Vasil VasilescuThinder Btw. Developers speaks about new ships needed for exploration, it might mean variants of ships such as the Krait Phantom or Asp Explorer...
I'm not sure what they could do other than maybe give the ship some type of multiplier for jump range, maybe by removing weapon slots as a compromise. As it is, I am perfectly happy with my 50LY AspX. I am in no rush to go anywhere and tend to fully map the systems I go through, anyway.
It might be nice to have the space to carry more than one SRV, but I could do that if I was willing to sacrifice a larger optional compartment for a 2SRV hangar. Maybe another utility slot would help. I'd probably load it up with heat sinks for those unexpected "caught between two blue giants" moments.
I hope they don't add some wonky thing that preserves exploration data f the ship is destroyed. For me, I like the danger of losing weeks/months of data because of a stupid mistake or bad luck. It makes turning in the data feel more like an accomplishment when finally getting to a station with a ship that has only 6% hull and severely damaged powerplant.
The primary draw would be having a more “stable” SCO handling experience plus the reduced fuel consumption/heat load. For me, anyway. PMKII doesn’t really do anything else really extraordinary even if it has a large ship’s worth of firepower jammed into a medium-size ship hull.