Out of curiousty, does anyone stick with some of "lower level" ships?

[ComradeFresco]

I really, really, can't fly anything other then the eagle. I just can't man. I hop in my viper and its just, ugh, I feel like a fat kid in a swimming pool with those arm-floaters on. Also no ship looks half as cool as the eagle, not even close.

However it feels like to "progress" I need to set my precious eagle aside, otherwise I'll never be a real big boy in space. So I'm just wondering, are there any of you that feel the same way? I haven't tried the vulture and FDL again, do people find that those ships recreate the magic of the more nippy/small starter ships?

 

[GluttonyFang]

I'm a fan of small ships, especially the Viper and the Courier, it just feels more comforting to me than flying an Anaconda around.

 

[Bacalao]

I don't like the eagle (the hardpoints bug me), I prefer the viper. For me the big ships can't ever recreate it. I hear good things about the courier, but even the FAS doesn't recreate the feeling of freedom a Viper gives me. The big ships give me something else, mostly a maniacal laugh as I watch small ships pop instantly, or see 1.5M added to my account after a big trade, or fuel scooping at 1200kg/s. I like that I can play in either, big or small, and have fun in either, just in very different ways.

 

[YoBuck]

For me the vulture is an end game ship. Most get bored of it. I've never had one for that reason. Furthest I've climbed is the asp. If you want to move on but not too far I'd advise the cobra mkIII. a great ship with loads of room still to move up. Really the first multi roll ship.

 

[Arry]

Courier, or the i-pod as I call it. The Eagle is the most manoeuvrable ship in the game I think; so everything afterwards, is slow. Cobra is King and can be made to be closer the the Eagle, I can keep behind an Eagle, easy in mine. Then there is the FA button, I am not allowed to type FA etc, others will inform you about this.

 

[Almighty Bob]

I have been playing since November, I use an ASP to explore or Cobra for missions, the Cobra is essentially invincible if you chose when to fight and when to run. The Asp is can go anywhere including outposts. Now that missions pay well trading is an unnecessary grind.

 

[OnePercent]

my favorite small ship is the viper for sure, it's my favorite ship actually.

 

[Arubeto]

Right now I am flying an Diamondback Explorer on a deep space exploration trip, but as soon as I come back to the bubble I plan to switch to an Adder for some low-profile, relaxed mining action.

Apart from that, I mainly fly my Courier, because it looks, flies and sounds awesome! (Even left my beloved Clipper in the hangar because of the Couriers ability to land on outposts!)

 

[Midnight Sun]

I enjoyed every new ship from Eagle to Vulture. Each slight loss of agility was more than made up for with strength. Then after the Vulture there was a big gap till I could afford a Fer de Lance, which is sadly when the pleasure of progress came to an end. The Vulture is the last of the dogfighters and where I will stay until a better super-heavy fighter comes along.

 

[Kvas]

Just upgraded my python to a level i am happy with and don't really need other ship, it can do everything in it, bounty hunting, trading, missions. I'll be saving money now to try ships I never flew yet, courier, dbs and raising my ranks to try clipper and try T9.

I loved my viper and vulture, definitely gonna have a vulture in my garage, I had most fun with it.

 

[Valan]

I have a high end Vulture and a high end Asp which are fairly meaty ships, I don't intend getting anything bigger.

 

[Zenith]

I use Haulers to taxi from one ship to another.
An Asp for exploring. A Cobra for fun. A Python for practical. A DBX for UA Hunting.

My new love is the Imperial Eagle. I love the Gutamaya styling and engine sounds.

 

[ValkyrieUK]

I like just flying in the cobra, but I also have an Eagle ready if I want to take a step back. I suppose the reason I like the cobra so much is that it feels a bit more powerful than it actually is. A bit like the railgun, I guess.

Anyway, my position isn't really valid in a thread like this because I don't have any considerably large ships, the asp being the biggest in the collection.

However, I do recall a time during the premium beta where I would look up at a player in their cobra and think; "Wow, look at that. They must have worked hard to get that.", which is a bit strange now, with all of these new ways to make money. Actually, that's given me a thought: You don't necessarily need to do any hard work to get a ship, do you? No, you just keep doing the same easy stuff until you have enough money for the next ship, which will boost your rate of income. I don't mean to bring up the typical 'Elite: Boring' argument, that wouldn't solve anything, but it would seem all of the ships are earned the same way. Imagine if all of the ships were split into classes, like 'fighter', 'transport', 'explorer', etc, and in order to get a high-level fighter for example, you would need to do plenty of cool missions or something. Or maybe it equates to your rank. Oh, and there would be a mutirole class too, where you can do any task to earn a ship, or all of them maybe.

But yea, these are just some floaty ideas I'll have until horizons, where the game will become 1000x more awesome.

 

[MJC]

I went back to my Cobra after trying everything else. It still has that nostalgia from the origial Elite and its fast and cool.

It used to be really cool flying it in beta, gamma all the way up to 1.1. Then the shield cells came up. This fundamentaly changed the balance of the game against the small ships. I would actually go as far as saying that in pvp shield cells made smaller ships almost obsolete. Great shame if you ask me.

I used to love surprising Python pilots in my railgun cobra up to and including Lugh CG (eve pre nerf Pythons). Few months ago I did fight a 1:1 with a Python cmdr and eventually let him go with 1% hull to tell his friends, but those moments are few nowadays. With 5-6 shield cell banks per ships the little ships can only rely on lack of concentration of the enemy cmdr to bring their shield down.

On the other hand Cobra dictates when the fight starts and ends (It is the fastest). Shields come up in 20 sec (as opposed to 2 min) so boost a few km away and await your shields recharge. Enjoy reading your enemy's gloats and victory speeches thinking you are running away, before you turn back and ram them with full shields and 200t of Cobra steel at 450 m/s. At this stage both shields are down. Their jaw drops. How can this be??? Panic sets in, rebuy costs. All the while your Cobra relishes this "naked" fight and your rails fill the space vacuum with the reassuring glow. Priceless

I am currently working for towards the Imperial Hammer and awaiting Cobra Mk4. If they manage to fit 3 medium slots on her with 3 hammers I`ll happily take on any Python. That is my long term goal. There is nothing like wining a pvp fight as an underdog (my cobra v 2 Imperial courier cmdrs both destroyed, or Pythons 1:1). Golden moments.

 

[ComradeFresco]

Its nice to hear that there are other players who aren't just after a kitted out conda to play brick-in-space-simulator.

I do agree with the point Valkyrie makes, its not that I find ED boring but rather, why would I do X or Y activity only to get to a ship I like less, but does the same activity more efficiently?

This is why I'm hoping for good multi-role combat to emerge. If I could fly with a wing of other eagle pilots and we used our co-ordination and agility, I'd feel happier. I'm more of a "Pilot" then a commander, if you will, and I'd love to be able to specialize as sort of a dog-fighting support.

 

[robbyp]

Assemble a fleet. I have a Asp, Vulture, FDL, Eagle, hauler, many sidewinders, and a T9.. All have a specific purpose

 

[Rankaze]

The Courier is still my favorite ship to fly in the whole game, closely followed by the Viper and Eagle (though the Impy Eagle will be usurping that #2 spot when it goes live). The only reason I'm in a Vulture now is that raising rank has become a hard row to hoe of late, and I've only managed to get to Outsider so far.

That won't stop me from moving up to the FdL when I have the cash, simply because it's the prettiest ship in the game, but I suspect I'll be keeping an Imperial Eagle around to play with even then.

 

[Cosmo Bozo]

I'm still flying around in the cobra I started with (Kickstarter explorer)

I have tried most of the others though at some point (though many only in the betas)

 

[askavir]

Even though my main ship is the Clipper, i spend a lot of time in smaller ships.

I have an Asp for smuggling, mining, salvaging and occasional tourism trips. I make far more money on the Asp that I ever made on any other ship.
Also have a Cobra, again for running missions, high-risk blockade running and for intercepting interceptors. Currently have a pet Courier too, for some casual pewpew.

Every once and a while, I purchase some ships for a specific purpose then sell them again, like a Python for the Hutton CG, a Vulture for bounty-hunting CGs, etc. But the Clipper, the Asp and the Cobra are the ones I can't live without.

 

[CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost]

I really, really, can't fly anything other then the eagle. I just can't man. I hop in my viper and its just, ugh, I feel like a fat kid in a swimming pool with those arm-floaters on. Also no ship looks half as cool as the eagle, not even close.
…

The Eagle is the most maneuverable ship in the game, but it is made out of paper and it is slow. It's a mosquito.

The Viper is a bit tricky to fly, but it is very maneuverable once all 6 axises are used - "sliding" with the Viper is cool.

The next fun ship is the Diamondback Scout. The firepower of the Viper almost, as agile as the Eagle, is fast and more than enough power to use all the fun stuff. That thing is my preferred combat ship in Elite Dangerous, it's just silly fun to fly it.

The Cobra is a fast trading ship with good pitch, but that's it.

The Vulture is something special, some call it boring, but it is a big Eagle. Pure fun to fly with really nice acceleration.