I'm a mess. See, here's the thing. I have too many ships. I do. And it's not even that many. It's eleven. I have eleven ships currently. And it's too many. Why?

Cause none of them are done really. Engineering is a rabbit hole.

OK, so maybe the Orca and the DBX are where I want them. But the other nine? All partially baked.

Part of me wants to sell all but four of them. But the other part says no. Ships are like the thing that keeps me going (hey double entendre!). But when I look at them I see everything is partially done, or I chose an upgrade that I don't want any more. Or I have things I was experimenting on and they weren't what I was looking for or they had a knock-on effect on something else.

Everything seems to be G4.25 ya know? Most of the way there. If I had only stuck with a few good ships they would all be done.

It's led to a new condition.... moduleswapitis. My Courier is mothballed because I took everything out of it and threw it in the iEagle just so I could see how fast I can go. The internals were taken out of the Python, put in the Krait, and then put in the Python again. It's madness. It's a jumble that makes my head swim

And why can't we have a better module screen? Like one where you can sort ships and modules, and drag and drop 'em? That would be so nice.

Just thermally venting here, and it's self-inflicted anyway. But the scattershot approach is doing me in.

Just as an exercise, I'm going to roleplay a FCO ( Fleet Curtailment Officer )

My fleet as it stands

iCourier
iEagle
Vulture
Keelback
AspX
DBX
FDL
Python
Krait II
Orca
Anaconda

What would I sell?

iEagle could go. I like the Courier better. Not as fast or agile, but better in every other way. Keelback could go, but I'm fond of it. It has one role, planetary materials gathering in my home system.

Vulture could go. I never fly it any more. Love the ship, rarely take it out.

Anaconda? Gonna need it for something!

DBX or AspX? No can't do it. Same with the Python. FDL has too much time in it to get rid or it. Orca? Too much love.

Krait? There's a possibility. It's a good ship, but as the most recent acquisition it has only added to my woes.

So I could possibly trim it by four, Krait, Vulture, iEagle and Keelback. But that doesn't actually solve anything really. I'll have fewer ships, but none of the remaining ones are any closer to being done as a result. And by disembiggening my fleet I will have even more module swapping to do. As it stands, everything has a role, and I can just jump in it and go. It's already configured for the thing I want to do. That's why I did this in the first place. I gotta work this out. Or find peace despite it all

So the way I'm playing it, is that I use my current ship for anything I decide to do. I know different ships have different strengths etc, but I remember playing the old 1984 Elite and subsequent Fronitier, only one ship allowed at a time there. So I make do, make decisions, compromise, make that one ship my home, for good or for bad. It's just the way I like to play

I think, for me, having too many ships would be a drag on my motivation actually.

However, I DO keep all my old ships. because. You know. Reasons.

(Actually I'd hate to lose my DB, it's my favourite looking ship so far.)

There is wisdom in your words. Perhaps simplicity is the key. But I also fear regret

Sold my Challenger a few weeks back. Once I got the Krait, she sat alone and forlorn in the hanger. Winded up stripping it of engineered modules and kicked her to the curb. Now my Krait sits sad in the hanger, the ‘vette has replaced it for the combat role. Doubt I’ll sell it anytime soon, tho. May repurpose it to a miner. My fleet sits at 4. I keep looking for a new one to buy, just nothing out there that tickles my fancy right now. First world problems, neh?

I too rarely sell my acquisitions. My fleet consists of;
Imperial Courier (Just wanted to see how fast I could make it)
Asp Explorer ('Taxi with Legs' what I use to get around the bubble)
Vulture ('Nice Hooters' well it does have to large guns,my second ship bought just couldn't sell it)
Chieftain ('Ribbit-Ribbit' my previous combat ship. It inherited most of my old FAS modules)
Krait MKII ("Roach Coach' Thargoid killer it sits in storage about 800 Ly out)
Krait MKII ('Mining for $$' yes my miner good view and maneuverability)
Krait MKII ('Mr Skittles primary combat ship)
Krait MKII ('Bubble Jumper' running around the bubble. It holds more that the Asp and does 51 Ly jumps)
Python ('Opps My Bad' my old combat ship now used for freight. Still has the combat shields and weapons though. Was always too quick on the trigger, thus the name)
Phantom ('Lone Ranger of Uber' most recient build started as an experiment jumps 62.25 Ly. It led me to take a trip)

I haven't sold some because I'm using them for module storage. If I do sell it would be the Asp Explorer, Vulture, Krait Roach coach and Krait Bubble Jumper. I have about 85 modules in storage and not willing to give up all those modded modules on those builds.

Yes I do like the Krait MKII. Once modded up it fits my play style as of now and I've been blessed with a large bank balance. I do not favor large ships. I tried the Anaconda, modded the drives, power plant and fsd, Took it out to play with and just did not care for handling. Just my play style I guess.

Wingy

ooops, WIngy got one in there @ Bo -- You're in sort of the same situation with only 4. I noticed on Inara that you have a really high value on your stored modules. Is that from engineering ships and then selling them but collecting the modules?

Selling them doesn't fix anything. It would however make moving to a new system easier lol.

And then I think, whatever I sell, I can't just get rid of the modules, so I'd have this vast collection of partially engineered modules to wade through all of the time.

I dug this hole. I need clarity

Thanks for the reply Wingy. You have just as many ships, even if they're mostly Kraits.

I dunno, what I'll do. You know what would fix it? If I could strip my modules of engineering and get the mats back. That would do it.

Yes all of those stored modules have been modded. They include the a rated and modded modules of the Anaconda and were pretty expensive. I guess the way I see it is if I don't need the money why sell'em. I hate to give up the materials I used to mod them, YES getting the materials back would cut my module storage in half!

That was directed at Bo. Your stuff is hidden. You have to choose to share it in the privacy settings (not a request, do your own thing). I can only see your ships, ranks and superpower rep

OK I set it to shared now. I didn't know that.

I’d NEVER sell a engineered module. Too much ass-ache to get the mats and not really get a good return on em when you sell. Some of the stored modules are from sold ships and some from just trying differing theories and experiments with engineering. Never know when you might wish you had a G5 classD FSD!

I’d guess quite a lot of the value in the stored modules derive from the several Prismatic Shields I stocked up on. Only have one actually mounted ( on the ‘vette of course). They set me back about 450 million.

And that's about what your modules are worth. I went through and pruned my module collection last night. Got rid of so much that I was storing that I can easily buy any time, so got rid of a lot. And then put a bunch back in when I sold both the iEagle and the Vulture. That really didn't do anything about my issue, but did have a psychological effect. Feels better somehow.

I also set the Courier back up, with the Eagle gone, and flew it on an Empire rank-up mission. It needs work though. They all need work! Have you guys ever had issues with ships you've sold not being removed from your fleet on Inara? The T-9 I sold a year ago and the iEagle I just sold both still appear. How can I remove them?

Nevermind, found the remove ship function

I can see your stuff now Wingnuts, thanks.

And then there were eight. Sold the Keelback, meaning my fleet has been disembiggened by 28% in the past few days.

I took old Stump Jumper out for a planetary landing to gather raw mats, since I have been burning through them with engineering and synthesis. She had a fighter and SRV on board. Perfectly suited for the mission. However, on this trip I decided to start seeing what the deal is with the surface signal things. And as I flew the 100km from one to the next I was a little annoyed at how slow it is. Partly that's due to minimal engineering, but I also thought about how I have 3 or 4 other ships that could do this better and faster (aside from the fighter). So despite my fondness for the venerable Keelback, I sold it upon return.

I was on and off yesterday doing 'Sunday chores'. I worked on my encoded mats. I do a lot of scanning, and as a result I had six data types that were full, so that I often got the message that it was full when resolving a scan. So I flew to a mat trader and turned some of it in to more useful mats. Took the hit yeah, but now there's room to gather more.

I also unlocked two more engineers, Juri and Liz Ryder. I can do G1 armor now which is nice.

Finally chose a name for the Krait, which officially makes it a part of the fleet. Keeping it for now. She has been christened Poison Whiskey.

I actually went back to my DBX recently. I just like that ship, regardless that it's smaller, can be set up to do less concurrently, and takes longer to fuelscoop. I think I will delve into engineering now to get its jump distance increased. Currently it's ~23 ly. I'll keep the AspX for sure, I'll probably go back to it inevitably. But the DBX flies better IMO.

Yes sir! Engineering will open up a whole new side of the game. It's awesome and ridiculous at the same time. Unlocking Felicity Farseer should be the first move in my view. You need a meta alloy to unlock her. Can be bought in Maia or found wherever Thargies prowl. She can do the full G5 upgrades on your FSD. She also sells the advanced thrusters if you have any ships that use class 3. Like a Viper, Courier, Eagle and others.


I really like the DBX, but I find the AspX handles better, especially in supercruise. That's the main reason I chose it for the missions to get Elite last week. And the view. And the additional optional slots. And the 6A scoop

My DBX jumps 66 and the AspX 55. And could go further. That's what engineering will do for ya DM. Makes the galaxy seem smaller.

When other players quote jump ranges, which one are you using? There's a rating for Min/Current/Max and I always say the current. Is that what you guys are doing as well?

Hey DM, are you familiar with Inara ?

It's an incredibly useful and powerful tool, even more so once you begin engineering. Many of us here use it.

It displays your fleet, your ranks, your progress, credits, everything really.

All blueprints are there. But even better, it will show you the closest mat traders, engineers (and all mods they can do) and also shows at a glance how much of any required material you have already. It takes so much work out the whole engineering process. If you leave it running while you play, it tracks where you are, so if you need to know where the closest mat trader is for example, just alt-tab, click mat traders, and they are all sorted by distance from your current location. Commodities, modules, everything.


Recommended. It's even Czech!

Thanks for the info Engineering is one of those things I've been putting off until it was "time" for me to approach it.


So we have different opinions on those two regarding handling To be honest I don't really notice any difference in handling between ships as far as supercruise goes.


I've heard of those crazy jump distances, I take it a portion of that is down to individual modules adding up to less weight? I generally go for A class unless there's no reason to, whatever my power module can handle basically. I'll be happy to get increase in jump distance but I'll be happy with 40+ without module tuning. I don't think I need extreme jump distance at this stage, although that might change.


Current as far as I can tell.

I'm not familiar with that, but it sounds useful. I'll Czech it out for sure.

Yes, modules are a big part of it. But to start, a G5 FSD with experimental of your choice will gain you gobs of distance and will hold you for a while I reckon. Don't forget to 'pin' the Increased Range blueprint at the engineer so you can do it to your other ships without flying back to Deciat (remote workshop). If you can, take exploration data with you, which you can sell at Farseer Inc to gain fast rep with Felicity. Arriving to her shop with a single meta alloy and a good amount of exploration data will have you set up in no time. I think you need Scout exploration rank to get the invite, but I'm sure you're way past that.

For core internals I always use A rated power plants, thrusters, distributors and FSD. But the life support and sensors are usually D rated. But that's something to think about later

You can buy additional time since you can synth life support, so I find D is all you need.

DM, my original DBX build was all D rated and G5 engineered. Had a circa 70 ly range. Hated the fact that I couldn’t perma-boost so I A rated/G5-ed it. Jump range fell to 67-ish, well worth it in my opinion. Lost 3 ly in exchange for much better performance across the board.
For the longest time I resisted going down the Engineering rabbit hole. At first, it’s a right pia. After a while, it becomes much easier and natural. Engineered ships are much, much more potent and powerful.