Tl;dr: There has been a lot of justifiable praise for the Mandalay since its release; it is evidently a clear successor to the Asp Explorer, Krait Phantom, etc. But it isn’t quite the ‘Anaconda killer’ that some had expected. I tried to theory craft a ship that would surpass the Anaconda's jump range in a practical configuration, whilst not being stupidly overpowered and rendering all other ships obsolete.
Prior to the Mandalay’s release, Frontier stated in a livestream that “…when you’re maximising your jump range, it will beat the Anaconda”. This is technically correct - when rigged as a one-jump-wonder, the Mandalay has an advantage of ~0.5LY over the Anaconda. However, as soon as one adds any substantial mass - as is inevitable for any practical build - the Anaconda is back in front. This is not to detract from the Mandalay’s many excellent features - such as cockpit view, agility and handling, ease of landing, superlative SCO performance - where it is superior to the Anaconda. But it bothers me slightly that the Anaconda remains the jump range king for all useful purposes - if you want to go exploring with all the toys and have maximal jump range it is still the winner, notwithstanding the ship’s drawbacks.
This graph shows how the jump ranges of the Mandalay and Anaconda vary with mass.
At x = 0, both ships are fitted for absolute maximum jump range - and we can see that the Mandalay can indeed go further. But the Mandalay’s jump range falls away more quickly as mass is added - at just 5 tons extra, the two ships are roughly equal; simply filling the fuel tanks hands the advantage back to the Anaconda, before we even think about different/extra modules. To understand why this is so, we need to delve into the hyperspace fuel equation:
Where f is fuel consumed, d is distance travelled, M_ship is the total mass of the ship, M_opt the optimised mass of the FSD, and l and p are constants. Let us rearrange the equation for distance, and resolve all variables apart from mass, which we shall break down into its constituent parts (recall that the Anaconda and Mandalay have hull mass 400T and 230T respectively). Maximum fuel per jump is used to maximise range. This gives the following:
We can see that range scales linearly with mass; because the Anaconda’s hull is heavier, any increase in module/fuel mass will be a smaller proportion of the total, so its range will drop more slowly than the Mandalay’s. The lighter Mandalay should be comfortably in front - but the Anaconda can equip a higher class FSD; it is the combination of the Anaconda’s abnormally low hull mass and a class 6 FSD that the Mandalay is struggling to beat.
I am not about to jump on the ‘nerf the Anaconda’ bandwagon; that ship sailed a long time ago. Instead I’ve tried to construct a ship that would genuinely surpass it as the best large explorer whilst not making it totally redundant - and not being even more OP itself. Let’s call it the Boa…
The Boa is built around its class 7 FSD drive - currently used by only three ships in the game (Cutter, Beluga and Type 10). The range/mass graph is repeated below with the Boa included - we can see that it consistently out-jumps the Anaconda by a modest amount, thanks to the same mechanism we saw for the Anaconda vs the Mandalay. With the ability to take a fuel tank up to class 7, one can optimise it for plotting range, total range from one tank, or a balance of the two; note that the Boa will need more fuel than the Anaconda, which in turn needs more fuel than the Mandalay, owing to the increased fuel consumption of higher class FSDs. The inclusion of a class 8 optional internal enables the Boa to refill a 128T tank in 76 seconds; the Beluga, currently the only ship with a class 7 fuel tank, takes nearly two and a half minutes, as it is limited to a class 6 scoop.
Turning the big slot into cargo space will also make the Boa a good choice for trading and mining. The big fuel tank largely negates the need for a fuel scoop when navigating the bubble, and the ship has enough smaller internals to equip a comprehensive suite of mining equipment. It would also make for a decent passenger liner, although it cannot take luxury cabins.
Which brings us at last to combat - it is here is where I have tried to balance the Boa compared to the Anaconda (and other large ships). Generously endowed with a range of well-distributed but also tightly-converged hard points, strong shields and armour, class 8 power plant and power distributor, and 8 utility slots, the Anaconda can equip a formidable array of offensive and defensive capabilities. Not so the Boa. With only medium and small hard points, undersized power plant and power distributor, weak defences and half the utility mounts, it isn’t going to be much of a fighting ship. It has no military compartments, and whilst the big optional internal can be used for a shield generator, there are no comparably-sized slots for SCBs with which to top it up. Oh, and it is eye-wateringly expensive.
I think this leaves things quite nicely balanced:
Prior to the Mandalay’s release, Frontier stated in a livestream that “…when you’re maximising your jump range, it will beat the Anaconda”. This is technically correct - when rigged as a one-jump-wonder, the Mandalay has an advantage of ~0.5LY over the Anaconda. However, as soon as one adds any substantial mass - as is inevitable for any practical build - the Anaconda is back in front. This is not to detract from the Mandalay’s many excellent features - such as cockpit view, agility and handling, ease of landing, superlative SCO performance - where it is superior to the Anaconda. But it bothers me slightly that the Anaconda remains the jump range king for all useful purposes - if you want to go exploring with all the toys and have maximal jump range it is still the winner, notwithstanding the ship’s drawbacks.
This graph shows how the jump ranges of the Mandalay and Anaconda vary with mass.
At x = 0, both ships are fitted for absolute maximum jump range - and we can see that the Mandalay can indeed go further. But the Mandalay’s jump range falls away more quickly as mass is added - at just 5 tons extra, the two ships are roughly equal; simply filling the fuel tanks hands the advantage back to the Anaconda, before we even think about different/extra modules. To understand why this is so, we need to delve into the hyperspace fuel equation:
Mandalay | Anaconda |
We can see that range scales linearly with mass; because the Anaconda’s hull is heavier, any increase in module/fuel mass will be a smaller proportion of the total, so its range will drop more slowly than the Mandalay’s. The lighter Mandalay should be comfortably in front - but the Anaconda can equip a higher class FSD; it is the combination of the Anaconda’s abnormally low hull mass and a class 6 FSD that the Mandalay is struggling to beat.
I am not about to jump on the ‘nerf the Anaconda’ bandwagon; that ship sailed a long time ago. Instead I’ve tried to construct a ship that would genuinely surpass it as the best large explorer whilst not making it totally redundant - and not being even more OP itself. Let’s call it the Boa…
Which brings us at last to combat - it is here is where I have tried to balance the Boa compared to the Anaconda (and other large ships). Generously endowed with a range of well-distributed but also tightly-converged hard points, strong shields and armour, class 8 power plant and power distributor, and 8 utility slots, the Anaconda can equip a formidable array of offensive and defensive capabilities. Not so the Boa. With only medium and small hard points, undersized power plant and power distributor, weak defences and half the utility mounts, it isn’t going to be much of a fighting ship. It has no military compartments, and whilst the big optional internal can be used for a shield generator, there are no comparably-sized slots for SCBs with which to top it up. Oh, and it is eye-wateringly expensive.
I think this leaves things quite nicely balanced:
- The Mandalay is the best medium-sized explorer, combining excellent jump range with top-performing SCO capability in a highly agile airframe.
- The Boa is the best large-sized explorer, with the highest overall jump range and plenty of internal slots. Manoeuvrability is on a par with the Federal Corvette, which whilst not as agile as smaller ships, is quite nimble for a vessel of its size. Real-space top speed should be quicker than the Anaconda and Corvette, but not as good as the Cutter.
- The Anaconda becomes the ultimate utility ship - pretty good at just about anything, and able to perform multiple roles simultaneously. Notably, it can look after itself much more capably than the Boa.
- The Boa can out-jump the Cutter and Type 9, but cannot match either for cargo space. Similarly, it can out-jump the Beluga, but not carry as many passengers (and no luxury cabins).
