Big ship/God ship woes

Dbrn47

Dbrn47
To try and breathe a little more life into the game for me, I periodically decide to go back to some of the smaller and less/not engineered ships. Let's just say it hasn't gone well. I just did a Keelback yesterday and it went well for a while, until it didn't. The defense and firepower just wasn't there for me for the things I'm used to doing. Also add in the fact that engineers has basically made me feel like I need to engineer every ship. It turns into this thing were I start screwing with myself because I miss the firepower, the defense and the comfort of my decked out Cutter and I certainly don't want to grind out more mats to deck out more ships than I already have. So here I am, back in the Cutter, sticking my nose up at things like the T10 and the soon coming Chieftain, because why bother? Sort of a sad place to be in when I think about it.

If you have experienced something similar, how did you break away from it? I used to love the Viper when that was the fighter to be in, then the Vulture, then the FAS, trying to go back to them now... like I said, why bother?
 

777Driver

777Driver
Been flying the Viper III a bit lately, my engineering rule is only thursters and weapons, yes it is easy mode against NPC's, but you can make it more difficult for yourself by choosing your targets and punching well above your weight. All in all good fun.

Also use an Eagle, non engineered against smaller NPC ships. The SLF is great fun, park the mother ship away from the Haz RES, shut down engines so the crew member will stay put, head in with the SLF.

I enjoy the big ships (especially the Cutter & T-10) But nothing beats a dogfight without a canopy in small ship.
 

StiTch

StiTch
Flying a smaller ship simply requires a different approach. However, once you're there, you realise some smaller ships are easily as "god mode" as the big 3.
 

IndigoWyrd

IndigoWyrd
For the challenge, for the thrill, because you can. There's any number of reasons for it.
I have some Big Ships too, and they're fun to fly for a while, but then I start missing things, like the performance and handing of my Orca or Beluga, and back I go.

But sometimes I want to challenge myself, so I climb in something else - a FAS, a Viper IV, even a Cobra III.

I always have to remind myself too that smaller ships and less heavy-duty ships handle and perform like smaller, less heavy-duty ships.
 

zarrazee

zarrazee
OP. I felt the same after owning a Vette for about 6 months;I wasn't bothered about any other ship apart from the AspX for exploration and Python for Outposts. How did I break away? I bought VR and reset my save a couple of months ago. Perhaps a bit drastic, but I made the right decision (for me).

I'm only flying small/medium ships and loving Elite again.
 

Dbrn47

Dbrn47
zarrazee said:
OP. I felt the same after owning a Vette for about 6 months;I wasn't bothered about any other ship apart from the AspX for exploration and Python for Outposts. How did I break away? I bought VR and reset my save a couple of months ago. Perhaps a bit drastic, but I made the right decision (for me).

I'm only flying small/medium ships and loving Elite again.
Click to expand...

Nice. I've thought about the save reset, but I've just put too much time and effort into the game to really give it a serious consideration.
 

GG7

G
I'm spoiled by my Uber/A Rated/Hyper Engineered Corvette. At least for combat.

Even flying my equally well equipped Python in combat feels more like a Hauler compared to the destructive power of my Vette.

I can't imagine actually using the real Hauler for anything. Leave alone a Vulture.
 

Rubbernuke

Rubbernuke
Large ships will leave you numb though, as for most PvE they simply cannot be killed. Get in an Eagle and have fun- here is mine, about an hour before I'd been watching the film Dunkirk and wanted a Spitfire in game, so strapped on 3 rapid fire Enforcer cannons...bombombombombombom!

v2Ois1K.jpg
 

jasonbirder

J
I went the other way...put together an A rated engineered FDL but quickly shelved it...everything WAS way to easy ridiculous shields and high firepower meant it was very much click to win...
I returned to my Viper 3 and combat is much more fun and challenging!
 

Riverside

Riverside
The main thing I miss when flying a smaller ship is the number of slots - both internal & external. I like a ship that can put it's hand to anything I'm likely to want to do, and that's just easier with a big ship.

Big ships feel safe, they can take a pounding & survive. A smaller ship with good enough manoeuvrability & speed to evade would tick that box too, for me at least.
 

nosleepdemon

nosleepdemon
I flew my PvP DBS against an AI Anaconda last night. Beggar was only expert but I lost most of my ship and canopy fighting him. Best 250k I ever earned.

I flew the same ship in the recent bounty CG too with some friends, and later, took my Corvette out to a haz rez to top up my contribution. I find that flying the Corvette is less about expert flight tricks and more about micromanagement: How is my SLF doing? How many ships have aggro on me? What's my kill priority? Where are my pips at? Should I reinforce my shields? Should I pop a shield cell pre-emptively? How soon before I need to cycle an old bank out on the modules screen? Etc. The DBS on the other hand is a lot more visceral, and tbh way more entertaining.
 
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Mrat13

M
I'd recommend a Vulture. Small, but still packs a punch. You may still want to engineer the power plant and distributor though, so you can fit the more power hungry weapons.
 

Clifra Jones

Clifra Jones
777Driver said:
Been flying the Viper III a bit lately, my engineering rule is only thursters and weapons, yes it is easy mode against NPC's, but you can make it more difficult for yourself by choosing your targets and punching well above your weight. All in all good fun.

Also use an Eagle, non engineered against smaller NPC ships. The SLF is great fun, park the mother ship away from the Haz RES, shut down engines so the crew member will stay put, head in with the SLF.

I enjoy the big ships (especially the Cutter & T-10) But nothing beats a dogfight without a canopy in small ship.
Click to expand...

The Viper III is a sweet little ship. I am sorry I sold mine when I bough the IV. Been thinking on buying another one. My IV is a beast in CZ now that she has engineered thrusters and power distributor.

I own a Courier but still trying to learn how to best use her.

Just don't think some folks understand how fun these smaller ships can be.
 

Stealthie

Stealthie
I can sympathise with the OP.

I recall I spent a LOT of time working on my "main" AspX and it became quite a formidable ship; fast, tough, powerful weapons, 40Ly range and good cargo capacity.
I used to take on missions, get interdicted by Elite Anacondas and be able to space them without breaking a sweat.

Then I built another AspX for my Merope fleet.
It was intended to be, basically, the same as my "main" AspX but it wasn't quite as refined.
Maybe I didn't bother making quite as many rolls on the mod's and maybe I didn't bother modding as many things, or modding them to the same level.

Never ceased to surprise me just how much worse than the other AspX it was.
I'd be attacked by, say, an iClipper (which I wouldn't have thought twice about destroying in the other AspX) and I'd find myself in a "life or death" struggle.
I'd use all the same tactics but it just wouldn't do the same damage, wouldn't allow me to be as evasive and would suffer a lot more damage.

So, erm, yeah.
It can be surprising just how much of a difference there is between the base ship and a modded ship and between "okayish" mod's and "good" mod's.
Once you've got used to having the best toys, it's not easy to do without them.
 

Faded Glory

Faded Glory
I use primarily small and medium ships. I have only one large one, a Corvette that essentially I use for higher capacity delivery missions. Tend to spend most of my time in an iCourier (I have 4 of them!). I do engineer my ships, but certainly don't try and min / max. I like the speed of dirty drive thrusters, and the extended jump range from FSD engineering. Weapons, when engineered are generally only to G3, and even then often feel a touch overpowered.

When I'm going for high ranking assassinations I'll typically use a Vulture, FGS (with SLF) or if it's very high ranked, an FDL. Each have different load-outs (and I have multiples of the Vulture and the FDL), and I'll use them to get more effective with fixed weapons of different types, including rails and PA's, although all have some gimballed too for when I am not getting enough time on target with fixed.

Wouldn't say I'm the greatest pilot, certainly not an ace at combat, but I find that combat in the smaller ships is much more fun, and encourages some tactical flying rather than just brute force.
 

Stinja

S
I fly in a heavily engineered Cobra MK3, as I just enjoy it way more.

Flying is actually fun (pretty hard to loop around station rings in the big fatties); NPCs (or wings of them) can actually be challenging, and require some thought on winning (pulling off the fastest to 1v1, then going back to hug the tail of a slow one etc), vs tanking all the damage, and grinding them down; You can land pretty much anywhere (and recalling your ship isn't 2km away); PvP is pretty amusing, as it's usually very asymmetrical (they can't kill me, due to speed and engagement choice - I can't kill them due to dps. Hmmm might get a Phasing Sequence to just chip thru their shields....). And so on.

Once you don't need credits, I found it very liberating to avoid the big ships, and just try stuff out. Fly unsafe ;)
 
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