Ships The "ECO friendly" spaceship

Yesterday, in another thread I was inspired to see how "eco friendly" a spaceship I could build. High milage through energy efficiency. I went to Coriolis and played around with different ships and configurations. To compare I allowed each ship to have 8T of fuel (and a disabled fuel scoop that can be enabled to get you back while experimenting).

The ship that seemed to give the highest range with 8T of fuel was the Hauler at ~500 ly without scooping:

The "ECO" Hauler

Normally the longer you jump the more fuel you use per jump. That makes sense. I also had the impression that the amount of fuel increase in a non-linear fashion. Like doubling the jump distance more than doubles the fuel consumption.

Strangely enough there seems to be other factors in play. Engineering the FSD and use of an A-class FSD gives a higher range in most cases. The Guardian FSD booster also helps a lot.

Then I had another idea. What about using the empty slots in the stripped down ship to add extra fuel tanks? The thing is that this will make the ship heavier, but since the fuel contains energy, it should give a higher range. It did. Adding an extra 3C fuel tank doubles the amount of fuel to 16T, but as expected it doesn't quite double the range (~900 ly):

The "ECO" Hauler with extra fuel

Then I decided to try and make a similar setup for an Anaconda. Even though it doesn't outperform the Hauler in fuel efficiency, it has a long jump range, and it can haul a lot of fuel. I ended up with a ship that can go ~3500 ly before it needs to see a gas station:

The "Hindenburg"

I know all this is kind of speculative, but I thought it might interest some of the explorers. Secondly we need to start thinking about the fuel consumption. Otherwise we end up in a galaxy with no fuel left. ;)

I did the Hauler build, and it's actually a neat little taxi, that can be used for Data Missions. Handles well due to the low weight.

Feel free to point out mistakes I've made, and if you find a more "ECO friendly" configuration, please let me know.

EDIT: Just thinking, but if you replace one of the fuel tanks on The Hindenburg with a 1A fuel scoop, that will still give you a non-scoop range of ~3500 ly. Will that make it possible to access systems that are normally out of range?
 
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Nope we are all out exploring in crazy range inspired ships!

I did however notice that if you swap to Mass manager experiemental for you r FSD in the hauler you'll get another 20-30 lyr range
 
I was experimenting a bit with undersized FSDs and GFSD boosters, and this is really a nice piece of equipment.
Arguably the single most useful internal ever.
But your Cutter build is seriously close to an exploit 😆
 
There will be an optimal balance ratio between FSD, cargo racks, fuel tanks and galaxy map mass manager settings. Your current FSD uses 0.6tons fuel per jump, try adding a cargo rack and increase the mass manager in the galaxy map to increase your fuel efficiency.
 
There will be an optimal balance ratio between FSD, cargo racks, fuel tanks and galaxy map mass manager settings. Your current FSD uses 0.6tons fuel per jump, try adding a cargo rack and increase the mass manager in the galaxy map to increase your fuel efficiency.
"galaxy map mass manager settings"? I can see a tick box that you can enable to get max Economical Routes (Max 1Kly), but where do you find the Mass Manager in the Galaxy Map?

How does adding a Cargo Rack influence the range?

I haven't been able to figure out the exact math used in the game to calculate the fuel usage, so instead I took a heuristic approach, using Coriolis. I get some weird results, but it's normally my experience that if it works in Coriolis it also works in ED. I did the Hauler build in ED and the Anaconda, and they seem to work as expected. I haven't tried the Cutter yet. I need more CR and mats for the engineers.

Well, this Phantom can actually fly as a real explorer and still do close to 10000ly on a full tank assuming economic routes of max 10ly per jump
Are you sure the link is correct? The Phantom in the link can "only" jump 1698 ly before you need to scoop.

As I wrote in the OP this might all be very speculative, but I can't help wondering, if it could make otherwise inaccessible stars accessible? I haven't been to any edges of the galaxy in ED yet, but I know that out there scoopable stars become sparse. However, if you don't need to scoop, you can still jump to any star, which should make it easier to plan a route?
 
Yea, it does 1698ly on maximum jumps of 53ly, if you do economic ones of 10ly, it will do close to 10000ly

Edit: for the edge of the galaxy you need a ship that can jump far because the stars are few and distances between them are big.
A setup that can maximize on economic routes (max 10ly) is usefull if you want to go to the center of the galaxy where stars are tightly packed together.
 
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Yea, it does 1698ly on maximum jumps of 53ly, if you do economic ones of 10ly, it will do close to 10000ly

Edit: for the edge of the galaxy you need a ship that can jump far because the stars are few and distances between them are big.
A setup that can maximize on economic routes (max 10ly) is usefull if you want to go to the center of the galaxy where stars are tightly packed together.
Thanks for clearing that one up (y) And pretty impressive!

The idea started because of the "challenge" in finding the ship with the highest Mpg, and honestly I can't really figure out what to use it for (yet), but is has become sort of a "game in the game" for me now. Also I'm learning a thing or two about how the ships work, and i like that. I have an old Mamba that I rigged for a Sag A* trip (those selfmade challenges), but I'll have to go back and look at the setup of that before I blast off.

Edit: To test setups for the edge of the galaxy, can I find the same distances between stars if I travel towards the top or bottom of the disc (shorter trip)?
 
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"galaxy map mass manager settings"? I can see a tick box that you can enable to get max Economical Routes (Max 1Kly), but where do you find the Mass Manager in the Galaxy Map?

How does adding a Cargo Rack influence the range?

I haven't been able to figure out the exact math used in the game to calculate the fuel usage, so instead I took a heuristic approach, using Coriolis. I get some weird results, but it's normally my experience that if it works in Coriolis it also works in ED. I did the Hauler build in ED and the Anaconda, and they seem to work as expected. I haven't tried the Cutter yet. I need more CR and mats for the engineers.


Are you sure the link is correct? The Phantom in the link can "only" jump 1698 ly before you need to scoop.

As I wrote in the OP this might all be very speculative, but I can't help wondering, if it could make otherwise inaccessible stars accessible? I haven't been to any edges of the galaxy in ED yet, but I know that out there scoopable stars become sparse. However, if you don't need to scoop, you can still jump to any star, which should make it easier to plan a route?

I started the game to get the exact names. If you have equipped a cargo bay(s). Go to the galaxy map, the 2nd tab that has the search option. At the bottom of the screen you will see a slider for cargo mass. If you increase your cargo mass, you will reduce your jump range in exchange for less fuel been used per jump. It's more like your own version of economic route plotting were you can pick the jump range.
 
Thanks!

Edit: Interesting formula. Fx the linear constant which is lowest for a C-class FSD. That beats the heuristic method. Back to the drawing board... :)
 
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A conda can get to Colonia without refueling. It has been done before.

As you noticed, the bigger the jump, the less efficient it will be. An anaconda can jump quite a lot with a single ton of fuel if you have it engineered correctly (IIRC it was around 45ly or something like that). Add jumponium to the mix and a single ton can get you quite far.
 
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