I've been playing the game since the first time it was discounted in Steam exactly half a year ago. The game has been quite addictive thus far - during that time I've logged 20 minutes shy of 500 hours of playtime as per game information screen. My playstyle can be described as multirole involving varying degrees of combat, smuggling, trading, long-range gigs, CG's and exploration. Somebody else could've accumulated more assets with that amount of game time but IMO 747M is nothing to sneeze at. So far I've found exploration to be the most meditative content in the whole game, just great for winding off and seeing different places without taking too much stress on what's going on. It's always very enjoyable to discover ELW's and to check out for any stuff that lies in a signal source, salvageable wreckage, you name it. Last night I was able to hit Pioneer rank on exploration with 58M credits worth of sold exploration data. However, so far I haven't been very far off the bubble: my farthest trip hasn't taken further but slightly below 4 kylies from the bubble.
Currently the game doesn't have that much content that I haven't experienced. For this reason I thought about doing a longer exploration trip. I don't want to be one year away from any activities that might come around during the time so I don't have interest in heading towards the far rim. The Distant Worlds expedition sounds like a great and unforgettable trip for all people involved but I don't think that I have the amount of time and devotion needed for that undertaking. Besides, it would boil down on flying around with Asp or Anaconda, accompanied by... hundreds of Asps and Anacondas. That would kinda lack originality. Lately I've had quite much of action going on with my multirole Asp, the "King Crimson" (a ship named after its versatility and color) and slaying pirates with my Anaconda, the "Lohjalainen" (a ship named after the sounds it frequently reproduces when passing the docking port). I've been thinking about something else.
I've decided to travel to the core. Because Sag A*. No other reasons needed. Okay, so what's the big deal here with the visitor list firmly showing four-digit numbers and the place being so popular that you could make a living out of putting up a souvenir stand there? I thought about standing out from the crowd with ship selection. There has been _one particular ship_ that has lately been a subject of lamentation for its different shortfalls but, first and foremost, for its poor FSD range, a feature that would especially hamstring its usability for exploration. So what is the ship of my choice?
Vette.
There are probably other poor souls who have thought about the same thing but I haven't came across too many of them in these forums (or in any other media) by myself so far. All I've heard is one player contemplating about it in https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=199948 thread. I got the prerequisite Federal rank around one week ago and today I actually bought the ship. Right now the ship is fitted and ready for the journey. The biggest question is obviously about the jump range. You want figures, you get them: 18.57 LY with full tanks and zero cargo. Subtract some decimals for any tons of Lavian Brandy and salvage inside the hold. 19.49 LY zero fuel/cargo range. As you can see, this ship isn't exactly the Beagle Point kind of stuff. How does it handle? I tried a landing on 0.4G world (Mercury, Sol) and it didn't have any problems but anything considerably higher might yield nasty surprises. On normal flight it feels ok to fly, albeit a bit suspectible for sliding. In supercruise the ship is only marginally more irresponsive than Asp and it feels like an acrobat when compared against Anaconda.
Do I have more sensible/better alternatives in my hangar? Well, yes. I have two Asps: one of them is kitted for exploration and has 34 LY range and King Crimson has 29 LY range. I also have an A-specced combat Anaconda that could be kitted for zillion LY range with some work if I had interest. Any of those options however would be unoriginal for a Sag A* trip when compared against doing the same in Vette.
This is my current loadout for Vette that gets called by the rather questionable and theme-fitting name "Intimidator Exploder". That ship really is the most Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hummer H1, USS Enterprise and that kind of stuff themed ship for any exploration trip that mankind has sent into the black so far. Its entire appearance is farting The Star-Spangled Banner with pride as it cruises around The Great Unknown coated in jet black paint darker than a black hole as it tries to figure out the right way way into the galactic core. While not armed to the teeth in your typical A-kitted CZ/RES ship way, it has enough teeth to whack the living daylights out of any unsuspecting Cobra or Eagle pilot who thinks bullying innocent spacefarers is more fun than outrunning them when they get mad.
1x L G Pulse Laser
2x M G Pulse Laser
2x S G Multi-Cannon
2x Heat Sink Launcher
Standard bulkheads
A5 PP
D7 Thrusters
A6 FSD
D5 Life Support
A5 PD
D8 Sensors
32t + extra 32t Fuel Tank (Makes me feel more comfortable by feeling more like Asp and gives additional safety when navigating through badlands, drops fully laden range by around 0.4 LY's)
B7 Fuel Scoop (A7 would drive the cost up by 70M cr for very small gain and I don't have that money to spare.)
B5 AFMU x2
D5 Shield Generator
G4 Vehicle Hangar with 2 SRV's
ADS+DSS
256t of cargo space (For playing the route mapper game and storing any goodies that come across)
The stuff is bought from Li-Yong Rui controlled systems and total price for the setup is between 200M and 210M. That translates into insurance cost slightly north of 10M. I believe that the price-in-credits-for-one-LY-of-range with this ship is absolutely the worst in the game. I actually calculated a similar setup for a 24 LY Cutter in ED Shipyard and it had price including Li-Yong Rui discounts between 240M and 250M. I'm not exactly sure if you can get discounted Cutter anywhere but at least I was able to find the discounted Vette from my base-of-operations shipyard in Shenich.
Of course there is the option to shave off some additional weight by dropping more weaponry, shields, vehicle hangar or shrinking PP even further. However, any additional modifications combined that would result in gains for jump range would be at most around ONE (1) LY with major compromises on survivability. I sincerely hope that this ship _SHOULD_ be able to handle anything that gets thrown into its direction like contact binaries, since there will be a LOT more jumping involved than with your normal 30+ LY Asp.
Wish me luck. I'm leaving tomorrow. I'm not exactly sure how the trip will turn out but there is only one way to find out. The only intermediate stop that I've planned so far is Great Annihilator. If you have something to tell about the build or see some shortfalls, please let me know. Any recommendations for most comfortable route/navigation stuff and nice sights along the way are also welcome.
Currently the game doesn't have that much content that I haven't experienced. For this reason I thought about doing a longer exploration trip. I don't want to be one year away from any activities that might come around during the time so I don't have interest in heading towards the far rim. The Distant Worlds expedition sounds like a great and unforgettable trip for all people involved but I don't think that I have the amount of time and devotion needed for that undertaking. Besides, it would boil down on flying around with Asp or Anaconda, accompanied by... hundreds of Asps and Anacondas. That would kinda lack originality. Lately I've had quite much of action going on with my multirole Asp, the "King Crimson" (a ship named after its versatility and color) and slaying pirates with my Anaconda, the "Lohjalainen" (a ship named after the sounds it frequently reproduces when passing the docking port). I've been thinking about something else.
I've decided to travel to the core. Because Sag A*. No other reasons needed. Okay, so what's the big deal here with the visitor list firmly showing four-digit numbers and the place being so popular that you could make a living out of putting up a souvenir stand there? I thought about standing out from the crowd with ship selection. There has been _one particular ship_ that has lately been a subject of lamentation for its different shortfalls but, first and foremost, for its poor FSD range, a feature that would especially hamstring its usability for exploration. So what is the ship of my choice?
Vette.
There are probably other poor souls who have thought about the same thing but I haven't came across too many of them in these forums (or in any other media) by myself so far. All I've heard is one player contemplating about it in https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=199948 thread. I got the prerequisite Federal rank around one week ago and today I actually bought the ship. Right now the ship is fitted and ready for the journey. The biggest question is obviously about the jump range. You want figures, you get them: 18.57 LY with full tanks and zero cargo. Subtract some decimals for any tons of Lavian Brandy and salvage inside the hold. 19.49 LY zero fuel/cargo range. As you can see, this ship isn't exactly the Beagle Point kind of stuff. How does it handle? I tried a landing on 0.4G world (Mercury, Sol) and it didn't have any problems but anything considerably higher might yield nasty surprises. On normal flight it feels ok to fly, albeit a bit suspectible for sliding. In supercruise the ship is only marginally more irresponsive than Asp and it feels like an acrobat when compared against Anaconda.
Do I have more sensible/better alternatives in my hangar? Well, yes. I have two Asps: one of them is kitted for exploration and has 34 LY range and King Crimson has 29 LY range. I also have an A-specced combat Anaconda that could be kitted for zillion LY range with some work if I had interest. Any of those options however would be unoriginal for a Sag A* trip when compared against doing the same in Vette.
This is my current loadout for Vette that gets called by the rather questionable and theme-fitting name "Intimidator Exploder". That ship really is the most Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hummer H1, USS Enterprise and that kind of stuff themed ship for any exploration trip that mankind has sent into the black so far. Its entire appearance is farting The Star-Spangled Banner with pride as it cruises around The Great Unknown coated in jet black paint darker than a black hole as it tries to figure out the right way way into the galactic core. While not armed to the teeth in your typical A-kitted CZ/RES ship way, it has enough teeth to whack the living daylights out of any unsuspecting Cobra or Eagle pilot who thinks bullying innocent spacefarers is more fun than outrunning them when they get mad.
1x L G Pulse Laser
2x M G Pulse Laser
2x S G Multi-Cannon
2x Heat Sink Launcher
Standard bulkheads
A5 PP
D7 Thrusters
A6 FSD
D5 Life Support
A5 PD
D8 Sensors
32t + extra 32t Fuel Tank (Makes me feel more comfortable by feeling more like Asp and gives additional safety when navigating through badlands, drops fully laden range by around 0.4 LY's)
B7 Fuel Scoop (A7 would drive the cost up by 70M cr for very small gain and I don't have that money to spare.)
B5 AFMU x2
D5 Shield Generator
G4 Vehicle Hangar with 2 SRV's
ADS+DSS
256t of cargo space (For playing the route mapper game and storing any goodies that come across)
The stuff is bought from Li-Yong Rui controlled systems and total price for the setup is between 200M and 210M. That translates into insurance cost slightly north of 10M. I believe that the price-in-credits-for-one-LY-of-range with this ship is absolutely the worst in the game. I actually calculated a similar setup for a 24 LY Cutter in ED Shipyard and it had price including Li-Yong Rui discounts between 240M and 250M. I'm not exactly sure if you can get discounted Cutter anywhere but at least I was able to find the discounted Vette from my base-of-operations shipyard in Shenich.
Of course there is the option to shave off some additional weight by dropping more weaponry, shields, vehicle hangar or shrinking PP even further. However, any additional modifications combined that would result in gains for jump range would be at most around ONE (1) LY with major compromises on survivability. I sincerely hope that this ship _SHOULD_ be able to handle anything that gets thrown into its direction like contact binaries, since there will be a LOT more jumping involved than with your normal 30+ LY Asp.
Wish me luck. I'm leaving tomorrow. I'm not exactly sure how the trip will turn out but there is only one way to find out. The only intermediate stop that I've planned so far is Great Annihilator. If you have something to tell about the build or see some shortfalls, please let me know. Any recommendations for most comfortable route/navigation stuff and nice sights along the way are also welcome.
