Oops! I accidentally sold my Asp Explorer instead of storing it. How does this new loadout look?

[Branithar]

https://coriolis.io/outfit/asp?code...Q==..EweloBhBmSQUwIYHMA28QgIwV0A=&bn=Explorer

Oops! Can't find my Asp Explorer anywhere, so I must've accidentally sold it at the station, instead of storing it. I'm planning on keeping the AFMU and SRV hangar modules turned off, to save power. And getting the FSD range engineered to level 5 from Felicity Farseer. I haven't done much with engineers. Are there any other engineer-upgrades that are indispensable for an explorer?

 

[JonathanBurnage]

2A power plant. Much more efficient, so you won't cook whilst scooping. Plus it actually makes more power than a 3D and is lighter. Win win win. Then get it G1 low emissions god roll (easy; just spam with iron) to get even better efficiency for no power loss.

Also take your armour to Selene - heavy duty mod to lightweight alloys is one of the very few freebies. It adds hull points for no weight gain.

Engineer your sensors and life support if you want extra range.

Throw in a second AFMU to keep the first one company (most people take two so they can fix each other).

Consider switching up to a class 4 SRV hangar so you can take a spare. Useful if you're going for a long time and might break one.

 

[Major Klutz]

The only change I would make is to change your power plant to a 2A. https://eddp.co/u/S6JsYNek
2A will provide more power (not that you need it), but it's also lighter and runs cooler.

Here's my engineering suggestions... https://eddp.co/u/yVnyPgWB
Whatever engineers you have access to and materials on hand.
The grade 5 FSD increased range is top priority, the other mods will only improve your range by small amounts.

If you really want to optimize, as Jonathan suggested above, you can spam grade 1 low emissions on the PP and you can get a reduced mass on the PP which will give you a bit more range but not much and probably not enough to be worth the effort.
Also optional is Dirty Drive Tuning on the thusters to give you better speed at the expense of increased power use and consequently higher running temperature.
Beware of clean drive tuning, it's not recommended since the power use on clean tuning is higher than dirty and thus it actually accomplishes the opposite since the higher power use will make you run hotter.

IMHO, no need for a second AFM, though you might want to go with a 3A or 5A AFM instead to give you more repair capacity. If your AFM takes some damage it will still work so there's no need to repair it unless you suffer from OCD.
IMHO, no need for a second SRV bay, unless you are accident prone or often destroy your SRV. I've only ever had one on board and I've never lost one (yet)

 

[JonathanBurnage]

The G1 low emissions was mainly for the improved efficiency. Useful if the game decides to dump you between two stars (which can still happen). But it's not essential. You can just use heatsinks.

 

[DarkPaladin]

I see 2 heat sink launchers. On my last trip I realized that with the ability to use synthesis to reload, only one is needed. Just make sure you stock up the materials needed before starting a trip since they can't be found outside of populated systems.:S

Actually my having two was overkill but with the last change that lowered the ammo count I was just playing it safe with 2 lightweight modded launchers.

Seeing no guns on your load out brings up another point I've been wondering about myself. I have a couple lightweight modded pulse lasers on my Asp. A while ago there had been hints from the devs of 'Winter is coming' and that maybe exploring could become dangerous. It hasn't happened and I feel a bit silly carrying what are pretty much pointlessly weak lasers that sure wouldn't help me out at all if a Thargoid hyperdicted me, other that as a weak intimidation factor.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

1º Put G5 heavy duty mod on your hull. It'll make landings safer while not adding weight.

2º Use a 2A or 2D powerplant. Your ship build isn't very power demanding and some modules can be turned off while travelling. 2A is more powerful and cool while 2D is lightest.

3º Put G5 DDT mod on your thrusters. I know, it does produce heat output, but the difference in SC is small and a 2A plant will be easily tame it.

4º Put G5 increased range mod on your FSD.

5º Put G4 lightweight life support. G3 if you can't use Lori Jameson. Only drawback is the reduced integrity though you can repair it.

6º Reduce the size of your power distributor to 1D and apply the G3 engine focused mod. This still allows for boosting and makes your ship lighter. You'll need a very good roll though.

7º Put G5 lightweight mod on your sensors.

8º You could sustitute the 3C AFMU with a 3A one to have more ammo though you can refill it.

9º if you don't need the big cargo rack, another bigger AFMU can help to repair the other AFMU.

10º Lightweight your heatsinks, you can refill them with industrial mats.

 

[Satsuma]

Definitely use an A-rated power plant. The superior heat dissipation alone is the main reason to do this. With Strix (my Asp X), with an A-rated power plant, I can start charging my FSD while still scooping - so long as the star has turned from red to yellow, I won't go above 90% heat. With a D-rated power plant, I'd probably hit above 90% just while scooping.

This heat dissipation starts a virtuous cycle all through your ship. With excellent heat dissipation, there will be many situations which you will no longer need to fire a heat sink, reducing your need to carry launchers. Likewise, you'll reduce the number of situations in which you'll take module damage, which eliminates most of the need to take a second AFMU.

Speaking of which, I've found that explorers tend to make big mistakes in their first 50,000 light years or so, and after that they settle into a travel/exploration routine that is predictably safe. I definitely saw this in my experience. I took a lot of needless damage in my first 50 kly, while my latest trip (~110 kly) saw me end the trip at 100% hull and almost no module damage. I don't carry two AFMUs, and I've never regretted it. With AFMU reloads, I just carry a small 3A AFMU, and then a large 5E cargo bay. The cargo bay doesn't normally hurt my range, but it provides some flexibility without having to refit (I can decide to salvage data caches and bring them back, I can fly with someone else and act as a light cargo carrier, etc).

Now, I do run a 3A power plant instead of a 2A. Technically I could depower my SRV hangar bay and go with the 2A (I did this during DWE), but I started getting paranoid. It seems reasonable that you'd have to have power for thrusters, FSD, and hangar bay in order to dismiss your ship from your SRV, recall it, and then re-board it. I'm not expecting FDev to change the way they do power, but I don't want to be caught out in the middle of nowhere when some update changes that. I fully understand that it doesn't make a lot of sense, but we've all got our own particular brand of space madness.

I'm also a big proponent of avoiding the grind. When engineering first came around, I spent about an hour getting a 45% roll on my FSD and calling it good. About 200 kly later, I got an itch to do more engineering, so I returned to the bubble and spent a few weeks doing the rest of the engineering you see on my ship loadout above. At the time, it was kinda relaxing, because it was a nice break from my normal routine. I stopped when it got to be a bore, despite the fact that I technically could squeeze a little more performance out of the ship with a lot more engineering. We play ED to relax, and for me exploring is a lot more relaxing than grinding. My biggest performance boost was that single reasonable 45% FSD roll. One hour turned my ship from a 34 ly Asp to a 49 ly Asp. A few hours, during my second bout with engineering, turned it into a 51 ly Asp, which is a substantial gain even still. The rest of those couple of weeks gave me a little more shields, armor, and speed, and boosted my jump range by about half a light year. It's very much a game of diminishing returns. I'm sure I could spend another few weeks to do things like get a lightweight heatsink, G5 lightweight sensors, etc, but I'd probably only gain a couple tenths of a ly out of that, which isn't worth it to me.

Lastly: guns. I've gone back and forth on this. My first exploration Cobra was reasonably well shielded and fully armed, but now I'm flying a completely unarmed Asp with paper-thin shields, and I don't plan on changing that. My rationale? If I carry no weapons, then my only option is to run from danger. I won't try to fight with what is basically an extremely substandard gunboat. I'll run. And I'll run very quickly because I don't have guns slowing me down. I'm an explorer. I'm out there in the unknown. If I run into hostile aliens, then the best thing I can do is survive to gather information on them, and my best chance of survival is to not pick a fight with them.

 

[acg515]

Looks good but if you're out exploring you don't really need a 32T cargo rack, especially since you'll have to smuggle anything you pick up out there back in and you might get smoked for it.

Speaking of which, I've found that explorers tend to make big mistakes in their first 50,000 light years or so, and after that they settle into a travel/exploration routine that is predictably safe. I definitely saw this in my experience. I took a lot of needless damage in my first 50 kly, while my latest trip (~110 kly) saw me end the trip at 100% hull and almost no module damage. I don't carry two AFMUs, and I've never regretted it. With AFMU reloads, I just carry a small 3A AFMU, and then a large 5E cargo bay. The cargo bay doesn't normally hurt my range, but it provides some flexibility without having to refit (I can decide to salvage data caches and bring them back, I can fly with someone else and act as a light cargo carrier, etc).

I wasted all my heatsinks in the first 5k of the journey and took enough heat damage to knock me down to 93%. I've gone 60k since then, no heat damage even though I've almost gotten fried in a couple systems with close stars upon entry. This is so true.

 

[Orvidius]

I too use a 3A power plant on my AspX, but mainly to provide enough bonus power that I can keep the SRV bay powered if I choose to, and also to use a G3 low emissions mod on it. This increases the mass a small amount, but the ship runs so cool now, that I can start my jump sequence while scooping and not have to worry about it too much. With a 2A in my previous builds, I did what others are suggesting here, and re-rolled a G1 low emissions mod until I got a 5% mass reduction. That's pretty negligible, but if you're fine-tuning for best possible jump range, it's a viable option.

I'll also echo some of the other comments on second SRVs, and second AFMUs. I've almost always had the spares when I've traveled, and have almost never needed them. I've only lost one SRV, and that was in the bubble, due to a trespass zone. I've never lost one while exploring. As long as you don't go running off of cliffs, and are mindful about repairing it when it falls below 50% health, a single SRV is almost always sufficient. This also saves 4 tons of mass, by using a 2G hangar instead of a 4G.

With the AFMUs, there are some benefits to having more than one:

• If you can power both (easy with thrusters powered off), you can repair faster.
• They can repair each other.
• You have more "ammo" to repair with, before needing to synthesize a refill.

However there are also caveats that make it unnecessary to have more than one:

• You can't repair the power plant, so that will always be your limiting factor.
• The AFMU will work fine all the way down to 1% health. At zero it will stop working, but you can reboot the ship to bring it back up to 1% and get it running again. So as long as you have one AFMU, you can always repair.
• The AFMU's priority is to keep your FSD working. Most modules will continue to work all the way down to 1%, but the FSD starts malfunctioning as soon as it falls below 80%. And it's the single most important module, if you need to get back to a base for full repairs (particularly the power plant and hull (unless you have hull repair limpets, which you probably won't on an AspX)). With that in mind, you can neglect most of your repairs and save the AFMU for the FSD primarily, and thus you might not even need to use it very much.