With a fair amount of time playing now alongside an abject refusal to aim for 'the best' ships, I have amassed a moderate stable of combat-setup ships that are definitively not the Fer de Lance or Anaconda. I'd like to be able to say my build planning is fairly decent, but as amusing a distraction as the AI can be it's not really a great test. As a player who isn't comfortable interdicting random people in search of PvP - and has to be 'in the mood' to consider it in the first place, I don't do enough of that to get a good idea either. For my pure combat ships, though they're usually employed against NPCs, I like to have them be something I wouldn't mind facing a player in.
So, in the hopes of getting pointers or criticism or perhaps to help people looking for build ideas, here's a bunch of maybe-good-maybe terrible ships! The 'real life' versions of these are significantly weaker since I don't have the patience to go for perfect rolls with the engineers and typically only take 5 or so rolls maximum on upgrades, but I like to be able to see the potential power level when designing.
Cobra III - Wafer Thin
https://eddp.co/u/v6d9eehv
When I moved into my AspX early in my career, I couldn't bring myself to sell my trusty Cobra so it sat gathering dust at my home station for a long time. With no real need for its multipurpose capabilities anymore, I later decided to put it back into work as a fighter. With its abysmal shield strength, limited utility slots and obnoxiously thin forward profile I figured a pure hull tank would work best. The weapon choice is what it is for the simple reason that I greatly enjoy plasma accelerators rather than any particular practical reason, though they make smashing through NPC Anacondas a breeze. The near-obligatory (in my opinion) anti-SCB railgun and corrosive multicannon fill the small slots. The Cobra manages an amazing amount of pure hitpointage for such a small ship while still having room for a pair of MRPs. A little sluggish when weighed down this much but retains that trademark ridiculous boost speed. This one has actually seen some PvP, but it was against an FDL using emissive+missiles so I didn't learn much from that encounter.
Diamondback Scout - Irritable Piranha
https://eddp.co/u/jbJqUmGA
Bought this after watching Archon Fury's excellent PvP youtube content and deciding I wanted in. Has gone through a few iterations (mainly experimenting with whether shields are worth it or not) before settling on more or less this. Extremely agile, deceptively tough and with great utility and hardpoint placements it's a really fun ship. Loadout again is because I've come to really like plasmas and because the DBS's awesome heat tolerance allows me to get away with such high temperature weaponry.
Viper III - Noisy Cricket
https://eddp.co/u/MaJ4Kise
Inspired by Cillit Bang's Viper gameplay, I got this recently because a friend started playing and I became a little jealous of his Viper. An exercise in power priority management, making use of all of the SCBs on this build requires a bit of juggling in combat but the Viper's great capacity for evasive flying and disengaging means I can usually find time. The hit and run style this design encourages is a great change from the usual highly aggressive plan that hull tanks employ. The weapon loadout is a little uninspired but with a power budget this tight there's not much room for shenanigans.
Viper IV - Koala Killer
https://eddp.co/u/v288quk5
After enjoying its predecessor so much, I figured 'how bad could the VIV's agility really be?' and designed this. It's not done the rounds of the engineers yet but it feels alright as is. Viper 4 has a weird handling - its directional thrust is excellent but its rotation rates are very poor, it seems. Makes it interesting to fly. What's undeniable is that this thing tanks like a boss. Absurdly tough for its size in both shield and hull strength. I'm looking forward to getting it upgraded.
Diamondback Explorer - Hornet
https://eddp.co/u/GHHhzvYX
When I heard this thing was going to have a large hull mass reduction, I figured I'd try it out. Since I already have an AspX I don't really need another exploration ship so I built my DBX for combat. Unlike the DBS it has strong enough shields for me to consider it worth putting a standard bi-weave+resistance boosters over the top of a thick hull. It's turned out... alright. Damage output is great with its decent distributor and amazing hardpoints, but it just feels a bit too sluggish for how mediocre its durability is, even after the hull mass buff. Fun ship though, and awesome when I need to travel long distances within the bubble to meet up with a friend for a bounty hunting session. Done a round of PvP in this one, against someone who once interdicted me out of the blue yonks ago and I met randomly over one of the engineer bases recently. Had a friendly chat, asked for a duel and they accepted. Loadout on the DBX at that point was actually a trio of unengineered multicannons as I had scavenged the PA for another ship. The opponent was flying an AspS with a pair of Enforcer cannons, a scramble spectrum pulse laser and an Imperial Hammer with a hybrid bi weave setup. Won that duel somehow with only my C3 multicannon still carrying ammo which made me like this ship even more.
Federal Gunship - Funship Gunship
https://eddp.co/u/5aDyrEXt
I've flown a Dropship and enjoyed it, bought a FAS hoping it would simulate the experience and felt dirty when it handled entirely unlike a 1000 tonne clothes iron and more like I imagine the FDL does. With multicrew on the horizon and a friend just starting the game, I worked towards the FGS to act as a fighter carrier more than anything else. I've not finished building this ingame due to lack of engineer stuff, but have flown it with a less interesting weapon loadout of the good old lasers and multicannons and enjoyed it. The fighter is great fun too. Durability wise it's basically a slightly more fragile dropship, with the advantage of halfway decent shields but a significantly thinner hull and lower speeds. Its firepower on the other hand is simply glorious and I can't wait to get it running how I originally envisioned it. In the meantime, holding the button with 7 multicannons is an experience every player needs at least once.
Type 9 Transporter - Battlecow
https://eddp.co/u/jWNkHZCl
The epitome of 'just for the lols', this thing was/is also my backup fighter hangar ship. Though I did build this, I was a little short on credits and had to make a lot of compromises while stealing parts from my other ships. Connectivity issues with multicrew meant it was sadly shelved fairly quickly and is currently sitting around waiting for me to buy the rest of its loadout. Military armour kits really are extortionately expensive. From the brief period where I did fly it, I identified the minor issue of the medium hardpoints being approximately three kilometres away from each other leading the the fixed plasma typically missing 2/3 of the shots against anything smaller than an anaconda. Thinking of swapping the outer two PAs for gimballed multicannons or missile launchers or something. Beyond that, it was a new and interesting experience having significantly more than 300 shields just as it was feeling like I was trying to steer a continent. While it may not be the most effective of combat ships, it actually holds its own reasonably well with its massive HP pool while the fighter rips things to shreds. There's also something satisfying about this ship when coming in to dock.
I of course have some other stuff, but it's either something super boring and done to death (see: FAS) or not a solidified build so there's nothing really to show. Hope someone gets something out of this whole lot of nothing in particular, and I'd greatly appreciate optimisation tips!
So, in the hopes of getting pointers or criticism or perhaps to help people looking for build ideas, here's a bunch of maybe-good-maybe terrible ships! The 'real life' versions of these are significantly weaker since I don't have the patience to go for perfect rolls with the engineers and typically only take 5 or so rolls maximum on upgrades, but I like to be able to see the potential power level when designing.
Cobra III - Wafer Thin
https://eddp.co/u/v6d9eehv
When I moved into my AspX early in my career, I couldn't bring myself to sell my trusty Cobra so it sat gathering dust at my home station for a long time. With no real need for its multipurpose capabilities anymore, I later decided to put it back into work as a fighter. With its abysmal shield strength, limited utility slots and obnoxiously thin forward profile I figured a pure hull tank would work best. The weapon choice is what it is for the simple reason that I greatly enjoy plasma accelerators rather than any particular practical reason, though they make smashing through NPC Anacondas a breeze. The near-obligatory (in my opinion) anti-SCB railgun and corrosive multicannon fill the small slots. The Cobra manages an amazing amount of pure hitpointage for such a small ship while still having room for a pair of MRPs. A little sluggish when weighed down this much but retains that trademark ridiculous boost speed. This one has actually seen some PvP, but it was against an FDL using emissive+missiles so I didn't learn much from that encounter.
Diamondback Scout - Irritable Piranha
https://eddp.co/u/jbJqUmGA
Bought this after watching Archon Fury's excellent PvP youtube content and deciding I wanted in. Has gone through a few iterations (mainly experimenting with whether shields are worth it or not) before settling on more or less this. Extremely agile, deceptively tough and with great utility and hardpoint placements it's a really fun ship. Loadout again is because I've come to really like plasmas and because the DBS's awesome heat tolerance allows me to get away with such high temperature weaponry.
Viper III - Noisy Cricket
https://eddp.co/u/MaJ4Kise
Inspired by Cillit Bang's Viper gameplay, I got this recently because a friend started playing and I became a little jealous of his Viper. An exercise in power priority management, making use of all of the SCBs on this build requires a bit of juggling in combat but the Viper's great capacity for evasive flying and disengaging means I can usually find time. The hit and run style this design encourages is a great change from the usual highly aggressive plan that hull tanks employ. The weapon loadout is a little uninspired but with a power budget this tight there's not much room for shenanigans.
Viper IV - Koala Killer
https://eddp.co/u/v288quk5
After enjoying its predecessor so much, I figured 'how bad could the VIV's agility really be?' and designed this. It's not done the rounds of the engineers yet but it feels alright as is. Viper 4 has a weird handling - its directional thrust is excellent but its rotation rates are very poor, it seems. Makes it interesting to fly. What's undeniable is that this thing tanks like a boss. Absurdly tough for its size in both shield and hull strength. I'm looking forward to getting it upgraded.
Diamondback Explorer - Hornet
https://eddp.co/u/GHHhzvYX
When I heard this thing was going to have a large hull mass reduction, I figured I'd try it out. Since I already have an AspX I don't really need another exploration ship so I built my DBX for combat. Unlike the DBS it has strong enough shields for me to consider it worth putting a standard bi-weave+resistance boosters over the top of a thick hull. It's turned out... alright. Damage output is great with its decent distributor and amazing hardpoints, but it just feels a bit too sluggish for how mediocre its durability is, even after the hull mass buff. Fun ship though, and awesome when I need to travel long distances within the bubble to meet up with a friend for a bounty hunting session. Done a round of PvP in this one, against someone who once interdicted me out of the blue yonks ago and I met randomly over one of the engineer bases recently. Had a friendly chat, asked for a duel and they accepted. Loadout on the DBX at that point was actually a trio of unengineered multicannons as I had scavenged the PA for another ship. The opponent was flying an AspS with a pair of Enforcer cannons, a scramble spectrum pulse laser and an Imperial Hammer with a hybrid bi weave setup. Won that duel somehow with only my C3 multicannon still carrying ammo which made me like this ship even more.
Federal Gunship - Funship Gunship
https://eddp.co/u/5aDyrEXt
I've flown a Dropship and enjoyed it, bought a FAS hoping it would simulate the experience and felt dirty when it handled entirely unlike a 1000 tonne clothes iron and more like I imagine the FDL does. With multicrew on the horizon and a friend just starting the game, I worked towards the FGS to act as a fighter carrier more than anything else. I've not finished building this ingame due to lack of engineer stuff, but have flown it with a less interesting weapon loadout of the good old lasers and multicannons and enjoyed it. The fighter is great fun too. Durability wise it's basically a slightly more fragile dropship, with the advantage of halfway decent shields but a significantly thinner hull and lower speeds. Its firepower on the other hand is simply glorious and I can't wait to get it running how I originally envisioned it. In the meantime, holding the button with 7 multicannons is an experience every player needs at least once.
Type 9 Transporter - Battlecow
https://eddp.co/u/jWNkHZCl
The epitome of 'just for the lols', this thing was/is also my backup fighter hangar ship. Though I did build this, I was a little short on credits and had to make a lot of compromises while stealing parts from my other ships. Connectivity issues with multicrew meant it was sadly shelved fairly quickly and is currently sitting around waiting for me to buy the rest of its loadout. Military armour kits really are extortionately expensive. From the brief period where I did fly it, I identified the minor issue of the medium hardpoints being approximately three kilometres away from each other leading the the fixed plasma typically missing 2/3 of the shots against anything smaller than an anaconda. Thinking of swapping the outer two PAs for gimballed multicannons or missile launchers or something. Beyond that, it was a new and interesting experience having significantly more than 300 shields just as it was feeling like I was trying to steer a continent. While it may not be the most effective of combat ships, it actually holds its own reasonably well with its massive HP pool while the fighter rips things to shreds. There's also something satisfying about this ship when coming in to dock.
I of course have some other stuff, but it's either something super boring and done to death (see: FAS) or not a solidified build so there's nothing really to show. Hope someone gets something out of this whole lot of nothing in particular, and I'd greatly appreciate optimisation tips!