PP for the long trip

[osser]

Power Plant question. So I'm gearing up for a really long trip. (longer than my last)
but my question is should I go low emissions PP or shield it ?
Do we have evidence that a shielded pp works better for long term explorers? or is it better to go low emission?
Thanks for any insight [smile]

 

[AdagioKonrinzai]

Since I am on my first long, long voyage I can say with out doubt go with the Shielded(Armoured). More than once you may drop into a mass of stars even though the star chart says its a red dwarf, he will have some nasty friends waiting right beside him. And you may zig when you should really zag, and unfortunately incur some heat damage. :O There are 3 thing the AFM cannot repair; itself, the hull, and the power plant. This may happen more than once, and since the Auto Field Maintenance Unit cannot repair the Power Plant, you will want something with lots of integrity. Throw on a heat sink if you are concerned about emissions in those rare instances. But since your not going into combat, or boosting every 3 seconds, go with Shielded. IMO.

 

[osser]

Since I am on my first long, long voyage I can say with out doubt go with the Shielded. More than once you may drop into a mass of stars even though the star chart says its a red dwarf, he will have some nasty friends waiting right beside him. And you may zig when you should really zag, and unfortunately incur some heat damage. :O There are 3 thing the AFM cannot repair; itself, the hull, and the power plant. This may happen more than once, and since the Auto Field Maintenance Unit cannot repair the Power Plant, you will want something with lots of integrity. Throw on a heat sink if you are concerned about emissions in those rare instances. But since your not going into combat, or boosting every 3 seconds, go with Shielded. IMO.

Thanks I was thinking along those lines.
however just a bit of my history.. I just got back in May from an 18 month trip.
my hull was @ 79 % and I believe my PP was close to that too.

the thing is what does shielded do for us?

any hard numbers?

what does low emissions do?

???

 

[Jackie Silver]

what does low emissions do?

With a low emissions power plant, your ship runs cooler allowing you to scoop fuel with less worry about heating. The downside is increased mass.

I usually go for a level-one Overcharged modification - have a few tries and I can get one where the secondary benefit outweighs the increase in emissions. I don't pay any attention to the integrity values of modules and usually I find they all "wear" from minor collisions - i.e. dropping roughly out of frameshift from getting too close to something - at roughly the same rate anyway, powerplant included.

(edited to add)

That said, I've never been out for a super-long trip - most I've been away from civilisation is a few months, I think. So I'm curious also to hear what people on really long journeys have experienced.

 

[Kzasch]

I would imagine that the damage incurred from dropping from SC is a percentage based damage (given that different size pp should have different integrity, hitpoints) so there will be no help from armored pp. However, the low emissions pp can give GREAT benefit when you enter a binary-trinary system and start to cook instantly.

I got a system about 10k from Sol if you wanna test a quad entry, took me 2 heatsinks to get away from the aweful gravitywells

 

[Rudi Raumkraut]

I tried a shielded AFMU (+150% integrity) on a 40k trip, and after some emergency drops and such
it was down the same percentage as PP and hull (in the mid 80%s - I'm not really a careful pilot )

It wasnt a real long trip,
but it seems to me that explorers (and their usual accidents) dont benefit from shielded modules...

I would go either with a low-emission PP for better heat management if necessary,
or a overcharged one, as you can take a smaller one to increase jump range

 

[Unuk Elhai]

Like Jackie, I'm not quite sure about the usefulness of the added integrity of an armoured power plant...
Would it really help to take less damage on the power plant during unwanted drops ?
For the low emission mod, it depends on the heat efficiency (mostly when scooping) of your Sidey but i'd say the colder the better.
Also check if the added mass on those mods is worth it

 

[Aura Lorell]

I also run a G1 overcharged in my Anaconda, mainly for the reduced weight (2.5T). The heat footprint increase for this PP is minor (from 0.4 to 0.44) and I have seen no visible effects that would suggest overheating, even when I scoop at maximum rate. I don't like the low emissions because of the decreased power supply and increased mass (I'm on an extreme range Anaconda).

I'm also out on a very long trip and so far it looks fine to run with this configuration. Having said that I'm interested in what people have to say about shielded and/or low emissions power plants.

 

[Edelgard von Rhein]

There are two approaches I take with the PP on an exploration vessel:
1) Take the lightest PP that meets the ship's power requirements
2) If the power requirements are easily met by the lowest class A-rated PP (as often happens with 2A PP on small ships), then reroll grade 1 shielded until achieving a result that improves heat efficiency as well. If power requirements are very slightly short, then rerolling grade 1 shielded until a power capacity bonus occurs is also an option.
.
In case 2), it is also possible, albeit rare, to have a reduced mass from a secondary effect. I have yet to get a roll that improves heat efficiency and power capacity whilst also reducing mass, though - I have several power plants on small ships with two of those three.
.
I find that for larger exploration ships, I need to overcharge a downsized PP for best results. How much overcharge depends on what other equipment the ship needs to run with. My Python currently runs grade 2 overcharged, whilst my Anaconda uses grade 3 and my Corvette grade 5 (a grade 3 or 4 would have been possible with favourable secondary effects but I didn't have favourable rolls so just went for a grade 5; she runs hot but scoops so quickly with a class 7 fuel scoop that overheating is only a problem if I get tired and misjudge when I engage the FSD).

 

[AdagioKonrinzai]

The post from CMDR's bring up some good points. What type of ship do you plan to take out into the deep? Each ship has it's own quirks. Myself, I took out a Type7, to do deep space exploration and mining. So, I did no planetary landings, but dropped into metallic rings to do some mining. That, requires it's own special setup. I can speak from experience about making anything lightweight, it comes with risks. Since, I am coming back with cargo, I need to bring along some mines for npc's pirates once i'm close to the bubble. I made my mine launchers lightweight, and they always take the most damage, even when not deployed. The class and rating of PP you start with does matter, like one CMDR said, a G1 overcharge on a sturdy PP is better that a G5 armored on a flimsy PP.