Rookie question: weapons on exploration ships?

[Vonn]

Howdy folks. I'm returning to Elite, having played for a bit right after launch but only for a few months back then.

I managed to work my way up to a Cobra Mk III which I'm planning to refit for exploration to use until I can earn enough to afford a ship with better range. My question's pretty simple - should I equip any weapons at all on this ship, at least when I'm making exploration runs? I expect for the near future I'll be operating in or on the edges of the bubble as I get connected with the engineers and practice my skills.

 

[Cmdr Nemo]

Depends on you, and your personal ideology of just what exploring means. Though the range would be extremely low; The largest ship, loaded out and completely engineered to the max for combat, can go exploring any time one wishes. Removing almost anything, improves the range. Thus what is most important to your concept of what exploring involves.

There are those that will disagree, but with the exception of leaving the bubble to ascertain a request by an engineer. Though only Fdev would know the number's, I'd wager that the over whelming vast majority of cmdr's don't utilize the eco routeing option as I do. Though I've never accepted any of the discoveries I've come across, they are still discoveries to be made in the bubble.

A Conda can be loaded out and engineered to get somewhere around 76 ly's per jump. But, it pretty much can't do anything else, except make long jumps. Thus again, what is your idea of exploring, choose a ship and have at it.

 

[MiloGreenRanger]

Welcome back, CMDR.

The general wisdom is no, for exploration you don't need weapons. Unless you are specifically looking for a fight, you won't find one out there.

That said, some people feel better with them. Some people consider a firing a laser to be Elite's version of poking things with a stick.

My suggestion is explore without them and decide how you feel about it from experience.

o7

 

[Sapyx]

To quote the grizzled old explorer Commander Lorn, from the short story "The Outer Limits" in the original Frontier: Elite II short story compilation "Stories of Life on the Frontier", when the shipyard mechanic tried to sell him some new lasers:

I don't waste credits on weapons. I might start getting crazy ideas about fighting instead of running.

There is only one reason why an exploration ship would have weaponry of any kind: if you don't have an SRV with you, and you need to harvest some raw minerals for repairs or jumponium, a mining laser will liberate those ores for you from a convenient asteroid or ring-rock. You don't need the rest of the mining kit (eg a refinery) for the laser to extract raw materials.

Actual weapons, to blow up enemy ships with, are entirely redundant. Ideally, an exploration ship is stripped down, lightweight, all non-essential items removed to extract maximum range; they're basically life support cubes with giant engines attached to them. A ship like that is fragile as anything. An explorer about to dock at a space station after an exploration trip is also jam-packed with exploration data, worth a fortune but it's all lost if you get yourself blown up.

If you meet hostile aliens, you're dead, with or without weapons. If you meet friendly aliens, you don't want to go accidentally shooting them in your excitement. If you meet lost colonies of humans or the ancient remnant of rogue AI, same deal. If you meet other explorers, they're most likely in unarmed ships as well, so no threat. If you meet a psycho player-killer, you're dead no matter how many weapons you fly with.

An explorer has no business starting a fight, or trying to finish one. Be like Lorn. Run Away.

 

[Faded Glory]

As others have suggested, up to you. Obviously if they impact jump range negatively that might mean you want to leave them off, but to be honest if your ship is otherwise outfitted (and engineered) with jump range in mind then a couple of small weapons will likely not make any significant difference.

I have two exploration ships, and both have some weaponry, just as both have shields. That said, I would generally be inclined to avoid a fight since neither are optimized for combat, and in any case, I don't ever recall getting into a fight with either of them, certainly not out in the black, and not even when using them in the bubble.

 

[Vonn]

Thanks folks! Just the advice I needed.

 

[marx]

If you want to be prepared for anything, it's better to take a weapon with you. A lightweight beam laser or anything will do. Why? There is content that requires a weapon for interaction: Guardian Beacons. Granted, nobody has ever come across them far from the bubble, but if you were the first, it would be quite annoying to not be able to open them up.

Some spaceborne life in NSPs can also react to weapons fire IIRC, but they are mostly just curiosities anyway.

And the question should always be, how much jump range do I trade for this? The answer would be -0.03 ly on a Courier, and much less on larger ships. In other words, practically nothing.

 

[Factabulous]

So the 4 reasons I can think of:

1) Guardian Beacons as ^^^
2) Some space lifeforms react to weapons, so if you want to collect those traits you might want a weapon
3) To dump fuel for edge-case maximum jumps using plasma-slug (I think) rails.
4) Space mining for materials

All are edge cases and you probably won't still be in the CM3 by the time you care about them (if ever!)

 

[Hawk of Battle]

The only things you might ever need in those weapon hardpoints are a small mining laser and/or a plasma slug railgun, to dump fuel, and whilst I don't pretend to be any sort of authority on anything, I've carried a single mining laser to Ishum and back and never needed it, nor the railgun, which I don't carry and probably wouldn't unless I was going somewhere that very specifically needed it to jump to.

Anything else is utterly redundant at best, and liable to end up getting you killed at worst. You are an exploration ship, not a combat ship.

Now, if you wanted to take a combat ship to the far reaches of the galaxy, then sure, go nuts, but I'd have to question why?

 

[Orvidius]

It's pretty well covered above. The only remaining edge case I can think of is that you might enjoy shooting at asteroids every once in a while. With lighweight engineering mods, some of the guns can be reduced to very little mass, and if you like to shoot at inanimate objects, or you just really hate having empty slots, that can work. The loss of jump range is minimal.

 

[Nordmarken]

On exploration ships the following that I've seen other people have are imo rather unnecessary; shield generator, weapons and heat sinks.

 

[Nordmarken]

It's pretty well covered above. The only remaining edge case I can think of is that you might enjoy shooting at asteroids every once in a while. With lighweight engineering mods, some of the guns can be reduced to very little mass, and if you like to shoot at inanimate objects, or you just really hate having empty slots, that can work. The loss of jump range is minimal.

Wouldn't it just be better to get an Anaconda then, max its jump capability and equip it with a fighter hangar. Sure you need to switch to an external ship but you would get your guns and still have a damn good jump range.

 

[iain666]

Wouldn't it just be better to get an Anaconda then, max its jump capability and equip it with a fighter hangar. Sure you need to switch to an external ship but you would get your guns and still have a damn good jump range.

A fighter hanger will cost you a lot more range than a small laser if you just want to have the capacity to shoot rocks for giggles (0.49ly vs 0.01ly for an Anaconda with a 6A engineered FSD with Mass Manager and maxed extended range)

 

[Nordmarken]

A fighter hanger will cost you a lot more range than a small laser if you just want to have the capacity to shoot rocks for giggles (0.49ly vs 0.01ly for an Anaconda with a 6A engineered FSD with Mass Manager and maxed extended range)

My engineered Anaconda has 73.something fully ladden. Then I have both srv:s and a fighter hangar. I would stil argue that you as an explorer would have much more use o a fighter than some guns.

 

[Gnauty]

Great time to get back into the game!

I'd suggest a third option...

If you're interested in exploration, join one of the upcoming fleet carrier expeditions and transfer spare modules onto the FC you are riding with before it leaves the bubble. That way, you can swap things out to suit the circumstances. Several of the expeditions are recruiting now in the Exploration forum.

o7

 

[Sapyx]

Question for those who carry them: do the Guardian beacons and alien critters react to a mining laser, just as well as they do to a military weapon? If so, that's three birds with one beam.

To me, personally, Guardian relics are million-year-old archaeological artifacts that deserve to be studied by properly equipped xenoarchaeologists; it would never occur to me to shoot a weapon at one. And shooting alien lifeforms that are no threat to your ship and just floating there minding their own business, just to find out what they do when you shoot them, is equally morally questionable. But that's just me.

 

[Vonn]

Great time to get back into the game!

I'd suggest a third option...

If you're interested in exploration, join one of the upcoming fleet carrier expeditions and transfer spare modules onto the FC you are riding with before it leaves the bubble. That way, you can swap things out to suit the circumstances. Several of the expeditions are recruiting now in the Exploration forum.

o7

I'm intrigued by the carrier ops; will see if the logistics work out for me to join in.

 

[Trotsky2112]

Question for those who carry them: do the Guardian beacons and alien critters react to a mining laser, just as well as they do to a military weapon? If so, that's three birds with one beam.

To me, personally, Guardian relics are million-year-old archaeological artifacts that deserve to be studied by properly equipped xenoarchaeologists; it would never occur to me to shoot a weapon at one.

Well, its not entirely improbable that the Guardians would have programmed their technology to react to a continuous flow of energy from an external source (i.e. a laser). But I agree, shooting at giant space ruins is not the first thing that comes to mind when I encounter them.

 

[iain666]

My engineered Anaconda has 73.something fully ladden. Then I have both srv:s and a fighter hangar. I would stil argue that you as an explorer would have much more use o a fighter than some guns.

I took a fighter hangar on DW2, I never used it. I also had no weapons after I ditched my mining stuff at EA. I, as an explorer, have no use for either. I can see no use for a fighter while exploring that is any less frivolous or ephemeral than shooting random rocks.

If all you want is a way to shoot stuff for no good reason then a fighter costs more range than a lightweight laser so absent some other want for a fighter you're better off with a tiny gun.

 

[space voyager]

Weapons are great for reducing the jump range if you fear you'll be jumping too far. Sadly, the galaxy is devoid of any danger except for landing and white dwarves. Ah, and other players.

I wish there was a reason to take at least somewhat battle worthy ship out.

The only weapon I do take is an SLF, and that is for the fun of flying it dangerously. I never bring the whole.SLF complement back.