UPDATED: Putting on a clinic -- outfitting, engineering, and planning to be an explorer
VERSION 1.1
I was way into engineering and tinkering with ship builds before I got into exploring. Now that I am back from my second major deep space survey, I'd like to share some of my thoughts on how design exploration ships at a range of budgets and experience levels.
ENTRY LEVEL EXPLORING:
I'm not going to cover the early game of exploring in great detail as Beck has a full-up 'Zero to Hero' guide with lots of useful life hacks that I wish I had read up on when I was just starting out. The only thing I would add is that you can outfit Hauler with a respectable unengineered 30 light year jump range for just over 2.1 mil CR. Just grind exploration data until you unlock Felicity Farseer and build up 15 mil in cash flow. Don't worry about getting first discoveries at this point -- there will be plenty of time for that soon -- you should just focus on working out an efficient honk/scan/flight technique.
LET'S GET SERIOUS:
Before you buy your first exploration ship, you need to gather 12-15 (4-5 drops) of the following engineering materials:
Surface prospecting:
Arsenic
Iron
Phosphorus
Manganese
Ship salvage:
Chemical manipulators
Chemical distillery
Conductive ceramics
Conductive components
Salvaged alloys
Flawed focus crystals
Data:
Datamined wake exceptions
Specialized legacy firmware
Open symmetric keys
Now its time to buy and mod-up your first deep space explorer -- two of the best and most reasonably priced ships for heading out into the black are the Diamondback Explorer and the Asp Explorer (notional DBX or AspX builds). The DBX has a slightly better range, but I prefer the AspX because it can fit a bigger thrusters and fuel scoops. While topline speed doesn't really matter in supercruise -- and you will be spending 95% of your time in supercruise -- bigger thrusters will give you a better turning rate. The larger fuel scoop doesn't really need an explanation -- the less time you have to spend scooping, the more time you will have for exploring.
One thing I would note about both of my notional builds is that each is fitted with the smallest power distributor, so you won't be able to boost -- but like I said, you will be spending most of your time in supercruise where you can't use it. You need to be careful landing on high-g planets, but you will have enough topline speed to get off them without use of boost.
Head over to Felicity Farseer and fit the following core mods on your ship:
Power Plant: G1 Low Emissions
This goal with this mod is to reduce your PP's thermal load while picking up either mass reduction or boost in power output as a secondary effect -- depending on what your power budget and jump range look like.
FSD: G5 Increased range
No need for explanation here except to say that increases to your optimal mass almost always give you more range than the increase to FSD mass will take away from it.
Sensors: G3 Lightweight
This only applies to the AspX as the DBX's sensors are already very light.
In addition, I recommend two 'quality of life' mods:
Thrusters: G3 Clean drive tuning
This will give your D class thrusters the turning rate of A class thrusters. It will also reduce your thrusters' thermal load, though the effect is mitigated somewhat by the heat generated by the mod's increased power draw (see this thread for a more in-depth discussion).
Detailed Surface Scanner: G3 Long range or Fast scan
There is also some debate over which of these two mods is better. Long range scales with the minimum scan distance of the object you are targeting, so if you like scanning smaller objects (Earth-sized planets, moons, neutron stars and black holes), you would probably benefit more from fast scan. Some of this will also depend on your piloting style, so I'd recommend giving your modded DSS a quick shakedown run before heading out into the black.
If you've only just unlocked Felicity, I'd recommend doing your rolls in the following order:
G1 low emission power plant --> as many G2 fast scan DSS rolls as you need to unlock G3 mods -- G3 long range or fast scan and clean drive tuning --> as many G4 increased FSD range rolls as you need to unlock G5 mods --> G5 increased FSD range
One final thing I would note about my notional builds is that they are not equipped with AFMUs. There are enough outposts with repair services in the near-black nowadats that you shouldn't need them if you are only going 5000-7000 light years out. If you plan on going out farther than that -- 10,000 light years or more -- you should equip at least one AFMU to repair the damage from occasional bumps and bruises. A careful explorer will fit two -- a large one to repair modules and smaller on the repair the larger one as necessary.
Expedition planning at this point is in your hands at this point. One recommendation I give to new explorers is to pick a point of interest at least 5000 light years outside the Bubble (like the Crescent or Statue of Liberty Nebula) and spend a few weeks wandering out there and back. This will help you unlock Professor Palin and, if you are thorough, leave you with a couple of million CR in the bank. Make sure to sell at least 10 million CR of data in a Sirius Corp-controlled station to obtain the Sirius system permit (which you need to unlock Marco Qwent).
TIME TO GRADUATE
After that first serious trip out into the black, I'd recommend spending some time unlocking the Dweller (G5 power distributor mods), Lei Chung (G5 sensor, DSS and shield mods), Professor Palin (G5 thruster mods) and, ideally, Lori Jameson (G5 sensors, DSS, and life support mods) as they will help you tweak your ship's performance even more. Once you have Lei Cheung unlocked, I would strongly recommend putting an Enhanced Low Power mod on your shields as this will reduce their mass and power draw. The only thing I would flag with this mod is that it also reduces your shields' optimal mass and if that figure dips to far below your ship's dry mass (without fuel), your shields won't work. In my experience, you can put a G5 mod on a Class A shield, but be careful putting more than a G2 or G3 mod on a D class shield.
Since you need to unlock the Dweller en route to the Lei Cheung, I would also recommend using this opportunity to think about your power distributor setup. If you stick with the 1D distributor, I'd recommend rolling the G1 systems-focused mod until you get reduced mass or power draw as a secondary effect. This will have the added benefit of decreasing the amount of throttling your will experience recharging your shields once the capacitor is fully drained. If you want to fit a distributor that is large enough for boosting, a G3 engine-focused mod or G5 high charge capacity mod should allow you to fit a D class power distributor that is one size smaller than D class thrusters (e.g. 5D distributor for 6D thrusters).
At this point, you now have all of the tools and resources needed to do your own thing. For those interested in upgrading into an Exploraconda, you will need about 200 million in the bank to afford the ship and requisite modules. You will need to mod a larger FSD, thrusters and (probably) power plant, but you should be able to harvest the modded shields, distributor and scanner from a modded DBX or AspX. This is a bit of a controversial opinion, but I strongly recommend pursuing the G5 clean drive tuning mod as the Exploraconda's base turning rate and topline speed aren't great.
Now you should be ready to head out to the galactic core and beyond. I hope this was useful -- let me know what you think.
VERSION 1.1
I was way into engineering and tinkering with ship builds before I got into exploring. Now that I am back from my second major deep space survey, I'd like to share some of my thoughts on how design exploration ships at a range of budgets and experience levels.
ENTRY LEVEL EXPLORING:
I'm not going to cover the early game of exploring in great detail as Beck has a full-up 'Zero to Hero' guide with lots of useful life hacks that I wish I had read up on when I was just starting out. The only thing I would add is that you can outfit Hauler with a respectable unengineered 30 light year jump range for just over 2.1 mil CR. Just grind exploration data until you unlock Felicity Farseer and build up 15 mil in cash flow. Don't worry about getting first discoveries at this point -- there will be plenty of time for that soon -- you should just focus on working out an efficient honk/scan/flight technique.
LET'S GET SERIOUS:
Before you buy your first exploration ship, you need to gather 12-15 (4-5 drops) of the following engineering materials:
Surface prospecting:
Arsenic
Iron
Phosphorus
Manganese
Ship salvage:
Chemical manipulators
Chemical distillery
Conductive ceramics
Conductive components
Salvaged alloys
Flawed focus crystals
Data:
Datamined wake exceptions
Specialized legacy firmware
Open symmetric keys
Now its time to buy and mod-up your first deep space explorer -- two of the best and most reasonably priced ships for heading out into the black are the Diamondback Explorer and the Asp Explorer (notional DBX or AspX builds). The DBX has a slightly better range, but I prefer the AspX because it can fit a bigger thrusters and fuel scoops. While topline speed doesn't really matter in supercruise -- and you will be spending 95% of your time in supercruise -- bigger thrusters will give you a better turning rate. The larger fuel scoop doesn't really need an explanation -- the less time you have to spend scooping, the more time you will have for exploring.
One thing I would note about both of my notional builds is that each is fitted with the smallest power distributor, so you won't be able to boost -- but like I said, you will be spending most of your time in supercruise where you can't use it. You need to be careful landing on high-g planets, but you will have enough topline speed to get off them without use of boost.
Head over to Felicity Farseer and fit the following core mods on your ship:
Power Plant: G1 Low Emissions
This goal with this mod is to reduce your PP's thermal load while picking up either mass reduction or boost in power output as a secondary effect -- depending on what your power budget and jump range look like.
FSD: G5 Increased range
No need for explanation here except to say that increases to your optimal mass almost always give you more range than the increase to FSD mass will take away from it.
Sensors: G3 Lightweight
This only applies to the AspX as the DBX's sensors are already very light.
In addition, I recommend two 'quality of life' mods:
Thrusters: G3 Clean drive tuning
This will give your D class thrusters the turning rate of A class thrusters. It will also reduce your thrusters' thermal load, though the effect is mitigated somewhat by the heat generated by the mod's increased power draw (see this thread for a more in-depth discussion).
Detailed Surface Scanner: G3 Long range or Fast scan
There is also some debate over which of these two mods is better. Long range scales with the minimum scan distance of the object you are targeting, so if you like scanning smaller objects (Earth-sized planets, moons, neutron stars and black holes), you would probably benefit more from fast scan. Some of this will also depend on your piloting style, so I'd recommend giving your modded DSS a quick shakedown run before heading out into the black.
If you've only just unlocked Felicity, I'd recommend doing your rolls in the following order:
G1 low emission power plant --> as many G2 fast scan DSS rolls as you need to unlock G3 mods -- G3 long range or fast scan and clean drive tuning --> as many G4 increased FSD range rolls as you need to unlock G5 mods --> G5 increased FSD range
One final thing I would note about my notional builds is that they are not equipped with AFMUs. There are enough outposts with repair services in the near-black nowadats that you shouldn't need them if you are only going 5000-7000 light years out. If you plan on going out farther than that -- 10,000 light years or more -- you should equip at least one AFMU to repair the damage from occasional bumps and bruises. A careful explorer will fit two -- a large one to repair modules and smaller on the repair the larger one as necessary.
Expedition planning at this point is in your hands at this point. One recommendation I give to new explorers is to pick a point of interest at least 5000 light years outside the Bubble (like the Crescent or Statue of Liberty Nebula) and spend a few weeks wandering out there and back. This will help you unlock Professor Palin and, if you are thorough, leave you with a couple of million CR in the bank. Make sure to sell at least 10 million CR of data in a Sirius Corp-controlled station to obtain the Sirius system permit (which you need to unlock Marco Qwent).
TIME TO GRADUATE
After that first serious trip out into the black, I'd recommend spending some time unlocking the Dweller (G5 power distributor mods), Lei Chung (G5 sensor, DSS and shield mods), Professor Palin (G5 thruster mods) and, ideally, Lori Jameson (G5 sensors, DSS, and life support mods) as they will help you tweak your ship's performance even more. Once you have Lei Cheung unlocked, I would strongly recommend putting an Enhanced Low Power mod on your shields as this will reduce their mass and power draw. The only thing I would flag with this mod is that it also reduces your shields' optimal mass and if that figure dips to far below your ship's dry mass (without fuel), your shields won't work. In my experience, you can put a G5 mod on a Class A shield, but be careful putting more than a G2 or G3 mod on a D class shield.
Since you need to unlock the Dweller en route to the Lei Cheung, I would also recommend using this opportunity to think about your power distributor setup. If you stick with the 1D distributor, I'd recommend rolling the G1 systems-focused mod until you get reduced mass or power draw as a secondary effect. This will have the added benefit of decreasing the amount of throttling your will experience recharging your shields once the capacitor is fully drained. If you want to fit a distributor that is large enough for boosting, a G3 engine-focused mod or G5 high charge capacity mod should allow you to fit a D class power distributor that is one size smaller than D class thrusters (e.g. 5D distributor for 6D thrusters).
At this point, you now have all of the tools and resources needed to do your own thing. For those interested in upgrading into an Exploraconda, you will need about 200 million in the bank to afford the ship and requisite modules. You will need to mod a larger FSD, thrusters and (probably) power plant, but you should be able to harvest the modded shields, distributor and scanner from a modded DBX or AspX. This is a bit of a controversial opinion, but I strongly recommend pursuing the G5 clean drive tuning mod as the Exploraconda's base turning rate and topline speed aren't great.
Now you should be ready to head out to the galactic core and beyond. I hope this was useful -- let me know what you think.
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