It's pretty easy to see what the most popular ships in the game are. Aside from empirical evidence of playing open, you can see how many paintjobs are available for each model of ship on the Frontier Store:
https://www.frontierstore.net/game-extras/elite-dangerous-game-extras.html
Assumption: Frontier prioritise paintjobs for the most popular ships in the game.
Rationale: Frontier know that these will result in the highest volume of sales, and therefore offer the best return on investment.
Evidence: The number of paintjobs available per ship, in descending order of popularity, are:
And that's a shame, because it looks beautiful. Clearly a lot of time and effort went into it's design, so it feels like a waste of development and design effort for it to become so unpopular.
When you compare it to other large ships, it is totally outclassed in nearly every respect. Compared to other large ships:
So, as a large trader, it is little better than an Orca (a luxury passenger liner), it is no good as a large explorer, and it lacks the offensive/defensive capabilities to be viable in combat against similar sized vessels.
So, why would anyone choose to use a Clipper? The evidence appears to speak for itself: they don’t.
If (hypothetically speaking) the Clipper was a medium sized ship, it starts to look a lot more viable:
As a medium sized ship, the Clipper would become a serious contender to the reigning medium king: the Python. It would sacrifice cargo capacity for speed and agility, making it an ideal blockade runner and courier. Reduce it's hull mass a bit, and the resulting higher jump range would allow it to be used as a competent explorer (although still outclassed by the Asps and Python).
And it would be able to dock at outposts! Rejoice!
So, while it would still be outclassed in nearly every department by the Python, it would be a much closer contender, and offer players real choice.
Right now, the Clipper stats do not make sense for a large ship, especially when you compare it to the Python.
Make the Clipper a medium sized ship, and watch it surge in popularity among the player base.
https://www.frontierstore.net/game-extras/elite-dangerous-game-extras.html
Assumption: Frontier prioritise paintjobs for the most popular ships in the game.
Rationale: Frontier know that these will result in the highest volume of sales, and therefore offer the best return on investment.
Evidence: The number of paintjobs available per ship, in descending order of popularity, are:
- Cobra Mk III: 54
- Viper Mk III: 35
- Eagle: 24
- Sidewinder: 23
- Anaconda: 21
- Asp Explorer: 16
- etc...
And that's a shame, because it looks beautiful. Clearly a lot of time and effort went into it's design, so it feels like a waste of development and design effort for it to become so unpopular.
When you compare it to other large ships, it is totally outclassed in nearly every respect. Compared to other large ships:
- It has a below average jump range.
- It has nearly the weakest shields.
- It has nearly the weakest armour.
- It weighs the same as an Anaconda.
- It has almost the lowest cargo capacity.
So, as a large trader, it is little better than an Orca (a luxury passenger liner), it is no good as a large explorer, and it lacks the offensive/defensive capabilities to be viable in combat against similar sized vessels.
So, why would anyone choose to use a Clipper? The evidence appears to speak for itself: they don’t.
If (hypothetically speaking) the Clipper was a medium sized ship, it starts to look a lot more viable:
- It would have the 2nd highest cargo capacity of all the medium sized ships.
- It would be an above average combat vessel.
- It would be the fastest medium ship.
As a medium sized ship, the Clipper would become a serious contender to the reigning medium king: the Python. It would sacrifice cargo capacity for speed and agility, making it an ideal blockade runner and courier. Reduce it's hull mass a bit, and the resulting higher jump range would allow it to be used as a competent explorer (although still outclassed by the Asps and Python).
And it would be able to dock at outposts! Rejoice!
So, while it would still be outclassed in nearly every department by the Python, it would be a much closer contender, and offer players real choice.
Right now, the Clipper stats do not make sense for a large ship, especially when you compare it to the Python.
Make the Clipper a medium sized ship, and watch it surge in popularity among the player base.
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