We need a compact optimized small exploration ship

[Psycho Romeo]

by logic explanation, yes.

by ingame mechanics NO.

for exploration you need:

Fuel scoop, jump range, vehicle hangar, 2x scanners. a good quantity of fuel. Some shields should always be on top. Now this is already by mechanics more than fixed on a role. Heta sinks, in case you jump into an instant drop star. Its quite a wide spread of things needed to "explore" in fact only guns, armor, SB's don't matter.

The content of this post is absurd.

For bounty hunting you need:
Weapons, speed, maneuverability, HRPs, SCBs, chaff, boosters, shields, interdictor, KWS. In fact only jump range, cargo racks, and fuel doesn't matter.
The above example isn't exact, but it illustrates the point. You're completely wrong. That's all.

 

[PanTast]

I would love to see custom long range versions of many ships.

A Fer-de-Lance LR with one class higher FSD would go 30 lightyears (maybe to the cost of having one class smaller Power Plant and Power Distributor)
A Viper MkIV LR would go more than 40 lightyears (maybe to the cost of having one class smaller Power Plant and Power Distributor). Same for Cobra MkIV LR.

Just to name a few.

I don´t get why we have such beautiful ships with so limited possibilities to use. If I was a spaceship manufacturer, I would love to see my ships being used for many tasks. Like airplanes i.e. you can see Boeing 747 in Cargo versions or passenger or luxury versions.

 

[EDbubba]

45Ly is - IMO! - a bit too much. The main reason I want another exploration vessel is so there's some variety and options when exploring. The ship above would seem to make the Asp pretty much obsolete as an explorer - instead of adding to the variety it would just replace the Asp as the dominant ship.

Huh? The Anacond's 39LY+ range is hardly a lot less than my suggested 45LY. The ASP is popular because it's cheap, relative to it's capabilities. I suggested a price 10x the cost of the ASP, so that in itself would be a defining difference, and as far as I could care, it could cost CR 150 million, making it directly comparable to the Anaconda, but with significant compromises (read: balance).

There's no logical reason to not make a ship that is exploration-optimized, but it has to be balanced to make it essentially ineffective in other roles (not like an ASP!). Pretty trivial to do when you think about it, as I have posted before.

 

[Insomnia]

What we really need is a full scale science and exploration ship, like what the Vulture is for combat. All exploration ships are just multi purpose ships.

 

[Turjan]

The level of customisation we have in ship outfitting is pretty extensive, but bizarrely, when it comes to exploring, it could turn out to be one of those times where less is actually more.

In Frontier: Elite II we had hull capacity...and that was it really. What you chose to fill the insides of your ship with was up to you.

Which meant I could take the Asp Explorer of the day, ditch the class 3 hyperdrive it came with, and squeeze in a class 4 instead, a drive which was realistically far too big to be practical. Fitting one meant ditching just about everything else, but the upshot was, I could jump further and faster than just about anything else, which made it an unbeatable high-paying courier ship. Added bonus was that I also could take any assassination job on the boards, because I knew with absolute certainty that I'd be able to follow a hypersapce wake and jump into a system long, long before my target ship even arrived...All I had to worry about then was the fact I only had a 5MW pulse laser rather than a decent beam to take the target down with, because it was all I could cram into the space left from fitting that huge engine

Trip down memory lane there

Back to the present day - my point is, all the E-D ships currently have a physical limit imposed on such extreme customisation in the form of individual module slot size. Presumably this is all fine and dandy for game mechanics and balance, and does still allow for quite a large degree of customisation in builds.

But perhaps what we need is a subclass of vessel that a shipyard has designed specifically for crazy people to do extreme builds in. One where the fittings for module sizes are more...flexible.

Imagine the outfitting screen, but with a difference : for the ship in question, you're given a certain number of slot build points and you can juggle them about as you like.

For instance, if the default allows for a class 4 FSD, you could up that to a class 5, but at the cost of a slot point elsewhere. Say, you'd have to drop the maximum class distributor or power plant you could carry by 1.

That way you could indeed make a ship that's basically one big engine...but have to accept that making it so means you'd have no shields, weapons or utility slots, and only about 30 seconds of life support, because you spent all your points on the pure horsepower.

 

[Nerwan]

No, those are still multi purpose ships. None of them have a class 5 FSD or an eceptional jump range.

What about the Hauler, you can set that up for 32LY jump.. Not far off the asp.

 

[Psychomorph]

What about the Hauler, you can set that up for 32LY jump.. Not far off the asp.

Moar! We want much moar range than that. We want to sacrifice for that and not by overpaying for an "overpriced" Anaconda.

 

[Snarfbuckle]

What really marks a good explorer ship is not jump range, but module slots.

A ship with 7-8 module slots are the ships best suited for the task AND tends to have a rather good jump range.

Far too many are looking at jump RANGE and not fuel economy.

The Asp Explorer with it's 32 tonne fuel tank and can go 20+ LY even when combat fitted can go 400+ LY without refuelling. Yes, you will most of the time jump 10LY or less but you use so little fuel per jump that an A3 fuel scoop fills up the tank by just passing the star.

If we are talking about a new CLASS of ships then that is another question.

But what kind of explorer?

-Exploration (Landing, scanning, SRV etc)
-Scouting (Jump range and scanning)

The first we already have and the Cobra MkIV is the cheapest option with plenty of internal space
The latter is basically the DBS

 

[Velixar]

Reminds me of a song. We can't always get what you want.

Devs already said they are not going to change anything because it could upset game play.

Not everyone can use the new cobra

 

[Snarfbuckle]

Moar! We want much moar range than that. We want to sacrifice for that and not by overpaying for an "overpriced" Anaconda.

Why the need for jump range.

Sure, each jump takes about 15-30 seconds extra but you get a LOT farther by flying economic routes.

 

[Velixar]

Why the need for jump range.

Sure, each jump takes about 15-30 seconds extra but you get a LOT farther by flying economic routes.

And explore more stars

 

[Snarfbuckle]

And explore more stars

Yup, I get the need for jump range for SHORT travels within the bubble to complete tasks but for exploration?

Any ships with 10-15 LY and economic travel has no problem whatsoever. Sure, it HELPS to have more but it's hardly NEEDED until you get to a star 50+ LY away from anything else.

 

[duckofdeath]

I've already mentioned a few really good reasons as to why we need a real dedicated exploration ship. An example: try looking up Cygni X-3 on the map. Try finding a route to the Magellanic Clouds. Here's another reason. The large brunt of the interesting systems, not only for value but also for diversity, is below and above the core. Make it easier for people to get there and we'll get more people exploring this area. We have a whole dark region of the galaxy, around a third of it, that isn't catalogued at all. Same there, make it easier to get there and more will go there. Before you argue it would wreck the Elite ranks, the Elite ranks got pointless the day Frontier introduced long range smuggling missions without checking the mechanics. Anyone can get trade Elite in a few days. You'd still have to scan the same amount of neutron stars even if you have a longer range on your ship.

There is no dedicated exploration ship. There is a massive interest in exploration, just look at all the records the Distant Worlds Expedition keeps setting in this game for large player instances and such. It's time for Frontier to give the explorers a true exploration ship.

 

[Lestat]

Yup, I get the need for jump range for SHORT travels within the bubble to complete tasks but for exploration?

Any ships with 10-15 LY and economic travel has no problem whatsoever. Sure, it HELPS to have more but it's hardly NEEDED until you get to a star 50+ LY away from anything else.

You know you can buy a Fuel tank. Oh let not forget You can Farm for Materials to Jump farther.

The Devs have already Said each Ship has it Limitation. So your not going to get it all in one small ship. That means ship like Diamondback Explorer which can explore. But to do it all in it. You have to take shields off. So what they are saying It can't do it all You need a larger ship.

 

[Snarfbuckle]

You know you can buy a Fuel tank. Oh let not forget You can Farm for Materials to Jump farther.

Yes, you are preaching to the choir here.

I use a 32+64 tonne fuel tank on my Robigo Asp so I can go 500 LY max range without refuelling. I'm not complaining about jump ranges.

 

[DragoonKnight]

You know you can buy a Fuel tank. Oh let not forget You can Farm for Materials to Jump farther.

The Devs have already Said each Ship has it Limitation. So your not going to get it all in one small ship. That means ship like Diamondback Explorer which can explore. But to do it all in it. You have to take shields off. So what they are saying It can't do it all You need a larger ship.

I dont think anyone expects a ship that can do it all. We are talking about a ship that is optimized for exploration, but it very bad at fighting and trading. It might have the following qualities:
1. Can jump far, if necessary. Comparable to Exploration Anacondas, maybe even a few LY farther.
2. has a lot of internals for modules, but not a lot of cargo space. It needs about 9 internals. Two internals are class 1 because they are designed to fit scanners.
One possible idea is to give it the following internals: Class 6, Class 5, Class 4, Class 4, Class 4, Class 3, Class 2, Class 1, Class 1.
3. has a decent turn rate to make it easy to turn in SC, but not as good as the fas or fdl. Combat is not this ship's purpose.
4. has a decent top speed, but overall it would be quite average. Maybe 325-350 m/s with boost and 250 m/s without boost.
5. Very lightly armed. Maybe 2 medium hardpoints. This is not a combat ship.
6. About 4 utility slots.
7. Shield Strength comparable to Asp Explorer
8. Cost can be about 40 Million

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9. Looks good
10. Engines sound good