Ships What does everything DO...?

[Ray Gun Rebecca]

So, I'm trying to trick out a Diamondback Scout to go exploring (I tried exploring once, didn't like it, but I've been talking with people about it, and I think I know what I was doing wrong), but when I add a better Frame Space thingy, the range actually goes down.

So I'm wondering...what am I doing wrong? Do I need a better power plant? A better distributor? Both? All three?
Or is it something else? Do I just plain have the wrong ship? Is the FSD actually just too heavy for this chassis?

I mean, I'm not 100% certain what everything does. It seems like a power plant should be enough; why do we need a distributor? What does that change?

I'm all kinds of confused.

What I'm after is something with a maximum jump range. How do I make that happen on this ship?

 

[Monk]

Sounds like you went down in class but went up in rating...

D3 FSD vs. A2 FSD

You probably saw a higher rating, the letter, but didn't take notice in the reduction in class, the number. Class represents the size of the drive while the rating tells you the quality, in that size/class. Going down a size/class on a FSD will most certainly lower your range even if you were going to a higher rating.

 

[Ray Gun Rebecca]

Sounds like you went down in class but went up in rating...

D3 FSD vs. A2 FSD

You probably saw a higher rating, the letter, but didn't take notice in the reduction in class, the number. Class represents the size of the drive while the rating tells you the quality, in that size/class. Going down a size/class on a FSD will most certainly lower your range even if you were going to a higher rating.

Actually... *blush* I think what I saw was a higher cost and went, "Ooooh! Has to be better, right?"
Fortunately, when I saw the rating go down when I did a comparison, I didn't buy it.

I think it's possible I may have screwn myself. The station I'm at doesn't have a lot of parts to buy...I hope I get still get to another station to try my luck there...

 

[GammaZ]

Also IMO DBS is terrible ship for exploration, small fuel scoop, not enough internals.
A cobra, which is also cheaper, looks way better. Then if you have money and want better range there is asp...

 

[Ray Gun Rebecca]

Also IMO DBS is terrible ship for exploration, small fuel scoop, not enough internals.
A cobra, which is also cheaper, looks way better. Then if you have money and want better range there is asp...

Well, how much money are we talking, here?

 

[GammaZ]

Well, basic exploration asp will cost ~13-14M. Cobra - 4-5M.
But you can have at least 15% discount in Li Yong-rui control systems.

 

[Ray Gun Rebecca]

Well, basic exploration asp will cost ~13-14M. Cobra - 4-5M.
But you can have at least 15% discount in Li Yong-rui control systems.

Ugh. Sounds kind of not worth it.
Right now, my cargo runs never earn more than $150,000; it'll take forever to put together that kind of money.
And by the time I do...well, it took me hours last time to find a system that hadn't been charted yet by somebody already. By the time I put together that kind of dough, it'll only get harder.
There'z gotta be a quicker way...

 

[PhoenicianSon]

Not sure what kind of budget you have, but I created a build for exploration with the DS, and linked below. The only issue with the DS is the lack of available additional module slots. Thus, if you decide to explore thousands of ly away, you either have to sacrifice shields for Auto-Repair Units or vice versa, as you will not be able to equip both to maximize your exploration and extend your exploration considering the need for both the Advanced and Detailed scanners. I built it out for you with a shield, which you can swap for the Auto-Repair, which saved my ship a few times when it came to heat damage from blackholes and jumping into adjoining stars from the wrong direction.

The heat sinks are very important, and cost efficient, hence the 4. You could also drop the weapons to save more money and downgrade the fuel scoop to a C, since the DS handles heat very well you can fuel scoop for a good amount of time before you get to dangerous heat levels. Either the B or even the C rated Fuel Scoop may suffice.

Altogether, the build is 4.5 million, but considering the Advanced scanner is 1.5 million and the ship is 500,000.00, that is not a bad with budgeting the build. What is also important is that you go with an A rated powerplant, which disapates heat better than any of the other powerplants. The remaining modules were for the benefit of weight reduction to allow further travel by jump. Take into consideration you will be in supercruise the entire time, and weight is a big factor.

With this setup you can jump a few hundredths off from 28ly. That is not bad, considering a build on the Asp will get you anywhere from 30-34 on average for almost 7 to 8 times the cost.

Input welcome from all other commanders, as although I have done a long stint out there in the unknown with numerous systems accredited to me near the California sector and beyond, I surely do not have the experience that some of you other explorers have that have visited systems 10s of thousands of ly's away:

http://coriolis.io/outfit/diamondback/02A4D4A2D3D2D4C1b1b--02020202432u2f2i.AwRj4yKA.Aw1-kA==

 

[Ray Gun Rebecca]

Huh. What I have right now is actually pretty close to what you've listed. A few classes or ratings are 1 off, but otherwise it's pretty similar.

Tell me, what do heart sinks do? Maybe it's just because I've played a little Battletech from time to time, but I always thought those were basically for overheating weapons, and I don't plan on doing much fighting in this rig...

 

[Cdr Voorheez]

To be honest if you want to explore then take it from somebody who has explored in both the Cobra and the DBE..the DBE is much much better at exploring (it's in the name)
It will give you 33.6LY jump range with its 5A FSD and has room for a 4A fuel scoop, a boostable engine and a decent auto field maintainance unit for 12mil. I will post my coriolis ship later (work now).
DBE is a class ship for exploring. Terrible for combat though. When I want to BH and fight I have a lovely tricked out DBS waiting for me. Keep DBS for what it's good at: combat.
Of course my opinion entirely but in my opinion you cannot go wrong with a diamondback fleet if you can afford it.
DBS: combat
DBE: exploring
I'll post my ships later.

 

[Ray Gun Rebecca]

What's a DBE cost, versus a DBS?

 

[paganpenguin]

What's a DBE cost, versus a DBS?

Stock, it costs about 1.3mil more than a Scout (I believe). Dunno about kitted out as I have yet to purchase one.

 

[Stealth Gamer92]

Stock, it costs about 1.3mil more than a Scout (I believe). Dunno about kitted out as I have yet to purchase one.

A rated FSD is like 4 mil alone(B rated one is close to Db Scout's A rated FSD at 1.something mil.), the rest is the same as scout but 2x size 4 internal's. I think 1 less size 3 though, may be wrong haven't gone into outfiting in awhile.

 

[GammaZ]

DBE will cost like ~12M, and is not worth it, better to get an asp for this price.
And problem with DBS build linked above by PhoenicianSon is that it is just plain worse than cobra with absolutely the same price. For example basic exploration cobra loadout has similar range, bigger fuel scoop => more than 1.5 times faster scooping. You can add 4A scoop and it will be even faster, but it costs 2.8M. Additionaly it has free internal compartments for AFMU-s if you need them.
Main problem with DBS is that you will spend a lot of time just waiting for fuel scooping, which is boring and slows you down. Filling 16T tank with class 3 scoop is really, really slow.

And also if you need most cost-effective explorer ever there is hauler. The only real downside is cockpit view, but we have external camera now...

 

[Stealth Gamer92]

DBE will cost like ~12M, and is not worth it, better to get an asp for this price.
And problem with DBS build linked above by PhoenicianSon is that it is just plain worse than cobra with absolutely the same price. For example basic exploration cobra loadout has similar range, bigger fuel scoop => more than 1.5 times faster scooping. You can add 4A scoop and it will be even faster, but it costs 2.8M. Additionaly it has free internal compartments for AFMU-s if you need them.
Main problem with DBS is that you will spend a lot of time just waiting for fuel scooping, which is boring and slows you down. Filling 16T tank with class 3 scoop is really, really slow.

And also if you need most cost-effective explorer ever there is hauler. The only real downside is cockpit view, but we have external camera now...

Sorry but the Asp is more expensive, so ofcourse it perform's better. It's a case of you get what you pay for. And while I'm responding to this I'll also remind you effeciency isn't everything to some, wierd people like me use the ship we like over the one that's 5% better or whatever the Db Explorer-Asp difference is.

 

[GammaZ]

Sorry but the Asp is more expensive, so ofcourse it perform's better. It's a case of you get what you pay for. And while I'm responding to this I'll also remind you effeciency isn't everything to some, wierd people like me use the ship we like over the one that's 5% better or whatever the Db Explorer-Asp difference is.

The fun part is that it is not. If you use 4A scoop in DBE its price is very close to ASP with, say, 6C/6D scoop, which is better and cheaper than 4A. Lets say price difference will be within 10%.
And difference is like ~10% jump range and 1.5-2x faster scooping.
And whats to "because i like this ship", yes, this part is clear to me, i used to explore in clipper myself which is way worse than both asp and dbe, but i suspect we are not talking about such case in this thread...

 

[Stealth Gamer92]

The fun part is that it is not. If you use 4A scoop in DBE its price is very close to ASP with, say, 6C/6D scoop, which is better and cheaper than 4A. Lets say price difference will be within 10%.
And difference is like ~10% jump range and 1.5-2x faster scooping.
And whats to "because i like this ship", yes, this part is clear to me, i used to explore in clipper myself which is way worse than both asp and dbe, but i suspect we are not talking about such case in this thread...

Didn't know that about price as I've never explorer kited my Asp, and true we don't know if this person want's the effecient ship or a good ship they'll like. Not saying they won't like the Asp.

 

[Ray Gun Rebecca]

Personally, I just wanna go as far as possible as fast as possible. Find stuff no one else has yet without a double-wide buttload of waiting.

That's the goal.

 

[Achuta]

Personally, I just wanna go as far as possible as fast as possible. Find stuff no one else has yet without a double-wide buttload of waiting.

That's the goal.

Well the Asp has a 32-gallon fuel tank, which is huge, so you can go many many jumps without refueling; it also has great range when upgraded (20ly+ I think). However, it's expensive as hell. Even after the initial 6.6 million purchase, you'd probably have to spend at least another 10 mil to get it tricked out for jumping more than 20ly since it uses mostly class 4/5 components.
The DbE is a great exploration vehicle and probably your best bet if you can afford it. If that's still too much though, then just go with the DbS. While I do agree that it makes a better combat ship, the DbS can still excel at exploration with the right setup.

 

[Jon Jaymes]

Well, when I first went exploring, I did not have enough money to fully kit an Asp, so went for the DBE (leaving my Clipper back in habited space). Total cost when fully kitted was a little over 12m. Absolutely necessary is a class 3 (at least) fuel scoop, A rated FSD and ADS and DSS. I also stuck in an A rated Drive. Total fuel capacity is 32 tons which will take you a hell of a long way without needing to refuel.

Without any armaments it goes 32ly in a single jump. Now my ship also has A rated shields, and weapons, and will still go 30ly at a time.

All in all, the DBE makes a great and more economical vessel than the Asp (Asp is prob better tho' if you can afford to kit it, but you are looking at more like 20m+). Don't forget, you need to be able to pay the insurance which is a lot more than with the DBE

Jon Jaymes