Any suggestions for further progression?

[lemny]

I am flying a fully A-kitted Cobra earning my credits mostly by smuggling.
I tried a bit of exploration for a two hour round trip but it's not my cup of tea.
Now i am going to take Merc Missions against Pirates to raise my combat rank.
I don't like the bigger ships, because they are all not as fast, less nimble and with 32t cargo I can take multiple smuggling trips at once. And by doing the same Missions i don't earn more, but have much more upkeep costs.
The Cobra is the best allrounder imho.

My motivation was primarily fueled by the hunt for money for better equipment.
Now, since this is gone, i can only grind for ranks and reputation.
How do you keep your motivation up?

My Loadout:

Spoiler

And yes... i like the docking computer when you go through the station entrance with 300+m/s, it's nice to let the computer do the pad parking and flying backwards, because you will came to stop more at the end of the dock.

Any other suggestions for a better weapon loadout? I found out, that beams sucking so much power, they are less efficient than the pulse lasers.

 

[Whiterose]

What programme are you using for your loadout?

My suggestion is to rank up with the empire to Baron and get yourself a Clipper, it cant dock in outposts but apart from that is very fast. Beams use more power but have more damage.

 

[lemny]

I am using: http://coriolis.io/
It's not perfect with the numbers (my Cobra runs at 300m/s without boost), but it's good to compare ships and easy to setup your ship, or ship of your dreams.

PS: Ok the Clipper is near the 100 million with an A-fitting but looks nice... but is it fun to fight with?

Spoiler

But that's the point... The ship is 10x more expensive than the Cobra in any aspect. Ist there a way to earn 10x more from missions or hunts? Or only from cargo space?

 

[ste]

Yeah, I thought the same about my cobra, then I bought an Asp, and now its 'what cobra....'

 

[lemny]

Yeah, I thought the same about my cobra, then I bought an Asp, and now its 'what cobra....'

hmm... a A-fittet Asp is only 3x time the Cobra... that and the upkeep seems payable.
What kind of play style do you follow? Trading? Missions (Smuggle/Bounty/Pirates)? Exploring?

 

[Ceekay]

There are several options open to you but I'd suggest keeping the Cobra with a lighter build here's one I equipped for mining but it'll reconfigure easily enough for other duties.

http://coriolis.io/outfit/cobra_mk_...s48C5012h.Iw1-kA==.Aw1-kA==?bn=CK Cobta Miner

The Diamondback scout would make an excellent smuggling ship as it runs really cool but it'd also be great for bounty hunting/merc missions with it's excellent range and armour.

http://coriolis.io/outfit/diamondback/04A4D4D2E3A2D4C1a1a2525070707034302022h?bn=Diamondback Ceekay

If you want a pure fighter the Vulture is hard to beat although it'll work out expensive, this build is fine for PVE but you'd need to spend a lot more for a PVP build and power will always be an issue

http://coriolis.io/outfit/vulture/0...d036e242h.Iw19kA==.CwBj4zlI?bn=Ceekay Vulture

The Imperial Courier I tried in Beta and it's a small powerful ship with excellent shields, although I don't have any experience of it in the main game it could be worth a look.

As mentioned above the Asp is the Cobra's bigger brother I use one configured for cargo hauling but with the right build (up to 30 mil) it can be a monster but it doe's fly like a bigger Cobra and it's running costs are much higher so if you want to try one get allied with the Alliance as it's sold 20% cheaper at Alioth.

http://coriolis.io/outfit/asp/04A5D...20202242h.Iw18WQ==.CwBj49m1JI==?bn=Asp Ceekay

 

[Stigbob]

I reset my save, got a diamondback scout with fixed burst lasers and am amazed at how much better I am second time around. If you feel the need to keep your stats and ratings consider deliberate bankruptcy via the insurance screen.

Its a bit extreme but it really is fun (for me), and I like the fact that all the stupid deaths I had whilst learning the ropes no longer appear in my stats.

 

[Rowander]

If you're really into ranking in combat, you have a long road before you. At present, with the buff to AI ships, it's extremely hard to get a nice pace even with an A-class Vulture.

You'll need a nicely upgraded Python (102 million+) to cut through enemy ships really fast, and with some security margin.

Yes, it's slow and a whale compared to your Cobra, but it's so much more powerful in combat that you'll forget about lighter ships pretty soon.

 

[lemny]

There are several options ...

Nice suggestions
*facepalm* I failed to see, that I can copy the links from coriolis.io

I think the ASP could be a good goal. Seems like it is really the Cobras bigger brother... and i saw my first one as an 12 years old, playing on a C64 thats a good reason.

 

[GammaZ]

Its all about personal preferences. Personaly my favourite ship is still vulture. With its oversized thrusters it is easily most maneuverable ship in game. And given it has some power problems anyway you can use class 4 shield generator and have some cargo space for smuggling.
I also have python and fly it from time to time, but is slow and sluggish, just not fun for me, while i acknowledge that it is probably the best pve multipurpose ship.
I suggest you to try cheap ships like courier, vulture, asp, diamondback first, and only then move to more expensive, clipper fdl and python.

 

[Ceekay]

Here's a thread showing the relative ship sizes, the Clipper is a big old bird! although it's fast and surprisingly agile it is limited to station (not outpost) docking but it's a lot of ship for not too much cash.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=145733

 

[lemny]

Here's a thread showing the relative ship sizes, the Clipper is a big old bird! although it's fast and surprisingly agile it is limited to station (not outpost) docking but it's a lot of ship for not too much cash.

Uhh... ok... that's a Problem... I dont want to be limited to stations... I don't know if the smuggling missions check the pad size of the destination.

Has anyone done smuggling with higher ship classes? The missions I saw, where max around 200.000 credits worth and never exceeded 16 tons of cargo. (My Cobra has 32tons)
Aaaaand sometimes I am coming in a bit hot with more than 300m/s and not a perfect angle to avoid the scans. With larger ships, there would be much less room for maneuvers in the station entrance.
Will the payouts scale a bit later with higher missions?

 

[Ceekay]

The Python is the largest ship that can use outpost pads but you'll want about 100 mil in the bank to build it, I'm running cargo in my Asp currently so I'll keep an eye out for smuggling missions and note payout and cargo size, although a lot are down to trade rank and rep with faction offering them.

 

[Thanewright]

So far the Cobra has been my favourite ship to fly. I've flown vipers (feel cheap enough to take mad risks), vultures (So much more powerful in combat), Type 7 (hated it), Asp (my current ship and a really viable "bigger, better, little bit slower" cobra but... I hate the cockpit, Also it feels no more powerful in combat despite the extra guns). "Give me a big cobra with vulture guns!" Is what I'm asking of the game, and the game seems to be saying "It's called a Python".
I don't like having multiple ships. I'm hoping the python will be my one-stop-shop (and it can still land at outposts!) but I've got this niggling feeling that I won't be happy with it, not like I was in the Cobra.
If that's the case then yeah, sell it, buy the fully kitted Cobra and maybe keep a vulture somewhere on ice, and just forget about money as a score counter. I'm hoping it won't be tho!

(as an aside: Why the E class life support? Is D not better *and* lighter? More jump range! Other than that, loving that build)

 

[Ceekay]

@Thanewright try 4 x M cannon turrets + 2 x gimbaled class 2 pulse lasers on the Asp, the M cannon turrets can lay fire on the target even when it leaves you field of view and give the weapon cap time to recharge, do be careful with the turrets as they'll continue firing on a target even if you didn't intend to hit it!

 

[lemny]

(as an aside: Why the E class life support? Is D not better *and* lighter? More jump range! Other than that, loving that build)

Oh... you are right... i never looked at the mass of the live support... only power consumption. I will change that 3 tons are 3 tons.

And I have the feeling you are absolutely correct about the Cobra... I think too, it's my favorite ship over all other options.
And the only one I spent another 7€ real money for a white paint job

As long as I am successful in combat and the smuggling is not exceeding 32 tons of cargo i should stay with it.
Maybe i try a few other weapon loadouts. Does anyone suggest something is more effective than 2 Pulse with 2 small Gatlings?

 

[stridecolossus]

(as an aside: Why the E class life support? Is D not better *and* lighter? More jump range! Other than that, loving that build)

On the same topic: why have an advanced discovery scanner? You've already said that exploration isn't really your bag, so maybe drop that and get an FSD interdictor for those massacre missions. Or is interdictor on a hardpoint, I can never remember, if so maybe replace the wake scanner as it more situational.

 

[lemny]

On the same topic: why have an advanced discovery scanner? You've already said that exploration isn't really your bag, so maybe drop that and get an FSD interdictor for those massacre missions. Or is interdictor on a hardpoint, I can never remember, if so maybe replace the wake scanner as it more situational.

I am taking the money from the scans in all the new Systems I visit the first time... but maybe you are right... since most time i am in already known systems, an interdictor could be a nice addon. Is class 2 enough to pull all relevant targets out of FSD?

 

[Thanewright]

@Thanewright try 4 x M cannon turrets + 2 x gimbaled class 2 pulse lasers on the Asp, the M cannon turrets can lay fire on the target even when it leaves you field of view and give the weapon cap time to recharge, do be careful with the turrets as they'll continue firing on a target even if you didn't intend to hit it!

Hm, that's a loadout I've not tried. I went with 4 x small gimballed pulse, 2 x medium gimballed M cannon, but I found somehow the M cannons couldn't hit (unless at close range, slowish moving target), and it was still the small pulse lasers that were doing all the damage. Swapping M cannons for medium gimballed pulse, I found that they overheated very quickly (even with 4 pips to weapons, A power plant, A distributer), and holding down the trigger, only the small guns fired (in retrospect this might be a power priority issue). The asp is completely stripped down at the moment, A frame shift drive, everything else D, and with a 3D shield for 120 tons cargo. No guns. This is my "grind to python" config, but I might give the above loadout a try... swapping out modules is still free (i.e. lossless), after all!

 

[ste]

hmm... a A-fittet Asp is only 3x time the Cobra... that and the upkeep seems payable.
What kind of play style do you follow? Trading? Missions (Smuggle/Bounty/Pirates)? Exploring?

A bit of everything.

Last week I kitted it out to go exploring with its epic jump range.
Came back did a bit of trading with my 100t cargo capacity.
Did some mining the other day
Did some combat the day before and last night with my 4 small HPs and 2 Medium.
And did some PP and missions inbetween.

Its a fantastic all rounder and definately a step up in the multipurpose role from the cobra.

I think its as nimble and fast as a cobra too, or very similar it doesnt matter.

When I first bought it I kept my cobra just incase, then thought theres no need to go back so sold it, I bought a vulture and sold that and got back in the Asp, and now I have enough for a Python I'm thinking is there really anything wrong with what I got. I'll never sell my Asp.

Its around 22-5M or so to A class it including the base cost of the ship, and the insurance is about 1M. And you can basically set it up to do anything you want, its pretty customizable. And looks great in black Apollo.