Worked on building a few more, got one with a range of 242.9 . edit: just noticed it generated with an overcharged slot on the hyperdrive, it’s true range is 194.5. Thought I got really really lucky with the ship creation there 
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The space station also seems to effect the outcome of the custom ships stats.
I went to build a ship in space station A, and got 200.2, I cancelled the build.
Same parts, space station B, 193. Cancelled build.
Space station C, same parts, 212. Cancelled build.
I returned to space station A, and with the same parts I got the same value as the first time, 200.2.
So while building a ship, will generate a new string for the next ship, you can test the current string at different space stations to see how it effects the stat rolling, by backing out before adding to collection.
I’m not sure if the boost given at this current string at the various space stations is constant or if it will also change drastically with each new string generated after a ships built, e.g. will space station C always give a good boost to warp drive distance compared to the others?
Space station C in this instance happened to be Etarcia ECSD. I just used the three most recent stations in my list 
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I bought a ship in a space station, and it showed a jump range of 216.7 - I moved it to my freighter to install the upgrades, and the jump range changed to 219.5. It’s not a huge difference, but it shows that the ship stats are affected by some weird external factors.
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I am so confused! 
Why can’t this be streamlined and simplified? It makes me wonder what is the determining factor? What if you buy a ship in a pirate system? What happens with purchase vs finding one in the wild? My head is spinning. 
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And I repeat - I think most of us feel the same way. That’s why I wanted to do some basic research, and find out the facts.
There’s lots of so-called advice on web sites, Reddit and such. Much of it seems to be guesswork, unsupported opinion, and magical thinking. Some of it was presumably accurate once upon a time, but is now woefully out of date.
It would be nice to have some hard, empirical facts.
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I hope to join the cause tomorrow afternoon.
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Hmm. Does system economy level affect the initial hyperdrive range?
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At the moment, I’m trying to collect a few exotics for experimentation. Particularly some squids. It’s proving harder than it used to be.
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It seems the best thing I could do to improve my luck was to complain about my luck. Within 10 minutes of posting that I couldn’t find a squid, I found a squid. It doesn’t have the best stats you might wish for, but at the moment, any cephalopod at all is fine by me.
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And another one. Different planet, different system - but the same jump distance. Is this a pattern?
I have now found two of these things in less than an hour. I don’t want to give the impression this was easy - I spent nearly all of yesterday looking, and found nothing. Today I’m lucky, is all.
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I think you just proved the existence of God. A night of quiet prayer was all that was needed.
Congratulations, you proved science wrong 
I haven’t been actively looking but I don’t think I’ve seen a squid since before the lockdown. I figure they all got COVID
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I don’t know. It’s so complicated, I suspect only a few people ever tried.
Thing is, if it doesn’t work, chances are you’ll either think you’re doing something wrong, or you just won’t be sufficiently bothered to report it.
It only take one person to actually find an exotic, purely by chance, and report it - and you have confirmation bias.
I strongly suspect this is an example of the magical thinking I was talking about earlier.
But if anyone has a couple of weeks spare time to test it properly, I’m happy to be proved wrong.
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I think I’ll give this ship battle thing a try and see if I do it wrong or add to the bias. Who knows, maybe it will actually be a thing 
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Well, the very next jump produced a battle. First problem, there are 6 pirates attacking. Not 5. Not 8. Still, I will give this a try just because it gives me something to work off of.
So far, I have done this twice and the first ship was a sail ship both times and both in Gek systems
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Alright. This is going to sound like BS, but I promise it’s absolutely true.
I was on a planet, fruitlessly searching for a squid. I decided I was getting nowhere.
I randomly jumped to an opulent Gek system. Parked up in the space station, and the fourth ship to come through the doors was this:
Now if I’d just chased the fifth attack ship in here, that would be seen as proof. Unfortunately, the fact is, it’s just blind chance.
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The only consistent thing I see, so far, is Gek systems produce a higher rate of haulers and VyKeen systems a higher rate of fighters
I may investigate the haulers. It would make sense for them to have a good jump distance since they are hauling stuff…but we will see.
First I have to see if my plans for this morning are still a go…
also I found this really nice, natural color space station. Not lit up for Xmas or anything.
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And Korvax systems have rather more explorers.
At one time, there was a snippet in the lore explaining that explorers were actually Korvax - that the ships were sentient, and shared in the Korvax consciousness. I can’t remember where it was, and I haven’t seen it for years.
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