I have just come back to playing Elite after about a year away, I have been mainly exploring and as such have a well equipped ASP explorer. I now want to start doing other missions to boost my rank with the federation and am looking for recommendations for a good combat ship, I have approx. 9 million to spend and don't want to sell my ASP any ideas people?.
Good combat ship?
- Thread starter Dead Again
- Start date
vulture
Vulture or Viper MKIV. The Vulture would eat much of your current assets but is tougher than a MKIV. The latter is cheap though, so you can experiment and handle rebuys pretty easily.
Viper mkIII.....earn some more credits then
Vulture...no question
Whoever said Viper mkIV.....wash your mouth out with soap and water right now
The mkIV does look cool and has more internals and variety in fittings but it flies like a brick...awful.
Vulture...no question
Whoever said Viper mkIV.....wash your mouth out with soap and water right now
The mkIV does look cool and has more internals and variety in fittings but it flies like a brick...awful.
I'd say viper as well to start with, but I'd use it to grind fed rep so that I could skip the vulture and get the fed ships each in turn. FDS for versatility until you can get an FAS which is the ultimate one on one combat ship, imo, then if you want still more pve firepower, the FGS is the final evolution of the series, with a good biweave shield, a fighter bay and some hull reinforcements, it flat out tears stuff up (7 guns!).
Op, I recommend the Viper mk 3. You can a rate it and engineer it (don't forget the size 3 advanced performance thrusters from Farseer or Palin). You then have great fighter to obtain further credits. It's good fun to fly too and very satisfying killing Anacondas in. Excellent dog fighting practice as well. You won't be disappointed.
Here is a quick and easy build for you. With a weapons change, it's good for pvp too.
https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/viper?code=A4p5tzF5l8dasdf227270p0p000029B4296b2j.Iw19kA%3D%3D.Aw19kA%3D%3D..EweloBhAWEoUwIYHMA28QgIwV0A%3D
P.S. Do not bother with the Viper mk4. It's tanks, but still a poor combat ship in comparison.
Here is a quick and easy build for you. With a weapons change, it's good for pvp too.
https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/viper?code=A4p5tzF5l8dasdf227270p0p000029B4296b2j.Iw19kA%3D%3D.Aw19kA%3D%3D..EweloBhAWEoUwIYHMA28QgIwV0A%3D
P.S. Do not bother with the Viper mk4. It's tanks, but still a poor combat ship in comparison.
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Switched from Vulture to FAS for bounty hunting and won't go back. Anyhow, the Vulture is a neat ship. But it requires that one learns how to fly it. It is different from other ships, in that it is most effective only at knife-combat distance. Only here you can turn the Vulture's agility into an advantage (as you stick at the weak point of the opponent, which you cannot achieve if farther away). Also, the Vulture is made of glass. Your shields are down, you're dead. Run, and the huge boosters will be shot down within seconds, confront and your canopy is down quicker than you can say oxygen. You need to learn to manage shields and to run from a fight very early (not like 25% hull, that's already dead man flying). You leave with 80%, and only if you're certain the battle can't be won anymore. Remember, escaping is very risky with this ship.
Vulture. without a doubt. when engineered it goes from being merely very good, to being truly excellent.
like conceit said, in a Vulture you are not a tank. sit there in front of the enemy and absorb his fire and you'll be dead in seconds.
instead of the longsword, be the rapier, be the mosquito - dance around behind him, sit in his blind spots, wear him down as you go, give him the 'death of a thousand cuts' - your strength lies in your ability to not get hit. stay alive, and the rest of it will look after itself.
Vulture <3
like conceit said, in a Vulture you are not a tank. sit there in front of the enemy and absorb his fire and you'll be dead in seconds.
instead of the longsword, be the rapier, be the mosquito - dance around behind him, sit in his blind spots, wear him down as you go, give him the 'death of a thousand cuts' - your strength lies in your ability to not get hit. stay alive, and the rest of it will look after itself.
Vulture <3
Viper mark 3,then the Vulture.
The FAS is objectively better than the vulture at the vultures role in every way except pitch agility, and even that is very, very close, the other advantages of the FAS relegate the vulture to a stepping stone ship. Don't understand why people are all vulture, vulture, vulture when someone makes one of these threads. Fwiw, I have spent more hours in a vulture than any other ship to date because I was slow in deciding to grind fed rank, so it's not that I haven't tried it or used it extensively to know. As for the sword analogy above, I'd say the viper is a foil, the vulture a Saber, and the FAS a full length katana. For a broadsword, see 'big 3'.
He only has 9M, the FAS is 20 and behind a grindwall.
Run a few missions in the Asp to build up yr funds and then get the vulture
So he can't afford a decently fitted vulture either then. The question is what after the Viper.
I say skip Vulture, grind fed rep with viper and go straight to the FAS.Though having said that, that isn't what I would do if starting the game again and wanting to get into an FAS asap, I'd use absolutely whatever ship to make enough for a Dolphin, then use that Dolphin to get RICH and grind fed rank (one way passenger missions are the highest paying time/credits missions in the game if taken selectively, and are always +++ rep).
To be completely honest, if I was the OP, I'd sell the Asp, buy a dophin and a viper. I have no love for multirole ships in this game any more, I find them so suboptimal compared to prupose designed ships that I just can't face the compromises. When I want money I do passegner missions in a passenger ship, when I want bounties and pew pew, I switch to a dedicated combat ship. Refit the Asp as light as possible maybe and use it as a bubble hopper. Or, sell it and get the best bubble hopper, the DBX.
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Viper III on your budget, save for an FdL in the long run.
In terms of loadout you'll want a couple of 2F gimballed multicannons for once the shields are down (largest hardpoints always best for kinetic rounds) and some 1E fixed beam lasers for melting shields.
PVE it's useful to have a mix of gimballed and fixed weapons so that you can sustain fire through chaff (and get some practice in with fixed weapons).
Many have suggested the Vulture but it's 20x the cost of a Viper Mk. III and honestly not something you can afford to lose if you only have 9 million in the bank.
In terms of loadout you'll want a couple of 2F gimballed multicannons for once the shields are down (largest hardpoints always best for kinetic rounds) and some 1E fixed beam lasers for melting shields.
PVE it's useful to have a mix of gimballed and fixed weapons so that you can sustain fire through chaff (and get some practice in with fixed weapons).
Many have suggested the Vulture but it's 20x the cost of a Viper Mk. III and honestly not something you can afford to lose if you only have 9 million in the bank.