So I'm fairly competent in combat and enjoyed obliterating pirates in a kitted out Viper but after getting an Asp(my current ship) I was think of changing into a Vulture sometime down the road. I made a load out but I'm not certain how valid it is for hunting NPC's (I play Solo because I'm not certain if I can interact with Open).
The cost is low as I was planning the load out based on my current assets (11 million roughly).
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=70N,4zg7Pw0_g0_g0_g0_g,2-6k6k6k5U7_725A,7TM05U12G7cG4wE
Edit: This was also a quick build.
I love my Vulture. I bought a smaller ship, the DS, to jump further so I could meet with my son and play the game with him in the starter system, but it only makes me miss my Vulture all the more. As far as my weapon loadout, I went for the overkill, two C3 Fixed Beams, and they melt away smaller ships in literally a second to a few seconds. When you get to the Cobra, you will burn him out with one and a quarter full pushes to overload. Even melts away the larger ships, like a Fed Dropship and Python. With full shields, I generally knock out the shields and about 40% of the hull at least on the Fed Drop ship and with the Python, full shields and about 20% of the hull on my first full burn to overload.
The only issue is that you have to use power management to properly equip the ship, and need about 20 million to invest to equip it properly, roughly. I sacrificed the shields to B from A and the Thrusters from A to B for the C3 Beam Lasers fixed, since they are powerhogs (1.8 per) and they definitely increase your combat and flight ability in the game since placement is always key with fixed weapons. The hardpoint placement is so perfect though that even with Fixed, all you need to do is point and shoot. I did throw on a B or C booster to get my shields over 400MJ. But with two pipps on Systems and four pipps on weapons, I can take on a 3 wing crew of smaller ships, get blasted by the companions and barely lose a ring of shields before taking their entire crew out.
If you like to grind Bounties, there is no better bang for the buck for large and small ship kills than the Vulture. For smaller ships, and you are on a budget, go for the Diamondback Scout. With about 4 million you can equip it with top shelf modules including two A Boosters. It doesn't pack the punch of the Vulture, and it surely doesnt have the shield power of the Vuture, but it is devastatingly nimble with A4 Thrusters pushing close to twice its mass if you keep the weight down by choosing lighter modules and can pretty much take anything up to a Fed Dropship and Clipper on its own. Even can take a Python, if you are good at manuervering you ship, since you need to be sure that you are not placed anywhere within its line of fire on its gimbal weapons (i.e. perfectly behind it, or above and behind it). Over a period of an hour to an hour and a half I can grind out about 750k to 1 mil in Bounties in the DS, but with the Vulture, at a solid RES with large ships, I have hit 4 million over the course of an hour or two, and easily 2 million in an hour... give or take.
You cannot go wrong with the Vulture for Bounty Hunting, and everyone has their subjective recommendations with their build, but honestly, no matter how you build it so long as you are going with top shelf parts, whether you go for the best shields and thrusters for the Pulse Laser set up or do what I did and sacrifice a class or two down in thrusters and shields for the nuclear laser weapons (c3 beams) it will do the job. Everything else is just simply your preference.
I hope you enjoy it! I will leave you with this comment, I could easily afford an FDL or Python and equip it out well, but honestly, I love that darn little Vulture too much and those ships simply are not worth spending more than 10 times the cost of the Vulture and then spend another 5 times it cost in loadouts. I think that they are more for vanity than function, if you are talking about bounty hunting, not necessarily PvP, which I don't partake, or trading, which a Python can do both with a single build. Let me know what you think when you buy the Vulture, or the DS, whichever you go with if you consider the alternative I shared for the smaller investment. Remember though... Power management is absolutely key, you need to be between 105 and 108 percent on both to optomize your build, otherwise, your ship will not reach its full potential. At least that has been my experience, surely others may tell you different.
