Ships Phantom Into the Black

Ron1776

Ron1776
Tired of grinding and ready to explore. I only have Farseer, Martook, and Qwent right now. I'm not Explorer Elite yet so I will definitely go get the miles to see Palin. At some point, if I stay in explorer mode, return on grind time for more engineers may give diminishing returns? Any guidance on current and additional engineering is appreciated.

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I plan to go with a smaller cargo rack, repair limpet controller, and removing the flight assist modules. Any suggestions before I make my first jump?
 

Hawk of Battle

Hawk of Battle
Turning on the AFMU is a problem. You'll need a bigger PP (and should probably make it more efficient as well).

EDIT; Scratch that, you can do it with some priorities shifted around, but still, better efficiency would be good.
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
Nice Phantom Ron.

Just a slight variant, but the first thing I wanted to do with this ship was improve the shield strength, especially in a ship with such low integrity (put heavy-duty/deep plate on your stock alloys). Not sure how negotiable the AFMU is, but what I did was swap the shields and AFMU around. A class 3 AFMU is plenty as far as I am concerned and you can always synthesize ammo for it.

With class 5 D-rated enhanced low power/low draw shields, you add just two tons of mass, which costs .3 jump, while nearly doubling the shield mj. Not only that, it draws .5 MW less power than your current shields, which should make the ship run slightly cooler, and maybe give you additional options for power plant class and engineering? How much cooler it would be is hard to say without running it through EDSY, maybe it wouldn't even register as a full point. The lower class AFMU draws nearly a full MW less, but if you have it shut down all the time this won't have an impact really, except when you need it! These two changes draw almost 1.5 MW less, nearly 10% of the total power draw of the ship. This alone solves the power issue currently in the build with AFMU and everything on. Get everything else theory-crafted, then do the power plant last once you see what is needed.

MJ is collision protection, so just a variant with an eye toward that (plus I added the bulkhead engineering for a 43% increase in integrity @ zero cost to jump), and even with zero changes this Phantom should serve you well. Rudi and Ceekay mentioned the SuperDrives™ FSD, and I will heartily second (third?) this recommendation. Good hunting, commander.


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Ron1776

Ron1776
sinisalo said:
Nice Phantom Ron.

Just a slight variant, but the first thing I wanted to do with this ship was improve the shield strength, especially in a ship with such low integrity (put heavy-duty/deep plate on your stock alloys). Not sure how negotiable the AFMU is, but what I did was swap the shields and AFMU around. A class 3 AFMU is plenty as far as I am concerned and you can always synthesize ammo for it.

With class 5 D-rated enhanced low power/low draw shields, you add just two tons of mass, which costs .3 jump, while nearly doubling the shield mj. Not only that, it draws .5 MW less power than your current shields, which should make the ship run slightly cooler, and maybe give you additional options for power plant class and engineering? How much cooler it would be is hard to say without running it through EDSY, maybe it wouldn't even register as a full point. The lower class AFMU draws nearly a full MW less, but if you have it shut down all the time this won't have an impact really, except when you need it! These two changes draw almost 1.5 MW less, nearly 10% of the total power draw of the ship. This alone solves the power issue currently in the build with AFMU and everything on. Get everything else theory-crafted, then do the power plant last once you see what is needed.

MJ is collision protection, so just a variant with an eye toward that (plus I added the bulkhead engineering for a 43% increase in integrity @ zero cost to jump), and even with zero changes this Phantom should serve you well. Rudi and Ceekay mentioned the SuperDrives™ FSD, and I will heartily second (third?) this recommendation. Good hunting, commander.


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Click to expand...
I like it - Thanks!
 

Jaxterix

Jaxterix
Ron1776 said:
I like it - Thanks!
Click to expand...
This is my exploration Phantom. Somewhat similar to yours, but note that mine has one size bigger power plant, which allows me to run much cooler (using low emissions engineering), and slightly better jump range. Just something to consider, but running low emissions in the power plant allows you to scoop from empty to full and stay as cool as the other side of the pillow! :cool: https://s.orbis.zone/c_fc
 

Ron1776

Ron1776
Jaxterix said:
This is my exploration Phantom. Somewhat similar to yours, but note that mine has one size bigger power plant, which allows me to run much cooler (using low emissions engineering), and slightly better jump range. Just something to consider, but running low emissions in the power plant allows you to scoop from empty to full and stay as cool as the other side of the pillow! :cool: https://s.orbis.zone/c_fc
Click to expand...
Looks good. You got 5LY on me (among other stuff). I still have some engineering to do but here's my latest:

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Jaxterix

Jaxterix
Ron1776 said:
Looks good. You got 5LY on me (among other stuff). I still have some engineering to do but here's my latest:

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A bit better, but I'm also noticing something that you may want to take a look at. You have bigger size thrusters, yet my version is slightly faster. Once you get the lightweight engineering on the life support and the sensors it should help you there. (y)
 

Ron1776

Ron1776
Jaxterix said:
A bit better, but I'm also noticing something that you may want to take a look at. You have bigger size thrusters, yet my version is slightly faster. Once you get the lightweight engineering on the life support and the sensors it should help you there. (y)
Click to expand...
Your numbers are better. Any reason not to drop down a size on my thrusters?
 

Ceekay

Ceekay
Ron1776 said:
Your numbers are better. Any reason not to drop down a size on my thrusters?
Click to expand...
High G planets, if you intend landing on a planet over 4 - 5 G I'd suggest 6D as it's real easy to pancake on landing or struggle to lift off, I'd advise against undersize thrusters for the sake of a few more LY (under 2 LY with 6D)

I landed a Krait on one of the Achenar planets at 9G and the decent from 100 km + out of glide took an age, you really need to land carefully in a slow forward glide as going down on vertical thrusters can slam you into the ground.
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
Every ship in my fleet uses max-class Dirty A-rated thrusters, some with Drags, and those with EPTs use Drive Distributors of course. So I am the wrong commander to offer advice about down-class thrusters. I see why others do it, but don't agree. Speed is life, and as Ceekay pointed out the additional performance can pay off at the most critical times. I dislike D-rated myself. I put them in my DBX, spent an hour engineering them. Flew out of the station, hit boost, looked back over the shoulder and the station was still in the same spot haha. Those Ds didn't make it another hour before they were swapped out and binned. Never again :)

I value speed, jump and cool running. Those last two would benefit from down-class thrusters, but I cannot sacrifice the speed, agility and response the best thrusters provide. Personal choice, but the right one for how I like my ships.

If other thruster classes and engineering fit your vision they are perfectly viable, and there are solid reasons for doing so. Just not for me.
 
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Sensei Jacksama

Sensei Jacksama
Most of my suggestions have already been mentioned but I do have a few extra.
  • get one of the double engineerd FSDs. You'll get an extra 5 LY at least
  • I don't recommend taking off the supercruise assist. If you target a planet with it the SCA will actually orbit it automatically for you and makes DSSing it much easier. Especially when you run across a huge gass giant that takes a minimum of 20-30 probes to fully map.
  • armor up your lightweight armor. It will still weigh 0 but you'll get 30% extra armor.
  • personally I'd get that expanded probe radius up to 5 especially if you plan on DSSing alot but that's up to you.
  • consider using enhanced low power on your shields. It's really not that big of a difference; but if you just want more raw shield strength try equipping a class E shield booster with heavy duty grade 1 + super capacitors. Both modules combined actually weigh less than the reinforced shields and draw less power. EDIT: Sorry I made a mistake my weight calculations. The power math is correct though.
  • you don't need a class 5 cargo rack unless your doing long range trading. Synthesising limpets will only give you 4 at a time so anything higher than class 2 is a waste of space.
  • just my personal preference so take this with a grain of salt; but if you move the power plant up to a class 4 it will make your ship run way way colder than armoring it. You'll honestly only take less than a .5 LY hit to your jump range but you'll have more power and it will run colder.
Edit: if you take off the SCA you could add an additional AFMU. They can't repair themselves so if you want to repair the unit itself you need a second one. Just putting out the option.
 
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Ceekay

Ceekay
Suitable thruster size and grade will vary between ships, a DBX hull is only 10T less than a Krait Phantom so where a 4D grade on a DBX is just workable as the optimal mass is lower (0.95) than a typical explorer build.

However with a 6D grade thruster in a Krait P the optimal mass is almost 2.5 times the explorer equipped mass, that's why a D grade on a DBX flies like a pig in treacle! ;) but a D grade on a Krait P makes it fly like a combat build (almost!)

Also the G5 dirty thruster mod drops the optimal mass on the 4D thruster by around 12.5% not good when you're already below the optimal mass, G5 clean is 10% but probably a lower level mod with stripped down would be better suited to the DBX.

BTW the DBX with 4A and 4 pips to engines is a completely different beast, I've been playing around with this https://s.orbis.zone/d00j recently and it's surprising how capable a PVE combat ship it is
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
Good post Ceekay, and well explained. My die has been cast however. I will only fail to install A-rates on my ships if they come up with something even faster.
 
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