Returning player, new ship, more engineers... Where to start???

SmashBrown

SmashBrown
Greetings all!!

Recently picked up ED again... it's ok, life in the bubble is still....meh.....
So I'm headed back out to the black, and decided to swap out the AspX for a phantom, more importantly... THIS PHANTOM!!! (critique wanted)

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone s.orbis.zone

However, I only have a few engineers unlocked, so I am going to have to engage in the incredibly intricate and totally not tedious task of unlocking engineers and grin...sorry... gathering materials (see screenshot for my mighty list of engineers: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1939275080

Also the hefty list of crap I am going to have to gather:
Specialised Legacy Firmware: 8
Mechanical Equipment: 2
Chromium: 8
Mechanical Components: 4
Configurable Components: 4
Modified Consumer Firmware: 4
Selenium: 8
Cadmium: 20
Cracked Industrial Firmware: 10
Pharmaceutical Isolators: 10
Atypical Disrupted Wake Echoes: 4
Chemical Processors: 6
Phosphorus: 20
Strange Wake Solutions: 4
Chemical Distillery: 4
Eccentric Hyperspace Trajectories: 4
Manganese: 32
Arsenic: 20
Chemical Manipulators: 10
Datamined Wake Exceptions: 10
Worn Shield Emitters: 2
Carbon: 14
Shield Emitters: 12
High Density Composites: 8
Proprietary Composites: 8
Shielding Sensors: 8
Vanadium: 8
Compound Shielding: 20
Core Dynamics Composites: 20
Tungsten: 20
Flawed Focus Crystals: 6
Open Symmetric Keys: 4
Atypical Encryption Archives: 4
Focus Crystals: 4
Adaptive Encryptors Capture: 10
Refined Focus Crystals: 10
Salvaged Alloys: 24
Conductive Ceramics: 26
Conductive Components: 6
Phase Alloys: 4
Proto Light Alloys: 14
Proto Radiolic Alloys: 10
Sulphur: 4
Anomalous Bulk Scan Data: 4
Electrochemical Arrays: 4
Unidentified Scan Archives: 4
Polymer Capacitors: 4
Classified Scan Databanks: 10
Military Supercapacitors: 10
Distorted Shield Cycle Recordings: 8
Germanium: 6
Precipitated Alloys: 4
Inconsistent Shield Soak Analysis: 4
Niobium: 4
Thermic Alloys: 4
Military Grade Alloys: 10
Tin: 10
Untypical Shield Scans: 10


So, with all that out the way with, can anyone recommend any up to date material gathering guides?
I am assuming any way to get the materials at a decent rate that I once knew of that doesn cause my brain to melt with boredom has been nerfed by Fdev, as is their want to seemingly stretch out any finish line to a players goals.

What do you think of the fit?
Would you do anything different?
I have considered putting in a research limpet controller and corrosive resistant cargo rack, but no sure if there is any point tbh.
Are Clean drives really that much better for exploration, doing a quikc google, the general concencus is that they barely make any difference to temps?

How long is it going to take me (roughly) to unlock all the other engineers I need for this build (2-4 hours of time to play every other day)?

I will also need to unlock the guardian blueprint for the fsd, but have been told that it isn't to bad of an experience.
I haven't explored since just after neutron stars got their whacky inflatable arms so I am fairly out of the loop, I've seen there are soom nifty looking lagrange clouds, anything else I am unaware of?
This post sounds really negative.... well I like exploration in Elite, it's cool! See, positivity!!!

Edited ship fit and materials.
 
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iain666

iain666
Check out the material traders (you can find your nearest ones on inara easily) which makes it a lot easier to get the mats you're after by trading the ones you're not. I tend to get data/manufactured materials by killing people, and being able to easily find volcanic sites now you can generally get the raw quicker than aimlessly wandering around in the SRV.

Mass manager is slightly better than Deep Charge for your FSD (class 4 is the largest where Deep Charge is a bigger range boost).

I'd lose the pulse laser and one heat sink launcher (you can synthesise refills so there's no need for two) then you could drop to a 3A power plant.
 

SmashBrown

SmashBrown
iain666 said:
Check out the material traders (you can find your nearest ones on inara easily) which makes it a lot easier to get the mats you're after by trading the ones you're not. I tend to get data/manufactured materials by killing people, and being able to easily find volcanic sites now you can generally get the raw quicker than aimlessly wandering around in the SRV.

Mass manager is slightly better than Deep Charge for your FSD (class 4 is the largest where Deep Charge is a bigger range boost).

I'd lose the pulse laser and one heat sink launcher (you can synthesise refills so there's no need for two) then you could drop to a 3A power plant.
Click to expand...

Dont you need some random rubbish material in your cargo for heatsink refills?
 

iain666

iain666
You do need stuff, and you can't get it in the black but it's weightless mats, not cargo (2x basic conductors + 2x heat conduction wiring for the basic reload) so with the material trader you can easily make sure you've got a dozen reloads before you head out into the black.
 

Darth Wonko

Darth Wonko
I just did about 100kly in an AspX and have recently built a Phantom with similar stats. Here are my two cents:

  • I don't think you need a dual-bay SRV hangar... I didn't seem to land all that often, so it wasn't a big deal for me.
  • You can drop those thrusters down to a 6D or 5D and save some weight and pick up a little more range
  • You can also get a little weight off by changing the Power Distributor from 3A to 4D (or 3D if you think you can get away with it)
  • I don't think you need the second heat sink launcher
  • A mining laser won't do you much good without a refinery, will it? (Maybe the raw mats don't need it? I don't recall)

But, I do like the Phantom. I'm currently building a DBX for the Perseus Reach Expedition and am running around trying to get the right blueprints pinned for the Colonia-based engineers. The Phantom is currently being refitted every time I need it to do something different, but I like flying it.
 

SmashBrown

SmashBrown
So what's everyone's opinion on clean v dirty drives for exploration? Do they affect supercruise temps? Will it really benefit me that much over having more speed to zip around planets and have fun?
 

Orvidius

Orvidius
Dirty uses just a hair less power, so will be slightly cooler in supercruise. But the difference is negligible, particularly in comparison to the Power Plant's heat efficiency. You'll want to consider that first and foremost, if you want to run cool in supercruise. Second to that, you'll want to see what you can turn off when not in use, or consider using lower grade modules (such as undersizing the thrusters) to save on power used.

Since the difference between Clean and Dirty is very tiny when in supercruise, you should choose based on how you want the ship to perform while on thrusters (in normal space, not supercruise). Clean will do a lot better in hot environments, from an overheating perspective, but some ships have such good thermal management that Dirty will work just fine even in those hot environments. The rest of the time, Dirty is usually just fine.
 

Ashnak

Ashnak
How important are those final 10 m/s real space speed to you? You could gain another ~3 ly range in exchange by going down to 5A thrusters. And with those thrusters, I'd also opt for somewhat stronger shields. This is my (untested - I'm out since a while ago, in a less than optimzed Dolphin) take on the Phantom. Shields and boosters, since you never know what could happen. Only one AFMU (you can always reboot that one back into serviceability) and a fuel transfer limpet controller, just in case I need to rescue another explorer. The laser to prod stuff and see how it reacts.

On the other hand, I could also sympathize with a Krait Mk.II, and carry a fighter hangar instead of that fuel transfer controller (just for fun on planets). Unfortunately, that (together with the 6A thrusters) drops the jump range to 50-ish ly.

On the third hand, a Dolphin (with a comparable loadout) will do 55-ish ly (with 2 SRVs) and can land on a folded tea towel.

The A-rated life support? You still can't repair a blown canopy - but nowadays, you can synthesize life support stuff. And 25 minutes between recharges will get you a lot further than 5 minutes between recharges.

But all of that is (for me) idle talk - by the time I get back to the bubble and will have to decide on which ship to take out next, Fleet Carriers may have arrived, and the answer to that question would then be "all of them" 😁.
 

SmashBrown

SmashBrown
Ashnak said:
How important are those final 10 m/s real space speed to you? You could gain another ~3 ly range in exchange by going down to 5A thrusters. And with those thrusters, I'd also opt for somewhat stronger shields. This is my (untested - I'm out since a while ago, in a less than optimzed Dolphin) take on the Phantom. Shields and boosters, since you never know what could happen. Only one AFMU (you can always reboot that one back into serviceability) and a fuel transfer limpet controller, just in case I need to rescue another explorer. The laser to prod stuff and see how it reacts.

On the other hand, I could also sympathize with a Krait Mk.II, and carry a fighter hangar instead of that fuel transfer controller (just for fun on planets). Unfortunately, that (together with the 6A thrusters) drops the jump range to 50-ish ly.

On the third hand, a Dolphin (with a comparable loadout) will do 55-ish ly (with 2 SRVs) and can land on a folded tea towel.

The A-rated life support? You still can't repair a blown canopy - but nowadays, you can synthesize life support stuff. And 25 minutes between recharges will get you a lot further than 5 minutes between recharges.

But all of that is (for me) idle talk - by the time I get back to the bubble and will have to decide on which ship to take out next, Fleet Carriers may have arrived, and the answer to that question would then be "all of them" 😁.
Click to expand...

I have actually gone for this build now:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone s.orbis.zone
 
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