Having worked my way up from the start of Premium Beta to 5.5 mil in the bank, I've decided I'd get some notes on the ships down in case they'd help anyone else.
I've been flying with a Saitek x45 stick and throttle mounted to my chair and a wireless numeric keypad for extra functions stuck to the throttle for "lean back" mode I guess you'd call it. I also have FacetrackNoIR running with a delanclip and a modded Microsoft V3000 (removed the IR filter and such), and 3 screens running at 5760 x 1080.
I'm not the greatest of combat pilots by a long stretch, much of an A-B trader at heart, but I have clocked up about 100 player kills and over 1000 NPC kills in the various ships with various weapon combinations.
Sidewinder
The "Cobra Lite". Quick and manoeuvrable, the hardpoint balance feels just about right. In comparison with the other ships feels like it should have a little more cargo - perhaps 8t or 10t. Easy to dock and land, getting through the slot is no real problem even with bigger ships going through.
Eagle
Fits the role as a dedicated combat fighter perfectly. Twitchy as a cat chasing a red dot, but oddly slower at top speed than a Cobra - feels like it should be faster at max speed. The minimal cargo space fits the profile perfectly, along with the third hardpoint. If anything it's a bit too responsive and it's easy to overshoot, vertical thrust down too hard and bounce off the pad.
Hauler
Was actually pleasantly surprised by this ship, given other people's opinions of it. Feels as though it's on a par with the Cobra in terms of manoeuvrability, or possibly slightly better. It's also surprisingly quick on the top speed. It definitely feels like it needs extra cargo space to compensate for the lack of hardpoints - up to 20t or maybe even 25t.
Cobra Mk3
The big shebang, the one they had to get right - and they did
Feels absolutely right, if a little less manoeuvrable than I'd initially hoped. After playing with it quite a while though, it does feel as it should. The hardpoint and cargo balance is right where it should be too. Even the docking slot feels the same as the good old days. Had a big smile on my face flying the whole time flying this ship
Lakon T9
The Space Cow. Absolutely beautiful ship - a beast to turn, brakes like a brick thrown off a mountaintop and accelerates like a freight train. Fairly brutal to get through the dock, can almost guarantee that at least one out of every 10 docking attempts needs the paintwork re-doing. You definitely feel like you're shouldering your way through a crowd when going for the slot in this beast. Cargo capacity is great, hardpoints are pretty good giving a reasonable chance of fending off pirates.
Anaconda
I was looking forward to getting in to one of these, but... I just don't know. It's surprisingly easy and fast to manoeuvre, sitting inbetween the Cobra and Lakon, and leaning heavily towards the Cobra side of things. As a military ship I have to admit I only had limited play with it, and I get the impression that others like it as a near-capital - tonnes of hardpoints. On that basis though, the 200-odd cargo capacity feels redundant, and the expense of the ship compared to the Lakon immediately rules it out as a trader in my book. My real gripe with this ship though is in docking - with the cockpit view being so high up on the ship going for the slot feels really uncomfortable, as you're almost scraping the cockpit on the roof of the slot to make sure you don't scrape your landing gear off.
I've been flying with a Saitek x45 stick and throttle mounted to my chair and a wireless numeric keypad for extra functions stuck to the throttle for "lean back" mode I guess you'd call it. I also have FacetrackNoIR running with a delanclip and a modded Microsoft V3000 (removed the IR filter and such), and 3 screens running at 5760 x 1080.
I'm not the greatest of combat pilots by a long stretch, much of an A-B trader at heart, but I have clocked up about 100 player kills and over 1000 NPC kills in the various ships with various weapon combinations.
Sidewinder
The "Cobra Lite". Quick and manoeuvrable, the hardpoint balance feels just about right. In comparison with the other ships feels like it should have a little more cargo - perhaps 8t or 10t. Easy to dock and land, getting through the slot is no real problem even with bigger ships going through.
Eagle
Fits the role as a dedicated combat fighter perfectly. Twitchy as a cat chasing a red dot, but oddly slower at top speed than a Cobra - feels like it should be faster at max speed. The minimal cargo space fits the profile perfectly, along with the third hardpoint. If anything it's a bit too responsive and it's easy to overshoot, vertical thrust down too hard and bounce off the pad.
Hauler
Was actually pleasantly surprised by this ship, given other people's opinions of it. Feels as though it's on a par with the Cobra in terms of manoeuvrability, or possibly slightly better. It's also surprisingly quick on the top speed. It definitely feels like it needs extra cargo space to compensate for the lack of hardpoints - up to 20t or maybe even 25t.
Cobra Mk3
The big shebang, the one they had to get right - and they did
Feels absolutely right, if a little less manoeuvrable than I'd initially hoped. After playing with it quite a while though, it does feel as it should. The hardpoint and cargo balance is right where it should be too. Even the docking slot feels the same as the good old days. Had a big smile on my face flying the whole time flying this ship Lakon T9
The Space Cow. Absolutely beautiful ship - a beast to turn, brakes like a brick thrown off a mountaintop and accelerates like a freight train. Fairly brutal to get through the dock, can almost guarantee that at least one out of every 10 docking attempts needs the paintwork re-doing. You definitely feel like you're shouldering your way through a crowd when going for the slot in this beast. Cargo capacity is great, hardpoints are pretty good giving a reasonable chance of fending off pirates.
Anaconda
I was looking forward to getting in to one of these, but... I just don't know. It's surprisingly easy and fast to manoeuvre, sitting inbetween the Cobra and Lakon, and leaning heavily towards the Cobra side of things. As a military ship I have to admit I only had limited play with it, and I get the impression that others like it as a near-capital - tonnes of hardpoints. On that basis though, the 200-odd cargo capacity feels redundant, and the expense of the ship compared to the Lakon immediately rules it out as a trader in my book. My real gripe with this ship though is in docking - with the cockpit view being so high up on the ship going for the slot feels really uncomfortable, as you're almost scraping the cockpit on the roof of the slot to make sure you don't scrape your landing gear off.
