What easy to land ship do you think is best for xenobiology?

Branithar

Branithar
I'm deciding between these two ships. Both ships have decent visibility (DBX has better visibility though), lots of optional internal slots, small and should be relatively easy to land on rough terrain:

Dolphin:
9 optional internal slots
Good fuel scoop rate (hot scooping so needs a low emissions engineered power plant).
51.8m length x 20.8m width = 1,077m total footprint

DBX: great visibility for scanning terrain
8 optional internal slots
poor fuel scoop rate (though great thermal handling)
45m length x 27.3m width = 1,228.5m total footprint
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Which ship do you think is best for xenobiology: considering visibility, number of optional internal slots, etc.
 
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Orvidius

Orvidius
I haven't tried the Dolphin for it, but I'm finding the DBX to be really good at squeezing into small spaces to land. This is helpful for some of the shrubs and fungoids that only grow up in the rocky hills, where landing opportunities are pretty minimal.
 

marx

marx
Since the Imp. Courier is not on your list, I'd recommend the DBX. If it were, I'd recommend the Courier instead. I've used both for exobio extensively by now, and I found that flying around and landing at targets takes me significantly less time with the Courier. After all, it has better forward speed, maneuverability, and directional thrusters - all of which add up. As for internals and visibility, it's very good in both.

Out of all the small ships though, nothing beats the DBX's jump range.
 

goemon

goemon
of the 2 dbx would be my choice. you could also look a bit out if the box, take a scout or eagle or viper mk iii or courier - if you like more speed, stronger thrusters, even easier to land ... dbs and eagle are my preferred surface explorer.
 

Major Klutz

Major Klutz
Given the premise that smaller is better for finding a landing spot as close as possible to what you're looking for.
I prefer the DBX for it's small size, good visibility and extreme jump range, especially if you're hunting in far away places.
If jump range is not a priority for you and you're only doing short trips, the speed and maneuverability of the Imperial Courier is another advantage to consider. It's even smaller than the DBX, it can be reasonably outfitted for exploration and (IMHO) it much more fun to fly.
My Courier has a 40ly jump range, 600m/s(800m/s boost), AFMU, Shields and an SRV.
 

Hedy

H
Dolphin is fun to fly and I prefer the cleaner view if offers but the DBX is probably the better choice overall as it sits down easier for me. I recently spent about 6 weeks in a Courier around the core and fully enjoyed the experience of using a smaller ship and putting it down pretty much wherever I wished.
 

Branithar

Branithar
The first ship I used for xenobiology was a super fast Imperial Courier explorer, and it's definitely fun and easy to land, but Odyssey has a poor draw distance and rendering rocks and plants didn't happen at all when I was flying fast. After flying around awhile, I realized that if I flew much faster than 100m/s, rocks and plants weren't rendering
 

Orvidius

Orvidius
Yeah, the render distance and latency are a problem. I find flying slow and low is the thing to do. Sometimes I've inadvertently gone a bit faster, and then wondered why I couldn't find anything.

Between the courier and DBX, I'd say they're both excellent choices, with some differences. The Courier has a little snappier thruster authority out of the box, and is easy to rig for speed. The DBX has a wider overall field of view, including letting you look down through the sides (great for VR), and of course a much better jump range. I have my DBX outfitted with A-rated thrusters with dirty drives, and it handles pretty well that way.
 

Anticon

Anticon
I fly both Dolphin and DBX, and both are great small ships for explo generally. However the DBX has a field-of-view advantage for exobiology: you often need to fly around low and slow to locate your targets. Added to the range advantage - DBX is favourite. Mind you, it's slow to scoop.
 

Hfarl

Hfarl
I've been using my Krait Phantom, but I really think my Cobra Mk III would probably be best. It's fast, maneuverable, and small so it's easy to land in less-than-flat terrain.

(totally unrelated: "terrain" comes from the word "Terra", meaning Earth. Is there a generic non-Earth word to use instead?)
 

Branithar

Branithar
ship-slot-scale.jpg

I made this, using the Elite Dangerous ship scale Youtube video, to come up with a rough calculation of total square meter footprint of all the ships. I might try xenobiology in a few of the smaller ships, unengineered, and start engineering the ship if I decide I really like it. I have a Courier, Dolphin & DBX already, so I'll give the Adder and Viper Mk IV a shot, 'cause they're tiny and should be quite easy to land anywhere.
 

Major Klutz

Major Klutz
Hfarl said:
(totally unrelated: "terrain" comes from the word "Terra", meaning Earth. Is there a generic non-Earth word to use instead?)
Click to expand...
Well, both words, "earth" and "terra" originally just mean dirt or ground but have since come to mean the planet.
I prefer the names Terra and Luna over Earth and Moon since those are used more generically.

On a related note, what do you call a xeno geologist? Still xenogeology even though Geo refers to the Earth.
Usually periapsis and apoapsis are used in place of perigee and apogee for other planets, but that's no help here.
 

Hfarl

Hfarl
Major Klutz said:
On a related note, what do you call a xeno geologist? Still xenogeology even though Geo refers to the Earth.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah... "Xeno-surfaceologist"? :D

You're right though, I'll stick with "terrain" and "geo".

My fleet carrier with my Cobra is currently a couple thousand lightyears away from me right now, but I think I'll hop back out there and take my Cobra for a spin to go find some biological sites.

I'm considering also picking up both a Dolphin and a DBX. I've never actually owned or flown either of those in Elite before. Probably time I gave them a try!
 

Mohenjo

Mohenjo
The Dolphin was a decent ship. Very lightly armed, of course... but reasonable internal spaces. Decent for exploration. My biggest complaint was the boring flight deck.
Never cared for the Diamondbacks. The cockpits are nice, but I dislike the way the whole back end of the ship tilts to land.
 

Deleted member 38366

D
Running in a DBX right now, I'm quite happy with its landing footprint. Haven't had any landing issues so far sampling Bios.

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