Power management while exploring (armored or low emissions?)

[Der Guator]

To those experienced with longer explorations: How important is it to have at least your thrusters+fsd in the 40%? I can only imagine the power plant to become severely damaged when dropping out of super cruise in a relativistic jet.

I thought about changing from armored to low emissions because of the improved scooping time. But I don't want to sacrifice too much jump range by going 1 power plant size bigger which would be needed to have all essential modules in the 40% (my ship is small so additional mass has more effect on jump range).

 

[Dillon Fallon]

50%.

40% is the drop from a malfunction. If you break your PP you get a drop to 20% for a few seconds then it stabilises at 50%.

Since you need to have sensors, drives, FSD and life support all working to get home I'd imagine the safe option is whatever allows you to keep those modules above that line.

Assuming you think you might get into that situation of course.

 

[Der Guator]

Assuming you think you might get into that situation of course.

That's it - in more than 2000 hours I accidentally dropped inside an exclusion zone maybe less than 10 times and I never supercharge at dangerous white dwarfs.

I thought the convenience factor of being able to scoop full and engage fsd within the cool down time at every star outweighs the very little danger of getting stranded because of greedy power management

 

[Der Guator]

I so much hope at some point they give us a way to fix our power plant.

 

[varonica]

That's it - in more than 2000 hours I accidentally dropped inside an exclusion zone maybe less than 10 times and I never supercharge at dangerous white dwarfs.

I thought the convenience factor of being able to scoop full and engage fsd within the cool down time at every star outweighs the very little danger of getting stranded because of greedy power management

I went around the galaxy and never had any issue with PP in my Phantom, 4A overcharged, stripped down. 300kly on a single run and no issues at all.

 

[Morbad]

Strictly speaking, in pure survival terms, the absolute minimum needed to navigate are thrusters and FSD, because the FSD doesn't work without thrusters. Life support is a less strict requirement, because of synthesis, but is certainly nice to have. Sensors are needed to request docking permission, but you can always shut something else off to power them for this momentarily.

Unless you are getting shot at or are extremely reckless, PP integrity should not be an issue.

However, heat shouldn't be an issue with scooping times either, unless you are using a combination of hotter ship and smaller/weaker scoop that forces you to linger to scoop.

 

[Der Guator]

However, heat shouldn't be an issue with scooping times either, unless you are using a combination of hotter ship and smaller/weaker scoop that forces you to linger to scoop.

That's actually the point. I can only fit a scoop the same size as my fsd and at the moment I can BARELY scoop full and engage fsd inside the cooldown time without overheating and it doesn't work at bigger stars like giants and supergiants that force a slow down.

From my trips so far with more than 100 jumps I have made the experience that it is really a good feeling to be able to jump in the minimum required time and not having to 'linger'.

 

[Alkibiades]

If you break your PP

I cannot stop laughing.......

There should be more carriers out there. Or more cgs that give us repairstations in the black that require h2 as fuel so deep black mining becomes a thing.

 

[Dillon Fallon]

I cannot stop laughing.......

 

[Der Guator]

I cannot stop laughing.......

Yes that obvious associoatiom also always gets me

There should be more carriers out there. Or more cgs that give us repairstations in the black that require h2 as fuel so deep black mining becomes a thing.

Agree and not agree I'd like space to become even more dangerous and it still has to feel empty and alone when out exploring and not like there is a gas station around each corner.

But I also like to have more stuff to do out there. I even like the idea of doing mining out in space for whatever reason and I have a ship for that.

 

[varonica]

That's actually the point. I can only fit a scoop the same size as my fsd and at the moment I can BARELY scoop full and engage fsd inside the cooldown time without overheating and it doesn't work at bigger stars like giants and supergiants that force a slow down.

From my trips so far with more than 100 jumps I have made the experience that it is really a good feeling to be able to jump in the minimum required time and not having to 'linger'.

You can put in a fuel scoop as large as your largest module slot, you may have to compromise on other stuff to do so, but on every explorer ship I use that's the one minimum requirement, the largest fuel scoop I can fit!

 

[Der Guator]

You can put in a fuel scoop as large as your largest module slot, you may have to compromise on other stuff to do so, but on every explorer ship I use that's the one minimum requirement, the largest fuel scoop I can fit!

Yes I am aware of this but there are some ships that just don't have the optional slot for this. I fly a Cobra for everything related to exploration so 4A is the maximum scoop I can fit.

I agree though that you should always use the largest scoop possible in ships that are built for traveling long distances. Same size as fsd is still ok, one size larger is convenient and everything even bigger is luxus but I would probably never fly a DBX for exploration...

 

[virosh]

Yes I am aware of this but there are some ships that just don't have the optional slot for this. I fly a Cobra for everything related to exploration so 4A is the maximum scoop I can fit.

I agree though that you should always use the largest scoop possible in ships that are built for traveling long distances. Same size as fsd is still ok, one size larger is convenient and everything even bigger is luxus but I would probably never fly a DBX for exploration...

"Never say never!"
I used to think like you that i will never fly a DBX due to the small fuel scoop, but i need to say that i am currently in one, out in the dark and i am having a lot's of fun flying it.
It's one hell of a ship for exploration.

 

[Shir]

Nowadays there are DSSA carriers pretty much all over the galaxy, so the dangers of exploring are significantly less severe, you are fine with a single AFMU. In emergencies you can reach a close by carrier just with frame drive, thrusters and life support. Even if your canopy is shot you can synth life support numerous times if you have mats. So these three are enough, and when you drop next to the carrier you disable your frame drive and turn sensors on to land.

When going really far away i would pick an Anaconda, 4 srvs, 2 afmus, cargo and repair limpets.. These days its a DBX explorer with a single afmu, great maneuverability, i even carry guns and a decent shield just for variety gameplay when in populated far away systems.

 

[Der Guator]

"Never say never!"
I used to think like you that i will never fly a DBX due to the small fuel scoop, but i need to say that i am currently in one, out in the dark and i am having a lot's of fun flying it.
It's one hell of a ship for exploration.

I bet as cool as it runs you don't need to care about overheating when charging fsd while scooping anyway.

After all, at least for me, it is how the ship feels and looks what's most important

 

[virosh]

I bet as cool as it runs you don't need to care about overheating when charging fsd while scooping anyway.

After all, at least for me, it is how the ship feels and looks what's most important

Well, i never do that. My DBX runs cool, but i doubt it's cool enough for that.

 

[varonica]

Yes I am aware of this but there are some ships that just don't have the optional slot for this. I fly a Cobra for everything related to exploration so 4A is the maximum scoop I can fit.

I agree though that you should always use the largest scoop possible in ships that are built for traveling long distances. Same size as fsd is still ok, one size larger is convenient and everything even bigger is luxus but I would probably never fly a DBX for exploration...

The other thing is tuning your fuel tank size to the jump range of your ship, my fuel tank in the Phantom will take just enough fuel for 3 maximum range jumps, any more than tha and you are carrying unnecessary weight, also I never jump while scooping simply because by the time I have rounded the star to bring my next target in jump position I have finished scooping anyway, There's a sweet spot with every ship, apart from a couple of minor engineering tweaks I haven't bothered with because they won't really add much this Phantom is perfect.

 

[Christopher Roberto]

To those experienced with longer explorations: How important is it to have at least your thrusters+fsd in the 40%? I can only imagine the power plant to become severely damaged when dropping out of super cruise in a relativistic jet.

On ships I bother to do it on, I put thrusters, FSD, and heat sink launcher within 40%. That's enough to survive. Before you use a survival build for real, practice by emergency dropping in a white dwarf around the bubble so you don't discover things you forgot the hard way.

 

[Stealthie]

Strictly speaking, in pure survival terms, the absolute minimum needed to navigate are thrusters and FSD, because the FSD doesn't work without thrusters.

You sure about that?

One of my luckiest escapes was after having my thrusters disabled I was able to engage my FSD while spinning out of control.
Can't recall if I jumped into SC or to a different system but I definitely engaged my FSD after my thrusters were disabled.
IIRC, I'd just boosted when my thrusters got disabled so I still had plenty of speed even though my thrusters were offline.
Dunno if that's what allowed me to engage my FSD.


On topic, I've always just gone with the smallest viable PP (A-rated,overcharged/thermal spread) when exploring and I've never once had cause to wish I'd done differently.
I realise that, hypothetically, other options are more robust but in practice it's never been an issue.

 

[varonica]

You sure about that?

It used to be if you disabled or tried to repair thrusters during SC you would crash out of SC, I suggest checking that behaviour and see if it has changed.