Ship Builds & Load Outs Hopping onto the passenger train - Orca loadout

[Turnspit]

Cheers everyone!

After having set up ships for each role imaginable (Combat, Exploration, Missions, Trade, ...), I'm still missing a dedicated passenger ship.

Having not done proper passenger 'hauling' before (just a quick test in an ASP once) and deeming the Dolphin too small to properly do this task on a bigger scale (unless someone can suggest a proper build), I thought about going with the Orca. This is my inital idea including engineering:

https://eddp.co/u/JQstQdm7

No weapons? Unless there is the need to shoot something down for a passenger (are there missions like this?!), I'm just gonna chaff and silent run with heat sinks in case of a successfull interdicition, which has worked incredibly fine on my unarmed trade and exploration ships.

But on to the core and optional internals - are these looking fine for a passenger ship, or is there still room for improvements?

Thanks!

 

[Ceekay]

Core seems fine I built mine with average stored components and it went like a stabbed rat (BTW no actual rats were stabbed ), the only slight downside with the Orca is the large pad only limitation.

I've been doing passenger missions to gain rank (fancy being Admiral Ceekay it's got ring to it I reckon ) and a fair number are fine with economy cabins so I'd swap one of the first class for an economy one, I'd also suggest something like shock mines as an enemy target distraction weapon especially if modified with ion disruptor ammo to reboot their drives.

https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/orc...Ccv2nd5QuZOsVm5unfHwtj/i9iAQAA&bn=Orca (EDMC)

 

[Crazy Joe]

No weapons? Unless there is the need to shoot something down for a passenger (are there missions like this?!), I'm just gonna chaff and silent run with heat sinks in case of a successfull interdicition, which has worked incredibly fine on my unarmed trade and exploration ships.
Thanks!

Some passenger missions come with extra bonuses if you kill NPCs who are hunting your passengers, so if you want to collect those bonuses at least some weaponry will be required. I tend to ignore them myself and try to beat the interdiction whenever one of these NPCs catches up with me, but just to be safe I added a couple of beam lasers and a multi-cannon to my Orca.

 

[Jethro49]

I made quite a lot of passengers missions, mostly with an AspX and an Orca. Also I focused on short range VIP transportation (from A to B) and sightseeing (loop trips). Both ships were optimized for jump range : no weapon, lightweight engineered modules, minimal shields, biggest fuel scoop, heat optimisation on powerplant. With a speed over 300 m/s, I am rarely shot at when interdicted by NPCs. I don't even bother now with evading the interdiction or heat sinking while FSD is charging, I just submit and keep boosting in a straight line and that does the job. However I use heat sinks when docking in order to prevent being scanned by authorities (some passengers don't want to be scanned). The bonus for answering to the passengers requests is really too low to care about that, so... I don't care about that.

For the cabin layout, on the AspX which was dedicated to sightseeing, I used to fit one of the largest business cabin and one of the largest first class cabin, then select a mission and finally go to outfitting and replace the unused cabin by the fuel scoop. Mass optimization to the extreme...
On the Orca, which is more polyvalent, I fitted a luxury, a first class and a business cabin. So I was able to have always one or two cabins booked when I was chaining VIP transportations. However this is not the best way to make money - sightseeing is more profitable - but a good way to grind a superpower rank.