Ships Looking for a fighter

[Ray Gun Rebecca]

I've been mostly smuggling in my Cobra, and it's getting boring; done a little bounty hunting, and that's been more fun...but also frustrating. I'm sure you've all had the circling-around-each-other battles, where you keep doing loop-de-loops in the hopes of finally getting a shot in... ugh, right?
So, I've saved up a few million, and now I'm trying to find the best overall fighter for my personal preferred style of combat...and searches on the web have gotten me size comparisons, but not a lot of, say, speed and maneuverability comparisons, so I'm hoping someone can help me out.

Here is what I would like:
- Something fast; speed matters far more to me than power
- Something that turns on a dime;looping battles are no fun
- Gimballed weapons; I'll be honest, I'm not a very good shot, so having an auto-aiming system makes me a happy camper. Also, I'm not entirely sure, but the kinetic weapons I bought--gimballed, mind--seemed to not actually fire like the beam weapons; there was what looked like a lead-target, where you're supposed to fire to actually hit the ship.
- Decent homing missles

Now, I can probably figure out my weapons loadout all on my own; what I think really matters is figuring out the speed and turning radius.
And, yeah, I know I'll want a Warrant Scanner and all that; I'm listing the essentials here more than the obvious accessories.

So, any advice on this one? Cuz I've gone looking, and I find I must ask, alas, because my research has come to naught. Thanks.

 

[Stealth Gamer92]

I've been mostly smuggling in my Cobra, and it's getting boring; done a little bounty hunting, and that's been more fun...but also frustrating. I'm sure you've all had the circling-around-each-other battles, where you keep doing loop-de-loops in the hopes of finally getting a shot in... ugh, right?
So, I've saved up a few million, and now I'm trying to find the best overall fighter for my personal preferred style of combat...and searches on the web have gotten me size comparisons, but not a lot of, say, speed and maneuverability comparisons, so I'm hoping someone can help me out.

Here is what I would like:
- Something fast; speed matters far more to me than power
- Something that turns on a dime;looping battles are no fun
- Gimballed weapons; I'll be honest, I'm not a very good shot, so having an auto-aiming system makes me a happy camper. Also, I'm not entirely sure, but the kinetic weapons I bought--gimballed, mind--seemed to not actually fire like the beam weapons; there was what looked like a lead-target, where you're supposed to fire to actually hit the ship.
- Decent homing missles

Now, I can probably figure out my weapons loadout all on my own; what I think really matters is figuring out the speed and turning radius.
And, yeah, I know I'll want a Warrant Scanner and all that; I'm listing the essentials here more than the obvious accessories.

So, any advice on this one? Cuz I've gone looking, and I find I must ask, alas, because my research has come to naught. Thanks.

Diamondback Scout with 3x A rated shield booster's is like a mini-Vulture. I have 2 small Beam's and 2 medium Multi-Cannon's on mine and no plan's to upgrade to a Vulture at the moment. This loadout is kind of anti-SCB though as I don't use them and got my power used up so to put one on I'd have to probably do some re-configuration. The mount's are perfectly placed for gimballed or fixed weapon;s too.

 

[Ray Gun Rebecca]

Diamondback Scout with 3x A rated shield booster's is like a mini-Vulture. I have 2 small Beam's and 2 medium Multi-Cannon's on mine and no plan's to upgrade to a Vulture at the moment. This loadout is kind of anti-SCB though as I don't use them and got my power used up so to put one on I'd have to probably do some re-configuration. The mount's are perfectly placed for gimballed or fixed weapon;s too.

Hmm...well, that's annoying; the last few stations I went to didn't have either of those available in the shipyard; guess I'll have to go hunting.

Thanks.

 

[CMDR Corlas]

My preferred ship style sounds similar to yours; speed and maneuverability are very important for me.

Starting out, I upgraded from my Sidewinder directly to a Viper. I LOVED that Viper. Turning was never an issue, it was crazy-fast, and it had enough shields and firepower to get to job done. Great ship, and a fantastic fighter.

I eventually traded in my Viper for a Diamondback Scout. It's... nice on paper, and I enjoyed flying it, but I was always missing the Viper. The Scout was slower, felt slower accelerating, and with a bigger profile was easier to hit it seemed. It's good, but it wasn't great.

From there, I got a Vulture. Now don't get me wrong, the Vulture is a killing machine and I can't fly it in a Conflict Zone without grinning, but it's not the same kind of ship. It turns on a dime, but it's slow. So slow.

Eventually saved up enough for a Python. I couldn't afford to A-rate it fully, I got it kitted out pretty well regardless. I hated it. It was like flying a brick and was slow as molasses. I gave it a week or two, but then gave up on it and traded it in for a Clipper.

Now the Clipper is AWESOME. Fast as lightning, and it turns pretty well too. A little slow on the acceleration, but nothing a boost can't fix. It's like flying a giant Viper. Amazing ship. Plus, it was cheap enough that I re-bought my Viper. So now I mostly alternate between them. Both highly recommended if you like fast and agile. Don't be fooled by the 2 agility rating on the Clipper.

The Courier is another one well worth looking at. It's like a cross between a Viper and a Vulture. Very nice ship.

I have my eye on a Fer-De-Lance to try out next, but I need to make some money first.

 

[Stealth Gamer92]

Hmm...well, that's annoying; the last few stations I went to didn't have either of those available in the shipyard; guess I'll have to go hunting.

Thanks.

Don't know how much a trek it'd be for you but Diaguandri has them for a discount plus everything to outfit them, well except C3 Beam if you want a Vulture.

 

[Ray Gun Rebecca]

Don't know how much a trek it'd be for you but Diaguandri has them for a discount plus everything to outfit them, well except C3 Beam if you want a Vulture.

Well, I've never heard of the place, but I'll look. Thanks.

 

[Stealth Gamer92]

Well, I've never heard of the place, but I'll look. Thanks.

Happy to help.

 

[Stressfest]

A Vulture is what you seek
In terms of turning on a dime.. FA/off point the nose in the opposite direction, FA/on and boot the thrusters. Great way for getting under the belly of those pesky Clippers and Pythons...

 

[GammaZ]

IMO a good idea is to try all those ships and decide which suits you best. At least relatively cheap ones, like viper, cobra, DBS, courier, vulture and maybe even DBE. They all are different and it is hard/impossible to tell which is "best", it depends a lot on goals and piloting style/skills. Of course there are people saying that "ship X is clearly superior", but it just means that this ship suits them best.

 

[Stealth Gamer92]

IMO a good idea is to try all those ships and decide which suits you best. At least relatively cheap ones, like viper, cobra, DBS, courier, vulture and maybe even DBE. They all are different and it is hard/impossible to tell which is "best", it depends a lot on goals and piloting style/skills. Of course there are people saying that "ship X is clearly superior", but it just means that this ship suits them best.

Db Explorer is more a transport explorer, so turning is way too bad from what they said they wanted.

 

[Ceekay]

A Vulture is a superb combat ship but it's not that fast just very powerful and agile (expensive too 14+ mil at least), my current favorite is the Viper stripped out with just weapons thrusters and shields (and a docking computer for when I'm lazy ), it's not as agile as a Vulture but fitting turrets (energy or kinetic) on the small hard points will compensate for it's lack of agility and allows you to hit the target even under evasive maneuvering.

http://coriolis.io/outfit/viper/03A3A3A2D3A3D2C1b1b19190404-40-24.Iw1+kA==.CwBhrSs4g===?bn=Viper LR

Change a shield booster for a KWS or fit a smaller FSD if you don't need the range, add an interdictor if you're bounty hunting

http://coriolis.io/outfit/viper/03A...l046j402q24.AwRj4yyA.CwBhrStZiA==?bn=Viper LR

 

[Stressfest]

As a side note.. I've put all my expensive ships in storage and been having a blast *no pun intended* in my Cobra over at the RES. Doesn't quite have the kill rate of the Vulture but I think its twice the fun

 

[InMemoriamSirocco]

Sidewinder -> Eagle -> Imperial Eagle (yet to come) -> Viper -> Diamondback Scout -> Imperial Courier -> Vulture -> Fer de Lance

I think that's about it regarding to fighters.

Personally, I found there is nothing superior to the Vulture. The Imperial Courier has got some style, though, for much less money than the FDL, including a better cockpit view.

 

[Morbad]

I've been mostly smuggling in my Cobra, and it's getting boring; done a little bounty hunting, and that's been more fun...but also frustrating. I'm sure you've all had the circling-around-each-other battles, where you keep doing loop-de-loops in the hopes of finally getting a shot in... ugh, right?

No. I use ships with thrusters and controls that let me take advantage of them.

The Cobra, with it's very good pitch rate and poor vertical/lateral thruster performance encourages a combat style that will prove woefully insufficient for the task of defending one's self against competent pilots.

I'd recommend getting a Viper, which you will almost certainly despise when you first use it as it's pitch rate is downright bad for a fighter, and learn why it's actually one of the most agile ships in the game.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

I've been mostly smuggling in my Cobra, and it's getting boring; done a little bounty hunting, and that's been more fun...but also frustrating. I'm sure you've all had the circling-around-each-other battles, where you keep doing loop-de-loops in the hopes of finally getting a shot in... ugh, right?
So, I've saved up a few million, and now I'm trying to find the best overall fighter for my personal preferred style of combat...and searches on the web have gotten me size comparisons, but not a lot of, say, speed and maneuverability comparisons, so I'm hoping someone can help me out.

Here is what I would like:
- Something fast; speed matters far more to me than power
- Something that turns on a dime;looping battles are no fun
- Gimballed weapons; I'll be honest, I'm not a very good shot, so having an auto-aiming system makes me a happy camper. Also, I'm not entirely sure, but the kinetic weapons I bought--gimballed, mind--seemed to not actually fire like the beam weapons; there was what looked like a lead-target, where you're supposed to fire to actually hit the ship.
- Decent homing missles

Now, I can probably figure out my weapons loadout all on my own; what I think really matters is figuring out the speed and turning radius.
And, yeah, I know I'll want a Warrant Scanner and all that; I'm listing the essentials here more than the obvious accessories.

So, any advice on this one? Cuz I've gone looking, and I find I must ask, alas, because my research has come to naught. Thanks.

Check out Elite wiki under combat ships:
http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Fighters

Then check out the ED shipyard or use another of the popular tools to find the outfitting that works for you:
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=701,5QG5QG,2-3w3w3w2M2M2M22,7Og03w2Uc

Some personal advice:
Your probably after the Viper/Diamondback scout or Vulture.
Lasers (light) is instant, bullets and cannon shells take time to reach target so they need to lead. Theres a setting in the right hand menu that auto adjusts the cannon HUD point to either be on target when lined up on the ship or when lined up ahead.
Missiles are pretty much useless at the moment since they do almost 0 shield damage unless you use 30,000 of them and the re-arm costs are pretty substantial.

Assuming you have less than 10million credits I'd be looking at something like this:
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=70M,4yH4yH7sh7sh01Q3wo,2-4s4s4s3I4s4s3c,7Pc7fO4xo10i
or this:
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=70h,5QR5QR5Rr5Rr01Q0_g0_g3we,2-6Q6Q6Q3I4s3I6k,7Pc7fO4zM2UI

For both set up your power so that Cargo hatch, fuel scoop and FSD disable when you deploy hardpoints. For the Viper I cut the power close so you have to retract hardpoints to use a shield cell bank before deploying and resuming combat. Feel free to downgrade other things if you don't want to do that.

 

[Blinde]

From there, I got a Vulture. Now don't get me wrong, the Vulture is a killing machine and I can't fly it in a Conflict Zone without grinning, but it's not the same kind of ship. It turns on a dime, but it's slow. So slow.

With a A-rated power plant and Power distributor, I can perma boost my Vulture so that it's sustained speed is somewhere around 350-400m/s. That's not too shabby. When I'm in close, I slow down and maneuver. Best of both worlds.

 

[PhoenicianSon]

I've been mostly smuggling in my Cobra, and it's getting boring; done a little bounty hunting, and that's been more fun...but also frustrating. I'm sure you've all had the circling-around-each-other battles, where you keep doing loop-de-loops in the hopes of finally getting a shot in... ugh, right?
So, I've saved up a few million, and now I'm trying to find the best overall fighter for my personal preferred style of combat...and searches on the web have gotten me size comparisons, but not a lot of, say, speed and maneuverability comparisons, so I'm hoping someone can help me out.

Here is what I would like:
- Something fast; speed matters far more to me than power
- Something that turns on a dime;looping battles are no fun
- Gimballed weapons; I'll be honest, I'm not a very good shot, so having an auto-aiming system makes me a happy camper. Also, I'm not entirely sure, but the kinetic weapons I bought--gimballed, mind--seemed to not actually fire like the beam weapons; there was what looked like a lead-target, where you're supposed to fire to actually hit the ship.
- Decent homing missles

Now, I can probably figure out my weapons loadout all on my own; what I think really matters is figuring out the speed and turning radius.
And, yeah, I know I'll want a Warrant Scanner and all that; I'm listing the essentials here more than the obvious accessories.

So, any advice on this one? Cuz I've gone looking, and I find I must ask, alas, because my research has come to naught. Thanks.

Definitely, Diamondback Scout. They are too much fun!

Here is a build for battle that worked for me. If you don't want the KWS, you can get rid of that and increase the shield boosters. You can also exchange the Fragment Cannons for the missles, although I have tried a multitude of weapons in that 1 HP slot, and the fragment cannons up close definitely make short work of ships when the shields come down.

http://coriolis.io/outfit/diamondba...m07040440582t6b.AwRj4yKA.IwBhrSq5iA==?bn=DS 1

 

[GammaZ]

Db Explorer is more a transport explorer, so turning is way too bad from what they said they wanted.

It is strange ship overall, bad as transporter (too small possible cargo), bad as explorer (too small fuel scoop) but has excelent hardpoints (also maneuverability is not that good). So the only thing i found it to be somewhat usable for is combat...

 

[Stealth Gamer92]

It is strange ship overall, bad as transporter (too small possible cargo), bad as explorer (too small fuel scoop) but has excelent hardpoints (also maneuverability is not that good). So the only thing i found it to be somewhat usable for is combat...

It's my smuggling ship. It's perfect for smuggling, it and the Cobra are the apex smuggling ship's in my opinion.

 

[Cheese Helmet]

If you got the cash to kit it out, a vulture, if not, then the diamondback scout is great too. Good hardpoints, excellent maneuverability, good jump range too.