Commanders, first and foremost I must say that I absolutely like Elite and spent some hundreds of hours with pleasure in the game. My far goal was be allowed and own an Imperial Cutter without doing rank grinding. Said that it took some time and I was looking for it. I already own the VESPERGATCHA, a multi purpose Python which cannot be threatened by NPC any longer. It is my working horse I learned to love. It shall be replaced by the Thing built for perfection, the Cutter.
About two months ago, the moment has arrived and the beauty was purchased. It absolutely flies in a unique way. Its forward-thrust is MASSIVE, but hell: it slows down like an ice berg and turns like a moon. The first greetings were therefore expressed to the gate, upper side. Then lower side. Then scratched the left. Finally got out in a weird vector. This thing is unflyable without engineering, and so I started my way back to the landing pad. Hit the gate again, missed my landing pad, noted the 200 credits for blocking another one and knocked my landing pad with its nose. (I bet it lost 50% value in the first 15 minutes!)
800M credits and G5 engineering later, the enlightment came: there seems to be no real use nor designation for this ship, the JABBERWOKY. The jumping range is fine and you get used to drink coffee while turning towards a destination. But: for what is this actually for?
Commonly, the big three are attributed as
1. Anaconda, multipurpose with exploration focus, flexible weaponry, robust hull
2. Federal Corvettte, combat.
3. Imperial Cutter. Erm...?
Lets review that a moment:
Trade.
Well, I like to do missions, combinining and planning them. Maxing my return on time in materials and reputation. The VESPERGATCHA carries 200tons of cargo. The Cutter about 500tons, but: the Cutter requires a large landing pad. o, this means, it can only take missions which only require large pads. So approximately 30% options less. 'Find and bring' missions are also less effective due to the pads (but you don't see it), so drop another 20%.
Do the math: if with the VESPERGATCHA you are accepting approximately 1 out of 8 missions (right distance, payment, etc) until the cargo is full, it will be around 1 out of 12 with the Cutter. Then, your cargo is more than doubled (i.e 500 tons), so for a full load you need 2.5x more missions. You see where this is heading to: not towards a fluent gameplay, but patience and a lot of tea while waiting for appropiate missions.
Doing squadron missions instead? -Maybe, but usually less effective and the cargo to carry then is between 900 and 9000 tons. Endless boring roundtrips.
Baseline: not effective (for missions)
Exploration.
I will do that. But just because I can and I like it on screenshots; 30ly of jump range is not worth to mention.
Baseline: not effective.
Combat.
Opinions differ. I can confirm that the Cutter named JABBERWOKY has excelllllent survival capabilities. You are not gonna die in a Cutter if you don't want. It takes hits from 4 'deadly' Vultures and an FDL for (mind measured) minutes(!) -while the VESPERGATCHA heats its thrusters after 15 seconds (=easy to measure) in the same scenario. Still, due to the limited offensive capabilities shields are down when the first enemy is down so we enter hit & run (backwards) domain. I repeated this fight about 10 times.
The biggest issue here is that the fight is no fun. Either you base on turrets (which do their thing) or you invest on the 2 seconds face time, you typically have with Vultures. Does this sound like fun? Not to me.
Pirate Hunting (or just hunting)
Tried this as well. Is in the same domain as those random interdictions. Annoying. NPC interdicts(!), scans, get 'scared', run away with shields on (you can easily follow and dish out), charge their FSA and 15 seconds(!) later they are gone. Hey, what happened to my MASS-LOCK? Said that, as NPC runs away very quickly, you better like to use Frame Shift Wake Scanners.
PowerPlay.
Will not waste your time, look at trading or combat, same issues apply. Large landing pod and run-aways. Plus you don't really want to face a PvP Corvette or FDL with a Cutter.
Mining.
Hm, yeah, there is maybe a little point. It is good at Painite mining due to the large cargo capacity. For deep core mining, you will need another vessel as you will fall asleep while targetting the next weakness on the asteroid. Turrets by the way do not help, as they rely on multi crew.
So my sad tribute materializes: the Anaconda is a good choice because it is flexible and excellent at exploration. The Federal Corvette is a good choice as it is effective at combat where the large landing pad doesn't matter.
Nevertheless: I will keep flying the Cutter, not because it is good, but because it is at least unique to fly and I like to ram planets at full speed.
What do you think? I wish, there would be more content in which I could use my gem
About two months ago, the moment has arrived and the beauty was purchased. It absolutely flies in a unique way. Its forward-thrust is MASSIVE, but hell: it slows down like an ice berg and turns like a moon. The first greetings were therefore expressed to the gate, upper side. Then lower side. Then scratched the left. Finally got out in a weird vector. This thing is unflyable without engineering, and so I started my way back to the landing pad. Hit the gate again, missed my landing pad, noted the 200 credits for blocking another one and knocked my landing pad with its nose. (I bet it lost 50% value in the first 15 minutes!)
800M credits and G5 engineering later, the enlightment came: there seems to be no real use nor designation for this ship, the JABBERWOKY. The jumping range is fine and you get used to drink coffee while turning towards a destination. But: for what is this actually for?
Commonly, the big three are attributed as
1. Anaconda, multipurpose with exploration focus, flexible weaponry, robust hull
2. Federal Corvettte, combat.
3. Imperial Cutter. Erm...?
Lets review that a moment:
Trade.
Well, I like to do missions, combinining and planning them. Maxing my return on time in materials and reputation. The VESPERGATCHA carries 200tons of cargo. The Cutter about 500tons, but: the Cutter requires a large landing pad. o, this means, it can only take missions which only require large pads. So approximately 30% options less. 'Find and bring' missions are also less effective due to the pads (but you don't see it), so drop another 20%.
Do the math: if with the VESPERGATCHA you are accepting approximately 1 out of 8 missions (right distance, payment, etc) until the cargo is full, it will be around 1 out of 12 with the Cutter. Then, your cargo is more than doubled (i.e 500 tons), so for a full load you need 2.5x more missions. You see where this is heading to: not towards a fluent gameplay, but patience and a lot of tea while waiting for appropiate missions.
Doing squadron missions instead? -Maybe, but usually less effective and the cargo to carry then is between 900 and 9000 tons. Endless boring roundtrips.
Baseline: not effective (for missions)
Exploration.
I will do that. But just because I can and I like it on screenshots; 30ly of jump range is not worth to mention.
Baseline: not effective.
Combat.
Opinions differ. I can confirm that the Cutter named JABBERWOKY has excelllllent survival capabilities. You are not gonna die in a Cutter if you don't want. It takes hits from 4 'deadly' Vultures and an FDL for (mind measured) minutes(!) -while the VESPERGATCHA heats its thrusters after 15 seconds (=easy to measure) in the same scenario. Still, due to the limited offensive capabilities shields are down when the first enemy is down so we enter hit & run (backwards) domain. I repeated this fight about 10 times.
The biggest issue here is that the fight is no fun. Either you base on turrets (which do their thing) or you invest on the 2 seconds face time, you typically have with Vultures. Does this sound like fun? Not to me.
Pirate Hunting (or just hunting)
Tried this as well. Is in the same domain as those random interdictions. Annoying. NPC interdicts(!), scans, get 'scared', run away with shields on (you can easily follow and dish out), charge their FSA and 15 seconds(!) later they are gone. Hey, what happened to my MASS-LOCK? Said that, as NPC runs away very quickly, you better like to use Frame Shift Wake Scanners.
PowerPlay.
Will not waste your time, look at trading or combat, same issues apply. Large landing pod and run-aways. Plus you don't really want to face a PvP Corvette or FDL with a Cutter.
Mining.
Hm, yeah, there is maybe a little point. It is good at Painite mining due to the large cargo capacity. For deep core mining, you will need another vessel as you will fall asleep while targetting the next weakness on the asteroid. Turrets by the way do not help, as they rely on multi crew.
So my sad tribute materializes: the Anaconda is a good choice because it is flexible and excellent at exploration. The Federal Corvette is a good choice as it is effective at combat where the large landing pad doesn't matter.
Nevertheless: I will keep flying the Cutter, not because it is good, but because it is at least unique to fly and I like to ram planets at full speed.
What do you think? I wish, there would be more content in which I could use my gem
Last edited:
