The Asp - not a combat boat!

[William J Smith]

I'm running an Asp explorer at the moment as a long range heavily armed freighter... refitted it after having a trial run as an explorer/survey ship (I'll be off to Sgr A* in the near future... unless a major war breaks out)

Currently it has 4 E1 gimballed beams and 2 gimballed multi-cannons (as well as the usual PDT top and bottom and an ECM pod)

It works as a combat ship against lighter NPC pirates, tears a unshielded eagle to shreds in one pass and makes short work of sidewinders and vipers if you can get a bead on them, But its big and heavy and an easy target for the better pilots
Plus it sucks at my favourite emergency stop manuver and let a chasing ship overshoot then die.

Not tried it against the bigger ships(python and upwards), but I suspect it works better than my little viper, but again, its a big target....

Bill

 

[QuicksilverJPR]

as you need to dumb a lot of credits to any ship to have its full potential used!

A 50Mcr combat Asp is nothing to be trifled with, that I assure you.

 

[MarcusReed]

I've used a ASP for combat and trade, its very capable of both roles. Too expensive to maintain atm for strictly combat imo. But still very good at it.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

-- Deleted --

 

[jollybodger]

Would be awesome if you guys could please post some weapon outfitting suggestions for the Asp, perhaps PvE and PvP?

Ive tried a few but not sure whats best.
4x Gimbal beams on small Hardpoints run out of juice quite fast even with A-grade Power plant and Rail Guns on medium run out of ammo.

How would you fit an Asp for a conflict zone in solo mode?

I know i really enjoyed a pure MC Asp......ripped NPC's to shreds.

 

[krysohmyz]

I like to compare the ED ships to WWII airplanes, like - Eagle is Spitfire IX and Viper is a Typhoon/Tempest - and Asp always seemed like De Havilland Mosquito to me.
A bit of a glass cannon, but great range and lots of firepower.
It's a nice little gunship if you ask me.

 

[Odan Brota]

The Asp is an extremely good combat ship, mostly because it can pack 4x multicannons, 2x beamlasers, and 2x B/3 shield cells, so it can tank with the best of them and fire for days. She's a bit sluggish, but I've always loved a big... ah... cargo bay. As others have said, it's a bit expensive to fly exclusively as a combat ship, but I feel if you're doing that, you are wasting it.

Ideally, I'd like to see it become a "support ship," where I could maybe use my storage rack to carry ammunition for my friends, that I could dump and they could scoop up for extended stays in a combat zone. And the jump range on that thing means I could zip back to the starbase no matter how far away it was, resupply, and keep the kills coming on the battlefield.

 

[Stewart Forgie]

The asp isn't a combat ship

Below the description:


The Asp Explorer is the civilian version of the military model Asp Mk II's (which first saw service in 2878). Lakon Spaceways now owns the licence to construct these ships and has marketed them heavily at customers looking for their first multi-crewed ships. The ship class has earned a solid reputation for long range missions and those requiring some discretion.
- In-Game Description

For those of us with less than perfect vision.

 

[MrVibrating]

Speed limit is there for multiplayer gameplay reasons, period. If you turn off flight assist, there's still a speed limit. The physics in ED is not realistic, get over it.

Because the game measures speed relative to the vacuum instead of relatively, yes. But the in-game rationale is that too many players are incapable of controlling their own speed, leading to so-called "jousting", so the speed limits are there to enforce the aeroplane handling.

But even if they can't work out how to implement realistic physics, self-consistent physics would be a minimum requirement. Again, if mass and thruster power is constant, and speed is variable, then so should the amount of drift be. So you'd drift more the faster you go.

Yet the asp drifts even at leisurely speeds. This is inconsistent with the game's own mechanics. Why not let us increase the speeds of other ships so that they drift like an asp? Why not let us reduce the asp's top speed to reduce the drift? Answer: because the drift isn't speed-dependent anyway. Imagine driving a car that drifted around every corner no matter how slowly you drove it. That's how they've designed the handling in ED.

Sure it's not realistic, and the sky is blue. But it's not even internally consistent. That's the final insult.

You do realise its just a game, right?
To play any game suspension of belief is pre requisite. If this game obeyed all the laws of physics it wouldnt even be able to exist.

For suspension of disbelief internal consistency is a prerequisite. Some degree of self-consistency with the context of the gameworld (a space ship game) also helps.

Or else your argument would hold that Pole Position is a better game than Assetto Corsa because the handling's so unrealistic. We're talking about thrust and inertia, not time dilation here.

 

[Banjax]

I luuuuurv my asp, the thing is a complete tank. if you have it upgraded (mines all been done through bounty hunting) and know how to fly it right there's not much out there that worrries you. I run 4 gimbled MC's 2small 2Meds and contenciously 2 small gimbled burst lasers (i find with 3 pips in weps it takes a long, long time to run out of energy.)

I run a couple of banks of A3 cells, PDL on top, chaff, Kill scan and now a heatsink.....brcause of the new heat output of the cells.

I'm about on the verge with my power managment.....

But man i love this ship, I'll be intrested to see what the vulture brings though. it'll have to be something special to get me away from the asp.

 

[Gregstrom]

Once again we're reminded that P=MV, KE=MV^2 and F=MA, unless you're from Cambridge.

...because in Cambridge they remember that KE= 0.5(MV^2)?

Good points otherwise, but since I take the view that it's probably some sort of hand-waving gameplay thing I just get on woth piloting instead of questioning internal consistency on this one.

 

[HeavyGroovez]

Excellent hard point location and enough juice to run power hungry mono loadouts should you desire.

Sounds great and slides around like a greased weasel on ice.

Everybody should own one.

 

[Vampyre111]

Previously in Elite 1 & 2 the asp was a formidable combatant.

What's really dumb here is that the manoeuverability is a function of mass and thruster power. Any of the ships, large or small, could have any degree of 'skid' or drift depending on their loadouts - thruster quality, cargo type (ie. heavy metals vs clothing).

All cargo is crated by the ton. Therefore a ton cloth would affect a ship's mass the same as a ton of iron.

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I managed to double post inside one post