[WARNING: WALL OF TEXT AHEAD; TL;DR IS: BUILDS LINKED AT THE END, FLY WHAT IS FUN TO YOU]
Things of note I took when deciding mine:
- Jump range doesn't need to be long: missions usually are within 20 LY range of the station, so anything larger than that is either over engineering or you could be prioritizing something else (unless your Ody ship fills multiple roles);
- Small ship because landing pads: sometimes, blocking a landing pad with your ship also has some positives, like preventing a landed NPC from catching a stray shot that you missed, only to fail a mission because that rung the alarms. Sure, this situation is completely preventable with awareness, but it takes one wrong timing, one wrong move, one bad day, for you to insta-fail that mission that would pay 5 Manufactured Instructions;
- A LOT of the time you're going to spend on the missions (inside the ship) is either in in-system transit, or settlement approach/departure: small ships also have the advantage of being more maneuverable during Supercruise, making your life easier there. The other advantage of small ships is that you can slap an Enhanced Performance Thruster on it, limit its weight, and minimize the other part of the time you spend on ship. Also important: SPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED; (side note: I would love a Supercruise Enhanced engineering for the FSD, with minimal or no gain on jump range, increased heat generation, maybe lower weight, and better acceleration and deceleration on supercruise)
- Defenses, weapons and SRVs can help, but cost you: if you want to ditch them, it's fine (except for basic shields). YOU are the weapon of mass destruction. With a lighter and smaller ship, it makes it easier to relocate when under fire, land fast, dispatch the ship away fast, and get it landed back fast after all life signs are cleared. Also, again: SPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED;
- On Power Distributors, Charge Enhanced and Engine Focused might seem like the same boost-wise, but they are not: Engine Focused is going to give you more boosts before you run out of charge (2 or 3, compared to 1 or 2 with Charge Enhanced). Useful when undersizing the Power Distributor for less weight (and thus, more SPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED)
- You should fly what is fun to you: I like optimization and a word with 5 letters that I wrote a few times here with a few extra letters, so, these were the main points for me. You decide the main points for you. "Being able to bloat the sky of the settlement" is fun to you? THE TYPE-9 HEAVY CAN DO IT.
These points made me gravitate towards 3 options: Imperial Eagle, Viper Mk III and Imperial Courier. I flew A LOT of DeLacy's stuff during my early career, so I ignored it (but copy the Imp Eagle build strategy to it, and you have the same max speed, but less maneuverable). Imperial Courier can be tanky and be reasonably fast, but not max speed fast. Imperial Eagle is love, Imperial Eagle is life, Imperial Eagle is my wife.
These are my two builds, with the Imperial Eagle being exclusive for Ody (and when I'm feeling like just going around a bit slower but with style), and the Imperial Courier being multi-role (on-foot/SRV exploration, mid-range jumper, megaship scanner, battering ram for megaship defenses, ground base scanner & power generator sniper, and ganker frustrator, as they can't outrun you or damage you enough, so you keep "running away & getting interdicted again" and ask them if they're having fun after the 3rd of 4th interdiction while laughing at them).
Imperial Eagle EDSY Build
Imperial Courier EDSY Build
