Newcomer / Intro Really expensive ships worth it?

Darth Wonko · Apr 22, 2019

As I mentioned earlier, I've owned quite a few ships (though, not an Anaconda). I forgot to mention that I had previously owned a Sidewinder (of course) and had an Eagle when I restarted my game.

Right now, I've upgraded from a Sidewinder to an Eagle. It is the absolute most fun thing to fly ever. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it. I'm going to stay in my Eagle for as long as I can; I figure it's the best ship in which to learn to dogfight. If only it had a couple of Medium hardpoints.

Of all the ships I owned previously, the Python was my favorite. I outfitted it for mining, boom-time deliveries, some passengers, or whatever else I was in the mood to do, and loved everything about it.

The Fer de Lance is a great ship, but the offset cockpit bothers me (stupid, I know) and the cargo scoop is next to useless because of its placement.

For passenger liner, the Beluga was wonderful, although it costs a fortune to buy and then another fortune to upgrade. But, I had good jump range and when I filled it up with passengers, I averaged around 40M CR per run (which took about 2 hours or so). Plus, I think it's a gorgeous ship.

The Type-9 is the ultimate miner, except it is absofreakinglutely huge and maneuvering around the asteroid belt is a pain - plus it is helpless in a fight. I'm considering a Type-10 Defender for mining, LOL. Just for grins.

Anaconda? I don't know. I'll probably buy one because it's "the thing to do".

Lysette · Apr 24, 2019

I have the most fun with a Dolphin - I like this ship for all kind of transport missions (well, not those deliver thousands of items kind of missions of course), even I might have to fly more than once - 72 cargo units are good for most missions with 1-2 runs. It is a small ship, which means I never have to wait for a free landing pad and it is agile enough to escape any interdiction attempt - so I don't need weapons. It is as well easy to land on planets with very rough terrain, because it's footprint is small. I see no reason to buy a big ship, I am pretty happy with this dolphin.

Northpin · Apr 24, 2019

I'm also using a dolphin when the dbx noises or its stubbornness start to drive me nuts

I might swap the SC assist for a collector or repair limpet

And btw, now the doplhin can haul 80t and still jump about 36ly - it's basically the best small ship when it comes for things that do not involve combat.
Not very keen on the cockpit veiw, hence the perma swapping between dbx and dolphin

Lysette · Apr 24, 2019

i set mine to 72 cargo units by a reason - there are missions with 72 cargo units, but I never came across one with 80 units. I didn't see missions with 160 cargo as well, just with 180 cargo. So I cover all kind of normal missions with 1-2 runs with 72 cargo units - and just with 180 units missions, i would have to fly 3 times - but you as well,your 80 units wouldn't prevent you from it.

Lysette · Apr 24, 2019

Hm, I have setup a dolphin as well for exploration - that ship is very fuel efficient and with a decent fuel scoop and fuel tanks it can go quite far. I actually plan to fly my exploration dolphin to colonia - just to prove the versatility of this perl of a spaceship - it is so underrated - and when it comes to combat, I am not so sure, that it cannot do this job as well - it is so agile, I bet it can be a decent combat ship as well.

Lysette · Apr 24, 2019

I see you have an SC installed - I see no reason for that - manuell supercruise control is easy - approaching a station, slow down to 75% throttle at about 7 seconds left - if you approach a planet, throttle down to 50% at about 9 seconds left - this is my rule of thumb, and it works just fine.

Rock Hunter · Apr 25, 2019

TheWonko said:
The Type-9 is the ultimate miner, except it is absofreakinglutely huge and maneuvering around the asteroid belt is a pain - plus it is helpless in a fight. I'm considering a Type-10 Defender for mining, LOL. Just for grins.

Anaconda? I don't know. I'll probably buy one because it's "the thing to do".

Do it. The Type 10 makes a brilliant miner, particularly if you want an armed mining ship. Just engineer those thrusters with Dirty Drag Drives to dance around those ‘roids.

On topic, I loved my Anaconda when I first got it as it enabled me to do so much with just one, very large, ship. It certainly helped make the credits for other ships prior to the mining mega money buff. Unfortunately it now just gets used as a Colonia taxi, due to its massive jump range, when I want a change of scene and to play with my fleet out there.

I toyed with the idea of fitting it for combat as I’ve never used it in that role but I find large ships quite dull for combat....perhaps one day though. I don’t see much point anyone turning their noses up at any ship until they’ve given it a fair go. The Vulture, DBX and Type 9 would all have been lost to me had I not given them a second, or third chance (DBX, you know I struggle with your scooping abilities but you still have a place in my heart.)

Wildcard · Apr 30, 2019

So ship selection for the most part is boiled down to a few roles that ships can fulfill exploration, combat and trade. Many ships are widely considered Multi-Roles which can fulfill various roles but dont really master at anything. These are like Python, Kraits, Asps, DiamondBacks, and conda.

Most ships if not all ships are stat weighted certain ways so that they tend to excel in one of those roles. For Instance, the DBX, AspX, and Conda all have superior jump ranges for their respective class weight. Thus the DBX is the best ship to just go full jump range maxing out around 70-72Ly which is perfect for just needing a small, cheap ship to call around the bubble and be a literal taxi while your bigger ships are docked else where if you want to say go turn in a mission, go pin an engineering blue print, go check something out real quick. Where as the Asp which also fills this same role has much more internal space while still maintaining that decent jump range. Making it perfect for not only long range deep exploration, research, data transport but also smuggling contraband like Drugs or Slaves. While I would never recommend anyone using a ship like these for combat as it lacks necessary fire power, hardpoints, shields but also utility slots which most players tend to use shield boosters in for combat. While other multi role ships like the Krait can do combat it really only excels in AX roles do to its 3L top mounted hardpoints, but is also a decent upgrade to the AspX with a minimal loss to jump range trading for more internal space. There's also the Python which is a decent Combat ship but is far from the best but with a Class6A Shield modded for thermal G5 and enough boosters to offset it further can make a very viable build if it wasn't for the lack of fire power options, where the Python really excels is mining and passenger missions as it provides the highest cargo and internal capacity of any other ship in its class and is still fast enough with G5 Dirty +Drag to be a decent smuggling ship. While the bigger ships I would advise most if not all players to stay well away from the T9 and T10 for any reason what so ever as they lack speed and distributor power to be useful in any roll while the T9 only accels in Cargo transport but as soon as you can get a Cutter that Cargo Transport becomes far easier as the Cutter has superior cargo capacity and an almost tripled speed, the only down side to it is it drifts badly and can be unnerving if your not slow and careful if you use it for mining. Bringing me to mining I personally have used many ships for mining but no has been better then the Conda, another multi role ship that is a jack of all trades master of none. Many use the Conda as a long range exploration ship which it is perfect for, its also decent for combat but again not nearly the best as its small hard points are mounted so far back that it makes them next to useless on top of trying to aim with the under side where the only single Huge Hard Point sits right behind the Third Large. So its decent but its not the best, the best combat ship when it comes to the big ships goes to the Vette with the Cutter coming in a very close second. Both have their merits and both have trade offs. The Vette has the fire power with Four forward mounted harpoints perfect for laser vomit, the under side Large perfect for a Regen Beam or Corrosive Multi cannon and two top mount Huge perfect for OC5 AutoLoaders for an amazing amount of sustain, Versus the Cutter which has the Shield advantage possessing Two Class8 internals perfect for 8A Shield Thermal5-Hicap and a single 8A SCB Special-Boss for the highest shield capacity out of any other ship in game. You can engineer a Cutter to rival a Vette in terms of Firepower but it lacks the Distributor to do much. So yes the big ships are worth it as far as Conda, Vette, Cutter go and even the T9 has a place until you can replace it with the Cutter. Other ships have massive cons that make them either obsolete very quick or are so lack luster that using it feels like a step back wards and not like it was an upgrade. There are those ships like the FDL, Mamba, that are very good ships if you can get past their Horrible Jump range, pathetic internal space and a joke of a fuel tank and should only be used for quick solo assassination missions or as some kind of a QRF/Jump in blast a couple ships jump out. There's also the looks of the FDL and Mamba, the FDL's Seat is on the Right side for some unknown reason (oh wait the Devs are British) which was always uncomfortable, where the Mamba is bascially the FDL split down the middle, the two side seperated and the cockpit was moved to the middle where it should be both ships are Incredibly fast but the afore mentioned Jump Range, Fuel Tank and Lack of Internal space means taking a fuel tank or Fuel Scoop hurts the build.

Ill share a few of my builds with everyone;

Vette;
With Fighter