I have no problems with ship upgrades costing money. Let's just get that out of the way first. If you want a better ship, it should cost more money.
That said, these ships are not worth the sticker price because they do not let you feel a sense of progression. Upgrading your Hauler to a Cobra, Cobra to a T6, T6 to an Asp, all of these upgrades feel meaningful. You get increased earning potential (sometimes exponentially depending on the level of upgrades you can afford), and there's a logical progression in earning potential between a Cobra, T6, Asp, T7, Clipper, Python, T9, and Anaconda. There's some mix-and-match happening there and some are upgrades in ways other than pure hauling capacity, but by and large, each ship upgrade will yield you increased earning potential.
I can kill just about anything without issue in a Viper. The Viper is upgraded as hell, but basically only cost 3-4 million completely maxed out. It has a 180k rebuy cost.
In a combat ship, your earning potential is limited not by your armament or your cargo bay, but by the spawn rate and RNG on what sort of bounties you get. Yes, you can track down million credit player bounties if you fancy some PvP for a chance at some decent money, but it's not going to increase your ability to get credits by an amount that feels noticeable.
Two large hardpoints vs two medium/two small. Yes, it's faster to kill big ships, but it certainly doesn't FEEL a whole lot faster. The maneuverability is a massive upgrade from the Viper, as are the shields, but they do not feel like an 18 million credit improvement (and that's just for the base hull - you'd likely need double that to feel the full potential of the ship).
The FDL is a bit of an odd beast because it has 4 medium and a huge, as well as whatever "hidden" attributes it has related to its armor or whatever. It's definitely a damage upgrade over a Viper, and it is probably comparable to a Python. The problem of course, being, comparable to a python *at twice the price*. If you have to pick between a base-model FDL and a Python with 50 million of upgrades done to it, the Python is likely the better ship in every way.
The FDL feels, by most accounts from the Beta like a 20 million ship. Let's call it a 50 million ship if you want to push the "Impractical Luxury" angle - take what it's "actually" worth and double it.
The Vulture feels like an Asp-priced ship at best.
Neither of them will increase your earning potential in a way that makes them truly "feel" like an upgrade in the same sense that getting a new Trade ship with 100 more cargo capacity does.
Fix this somehow please, whether by lowering their price, buffing them in some way (I would suggest larger power supplies), or increasing earning potential for combat to a degree that they feel as if they are worth the sticker price. As it is now it seems like they're just arbitrarily priced with no thought as to the value they provide - I understand this to a degree with the "Luxury" variant, because luxury is never practical, but the Vulture especially of the two feels massively overpriced and like a waste of money for what you're getting over an A-rated viper or cobra.
I saved up enough to be able to afford one, but I think I'll be selling it back and going back to my viper. It's completely stress-free in combat to know that one bounty covers my Rebuy price, and that is worth the extra 20 seconds or so it takes to kill a large ship and the lesser maneuverability to me.
That said, these ships are not worth the sticker price because they do not let you feel a sense of progression. Upgrading your Hauler to a Cobra, Cobra to a T6, T6 to an Asp, all of these upgrades feel meaningful. You get increased earning potential (sometimes exponentially depending on the level of upgrades you can afford), and there's a logical progression in earning potential between a Cobra, T6, Asp, T7, Clipper, Python, T9, and Anaconda. There's some mix-and-match happening there and some are upgrades in ways other than pure hauling capacity, but by and large, each ship upgrade will yield you increased earning potential.
I can kill just about anything without issue in a Viper. The Viper is upgraded as hell, but basically only cost 3-4 million completely maxed out. It has a 180k rebuy cost.
In a combat ship, your earning potential is limited not by your armament or your cargo bay, but by the spawn rate and RNG on what sort of bounties you get. Yes, you can track down million credit player bounties if you fancy some PvP for a chance at some decent money, but it's not going to increase your ability to get credits by an amount that feels noticeable.
Two large hardpoints vs two medium/two small. Yes, it's faster to kill big ships, but it certainly doesn't FEEL a whole lot faster. The maneuverability is a massive upgrade from the Viper, as are the shields, but they do not feel like an 18 million credit improvement (and that's just for the base hull - you'd likely need double that to feel the full potential of the ship).
The FDL is a bit of an odd beast because it has 4 medium and a huge, as well as whatever "hidden" attributes it has related to its armor or whatever. It's definitely a damage upgrade over a Viper, and it is probably comparable to a Python. The problem of course, being, comparable to a python *at twice the price*. If you have to pick between a base-model FDL and a Python with 50 million of upgrades done to it, the Python is likely the better ship in every way.
The FDL feels, by most accounts from the Beta like a 20 million ship. Let's call it a 50 million ship if you want to push the "Impractical Luxury" angle - take what it's "actually" worth and double it.
The Vulture feels like an Asp-priced ship at best.
Neither of them will increase your earning potential in a way that makes them truly "feel" like an upgrade in the same sense that getting a new Trade ship with 100 more cargo capacity does.
Fix this somehow please, whether by lowering their price, buffing them in some way (I would suggest larger power supplies), or increasing earning potential for combat to a degree that they feel as if they are worth the sticker price. As it is now it seems like they're just arbitrarily priced with no thought as to the value they provide - I understand this to a degree with the "Luxury" variant, because luxury is never practical, but the Vulture especially of the two feels massively overpriced and like a waste of money for what you're getting over an A-rated viper or cobra.
I saved up enough to be able to afford one, but I think I'll be selling it back and going back to my viper. It's completely stress-free in combat to know that one bounty covers my Rebuy price, and that is worth the extra 20 seconds or so it takes to kill a large ship and the lesser maneuverability to me.
