Orca & Beluga owners, what's the verdict?

[WillFrog]

Now that the Walter CG is done it's time to look into passenger missions. The most sensible thing would probably be to fit some cabins in my Anaconda but I like to specialise. The annie's for trading. I want to get a dedicated people mover, but there seems to be a surprising lack of discussion on these ships.

So Orca and Beluga owners, now that you've had a few days to get to grips with them and the passenger missions how are you finding the experience?

Is the Beluga usable or are the alarming stories I've heard of a poorly shielded fiery deathtrap true?
Does the Orca have enough internal slots?
What sort of loadout are you using?
Any other helpful tips before I buy one of these things?

I'm going to experiment with stuff but it would be nice to establish a baseline.

 

[MassiveD]

Now that the Walter CG is done it's time to look into passenger missions. The most sensible thing would probably be to fit some cabins in my Anaconda but I like to specialise. The annie's for trading. I want to get a dedicated people mover, but there seems to be a surprising lack of discussion on these ships.

So Orca and Beluga owners, now that you've had a few days to get to grips with them and the passenger missions how are you finding the experience?

Is the Beluga usable or are the alarming stories I've heard of a poorly shielded fiery deathtrap true?
Does the Orca have enough internal slots?
What sort of loadout are you using?
Any other helpful tips before I buy one of these things?

I'm going to experiment with stuff but it would be nice to establish a baseline.

Beluga - oustanding PVP dog-fighting craft

 

[WillFrog]

Beluga - oustanding PVP dog-fighting craft

Not exactly what I had in mind but I'd pay good spacebucks to watch it.

 

[MassiveD]

Not exactly what I had in mind but I'd pay good spacebucks to watch it.

Barely even joking, it's viable

One of the most reactive ships in the game slide-wise, stops and shifts on a dime, pitch and yaw surprisingly good too

 

[Xious]

I would say just go ahead and experiment yourself and arrive at your own conclusion. That's what I did.

I just bought the Beluga last night and ran a few local transport missions looking to see if any passengers would suddenly turn up wanted but no...

The Beluga is a dedicated passenger ship.... very limited.

 

[Morkel]

If you like to load up on missions and fly out and do many at the time the Beluga is the one you want. If you like to just cherry pick your missions and do one at the time the Orca is the one you want. There is really not alot of missions that you absolutely need the Beluga for. The Orca with a few mods also boosts away from danger at 500+.

 

[askavir]

My advice would be to buy neither, at least at first. Even though it is still too soon to make definite conclusions, these few days left me the impression that having a large passenger ship with lots of cabins is pointless.

Most passenger missions have few passengers, each want to go to different (sometimes radically different) locations, and each have their own timers, quirks and requirements which most of the time will conflict with each other.

Feels much more efficient to take just one mission, 2 at most depending on several factors, at a time, and just pick up another at each destination. And this can easily be done on a ship as cheap as a Type-6 or Asp.

Maybe in future patches there will be content more suitable to large passenger vessels.

 

[WillFrog]

Barely even joking, it's viable

One of the most reactive ships in the game slide-wise, stops and shifts on a dime, pitch and yaw surprisingly good too

But how do you compensate for the lousy shields? From what I've read if you slap a bunch of boosters on there it overheats really badly.

My advice would be to buy neither, at least at first. Even though it is still too soon to make definite conclusions, these few days left me the impression that having a large passenger ship with lots of cabins is pointless.

Most passenger missions have few passengers, each want to go to different (sometimes radically different) locations, and each have their own timers, quirks and requirements which most of the time will conflict with each other.

Feels much more efficient to take just one mission, 2 at most depending on several factors, at a time, and just pick up another at each destination. And this can easily be done on a ship as cheap as a Type-6 or Asp.

Maybe in future patches there will be content more suitable to large passenger vessels.

Meh. As I say I like to specialise. I have a ship for trading, one for mining, one for exploring, one for combat and one for doing planetside stuff. Now I want a passenger ship. They're both pretty cheap so I'm not worried about wasting money. I am leaning a little towards the Orca right now since I inexplicably have an Alioth permit (seriously, I have no memory of getting it) but I could be tempted to buy a Beluga.

I guess this is a sell me thread really. The important question is which one am I likely to have more fun in?

 

[MassiveD]

But how do you compensate for the lousy shields? From what I've read if you slap a bunch of boosters on there it overheats really badly.

Simple, Resistance Enhanced Shields, 3 resistance enhanced boosters, 3 heavy duty boosters, 6B SCB's, and suddenly it's a fortress

 

[SheepDip82]

Presently really enjoying my Beluga, handles so nicely and sounds great.

Got a G5 FSD (range) getting 30ly, G3 dirty thrusters, and G3 (reinforced) on a class 6 shield.

Haven't really had any encounters of note, yet - got jumped by a deadly FAS yesterday but didn't fancy testing out the SLF (and all turreted lasers) on it. Also got plenty of chaff and point defence.

So far I'm yet to take a hit after submitting, so watch this space

Edit: also no heat issues to speak of...

 

[TomP]

Beluga FTW.

Two modded boosters and a G5 modded shield make her overheat when jumping, but it is not high enough to cause damage. In this ship I let my crewmate control the SLF, unless it is a small ship. Haven't been bested yet by NPC's, and at 5% shy of Deadly, you can imagine what spawns I get.

 

[askavir]

The important question is which one am I likely to have more fun in?

Well, in that case it will depend on your own preference and each ship pros and cons vs what you value the most and the least.

Beluga is beautiful, has more compartments, takes more passangers, handles nicely for its size, has reasonable jump range and an enormous fuel tank. On the other hand its very slow and has terrible shields that can barely be increased, and its a flying barbecue.

Orca is also very pretty and stylish, and its a very fast ship. On the other hand, has dreadful jump range and has less compartments than the Beluga.

My advice: try both, if you have the cash.

 

[Sapyx]

I've had an Orca in the fleet ever since I could afford one; I got the Alioth permit just so I could buy an Orca at the 20% discount there. Was never a particularly likeable ship as without passenger availability it did (and still does) everything else pretty poorly, but when Engineers came out I took it around the block for FSD upgrades, along with the rest of the fleet. Even bought a vibrant paint pack for it, anticipating continuing to use it as my main passenger ship.

Last night, I fitted it out with luxury cabins and took it out for its first actual passenger run. Ran a celebrity (plus friend) from Alioth (where I'm Allied with all five factions) to Khernidjal. Single jump, 1.2 million in the bank, no diversions from the fussy passenger. Easy money.

As for choosing which ship is best for you, assuming you have the budget for either of them, well, here are some things to consider.

Do you have a fighter crew, and don't want to either fire them or have them sit around twiddling their thumbs while you fly passengers, but would rather they came along with you, guarding you in a ship with a fighter bay installed? Then take the Beluga. If fighters bore you, then take the Orca.

Do you plan on basing yourself from a major tourism hub, with so many passengers you'll be able to regularly fill up a Beluga? Then take the Beluga. If you're planning on doing runs around the low-population frontier worlds, take the Orca.

If you only want to take one passenger mission at a time and don't want the stress of trying to keep multiple disparate passenger cohorts happy while flying a complicated and ever-changing route, then take the Orca. No point flying around in the biggest ship in the game with only one or two passengers on board.

Do you plan on taking those insane-money, super-long-haul missions where an explorer wants to go out to Jaques and back in three weeks? From what I've seen of the passenger lounges so far, it's pretty easy to stack even a Beluga-full of rich explorers who want to go all the way out there, even without mission-relogging. But I'm not sure which of the two ships would actually be better at long-haul runs. I'm guessing the Orca, but haven't really investigated one way or the other.

 

[Nelina]

Dunno whats the real Problem with the Beluga should be.
My Beluga has 3 G3-1A-Shield Bootster, G3(orG4)6A-Shield-Gen, G5-7A-FSD, G1-7A-Thruster and i get almost 85-89% Heat after charging the FSD. Its a bit hot, yes, but you could mange that. Shieldstrenght is about ~750MJ so no problem to kick NPCs with Seeker-Missles and Torpedos into the void.
Passenger Mission worked well, so i almost got back the investment of 200M from just doing about 9-10h Passenger-Missions.

 

[Momoka Azuka]

I've had the Orca for awhile now, well before 2.2 was announced. I've used it mainly as a smuggler. I absolutely love it. The Orca's fast, handles like it's a small ship and can do just about anything you want to put it to. Aside from combat, and even then if you out fit it with hull reinforcement packs you could ram anything to death. I like ramming stuff. Turned it into an art form.

As far as it's actual built purpose I actually can't say you if it's best for it but given smuggling is largely the same thing but with more cops after you, I can't see why the Orca would be a bad choice for passenger missions.

Now based off beta, of the two ships the Beluga might have better internals but it's nowhere near up to par with the Orca. It's shields are too low to actually protect it, and some of the internal slots that it does have make for hard choices to be made. A fuel scoop or fighter bay is actually a real choice you need to make before buying it. Given it's problem with it's shields and the size of the thing, speed becomes a real issue as well because you can't simply ignore the shield being weak because you can just boost out of danger, because you can't. The Orca's shield really have the same issue but the ship is so fast it actually is a none issue.

So if I were going to pick one of the two, Orca all the way.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

I can't attest to the performance of the Beluga yet. Given that it's priced around a T-9 and a T-9 would be more useful to me, it will be a while until I park a Beluga somewhere.

But I do like my Orca, and always have - even more now that it has a useful sized fuel tank.

 

[Mrjupp]

My Orca (Armadil**) now has a purpose. Ramming anything in the way you can listen to the joyous screams of the passengers and that reassuring *ding* on Boost! Orca is great. Class 6 economy, class 5 business (32+10) and placed in an outer colony giving me loads of tourist missions and refugee missions and a few business missions. Considering switching module around to have more business passengers but to be honest there are more economy missions than I can handle.

 

[WillFrog]

I think I'm gonna go for the Orca for now since I see I can A rate one for less than I earned doing the CG, and I do like speed.

Thanks for the input everyone. o7

 

[baudelier]

I've owned and flown both and I'm sticking with the Orca.

The Beluga can take a 6A shield over the Orca but, because of a better hull modifier the Orca's 5A has the same strength as the Beluga's 6A. And because the Orca runs so much cooler than the Beluga I was ave to fit more than 2 A-rated boosters without hitting 100% heat in every jump.

Also while the Orca has fewer slots than the Beluga, I can still fit 4 cabins in mine. Letting me take up to 4 VIP missions.

Dun fact: VIPs do not like to share so it's one group per cabin.