View source for Talk:Dolphin/@comment-74.249.117.162-20190616175315

I recently finished Distant Worlds 2 and took a Krait for the voyage.  I've always loved the Krait, but the one down side was that it's a rather large ship, even for a medium pad ship, so planetary landings were often a PITA.  I had to park over 1km away on multiple occaisions.  I've used a DBX before too, but the DBX is very limited in how much it can do.  That is, it's either an explorer, or a combat ship, never both.  It just can't do 2 things at once.

So...I started hunting for a solid exploration ship that can actually still perform another role.  I built a combat-focued Imperial Courier (2k shields, 653 boost, and still does respectable damage) and decided I wanted an explorer that could make money.  Enter the Dolphin.  Here's my build: https://s.orbis.zone/3gx4

It makes enough on single-hop VIP missions to easily pay for a rebuy (for either ship) and still maintains almost 54ly jump range for exploration.  The Class 5 Thrusters (on a small, lightweight ship) really shine on high-gravity worlds where many exploration builds would flounder, and the fuel scoop is more than sufficient to top off the tank without making a stop for it (deep scooping easily fills it up in the time it takes to circle to the next jump point.)  Lastly, the shields are good enough to keep it alive long enough to GTFO, and the drag frags give you a little more breathing space when under attack - though the Dolphin is good enough at evading interdiction that you really shouldn't ever need them.

It's the perfect exploration ship that can still make other money on the side.