Should the Corvette get a better jump range?

[Kristov]

Jump range is not always about getting to somewhere fast.

Sometimes it's about getting to a system at all or not making a 11 jumps trip to get to a system that is 12.5 ly away from the start system.
The Corvette simply has a very short jump range. In my opinion the jump range is too short. Some systems in the bubble are not reachable with the Corvette in full combat outfit - it's worse if the Corvette is used as a supply ship (trader).

You want to try that one again? This IS about getting somewhere faster, pure and simple. There is no inhabited system in the bubble you can't reach with a Corvette or any other ship for that matter, this isn't about what you can or can't reach, it's about getting places faster, that's it. There are multiple ships that can't match the jump range of the Corvette and FDL, did you know that? Not all of those are combat ships either. Funny thing, it's not THOSE ships that people keep asking to have the jump range increased on, over and over again. Why is that?

I cannot believe people are still defending the stupid notion that ships must have different jump ranges for balance... The whole idea that FSD's need to be different size is absolutely ridiculous too. Even this page indicates that: http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Frame_Shift_Drive

The FSD should be class A, B, C, or D only. The drive weight and dimensions should not change at all. However, the fuel requirement, as stated on the page is what dictates jump distance. Aka, this is where SC has a better design.

What should dictate the jump distance is the amount of fuel you can supply to the FSD, taken directly from the Wiki page: Hyperspace jumps rely on quantum mechanics, as the destination of any given jump must be known before the jump is made, and the amount of energy needed to complete the jump is discrete.

So in reality. The actual FSD should only come in 1 size and the fuel delivery mechanism should be in different sizes, based on the ships size and hull mass weight requirements. Aka, a 250T ship should require 5T of fuel for a jump, while a Cutter at over 1000T should require 20T per same jump.

What would set the ships apart would be the size of the fuel tanks. Thus, the 1000T Cutter should be almost all fuel, aka.... how ships in KSP, and space engineers are (while try to be more realistic).


On this same concept, why in the heck did FD design the Fuel scoop... Who the heck buys a Car, Plane, boat or motorcycle that needs an additional purchase to resupply it? We figured this out pretty much the same time as we invented the gas engine!!!! Every ship should have a way to refuel it built in... fuel scooping is akin to going to the local gas station.... sun (fuel pump) fuel scoop (hose from said pump to car receptacle) fuel tank (same thing). So why on earth did you make a fuel scoop ED????

Pssst, you really should read that wiki page you linked, I mean, really read it. It's not like it lists the sizes and types of FSDs after all...oh...wait..it does exactly that! Each size, type, it's max tonnage, fuel usage and jump distance, I mean, it's almost as if, in total opposition to what you say the wiki pages shows, that FSDs DO come in different sizes and operate by specific rules based on their size. Or did you just totally miss that part of the page, which is I must admit IS easy to miss, since it's only the greater part of that page.

And SC doesn't have a better design, it has nothing to compare with the FSD, guess you missed that as well? There is no jumping by a ship in SC, you make use of naturally occurring wormholes, which ones you can use dictated by the size of the wormhole vs your ship's physical dimensions. And you don't pick where to go, you have to find a wormhole going where you want to go, which means you often have to take a long roundabout journey to get to a system that's literally next door to where you started! Some great maps for that on the SC forums btw, amazing how long some of the trips to get next door are, freaking amazing. In system, you travel via quantum drive, which IS based on your ship size btw, that's one of the component systems coming into play over the next few main builds, one of many component systems coming into play finally. And QD uses fuel, which you can't get yourself except in specific ships, of which there is 1 to date, the Starfarer, and it's not flyable yet, nor is scooping the required raw materials for making QD fuel in place yet, but it will be interesting when it's done, can't wait myself. Smashing into gas giants to get the raw hydrogen for the refineries on the Starfarer to process into QD fuel will be a blast, then again, I also get a real kick out of dancing on stars to scoop fuel in E: D, but I'm an admitted and well documented nutjob that way. QD only gets you up to 0.2c for traveling inside a system, and the systems will only be 1 billion x 1 billion x 275 thousand kilometers in size, so it's only a 4 hour flight across one at most. And people think getting to HO is a long haul.....oh man. I'm a SC backer, stay quite up to date on it, own multiple ships (LOVE my Khartu Al), my CO in SRM has the Redeemer, another one of my SRM brothers has the Starfarer, among many others(to quote him, 'I'm ankle deep in ships, dove in head first)', and I'm about to get the next concept, 1 man planetary miner, the MISC Prospector, and I'll probably get more as time goes on..so they really need to get the game done before I've spent my grandkids college funds! But people like you, thinking it's got fast travel all over and other silly misconceptions based on totally ignoring what's been stated repeatedly, amuse me no end. It's not a PvP centric game, it's actually very much like E: D in that regard, without Solo or Group mode per se, but with a PvP slider that allows you to pretty much never see anyone you don't want to see, except in unsecured lawless areas of the galaxy, slider doesn't apply in them at all. Travel will take time, longer in many cases than it does in E: D, despite being so much smaller scaled of a game world. Funny isn't it?

 

[jmp470]

The ability to refuel any ship in Elite Dangerous is also built in, it's called going to the station and buying fuel, tell me, how many cars do you know that can refuel themselves off the power of the sun? Now you have your little house with your little solar panels that is your 'station' that isn't the CAR refueling itself.

brought to you today: http://youtu.be/uMM0lRfX6YI

i also have a vacuum cleaner that Automatically does my floors: http://mstore.irobot.com//vacuum-cleaning/roomba-robots/family.jsp?categoryId=2501652

so with a little imagination, why cannot I not have limpets repair my Hull? Or have an automatic fuel scoop built into my ship, that is designed to refuel off the sun?


Dont get stuck with what we think is or is not impossible. Create was could be and make it follow some base logic. Even if the logic is flawed and crazy. If ship design, fuel requirements, etc followed set principles, not many would complain about the ships. As the principles are the driving factor. Now, we would be here all day debating the validity of said principles!!!!!

 

[Lord Celestine]

You want to try that one again? This IS about getting somewhere faster, pure and simple. There is no inhabited system in the bubble you can't reach with a Corvette or any other ship for that matter, this isn't about what you can or can't reach, it's about getting places faster, that's it. There are multiple ships that can't match the jump range of the Corvette and FDL, did you know that? Not all of those are combat ships either. Funny thing, it's not THOSE ships that people keep asking to have the jump range increased on, over and over again. Why is that?

Probably because they're all working for the Corvette as an end result and the other ships are just intermediary ships.

 

[Kristov]

Probably because they're all working for the Corvette as an end result and the other ships are just intermediary ships.

I'm aware of the reasoning, it was the FDL that was the big complaint about jump range, now it's the FDL and Vette, two top predator ships to some people who simply want to blow stuff up and that's it. Nothing else on the way to their 'end game' ships matter, so they don't actually give a damn about making jump ranges better across the board, they just want their 'end game' ships to be better than anything else. I mean, it's not like they were totally transparent or anything in this selfish demand, it's only been going on for over a year now for the FDL and since beta testing of the Vette.

jump470 for instance...'if ship design, fuel requirements, etc followed set principles, not many would complain about the ships.' Funny thing, they do exactly that, and yet, he keeps saying they don't, because those design rules that ARE followed don't allow what he wants to done to be done, therefore, those design rules can't exist! I mean...can you be any more obvious about your true intent?

 

[Lord Celestine]

I'm aware of the reasoning, it was the FDL that was the big complaint about jump range, now it's the FDL and Vette, two top predator ships to some people who simply want to blow stuff up and that's it. Nothing else on the way to their 'end game' ships matter, so they don't actually give a damn about making jump ranges better across the board, they just want their 'end game' ships to be better than anything else. I mean, it's not like they were totally transparent or anything in this selfish demand, it's only been going on for over a year now for the FDL and since beta testing of the Vette.

jump470 for instance...'if ship design, fuel requirements, etc followed set principles, not many would complain about the ships.' Funny thing, they do exactly that, and yet, he keeps saying they don't, because those design rules that ARE followed don't allow what he wants to done to be done, therefore, those design rules can't exist! I mean...can you be any more obvious about your true intent?

Have you ever thought that the other reason might be that the other ships have decent enough jump range and therefore do not warrant any criticism? Where as a few people have stated here that they'd would appreciate it if the Corvette at least got the 15 ly combat fit that a python has which they considered low range, it is probably because they have already flown such low range ships and thus do not want the ship they are working so hard for to be lacking in something as luxurious as a 15 ly jump compared to an 11 ly jump.

If this is the outcry of mere gamers, imagine what the outcry would be for those who actually had to work and live on these vessels. Assuming that the ED military is anything like modern military the men and women and those of unspecified gender serving aboard these ships are only granted leave once a year. Imagine a ship that could bring them home a week faster? or maybe even a month?

You are forgetting that we the gamers add the human element to this game, the way we reflect on things is the way the people in ED would probably reflect on things, while the Corvette's crew could do many things like sleep, eat, drink, socialize with their comrades. Elite Dangerous is for now mostly a solitary experience sitting inside the cockpit of your ship. And if that's going to be the case, they might as well give us that 4 ly boost to at least placate our need to discover new and interesting things, to be on the threshold of the unknown and to be forced to slowly crawl over the horizon is just cruel. It's one of the reasons I can not fully support Pranav Antal, his Utopia doesn't account for the 'selfish' desires that we humans have.

 

[Heavenly-Hammer]

Hmm. I don't have any problem with it. It'd be more convenient if it were higher, but my A5 scoop means I'm only spending an extra 10 seconds around scoop able stars before jumping again. Are you guys not equipping big enough scoops? Or are you frequently plotting 200LY excursions?

 

[kofeyh]

15 LY wouldn't be bad, except for one small problem - We dont have 15 LY on our vettes and FDLs. That is all we are asking for.
Instead we get half the people here arguing about cars, houses, and exaggerating to make it sound like we want a 40 LY combat ship.

To be fair, you sort of do. That's okay. But pretending you don't really want better jump range, when you absolutely definitely do want better jump range is a tad disingenuous. I'd rather Frontier hold off and wait until the new class 3 and 4 weapons are bedded in.

Jump range is defined by class versus hull mass and fuel capacity. So increasing jump range basically means upping the FSD class; which will not just add a few ly, but likely would make it closer to Anaconda for jump range. It's not just a case of mucking with stats. This seems to have been lost on the people demanding the FDL get a range increase as well; in that the FSD size actually has to go up a class, which doesn't mean +4ly, so much as +10ly or more.

The notion that a Corvette in an optimal combat build could easily chase commanders half way across the bubble will just increase the numbers escaping to solo and private groups. I understand that having appalling jump range sucks. It does. But having a ship that might be able to out-dps an FDL once the new class 4 weapons are in, with a 15-20ly jump range means not only can it kill with impunity, it can chase down a lot of other ships as well.

I've lost count of the numbers of pretty epic PVP battles I've seen on the youtubes, and the numbers of times that includes commanders giving chase.

People have already forgotten what happens when they ask for a small improvement. FDL's current status should be a bit of a reminder of "be careful what you wish for".

Regardless, I'd rather frontier actually review all ships, and sort out if the jump ranges are sensible/ relatable between, let alone stats, agility and so forth.

 

[GraXXoR]

If you're a major power spanning several hundred star systems, you can probably afford to have J3 boosts for your warships for when the difference between "there in 10 minutes" and "there in 20 minutes" is actually going to matter. A 15 LY basic range doubled to 30 with Jumponium will get you from Sol to Achenar in 5 jumps - and with your internals not filled with an oversized FSD, you might have enough thrusters, power plant and shields to do something useful when you get there.

Obviously for civilians like us, using J3 (or even J2) within the bubble is ridiculously extravagant, but they didn't build those ships for us. Remember that as recently as 15 years ago, it would have taken a month of hyperspace time to get from Sol to Achenar, even with a jump-optimised ship. For admirals used to that, taking an extra five minutes to get into the right system is probably not generally considered important.

Why would war pilots waste 40 hours searching for elements for premium jumponium in their SRVs when they should be out bagging kills for their faction? It's not like they can be given to each other or bartered, now is it? ;-)

 

[Lord Celestine]

To be fair, you sort of do. That's okay. But pretending you don't really want better jump range, when you absolutely definitely do want better jump range is a tad disingenuous. I'd rather Frontier hold off and wait until the new class 3 and 4 weapons are bedded in.

Jump range is defined by class versus hull mass and fuel capacity. So increasing jump range basically means upping the FSD class; which will not just add a few ly, but likely would make it closer to Anaconda for jump range. It's not just a case of mucking with stats. This seems to have been lost on the people demanding the FDL get a range increase as well; in that the FSD size actually has to go up a class, which doesn't mean +4ly, so much as +10ly or more.

The notion that a Corvette in an optimal combat build could easily chase commanders half way across the bubble will just increase the numbers escaping to solo and private groups. I understand that having appalling jump range sucks. It does. But having a ship that might be able to out-dps an FDL once the new class 4 weapons are in, with a 15-20ly jump range means not only can it kill with impunity, it can chase down a lot of other ships as well.

I've lost count of the numbers of pretty epic PVP battles I've seen on the youtubes, and the numbers of times that includes commanders giving chase.

People have already forgotten what happens when they ask for a small improvement. FDL's current status should be a bit of a reminder of "be careful what you wish for".

Regardless, I'd rather frontier actually review all ships, and sort out if the jump ranges are sensible/ relatable between, let alone stats, agility and so forth.

You're right, the only way for Elite Dangerous to survive is to abolish Private Group and Solo Options.

 

[Zelos1983]

To be fair, you sort of do. That's okay. But pretending you don't really want better jump range, when you absolutely definitely do want better jump range is a tad disingenuous. I'd rather Frontier hold off and wait until the new class 3 and 4 weapons are bedded in.

Yes, but what's the point? I "want" better jump range, weapons, shields etc. on all my ships. ASP with 100LY jump range? That'll be great!
Sidewinder with Size 4 PAs? Awesome!

Figuring out what ships to use is part of the game. If you have frequent deployments around the bubble, you would simply take a ship with longer jump range, even if it means that the combat portion of your deployment will take a few seconds/minutes longer. Economics.

 

[Viking84]

I agree that more alternatives would be nice! However, I disagree that shrinking the spread on jump ranges would be a good idea. Why are we trying to make the ships more similar?

The fundamental disagreement here seems to be about what purpose jump ranges serve. Those generally against mucking with the jump ranges (I'm not necessarily one of them, but I'm sympathetic to their arguments) view jump range as a limitation and mechanic as built-in to the gameplay as limitations on weapons' rates of fire, ammo, the size and number of module compartments on a ship, etc. Those in favour of changing the jump ranges on the Corvette, or all ships, view jump ranges, and jumping itself, as an unnecessary or distasteful part of the gameplay because of its repetitive, tedious nature.

I think the main misunderstanding regarding most "jump-averse" players is that we want all jumping removed. I personally find it nice that it takes some time to get to places - but everyone has a limit. The only analogy I can think of is ordering food at a restaurant, I'm fine waiting 15 minutes, I'm ok with 20 minutes, grumpy at 30 minutes and have left the building by 45 minutes.

As for ship balance, I really can't see anyone presenting any argument here as to why FSD ranges should be used as a balancing mechanic in this game. The only results of this as far as I can see are:

1. It reduces the number of different ships used for exploration
2. It reduces the number of different ships you can use if you value your play time and enjoy travelling far-ish (300 LY +).

It doesn't add any PvP balance (anyone trying to escape will just high wake out and log off if the forum threads are anything to go by), and it actually negatively affects PvE balance as the current best way to make money is using an Asp at Robigo, a ship that costs 5 million before fitting...

My proposed solutions:
1. Make sure most ships have a jump range of close to 20 LY laden, close to 30 LY empty, and close to 40 LY stripped for exploration. Vary this only by +/- 2 LY.
2. If the above for some reason isn't implemented, at least give us autopilot for long jumps so that we can fully appreciate whatever netflix show we have chosen to accompany us on our travels. A nice loud noise if someone interdicts us would signal that something interesting is happening.

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Figuring out what ships to use is part of the game. If you have frequent deployments around the bubble, you would simply take a ship with longer jump range, even if it means that the combat portion of your deployment will take a few seconds/minutes longer. Economics.

As above, this is where many of us disagree with you. Yes figuring out which ship to use is part of the game, but balancing boredom against other aspects of the ships capabilities is just ridiculous from a gameplay perspective. I'm perfectly happy with some ships being good traders, some being good fighters, some being slow and tanky, some being fast and agile. But I'm not happy with some ships being borderline unusable because they can't get anywhere within our play space. What good does that bring to the game? People say balance, but what balance? Why does tedium need to increase because your ship is fun to fly in a combat zone?

Edit: And the first one to say "that's the game, get over it" will get an e-slap in the face. We are here discussing improvements/changes to the game, which happen constantly when FDev see they have got something wrong.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

As for ship balance, I really can't see anyone presenting any argument here as to why FSD ranges should be used as a balancing mechanic in this game. The only results of this as far as I can see are:

1. It reduces the number of different ships used for exploration
2. It reduces the number of different ships you can use if you value your play time and enjoy travelling far-ish (300 LY +).

It doesn't add any PvP balance (anyone trying to escape will just high wake out and log off if the forum threads are anything to go by), and it actually negatively affects PvE balance as the current best way to make money is using an Asp at Robigo, a ship that costs 5 million before fitting...

Why should the limitation be directly connected to PvP? Or combat for that matter?

As I see it, it's part of the total package for any ship. The balancing mechanic is not just to balance pitting one ship vs another in combat. It's also in how you use the ship all-around. It's part of the decision for choosing your ship. If you use the Corvette as a defensive ship for a system, clearing nearby RESses of pirates for instance, it's a good ship for that. If you want to use it for Robigo runs, you might be better off with another ship.

I don't think it's a negative aspect that the cheaper ships remain a viable choice because their strength lies in a weakness of the more expensive ships. A often heard complaint is that everyone will just grind towards the bigger ships. So now we've got a mechanic that makes the choice of ship actually mean something, and people are still not happy with it.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't it seems.

 

[Viking84]

Why should the limitation be directly connected to PvP? Or combat for that matter?

As I see it, it's part of the total package for any ship. The balancing mechanic is not just to balance pitting one ship vs another in combat. It's also in how you use the ship all-around. It's part of the decision for choosing your ship. If you use the Corvette as a defensive ship for a system, clearing nearby RESses of pirates for instance, it's a good ship for that. If you want to use it for Robigo runs, you might be better off with another ship.

I don't think it's a negative aspect that the cheaper ships remain a viable choice because their strength lies in a weakness of the more expensive ships. A often heard complaint is that everyone will just grind towards the bigger ships. So now we've got a mechanic that makes the choice of ship actually mean something, and people are still not happy with it.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't it seems.

Do you not think the Elite galaxy would be better off with a wider variety of ships flying around? At the moment if you leave the center of the bubble you see a disproportionate amount of Asps. They are basically the only sensible ship to use if you want medium pad compatibility and a decent jump range. I think this is a shame, and I honestly can't see where this brings anything meaningful to the gaming experience.

Again, by all means give the ships different qualities and different specialities, but don't balance them with the least interesting mechanic in the game (honk-jumping), effectively trading the players boredom against ship stats. Do you find this adds to the game in any way, or are you just defending it because that is how it is at the moment? (Loaded question - but I am honestly curious as I truly cannot see a single advantage of limited FSD ranges from a game play perspective).

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Do you not think the Elite galaxy would be better off with a wider variety of ships flying around? At the moment if you leave the center of the bubble you see a disproportionate amount of Asps. They are basically the only sensible ship to use if you want medium pad compatibility and a decent jump range. I think this is a shame, and I honestly can't see where this brings anything meaningful to the gaming experience.

Again, by all means give the ships different qualities and different specialities, but don't balance them with the least interesting mechanic in the game (honk-jumping), effectively trading the players boredom against ship stats. Do you find this adds to the game in any way, or are you just defending it because that is how it is at the moment? (Loaded question - but I am honestly curious as I truly cannot see a single advantage of limited FSD ranges from a game play perspective).

Oh sure, you can argue that the current balancing favours a certain ship. Smuggling seems to be the hype the last few months, so it makes sense that smuggling ships are most common. I feel this is a shortcoming in the balancing of the activities rather than the ships.

Imagine for instance that bounty hunting would make 5 times as much as it does now. Then you'd see less Asps, and more short range kick-butt combat ships.

And as I see it, players chose boredom if they chose a ship with a short jumprange to go fighting a long way away. If jumprange matters, why not pick the Anaconda to go fighting? I'll tell you why, the Corvette looks bad-ass, is the new toy on the block. I think players chose the Corvette not because of the characteristics, but because of the cool-factor.

I'll ignore the loaded question. Judge my arguments as I give them.

 

[Viking84]

And as I see it, players chose boredom if they chose a ship with a short jumprange to go fighting a long way away. If jumprange matters, why not pick the Anaconda to go fighting? I'll tell you why, the Corvette looks bad-ass, is the new toy on the block. I think players chose the Corvette not because of the characteristics, but because of the cool-factor.

I'll ignore the loaded question. Judge my arguments as I give them.

But these are not arguments for FSD ranges to remain as they are, you are just describing the current situation. My question (and the reason I and many are annoyed with the current variation in FSD ranges) is this: what does this disparity between ships actually bring to the table?

You say "why not pick the Anaconda to go fighting?". Sure, we can do that, but why have the devs added a limitation on our ship choices that is only related to the amount of time invested / boredom tolerated by the player? The ONLY thing this adds to the game is less variation in the ships we can choose if we actually want to explore this vast galaxy we have been given to play in.

If anyone can explain to me what good this brings I am happy to listen, but I honestly can't see it. Defending it because it is there, or because you can work around it by choosing a different ship, is simply missing the point.

 

[goemon]

... but why have the devs added a limitation on our ship choices that is only related to the amount of time invested / boredom tolerated by the player?

i suggest having a look at any buckyball-racing thread.

what is your boredom, is other peoples joy.

many of those threads are full of discussing a ship with better heatmanagement vs. a ship needing one jump less, vs. a ship being faster in real space.

btw.: the assumption that out of the bubble you only see one kind of ship (Asp) is at least wrong, when you look at varatis traffic report, before, duribg and after the last CG.

 

[DocPossible]

This thread feels like it's jumped the shark, with everyone talking past each other. Different people want different things from a game! Who knew? If in doubt, always refer back to Betteridge's Law :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines


That gives you the answer!

 

[Viking84]

i suggest having a look at any buckyball-racing thread.

what is your boredom, is other peoples joy.

many of those threads are full of discussing a ship with better heatmanagement vs. a ship needing one jump less, vs. a ship being faster in real space.

btw.: the assumption that out of the bubble you only see one kind of ship (Asp) is at least wrong, when you look at varatis traffic report, before, duribg and after the last CG.

Sure, some people force themselves through the drudgery of honk-jumping for ages, but the vast majority go for the very few ships with Asp-like jump ranges, and most go for the Asp.

With regards to the bucky-ball races, that is something that has arisen from the current status of the game. Which is cool, and a good way to make some entertainment of the FSD balancing, but it doesn't make the FSD range disparity any more sensible. In fact, all the gimped FSD ranges do is ensure that the majority of ships are not even worth considering for such an event.

My wish is not to remove any differences, and not to remove all travel, but to tighten in the groups to such a point that the poorest ships don't represent a doubling, or tripling, of travel times compared to the best. The spread is simply too large, and again it just forces you to choose from a small subset of ships if you want to do anything that involves travelling around the bubble, and don't have the patience of a saint to endure the honk-jumping marathon.

 

[tarragon]

Maybe they should introduce higher end FSD drives, that go far beyond A class in their effectiveness. Maybe as random reward for particularly demanding and dangerous (group) mission. The one, where you have to take down those alien crafts that only have few weak spots in the aft and keep getting reinforcements and flee near the end. Afterwards, you have to sneak in past the huge base in your buggy and then have to hold that small army in the pass for 5 minutes before reinforcements arrive and finally then detonate small nuke in that derelict station and manage to flee, mostly under fire. You all know that fun mission.

Oh wait. Bobbleheads and colored lasers.
Sorry about that, you in the sad timeline, where fdev doesn't get it.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

But these are not arguments for FSD ranges to remain as they are, you are just describing the current situation. My question (and the reason I and many are annoyed with the current variation in FSD ranges) is this: what does this disparity between ships actually bring to the table?

You say "why not pick the Anaconda to go fighting?". Sure, we can do that, but why have the devs added a limitation on our ship choices that is only related to the amount of time invested / boredom tolerated by the player? The ONLY thing this adds to the game is less variation in the ships we can choose if we actually want to explore this vast galaxy we have been given to play in.

No, I said: "If jumprange matters, why not pick the Anaconda to go fighting?"

So for players who expect to go fighting in-system or close to home the Corvette is a good option, for players who expect to go fighting long distances away from the system they're based, the Anaconda is the better option. You chose the ship based on what you're planning to use it for.

Now you are talking about choosing the ship if you want to explore. If you want to go exploring of course you pick the ship most suitable for exploring. The alternative is: hey I want to explore, lets pick the Corvette. I want to defend my system, lets pick the Corvette. I want to go smuggling, lets pick the Corvette. I'm not seeing the bigger variety in ship choice there.

If anyone can explain to me what good this brings I am happy to listen, but I honestly can't see it. Defending it because it is there, or because you can work around it by choosing a different ship, is simply missing the point.

Ok, last time. If you again attribute the motivator: "defend it because it's here" to me, I don't see the point in continuing this discussion.

And work around it by choosing a different ship is the point isn't it? We are talking about actually having to make a choice, instead of: pick any ship, they can all handle everything, so have a ball. Maybe the disconnect here is that you feel there should indeed be an end-game ship. Once you've grinded your way to the Corvette, that's all you ever need. I'm more partial to the idea that the lower range ships still have a role to full-fill even if you have the top-tier ships at your disposal.