Minimum required upgrades for the Asp Explorer

[mp4x]

G'day,

I'm going to be buying an Asp Explorer soon, but unlike my previous ships I haven't saved enough cred to outfit it from the get-go, though I have a pretty good idea on what I want to do with it down the track. I keep all my ships as I go so I won't be selling anything off. I'll have a million-odd cred availble for some basics to get started, so I'm just wondering what minimum changes to make on the Asp Explorer to make it more functional.

Up until now I've mostly been bounty hunting, but with the addition of the Asp I'd like to venture out into other roles; try some mining, mission running, some passengers and maybe a little looking around outside the bubble.


So, what are the must have basics?

 

[Jaiotu]

I'd like to venture out into other roles; try some mining, mission running, some passengers and maybe a little looking around outside the bubble.

Sounds like you'll want to focus on your Frame Shift Drive. That will help with mission running, passengers and exploration outside the bubble. The Asp can be made into a nice gunboat for combat but, in my experience, she doesn't make the best "dog fighter".

 

[mp4x]

Hm, yes right that makes sense as I suppose distance means creds. I'm so used to aiming for combat, that I'm typically trying to fix combat weaknesses from the start. Thanks

My Vulture is set up for fighting so that's not going to my primary job at this stage, but I'd like to be able to defend myself and get in the odd fight.

Sounds like you'll want to focus on your Frame Shift Drive. That will help with mission running, passengers and exploration outside the bubble. The Asp can be made into a nice gunboat for combat but, in my experience, she doesn't make the best "dog fighter".

 

[Devari]

G'day,

I'm going to be buying an Asp Explorer soon, but unlike my previous ships I haven't saved enough cred to outfit it from the get-go, though I have a pretty good idea on what I want to do with it down the track. I keep all my ships as I go so I won't be selling anything off. I'll have a million-odd cred availble for some basics to get started, so I'm just wondering what minimum changes to make on the Asp Explorer to make it more functional.

Up until now I've mostly been bounty hunting, but with the addition of the Asp I'd like to venture out into other roles; try some mining, mission running, some passengers and maybe a little looking around outside the bubble.


So, what are the must have basics?

Due to the time and effort involved in Engineering modules it usually isn't worth it to Engineer anything that isn't A-grade (the only real exception here being shield boosters). This causes a bit of an issue in trying to buy an "entry-level" build and upgrade it as you go because combat is now basically designed with the expectation that you will have some Engineering mods. The issue is that it isn't really worthwhile Engineering a C or D-grade module only to repeat the process when you reach A-grade. So advice would be to wait until you can afford an A-grade Asp and THEN worry about the Engineering process. If you were wondering what a typical A-grade Asp costs, my Asp cost me around 32 million credits with an A-grade fit (after the 15% Li Yong-Rui discount) so it isn't exactly cheap. It is however a great multi-purpose ship and arguably the best explorer in the game other than possibly a long-range Anaconda. If it's for exploration only you can of course put together a MUCH cheaper D-grade build but you seem to want to use it for a multipurpose build so I would definitely go with an A-grade fit.

Once you have an A-grade Asp and decide to start with some Engineering upgrades, I consider the following to be essential for survivability and functionality:

Dirty Drive Tuning (Grade 3 is fine, don't really need to go higher particularly given that the power and thermal load also increase)
Thermal Resistant Shields (Grade 5 here given that it doesn't add any extra weight or power consumption)
FSD Range Upgrade (Grade 5 here because you want to get the highest possible FSD range)

Everything else is basically optional. An efficient power plant mod is nice to reduce heat, a power distributor upgrade is nice (but not really necessary unless you have very high-drain weapons) and of course any weapon mods will depend entirely on your preferred weapons loadout. As long as you have decent thruster, shield and FSD mods however you will be able to get out of most situations without having to resort to combat unless you really want to (and you usually don't want to fight with an Asp due to the rather poor shields even though it can certainly handle smaller fighters without much difficulty).

 

[Jaiotu]

Due to the time and effort involved in Engineering modules it usually isn't worth it to Engineer anything that isn't A-grade (the only real exception here being shield boosters).

I have to disagree in part. The Asp is a favorite for exploration and, with the exception of the FSD, is often seen running with D-rated modules to reduce weight and increase jump range. Making engineering improvements to these D-rated modules is therefore even more important then it is for A-rated modules.

If, however, exploration is going to be a part-time affair then I'd definitely go with either B-rated or A-rated modules and engineer those to lower their mass.

 

[Bakerloo]

G'day,

I'm going to be buying an Asp Explorer soon, but unlike my previous ships I haven't saved enough cred to outfit it from the get-go, though I have a pretty good idea on what I want to do with it down the track. I keep all my ships as I go so I won't be selling anything off. I'll have a million-odd cred availble for some basics to get started, so I'm just wondering what minimum changes to make on the Asp Explorer to make it more functional.

Up until now I've mostly been bounty hunting, but with the addition of the Asp I'd like to venture out into other roles; try some mining, mission running, some passengers and maybe a little looking around outside the bubble.


So, what are the must have basics?

All of those roles would benefit most from a decent FSD first in my opinion. Before I reconfigured my AspX to be a pure explorer I kind of ran it like an armed medium trader specialising mostly in rare goods with some smuggling on the side. If you want to do various things with yours, I'd recommend using the Module Storage feature and having several 'builds' on tap. Cargo holds, cabins, and mining equipment is cheap. It can do most things well and it really is is a super ship for the price. As others have noted, to A rate it can get expensive though.

Exploring is a different kettle of fish. It's a specialised build to save mass, run cool, and maximise range so you'll actually end up down rating some modules - except the FSD of course which is again why I recommend A rating that first. You will also want a good chunk of change for a good fuel scoop - a 6A is nearly 30,000,000 cr whilst a 6B is more like 7,000,000. But you'll want one of them, trust me.

As an aside, if you're getting into exploring for the first time, a Cobra MkIII makes a nifty little starter explorer. Cheap as chips too. Get your feet wet before spending bigger bucks on the Asp build.

HTH

 

[Devari]

I have to disagree in part. The Asp is a favorite for exploration and, with the exception of the FSD, is often seen running with D-rated modules to reduce weight and increase jump range. Making engineering improvements to these D-rated modules is therefore even more important then it is for A-rated modules.

If, however, exploration is going to be a part-time affair then I'd definitely go with either B-rated or A-rated modules and engineer those to lower their mass.

If you're just doing exploration, and FSD range is your main consideration, then I could see Engineering D-rated modules but I certainly wouldn't want to get into fights with a D-rated Asp due to the already low base shield. My fully Engineered A-rated Asp uses military alloys and still manages a 36 ly jump range with a nice Grade 5 FSD roll so I really don't have any need to go with a lightweight build. In comparison the Asp that I took to SagA prior to 2.1 launching had a 30 ly jump range with a D-rated build so I am actually getting 6 ly more range out of my fully-armored and Engineered Asp then I did before Engineers, plus I can get in to the occasional fight with my current multipurpose Asp (although I usually try to avoid combat with my Asp given how much the NPCs have improved with Engineering mods).

 

[Devari]

As an aside, if you're getting into exploring for the first time, a Cobra MkIII makes a nifty little starter explorer. Cheap as chips too. Get your feet wet before spending bigger bucks on the Asp build.

If you want a cheap and versatile Explorer the most cost-effective build I've seen is actually a Cobra IV due to the excellent size and number of internal slots. The FSD range isn't quite as good as the Asp but you have room for everything, in fact you have 8 internal slots in the Cobra IV compared to 7 slots in the Asp. The main issue here is that the Cobra IV is quite a bit slower than the Asp and can only fit a class-4 fuel scoop so it isn't really comparable for long-range exploration but it would be great for going a few thousand ly outside the bubble.

I've recently Engineered a Cobra IV to see if I could make a multipurpose mission-running build work and it does OK with a full set of Engineering mods although it is still at a significant disadvantage against other small-mid sized ships in terms of combat due to the low speed and agility. I have a good Grade 3 dirty drive tune and I'm still only getting a max boost of 375 and the agility is still sub-par. The other major issue with the Cobra IV in combat is that the small class-3 PD is drained rather quickly by ship's 5 hardpoints even though I'm using a full multicannon loadout to minimize capacitor draw. It does however have ample power and that gives you lots of room to put an efficient power plant mod on it, mine has around a 20% improvement in thermal efficiency and it still produces enough power to equip a small SCB. Despite the Cobra IV's singnificant speed and agility limitations I still really like the overall design and hope that FD eventually does something to make it at least marginally competitive with other ships in combat.

 

[Bakerloo]

If you want a cheap and versatile Explorer the most cost-effective build I've seen is actually a Cobra IV due to the excellent size and number of internal slots. The FSD range isn't quite as good as the Asp but you have room for everything, in fact you have 8 internal slots in the Cobra IV compared to 7 slots in the Asp. The main issue here is that the Cobra IV is quite a bit slower than the Asp and can only fit a class-4 fuel scoop so it isn't really comparable for long-range exploration but it would be great for going a few thousand ly outside the bubble.

I've recently Engineered a Cobra IV to see if I could make a multipurpose mission-running build work and it does OK with a full set of Engineering mods although it is still at a significant disadvantage against other small-mid sized ships in terms of combat due to the low speed and agility. I have a good Grade 3 dirty drive tune and I'm still only getting a max boost of 375 and the agility is still sub-par. The other major issue with the Cobra IV in combat is that the small class-3 PD is drained rather quickly by ship's 5 hardpoints even though I'm using a full multicannon loadout to minimize capacitor draw. It does however have ample power and that gives you lots of room to put an efficient power plant mod on it, mine has around a 20% improvement in thermal efficiency and it still produces enough power to equip a small SCB. Despite the Cobra IV's singnificant speed and agility limitations I still really like the overall design and hope that FD eventually does something to make it at least marginally competitive with other ships in combat.

I fully agree with your excellent post, but I don't know if the OP has access to the Mk IV, so I suggested the Mk III instead.

 

[mp4x]

Due to the time and effort involved in Engineering modules it usually isn't worth it to Engineer anything that isn't A-grade (the only real exception here being shield boosters). This causes a bit of an issue in trying to buy an "entry-level" build and upgrade it as you go because combat is now basically designed with the expectation that you will have some Engineering mods. The issue is that it isn't really worthwhile Engineering a C or D-grade module only to repeat the process when you reach A-grade. So advice would be to wait until you can afford an A-grade Asp and THEN worry about the Engineering process. If you were wondering what a typical A-grade Asp costs, my Asp cost me around 32 million credits with an A-grade fit (after the 15% Li Yong-Rui discount) so it isn't exactly cheap. It is however a great multi-purpose ship and arguably the best explorer in the game other than possibly a long-range Anaconda. If it's for exploration only you can of course put together a MUCH cheaper D-grade build but you seem to want to use it for a multipurpose build so I would definitely go with an A-grade fit.

Once you have an A-grade Asp and decide to start with some Engineering upgrades, I consider the following to be essential for survivability and functionality:

Dirty Drive Tuning (Grade 3 is fine, don't really need to go higher particularly given that the power and thermal load also increase)
Thermal Resistant Shields (Grade 5 here given that it doesn't add any extra weight or power consumption)
FSD Range Upgrade (Grade 5 here because you want to get the highest possible FSD range)

Everything else is basically optional. An efficient power plant mod is nice to reduce heat, a power distributor upgrades is nice (but not really necessary unless you have very high-drain weapons) and of course any weapons mods will depend entirely on your preferred weapons loadout. As long as you have decent thruster, shield and FSD mods however you will be able to get out of most situations without having to resort to combat unless you really want to (which you usually don't due to the rather poor shields on the Asp).

Thanks Devari, I agree that doing the Engineering at this stage isn't worth it. I haven't gone down that path yet, grinding, as the engineer mods on my current ship are largely the result of picking up mats during the course of my normal gameplay. It's more about the basic things to change on the Asp, which modules to replace, with only a little cred on hand directly after purchace so I'm not just flying a stock ship. I'd love to start out with that kind of money to A spec, but at the moment 500k to 1ml per outing in my Vulture is my average income. That's just heading to my local HRES and hoping for a few big hits. I thought that, perhaps, if I'm not bounty hunting in the Asp I might not have to worry as much about combat as much to earn cred, and instead make use of the larger ship and jump range to test the waters. Up until now I've always geared towards combat from purchase so I'm a little out of my depth

I have to disagree in part. The Asp is a favorite for exploration and, with the exception of the FSD, is often seen running with D-rated modules to reduce weight and increase jump range. Making engineering improvements to these D-rated modules is therefore even more important then it is for A-rated modules.

If, however, exploration is going to be a part-time affair then I'd definitely go with either B-rated or A-rated modules and engineer those to lower their mass.

Thanks Jaiotu. I don't want to purpose build just yet, so anything at this stage is part-time unless I take a shining to exploration or something else, specifically. If I'm enjoying that part of my new ship more, then I'll be sure to change the path I take the build down when the cred starts coming in again. In that regard I also want to be able to earn money, too, once I'm flying it. FSD means I can take longer run jobs now, I guess, and will help me get those lonnger mission completed sooner? That would be value for my initial small investment

All of those roles would benefit most from a decent FSD first in my opinion. Before I reconfigured my AspX to be a pure explorer I kind of ran it like an armed medium trader specialising mostly in rare goods with some smuggling on the side. If you want to do various things with yours, I'd recommend using the Module Storage feature and having several 'builds' on tap. Cargo holds, cabins, and mining equipment is cheap. It can do most things well and it really is is a super ship for the price. As others have noted, to A rate it can get expensive though.

Exploring is a different kettle of fish. It's a specialised build to save mass, run cool, and maximise range so you'll actually end up down rating some modules - except the FSD of course which is again why I recommend A rating that first. You will also want a good chunk of change for a good fuel scoop - a 6A is nearly 30,000,000 cr whilst a 6B is more like 7,000,000. But you'll want one of them, trust me.

As an aside, if you're getting into exploring for the first time, a Cobra MkIII makes a nifty little starter explorer. Cheap as chips too. Get your feet wet before spending bigger bucks on the Asp build.

HTH

Thanks Doc, I think that's what I'm leaning towards there - armed, but not as fighter. Generalise a little, but extend my jump range. I DO have my cobra, still, but I'm super keen to get a new ship, too Maybe that's the go, keep my Asp general but take a run in my Cobra. A couple of votes for FSD, and I see the logic, i'll start there!

Thank you

 

[mp4x]

New posts added while I was typing that out. Not that I'm texting while I drive...but I've just finished work, I'll check back when I get home

 

[GunnerBill]

If you want a cheap and versatile Explorer the most cost-effective build I've seen is actually a Cobra IV due to the excellent size and number of internal slots. The FSD range isn't quite as good as the Asp but you have room for everything, in fact you have 8 internal slots in the Cobra IV compared to 7 slots in the Asp. The main issue here is that the Cobra IV is quite a bit slower than the Asp and can only fit a class-4 fuel scoop so it isn't really comparable for long-range exploration but it would be great for going a few thousand ly outside the bubble.

I've recently Engineered a Cobra IV to see if I could make a multipurpose mission-running build work and it does OK with a full set of Engineering mods although it is still at a significant disadvantage against other small-mid sized ships in terms of combat due to the low speed and agility. I have a good Grade 3 dirty drive tune and I'm still only getting a max boost of 375 and the agility is still sub-par. The other major issue with the Cobra IV in combat is that the small class-3 PD is drained rather quickly by ship's 5 hardpoints even though I'm using a full multicannon loadout to minimize capacitor draw. It does however have ample power and that gives you lots of room to put an efficient power plant mod on it, mine has around a 20% improvement in thermal efficiency and it still produces enough power to equip a small SCB. Despite the Cobra IV's singnificant speed and agility limitations I still really like the overall design and hope that FD eventually does something to make it at least marginally competitive with other ships in combat.

Cobra IV? Useful for something???

I was going to laugh in your face but I had a quick play and with a good roll on #5 Increased FSD range it actually comes out as a pretty effective machine for exploration: https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/cob...AAAA2MW6RBmYBC6wM7A8P8/AxwAAP1310kXAAAA&bn=RT

This build sacrificed 1 ly on the extra internals and the PP required for the AFM's so you could get over 34 ly out of it.

Nice one!

 

[Faybs]

Cobra IV? Useful for something???

I was going to laugh in your face but I had a quick play and with a good roll on #5 Increased FSD range it actually comes out as a pretty effective machine for exploration: https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/cob...AAAA2MW6RBmYBC6wM7A8P8/AxwAAP1310kXAAAA&bn=RT

This build sacrificed 1 ly on the extra internals and the PP required for the AFM's so you could get over 34 ly out of it.

Nice one!

Yeah the Cobra 4 is useful for a lot of things but absolutely sucks at combat. I'm not sure why they put five hardpoints on it.

 

[SMcA]

To add to what others have said. Remember you can swap modules between ships by storing them and transferring to your current ship. Especially useful when using Engineering. ATPIT no one has mentioned the Power Distributor. It can limit recharge times if too small. So check the specs. [yesnod]
My usual upgrade path is FSD, Power Distributor, Fuel scoop (the best you can get when exploring or travelling far) then you can pick an appropriate power plant.
Enjoy your ASP (no pun intended )

 

[kpmop]

Buy a T6, and have fun earning some cash with that - you can get it into pretty good shape for about the base cost of the Asp-E. Then do some cargo, passenger missions to earn credits to do your Asp-E up with. Yeah, the T6 is no good at combat, but it's good for trading missions, exploration and mining (if you can find somewhere quiet!).

Yeah I know that's not what you asked, but it's worth playing with the intermediate ships...

 

[Sorbicol]

I did the same thing as you after I came back into the game about 4 weeks back - bought an Asp in a fit of pique due to the combat upgrade NPCs have been given, but had nothing to upgrade it with. In the end I heavily invested in the Tutumu CG, got myself into the top 25% and by farming trading/delivering missions at Tutumu earnt 40 million. That was more the enough to kit out a perfectly serviceable Asp for exploration (basically an A grade FSD, 6B grade fuel scoop and D grade everything else for the weight saving. That's given me a 32Ly jump range with a SRV bay. More than enough for exploration if that's your thing.

While I was missioning around the bubble though I found the Asp very lacking as a combat vehicle. My response to interdiction was to avoid it (easy enough when it's NPCs), or if it looked like I'd messed that up then throttle back, submit and boost away.

All in all I think my Asp cost me about 25million with a 1million insurance. You really don't need that 30 million grade A fuel scoop unless you have loads of credits to burn. The 7 million grade B still allows me to refill a half empty fuel tank in less that 30 seconds. I'm really not that impatient!

 

[William J Smith]

The AspX is the ideal explorer, but the most basic upgrade is a 5A FSD, add on some Farseer magic and in all cases you'll have an AspX capable of jumping 25ly+ even if one is a
heavily armored and gunned long range smuggler (like mine)

From there , if you're going full on explorer, D rated modules are the way to go, I go 2 heat sink launchers, 1 chaff, 1 PDT , 6C fuel scoop(you can refuel in like 30 secs) , couple
of AFMUs, SRV bay and the Advanced and detailed scanners, I also fit a couple of small beam lasers and a small shield to defend myself long enough for the FSD to recharge(and the shield comes
in very handy if you misjudge a landing out in the void)
Total price.... about 15 million or so (mostly in the scoop,FSD and basic hull)

The other AspX I run is a fully fitted out grade A one, 4 beams, 2 overcharged multicannons, tuned A grade thrusters(does about 450 on boost and turns almost better than my Viper)5A
engineered shield, boosters, military armor, heat sink, shield cells, and 76 tons of cargo capacity.
Comes in very handy when moving illegal stuff around (not that I'd ever have an illegal cargo, officer , anyway dont you people take bribes anymore? )
Total price ... about 32 million [woah]

Bill

<<dedicated Asp'er [cool]

 

[mp4x]

Okay, I can see that 'perhaps' I'm being impatient, but I still want the AspX. I'm not ready to go full explorer, but I can see what everyone is saying and that helps me decide how and when I decide to ride off into the nebula.

I think I'll do all the things - First I'm going to buy the AspX and put whatever I can into ths FSD, fly it around a bit and get a taste for it as a ship. I'm also going to beef it up a bit as I earn cred, something like the smuggler vessel also mentioned in here, before turning it into an outright explorer later on. I don't sell my ships as I move on to the next, so I'll keep the Vulture stored at the same dock. That way I can fall back to earning, doing my regular gig as well. In the meantime, I'm going to send for my Cobra MkIII and store that there, too. Once the Cobra is there, I'll reconfigure it following some of the suggestions here. The Cobra, I used it when ED came out but that was as far as I got and then I didn't play ED for ages. I bought VR in September and immediately reinstalled Elite, bought a new ship and it's been onward from there, so the Cobra probably deserves another look in.

Thanks everyone, I think covering all the bases is the way to go. I'm going to send for my Cob' shortly. I also have some idea how to piece together my AspX and how to fit it into my gameplay style

 

[Lightspeed]

If you want a cheap and versatile Explorer the most cost-effective build I've seen is actually a Cobra IV due to the excellent size and number of internal slots. The FSD range isn't quite as good as the Asp but you have room for everything, in fact you have 8 internal slots in the Cobra IV compared to 7 slots in the Asp. The main issue here is that the Cobra IV is quite a bit slower than the Asp and can only fit a class-4 fuel scoop so it isn't really comparable for long-range exploration but it would be great for going a few thousand ly outside the bubble.

I've recently Engineered a Cobra IV to see if I could make a multipurpose mission-running build work and it does OK with a full set of Engineering mods although it is still at a significant disadvantage against other small-mid sized ships in terms of combat due to the low speed and agility. I have a good Grade 3 dirty drive tune and I'm still only getting a max boost of 375 and the agility is still sub-par. The other major issue with the Cobra IV in combat is that the small class-3 PD is drained rather quickly by ship's 5 hardpoints even though I'm using a full multicannon loadout to minimize capacitor draw. It does however have ample power and that gives you lots of room to put an efficient power plant mod on it, mine has around a 20% improvement in thermal efficiency and it still produces enough power to equip a small SCB. Despite the Cobra IV's singnificant speed and agility limitations I still really like the overall design and hope that FD eventually does something to make it at least marginally competitive with other ships in combat.

An interesting and informative description of your Cobra IV loadout. +rep for that. I have taken an unmodified Cobra IV to Jaques, equipped with a mining laser, 5 bin refinery, plasma weapon, lasers, AFMU, advanced and detailed discovery scanners, SRV, and still had room for cargo ! You really can pack just about everything into it, except the kitchen sink. A bit slow on jumping though, with a small fuel scoop and about 24 ly jump range.

I am on my way back to the bubble in an unmodded Explorer AspX which is a more pleasant discovery experience - D rated everything except the A-rated FSD and fuel scoop which makes a huge difference to how far and fast you can cover the distance.

Next, I will try engineering the 5A FSD and see what jump range I can get out of that in the AspX.

 

[Pyrotiger]

A word about fuel scoops. A 5A scoop will still do a pretty good job on an AspX, and would do a decent job on a long journey. 6A is a luxury, not an essential.