Newcomer / Intro What are you up to?

You’ll be fine if you manage your pips.

Plenty of overcharged FDLs and Mambas flying about that are also covered in rails/plasma that manage.

I run triple LR beams on an FDL, a huge and two mediums, and manage not to overheat so much that it becomes a problem. That was with a toasty guardian plant, even.
 
While the Mamba does run a little warm, they are used almost exclusively with dirty drives in PVP, which is full of hot weapons and constant boosting.

Dirty drives are acurally less demanding in terms of power draw, for some reason.

As mentioned above, your power plant efficiency affects your ship’s heat management far more than any other core module.

The only time I’d even consider clean drives is on a silent running build. Even then, the ability to stay silent for a few more seconds is not worth the sacrifice of 50+ m/s in speed. A combat Mamba should be pushing 600m/s, or even exceeding it.

Here are some crude numbers I gathered on my own from my DBS and different plant/modification combos. Different ship, but it gives you an idea. Keep in mind this was all done with silent running engaged, and getting that particular ship to overheat is extremely difficult otherwise.

Clean drives need an adjustment to be more useful, I think.

#1

Plant:

Armored G3, No experimental

16.76mw/0.37 eff

78% total usage



Drives:

Dirty G5 drag drives (32% usage)

Max speed: 576

Cruise speed: 424



Hardpoints deployed

All modules on

Idle heat: 19%

Idle to 100% - boosting (6 boosts, 0:26)

Idle to 100% - stationary^ (1:26)

Idle to 100% - cruising (1:16)



#2

Plant:

Armored G3, no experimental

16.76mw/0.37 eff

79% total usage



Drives:

Clean G5 thermal spread (34% usage)

Max speed 509

Cruise speed 375



Hardpoints deployed

All modules on

Idle heat: 20%

Idle to 100% - Boosting (6 boosts, 0:27)

Idle to 100% - stationary^ (1:24)

Idle to 100% - Cruising (1:24)



#3

Plant:

Low emissions G5 thermal spread

13.26mw/0.14 eff

98% total usage



Drives:

Dirty G5 drag drives (41% usage)

Max speed 576

Cruise speed 424



Hardpoints deployed

All modules on

Idle heat: 12%

Idle to 100% - boosting (7 boosts, 0:33)

Idle to 100% - stationary^ (4:16)

Idle to 100% - cruising (3:30)



#4



Plant:

Low emissions G5 thermal spread

13.26/0.14 eff

*95% total usage



Drives:

Clean G5 thermal spread (43% usage)

Max Speed 509

Cruise speed 375



Hardpoints deployed

*Cargo hatch OFF

Idle heat: 13%

Idle to 100% - boosting (9 boosts, 0:40)

Idle to 100% - stationary^ (4:21)

Idle to 100% - cruising (4:10)



^Zero throttle, not accounting for thruster activity caused by stick drift
Thank you for all this testing, very useful and helpful!

You wouldn't happen to also have any reinforced thrusters about which could be used to compare to? I read in the other thread that it seems the difference in -thermal load- is only in effect while the thruster is engaged (as in accelerating) while the power draw is always active. With reinforced drives having same power draw as stock but less thermal load they have the potential to be the best if you want to run cool (with a hit to agility ofc, but if you want max of that you go DD anyway)
 
The only thing I bothered equipping reinforced drives on was my T9, since it’s a big, slow target even with dirty drives. That thing isn’t outrunning anybody no matter what you do to it.

I know it will still get warm with excessive boosting while the FSD is charging, but my concern was more with durability. Nobody’s shooting the drives out of that thing. The biggest downside is that they are HEAVY.

Dirty drives still have way too many benefits to overlook, I think, and really aren’t too bad so long as you don’t intentionally try to overheat yourself.

In this thread here, you can read a little more on my findings between dirty and clean drives on my Scout, and on my Type 6, above the surface of Achenar 6, an extremely high gravity world.
 
So, I stored the drive unit, fixed a 5A and G5'd it dirty. The PD is now charge enhanced (G3), the PP overcharged (G3) and I've fitted a huge beam, two large G5 engineered MCs I had in store and, because I've never used them before, two small rails. Royal With Cheese does 604m/s in boost.

Could be fun but I need to make some more money back too and combat is still an art I'm deeply in need of learning. My HRES-fu is very weak, and I don't want to enter the realms of PvP as I wish to keep my hose unsoiled.

So, yes, more cash needed for my "own one of every ship" bucket list (there is no logical reason for me to do this: it's just something I fancy doing :D). They will most proabaly be just hulls as eqiupping them decenlty will be the horror story my wallet fears.

I still require the Beluga, Orca, T10, T7, Fdl, FGS and Alliance Challenger.
You will love the Orca, it can hit 640+ in boost.
 
The Mamba is pretty similar to the FDL handling wise, just slightly less responsive in the turns. Fantastic lateral movement on both ships, so if you like one, you’ll probably like the other.

I’ve been loving the Orca lately. Even with full armor and shields, it boosts over 600 and handles surprisingly well for its size. I’ve ran off some less experienced FDLs with it, even lol. If it had a bigger power distributor and another large hardpoint, it could be really scary.
Yes I would love to see a medium pad Saud Kruger with decent weapons.
 
Why? For the beam? If you have no reason not to, engineer it for efficiency. That overcharged PP may give you some headaches with heat management - especially with the beam.

For a (PvE) dakka Mamba, I use this.

P.S.: Almost forgot - I also still have the ingredients for a beam loadout in storage - the Pacifiers are not recommended for use in CZs :rolleyes:

Why? Probably coz I don 't rwally know what I'm doing :D. Especially when it comes to optimal/meta building - I just... fiddle!
 
Fiddle I do too, but find it frustrating to burn through mats so quickly. I do not enjoy the brain melting repeatedness of Dav's Hope runs, and I certainly do not like the progress bar running through Competent, I do not feel a competent combat fighter, not even novice. How can I reset that to mostly harmless? LOL
 
The only thing I bothered equipping reinforced drives on was my T9, since it’s a big, slow target even with dirty drives. That thing isn’t outrunning anybody no matter what you do to it.

I know it will still get warm with excessive boosting while the FSD is charging, but my concern was more with durability. Nobody’s shooting the drives out of that thing. The biggest downside is that they are HEAVY.

Dirty drives still have way too many benefits to overlook, I think, and really aren’t too bad so long as you don’t intentionally try to overheat yourself.

In this thread here, you can read a little more on my findings between dirty and clean drives on my Scout, and on my Type 6, above the surface of Achenar 6, an extremely high gravity world.
I've had a look now. Clean seems underwhelming in most situations, giving less speed and minor heat benefit at best. Why aren't people using reinforced more, even just for comparison. If you just care for heat it seems the obvious choice, and with that you should be able to isolate the effect of power increase and heat change. Get a clean drive with same heat reduction as a reinforced and compare them on otherwise identical setups.
 
Fiddle I do too, but find it frustrating to burn through mats so quickly. I do not enjoy the brain melting repeatedness of Dav's Hope runs, and I certainly do not like the progress bar running through Competent, I do not feel a competent combat fighter, not even novice. How can I reset that to mostly harmless? LOL
Talk nicely to the very helpful people at Support they could possibly do that for you, it was certainly a thing recommended to people with Elite rank a couple of years back who were struggling because the NPCs had learned not to stop an spin in place when attacked and instead fight back.

Clear saving would do it but then you lose all your assets.
 
Fiddle I do too, but find it frustrating to burn through mats so quickly. I do not enjoy the brain melting repeatedness of Dav's Hope runs, and I certainly do not like the progress bar running through Competent, I do not feel a competent combat fighter, not even novice. How can I reset that to mostly harmless? LOL

I may be getting a bit sad in my dotage, but I actually enjoy carting around Davs. Digging those chemical manipulators :D
 
Fiddle I do too, but find it frustrating to burn through mats so quickly. I do not enjoy the brain melting repeatedness of Dav's Hope runs, and I certainly do not like the progress bar running through Competent, I do not feel a competent combat fighter, not even novice. How can I reset that to mostly harmless? LOL
Actually FD support will reset it if you ask.
 
Something odd happened to me last night on a flight to some system I can't remember the name of...

I was on the "Downwind" leg of my approach to a station, had just slowed down from Max to about 115 and a ship appeared in my flight path. It was clear one second and the next I have a faceful of Adder! I hit the ship, and luckily it did not destroy it. But I did get hit with a 100 Cr fine for reckless flying. I was thinking as I was coming in on final, How the heck am I supposed to know some dude is going to pop out of hyperspace directly in front of me?

Anyway, landed anonymously, paid my fine, and dropped my cargo...But it was completing the mission that bumped me to Post Captain...so all is good I guess.

Take Care and Check Six Commanders! o7
 
The Mamba is pretty similar to the FDL handling wise, just slightly less responsive in the turns. Fantastic lateral movement on both ships, so if you like one, you’ll probably like the other.

I’ve been loving the Orca lately. Even with full armor and shields, it boosts over 600 and handles surprisingly well for its size. I’ve ran off some less experienced FDLs with it, even lol. If it had a bigger power distributor and another large hardpoint, it could be really scary.

I forgot to respond to this. I like the handling of the Orca myself too (used it for core mining, only just realised how BIG it is, so considering alternatives).

For reference, the Orca have as good lateral movement as the "fantastic lateral" FDL. It does have lower pitch rate and roll, but it got a higher yaw (just higher than a vulture for reference)
 
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