Orca vs Buluga

[S~P]

Ok I started with the Orca (couldn't afford Bulga at the time) and Wow, was expecting it to fly like a brick but it's quite a nimble ship for its size. With a top speed of 279 and a boost speed of 400 pirates are not a problem. Only problem is the jump range 14lys without engineer upgrade but only a small problem.

So after a few days I finally got the Bulga, with the Orca being such a great ship the Bulga has to be better right? Wrong, what a piece of junk, really Fdev you really think a C6 power plant is adequate for a ship this size? So you don't really have enough power for all your equipment, plus the heat level goes through the roof when jumping (70%). So going with an over charge upgrade on PP is out due to too much heat build up. So in short I got rid of this turd as quickly as possible and went back to the Orca. So any cmdrs thinking of getting the Bulga I would suggest going with the Orca instead, a far better ship by far. Maybe if Fdev ups the PP to a C7 it may then be worth it but right now best to leave it.

 

[Xious]

Yeah but the Beluga IS perdy. I agree though... sad

 

[TomP]

I don't know about the Buluga, but the Beluga is a cracking ship. Definitely has foibles, overheats when jumping but not sufficient to cause damage. I had a load of engineering mats and comms ready to go, and completely upgraded it. For a massive ship it handles really well. With the fighter bay it is just pure fun.

Horses for courses. Glad you are enjoying the Orca.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

For all your Beluga Woes:

Sorry if you haven't figured out how to fully min-max it yet. Wait a few days for someone else to figure it out and post it.

 

[NikodemusDSD]

I like the Beluge the way it is. Do you have to fly different, allways an eye on the termerature? Yes!
Is he fun to fly when you are used to it? Yes!
If you don´t like it, don´t fly it.

 

[defekt]

Aside from Luxury passengers I'm not really sure what the point of the Orca and Beluga is, at least in terms of the long distance contracts. (Bubble-bussing I suppose comes into its own with the liners - pack 'em in like sardines and run short hop routes en masse - but that's a lot of work for comparatively little reward.)

A FSD-enhanced Asp Explorer can ping-pong between the bubble and the long distance destinations at a fraction of the cost, and half the time.

 

[Monk]

I would not put overcharge PP on the Beluga. I went for low emissions (a good roll on Grade 1 is enough to take the edge off w/o losing too much power capacity).Power management handles this just fine...might go with efficient pulses to provide some defense but the fighter handles nuisances quite well. Avoiding Dirty Drives, this luxury liner just can't handle them, imo, clean drives work well and make the maneuvarbility of this already maneuverable big ship even better.

I love the Beluga and it serves its purpose well. Right now I've been taking it into RES sites to rank up my crew (whom I hired at Harmless, yep, I'm that cheap)

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Aside from Luxury passengers I'm not really sure what the point of the Orca and Beluga is, at least in terms of the long distance contracts. (Bubble-bussing I suppose comes into its own with the liners - pack 'em in like sardines and run short hop routes en masse - but that's a lot of work for comparatively little reward.)

A FSD-enhanced Asp Explorer can ping-pong between the bubble and the long distance destinations at a fraction of the cost, and half the time.

Not everyone finds min/max-ing fun in Elite(I've got Diablo and The Division for that rat race). The Beluga is a pleasure to fly.

 

[Momoka Azuka]

Ok I started with the Orca (couldn't afford Bulga at the time) and Wow, was expecting it to fly like a brick but it's quite a nimble ship for its size. With a top speed of 279 and a boost speed of 400 pirates are not a problem. Only problem is the jump range 14lys without engineer upgrade but only a small problem.

So after a few days I finally got the Bulga, with the Orca being such a great ship the Bulga has to be better right? Wrong, what a piece of junk, really Fdev you really think a C6 power plant is adequate for a ship this size? So you don't really have enough power for all your equipment, plus the heat level goes through the roof when jumping (70%). So going with an over charge upgrade on PP is out due to too much heat build up. So in short I got rid of this turd as quickly as possible and went back to the Orca. So any cmdrs thinking of getting the Bulga I would suggest going with the Orca instead, a far better ship by far. Maybe if Fdev ups the PP to a C7 it may then be worth it but right now best to leave it.

I more or less just said this in another thread. The Orca has 1 flaw, jump range, and that can be worked around with the Engineers if you can be bothered with it. The Beluga though? Undershield, overheats, outfitting options are a mind screw, it's slow compared to the Orca and actually has stupid hardpoints for a ship of it's size. Yeah yeah, cruise ship, but the Orca's firepower's actually decent. The Beluga can't actually power it's loadout very well if you did arm it to the teeth anyway.

That ship... I want to like it but why bother. The Orca's vastly superior

 

[Crusina Luachra]

I more or less just said this in another thread. The Orca has 1 flaw, jump range, and that can be worked around with the Engineers if you can be bothered with it. The Beluga though? Undershield, overheats, outfitting options are a mind screw, it's slow compared to the Orca and actually has stupid hardpoints for a ship of it's size. Yeah yeah, cruise ship, but the Orca's firepower's actually decent. The Beluga can't actually power it's loadout very well if you did arm it to the teeth anyway.

That ship... I want to like it but why bother. The Orca's vastly superior

The bridge alone makes the Beluga vastly superior in every way for me

 

[Ben Ryder]

Ok I started with the Orca (couldn't afford Bulga at the time) and Wow, was expecting it to fly like a brick but it's quite a nimble ship for its size. With a top speed of 279 and a boost speed of 400 pirates are not a problem. Only problem is the jump range 14lys without engineer upgrade but only a small problem.

So after a few days I finally got the Bulga, with the Orca being such a great ship the Bulga has to be better right? Wrong, what a piece of junk, really Fdev you really think a C6 power plant is adequate for a ship this size? So you don't really have enough power for all your equipment, plus the heat level goes through the roof when jumping (70%). So going with an over charge upgrade on PP is out due to too much heat build up. So in short I got rid of this turd as quickly as possible and went back to the Orca. So any cmdrs thinking of getting the Bulga I would suggest going with the Orca instead, a far better ship by far. Maybe if Fdev ups the PP to a C7 it may then be worth it but right now best to leave it.

It's a passenger ship. Im pretty sure that the power plant is enough to use it as a passenger ship ad not a do everything ship.

 

[Monk]

It's a passenger ship. Im pretty sure that the power plant is enough to use it as a passenger ship ad not a do everything ship.

Basically, this. I've kitted mine out to handle minor bits of combat...full pulse laser loadout and a fighter allows me to handle high rank small ships and mid rank bigger ones.

 

[Momoka Azuka]

The bridge alone makes the Beluga vastly superior in every way for me

Oh Don't get me wrong, I think the Beluga's beautiful. I like how it looks all around. But that's even more reason why i think it's bad because a ship like that needs to be flown by as many people that can just off looks along. But with the Orca being so good... I just can't

 

[GTwannabe]

Orca = luxury and first class (fast enough to evade scans)

Beluga = economy and business

 

[Kaybe]

Orca pros:
- Faaaaast! One of the fastest ships in the game. Pop dirty drives on her and she can outrun everyone aside from a souped up Courier or iEagle with enhanced drives.
- More agile and easier to fight with. Plus if the fight goes south, she can easily run.
- Cheaper to purchase and equip. Cheaper rebuy.
- Only two optional slots are reserved.
- Much easier to dock and land.
- The better ship for surface flying and landing.

Beluga Pros:
- Much better jump range. Around 50% better, which is quite noticeable. I got mine doing 29LY fully loaded now
- Twice as much range before refueling, more or less. She weighs twice as much as Orca, but has four times as much fuel with her massive 128T tank. It can go from Maia to the bubble without refueling.
- Many more optional slots, obviously. Unfortunately, four of those are reserved and you are forced to take class 6 shields. But still, her passenger load is significantly greater than Orca's
- Can fit a fighter bay.
- 6 utility slots.

I have both ships and like them both, but overall prefer the Beluga due to her more powerful FSD and fuel tank. I hear people complain about her heat, but even with class 5 dirty drives and overcharged PP, her heat is quite manageable IMO. Then again, I only put two shield boosters on her. I also don't fit beam lasers on her. I am not building her for combat, so I got five medium mines on her for those who really insist on chasing me

That being said, you do HAVE to fit a docking computer on her. I tried landing by stick with her and for some reason, the pad kept refusing to let me dock. Had to wiggle it around for two minutes before it finally took.

The Orca I find is the better ship for something more specialized. If you have a wanted passenger, or one that risks being attacked a lot, Orca might be better (although Beluga does carry a fighter). For a surface exploration mission, Orca is probably a better choice. For everything else, go Beluga.

 

[bubbabenali]

Man, I really want to try the Beluga out but that 7a FSD is so expensive...
Even with its cheaper hull price, a D ranked Beluga reaches D rank Conda levels.
Also both of the liner have suboptimal shielding - the Orca can't even put c6 on.

I guess the Clipper is my business taxi of choice for a good amount of time...

 

[Monk]

Man, I really want to try the Beluga out but that 7a FSD is so expensive...
Even with its cheaper hull price, a D ranked Beluga reaches D rank Conda levels.
Also both of the liner have suboptimal shielding - the Orca can't even put c6 on.

I guess the Clipper is my business taxi of choice for a good amount of time...

Orca has speed and a slim profile. Have never lost shields on my Orca unless I took it into combat.

The Beluga has a fighter bay which is enough to distract an NPC until you can jump out.

They shouldn't have beefy shields, imo

 

[bubbabenali]

Orca has speed and a slim profile. Have never lost shields on my Orca unless I took it into combat.

The Beluga has a fighter bay which is enough to distract an NPC until you can jump out.

They shouldn't have beefy shields, imo

Yeah, I know. But it feels kinda wired that the Orca is physical incapable to fit a shield with the needed technical specs.
And that 50m credits...

Well,at least I have a new long term goal now.

 

[baudelier]

Tried the Beluga, didn't like it, sold it for an Orca, which I'm loving. And, while both ships have sub optimal shields my Orca's are actually stronger because I can fit more A-rated boosters without overheating.

Also, the Orca just looks dead sexy. :3

Spoiler

 

[Kaybe]

While I prefer the Beluga, I do miss the seat belt sign *ding* on the Orca when boosting

 

[IndigoWyrd]

The Orca is just dead sexy.

Which is why - when we can finally name our ships, I'm naming mine "Steely Dan", as in "Steely Dan III from Yokohama"

Note the similarities: