Reasonably priced combat-explorer vessel you say...

Well, the diamondback is confirmed as part-explorer. The courier is 'fast multi-purpose.' It looks like a light chassis, and maneuverable. It will almost certainly have good jump range (that's governed by hull mass vs FSD class). I am willing to bet it will be better than the clipper for exploration, and probably have between adder and t6 jump range, if stripped down. It might have a smallish tank, but you will be able to carry extra fuel in 1.3.
 
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Personally I've always found jump-range to be over-rated in an explorer vessel. It's handy to have around 30LY that'll get you across any breaks when crossing the arms, but that's rare.

Massive jump ranges are convenient for getting somewhere fast (which isn't necessarily the point of exploring) and doing 'extreme' missions to the rim. Which is fair enough.
 
I am still waiting for luxury, good looking (like a sport car) exploration vessel with huge FSD range and fast in normal speed. I though Courier will be that one.. but combat/exploration role is assigned to Diamondback.

Diamondback have nice x-wing cockpit, but outside it looks like another worker-lakon (i do not like lakon canopies on front in ship, i prefere bridges like in FDL or Anaconda).

I cant wait 1.3 and both, new interesting ships.

Keep the luxury for rich tourists and oligarch's yachts, please :)

I, for one, LOVE the Lakon's approach to ship design, which really translates to - no design at all. They just make them tough, rough and functional, like it should be IMO. It's a matter of personal taste I suppose - to me FDL looks like a plastic toy for kids, even more than the Clipper.
 
I agree, I love the Lakon aesthetic a lot more than other manufacturers (although Falcon Delacy is pretty nifty too). Lakon makes big rigs and military jeeps. Zargon Peterson makes like ... hondas. The empire makes shiny ferraris.
 
I think the jump range will be a little higher than the Asp and a little lower than Anaconda. Here's why:

If you set up all of the ships for exploration there is a steady progression adding ~2 light years in jump range. The only big gap in jump range is between the Asp and Anaconda. The Diamondback could be the missing link that fills the gap in the jump-range progression curve. If my theory is correct, then "reasonably priced" would also mean between an Anacaonda and Asp. I am guessing 15-30 Million.
 
A ship that can jump 50 or 60ly -massive FSD-, medium shield, 2 small hardpoints, medium scoop, 16 tons cargo, small sized. 8 MM. This would be a dream for explorers.
Sounds more like a nightmare to me. Even with the current jump range ships, there's virtually nothing of interest (*) left to discover. Give us a 60 LY range and what is currently left will be tagged within a couple of weeks. Large jump distances may make sight-seeing easier but they don't do anything for actual exploration and, if anything, makes it worse for the vast majority of players.

* - ie something out of the ordinary that can be found other than pure chance.
 
Yeah, a greater jump range isn't the end-all-be-all of exploring. Right now it seems that way because exploring to many is all about firsts and distances. But that's not exploring, that's record breaking. An explorer could spend a month just checking every single star in a single set of grid coordinates. He's no less an explorer.

That's part of the reason why on my guess for what the diamondback will be I not only mentioned a lower jump range than an Asp (I'm guessing 30LY tops) but to keep an eye on how many internal slots it'll have. Since right now all you need is a Disco scanner, a DSS and a fuel scoop, if the Diamondback ends up having, say, 7 slots like an Asp, and many of them are small, it might be fair to say that there are future explorer based components planned that might use those slots up. Perhaps in connection to planetary landings, or perhaps additional scanning equipment of some unknown variety.

If the ship had lots of large components, then it would be useful as a trader, and it's clearly not supposed to be. However, it will need a large slot for a decent fuel scoop, and probably an equally large one for shields if it's going to be a fighter/explorer (unless it's meant to be used as an "either/or" capacity and not both simultaneously).

But after that? The slots could all be 2 or lower. I'll be curious to see what it's going to have going on inside.
 
30 LY? We already have a reasonably priced combat/explorer/trade ship that can go that distance and bring several tones of cargo space with it: the Asp. Also if it's a small ship then every ton will matter, so when you outfit it for range and scanning the jump should be at least 35-36LY.
 
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It'll be the most reasonably-priced combat explorer... In the world.

I hope we can get people like Isinona, Derath, Angel Rose, Trogg the BH and others to do a lap out to Sag A and back in it... "Star in a reasonably priced Combat-Explorer" has a nice ring to it! ;)

Edit: my Asp does 31.5Ly on a full tank and I haven't found that limiting. Yet. And I'm about 16kylies from Phekda.

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Haha, not just me then. I can't stand how the Clipper and FdL look, kinder egg specials.

I, for one, LOVE the Lakon's approach to ship design, which really translates to - no design at all. They just make them tough, rough and functional, like it should be IMO. To me FDL looks like a plastic toy for kids, even more than the Clipper.
 
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I think the jump range will be a little higher than the Asp and a little lower than Anaconda. Here's why:

If you set up all of the ships for exploration there is a steady progression adding ~2 light years in jump range. The only big gap in jump range is between the Asp and Anaconda. The Diamondback could be the missing link that fills the gap in the jump-range progression curve. If my theory is correct, then "reasonably priced" would also mean between an Anacaonda and Asp. I am guessing 15-30 Million.

I agree with this. This is the clipper/t7 price range where this will fit perfectly (t7 is a pure trader, clipper is a trader/combat hybrid). I am crossing fingers for maneuverability higher than 6 too (because low cargo). But I am kind of crazy, apparently, for wanting that in an explorer ship -- no one else seems to care :).
 
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well i do care :p i'm waiting for this ship, and a price between 15-30 millions would be exactly what i want, but i'm afraid about the size, medium would be perfect.
 
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