Bitten by an ASP.

Cdr Voorheez

Cdr Voorheez
Lupin said:
I have been exploring in an Asp for many months, but next trip out will try Diamondback as I like the design.

Both these ship have pro's and con's, but after recent exploring, mining and prospecting trip I find Asp can not carry all needed modules.
So room for improvement an release in large explorer ship in the future.
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To be honest I used DBE for exploring and I came up with five main conclusions from it:

1. It has potentially good range (33.6LY) but Asp range is better (35.5LY)
2. It doesnt have anywhere near the same level of module space the Asp has and is therefore limited as an explorer due to its cramped design
3. It is totally and utterly and absolutely USELESS in combat
4. It has the turning circle of a gas giant
5. Its bright f*^&ing yellow

If you think the Asp doesnt have all the required modules for exploring then you will be a tad disapointed with the DBE, its got virtually none. I was immediately struck at how much module space the Asp has over the DBE, but then I have been very limited with my DBE. Take at look at the DBE/Asp comparison below. I have posted my old DBE setup (Kon-Tiki) and my new Asp setup (Damocles). They are what I am using so am comparing so please dont compare any uber builds you may be using to these because as I've said, these are my ships and therefore they are my own comparison.

Comparison of DBE/Cobra/Asp: http://coriolis.io/comparison/N4Igd...+EgUXIkAA2JDcJBmJBCJDseEgIjQMCUejEbKQVh+IA===

Go Asp, trust me from one who has done alot of exploring in the DBE. Plus the DBE is utterly pap in combat, the Asp is very good with a proper setup. The DBE is pap at mining, the Asp is also very good with a proper setup and finally the DBE is pap at trading and the Asp is potentially very good with a proper setup.

Potential is the word here and the Asp has it in spades, the DBE is a one trick horse (good jump range for price) with a much vaunted 'superior' heat signature that actually is equalled in an Asp with redundant modules turned off (I know as I have compared the two).

Its a no brainer to be honest and I wish I had realised that sooner.
 
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Cdr Voorheez

Cdr Voorheez
Ziljan said:
I figured out why I find it hard to like the Asp:

The cockpit shadows are not crisp and well defined like every other ship as you turn and twirl in the light of a star. Instead, my Asp console has three lighting modes: Midnight, Daytime, and Splotchy. Midnight and Daytime are OK. But the Splotchy mode is where everything goes to seed and kills the immersion. Instead of crisp strut shadows, we get get faint blobules that warble and hop around the console and make your think is that supposed to be? Is it raining in the cabin? In space?
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As a Cdr who I know and respect for his analytical mind and someone who has used the Asp alot I am genuinely suprised that you chose aesthetics over performance and ability as your only negative pointer for this thing of beauty which is the Asp.

The Asp is a stunning ship how dare you diss her :)

I personally love the cockpit in the Asp, its much better than the cramped DBE's cockpit and has excellent visibility.


Shame on you Cdr Ziljan, I am just going to sponge and polish my Asp, I may be some time :)
 
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Kancro Vantas

Kancro Vantas
Cdr Voorheez said:
I am more impressed with the Asp because:
Its a true upgrade, so yes it will naturally cost more
Its got a big chunky feel to it
It has a double bridge, which is just cool
YOU CAN PAINT IT OTHER THAN FLIPPING YELLOW
The cockpit/bridge view is the BEST in the game
It has a better jump range then the DBE and the Cobra
It has better armour than the DBE and the Cobra
It has massive potential with its many many more module slots than both DBE and Cobra
When fitted with weapons it has 6 (SIX) hard points
It is the multirole Massively Big brother of the Cobra
I don't want to upgrade to anything now for a long time, I can concentrate on exploring, trading, hunting and mining in one awesome ship.
I am still a fan of the Cobra and I will be buying/receiving the MK IV (however FD and DB 'gift' this to us I am not sure) when Horizons comes out for sure. But I will definitely be keeping my Asp, I am smitten already.
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That last bullet point. I see you have quickly realized the potential of the ship. I do exactly that in my Orinoco. I have the modules for all of those roles, available, all the time! I'm soooo fond of the Asp, that the images of it where the selling point for me to get Elite Dangerous, when I didn't even have a PC. THAT much!

Needless to say, as soon as I could afford it, I jump into one, and never have looked back. I have flown my Asp for 8 months now, and going strong. Just the past two weeks I bought a T9 and a DBS while the Orinoco was under repairs from the long exploration. Love them as well, but they are for specific missions and to get around urban space for small runs. When I jump in my Asp, is like having so much available at my fingers, and so much might, majesty, and nimbleness. I don't like bigger ships, specially cause they don't allow to dock in outposts -which are way more cooler and varied than stations- and I also love the 6 hard points that make the Asp to have a punch!

And I didn't even have to go to the jump range, which is what most think is the best feature of the ship!


Ziljan said:
I figured out why I find it hard to like the Asp:
The cockpit shadows are not crisp and well defined like every other ship as you turn and twirl in the light of a star. Instead, my Asp console has three lighting modes: Midnight, Daytime, and Splotchy. Midnight and Daytime are OK. But the Splotchy mode is where everything goes to seed and kills the immersion. Instead of crisp strut shadows, we get get faint blobules that warble and hop around the console and make your think is that supposed to be? Is it raining in the cabin? In space?
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Let's pray for your lost soul...repent! repent while you can, sinner!...:p:p:p

Cdr Voorheez said:
Potential is the word here and the Asp has it in spades, the DBE is a one trick horse (good jump range for price) with a much vaunted 'superior' heat signature that actually is equalled in an Asp with redundant modules turned off (I know as I have compared the two).
Its a no brainer to be honest and I wish I had realised that sooner.
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Nailed on the head. Versatility is the key, if you like playing different roles.

Cdr Voorheez said:
Shame on you Cdr Ziljan, I am just going to sponge and polish my Asp, I may be some time :)
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When we finish, let's just fly by Ziljan's home system with our shiny Asps, weapons deployed, really slow, and wave at him.:cool::cool::cool:
 

Cdr Voorheez

Cdr Voorheez
Out of interest Kancro now I have a ship with the ability to mine what kind of setup is good in an asp for mining? I have been playing around on Coriolis and see that I can instal a 4A refinery (10 bin) but do I also need cargo hold modules installed as well?
Also how many mining lasers are best? 2/4/6? New to mining (never done it to be honest) but want to give it a crack.
 

CMDR Rushmere

CMDR Rushmere
Cdr Voorheez said:
Out of intrest Kancro now I have a ship with the ability to mine what kind of setup is good in an asp for mining? I have been playing around on Coriolis and see that I can instal a 4A refinery (10 bin) but do I also need cargo hold modules installed as well?
Also how many mining lasers are best? 2/4/6? New to mining (never done it to be honest) but want to give it a crack.
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Yes, you need cargo space. The refinery takes the ore you shoot of the rocks and each bin will hold 1 type. Once you fill a bin to 100%, 1 tonne of refined product Is placed into cargo. Once you fill your cargo hold, you can continue to fill the bins to 100% and it will transfer to cargo once you clear some space by selling.

2 smalls would be adequate for mining imo.
 

EUS

EUS
For some, it's the Cobra, but for me, the Asp is the ship I will never sell.
Sorry, I lied, I sold my Asp, but only to repurchase it right back at a discount, so that doesn't count.
 

Kancro Vantas

Kancro Vantas
Cdr Voorheez said:
Out of interest Kancro now I have a ship with the ability to mine what kind of setup is good in an asp for mining? I have been playing around on Coriolis and see that I can instal a 4A refinery (10 bin) but do I also need cargo hold modules installed as well?
Also how many mining lasers are best? 2/4/6? New to mining (never done it to be honest) but want to give it a crack.
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Truth be told, you always had a ship with the ability to mine. I know because I started when I had my Sidewinder: it was the very first profession and one I still do sometimes.

But let me be clear here: MINING IS A "FEMALE DOG". Big time!

Is fun if you have that itch of going trying 100's asteroids for an hour or so to get a mere 300k cr in metals, if lucky.

But at the end of the day is teaches a ;lot about how to handle your ship and patience. How to look for the details, and how to manage your systems. It really is demanding and training in many aspects. And nothing beats the views you get.

With that being said, is also a profession that demands LOTS of modules in your ship. Too many, if you ask me. At the very minimum, as I have it, you need a mining laser, and a refinery. This is the old, classic way to mine.

Then there is the limpet controller, prospector drones, collector drones, mining laser and refinery if you want to go with help of robots. This is the modern, latest way to mine.

I happen to be old school and I also haven't tried the modern way yet. So I can only speak of what I know and do, and how I do it.

-Set one mining laser in one of the smaller hard points in the bottom of the Asp. To compensate, I fitted a railgun laser in the hardpoint next to it, and 2 beam lasers in the other two smalls, so I have three laser, but all bad asses.
-Get you a 3A refinery. This would be more than enough for what you want to do.
-Hardest part: Find a Metallic Ring with Pristine Reserves. These are the ones that have the highest concentration of the valuable metals.
-If inhabited space, get there and find the High Density Extraction Site. Supposedly it has more chances to get more nice metals there than anywhere else in the ring. But hey, it's ED and FD...take it with a grain of salt.
-Get there, shields up, lights on, deploy weapons (mining laser group), 3 pips to sys, 3 pips to weapons, then spot an asteroid and get going. Get finger ready for vert/hor thrusters: you will be a master by the end of first mining work session!
-Fire away the mining laser! let it do its thing for few seconds until you hear the rock detaching. You will see the piece coming of being signaled in white -like when you spot stray cans-. Target it!
-Read its composition. Also note its "hull" starts at 100% and will go diminishing by the second! If it has metals that are worthy, then scoop it! If not, then move on!

Processing the ore:
-When you scoop a good chunk, it will go to your refinery. The refinery works in two stages: the hopper first, then the processor. Your new chunk will always end up in the hopper.
-You need to go to your RIGHT panel, cargo tab, and select the ore you want refined. This is only done once per every ton. The hopper will then refine that ore from the chunk and place it into one of the bins. Suppose this was ore A in bin 1.
-If you have another ore you are not interested, you just flush it away by selecting the up arrow-like icon there.
-Every time you grab ore A, it will automatically process into bin 1 from now on. Once bin 1 reaches 100%, it completes a ton, passes it to the cargo bay and will be ready for more. At that moment, it resets.
-This means that if you grab more ore A, you need to go back and let it know again that you want it processed.

Because you might be interested in collecting different ores, you want to have those many bins. Also, say that you are collecting chunks with A and C ores. You want A but not C? Just direct them to collect both, and after finishing with that asteroid, just flush C from the refinery. Otherwise, you will have to instruct to dump, every time you collect a chunk.

Learning curve, it takes a while, but you will have lots of fun while learning and then just a few credits!!

Remember to find a market that pays well for them -normally refinery economies.

:)
 

Strychnine

Strychnine
I'm still "In the Black" (exploring) with my Asp. I didn't even kit it out correctly for exploration (jump range) but I'm still loving it! I have a large scoop and top of the line sensor packages so I don't miss a thing. During the battle for Lugh (which was EPIC), I kitted out my Asp for combat and it served me amazingly. Great armor, shields, and weapons options. I can't recommend it enough!
 

Ziljan

Ziljan
Cdr Voorheez said:
As a Cdr who I know and respect for his analytical mind and someone who has used the Asp alot I am genuinely suprised that you chose aesthetics over performance and ability as your only negative pointer for this thing of beauty which is the Asp.
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Aesthtetics? No. Realism. Any flaw in the matrix that breaks the immersion is antithetical to the spirit of a simulation. And this one is not minor. It seriously impacts the premier exploration vessel, the one that was designed to showcase vistas of the entire galaxy. And it can't even cast its own cockpit shadow properly.

It is just as jarring and ludicrous as bending millions of cubic miles of space by turning your head while looking at a supermassive black hole. That is not a matter of aesthetics. It is a display of ineptitude by FD to repair a long standing and serious error in their lighting model. They have at least attempted to repair the broken shadow textures on pre-DB Lakon ships, but thus far without success. But the Supermassive Black Hole Glitch seems to have been swept so hard under the rug that they even bragged about the broken effect at Gamescom. Which I found both shocking and disheartening.

On the plus side, they did finally manage to dramatically repair the stuttering effect when you first enter hyperspace, and this has improved the immersion dramatically.
 
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Cdr Voorheez

Cdr Voorheez
Thank you for the mining tips guys, sounds nails to me and is something I will probably consider after a very long trip in my gorgeous new Asp. I am going to concentrate making the credits to improve the explorer kit in her and then make even more credits to then build my fleet.

The Voorheez galactic plan of uberconquest is simply:

1. Upgrade my Asp to the best explorer spec I can get her
2. Buy more modules for my mothballed cobra (Intrepid)
3. Hunt in my cobra, Explore/trade in my Asp
4. Make lots of credits and maybe buy a Python, maybe.
 
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Ziljan

Ziljan
Cdr Voorheez said:
Cdr, I bring you Realism :)

...
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Apparently you haven't watched the spiderweb cockpit shadows dance across the console in a Vulture. That is a thing of elegance and depth that makes you feel like you're really in a space ship, and not just looking through a 2D cockpit texture.
 

Alex Traut

A
Kancro Vantas said:
That last bullet point. I see you have quickly realized the potential of the ship. I do exactly that in my Orinoco. I have the modules for all of those roles, available, all the time!
...
When I jump in my Asp, is like having so much available at my fingers, and so much might, majesty, and nimbleness. I don't like bigger ships, specially cause they don't allow to dock in outposts -which are way more cooler and varied than stations
...
And I didn't even have to go to the jump range, which is what most think is the best feature of the ship!
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All of the above.

Myself, I'm a veteran of the original Elite games, which I played Back in the Day. In the original Elite, the Asp was one of the meaner opponents you could run into; even in a fully-kitted Cobra you were wise to respect them, especially when they had friends. It was a military-grade vessel, and it had teeth--plus even as simple polygons it looked slick as hell. I always wanted to fly one. The engine sound caught me off guard at first, but now it's just part of the ship's character for me.

The fact that it has the best cockpit view of any ship, IMO? Bonus. But now essential; I couldn't imagine not being able to look down and all around anymore. I don't even mind the slight loss of lateral visibility from the engines; I never really notice it.

Also, it comes in purple.
EliteDangerous32 2015-08-07 19-47-07-55.png
 

Cdr Voorheez

Cdr Voorheez
The paint jobs on the Asp are bloody amazing. The ship just screams quality at every angle viewed at.
I love my Asp, and that cockpit view is amazing. Actually still amazing when looked from the outside in: you can see all the lights in the cockpit due to its open plan design. Very very nice indeed. I think in hooked.
 

Ziljan

Ziljan
Question:

Do you guys all see shadows in your Asp that look this good?

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NONE of my Asp pictures look like the above photo. I nabbed this image from another poster in the Ships forums. All of may shadows are about 5 times as wide shaped like interlinked puddles. I'd take a picture but it doesn't look like there any actually shadows since the console panel just looks darker and a little splotchy.
 
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