Ships MANDALAY Disappointment

[Diguelo]

Waited for weeks for the new Explorer to come into life. Bought one then saw what was actually being sold.

It competes with the distance Conda, it barely goes further per jump than my Diamondback Explorer. 63Ly compared to the 59Ly of the DEXP. No Guardian Booster this time from the off.

Plus side the thrusters work well, good turn rate and landing is simple.

Adverts say better viewing out of front you can see down through the cockpit glass, yep if you have a £400 Virtualk Reality headset, other than that it looks close to a clippers dash.

Not impressed at all, lots of hype and little to show for it.........

 

[Commander Biscuit]

People assumed a Mandalay with all the trimmings would jump like a Paperconda. It would've been nice sure but FD didn't mislead anyone with that. If you strip the Mandalay down like the Conda it will outjump it very very slightly.

Jumpconda really doesn't make sense. A dedicated exploration ship should beat it by a decent margin, but it should be done by nerfing the Annie rather than making exploration ships outjump it. We're heading into the 100+ LY territory there. Galaxy already feels a bit small due to the speed we can move at.

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

Adverts say better viewing out of front you can see down through the cockpit glass, yep if you have a £400 Virtualk Reality headset, other than that it looks close to a clippers dash.

Head/eye trackers work fine as well, and cost far less. But the little cutout is just too small.

 

[Bob McBobblehead]

The Bad
The cockpit view is a bit restricted.
The ship is very weight sensitive and loses to the Conda jump range by just adding a module or two.

The good
It has a good jump range.
Flies well in normal space and supercruise.
Great for turning without having to roll the ship.
Easier to fly and land on worlds with high gravity.
Supercruise boost on the ship is great for those far away planets.
Can fuel scoop while the FSD is primed. I don't think I'd even need to install a heatsink.

You can build a decent Mandalay and get 75-79ly out of it. I'd rather have a Mandalay over a Paperconda.

 

[alexzk]

People assumed a Mandalay with all the trimmings would jump like a Paperconda. It would've been nice sure but FD didn't mislead anyone with that. If you strip the Mandalay down like the Conda it will outjump it very very slightly.

Jumpconda really doesn't make sense. A dedicated exploration ship should beat it by a decent margin, but it should be done by nerfing the Annie rather than making exploration ships outjump it. We're heading into the 100+ LY territory there. Galaxy already feels a bit small due to the speed we can move at.

My fully packed by the tools Conda does 81ly jump.
Mandalay can not have so many tools at the 1st, and what range will be if it will be fully packed too ?

 

[alexzk]

Can fuel scoop while the FSD is primed. I don't think I'd even need to install a heatsink.

Anaconda does this too. I jump from scooping and do not use heatsinks in this cases.
After long trip on Conda I always have problems with other my ships .

You can build a decent Mandalay and get 75-79ly out of it. I'd rather have a Mandalay over a Paperconda.

It's not paper - conda. It is fully packed one, all slots set, with SLF and shield booster.

 

[Robert Rockbite]

My Mandalay (*) can jump 85+ Ly when scooping not too much, but still carrying a comfortable amount of fuel (16t or so).
It does not jump quite as far as my Jumpaconda and neither could it carry additional mass like SRVs with the same ease.
It does not stay quite as cold as my Dolphin, especially in real space, maybe because I used dirty tuning instead of clean.
Even with dirty tuning, it's a lot slower than my Couriers, only managing ~404 and ~505 boost with ~16t of fuel.
Boost acceleration is great for its speed, though.
Shield strength is 253, barely enough for a slight bump, my canyon racing courier has got 1036.
Real space agility is worse than my Couriers, aside from the yaw.
Didn't try landing it in rough terrain, but I suspect small ships would be better.
Supercruise agility is great, aside from the yaw, which is, eh... better than great.
It might pick up some side drift from yaw in supercruise though? Can a ship could do that?
Its power distributor is also weak, only managing to boost every ~9 seconds with 4 pips.
SCO is not as fast as with my T8, although much more efficient and even colder.
Atmospheric glide is very good, but I never had a problem with that anyway.
And, oh, the NVH people should have added 10 mm of very light acoustic foam to make the thruster sound a tiny little bit less crispy and more throaty.

For me, its main competitor would be the Phantom.
With the same eye on the fuel gauge, the Mandalay would jump approx ~11 Ly further.
In the incredibly popular discipline "scanning a D cube numbers up", it would save a lot of jumps, every now and then 1 jump instead of 2.
The Mandalay can carry what I need, its agility is better, it stays colder, offers usable SCO and the landing footprint is smaller.

For this kind of build (*), the Mandalay is so far ahead of the Phantom, it's just ridiculous.

It's great to see such competition on the market.
For years, I thought those lazy corp comrades were living in the People's Republic of CanNotDoo.
For example, why would I want to do experiments with my POWER PLANT?
And why would I be able to reduce its heat losses by a factor of THREE - while the corp comrades kept selling the same stuff for TEN YEARS?

(*) 0 Hardpoints || 2 Heat sinks LW || 1C LA, HD, no effect | 4A PP, LE+TS | 4D TH, DT+DD | 5A FSDwSCO, IR+MM | 4D LS, LW | 3D PD, EF+SD | 5D S, LW | 5C FT (32t) || 6A Fuel scoop | 5H Guardian FSD booster | 4D Shield, ELP+LD | 4C Fuel Tank (+16t) | 3A AFMU | 3E Cargo Rack | 1D Repair limpet controller | 1I DSS pre-engineered | 1E SC | 1E ADC

 

[Diguelo]

All good valid points. Still Ill go and make the Guardian booster and see what that does for the figures, but I think the Fleet Carrier jump of 500 LY is going to be the way to go for exploration and further progress into the black.

Future times will stand

 

[DazeDreamer]

Have to admit I'm not disappointed at all boosts to 560 and jumps around 77-79 Ly's, noted comment earlier about boost being nine seconds with my engineering it's around four seconds with four pips so don't know what's going on there. Have to admit probably not your typical explorer as have relatively strong Shields and have downsized the fuel tank but that's a bit of a ocd habit I have. Got all I need on it Fuel Scoop, Surface Scanner, single srv bay, hull reinforcements for those bumps, repair limpet cargo rack collector limpet, guardian frame shift booster and oh yeah a small prismatic Shield. All relevant modules light weighted and Sco fully engineered. Utilities, two shield boosters heatsink and chaff in case I bump into someone not so friendly. As build is relatively light handles great especially yaw as of now only got two light weighted beams on it but may go more being tempted by imperial hammers

Fly Safe fly Fast, O7 all

Just read the prior posters modules 4D thrusters and small power distributor, makes sense now my bad lol

 

[AEBRAM]

Waited for weeks for the new Explorer to come into life. Bought one then saw what was actually being sold.

It competes with the distance Conda, it barely goes further per jump than my Diamondback Explorer. 63Ly compared to the 59Ly of the DEXP. No Guardian Booster this time from the off.

Plus side the thrusters work well, good turn rate and landing is simple.

Adverts say better viewing out of front you can see down through the cockpit glass, yep if you have a £400 Virtualk Reality headset, other than that it looks close to a clippers dash.

Not impressed at all, lots of hype and little to show for it.........

I am guessing that you did not install a guardian FSD from the stats you're posting here. 63Ly jump without optimizing the optional internals with only using the Farseer engineer (i.e. starting engineer) is actually phenomenal. Apply some minimal effort and that 63Ly becomes 73Ly+ jump with a single module, which becomes amazing with minimal effort. This ship, as sad as it may sound for some, is the ultimate start ship for Elite since they can begin immediately earning credits doing data errand missions, exploration cartography data (scanned data, survey data...) and xenobiology: some Google Fu search will find several routes to earn billions of credits. And after all that once you've earned a couple billion, then there is nothing really in the game that's not accessible to you, the galaxy is at your doorstep to do whatever that fits your whim.

On the Mandalay combat challenge, I have a fully decked ship that still have 68Lyr jump that can splat other ships. Now, it is a very fast ship, much faster than common NPC ships, so you can decide when and how you want to fight - IF you even want to fight with a 580 m/s boost speed.

 

[Diguelo]

Probably new toy blues.

Enjoy your Mandalays all, I have 2 now and they both can jumpo 400 plus light years at a time. And thus starts my carreer as a Fleet Carrier Commander.

 

[Cmdr Snuffler]

Waited for weeks for the new Explorer to come into life. Bought one then saw what was actually being sold.

It competes with the distance Conda, it barely goes further per jump than my Diamondback Explorer. 63Ly compared to the 59Ly of the DEXP. No Guardian Booster this time from the off.

Plus side the thrusters work well, good turn rate and landing is simple.

Adverts say better viewing out of front you can see down through the cockpit glass, yep if you have a £400 Virtualk Reality headset, other than that it looks close to a clippers dash.

Not impressed at all, lots of hype and little to show for it.........

It's replaced by Krait Phantom explorer. Similar modules and internals, slightly better shields, slightly better armour, better SCO handling, better flight dynamics, faster and has a 11Ly increase in jump range. 61 to 72ly (Increase of just under 20%)...I'm the opposite of disappointed
Are you just a bit miffed it didn't come with a guardian FSD booster?

 

[Diguelo]

I got the DB EXP when it came out having used the standard one for many moons and sysytems, I had assumed with the hype that it would come with one fitted, apparently not. Its as good at combat as it is at exploration. Lots of space to hit and be hit. Ill get round to working out Guardian stuff eventuially, but for now the 2.8 LY improvement is a bit nerfed considering the Hype.

 

[Bob McBobblehead]

I got the DB EXP when it came out having used the standard one for many moons and sysytems, I had assumed with the hype that it would come with one fitted, apparently not. Its as good at combat as it is at exploration. Lots of space to hit and be hit. Ill get round to working out Guardian stuff eventuially, but for now the 2.8 LY improvement is a bit nerfed considering the Hype.

The biggest selling point of the Mandalay is the the supercruise boost. That 550,000ls planet you want to visit, no problem.

 

[Diguelo]

AGREED.
There is a however on that point, Ive had an SCO engine go dead on the Python Mk II.

One point about the Mandy is they said "Its got great downward visibility from the pilot seat to help you scan for Exobiology and lights too" the lights are there but I cant see down between my legs as there is a panel where the window should be.

TBH I cant say I prefer the Mandy over the DB EX, range isnt that much better and hardpoints arent needed on a exploration vessel. Its not that brilliant at low flying either, I can ground skim the DB EX st 7 - 10m and see the ground in front. Lowest I can fly the Mandy so far is about 20m safgely, number of times the belly got caught on somethihng and the nose digs down into the dirt.

Overall, wing span is a tad excessive too, And as for going to high gravity worlds, I cant get onto any of them.

Oh well.

Only another 5 years till the next Zorg Peters release.

If this had been in the real world, they would have been recalled for bad safety

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

pleasegivethecobra5size5fsdpleasegivethecobra5size5fsdpleasegivethecobra5size5fsd.......

 

[DjVortex]

It competes with the distance Conda, it barely goes further per jump than my Diamondback Explorer. 63Ly compared to the 59Ly of the DEXP.

What are you talking about? The Mandalay gets easily over 80 Ly without almost any compromises.

Or are you talking about the Stellar version sold in the shop without further modifications? Then why are you comparing it to the Anaconda? I don't see a prebuilt Anaconda being sold.

 

[Markov Chaney]

It competes with the distance Conda, it barely goes further per jump than my Diamondback Explorer. 63Ly compared to the 59Ly of the DEXP. No Guardian Booster this time from the off.

Plus side the thrusters work well, good turn rate and landing is simple.

So it's good then?

Adverts say better viewing out of front you can see down through the cockpit glass, yep if you have a £400 Virtualk Reality headset, other than that it looks close to a clippers dash.

Of course you know you can use mouselook any time you want with any set of keybindings and axes or sticks or hats you want? I use it all the time in the Asp (downwards) and the Cobra (fly upside down, look up.)

Not impressed at all, lots of hype and little to show for it.........

Right. In the first para you talk about the plus points and in the second para you talk about a feature which the Asp already has that you somehow weirdly think only works in VR.

I read a lot of weird complaints on this forum but I think this is the first time I read a post full of praise that ends with a complaint based on the things you just praised.

 

[Cmdr Snuffler]

AGREED.
There is a however on that point, Ive had an SCO engine go dead on the Python Mk II.

Go dead? Not sure what you mean, I've not personally had an issue with an sco drive dying? Is it a Norwegian blue?

 

[Cmdr Alzaroc]

Waited for weeks for the new Explorer to come into life. Bought one then saw what was actually being sold.

It competes with the distance Conda, it barely goes further per jump than my Diamondback Explorer. 63Ly compared to the 59Ly of the DEXP. No Guardian Booster this time from the off.

Plus side the thrusters work well, good turn rate and landing is simple.

Adverts say better viewing out of front you can see down through the cockpit glass, yep if you have a £400 Virtualk Reality headset, other than that it looks close to a clippers dash.

Not impressed at all, lots of hype and little to show for it.........

Yeah, my feelings are opposite. I'm jumping 82.11 lightyears with a Guardian booster along with carrying two SRVs, a good sized shield, and an AFMS. I may lose a bit of that though as I'm thinking of putting on repair limpets and a small cargo bay and maybe a second AFMS for those long trips.

For me the ship is a joy to use. I'm able to get to the farthest points in a system in less than half the time of another ship. The maneuverability is top notch in super cruise or atmospheric flight. It's even got quite a bit during the glide phase of reentry. The ship has a large wing span, but with the landing gear along the hull I find mountain landings fairly easy to negotiate. You are right though, the lower window is much better if you are in VR. But you can use head look even without one. The clearance for the SRV under the ship is very good, not as much as the Anaconda, but plenty for what it needs to be. I haven't gotten blocked form egress or recovery even landing on rocks, at least so far. I didn't really push the thrusters, but am getting 476 every 4 seconds on boosts. With a big fuelscoop refueling is done in seconds, often before I've swung around the star to align for my next jump. Also without any overheating. I've yet to see it go over 54% for heat with my build. For me, the Mandalay will be my big explorer ship from here on out.