Hitting a wall with my Asp...

[KazumaKat]

So after jumping up from my well-serving A-grade Cobra, I went ahead and (probably against better judgement with 20/20 hindsight now) upgraded to what ended up as a C-grade Asp. The extra internal compartment space, plus the beefier class-6 slot for a bigger shield generator means I can tank just as well as an A-grade Cobra, whilst having 2 more weapons means more firepower to deal with those always-Anaconda assassination missions. 4 dumbfire missile pods at once is a glorious thing...

However, with 3 hull losses in 6 days of flying the Asp (and losing half a million credits over said time), I'm starting to wonder if my decision to upgrade was a sound one.

My main source of income is bounty hunting. I've never been much of a trader, and in the areas I'm flying the background AI trading is quite aggressive, with the margins not high enough to even pay for the fuel costs. I normally just trawl USS's and of course, the odd aformentioned assassination mission, and the odd 20k+ bounty found during SC. I can afford to drop cargo holds down to one, and just use the internals for something more usable, like say, a shield cell bank or similar.

However, I am still having trouble with my Asp. Granted, I was having the same frustrations in my Cobra, but at least I could move in my Cobra. The Asp is just... well... its too fat.

Heck, I'm considering making the serious downgrade down to a Viper and try that out, since I've never really flown one to much extent.

Any advice?

 

[Yachats]

The viper is a fun ship to fight with. I've been a trader with bounty hunting on the side when I need a little pulse rate change. I just got my Asp today too and am finding the same growing pains. The cobra is not a great fighter stock off the lot either. I found some equipment that make the Asp serviceable at best. It will be a long haul to get the A6 FSD and Shields...

 

[Starender]

So after jumping up from my well-serving A-grade Cobra, I went ahead and (probably against better judgement with 20/20 hindsight now) upgraded to what ended up as a C-grade Asp. The extra internal compartment space, plus the beefier class-6 slot for a bigger shield generator means I can tank just as well as an A-grade Cobra, whilst having 2 more weapons means more firepower to deal with those always-Anaconda assassination missions. 4 dumbfire missile pods at once is a glorious thing...

However, with 3 hull losses in 6 days of flying the Asp (and losing half a million credits over said time), I'm starting to wonder if my decision to upgrade was a sound one.

My main source of income is bounty hunting. I've never been much of a trader, and in the areas I'm flying the background AI trading is quite aggressive, with the margins not high enough to even pay for the fuel costs. I normally just trawl USS's and of course, the odd aformentioned assassination mission, and the odd 20k+ bounty found during SC. I can afford to drop cargo holds down to one, and just use the internals for something more usable, like say, a shield cell bank or similar.

However, I am still having trouble with my Asp. Granted, I was having the same frustrations in my Cobra, but at least I could move in my Cobra. The Asp is just... well... its too fat.

Heck, I'm considering making the serious downgrade down to a Viper and try that out, since I've never really flown one to much extent.

Any advice?

First advice: don't buy a Viper, this ship need a crazy long time thinking about what will you sacrifice to make it only decent at fighting, without any other possibilities, and a lot of other problems like power starving or bad jump range.
Second advice: never sell ship you feel very comfortable with, you will always need a lot more credit than you think to make your future ship at least as good as the present one, your mistake here was lack of patience.
Third advice:the only ships everyone should ever use for pure efficiency are Cobra, ASP and Python, skip every other

 

[Deleted member 38366]

-- Deleted --

 

[KazumaKat]

First advice: don't buy a Viper, this ship need a crazy long time thinking about what will you sacrifice to make it only decent at fighting, without any other possibilities, and a lot of other problems like power starving or bad jump range.
Second advice: never sell ship you feel very comfortable with, you will always need a lot more credit than you think to make your future ship at least as good as the present one, your mistake here was lack of patience.
Third advice:the only ships everyone should ever use for pure efficiency are Cobra, ASP and Python, skip every other

I've read your posts in regards to your "holy trinity" of ships, and suffice it to say, your opinions are not exactly shared by many others who fly many other ships out there. Even I dont agree with your assessment of the Cobra and I flew a Cobra through the majority of Gamma and into launch.

 

[Scallop]

Done the same here, I've found trading around Altair still profitable enough to pay for fuel, but a bit tiresome. I can take down anacondas in a cobra without a problem, have yet to succeed with an asp though! Think I'm gonna try it out on mining and exploring and see how it goes. Figure a full hold or two from mining ought to get some growing pains out of the way.

 

[Jahn Ntago]

I have flown an ASP since beta 1 and love it. The usual flight mechanics apply half throttle for agility, A class power distributor, 4 pip weapons when in a fight. I have only ever lost one hull and that was flying into a wall undocking after being bumped.

My strategy is to use 2x beam class 1 turrets below, 2x dumb fire missile below and 2x class 2 multi turrets above. Generate aggression with the missiles, lead the target FDI to expose the lower turrets to deplete their shields then lag the target FDI to expose the upper multis and your done. I have killed everything up to Pythons and only ever had to run away once in 100+ fights.

If you are losing hulls it may be the fights are taking too long and you not are applying DPS quickly enough. My longest fight was maybe 120s. For something small that you can target well enough you can alpha them with missiles in the face. For targets larger than an eagle use the lower/upper turret expose mentioned above.

I leave the throttle at 50%, drop to zero if risking overshoot and boost if needed but otherwise leave throttle at 50%.

Hopefully that helps...

 

[Dortmunder]

I recently upgraded to an Asp as well. She is pretty fat.

I liked being able to go through the docking hole vertically or horizontally. I tried it in my Asp(slowly, just to be sure), nah, lost 5% of my Hull trying that.

She's expensive to repair too. I'm a trader so I ditched the shields for more cargo space, so I have to be extra careful, lol.

Asp sounds awesome though, for sure.

 

[VladtheImpaler]

The viper is fun and you should be able to completely trick it out. Without a shield recharger, I have 12 cargo space for piracy/smuggling. If you only plan on bounty hunting, put a shield recharger on and you will feel invincible. Oh and buyback is 100K! I don't think I'm going to move on from the viper until a better/bigger dedicated fighter is released..

 

[Stressfest]

Getting into an Asp, unless you're already filthy rich more or less means you're gonna be a trader for a while.. Get the wealth and upgrade everything and she's a fierce bounty hunter and explorer. Otherwise stick to the Cobra...
I flew an Asp for a few weeks and clocked a lot of hours but I much prefer the Cobra.. Maybe it's nostalgia or what you're comfortable with, but an upgraded Cobby is fine by me

 

[Starender]

I've read your posts in regards to your "holy trinity" of ships, and suffice it to say, your opinions are not exactly shared by many others who fly many other ships out there. Even I dont agree with your assessment of the Cobra and I flew a Cobra through the majority of Gamma and into launch.

it's pure maths, no feeling or anything, i found nobody that could make me even think about it differently because it is like this, fact

i however stay open minded, but nobody can pass the game without hours and hours inside a Cobra, some people won't ever let it go for obvious reasons, it's a monster of a ship in any job, at the same time.
same for the ASP
the python has two high drawback, very high cost and bad jump range.

but the Cobra and ASP are cheap, specialized in everything, without any drawback, they are the champions at everything of there cost/size category, and that is why i think like that

 

[SilverBlack]

My Asp is currently stored someplace cant remember where,went and got a Cobra again.
The Asp just costs too much to run the slightest scrape costs way too much,plus fuel costs,upgrading.
Not enough profit in trading to maintain the thing.Until they up the profits on trading i will carry on in the Cobra.

 

[Quietman]

First advice: don't buy a Viper, this ship need a crazy long time thinking about what will you sacrifice to make it only decent at fighting, without any other possibilities, and a lot of other problems like power starving or bad jump range.
Second advice: never sell ship you feel very comfortable with, you will always need a lot more credit than you think to make your future ship at least as good as the present one, your mistake here was lack of patience.
Third advice:the only ships everyone should ever use for pure efficiency are Cobra, ASP and Python, skip every other

First advice: No; the Viper is a magnificent combat ship, fully upgraded I have it with 2 class 2 Beams and 2 class 1 MCannons, 12.7 LY jump range, 2 shield cells banks giving 9 shield regens, (1 needs to be powered down and switched on when needed, whilst empty one is switched off), and the only time it is power starved is if I saturate the beams for 20 seconds, (5second recharge time), against a heavy target, (power distribution is a must). It destroys everything smaller than an Asp without even having to fire a single shot of the cannons.

Second advice:: Yes.

Third advice:: No; it's completely subjective, the Adder for example makes a great starter bounty hunter. The Python whilst being a great combat ship is almost on the bottom of the heap in terms of efficiency, it's running costs alone will probably destroy any profits you make from pure combat. I hate the Cobra for combat, it's fat and it's hardpoints, (I only fight with fixed weapons), make it completely frustrating against anything smaller than a blue whale.

 

[DraigUK]

ASP cost 6 mill, but before it gets any good you need to spend another 6-10mill on it in upgrades.
However when you do upgrade it, it is a Cobra on crack.
Easily one of my fave ships.

I run with 2 grade 2 lasers and 4 multicannons. Chews through everything really quickly...

 

[CATPAIN KIRK]

However, with 3 hull losses in 6 days of flying the Asp (and losing half a million credits over said time), I'm starting to wonder if my decision to upgrade was a sound one.

There is your Problem - and I literally know what hitting a wall in my Asp means (yes - I was inebriated)

Heck, I'm considering making the serious downgrade down to a Viper and try that out, since I've never really flown one to much extent.

Any advice?

Get a Viper as a second ship - that's what I did. A SUV and a neat little roadster - fun combination.

 

[Starender]

First advice: No; the Viper is a magnificent combat ship, fully upgraded I have it with 2 class 2 Beams and 2 class 1 MCannons, 12.7 LY jump range, 2 shield cells banks giving 9 shield regens, (1 needs to be powered down and switched on when needed, whilst empty one is switched off), and the only time it is power starved is if I saturate the beams for 20 seconds, (5second recharge time), against a heavy target, (power distribution is a must). It destroys everything smaller than an Asp without even having to fire a single shot of the cannons.

Second advice:: Yes.

Third advice:: No; it's completely subjective, the Adder for example makes a great starter bounty hunter. The Python whilst being a great combat ship is almost on the bottom of the heap in terms of efficiency, it's running costs alone will probably destroy any profits you make from pure combat. I hate the Cobra for combat, it's fat and it's hardpoints, (I only fight with fixed weapons), make it completely frustrating against anything smaller than a blue whale.

lol your words are different, but the message is exactly the same, you say yourself that it got 12.7 Ly jump range which is bad, and you need to disable modules to enable other which shows some true problems with power

for the hardpoint yea, if you want to use fixed then the viper has at least that over the cobra

 

[Elison Muerte]

Right now, if you're predominately dealing with PvE targets, I'd suggest stick with the Cobra and stockpile money till you feel like doing something else, it's versatile, tanky and has decent damage output. TBH the Dev's need to either nerf the Cobra or buff the Viper because it's too good at combat for a ship twice the size of the Viper with so much more utility. I can't see myself upgrading past the Cobra till FD give me a reason to.

 

[Starender]

Right now, if you're predominately dealing with PvE targets, I'd suggest stick with the Cobra and stockpile money till you feel like doing something else, it's versatile, tanky and has decent damage output. TBH the Dev's need to either nerf the Cobra or buff the Viper because it's too good at combat for a ship twice the size of the Viper with so much more utility. I can't see myself upgrading past the Cobra till FD give me a reason to.

logic, +1 rep
they could: increase the viper cost/ give it bigger weapons/ more power/ more maneuverability/ more speed/ less weight punishment/ or a mix of those

a specialist should always be better in his own speciality that a generalist, it's pure logic

 

[FredTA]

So after jumping up from my well-serving A-grade Cobra, I went ahead and (probably against better judgement with 20/20 hindsight now) upgraded to what ended up as a C-grade Asp. The extra internal compartment space, plus the beefier class-6 slot for a bigger shield generator means I can tank just as well as an A-grade Cobra, whilst having 2 more weapons means more firepower to deal with those always-Anaconda assassination missions. 4 dumbfire missile pods at once is a glorious thing...

However, with 3 hull losses in 6 days of flying the Asp (and losing half a million credits over said time), I'm starting to wonder if my decision to upgrade was a sound one.

My main source of income is bounty hunting. I've never been much of a trader, and in the areas I'm flying the background AI trading is quite aggressive, with the margins not high enough to even pay for the fuel costs. I normally just trawl USS's and of course, the odd aformentioned assassination mission, and the odd 20k+ bounty found during SC. I can afford to drop cargo holds down to one, and just use the internals for something more usable, like say, a shield cell bank or similar.

However, I am still having trouble with my Asp. Granted, I was having the same frustrations in my Cobra, but at least I could move in my Cobra. The Asp is just... well... its too fat.

Heck, I'm considering making the serious downgrade down to a Viper and try that out, since I've never really flown one to much extent.

Any advice?

I'm in the same shoes as you, bounty hunter, just upgraded to my asp, I'm loving it personally, more hard points, bigger internal compartments meaning better shields, yeah it's a little big, but it doesn't really bother me tbh, I prefer the larger landing pads, they compensate