Ship Builds & Load Outs Different "builds"; How do you get and maintain them?

[Demandredd]

Hello! First of all, I would like to mention I am brand freakin' new to this game. It is AMAZING. Love it. I especially love how you can jump right between solo and open play and nothing changes at all except the galaxy is populated by other people in one mode.

Now, as for my question. You can have "combat" builds, you can also have "mining" builds. If I want one of my ships to be a combat ship, such as, say, the Adder I just got (I think, it's the one that is 87k or something) I get the respective hard point options and etc. for that. However, say I want to do mining for a time. Is there a way to "save" my combat build for later (aside from writing it down as I've heard some do)? Do I HAVE to sell all that combat stuff, buy the mining stuff for my ship, doing my mining thing, and then (when I want to go back to combat) sell and buy all that other stuff back again?

It seems a bit of a hassle and a financial strain to switch between them. Would you recommend simply getting another ship?

Assuming getting another ship is the best option here, I was thinking of saving for a cobra Mk. III for a combat ship and then retrofitting my adder for fast/quick mining runs (involving a lot of jumping due to limited cargo space) and/or giving my adder more space inside for mining. Which do you recommend?

 

[Ceekay]

You can have multiple ships however they have to be purchased, equipped and stored at your "home station" I think I have around six ATM (not counting place marker Sidey's ), it sounds like you need a multi role ship like the Cobra that is a ship that can be configured for mining, combat, trading etc.

The Cobra is about the smallest ship that's viable for mining (space for refinery, collector controller, drones, mined ore), smaller ships will work but you'll have to collect the ore manually, unless you want to run several ships the Cobra is probably the best balanced ship in the sub 4 mil range.

Here's a decent miner/light BH build

http://coriolis.io/outfit/cobra_mk_...04000303481mC32h.Iw1-kA==.AwiMIypI?bn=Cobra C

Remember this is a decent ship against a Sidey or two or an Eagle possibly a Viper or another Cobra but running away to fight another day is a sound strategy, nearly 70k insurance is gonna hurt so it's a lot cheaper to leg it and repair.

ps build your ships in coriolis or ed shipyard so you can get a handle on the cost and performance before parting with "real" money.

http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=201,5QG5QG,2-3w3w3w2M2M2M22,7Og03w2Uc

http://coriolis.io/

 

[Cmdr Bernard]

It is AMAZING.

I can only agree.

Is there a way to "save" my combat build for later (aside from writing it down as I've heard some do)?

Not in-game, but there are two excellent shipbuilder webpages where you can store builds:
http://coriolis.io/
http://edshipyard.com/

Helps to figure out your build and store it for later. You can export builds to a text file to make them survive a browser cleanup.

Do I HAVE to sell all that combat stuff, buy the mining stuff for my ship, doing my mining thing, and then (when I want to go back to combat) sell and buy all that other stuff back again?

Unfortunately yes. Only alternative is to have multiple ships.
I'd wish for a storage space in the space station where you could store your modules.

It seems a bit of a hassle and a financial strain to switch between them.

Hassle, yes. Financial strain, no. You sell modules for the same price you purchased them, so you make no loss when switching modules. Frontier wanted to change that by applying a 10% loss on selling a few months ago, but fortunately they did not impelement that (yet?).

Would you recommend simply getting another ship?

In general yes, but having multiple e.g. Adders sounds boring. At the end, you would keep a miner-Adder, a combat-Viper and a mission/smuggling-Cobra etc.

I was thinking of saving for a cobra Mk. III

Good choice. Cobra Mk III is one of the best ships in the game and will serve you well for a very long time. However, the Viper is superior for combat.
Mining Adder sounds okay, but you want to get rid of the Adder quickly.
What I did at the point was to buy a Viper (much cheaper to equip than the Cobra) for combat, and then save up for a Cobra, but kept the Viper. However, if you badly want a new ship, don't hesitate to sell an old one, you can always buy it back later. Just sell modules first, then you only get the 10% loss on the hull itself, which is not so bad.
I'd also want to point you to the Diamondback Scout, which is an excellent combat ship and would be a good alternative to the Viper (Scout didn't exist when I started, so perhaps where I recommended Viper above you should instead look at the Scout).
And one final advise, don't bother with regular trading unless you have at least 100 tons cargo space. A very good money-maker is long-range rare goods trading with a Cobra.

Fly safe.

 

[Demandredd]

Thanks!

Always refreshing to see a helpful community. I appreciate the advise.

I've gotten the cobra Mk. III and enjoy it quite a lot. High maneuverability after upgrading and it looks absolutely awesome. I enjoy using it for combat and trading. Currently using the adder as a mining ship and it is almost fully outfitted for it (may get collector limpets instead of prospector ones). May use one of the bigger ones for trading/mining once I get the $$$ for it. It'll be a while.... I need to look up how to find resource extraction sites and stuff to get money quicker.

The fact that you create your own "narrative" is awesome about this game.

Thanks agian! I am sure I'll be back on this forum eventually.

 

[Demandredd]

Well, sadly I may not end up doing so in the end.

Just read up that Horizons, the future expansion, will not be available for Mac. I don't know if I want to play a game where everyone else gets to experience new content while I don't. Yes, there is PLENTY to do in the base game, but we'll see.

I highly doubt it'll end up changing. I'd rather not buy Windows OS for ~$100 just to play [a] game.