Ships The Diamondback Explorer is amazing

Soron Silin

Soron Silin
I don't see a lot of love here for the Diamondback Explorer. I don't think that's justified. It's a very unique ship.

Over 40 ly jump capability without engineering, over 60 ly with engineering. Okay, to get 40ly, you need to strip out everything including fuel, but it will carry 2 tons of cargo 40 ly. With a more reasonable build you can get in excess of 37 ly. I haven't found any other ship that can do the same.

Here's my new short-range explorer, designed to get out of the bubble fast, do a few mapping runs and then get back for the credits.

Coriolis link: Fast Diamondback Explorer
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Madrax573

Madrax573
DBE loving in this thread mate :)

Ships - Diamondback Explorer Owners Club

Hi All, I've been spending some time in this attack helicopter of a ship and I'm kinda quite liking it :) Gotta love how cold it runs! I didn't see an owners thread so I thought I start one up for all the DBE owners out there who actually like their boat. Haters please go post somewhere...
forums.frontier.co.uk forums.frontier.co.uk
 

Chylder

C
One of the first ships I bought and still one of my favorites. If I'm just doing some running around or mat gathering, this is my choice. Everyone knows that this is the second or third farthest jumping hull in the game and the landing footprint is so small that you can put it down just about anywhere and drop your srv. And combat? Two medium and a large hardpoint on a small ship? Punches well outside it's weight class yet is agile enough to make them have to work for it to lay a hit on you in return. Oh, you're into smuggling? It happens to be one of the coldest running ships in the game. Just about it's only flaw is that it needs one of it's size four compartments bumped to a five so that we can get a fuel scoop that doesn't take forever to fill up our tank
 

Chylder

C
GeoJase said:
If smuggling was a real gameplay feature in ED, the DBX would be great because of its thermal efficiency.
Click to expand...

It is a real thing. There are missions where they pay you to smuggle illegal cargo into places you shouldn't be. I bet a lot of guys go for the phantom because of how much it looks like the Millenium Falcon because if you are going to smuggle, you might as well get your geek on and do it in style!
 

Soron Silin

Soron Silin
Chylder said:
Just about it's only flaw is that it needs one of it's size four compartments bumped to a five so that we can get a fuel scoop that doesn't take forever to fill up our tank
Click to expand...

I've just run the numbers. Obviously the Asp Explorer has a more dispersed frame -- it's medium sized -- but it has almost the same hull mass as the Diamondback. It's 280 tonnes rather than 260 tonnes. But the total equipment mass budget for the Asp is 362 tonnes to the Diamondback's 220 tonnes.

The argument is whether the Diamondback has space for another 16 tonnes, but volume has never been a question with any defined answer since way back when the first Elite used Traveller RPG as inspiration; even Traveller doesn't bother much with volume. There's a general comment that one tonne displacement is 14 cubic metres, but the fitted equipment can't exceed the hull displacement. The Asp clearly doesn't follow that rule at least and the Diamondback has 40 tonnes spare. There's never been a rule for limiting deck plans to the size of the ship.

So I don't see a good reason for not expanding that slot to a 5.

I bet this isn't how you imagined John Jamison:
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Soron Silin

Soron Silin
2 2/3 of the way into FSD range extension.
138226

I love this ship.

Two jumps later I fell into a sun and, as I waited for the FSD cooldown, a pirate in a Krait Phantom dropped on top of me, inside the sun's corona. There I was with heat building, lasers incoming and my own weapons powered down (don't ask). I hit the escape vector and he interdicted me at such an angle that I couldn't find the right vector in time. As I tried to engage him I realized that I didn't have the power budget to bring all my weapons online. I was fiddling around in the module screen while under fire.

So I killed him. Then I repaired everything and got on with the expedition.

I love this ship.
 
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