I believe all ships should have a special Exploration Suite slot which is like the Planetary Landing Suite slot - an additional slot used solely for one purpose. The Exploration Suite slot would have the same choice of modules to fit as the current selection of Discovery Scanners and Surface Scanners - just combined into one module but with the various equivalent combinations, so you'd have...
Exploration Suite Module Slot
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1) Basic Discovery Scanner / None <--- equivalent to standard ship fitting when purchasing a new ship
2) Basic Discovery Scanner / Detailed Surface Scanner
3) Intermediate Discovery Scanner / None
4) Intermediate Discovery Scanner / Detailed Surface Scanner
5) Advanced Discovery Scanner / None
6) Advanced Discovery Scanner / Detailed Surface Scanner
Each of those combinations would fit into this proposed Exploration Suite slot. This would free up the standard slots in the ship, if it was an additional slot as per the Planetary Landing Suite slot added for Horizons (and is visible in the non-Horizons version of the game).
This would benefit the smaller ships with less available slots - especially the Diamondback Explorer.
Discuss.
No thank you. The charm of smaller ships, IMO, is that you have to take opportunity costs into account when outfitting your ship, especially when exploring. Opportunity costs mean weighing your risks to the rewards they bring, which leads to more interesting choices while playing, which in turn makes the game much more fun IMO.
At the moment, the desirable components for exploration are, in no particular order:
- Fuel Scoop
- Discovery Scanner
- Detailed Surface Scanner
- SRV Bay
- Shield Generator
- Auto Field Maintenance Unit
- Cargo Bay
There is a reason why the Asp Explorer is considered the "perfect" exploration vessel. It can fit all of these, has the second longest jump range in the game, and is much cheaper to buy and outfit than the Anaconda. Before the huge buff to the Detailed Surface Scanner, there were only two "must have" components for exploration: a fuel scoop, and a discovery scanner. Everything else was optional, and had their pros, cons, and specialized uses.
With Horizons, if you were more interested in the materials on planets, as opposed to maximizing your credits per hour, substituting an SRV bay for a Detailed Surface Scanner, and developing your wave scanner skills, was an option for the budget conscious explorer. These days, the Detailed Surface Scanner is now in the "must have" category as well, because it is a very efficient substitute for the wave scanner reading skill required for surface material exploration.
There is also good synergy between the SRV bay and a shield generator, to the point where if you have an SRV bay, you'll probably want a shield generator to help soften landings on high-G planets.
Currently, there are a number good ships that are available to you before you can afford an Asp Explorer:
- Hauler. The longest longest jump range of the smaller ships, it is dirt cheap, but with only four slots. Before the DSS buff, it had an intriguing number of variants, depending upon what you wanted to use it for, since you had five components competing for two slots. These days, you've got four components competing for one slot.
- Adder. It has a decent jump range, is relatively cheap, and it has five slots available to it. With four components competing for two slots, it has more variety than the Hauler.
- Diamondback Explorer. This ship has the second longest jump range, the second highest price tag, it also have five slots available.
- Imperial Courier. A fine example of Imperial engineering, this ship has it all: style, decent range, and six internal slots. Come support the fight for freedom, justice, and prosperity, and you too can spread the benefits of the Empire to the farthest reaches of the Galaxy!
- Cobra Mark III. IMO this ship is often overlooked as a viable explorer. While it doesn't have the jump range the Imperial Courier, and is more expensive to outfit, it happens to be available everywhere, and has six slots available for components.
- Type-6 Transport. Big, fragile, and slow, it has the benefits of a decent jump range and seven internal slots. And only slightly more expensive than the Cobra Mk III as well.
Effectively adding two slots to every ship in the game, pretty much means the death of every vessel above as an exploration vessel, with the exception of the Hauler and Diamondback Explorer. There won't be a need to trade jump range for slots, ever, since on long range exploration trips, the Hauler doesn't really need a cargo bay.
