Best plan if you only want to fly Medium and Small Ships?

[JonLuis69]

I'm not exactly sure what the question here is?

I'm a small/medium ship commander. I only cheat with the Orca, because one, it's an interstellar style magnet, and two, it's really a medium at heart.

But Conda, Cutter and Corvette? Meh

Beluga? I already have an Orca, what would I want a Beluga for

T-9 is a dog. T-10 has potential, but not a ship for me.

Anyway, back to the OP.... post a few roles or mission profiles you'd like to do, and what sort of characteristics you value most in a ship, and we can offer up some suggestions and maybe some builds for you to run the rule over OP. What's most important to you? Jump, cargo capacity, speed, firepower, shields, hull, cockpit visibility, boost sound, et cetera, et cetera.

For me I have some house rules. For a ship to make my fleet it must both jump 30 light years in mission trim and boost at least 500. Here are the ships that have made the grade

Courier
iEagle
DBX
FDL
Four Kraits
Orca
Vulture

That's it, ten ships. I sold or ignored the rest

Orka is the best ship in the game. It is an absolute Richardhead to fly, the view is great, it can hold all the modules you would wish for and it is a pure pain to land on craggy planets.

Did I mention the view? The view is a good thing.

 

[WR3ND]

If you're trying to have fun in small ships, just have fun in small ships. Not too much need for credits for that. Credits happen. When they do, maybe a Python as a workhorse for whatever. Works well enough for me.

 

[FullThrusters]

Orka is the best ship in the game. It is an absolute Richardhead to fly, the view is great, it can hold all the modules you would wish for and it is a pure pain to land on craggy planets.

Did I mention the view? The view is a good thing.

That is probably the best feature I would want in these ships most I feel like I am in a coffee can

 

[JonLuis69]

If you want a small and zippy ship though the hauler is a bag of tricks lol. it is the literal definition of cute too.

 

[JonLuis69]

That is probably the best feature I would want in these ships most I feel like I am in a coffee can

Have you tried the dolphin? Give a dolphin a spin, you will never get sick of the engine noise I PROMISE!

 

[FullThrusters]

Have you tried the dolphin? Give a dolphin a spin, you will never get sick of the engine noise I PROMISE!

The hardest part about any of the bigger medium ships and the large ships is they all feel like I am flying a freaking whale but I love the real small
Ships, I need to get all engineering done then I think I would probably not go past the AspX ship size

 

[sinisalo]

That is probably the best feature I would want in these ships most I feel like I am in a coffee can

JonLuis is right, the view is magnificent. A glorious single-pane canopy that gives fantastic views.

But the Orca is found near the bottom of popularity lists, and Orca commanders like it this way. So I think we should focus here on other ships

OK, now that attention is diverted, here's my Orca, as outfitted for some exploration I recently did. I mostly use it for passenger missions -- long-range sightseeing, incursion rescues and that sort of thing, and a little module swapping converts it quickly to different roles. It IS a large pad ship however

Sunburst

Fast, good jump, idles at 14% heat. And as JonLuis noted, it is quite a flexible platform. And that view.....

 

[Achtung-Goomba]

I’ve been flying mediums for a while and haven’t seen anything I particularly want in anything bigger so I’ve done similar and started ‘downsizing’ my fleet, so I’d like to introduce my newest flavour of the month; the long range patrol ship Viduka.

Spoiler

The Adder makes a wonderfully nippy little fighter with those snazzy Performance Enhanced Thrusters, and two fixed C1 efficient pulse lasers and a C2 short range plasma slug rail gun give it significant punch. A paper biweave recharges fast as you like and with a couple of small HRP and a MRP makes her surprisingly tough, certainly tough enough to survive my flying...

 

[JonLuis69]

The hardest part about any of the bigger medium ships and the large ships is they all feel like I am flying a freaking whale but I love the real small
Ships, I need to get all engineering done then I think I would probably not go past the AspX ship size

Well to be clear, the Orca handles like a medium ship and not the large ship that it is. Once you get the thrusters engineered you can even fit 4A thrusters and the thing is great, ok in supercruise.

The Dolphin, however, if you want a small ship, is just a maniac.

I remember I used my dolphin for scanning ships coming out of stations and it just goes where you point it. Supercruise the same.

If you want small, sexy AND competent the dolphin is a beast.

It even takes a 5A scoop so for exploration...

The view is also very good, I just wish the columns at the side weren't so thick.

 

[JonLuis69]

JonLuis is right, the view is magnificent. A glorious single-pane canopy that gives fantastic views.

But the Orca is found near the bottom of popularity lists, and Orca commanders like it this way. So I think we should focus here on other ships

OK, now that attention is diverted, here's my Orca, as outfitted for some exploration I recently did. I mostly use it for passenger missions -- long-range sightseeing, incursion rescues and that sort of thing, and a little module swapping converts it quickly to different roles. It IS a large pad ship however

Sunburst

Fast, good jump, idles at 14% heat. And as JonLuis noted, it is quite a flexible platform. And that view.....

Do you find that for your exploration build the max modules you use add benefit over the few light years you gain? I always A grade and downsize for exploration but I can also see the benefits of maxing out.

 

[FullThrusters]

Ok here is the ship I might mix it up a bit with Imperial Eagle love the ship I wonder what it would be like with the eng thrusters and frameshaft drive plus better power etc

 

[JonLuis69]

Ok here is the ship I might mix it up a bit with Imperial Eagle love the ship I wonder what it would be like with the eng thrusters and frameshaft drive plus better power etc

Is there a ship you posted? I can't see the ship.

 

[FullThrusters]

Is there a ship you posted? I can't see the ship.

Nope I have 49m and a decked out Hauler currently just can’t find something I can really sink into and enjoy for any longer than 1-3 hours lol

my ideal ship straight up small fighter ship with a 32 Cargo Rack...

 

[Achtung-Goomba]

my ideal ship straight up small fighter ship with a 32 Cargo Rack...

It’s not small and it’s not a fighter but I’ve got a Keelback that functions as a general purpose light hauler/improvised gunship. The Infant Heracles is fully armed, heavily armoured with a 32t hold and carries a fighter if that helps; for fans of bricks, who enjoy flying space-bricks that can be engineered to fly like slightly more nimble bricks. I certainly have fun with mine as a general multipurpose armed freighter but some of the guys on here have done radical stuff with the ol’ space-brick-with-extra-thrusters.

 

[The Roofus]

I like big ships and I cannot lie...

 

[Winterwalker]

my ideal ship straight up small fighter ship with a 32 Cargo Rack...

You MIGHT get 32t in a Viper. More likely in a Cobra.

 

[FullThrusters]

What about ally ships seen some no rep
Needed in one of the systems somewhere

might try and Asp Scout

 

[tolm]

Very easy to avoid large ships. I have a Corvette - and I like it a lot - but I could happily use a Krait MkII or a Chieftain for everything I use the ‘vette for, with the possible exception of soling wing assassination missions / high CZs.

If you want a medium ship that you can chuck around like a small ship, get a Chieftain. You can easily get 32T of cargo in there whilst still being combat PvE capable.

 

[FullThrusters]

Very easy to avoid large ships. I have a Corvette - and I like it a lot - but I could happily use a Krait MkII or a Chieftain for everything I use the ‘vette for, with the possible exception of soling wing assassination missions / high CZs.

If you want a medium ship that you can chuck around like a small ship, get a Chieftain. You can easily get 32T of cargo in there whilst still being combat PvE capable.

Where do I find this ship I don’t think I have seen it anywhere??

 

[sinisalo]

Do you find that for your exploration build the max modules you use add benefit over the few light years you gain? I always A grade and downsize for exploration but I can also see the benefits of maxing out.

Did you mean to say light years I lose, not gain?

Speed is life, so always A-rated dirty drags in every ship (except for the Courier and the iEagle which use Drive Distributors). A-rated power plant for heat efficiency. Class 5 is needed to both hit my power requirements and also go G5 L/E. And anyway, this isn't an exploration build, per se, more for transport. But all of my ships follow a similar concept, although this is one of just two that uses Enhanced Low Power, Lo-Draw, Low Emissions and Thermal Spread all together. Originally I went this route for criminal smuggling, but I soon saw the benefits of cool-runners and it's one of my build goals in every ship, make it run as cool as possible and still perform the intended role.

I like good jump, but a couple light years here and there isn't all that important if it conflicts with other things I'm trying to do. This Orca jumps 55 in this trim, less with cabins of course. I'm happy with that. More is always better, but not critical, and besides that's what the DBX is for (70 jump)