Newcomer / Intro Can the eagle be a late game ship or do it have to get the viper?

Well the topic says it all but I been playing and jumping from eagle to viper to cobra and I do like eagle the best but I been playing in pve land and now wanna go swim with the big fishes and so do not have to upgrade?
 
Well the topic says it all but I been playing and jumping from eagle to viper to cobra and I do like eagle the best but I been playing in pve land and now wanna go swim with the big fishes and so do not have to upgrade?


Viper. PvP world is viscous and the Viper is well equipped to handle it. The Eagle is too squishy, and the Cobra is not maneuverable enough (personally I have the Cobra and love it but it doesn't do great in PvP. Either that or I suck at PvP which is totally possible). The Viper gives you some good, well placed hardpoints, very very fast, turns on a dime. Good overall ship. You should be very happy in it.
 
Eagle is a very fun ship to fly, though you have to understand its limits (basically the hull is paper draped over wireframes left over from the original Elite).

When you can afford it, though, the Vulture is even more fun to fly. Though 9 out of 10 NPC Anaconda pilots might disagree. :) (The 10th having already been blown up.)
 
I saw a video where a guy destroyed elite Anaconda with his Eagle. It took him like 15 minutes to do it but the point is even a fragile Eagle can be deadly (to NPCs at least) if piloted and outfitted right.
I still have my maxed-out crimson red freeagle, never sold it, never will. Once in a while I take it for a spin, just for fun and I love it!
 
And I can kill an Elite 'Conda in under two minutes in my Vulture. A well thrown brick can be deadly in the right hands, but I wouldn't go into a war zone armed with one.
 
Thanks for everyone's input and i only have 2 mil at this time so the vulture isn't gonna happen anytime soon unless you guys have some awesome money making advice that isn't trading and can 2 mil fit a viper well or should i wait ? >.<
 
2mcr will fit out a Viper adequately, although not maximally - that comes to about 2.7mcr.

The best way to make money that isn't trading is to bounty-hunt in a resource extraction site. In a Viper you can probably make 500kcr/hr, more if you know what you're doing and target the right ships.

Make sure you keep about 100kcr for rebuying your ship if it's destroyed. You'll need more if your ship's value goes up - about 5% of the total value. You can see your rebuy cost n the right hand UI panel.
 
Well, if you're having fun in an Eagle then it's an "end game" ship.
Just know there is no "end game" in ED.

You never really say what you are going to use it for.
Viper is limited in some ways and is really a ship on the low end on the scale, although in capable hands and enough credits makes it quite dangerous even for larger ships.

But it's a one trick pony, it's a combat vessel with short jump range.
If you're doing anything else besides combat, you're going to need something else on the side.

Any ship is viable, it all depends on preference and what you are doing with it.

It's funny you pick a rather inexpensive ship as "end game" though ;)
I'm flying 100 million and not even close to "end game" in ship progression.
 
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You have to know the advantages of the different ships. In terms of smuggling, the eagle is (since the latest updates) already an end game ship, as is the sidey. It has the best turn rate. It can be a decent explorer (although there are better options). For fighting, it does not have the fire power to efficiently tackle big ships, but it is ok against smaller ones. It does not have the storage room to be a good trader. I guess you could mine with it, but that is basically saying nothing :).

You can not solve the hardpoint problem with the eagle, so if you want to kill bigger prey faster, you have to advance to something else.
 
Viper. PvP world is viscous and the Viper is well equipped to handle it. The Eagle is too squishy, and the Cobra is not maneuverable enough (personally I have the Cobra and love it but it doesn't do great in PvP. Either that or I suck at PvP which is totally possible). The Viper gives you some good, well placed hardpoints, very very fast, turns on a dime. Good overall ship. You should be very happy in it.
Agreed on the Eagle. The Cobra has a better pitch and roll rate than the Viper, but its manoeuvring thrusters aren't as effective. Its biggest weak points is the awful hardpoint placement - the class 1 slots are on the wingtips, which pretty much forces gimballed weapons on you. You can go for an asymmetrical setup - i.e. one C1 beam and one C2 beam on the right and one c1 MC w/ one C2 MC on the left, but this reduces your damage per second with kinetics, which are most effective against hulls and modules.

The Cobra is also wide, so if anyone gets a ventral or dorsal vantage point on you, it's difficult for them to miss.

I never liked the Cobra, in case you hadn't already guessed. Some of my clanmates love it though, and one even went back to it in preference to the Vulture.
 
I'd love to have an Eagle, but I already have a Viper and Vulture so it doesn't really make any sense to ever go back to one (until I have enough money to buy and fully upgrade all ships for completeness. That's some way off).

I know I've said this before, but that's why I'd love to see "Mk II" versions of existing craft (newer, better versions, much more expensive). I wouldn't want to make the step down to an Eagle, but I'd love to make the step up to a much-improved Eagle Mk II. It'd be really easy for Frontier to do as they don't need to create all-new models, sounds etc., just change the craft name and characteristics.

So for instance, the dogfighting upgrade path would probably be: Eagle, Viper, Vulture, Eagle Mk II, Viper Mk II, Vulture Mk II, Fer de Lance (don't have this, so no idea where it fits in!)
 
I still keep my Eagle around. I pull it out and hit the combat zones with it, then quickly go back to the Viper.

It's highly maneuverable and can stick to anything, but the small guns just don't have as much punch. The Viper makes things much faster. I still haven't fitted and tried my Vulture yet. It's sitting there waiting for me.
 
Agreed on the Eagle. The Cobra has a better pitch and roll rate than the Viper, but its manoeuvring thrusters aren't as effective. Its biggest weak points is the awful hardpoint placement - the class 1 slots are on the wingtips, which pretty much forces gimballed weapons on you. You can go for an asymmetrical setup - i.e. one C1 beam and one C2 beam on the right and one c1 MC w/ one C2 MC on the left, but this reduces your damage per second with kinetics, which are most effective against hulls and modules.

The Cobra is also wide, so if anyone gets a ventral or dorsal vantage point on you, it's difficult for them to miss.

I never liked the Cobra, in case you hadn't already guessed. Some of my clanmates love it though, and one even went back to it in preference to the Vulture.

I've yet to try the Vulture but I swear by my Cobra. Fastest little ship in the galaxy.

Is there anything faster than a Cobra? I'm not sure on that.

For the OP, I would say that the Eagle is a tutorial ship designed to introduce you to combat and has very strict limitations. A Vulture is what you should probably aim for, via a Viper.
 
Is there anything faster than a Cobra? I'm not sure on that.

The stats say the Viper is slightly faster (320 m/s vs 280 m/s), but they both boost to the same speed - which of course you're going to be doing if chasing/running away from anything. However, the list speed is conservative, with the right outfitting you can get a lot more. My supposedly "340 m/s boost" Vulture can easily get 370 m/s boosting.

We really need to set up a race and sort this once and for all! :)

(sorry for off-topic..)
 
The stats say the Viper is slightly faster (320 m/s vs 280 m/s), but they both boost to the same speed - which of course you're going to be doing if chasing/running away from anything. However, the list speed is conservative, with the right outfitting you can get a lot more. My supposedly "340 m/s boost" Vulture can easily get 370 m/s boosting.

We really need to set up a race and sort this once and for all! :)

(sorry for off-topic..)

If you buy the ship, start right away and boost, it will boost like the description says. It will go faster than that if you build better thrusters and lower your weight with D-modules.
 
The bigger ships may have their advantages, but the smaller ships do too, which quite simply means there isn't an end game ship as such, though there's bound to be one eventually you find you prefer.

At the moment i'm a few thousand ly out in a fully kitted asp explorer which is perfect, and have a cobra back home for bounty hunting.

Having played since the beta, I've bought the type 6 and type 7 trader, but not yet felt the need to buy anything bigger, I'm sure I will at some point.

I'd rather than take it at a nice easy pace and upgrade when I fancy it, rather than rush to get an anaconda, and then begrudge downgrading to something smaller.

Even though the sidewinder and hauler are basic combat / trading ships, they did what I needed them to do when I owned one, and I'm glad I spent the time I did in their cockpits.
 
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