After we learned that carriers were cut from 3.3 I wasn't particularly looking forward to anything else from the last season of Beyond. I figured my Krait would likely remain parked for another several months until we got some meaningful new gameplay content. Then I saw the Mamba and thought that the idea of a fast "racing" medium ship built for straight-line speed was worth taking a look at since it filled a new type of ship niche in the game. The Mamba's design also looks amazing which was another major selling point. However it had been getting a lot of criticism for being a "less maneuverable" version of the FDL with only a marginal speed advantage as well as having heat management issues. Since I had run out of legacy modules to outfit new ships (I had used the last remaining ones on my Krait) and I was low on the high-grade mats I would need to Engineer it properly at first I thought I'd just pass on the ship. The design just looked too amazing to ignore however and I finally decided I'd give it a try. After around 12 hours of jumping, mat trading, engineering and outfitting my new Mamba I ended up with this:
It turns out the Mamba is actually a great ship. It's basically the Elite version of this:
It does one thing exceptionally well, and that is going fast in a straight line. That is the reason it exists. It also looks and sounds amazing while doing it.
Most of the criticism about the ship seems to relate to it not being "better" than the FDL. It isn't supposed to be. The FDL is a superior combat machine in most cases. The FDL has better maneuverability, presents a smaller target and has a more balanced array of hardpoints for most types of combat. My FDL would perform better in a HazRES or CZ as it is more efficient at fighting smaller ships due to the superior maneuverability and the medium hardpoints which are optimal against small or medium targets. The Mamba does have some strengths in combat, in particular it carries a more powerful array of hardpoints than the FDL all of them are dorsally-mounted which gives it excellent fire arcs for its weapons. This makes it well suited for "slashing" attacks where it approaches at high speed since it only needs to keep the target within the dorsal fire arcs to maintain fire from all of its weapons. That partially makes up for the Mamba's lower maneuverability compared to ships that need to deal with underside-mounted hardpoints which have more limited attack angles if they want to make full use of their firepower. Generally speaking, however, the Mamba is not going to win in a knife fight against an FDL. The FDL is already at the apex of medium combat ship performance in terms of a balance between speed, maneuverability and firepower. Expecting the Mamba to be an "improvement" over the FDL design overall wouldn't have made sense.
The main advantage of the Mamba, however, is that it doesn't need to fight other ships on their own terms. It can control combat engagements better than the FDL due to its speed advantage and can easily run from anything that can threaten it. My Mamba has a boost of 600 m/s with a full combat fit. Even when it's not boosting it can reach 489 m/s which is faster than many medium ships can boost. That is with military alloys and without the use of any lightweight mods on any of the modules to save weight. That is an insane speed for a medium ship with a full combat loadout. It's even more impressive when you consider that the Mamba actually has a larger length and wingspan than the Python (although it does weigh less at around 500 tons). An actual lightweight speed build would obviously push the performance even further. The Mamba is actually quite effective in combat if you use its strengths well and can manage the heat load, which I find is tolerable with a low emissions power plant as the ship has an overabundance of power and can accommodate at least a moderate low emissions mod and has plenty of utility space for heat sinks as well, although heat management probably remains the Mamba's most significant weakness. If you run into difficulties in combat however you can easily disengage and escape. Most importantly it's fun to fly a medium ship that has that much speed available when needed.
Hopefully FD will continue designing new ships like the Mamba by specializing them in ways that actually gives them a unique gameplay role. I didn't think that FD would come up with another ship that could get me out of my Krait but the Mamba has actually managed to do this.
It turns out the Mamba is actually a great ship. It's basically the Elite version of this:
It does one thing exceptionally well, and that is going fast in a straight line. That is the reason it exists. It also looks and sounds amazing while doing it.
Most of the criticism about the ship seems to relate to it not being "better" than the FDL. It isn't supposed to be. The FDL is a superior combat machine in most cases. The FDL has better maneuverability, presents a smaller target and has a more balanced array of hardpoints for most types of combat. My FDL would perform better in a HazRES or CZ as it is more efficient at fighting smaller ships due to the superior maneuverability and the medium hardpoints which are optimal against small or medium targets. The Mamba does have some strengths in combat, in particular it carries a more powerful array of hardpoints than the FDL all of them are dorsally-mounted which gives it excellent fire arcs for its weapons. This makes it well suited for "slashing" attacks where it approaches at high speed since it only needs to keep the target within the dorsal fire arcs to maintain fire from all of its weapons. That partially makes up for the Mamba's lower maneuverability compared to ships that need to deal with underside-mounted hardpoints which have more limited attack angles if they want to make full use of their firepower. Generally speaking, however, the Mamba is not going to win in a knife fight against an FDL. The FDL is already at the apex of medium combat ship performance in terms of a balance between speed, maneuverability and firepower. Expecting the Mamba to be an "improvement" over the FDL design overall wouldn't have made sense.
The main advantage of the Mamba, however, is that it doesn't need to fight other ships on their own terms. It can control combat engagements better than the FDL due to its speed advantage and can easily run from anything that can threaten it. My Mamba has a boost of 600 m/s with a full combat fit. Even when it's not boosting it can reach 489 m/s which is faster than many medium ships can boost. That is with military alloys and without the use of any lightweight mods on any of the modules to save weight. That is an insane speed for a medium ship with a full combat loadout. It's even more impressive when you consider that the Mamba actually has a larger length and wingspan than the Python (although it does weigh less at around 500 tons). An actual lightweight speed build would obviously push the performance even further. The Mamba is actually quite effective in combat if you use its strengths well and can manage the heat load, which I find is tolerable with a low emissions power plant as the ship has an overabundance of power and can accommodate at least a moderate low emissions mod and has plenty of utility space for heat sinks as well, although heat management probably remains the Mamba's most significant weakness. If you run into difficulties in combat however you can easily disengage and escape. Most importantly it's fun to fly a medium ship that has that much speed available when needed.
Hopefully FD will continue designing new ships like the Mamba by specializing them in ways that actually gives them a unique gameplay role. I didn't think that FD would come up with another ship that could get me out of my Krait but the Mamba has actually managed to do this.
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