What hardpoints and utilities do you like to put on your exploration ships?

Branithar

Branithar
I just replaced the single mining lasers on my exploration ships with mining lances, just 'cause they're sorta cool. I don't really need them, 'cause I'm not expecting to run out of jumponium (after filling up at the crystal shard sites), losing the SRV, and getting stranded with no way out except for ring mining for mats. They're cool to have though.

So, what hardpoints and utilities do you like to put on your exploration ships?
 

Orvidius

Orvidius
I think most explorers keep their hardpoints mostly empty, except for a mining laser and maybe a fuel-dumping weapon. It can also be useful to have a weapon of some kind, if you want to poke at space life, to figure out their traits. Personally, I hate having empty slots, so I tend to carry lightweight-modded weapons.

Some obvious choices:

  • Mining laser/lance - Could save your life someday. But that can also be avoided by planning. So totally optional.
  • Rail gun or plasma accelerator, with "plasma slug" experimental effect - Can be used to dump fuel for making a long "on fumes" jump.

Personally I also like using multicannons, particularly on ships where I can see them from the cockpit. Because they're cool, and you can shoot at asteroids if you're bored. Missiles are also good for this. Both of these choices don't use a lot of power, so work nicely with a ship that has an engine-focused distributor, and is running a tight power budget on the power plant.

Remote-release Flak is a fun choice. It can't be lightweighted, so it will always be 4 tons. But you can use it for fireworks.

If you're less concerned about power, you can bring some lasers, and always have a light-show at your fingertips. ;)
 

CMDR Cknarf

CMDR Cknarf
Usually just a mining laser in terms of hardpoints. Lotta heat sinks. Shield boosters, too.

You can get a pretty healthy shield on an Anaconda, and still out-pace a DBX. More than enough for rough landings and hostile ships.
 

Zieman

Zieman
In utilities I have shield booster, point defence, heat sink launcher and chaff - one of each.
Small mining laser and small rail gun with plasma slugs are my only weapons, not expecting to need any.
 

Trollymctrollerson

T
I use a light weight modded pulse laser in case I need to shoot something for science. 1 E rated HD shield booster for bumpy landings some heatsinks. Im not a hardcore jump range min maxer so I might throw a point defense or wake scanner on too in case i decide to use the same ship around the bubble or near the bubble. Scanning thargoid wakes is something I try to do in case a materials trader dealing in them comes along in the future.
 

goemon

goemon
hardpoints:
  • mining laser (not so much for me, but for the rare case of getting someone else out of a tight situation)
  • plasma-slug plasma-accelerator for fuel dumping (a railgun would work the same, but ... see below)
  • an ax-missile rack

with those 3 i have all kind of damage type (absolute, kinetic, thermal, explosive and ax) for experimenting. on a ship with more hardpoints than a DBE i'd put a pulse laser, as i have once been in a situation to backtrack for triggering a guardian object. plus some biologicals react to different actions, and a mining laser is one of the few "weapons" working along a comp scanner

utilities:
  • heatsink. i have needed it once in 1 mio ly.
  • manifest scanner. if i'd find a derelict megaship, a convoy or an installation deepspace, i'd like to now its cargo
  • xeno scanner.
  • point defense. i settled for that for some kind of sentinels.

for me outfitting an exploration ship is very much about outfitting for the unknown. if I'd fly something with more utilities i'd probably take a wake scanner as well etc.
 

Deleted member 38366

D
I typically run Laser/Multicannon mix on all Exploration Vessels.
Utilities always include Chaff + Point Defense and a Heat Sink, all remaining slots will have Shield Boosters.
When sufficient Utility Slots are available, a Xeno Scanner and ECM are onboard as well and maybe a 2nd Heat Sink.

Only on my first long-range Explorer (Anaconda) from old times, I additionally carry 2 C1 Mining Lasers in the mix.
 

Yurika Shirayuki

Yurika Shirayuki
Having a fleet carrier in tow behind me, I explore now by jumping ahead of the carrier kind of like a pathfinder, then I bring the carrier forward when I'm about 500 ly away, sooner if I find a double or triple tritium hotspot. So my AspX and DBX have empty hardpoints and 2x heatsinks engineered lightweight G5 and 2x 0E shield boosters engineered heavy duty G5 super-cap. The AspX is setup for straight space exploration with no SRV hangars, and the DBX is setup for planetary landings with a 4G SRV hangar since it has a smaller footprint and can land in tighter spaces than the AspX.
 

Badman76

Badman76
My dbx has a mining laser and 2 medium lightweight plasma slug rails, I’m quite surprised how much damage they can do.
Utilities I carry a wake scanner and 2 pdt all light weight and a shield booster for a little more thermal protection

I explore, mine and do combat in my explorer
 

Feldspar

Feldspar
MY ASPX has:

Nothing
Zero
Nowt

I admit it was originally outfitted in the early days and today's 70LY jump range isn't going to suffer by adding something, but I think that when I get my space legs I'll probably drop the SRV hanger as for me exploring was going as far as possible with as little as I could get away with.
 
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