it, my only advice would be to run a 32 cargo rack instead of 8 (swapped the AFM for two class 3's, leave them offline so as not to tax power supply). Adjusting jump range by 8 tons only alters your jump distance by 0.8ly whereas 32t is 2.97ly. It's not a huge difference either way but it does work.

 

[Chris M Fortune]

I actually run a cargo rack simply because there's no reason not to do so in an empty slot and Ive never even thought to try this. I just looked at it in game. If youre going to try it, my only advice would be to run a 32 cargo rack instead of 8 (swapped the AFM for two class 3's, leave them offline so as not to tax power supply). Adjusting jump range by 8 tons only alters your jump distance by 0.8ly whereas 32t is 2.97ly. It's not a huge difference either way but it does work.

Just had a look at this with a B5 FSD and a 64 T cargo bay, using the full range of the slider I was able to increase the jumprange without refueling by 70 ly (3 jumps / 260 from 190) with a max range change of around 4 ly so it would most likely not be effective enough using a B5 drive to warrent the inclusion. I will have another look though when I can afford an A5 drive as the additional range may give a significantly different result.

 

[BarFly]

Hello,

i started exploring with about 3.6 millon credits and i'm just back from a 2 month ~ 30.000Ly trip via Rigel -> Perseus Arm and Heading back in the Orion Spur.
I did it in this Adder:
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=60f,mpV0Wg0mI,2-5K5K4s2C3m5K5A,4zW0Ky7OW2UI2jw
It left me with ~ 850.000 Cr. in my account. Which is quite enough for the insurance and a new start if something really goes wrong, a broken canopy for example.
By the way, the repair costs has been just 1.500 Cr.
As a alternative ship take a look on the Hauler:
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=60V,mpT0mI0Wg,2-3m3m3I2C2C2C3c,4zW7OW2UI2jw
it has a slightly better jump range but lacks the mounting for a Field Maintanance Unit AND it has just a fuel tank with a capacity of 4 tons.
And if you are out there you will pretty fast find out a couple of things:
Better than a big fuel tank is a bigger fuel tank.
The best Fuel Scoop is the thing you want (at least a B type). You are scooping so often
The Advanced Scanner is <imho> a must have.
Heat Sink Launcher can save you trouble when you jump into a very close binary star system and it starts heating up your ship immediately
Shields and Point Defence?
They saved my ass when i got 5 times interdicted (not kidding - 2 Cobras, 2 Vipers and 1 Sidewinder ) on my way out! There have been no interdictions on my way back but you never know. And having stored data for a couple of millions on board....
Field Maintanance Unit? Mine was empty when i got back - any questions?
When you are out of the bubble you can switch off the Power Distributor, the Shield Generator and the of course the Point Defence. The Field Maintanance Unit is off till you need it, anyways.
Others mentioned the Cobra and the T6, which are really great ships and good choices too. But, at least, they are more than twice the price.

How i would outfit this ships:
Cobra:
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=602,mpW0Wg0mI,2-4s6u6Q5K5K5K6k,4-47Q40MW0JO2UI2jw

T6
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=60W,mpU0Wg0Wg0mI,2-3I6u6Q3m5K3m6k,50e0MW0MW0JY7Q42UI2jw

The more expansive A Power Generator is because of its better heat efficiency, its lesser weight and it has a slightly better power output.

 

[CMDR AKIRA MASAKARI]

ASP is not mandatory for exploration. Really t6, cobra, adder, and hauler are very solid alternatives.
big jump range is mandatory only if you intend to go in super low density areas, and even there there are star unreacheable with any ship at the moment.

I made the 20 mil to buy and fit my asp in a week trading fares, but I could as well made that money in more time just exploring.

for long trips the only mandatory stuff are class A FSD, advanced scanner, surface scanner and the best affordable fuel scoop.

 

[Eloy]

One does not need the best affordable fuel scoop.
Arrival, target the sun, honk, fly to scooping distance, stop, switch to system map.
Check system map while scooping. Even with a B or C scoop it will be finished scooping before you leave the system map.

To be honest, I did not test this yet and until now I scooped while circling the sun at full speed (with 1/4 of it visible to the left or right, keeping the heat at below 70% in my Asp).

I feel we have to discuss fuel scooping techniques?

 

[puca]

Re: fuel scoop, it depends on how you travel. People in a hurry space honk and skid the star and try to time it so they get out of the dangerous heat zone just in time for the FSD cooldown to go off. For this method of travel, the biggest scoop you can fit is very helpful since you only have a limited amount of time near the star before you are off again.

If you are going to detailed scan the main star, then scoop quality matters a lot less (but you still need a decent one, I think if you do a detailed scan, 6C is about the right speed for the asp).

---

Speaking for myself, I am now wealthy enough to afford the 6A so I just bring it in case I decide to travel in a hurry for some reason. I think 6C is quite good for long trips, though, and reasonably priced.

 

[Brieus]

This is the one I'm using:

http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=601,mpU0Wg,2-3m3m3I2C2C2C22,4xo2UI2jw

 

[Ziljan]

One thing I've been wondering is:

Does a sub-standard power plant or power distributor impact FSD charge time? I always keep A rated everything on my Vulture and its FSD seems to charge a bit faster than my D grade Asp jumping from star to star. Possible game mechanics behind this: if you disable power to the thrusters while in Super Cruise, then you will do an emergency stop. So clearly you need thrusters to travel faster than light, and I wondered also if that means that better quality thrusters impact your rate of acceleration in SC? If so, then that at least means that you would escape gravity inhibition of FSD jumps faster thus indirectly reducing jump charge times. This would also explain why my Vulture seems to charge a little faster than my Asp...


Just a theory. No testing to back this up yet.

 

[Murishani]

I wondered also if that means that better quality thrusters impact your rate of acceleration in SC?

I have noticed that faster ships accelerate faster in SC, thus vultures and vipers are going to outpace T9's and ASPs in SC. I think thrusters govern the rate of acceleration in super cruise as well as both top speed and acceleration in real space but both are heavily informed by the model of ship you're in.

I think your observation that the vulture charges FSD faster than the ASP is not so much a function of the thrusters, but the chassis. Lighter ships are going to get away from gravity sources faster, so they'll charge their FSD faster in that sense.

 

[crua9]

Speaking of questions. I've been flying a type 6 for trading missions, and I'm running into a massive heating problem at times. (even more so near white stars).

Does anyone know of a solution to this?

 

[GJ51]

Speaking of questions. I've been flying a type 6 for trading missions, and I'm running into a massive heating problem at times. (even more so near white stars).

Does anyone know of a solution to this?

Upgrade the Power Plant.

 

[Ziljan]

I have noticed that faster ships accelerate faster in SC, thus vultures and vipers are going to outpace T9's and ASPs in SC. I think thrusters govern the rate of acceleration in super cruise as well as both top speed and acceleration in real space but both are heavily informed by the model of ship you're in.

I think your observation that the vulture charges FSD faster than the ASP is not so much a function of the thrusters, but the chassis. Lighter ships are going to get away from gravity sources faster, so they'll charge their FSD faster in that sense.

If this is true, it makes me wonder if better Thrusters would indirectly make FSD charge a little faster, given the same chassis. Thruster (like FSD and Shields) are rated by their optimal ship mass, so that the lighter the ship the more performance you get, well I am not so sure about the shields tbh, but thrusters and FSD are clearly affected by ship mass. Top speed in normal space has huge differences between different thrusters (~20-30%), but I haven't tested acceleration. If any of this is also true for SC, then it could have big impact over thousands of jumps when trying to break any records in a Buckyball run since any indirect shortening of charge time of FSD would reduce the biggest bottle neck in travel time. Fuel Scooping a half empty tank can often take as much time as it does to charge FSD.

 

[crua9]

Upgrade the Power Plant.

Thanks. I wasn't sure if it was just the ship itself

 

[puca]

If this is true, it makes me wonder if better Thrusters would indirectly make FSD charge a little faster, given the same chassis. Thruster (like FSD and Shields) are rated by their optimal ship mass, so that the lighter the ship the more performance you get, well I am not so sure about the shields tbh, but thrusters and FSD are clearly affected by ship mass. Top speed in normal space has huge differences between different thrusters (~20-30%), but I haven't tested acceleration. If any of this is also true for SC, then it could have big impact over thousands of jumps when trying to break any records in a Buckyball run since any indirect shortening of charge time of FSD would reduce the biggest bottle neck in travel time. Fuel Scooping a half empty tank can often take as much time as it does to charge FSD.

Given 100% buyback for components, and the stopwatch functionality on any smartphone, this is trivial to test. Why not test it?

 

[Zuki1970]

And what do you say about this ASP setup:
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=60g,,2-3I6u7_6u5K8S8I,52M08c0Ko0Ko7Q42jw2UI

Here I have 32 tons of Cargo, reserved for future game upgrades, where we could have multiple fuel tanks:
Multiple fuel tanks (9.4.2015):
Quote Originally Posted by Michael Brookes View Post
For ship customisation you will also be able to fit more than one fuel tank to your ship – although this obviously takes up space you could have used on other modules!
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?p=2078998#post2078998

 

[puca]

And what do you say about this ASP setup:
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=60g,,2-3I6u7_6u5K8S8I,52M08c0Ko0Ko7Q42jw2UI

Here I have 32 tons of Cargo, reserved for future game upgrades, where we could have multiple fuel tanks:
Multiple fuel tanks (9.4.2015):
Quote Originally Posted by Michael Brookes View Post
For ship customisation you will also be able to fit more than one fuel tank to your ship – although this obviously takes up space you could have used on other modules!
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?p=2078998#post2078998

Good build. I would carry a single heat sink, just in case.

 

[Murishani]

If this is true, it makes me wonder if better Thrusters would indirectly make FSD charge a little faster, given the same chassis. Thruster (like FSD and Shields) are rated by their optimal ship mass, so that the lighter the ship the more performance you get, well I am not so sure about the shields tbh, but thrusters and FSD are clearly affected by ship mass. Top speed in normal space has huge differences between different thrusters (~20-30%), but I haven't tested acceleration. If any of this is also true for SC, then it could have big impact over thousands of jumps when trying to break any records in a Buckyball run since any indirect shortening of charge time of FSD would reduce the biggest bottle neck in travel time. Fuel Scooping a half empty tank can often take as much time as it does to charge FSD.

You know the other thing I have not tested, and am curious about are: Does FSD charge faster if the jump is shorter (6ly as opposed to 35ly)? and is actual time in witchspace effected by anything? I highly suspect that if you are jumping into a brand new unexplored sector, you will stay in witch space longer as the forge creates the system for you to jump into.

Given 100% buyback for components, and the stopwatch functionality on any smartphone, this is trivial to test. Why not test it?

because most of us are at least 10-12 kylies out from a space station Seriously I will test it when I get home but that could be a week or more from now.

 

[Zuki1970]

Good build. I would carry a single heat sink, just in case.

I agree: heat-sink is needed for <JustinCase> !

 

[GrumbleBee]

You know the other thing I have not tested, and am curious about are: Does FSD charge faster if the jump is shorter (6ly as opposed to 35ly)? and is actual time in witchspace effected by anything? I highly suspect that if you are jumping into a brand new unexplored sector, you will stay in witch space longer as the forge creates the system for you to jump into.




because most of us are at least 10-12 kylies out from a space station Seriously I will test it when I get home but that could be a week or more from now.

I believe witchspace is only affected by how good your machine is at loading the new system instance. I have had short hops take longer if my virus scan is running or whatever.

It would be difficult to test distance factors without resetting the memory performance. On their side if they're procedurally generating systems for discovery on the fly that'd be nuts, it seems like they have minimal data to maintain and could be generated in batch jobs. Wouldn't rule out the possibility, just the accuracy of machine performance throwing the odds of prediction off. I'm guessing it is just a progress bar.

 

[BarFly]

Hello,

I believe witchspace is only affected by how good your machine is at loading the new system instance. I have had short hops take longer if my virus scan is running or whatever.

You're kidding? It is not my machine!
It depends on how fast ED's server can put me into the next instance. That's for shure.

It would be difficult to test distance factors without resetting the memory performance.

Sorry but memory performance? Please explain.

On their side if they're procedurally generating systems for discovery on the fly that'd be nuts, it seems like they have minimal data to maintain and could be generated in batch jobs.

How you are going to explain to me, that it often needs 10 or more seconds to show up the systems map.
Or the start of a second time scanning after showing the message that scanning was successful. This is a problem on server side.
How do you explain that the time you are in hyperspace while jumping to next system increases, almost doubles, around 8 pm?

Wouldn't rule out the possibility, just the accuracy of machine performance throwing the odds of prediction off. I'm guessing it is just a progress bar.

Accuracy of machine? Server side or client side?