This question has probably been asked already but I wasn't satisfied with the answers I got from Google.
I'll keep it short
If I am in a station doing threat 0 & 1 missions in an eagle and I pick reputation points as my reward until I become friendly or even allied with a minor faction, would those threat 0 & 1 mission get higher pay outs?
That is all. Thanks!
When you get allied with a faction, the payouts will increase - higher ranks will also increase the payout though. There is some influence by the ship you fly, when you have a smaller ship, they won't send the obligatory Anaconda after you, but you might get a Challenger or Python after you.
paging
@Craith, who does even USS t5/6 in his eagle.
actually that kind of missions are a very good way to ensure high ranking enemies in larger ships.
one of the main problems for me as a small ship lover is that random spawn takes ship-class into account. so you will have a hard time finding a dangerous python or anaconda to dance with even in a haz res (it just can take very long for such a spawn to happen if you are in an eagle).
as non-wing massacre mission pirates do not attack you in bulk if you wait for the spawn to complete, taking higher ranked missions will give you a broad sample of targets to choose from.
note that you will have to choose weapons by damage pool (or need to synthesis) and piercing if attacking medium and large ships.
Thanks for the paging, I've been a bit out of the bubble lately, so not many USS around here. But yeah, an Eagle can still stay competitive against NPCs, I just like a bit of a challenge - others are much better at it though, never managed to solo a Thargoid interceptor for example (yet)
Enhanced Drives completely change the Eagle, the speed boost (especially with engineering and taking care not to go overweight) allow you to engage and disengage at will - Pricey at the start at 5M credits, especially since they also eat a lot of power (and you are quite starved on an Eagle already) and increase your rebuy significantly.
Shields I like Biweaves, not getting hit is more important than soaking damage - thats for the bigger ships IMO. Stay close, and stay out of their firing arcs.
Weapons are problematic - small hardpoints don't deal a lot of damage, and those weapons that do run out of ammo quickly. Oh, and to make things worse, they have lower piercing values, so bigger ships soak even more.
I usually go for their internal modules - lower shields, then snipe the power plant (or hyperdrive, in case you are bountyhunting and are afraid they'll get away - you won't masslock them after all.
Against shields the Cytoscrambler is invaluable, only useable at knife range, but that's where you are best anyhow. It is a powerplay weapon though, so it needs some time to get it.
For hull the Enforcer Cannons are great, another power play weapon though. Or the Plasma Chargers (guardian weapon, can be earned in a day or two, even if you don't like grinding/relogging), there are even pre-engineered ones available, unfortunately I never got the power in my builds to properly utilize the engineered ones. Both weapons have a good ammo efficiency, but the basic plasma chargers take a while to really deal damage
Currently I mostly use a pair of Advanced Missile Launchers for the bottom hardpoints, High Capacity Penetrator Munitions engineered. Once shields are down, the are great to take out internal modules on enemy ships - point defenses are your bane, so stay close and watch their firing arcs (not to close though, the explosions hurt your shields)
