Ships Mandalay for combat PVE

voodochile37

V
How is it for combat?. Given its agility I'd have thought damn good. I've done a rough comparison on Coriolis.io against my Krait mk2 and it isnt far down on raw dps and shields, when stacked..Surely the agility more than makes up the difference in keeping on someone?.
I love the Mandalay for exp' and really want more fun with PVE combat as I struggle to enjoy that aspect and havent quite made Elite in over 10 years.
So Mandalay any good and if so are there any lnown builds for quick hard hitting fun combat?. I would just go and try one but I dont have the engi' parts to make it at the moment.
 

Borg184

Borg184
You're liable to get a lot of different opinions here. Some people are going to tell you that you can make any ship work for PvE and that PvE is brainless. Some people are going to tell you to steer clear of the Mandalay for combat, as it is not a ship designed for it.

The truth is, they're both right. PvE in Elite is pretty much a game of trying to beat the AI before they cheat their way to victory. AI ships have a lot of advantages. They don't care about heat. Breaking modules that would be problematic to a player will have them shrugging and continuing to fight.

Thankfully, you have your own built in set of cheat codes with engineering. Engineering can take a mediocre ship and turn it into a good ship, and it can take a good ship and turn it into a great ship. You can make a Mandalay work with engineering for PvE combat. Hell, I fought in an Asp for a while when I was new. But I still wouldn't recommend it.

It's not a ship designed for it. It has its niche, and that niche is absolutely exploration. Yes, you could modify it to be a combat ship, but it's going to struggle to reach the same heights as an equally engineered Krait would. Agility doesn't carry you that far.

My recommendation will remain a no, purely on the grounds that the Mandalay is not built for combat, but yes, you could make one work with sufficient engineering. But the real secret of Elite is in not becoming a slave to any meta, and making your dumb and silly meme ship ideas anyway, because it, if you don't, who else is going to?

If you wanna build a combat Mandalay, go for it. Enjoy it. Just realize that your Krait Mk2 could've done the same job, usually a lot faster and better. And sometimes in Elite, especially when it comes to some of the grinding, 'faster and better' is what you aim for.
 

PilotB

P
It's not useless but it's under gunned, not as tough and has a weak power distributor compared to the alternatives. If you already don't enjoy combat then it's unlikely that taking a weaker ship in will make it more fun. It's never going to be a hard hitting medium compared to the alternatives. It's the type of ship you fly when you want additional challenge. It can do the job but you are handicapping yourself which can make things more fun if the challenge is your problem with PvE.
 

voodochile37

V
Thanks for the replies, appreciated. My thinking is to make pve more 'entertaining; to finish geting my Elite combate rank, im on deadly or something atm. With the Krait I just find it ends up a joust with me eventually winning and after 4/5 kills im bored senselesss.I'm really looking to find a decent mid ship I can enjoy combat in, finish my ranking and pretend im a combat ace. I thought the Mandy with high ag' might provide that fun im missing.
 

PilotB

P
You might just need to change up your style and add some FA off flying to your repetoire. You can leverage the flight model to setup orbits or glue to their thrusters. Otherwise basically all ships can end up just jousting as they have a WW2 fighter inspired combat model. With the undersized distro and high speed the mandy is more suited to jousting that ToT fights.

You can still trade your krait in for a P2, FDL or Mamba if you want a heavy hitter with some speed but the jousting is more of a pilot control thing, than a ship thing and there's nothing wrong with the Krait if you like it's style.
 

Three Stars

T
Having only small and medium hardpoints plus a lack of centered hardpoints for precision aiming both really work against it.

I feel like the Cobra V is a better combat ship than the Mandy pound for pound if you like outmaneuvering everything.
 

Shurimal

Shurimal
4 SRB Concord cannons, autoloaders or oversized. 1 corrosive MC. 1 feedback cascade railgun. Thermal resistant low draw class 6 biweave shield with class 5 and 4 Guardian SRP-s and 1 HD, SC; 2 RA, FB and 1 KR, TB boosters for perfectly balanced resistances.

Outnumbered.
Outgunned.
Take position.
Have fun!


Borg184 said:
PvE in Elite is pretty much a game of trying to beat the AI before they cheat their way to victory. AI ships have a lot of advantages. They don't care about heat. Breaking modules that would be problematic to a player will have them shrugging and continuing to fight.
Click to expand...
That's really not true. NPC-s will stop boosting and using high heat weapons (eg PA-s) if overheated. NPC-s have better power priority management than 99% of players, thus able to keep fighting with malfunctioning power plant. They don't have infinite chaff or SCB-s, they just usually die before they run out. The only advantages they have is very fast reaction times and perfect SA.
 

Agrippa

Agrippa
Absolutely capable combat ship, if you can fly it. SRB rails + utility weapons and orbit whatever you fight in PvE. Hardly needs more than a light biweave since it's super evasive.
 

ArrakisX

ArrakisX
Here's the build for a ship I built to engage in PowerPlay activities:


On top of being extremely combat capable with Plasma slug Accelerators and long range penetrator rails for module sniping, it can complete all PP assignment types / merit accruing activities from holo hacking, interdictions, bounty hunting, escape pod rescues, etc and cover it all in a single jump. It can also hold out in low intensity CZ when not up against spec ops type ships.

It's extremely fun in haz rez sites and interdicting large ships. Just orbit and blast at point blank.
 
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S0rkvild

S0rkvild
My pve Mandalay has a bounty scanner, 1,2k MJ shields, 2 overcharged cytos, 4 multis. That gets job quickly. Generally mandalay is pretty able combat ship with good handling and impressive shields, amount of hardpoints can give a headache allowing you to feature any loadout missiles, multis, rails, frags etc...
 

DjVortex

DjVortex
I made a table comparing some numbers between some medium (and one small) combat ships and the Mandalay.

(L) in the ship's name indicates a lightweight hull.
(M) in the ship's name indicates a military hull.
Hulls engineered for Heavy Duty / Deep plating.
Maximum-sized shields that the ship can equip (and engineered for reinforced). No shield boosters, though.
Equipped with some reasonable weapons (so that their weight is taken into account in the speed).

Code: 
-----------------+--------+------+-----+------+------+-----+-------+------+------
Ship             | Hrdpnt | Dstr | Utl | Armr | Shld | Bst | Pitch | Roll | Yaw
-----------------+--------+------+-----+------+------+-----+-------+------+------
Krait Mk II (L)  |  LLLMM |   7  |  4  |  564 |  483 | 557 | 48/52 |  152 | 17
Krait Mk II (M)  |  LLLMM |   7  |  4  | 1098 |  483 | 547 | 47/52 |  149 | 16
Python Mk II (L) | LLLLMM |   6  |  6  |  718 |  621 | 575 | 55/61 |  151 | 21
Python Mk II (M) | LLLLMM |   6  |  6  | 1397 |  621 | 563 | 54/60 |  148 | 20
Corsair (L)      | LLLMMM |   7  |  4  |  693 |  551 | 600 | 41/44 |  135 | 17
Corsair (M)      | LLLMMM |   7  |  4  | 1347 |  551 | 600 | 41/44 |  135 | 17
Cobra Mk V (L)   |  MMMSS |   4  |  4  |  461 |  375 | 652 | 67/71 |  190 | 52
Cobra Mk V (M)   |  MMMSS |   4  |  4  |  898 |  375 | 632 | 65/69 |  185 | 51
Mandalay (L)     | MMMMSS |   5  |  4  |  590 |  516 | 578 | 49/58 |  158 | 36/46
Mandalay (M)     | MMMMSS |   5  |  4  | 1147 |  516 | 564 | 48/56 |  154 | 35/45
-----------------+--------+------+-----+------+------+-----+-------+------+------

All the other numbers are quite fine for a medium-sized ship. What hurts the Mandalay the most compared to the actual combat ships is that it only has medium and small hardpoints, which is going to hurt its firepower significantly.

At that firepower, I would even use the Cobra Mk V instead, because of its superior speed.
 
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