I know there's a bazillion FDL vs Python threads, but I wanted to do a writeup of some of my own thoughts. Beware, long thread!
Python
Conflict Zone Combat
I recently got the 7A powerplant to (again) test the combat abilities. I made two setups, one involving 2 gimballed c3 pulse on top, 2 gimballed c2 mc and a gimballed c3 beam laser on the bottom. The second build is with the pulse lasers replaced by first c3 pulse turrets but then those got replaced c3 burst turrets. The burst turrets worked better since they provided actual damage output. At first, it's hard to determine whether the turrets are worth it since even the burst turrets don't do that much shield damage unless assisted with the beam laser on the bottom. The turrets ended up being useful since their coverage allowed less of a reliance of not only the bottom beam laser (causing frequent overheats) but also the constant "boost fa-off flipping" I had to do in order to even have my targets in sight. The turrets also help with multimobs since the burst turrets are pretty good with assisting with powerplant sniping. With the A7 powerplant, the Python also has one huge advantage over the FDL: the ability to use SCBs with the hardpoints deployed, and having more of them to play with at once. However, this advantage costs you a 51m powerplant and a combat build that probably equals to 5.5m beta insurance (which is probably worse with normal players!). Even with the effective combat build, it felt boring because it felt like I was forcing the multirole ship to behave like a fighter. The Python really wants to have turrets in use. The final thought regarding this is that to have a ship that competes with the FDL, you need twice the funds to do so. I think of the Python as a badass trade ship.
Other thoughts
You don't need to stress the Python's combat abilities in RES because of the spawns, but doing the "boost fa-off flips" is much more dangerous if the need happens. I sadly never got the chance to fight big ship mobs in the RES thanks to the spawns.
With either style of combat above you can 1v1 an annie, but the turrets help more.
I initially tried a budget combat build involving either two class 2 beam turrets or gimbals, along with triple cannons. However, since the beam lasers took a while to drain shields off of larger ships, and the cannons don't do that much hull damage against larger ships and rely on a small hitbox to kill the powerplant, it didn't seem that reliable. I ended up wasting more cannon ammo than I did with the FDL, and it reminded me of when I spammed cannons with my lower tier ships.
Trading is very profitable. I was doing a Imperial Slave/Palladium/Crop Harvester (3 stop loop) route that was feeding me 2m every 30 minutes. The 272 cargo is a beast. However, even with the money flow, trading gets awfully boring. I stopped once I dinged Broker rank.
The cockpit may be more enjoyable to most since you can see more things and less rails, but it doesn't look as elegant as the FDL.
FDL
Conflict Zone Combat
FDL is a reasonable upgrade to the Vulture, but at the cost of a few things. First, you can't exactly do full on pulse lasers and expect it to be awesome since you are now using medium hardpoints. I found it better to have two bursts on the top hardpoints but at the cost of downgrading one of my shield boosters. You can try either beam gimbals on top or even beam turrets on the sides (note: all four hardpoints won't fire at once with the latter), but you may run into heat problems. Once you've figured out the top, the bottom gets tricky since it's a huge hardpoint. You only get two weapons, both being burst damage projectile weapons that only do damage to modules (especially power plant!). The best option for me was the gimballed cannon, since although the PA fries an Annie's power plant in one hit, the weapon's hull damage is so laughable even a cobra will laugh at it. I don't know how a "planetary assault weapon" can't put huge dents in hull percentage since it's a pain to even aim the darn thing. The fixed cannon is worse, but it at least doesn't cost a ton of power to run. The gimballed cannon has two main advantages: it can fire upwards to a point, and when it does it will kiss most powerplants goodbye in two or three direct hits. The problem is the FDL's somewhat reliance on it, which is why you should at least have two burst lasers on top. A disadvantage is that you can't use SCBs with hardpoints deployed unless you sacrifice shield cell banks, which is a bit silly. However, the speed of the FDL allows you to run away just fine to get that SCB popped (protip: Don't turn on hardpoints during the SCB charge, it will cancel out!). Because of the FDL's speed and manueverability, you're essentially flying the Viper's direct upgrade. However, it's also the Viper's direct upgrade for bad reasons, too.
Other thoughts
-RES combat is easy with both Big and Small ships. The FDL can dance circles around the asteriods without the need to use FA-Off and boost flipping. The FA-Boost flip helps somewhat in general, but it's not needed. The acceleration of the ship is too good to bother half of the time.
-Don't bother with cargo.
-Once you upgrade, you're stuck with 13.5 jump range even with the 5A FSD. That, and combined with the stock 8t fuel tank and a class 4 fuel scoop that only allows you to use half of its abilities, travel is a bit of a chore. Because you probably want two 4A shield cell banks, you're stuck either finding a station that allows you to swap the Fuel Scoop with a SCB, or you're stuck with the SCBs and a class 2 fuel scoop. The latter is really inconvenient.
-I found the cockpit to be rather cool. Once you get used to the fact that the cockpit seat is on the right side and you have some weird horizontal rail somewhat blocking the view, the cockpit really feels like that super awesome car you rented for a few days to impress your friends. Oh, and it sounds like a space ferrari. Want to have that cool car in Project Cars but it shoot guns and whatever? This is the ship!
The verdict.
Get both. One for fun combat and the other for a badass trade ship. You may want the Python if you also enjoy the "efficient but boring" combat, but I prefer the borderline "gundamu" feel of the FDL.
Python
Conflict Zone Combat
I recently got the 7A powerplant to (again) test the combat abilities. I made two setups, one involving 2 gimballed c3 pulse on top, 2 gimballed c2 mc and a gimballed c3 beam laser on the bottom. The second build is with the pulse lasers replaced by first c3 pulse turrets but then those got replaced c3 burst turrets. The burst turrets worked better since they provided actual damage output. At first, it's hard to determine whether the turrets are worth it since even the burst turrets don't do that much shield damage unless assisted with the beam laser on the bottom. The turrets ended up being useful since their coverage allowed less of a reliance of not only the bottom beam laser (causing frequent overheats) but also the constant "boost fa-off flipping" I had to do in order to even have my targets in sight. The turrets also help with multimobs since the burst turrets are pretty good with assisting with powerplant sniping. With the A7 powerplant, the Python also has one huge advantage over the FDL: the ability to use SCBs with the hardpoints deployed, and having more of them to play with at once. However, this advantage costs you a 51m powerplant and a combat build that probably equals to 5.5m beta insurance (which is probably worse with normal players!). Even with the effective combat build, it felt boring because it felt like I was forcing the multirole ship to behave like a fighter. The Python really wants to have turrets in use. The final thought regarding this is that to have a ship that competes with the FDL, you need twice the funds to do so. I think of the Python as a badass trade ship.
Other thoughts
You don't need to stress the Python's combat abilities in RES because of the spawns, but doing the "boost fa-off flips" is much more dangerous if the need happens. I sadly never got the chance to fight big ship mobs in the RES thanks to the spawns.
With either style of combat above you can 1v1 an annie, but the turrets help more.
I initially tried a budget combat build involving either two class 2 beam turrets or gimbals, along with triple cannons. However, since the beam lasers took a while to drain shields off of larger ships, and the cannons don't do that much hull damage against larger ships and rely on a small hitbox to kill the powerplant, it didn't seem that reliable. I ended up wasting more cannon ammo than I did with the FDL, and it reminded me of when I spammed cannons with my lower tier ships.
Trading is very profitable. I was doing a Imperial Slave/Palladium/Crop Harvester (3 stop loop) route that was feeding me 2m every 30 minutes. The 272 cargo is a beast. However, even with the money flow, trading gets awfully boring. I stopped once I dinged Broker rank.
The cockpit may be more enjoyable to most since you can see more things and less rails, but it doesn't look as elegant as the FDL.
FDL
Conflict Zone Combat
FDL is a reasonable upgrade to the Vulture, but at the cost of a few things. First, you can't exactly do full on pulse lasers and expect it to be awesome since you are now using medium hardpoints. I found it better to have two bursts on the top hardpoints but at the cost of downgrading one of my shield boosters. You can try either beam gimbals on top or even beam turrets on the sides (note: all four hardpoints won't fire at once with the latter), but you may run into heat problems. Once you've figured out the top, the bottom gets tricky since it's a huge hardpoint. You only get two weapons, both being burst damage projectile weapons that only do damage to modules (especially power plant!). The best option for me was the gimballed cannon, since although the PA fries an Annie's power plant in one hit, the weapon's hull damage is so laughable even a cobra will laugh at it. I don't know how a "planetary assault weapon" can't put huge dents in hull percentage since it's a pain to even aim the darn thing. The fixed cannon is worse, but it at least doesn't cost a ton of power to run. The gimballed cannon has two main advantages: it can fire upwards to a point, and when it does it will kiss most powerplants goodbye in two or three direct hits. The problem is the FDL's somewhat reliance on it, which is why you should at least have two burst lasers on top. A disadvantage is that you can't use SCBs with hardpoints deployed unless you sacrifice shield cell banks, which is a bit silly. However, the speed of the FDL allows you to run away just fine to get that SCB popped (protip: Don't turn on hardpoints during the SCB charge, it will cancel out!). Because of the FDL's speed and manueverability, you're essentially flying the Viper's direct upgrade. However, it's also the Viper's direct upgrade for bad reasons, too.
Other thoughts
-RES combat is easy with both Big and Small ships. The FDL can dance circles around the asteriods without the need to use FA-Off and boost flipping. The FA-Boost flip helps somewhat in general, but it's not needed. The acceleration of the ship is too good to bother half of the time.
-Don't bother with cargo.
-Once you upgrade, you're stuck with 13.5 jump range even with the 5A FSD. That, and combined with the stock 8t fuel tank and a class 4 fuel scoop that only allows you to use half of its abilities, travel is a bit of a chore. Because you probably want two 4A shield cell banks, you're stuck either finding a station that allows you to swap the Fuel Scoop with a SCB, or you're stuck with the SCBs and a class 2 fuel scoop. The latter is really inconvenient.
-I found the cockpit to be rather cool. Once you get used to the fact that the cockpit seat is on the right side and you have some weird horizontal rail somewhat blocking the view, the cockpit really feels like that super awesome car you rented for a few days to impress your friends. Oh, and it sounds like a space ferrari. Want to have that cool car in Project Cars but it shoot guns and whatever? This is the ship!
The verdict.
Get both. One for fun combat and the other for a badass trade ship. You may want the Python if you also enjoy the "efficient but boring" combat, but I prefer the borderline "gundamu" feel of the FDL.
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