So, I've only been in the Bubble twice, since start (Last was 3308), and in all honesty, it was not a place for me. I am an Explorer... The end. But that bloody above-mentioned Drive... I only want one for my DBX (I know that the Mandalay is the thing, but I've spent years exploring in the Diamondback, and it lands practically anywhere). It is my ship.

Travel arrangements:

So, I managed to catch a ride with the absolutely brilliant and smashing Fleet Carrier Owners Club on Discord.

@Buke857 is genuinely Brilliant and worthy of that salute.

Back to the Bubble! Luchtaine to Ay Indi.

The trip took a day and a half of actual time, which provided me with the opportunity to plan out exactly how to proceed upon arrival given my current situation:

1. Unlock Engineer Marco Qwent, who is essentially useless, but finally grants access to Professor Palin - Pin Dirty Drives, but ultimately I can purchase 1F (2T) Corrosion Resistant Cargo Racks.

2. Outfitting: Shinrarta Dezhra - Made my first mistake, and realised after much frustration: Titan Drive Components do not spawn at Titan sites if you have anything less than A rated Sensors.

3. Outfitted with A Rated Sensors... Obtained, over time, X3 Titan Drive Components... And loads of Propulsion Elements, and other materials... Jumping out to the WISE 1506+ system after collecting each to unlock the Pre-engineered SCO V1 at the Technology Broker.

4. Paid a visit to Felicity Farseer to add Mass Manager to the drives.

5. Returned to the Fleet Carrier, this time heading back to Colonia, then jumped ship at: Skaude AA-A h294 - The Collection of Wonders (Definitely worth a visit!).

6. Travelled 6,500Ly back to my own Fleet Carrier, out in the black.

Outfitting:

My DBX originally had a maximum jump range of: 74.91Ly. Now, after all of the above-mentioned efforts, that ship can jump: 81.27Ly (82.48Ly if I get rid of the Vehicle Hanger and have a Cargo Rack and Repair Limpet Controller instead).

An interesting and worthwhile adventure, and with options for further adventures. The Fleet Carrier Owners Club on Discord is a genuinely brilliant resource, especially for the likes of me, who doesn't do FOMO... But the notion that my ship isn't as good as it could be, simply because you have to return to the Bubble...

Safe journeys, Commander's!

So, out in the black for some time now. Flying the Mandalay for a goodly while... I very much mostly like it.

Mostly.

Mandalay Jump range is excellent, as are heat dynamics and manoeuvrability... But given where I explore, sometimes really problematic to land. It has many, many benefits over my previous explorer, I know, but I'm kind of missing my DBX...

I previously wasn't bothered, but the idea of sticking one of those new Pre-engineered V1 SCO Drives into that tiny ship are very appealing, getting over 81Ly jump range.

Perhaps a trip back to the bubble is finally in order, although given how quickly it is currently expanding, perhaps that will be sooner rather than later!

Old hand, I'm afraid! Safe adventures, Commanders.

So, the Mandalay, I have bitten.

Currently having loads of fun doing on-foot missions in Colonia, whilst I await the Mandalay release... And wondering, given the blanked out, grey Thargoid missions on the Missions board, and hearing overhead announcements on Foot, at stations, warning about the Thargoid threat, things may be about to get interesting in Colonia, I believe.

Nevertheless, Yes. For the first time ever I will buy a ship with ARX. I know, I know... But I am genuinely not prepared to wait until January.

Why?

I hate the Anaconda vehemently, and only have one fitted for exploration due to it's Jump range. Have added an SCO drive, even better! In case I find something interesting on the trip, getting from the Bubble to Colonia, or Vise versa... Albeit, the last time that happened, I used an Anaconda to get back to the Bubble, paid a fortune to recall my DBX, and then flew back to Colonia in that.

So, the Mandalay... Sounds as though it is going to render an exploration outfitted Krait Phantom or Asp Explorer irrelevant and pointless. That's actually quite sad. Albeit, perhaps this new ship wants the old ships to play to their strengths? A question, perhaps?

Generally, I do not like medium or large ships for exploration, particularly when doing exobiology on planets... And, I do exobiology on planets a-massive-amount!

Therefore... I'll give it a chance, and if the anaconda beating jump range is as to be believed, I will engineer one, but it will be a much better ride, and exploration ship back to the Bubble than the Anaconda... And that, sadly, is about it!

Quite a Game Changer.

I was very slow to the party, I admit.

The benefits to any class of FSD is quite apparent, apart from grade 5 FSDs... Or, particularly, the pre-engineered V1.

My DBX, for example, now has a 74.95Ly jump range, over it's original 74.73Ly. The Anaconda is bonkers (83.76Ly), albeit fantastic for covering long distances from A to B, but otherwise useless as an explorer.

The FSD boost of the SCO drive is brilliant, but fuel intensive, and as an explorer, you really need to be mindful of that (Although, exit from a planetary atmosphere can be super-quick!). I imagine that the wonderful 'Fuel Rats' have had a significant uplift in business lately!

Nevertheless, given my previous jaunt around the galaxy in a DBX with (only, at the time) a 58.68Ly range, which was perfectly serviceable, albeit with a lot of synthesis usage at the outer edges, demonstrated to me that a vessel with around a 60Ly Jump range is a perfectly suitable long range explorer, and the SCO Drive opens up some of the smaller vessels I'd previously ignored... and I enjoy an experiment!:

Type 6 Transporter: 62.64Ly jump range, with vehicle hanger and all essentials.

The Asp Scout: 63.27Ly jump range, with vehicle hanger. Long rubbished by everyone, this becomes a decent budget explorer with a small footprint.

The Diminutive Hauler: 62.81Ly jump range, albeit, without a vehicle, but it is so tiny and lands practically anywhere.

My personal favorite, the Dolphin: 66.67Ly jump range, with vehicle hanger, and again, is super nimble at landing in difficult terrain.

And lastly, because it's a great multi-purpose ship:

The Python: 61.07Ly jump range, with vehicle hanger, and all creature comforts.

These are now genuinely great, mostly little, ships to explore with and genuinely open up the exploration possibilities, at all kinds of budgets, or curiosity levels.

Good explorations to you, Commanders!

With my 'First Discovered' name on them.

An achievement in itself, and now a personal record.

I have made slow progression up the ranks of the Top 100 Best Exploration list (Systems Discovered) on EDSM, though, for myself, I truly enjoy the fact that over 20% of those First Discovered systems are Black Holes.

Indeed, my personal record still sits at X5 Black Holes in a single system, but I keep looking... (The record being 7).

Nevertheless, there's always more to discover!

I'm certain that other Commanders have their Personal Records, and achieving them is quite remarkable!

Advantageous discoveries, Commanders.

I was fascinated by this opportunity, so much, I travelled over 20k+ Ly back to the bubble to try them out.

The anti-Exeno initiative has been busy, however, and they're practically impossible to find.

I could find the abandoned sites, thanks to Inara.cz... but couldn't find the Mission-givers... So, just flew to a couple of the sites...

I learned that:

A: If you fly to the sites without a mission... There is ALWAYS a Banshee on site as well! Making infiltration remarkably difficult... But possible.

B: Identify where the Power building is... And the entrance is always in a difficult position...

C: Nevertheless, take a Power Regulator. Power up the site. Plenty of energy recharge and ammunition available... Albeit, ensure that you know where they are!

Thanks to the above, I have now taken down a Banshee on foot... Though, wouldn't recommend the experience!

Nevertheless, I had a great time back in the bubble. Unlocked a few more engineers and added ships to my fleet.

Did tire of the constant interdictions, but all those High Grades were too hard to resist!

Overall, what a great experience.

Nevertheless, back out in the black, and loving it.

Best exploration wishes, Commanders!

I have a significant amount of experience in discovering Black Hole systems. Currently having over 8,000 of them accredited with my name.

They sometimes contain biological signals that are worth a huge amount of credits...

In my general experience, however, Ignore signals of the following origin: Methane, Argon, Helium, Neon, Oxygen (Unless there's Three or more) and especially Ammonia and Carbon-Dioxide (Unless there's 9 or more).

Focus on: Nitrogen (3 or more Exobiology signals), Sulphur-dioxide (Again, 3 or more signals) or, again-again, 3 or more biological signals on a Geologically active moon (My current personal record for this is 11).

There's HMC worlds, with 2 or more signals , but they are pretty few and far between in Black Hole systems.

Lastly: Water-based atmosphere, always has an abundance of signals, the minimum I've seen is 4, Maximum 10... They're worth a significant amount, and always very valuable (Apart from the Bacterium).

There are others, I'm aware, based in nebulae... But they're the ultimate tourist hotspot, so I avoid.

I know that it has become a 'thing' to demonstrate how many biological signals you've discovered in a single system... But, sadly, most of the time, it's all of low value and not worth the effort to actually land and scan.

Indeed, I have better things to do. Though, if I'd bothered to scan a lot of low value Exobiology signals, my record for a single system would be 67 (A Helium-Rich Gas Giant system)... But I didn't, and I don't!

Most prosperous explorations, Commanders! o7

Well, the Python for exploration... Didn't do any way nearly as badly as expected. Indeed, showed me a few things! It's landing footprint, in that hunt for Biological signals, compared to the Krait Phantom (and laughably , the Anaconda) is way better!

However, it's jump range isn't, albeit it was carrying significantly more cargo than my 32 Tonnes max cargo capacity Krait Phantom could manage (and the Anaconda was way better, but solely in this one single regard).

The Anaconda: I tried it, for quite a while... hoping for something! Essentially it's a slow moving piece of junk, useless for anything exploration based, beyond it's jump range.

Nevertheless, when it comes to the Krait Phantom, it is a pain in the arse to land in rough terrain compared to the Python (Don't even consider doing such a thing in an Anaconda).

I only have 18 Tonnes of Tritium left to 'Donate' to my Fleet Carrier before I can switch back to my DBX.

Seriously, for a space-based and on-foot exploration ship, and for me, this experiment has absolutely, completely conclusively proven... The DBX is the absolute BEST exploration ship.

Jump further with the Anaconda... But seriously, don't try and do anything else with it!

Safe and productive explorations, Commanders. o7

So, I explored in the Type 9... Which was interesting, however the Tritium in its hold finally reduced to below 252 tonnes, which was the cargo capacity of my Type 7... And I genuinely fancied a change!

The Type 7. Jump range is actually pretty good overall, given the size of the thing (With a pre-engineered Class 5 Frame Shift Drive, plus Mass Manager) and additional weight-shedding engineering.

Lands on planets and moons... Eventually, though It's footprint for landing isn't terrible and way, way, way better than the Type 9!

However, the bloody HEAT! Good lord! The thermal dynamics of this ship, particularly when carrying cargo of any significant amount, is awful. Critical heat warnings on EVERY single jump. I certainly wouldn't want to jump into a heat risk system with this ship, and I acted accordingly... Which is restricting.

I eventually tired of the heat dynamics relating to the Type 7, albeit it was quite an experience! However, I eventually reached below 192 tonnes cargo capacity, having jumped the Fleet Carrier multiple times... And transferred, thankfully, to the Python... And that, my friends, is a different story.

Safe and fruitful explorations, Commanders! o7

Well, given my previous exploration experience, I never thought that it would ever come to this...

Yes, exploration in a Type 9 Heavy, albeit for a limited duration.

Why? That is probably the obvious question, understandably!

Well, outfitted for exploration, with a vehicle bay, shields, FSD booster (5H), scanners, etc, it still has a cargo capacity of 704 tonnes. No other ship has a cargo capacity that comes even close.

Tritium, that is the short answer.

I've finally managed to load 24,580 Tonnes of the fuel, completely maxing out my Carrier cargo capacity, with the fuel tank also filled to the 1,000 Tonnes maximum... However, it occurred to me: You could take even more Carrier fuel with you, enough for at least another Seven jumps In the cargo hold of my Type 9 (Well, practically Eight, technically, as I flew back to the Fleet Carrier with nothing but Cargo Racks equalling 790 Tonnes total, and after the first FC jump, transferred fuel to the FC fuel tank and then outfitted as above using the freed up space)...

Basically, in those initial jumps, my Fleet Carrier travels through systems that I believe are unexplored, and seriously, I'm far too curious to just move on without first taking a look...

And, why am I doing this: the ultimate bind - You have to transfer all cargo between ships.

The Type 9 lands on a planet or moon as though it wishes to become part of it!, And if you can't find an area to land that is totally flat, you're in trouble (Or auto-landing-induced-boredom-mode).

Nevertheless, there is the SRV... And I get to drive around significantly more than I ordinarily would...

It certainly breaks the normal exploration mould, presenting a completely new perspective and series of challenges. Indeed, only by trying the ridiculous can you make it work!

Safe, and peculiar adventures, Commanders! o7