This topic may actually be trivial for most of you... but I only realized it after some 400 hours of ED so maybe there are other folks who can use a pointer. ^^
At some point (last year) I realized, jump range isn't everything when you want to go places quickly. My DBX had the biggest jump range in my arsenal at the time, but 1000+ LY journeys still turned into a drag bc the 4A fuel scoop just couldn't keep up. So every couple 100 LY or so I had to stop and park at a star to fill up.
So, we want a ship that can carry a big enough scoop to top up the tanks without slowing down.
Then, someone here pointed out that the Dolphin has a hidden benefit, by virtue of running extremely cool, so you can hit Jump the instant your waypoint rises above the current star's horizon without overheating. So that also cuts a bit of time off each jump.
Oh and just for completeness' sake, at one point I also made the noob mistake of downsizing all the core internals (power plant, thrusters, distributor) as much as possible to increase jump range. It looked good on paper (well, Coriolis) but in reality (well, game) it was a disaster. Not enough power to boost --> getting out of the station and masslock, as well as accelerating to engage FSD, takes forever! Ugh.
So, long story short... I guess that for best results, you want to combine all four: long jump range (but not over-optimized), large fuel scoop, good cooling and enough thrust power. And it's worth accepting a few extra tons of dry mass (thus cutting into raw jump range) if it means you run colder.
So I've optimized my Krait Phantom a bit. For instance, 4A Armored PP /w Thermal Spread -- a few tons heavier than a 5D, but much better heat efficiency. All in all, the ship's running at something like 23% Heat in deep space. First tests seem to confirm that even when scooping a star it remains sufficiently cool that you can engage the FSD much quicker.
Jump range is still around 63LY iirc (with 2 SRVs) so still not too shabby.
I'll test that more thoroughly the next time I do a Raw Mats run, but I'm quite confident. ^^
Note that I haven't experimented with Neutron Stars or Jumponium yet. But somehow I doubt that either really effectively cuts down your travel time, since collecting Jumponium eats time and plotting NS routes and doing the whole jet dance probably also eats more time than you save. Just my suspicion though.
What are your fastest traveling ships and what's special about their setups?
At some point (last year) I realized, jump range isn't everything when you want to go places quickly. My DBX had the biggest jump range in my arsenal at the time, but 1000+ LY journeys still turned into a drag bc the 4A fuel scoop just couldn't keep up. So every couple 100 LY or so I had to stop and park at a star to fill up.
So, we want a ship that can carry a big enough scoop to top up the tanks without slowing down.
Then, someone here pointed out that the Dolphin has a hidden benefit, by virtue of running extremely cool, so you can hit Jump the instant your waypoint rises above the current star's horizon without overheating. So that also cuts a bit of time off each jump.
Oh and just for completeness' sake, at one point I also made the noob mistake of downsizing all the core internals (power plant, thrusters, distributor) as much as possible to increase jump range. It looked good on paper (well, Coriolis) but in reality (well, game) it was a disaster. Not enough power to boost --> getting out of the station and masslock, as well as accelerating to engage FSD, takes forever! Ugh.
So, long story short... I guess that for best results, you want to combine all four: long jump range (but not over-optimized), large fuel scoop, good cooling and enough thrust power. And it's worth accepting a few extra tons of dry mass (thus cutting into raw jump range) if it means you run colder.
So I've optimized my Krait Phantom a bit. For instance, 4A Armored PP /w Thermal Spread -- a few tons heavier than a 5D, but much better heat efficiency. All in all, the ship's running at something like 23% Heat in deep space. First tests seem to confirm that even when scooping a star it remains sufficiently cool that you can engage the FSD much quicker.
Jump range is still around 63LY iirc (with 2 SRVs) so still not too shabby.I'll test that more thoroughly the next time I do a Raw Mats run, but I'm quite confident. ^^
Note that I haven't experimented with Neutron Stars or Jumponium yet. But somehow I doubt that either really effectively cuts down your travel time, since collecting Jumponium eats time and plotting NS routes and doing the whole jet dance probably also eats more time than you save. Just my suspicion though.
What are your fastest traveling ships and what's special about their setups?
