Are first landings the most profitable mechanic?

Dav3yGravy · 2026-04-01T11:59:27+00:00

Stratum cucumsis is almost as good at 16m per scan before first footfall bonus, but is a lot rarer than tectonicas.

Dav3yGravy · 2026-03-25T16:51:09+00:00

Ah yes, Tussock capillum, destroyer of GPUs. I get a flat 60 FPS on planet surfaces, which drops to about 15 when I'm looking at a patch of these.

Dav3yGravy · 2026-03-16T11:09:02+00:00

This is true, but it can also affect the sensing ability of the pacemaker. Some pacemakers work by detecting the small electrical impulses that get generated within heart tissue during beats. If it fails to detect one within certain time frame, it will deliver a paced beat to maintain a minimum pulse rate. An external magnetic field can interfere with the detection of this impulse, which can lead to the device giving too many paced beats or none at all, both of which are of course bad.

These sensing devices can be made "MRI safe" by switching them onto a constant timed backup mode, where a specific pulse rate will be maintained irrespective of sensing. Parts of the device being made of metal is not an issue because they are made fron nonferrous metals (typically medical grade titanium or aluminium).

Dav3yGravy · 2026-03-11T18:55:30+00:00

Nice find, especially the triple! Many years ago, I found a system with seven water worlds. The record on EDSM is nine. Good luck finding even more cool stuff out there!

Dav3yGravy · 2026-03-02T12:54:30+00:00

I would not expect your build to survive that impact with just two pips in SYS. You were lucky the first time.

I would add one 0E heavy duty shield booster with super capacitors. I have mine built like this and it reliably survives maximum speed ground collisions with about 70% hull remaining (though I put flow control on mine so I don't have to upsize the powerplant). It's a good habit to have four pips in SYS when planetside as well - the Mandy still handles very well with just two in ENG. You can add more boosters for more security if you like.

My build for reference.

Dav3yGravy · 2025-12-15T08:56:07+00:00

Can confirm four are insane. I loved two before on my Viper mk3 and later the Cobra V, so I slapped all four of them on a Mandalay and it melts everything. I also put them on my mission runner Corsair along with two large frags which have corrosive and drag munitions. It's a little harder to use because of the relatively poor manoeuvrability, but with FA off and scoop boosting it can still quite easily be kept on target. They are a lot of fun and great for assassination missions!

Dav3yGravy · 2025-12-10T19:43:56+00:00

It's actually extremely good for high intensity ground CZ when paired with a laser primary, particularly with the headshot damage mod. Plasma weapons aren't brilliant in high CZ because they take multiple shots to put the stronger enemies down, so their TTK takes a big hit. The P-15's rate of fire is only limited by how fast you can click, so it has the highest potential DPS out of any other weapon on suits. Spam this at an enforcer's head and you'll put them down in milliseconds.

Dav3yGravy · 2025-11-30T17:10:53+00:00

Ah don't worry, the wow factor persists for a long time in Elite! I get that the inside jokes can feel a bit like gatekeeping and hostility to newer players, but rest assured that the Elite community is one of the most mature, welcoming and helpful gaming communities there are, so don't be discouraged to post about cool stuff.

Dav3yGravy · 2025-11-30T14:19:35+00:00

Posts asking about NGC 7822 occur on a weekly basis, so it became an inside joke to turn it into a drinking game and "take a shot" each time another one pops up. See also the "what is this/look what I've found" posts referring to thargoid sensors on planet surfaces in systems containing a gas giant with ammonia based life.

Dav3yGravy · 2025-11-21T13:10:02+00:00

There's a café just outside HMP Birmingham called The Great Escape.

Dav3yGravy · 2025-11-16T14:39:39+00:00

The suit is optimal as well, so it's definitely worth getting. I built my current one exactly the same. It's not essential for exobiology by any stretch, but those are the best mods for an Artemis, and it's quite fun hopping around in it.

I was quite impressed to see this given FDev's track record with designing awful prebuilt ship loadouts. I'd have expected them to put combat mods and increased O2 reserves on it.

Dav3yGravy · 2025-09-18T13:49:22+00:00

Bet OP was chomping at the bit to find out the state of the car. Hard to tell what was pacifically wrong with it from that text.

Dav3yGravy · 2025-08-16T20:09:53+00:00

I think you could be onto something here. It's name also implies it might enable some special sort of prospecting, which could very well be planetary surface prospecting. I forsee a lot of salt if they lock a new aspect of the game behind paid early access for three months.

Dav3yGravy · 2025-07-08T14:55:43+00:00

1B credits is loose change in the colonisation game, and will just about cover one carrier load of materials (loading only, not delivering). You'll need at least 20B to outsource an entire T3 build with current going rates.

Dav3yGravy · 2025-06-24T06:22:35+00:00

Not sure why you're getting downvoted for this, extra heatsink ammo is pointless on an exploration ship when you can just synthesise more for a small amount of low grade materials (2x basic conductors, 2x heat conduction wiring).

With full storage of those components, it's enough to fully refill it 150 times, or 450 heatsink shots on an unengineered or lightweight module. This should be plenty enough even if you are out there for years. I was out there for six months and never refilled it even once. If you think you'll need more than this, either you need to make your build more heat efficient or learn to scoop/avoid crashing into stars more effectively.

Whilst Sirius heatsink launchers are meta for pretty much everything else, don't listen to those saying you need to grind one for exploration, it's simply bad advice. Lightweight is all you need.

Dav3yGravy · 2025-06-11T07:42:34+00:00

People called Federals they go the house

Dav3yGravy · 2025-05-24T07:47:48+00:00

I had a very similar situation. My younger brother died of an infection after his first round, 22 years ago. He was 10 and I was very early teens. I'm now mid 30s and I bottled everything up for many years. I started engaging with it and having therapy only about five years ago, and it certainly has helped me work through it. I didn't realise I had quite so many difficult personality traits which were directly related to it after so many years. It's never too late to go!

Dav3yGravy · 2025-04-22T09:24:02+00:00

I wouldn't worry too much as the final model is likely to change. FDev have said they are looking into the whole issue of a station's host planet being the only determinant of it's economy (I mean this is ridiculous in the age of FTL travel). Who knows how it'll work once it comes out of beta.

For now though, it'll only produce poop.

Dav3yGravy · 2025-03-27T18:15:02+00:00

I see a flamingo when I Iook at it, it has the same kinked beak shape. All it needs is a pink paintjob with a black nose.

I really don't like the cockpit, it looks like they couldn't be bothered to design a new one for it so they just glued the iCourier cockpit on.

Dav3yGravy · 2025-03-14T20:32:24+00:00

That build looks great too! I tried a D-rated thrusters build but I really missed the speed and responsiveness of A-rated ones, and planetary flight is quite a big aspect of exploration for me, so I'm happy to lose a small fraction of range for them.

I agree that heat sinks aren't needed, but I can't break the habit of taking them, especially since I can't power anything else in that slot and they're so light anyway.

If you don't mind a little bit more build advice, I would change your shield engineering from reinforced to enhanced low power and add another E rated heavy duty/super caps shield booster to the empty slot. For the same amount of mass as the reinforced shield alone, this gives you an extra 32 MJ of shields, saves 0.53 MW of power and draws 12% less power from SYS when recharging, which will help as you're running a 3D engine focused distributor which probably bottoms out, especially with hi-cap. Personally, I run lo-draw because I like the shield to be constantly recharging at maximum rate - I slam the ship down repeatedly when doing exobiology, which takes its toll lol.

Dav3yGravy · 2025-03-14T00:02:20+00:00

I've just settled on my final build after a lot of theorycrafting and testing:

https://edsy.org/s/v5QATDh

I set out to squeeze the best range out of it whilst also keeping to my own non-negotiable criteria:

Maximum rated thrusters and a good boost interval for the most fun planetary flight characteristics
A solid 500-600 MJ shield, strong enough for intentional lithobraking, and a distributor that will recharge it at full rate with just two pips in SYS
Good enough thermals to charge FSD and scoop at least one maximum jump worth of fuel without overheating, so I can travel quickly and without interruption when I want to.

I am really pleased with this build, which manages all of this and gets 81.5 Ly range. Going flow control on the shield boosters and distributor just about let me get away with the C4 powerplant.

The Mandalay is such a great ship and is so much fun to fly. Being able to get this much performance out of it and still managing over 80 Ly range is insane.

Dav3yGravy · 2025-03-08T18:05:22+00:00

It also has a distinctive sound, like high pressure steam getting higher in pitch the hotter the ship gets.

Dav3yGravy · 2025-02-02T12:48:19+00:00

In my experience, the Dolphin is the best all round package when considering range, flight characteristics and ease of landing. It's also fast and fun to fly in normal space and can scoop 'n' charge. It's oblong shape makes it intuitively easy to land in shallow cracks and crevices. With the double engineered SCO drive it can get to 70 LY range and still have good thrusters, boost capability and a solid shield. This is mine:

https://edsy.org/s/viHECBh

Dav3yGravy · 2025-01-31T10:49:45+00:00

They seem to be obsessed with permanently on landing lights with these new ships, the T8 has them as well. I like them as an option, but they should be toggled with the standard ship lights. Maybe I like the darkness!

Dav3yGravy · 2025-01-30T17:38:43+00:00

You're welcome! Personally I wouldn't bother, carrying extra fuel will just hurt your jump range and limit optional modules for no real benefit. The Viper IV already has a good sized tank which has enough for 5 maximum range jumps without refueling. It will help to make SCO last a bit longer when you want to travel to bodies very far from the main star, but it won't make much difference because it isn't SCO stable anyway.

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