Ships Vulture An ode to the Vulture

WeComeInPeace

WeComeInPeace
144152


Well, I'm not much of a poet, so I'll skip that, but...

When I started playing ED, I quickly wanted one of the big ships. I grinded my way to a Conda, and for a long time I asked myself why there were other ships in the galaxy. The Conda does everything (equally mediocre). Then I got the Cutter, the T-10 and after even more grinding I got the Corvette. Recently I bought a Python for core mining. Flying that was pure pleasure and it still is my favorite allround ship. It certainly opened my eyes towards the joy of flying smaller ships.

I also started out in the galaxy being a sworn pacifist, but being blown up by a few pirates cured me. I went to a Haz Res and practiced for some time to be able to defend myself, and these days I go to Haz Res just for the degenerate fun of killing wanted ships. It has gotten pretty "easy" to survive, so I decided to up the ante by using a less potent tank than a fully engineered Corvette. Looking around the store I laid my eyes upon a Vulture. Those are some of the ships I find less easy to kill. Very agile it seemed.

The Vulture is very agile. First thing I noticed was how much easier it is to position yourself outside most ships firing arc. It's much easier to get behind them, and it's fun doing so. Next I noticed that the two large hardpoints is all you need for PvE. I went for two frags, and that's a very entertaining combo. You need to get close to the opponent, but that's easy in the Vulture. I was afraid of losing my "tiny" shield too quickly, and you should avoid getting hit as much as possible, but a few hits wont remove your shield.

Then I started looking into hull tanking, because I had skipped that in the game so far. Right now I'm trying to find a good setup where I have a strong but light hull, so that I don't destroy the agility of the ship. I don't think flying without a shield is wise in the long run, so I'm also trying to configure a small shield to take the scratches, and then rely on the hull for ocasional damage. On the weapon side I haven't decided yet, but only having two hardpoints make it a lot cheaper to test different combos, and by cheap I mean materials. On a Corvette you need a lot of mats to figure out that those beam lasers are too power hungry. On a Vulture you'll figure that out even before you start spending mats.

Generally the Vulture is a great little teacher, that will get you to consider all the important stuff. If you, like I did, have skipped it on the hunt for a bigger ship, I can highly recommend going back and give it a try. And if you like combat it's one of the most rewarding ships in the game. I've lost it in PvP, but I always lose PvP fights. However, I haven't lost to any NPCs, and I've gotten to a point where I sometimes take on more than one wing at a time, just for the fun of it.

The Vulture is a combat ship, but it can be used for other tasks, even core mining. It will not make you rich, but I promise it will make you smile :)
 
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Eliza

Eliza
WeComeInPeace said:
View attachment 144152

Well, I'm not much of a poet, so I'll skip that, but...

When I started playing ED, I quickly wanted one of the big ships. I grinded my way to a Conda, and for a long time I asked myself why there were other ships in the galaxy. The Conda does everything (equally mediocre). Then I got the Cutter, the T-10 and after even more grinding I got the Corvette. Recently I bought a Python for core mining. Flying that was pure pleasure and it still is my favorite allround ship. It certainly opened my eyes towards the joy of flying smaller ships.

I also started out in the galaxy being a sworn pacifist, but being blown up by a few pirates cured me. I went to a Haz Res and practiced for some time to be able to defend myself, and these days I go to Haz Res just for the degenerate fun of killing wanted ships. It has gotten pretty "easy" to survive, so I decided to up the ante by using a less potent tank than a fully engineered Corvette. Looking around the store I laid my eyes upon a Vulture. Those are some of the ships I find less easy to kill. Very agile it seemed.

The Vulture is very agile. First thing I noticed was how much easier it is to position yourself outside most ships firing arc. It's much easier to get behind them, and it's fun doing so. Next I noticed that the two large hardpoints is all you need for PvE. I went for two frags, and that's a very entertaining combo. You need to get close to the opponent, but that's easy in the Vulture. I was afraid of losing my "tiny" shield too quickly, and you should avoid getting hit as much as possible, but a few hits wont remove your shield.

Then I started looking into hull tanking, because I had skipped that in the game so far. Right now I'm trying to find a good setup where I have a strong but light hull, so that I don't destroy the agility of the ship. I don't think flying without a shield is wise in the long run, so I'm also trying to configure a small shield to take the scratches, and then rely on the hull for ocasional damage. On the weapon side I haven't decided yet, but only having two hardpoints make it a lot cheaper to test different combos, and by cheap I mean materials. On a Corvette you need a lot of mats to figure out that those beam lasers are too power hungry. On a Vulture you'll figure that out even before you start spending mats.

Generally the Vulture is a great little teacher, that will get you to consider all the important stuff. If you, like I did, have skipped it on the hunt for a bigger ship, I can highly recommend going back and give it a try. And if you like combat it's one of the most rewarding ships in the game. I've lost it in PvP, but I always lose PvP fights. However, I haven't lost to any NPCs, and I've gotten to a point where I sometimes take on more than one wing at a time, just for the fun of it.

The Vulture is a combat ship, but it can be used for other tasks, even core mining. It will not make you rich, but I promise it will make you smile :)
Click to expand...
The Vulture is a hell of a ship. I still fly it from time to time.

If you are into hulltanking, maybe consider a FAS. She's like a Vulture on steroids. Medium ship 2L 2M and flies like on rails. Just like the vulture.
 

A C Ender

A C Ender
Eliza said:
The Vulture is a hell of a ship. I still fly it from time to time.

If you are into hulltanking, maybe consider a FAS. She's like a Vulture on steroids. Medium ship 2L 2M and flies like on rails. Just like the vulture.
Click to expand...
I'm still in the starting zone, but I'm getting ready to leave in a few more sessions. I've mostly been enjoying combat (massacre and pirate takedowns) in first the sidewinder, then a cobra MK3.

If I wanna continue this route, I think my next combat ship should probably be the Vulture. At what point (engineers, cash etc) do you think it would be time to make the switch? I heard I want an overcharged powerplant on the Vulture at least. I'm playing with fixed frag on the cobra if that makes a difference.
 

Eliza

Eliza
A C Ender said:
I'm still in the starting zone, but I'm getting ready to leave in a few more sessions. I've mostly been enjoying combat (massacre and pirate takedowns) in first the sidewinder, then a cobra MK3.

If I wanna continue this route, I think my next combat ship should probably be the Vulture. At what point (engineers, cash etc) do you think it would be time to make the switch? I heard I want an overcharged powerplant on the Vulture at least. I'm playing with fixed frag on the cobra if that makes a difference.
Click to expand...
If your comfortable with Close Range Combat, stick to the Frags. They don't consume much power. I HIGHLY recommend pimping thrusters as far as you can "Dirty" with "Drag"-Experimental. Also ChargeEnhanced Distributor.

Both, Vulture and FAS, are superb hulltanker, so fit with largest BI-Weave with Fast Recharge and Boosters. Several HRP's each with a specific Resistance Improvement and Heavy Duty. The last a descent MRP i case you "fry" your ship during the fight. Helps alot do stand the heat "pressure" of those two ships.
 

dm06

dm06
I agree, nice ship. I like its agility. It does not require jedi level of reaction to control as small ships and at the same time have class 3 weapon slots, which makes hunting big ships not that risky.

Mine has double fixed efficient beams with thermal shock. I adore watching how npcs fries.
 

wAsh67

W
A C Ender said:
I heard I want an overcharged powerplant on the Vulture at least.
Click to expand...

You heard right. The Vulture was my first proper combat ship and the first things I engineered were power and distribution. Without that, no matter what you fit, in my opinion, the base ship seems to teeter right on the edge of electrical overload. Engineered power opens up a lot of upgrade avenues for everything else.
 

A C Ender

A C Ender
Eliza said:
If your comfortable with Close Range Combat, stick to the Frags. They don't consume much power. I HIGHLY recommend pimping thrusters as far as you can "Dirty" with "Drag"-Experimental. Also ChargeEnhanced Distributor.

Both, Vulture and FAS, are superb hulltanker, so fit with largest BI-Weave with Fast Recharge and Boosters. Several HRP's each with a specific Resistance Improvement and Heavy Duty. The last a descent MRP i case you "fry" your ship during the fight. Helps alot do stand the heat "pressure" of those two ships.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the advice. Will definitely give it a try. I love flying and become better at it. Just changed from pitch+roll to pitch+yaw on mouse and relative mouse on to try and get into FA off flying. Not yet tried it in combat so may not work out well. In time I will get atleast one joystick.

wAsh67 said:
You heard right. The Vulture was my first proper combat ship and the first things I engineered were power and distribution. Without that, no matter what you fit, in my opinion, the base ship seems to teeter right on the edge of electrical overload. Engineered power opens up a lot of upgrade avenues for everything else.
Click to expand...

Will follow that advice! Going to look into engineering once I'm out of the pilot federation permit area, which I intend to do once I'm confident in my basic flying ability.
 

Eliza

Eliza
wAsh67 said:
You heard right. The Vulture was my first proper combat ship and the first things I engineered were power and distribution. Without that, no matter what you fit, in my opinion, the base ship seems to teeter right on the edge of electrical overload. Engineered power opens up a lot of upgrade avenues for everything else.
Click to expand...
Yup...But you have to be careful about HOW MUCH you improve the power-output. The Vulture tends to have a REALLY hot temper. ;)
 

A C Ender

A C Ender
Eliza said:
Yup...But you have to be careful about HOW MUCH you improve the power-output. The Vulture tends to have a REALLY hot temper. ;)
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Hot temper as in... She don't think you treat her gently enough and burn you for it? Any advice on how to treat her well enough but avoid her exploding on you?
 

Eliza

Eliza
If you overcharge something (e.g. PowerPlant, Distributor, Thrusters) the module produces not only its output but also their "wasteheat". You have to deal with it.

So I tend to enhance one module after another see if power and heat is stable and then tune the powerplant accordingly. "Pimping" the Powerplant is my last thing to do, because it produces high amounts of wasteheat the more you drill up the plant.

And 2nd: Yes, the Vulture is also VERY aggressive, on a high-g turn with boosters it's easy to slip into a blackout...very annoying in certain situations, because you loose the ability piloting at all for about 5-10 secs. (never stopped the time)

But it won't explode instantly...The baby will slowly melt into a pile of metal.

All what I advise also counts towards the FAS.
 

WeComeInPeace

WeComeInPeace
The Vulture is power hungry, and it needs engineering to perform at it's optimal. Here is my current build (unfinished):

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
coriolis.io coriolis.io

You don't need everything engineered to G5, but the power plant is a good place to start. I almost always use thermal spread on my engineered power plants. That helps reduce the heat quite a lot. Also thinking about using less power hungry weapons is recommended.

The thing I really like about the Vulture is it's simplicity. Dogfighting while managing pips, thrusters, FA on/off, wich weapon to fire when, all while trying to maneuver your ship and keeping an eye on your opponent is a little too much for my brain in many cases. With the Vulture, I'm able to keep FA on and concentrate on my flying, while still wiggling around behind/over/under the opponent ship as I please in most cases. Once I have the enemy in my target there is only one trigger to press.

Flying this ship is a thrill. It's the first ship that I've flown that gives me a feeling of control in a heated up dogfight. Therefore it gives you great confidence and allows you to experiment more with your combat skills.

With regards to weapons, I can highly recommend Rapid Fire frags with Screening Shells. It's like two turbo charged pump guns :) But you run out of ammo pretty quickly. Not a major problem if you find a CNB or Haz Res with a nearby station, where you can go and restock the ammo once in a while, also settling down your nerves and heart rate.
 

Old Duck

Old Duck
I switched over to a Vulture as my multipurpose ship back when I was playing on PS4. It was less effected by the dreaded "Elephant Butt Leather" than other ships, so visually it was a compelling cockpit to view the 'verse through. I soon learned that it's a very versatile ship. I was able to run just about every kind of mission using it, except the "Haul more than X amount of cargo" missions (for which I used another CD ship, the FGS). I feared nothing while flying that ship - I killed many an Elite NPC (Corvettes & Cutters) in my Vulture, along with countless Thargoid Scouts. Yet it can also haul cargo for those low quantity cargo run missions, and enough passengers for the typical transport and sight-seeing missions. Swap in an FSD booster, and it even had a decent enough jump range to get most BGS-related jobs done. I was even able to do plenty of smuggling, as aggressive power management allowed me to stay in SR for minutes at a time.

Now that I'm on PC, guess what my main ship is :D
 

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WeComeInPeace

WeComeInPeace
@Old Duck
Nice to see that you're still around :)

@Eliza
Cool paintjob (y) Funny to see how similar setups we have. I have been considering what my next step could be. I tried the FDL but it doesn't ring my bell. The Gunship is tempting because of all the "dakka" as Yamiks so poetically puts it. What's the advantage of the FAS compared to the FGS?
 

Eliza

Eliza
WeComeInPeace said:
@Old Duck
Nice to see that you're still around :)

@Eliza
Cool paintjob (y) Funny to see how similar setups we have. I have been considering what my next step could be. I tried the FDL but it doesn't ring my bell. The Gunship is tempting because of all the "dakka" as Yamiks so poetically puts it. What's the advantage of the FAS compared to the FGS?
Click to expand...

Depends on your likings...the FAS is faster, more nimble, the FGS is "deadlier" and can host a SLF.
 
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