Fly what you want, i have more exploration light years in my Beluga than anything else, 53LY jump range and i normally put the kettle on before fuel scooping
O7
Panther Clipper as an exploration vessel.
- Thread starter CMDR GRUMPYHEDGEHOG
- Start date
O7
Worth noting that an SRV of choice is worthwhile on top of a Nomad due to the Nomad's lack of cargo scoop/bay. A holistic explorer may wish to remain open to surface materials collection.
Not here. Everyone here is awesome. More on dedicated Elite FB groups. They are an odd bunch…There are some very definite rules about what you're allowed to use as an exploration ship on the forums. Usually the complaint is if your ship can move too fast (jump and scoop) then it's not a real exploration ship, and you are merely travelling not exploring if you go too fast at any point.
Making an unconventional explorer like the Panther usually gets the seal of approval, but the forums can be a fickle place I guess? I think it's a cool choice. Exploring in the Panther has a Prometheus vibe to it. But it's best to keep your head down and not talk about your exploration ship at all honestly.
I have a Scarab and a Scorpion. I’m off to see the Guardian sites….again!
Never got on too well with the Scarab, but love my Scorpion for Guardian sites and Brain Trees.
Do you have a PDT on your explorer PC II? If you land it close to the Guardian site, the PDT will take care of the missiles the drones send at you.
I agree with you on almost everything, except for two points.
- Exploration and Jump Range
Broadly speaking, you can explore anywhere. You don’t need to fly somewhere far away—there are plenty of undiscovered stars everywhere, and searching near the Bubble becomes even more interesting. Therefore, a long jump range is more useful for travelers, whereas for actual exploration, an average jump of about 50 light-years is quite enough nowadays. Besides, 6 or 7 years ago, such a jump was not considered short at all. Still, it feels much safer when you have the capability to jump further, but it's not critical.
The Nomad is a mediocre advantage... Yes, it's more interesting at first, but it won’t last long. Just like all exploration, exobiology is a highly tedious and time-consuming process. Any crutch like the Nomad will eventually get tiring, and a commander will realize that, overall, it is more convenient and faster to work using the "ship-to-feet" formula without any middlemen. No matter how you look at it, the Nomad is not an independent ship; it’s just an SRV with wings. It cannot enter orbit on its own to spot a distant region with the necessary biological signs. To do that, it has to dock with the mothership again, then you have to use the mothership to search for the right spot (which can sometimes be difficult even from orbit because the target zone is so tiny). Once found, you must descend, deploy the Nomad, find the plants, land, and then go on foot again to scan them.
I am not against the whole shuttle concept; the Nomad was actually a logical addition to the Caspian to make it a true exploration vessel rather than just a galactic express (which it is great at, by the way). However, its current capabilities are unfortunately limited. It would be a completely different story if it could detach from the Caspian in orbit and handle the rest of the process on its own—starting from scanning the planet all the way to disembarking on foot. That would make it a fully-fledged shuttle tailored for exobiology. As it stands, it’s just a crutch designed so that no one can say the Caspian isn't an exploration ship—just like any other ship, even a pink
Panther Clipper.
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That's why I gave up on the lynx explorer I need about 8 internals ? And the lynx has too many restricted cargo slots to hold what I see as being required given my experience with my flying skills
. And why I ended up with a type 11 explorer which far exceeded my expectations.You can turn any ship into a submarine if you try hard enough (though it's not a given that it won't sink afterwards). But why try to make all this happen if submarines already exist? There are excellent small, medium, and large exploration ships in Elite, so why try to adapt a bulky, clumsy hull with the narrowest tank-like view for exploration... Of course, it's a personal matter and there's no need to justify what you fly at all. I'm just trying to understand—why.
That's the spirit: you have them because you want to have fun - isn't that why we're playing this game?
As others said: use what you like most and has the convenience level you need.
One additional factor for me personally: as I love to take screenshots, I tend to use ships I like from the outside as well
Ah, well, if it's for the sake of fun, then it makes sense.
I have an Asp Ex, which I used religiously for ages. I have a 58ly DBX which got me to Colonia Sag A, and everywhere in between. I used an Imp Clipper to explore Guardian sites too.
I really wanted the Panther so it felt like a “mothership.” And no, I don’t have a FC.
I took a pre-engineers MK III To Sag A back in the old Xbox days!That's the spirit: you have them because you want to have fun - isn't that why we're playing this game?
As others said: use what you like most and has the convenience level you need.
One additional factor for me personally: as I love to take screenshots, I tend to use ships I like from the outside as well
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I feel you. I left all the groups a long time ago.
I like using unconventional ships for unconventional purposes. I own every toy in the game, including all the big ships and a carrier that'll outlive me. Yet I still fly the Federal Assault Ship, the Federal Gunship, the Viper Mk III, and the Keelback for things people would never even consider.
People used to tell me how ineffective I was. Well, what can I say? It's just a feeling. I simply enjoy certain ships for certain jobs, whether they're considered optimal or not.
Don't care about them and have fun.
I like using unconventional ships for unconventional purposes. I own every toy in the game, including all the big ships and a carrier that'll outlive me. Yet I still fly the Federal Assault Ship, the Federal Gunship, the Viper Mk III, and the Keelback for things people would never even consider.
People used to tell me how ineffective I was. Well, what can I say? It's just a feeling. I simply enjoy certain ships for certain jobs, whether they're considered optimal or not.
Don't care about them and have fun.
The only ship worthy of shame for an “explorer” is the Anaconda. Everything else sky is your limit.
Fly what you like, how you like.
Clipper is a great exploration ship feeling wise. Feels like a real sort of cruiser charting out the unknown.
You’re a braver man than me if you decide to swap out the explorer clipper for an FDL though lol. Someone has done it to Beagle Point though.
Fly what you like, how you like.
Clipper is a great exploration ship feeling wise. Feels like a real sort of cruiser charting out the unknown.
You’re a braver man than me if you decide to swap out the explorer clipper for an FDL though lol. Someone has done it to Beagle Point though.
In practice you don't generally need to dock the Nomad between bio species more than (occasionally) once, even on a 10-bio body. If you choose your point of descent carefully, it's almost always possible to glide down to a place where all the species are in reach via boosting around in the Nomad more quickly than they would be by returning to SC (even if Nomad was itself SC-capable).
For example, let's say you have concha, fungoida, frutexa, cactoida in sunken caldera areas, flat plains inhabited by stratum, aleoida, osseus, bacterium (and also cactoida), and on the hills and mountains you find tussock and clypeus.
As you descend you cycle between species in the DSS view, noting which areas are next to which as the planet comes closer. In the example I'd be looking for a caldera next to a mountain and choosing a direction of approach that would take me from one to the other and also (at some point) traverse the plains area where osseus etc. can be found.
Having found the approach, I take a mental note of the compass bearing during the final glide, so that I know which direction to proceed after wandering around locating individual bios, and then just tick the bios off one by one while sticking roughly to the line envisaged during descent. Doesn't always work out perfectly but needing to head into SC and back more than once before leaving would be quite unusual for me.
This isn't unique to the Nomad - I'd do the same in any ship. But I will say using this technique I was able to place top 10 in the recent CG, all scans done during the time it was active, in a Nomad ferried around inside a Cutter (of all ships!) This, incidentally, came about not out of any masochistic urges on my part but because I accidentally purchased Arx for the Nomad in the wrong frontier account, decided to go with it, and used the only ship that account had lying around with vessel bay support (discounting an Anaconda for reasons of taste.)