Heads Up: Panther Clipper Mk2 is EXPENSIVE! 1.1 Billion!

exception being the PC2, although looking at how many issues it comes with, waiting until the general credits release probably means most bugs and visual issues will have been fixed by then, so thanks to all the Beta testers lol.
Luckily most of the issues are barely noticeable, unlike with other ships (like the small hardpoint on Alliance C-ships that retracts into the cockpit or the missing polygon on Krait Phantom, or whatever the hell goes on with the landing gear doors of the 'Conda). The only one (and I'm not even sure it is a bug) that is performance related is the mildly odd roll behaviour.
 
People keep screaming "bigger, faster, moar..." all the time, forever driving escalation of all kinds of numbers. There ya go! Did anyone expect cost (in both in-game and IRL currency) not to move at equivalent rate? You got the biggest money-making machine ever. Bear it with pride like every self-respecting Cutter owner.
 
Same here. Used to love the cat and mouse game trying to get to Jamesons Memorial :D
Not seen many issues with the PCMk2 apart from some odd shadows and lighting issues. The severely limited view is probably my only gripe.
I need to go read the PCMk2 bugs thread someone started to see if there's anything I've missed.
Yep... I took gankers as an opportunity to test builds and if they'd withstand attacks from dangerous.com, RoA et al it'd be good enough :p Even visits to engineer sites consist of mostly tumbleweed now. Maybe CGs are a bit better even though one of the last ones (not the current one... the PP focused one) was similarly quiet in terms of traffic but perhaps players were too spread out location wise. Darn it I really miss those days.

On the bugs, from what I've read so far, issues are around cockpit lighting being too bright (both general - reminds me of the early 4.0 issues back in 2021 with some ships), some of the UI being obstructed by excessive lighting features in the cockpit, the seat being too far away from the dash compared to other ships, incorrect thruster vectoring (again????!!), low effort shipkit (seems par for the course with the Stellar packs), excessive cockpit glass frosting effect, and something around the cockpit camera movement which I'm not sure I fully grasp but it sounds annoying.

Perhaps there are more but given the price this is sold at I don't think these are acceptable. Then again, if people continue to throw money at Frontier and merely hope they might fix these things after the fact, I don't know why anyone's surprised about the quality standards they keep shipping their products. I for one don't like to reward them for sloppy work but I seem to be in the minority, hence we are where we are and Frontier have no reason to change.
 
Luckily most of the issues are barely noticeable, unlike with other ships (like the small hardpoint on Alliance C-ships that retracts into the cockpit or the missing polygon on Krait Phantom, or whatever the hell goes on with the landing gear doors of the 'Conda). The only one (and I'm not even sure it is a bug) that is performance related is the mildly odd roll behaviour.
It could just be a "me" problem, but as soon as real money gets involved (and the perceived value-for-money is already borderline), I'm becoming a lot less forgiving with these kind of things. The fact that the ship will eventually (my cynical self reckons only next year) become available for credits doesn't make getting the wallet out any easier.
 
A heads up for those waiting to buy with credits instead of ARX...it's expensive...VERY expensive.
Base ship from Shin is 250m, Reactive armour is 620m.
So far it's cost me just over 1.1 billion credits for an A rated, heavily armored trade Panther Clipper Mk2 with a prismatic shield.
I suspect when it comes out for credits in a few months there's going to be a lot of paper thin or poor builds flying around :D
On the other hand if you buy it for ARX and skip the Reactive Armor, you can A/D rate it, w/Turrets for 288 million.
 
It could just be a "me" problem, but as soon as real money gets involved (and the perceived value-for-money is already borderline), I'm becoming a lot less forgiving with these kind of things. The fact that the ship will eventually (my cynical self reckons only next year) become available for credits doesn't make getting the wallet out any easier.
I wonder if it's really that much of a money-spinner for them?

If I were to make a wild, baseless guess, I'd guess that they might sell 10,000 of them for ARX. At ballpark £10 a pop, that's only £100k in total revenue. I don't think that the cost of designing and delivering the ship will be such that the profit margin is more than a few tens of percent, if that's all the revenue it brings in. On that basis, I'm inclined to cut them some breaks, especially on the visuals, given that I don't look at my ships all that much when flying :)

Perhaps there are already solid (or at least better) guesses about the total ship revenue for the previous releases? (I seem to recall that FD were rather vague about it, with no direct numbers quoted, but my memory is flaky.)
 
Gankers in open are rubbing their hands with glee :ROFLMAO:
I never fly without reactive armour....even on my explorers and Exo ships.
If you're a solo or PG player then who gives a monkeys about armour and shields, or even A rated modules for that matter.


Exactly.
Here is an overview of what happens when you fly a large ship with just the basic armor and shields in open.

Head to any HAZ-RES in your G5 engineered combat boat like the FDL or a Python 2. Target a Conda and check out its loadout. Just one or 2 shield boosters, unengineered hardpoints. I use a G5 Python 2 with an all frag loadout. I will shred the Conda in less than 15 seconds.

Likewise, I spot a lightly armored T-9 or T-10 (they maneuver pretty much like the Panther, based on stats from EDSY) but maximized it for cargo at the expense of good armor and shields. You can see wanted T-9s in”kill deserter” miissions. I am the G5 Python 2 player.

I will just happily keep the T-9 or T-10 at point blank range (they cannot outmaneuver me) while delivering volley after volley of G5 Overcharged/incendiary/corrosive frags.
They are gone in about 30 seconds or less.

Those NPC Condas and T-9s are the equivalents of player ships that have light armor, no hull or module reinforcements, and weak shields.

I predict this will be the same situation with the Panther maximized for cargo.

This applies if these are flown in Open.

Here is an essay that discusses how to build for open:


Of course, if in solo or PG, you can get away with maximizing cargo because NPCs are easy to deal with.
 
Expensive? It took 6(!) Gallium runs for current CG to be in Top 25% and with 18-23 runs it will fully pay for herself.
Yesterday nearest Gallium was about 85 Ly away, that is 2+3 jumps, thus 3-4 hours to have it paid off... that, perhaps, makes pretty decent investment cost return time.

P.S. Love this ship, somehow it has pleasant and a very balanced flight behavior (to me). Clears mass-lock in 1-2 gorgeously sounding boost(s).
 
Here is an overview of what happens when you fly a large ship with just the basic armor and shields in open.

Head to any HAZ-RES in your G5 engineered combat boat like the FDL or a Python 2. Target a Conda and check out its loadout. Just one or 2 shield boosters, unengineered hardpoints. I use a G5 Python 2 with an all frag loadout. I will shred the Conda in less than 15 seconds.

Likewise, I spot a lightly armored T-9 or T-10 (they maneuver pretty much like the Panther, based on stats from EDSY) but maximized it for cargo at the expense of good armor and shields. You can see wanted T-9s in”kill deserter” miissions. I am the G5 Python 2 player.

I will just happily keep the T-9 or T-10 at point blank range (they cannot outmaneuver me) while delivering volley after volley of G5 Overcharged/incendiary/corrosive frags.
They are gone in about 30 seconds or less.

Those NPC Condas and T-9s are the equivalents of player ships that have light armor, no hull or module reinforcements, and weak shields.

I predict this will be the same situation with the Panther maximized for cargo.

This applies if these are flown in Open.

Here is an essay that discusses how to build for open:


Of course, if in solo or PG, you can get away with maximizing cargo because NPCs are easy to deal with.
Open in a CG system or Shinrarta? I wouldn't fly any freighter that didn't have at least 7A Prismatics, reactive armor and fast boot FSD.

Open in a backwater system somewhere on the edge of the colonized space? I feel safe enough to randomly drop out of supercruise and go make a cuppa/take a leak/answer the phone without logging out🤪
 
Yesterday nearest Gallium was about 85 Ly away
There was ample supply less than 60LY away at a ground port - 2 jumps both ways, when I packed up for the day at around 5PM yesterday there was still 500k+ available.
Pretty much the same situation when folk were complaining about CMM Composites when Colonisation first launched - Inara search is very good, if one doesn't accept its default parameters!

Hope you did well though!

ETA: A revist a few minutes ago had sufficient to fill my Kitty - it had been visited a lot since yesterday 🤣
 
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If you're in this and they're ganking the armour isn't going to be a deciding factor they're either incompetent or you're dead.
Not entirely true. Not everyone is perfect at holding you off a high-wake and a being able to last more than 2 seconds is a big help. If its a gank wing of frag PMKIIs and FDLs, you're dead. If its a solo mean pirate it might mean getting out alive.

I was impressed at the CG by a few builds. A few of the haulers had builds that held up well to a Paci/Hammers Corsair. Others popped like a soap bubble. I think the cost to benefit on the Panther is a bit too low. Going for a 650M armor upgrade ought to be worth a bit more in actual HP increase without haveing to stack it full of HRPs and steal its capacity so much. Nobody had shields that were impressive though. Hard to give up those 256 and 128 slots for shield so I get it.
 
Meanwhile in Solo my ADC gently coasts me into Vespucci City whilst I make a brew at the back of the cockpit (y)

O7
Yep. Recently I’m trying my hand at High Res bounty hunting in a diamondback scout kitted out with beams and advanced missile racks.

The game in open is basically broken.
 
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