Trader to Bounty Hunter best ship ?

Sgt.Barnes

Sgt.Barnes
Hi

I have been playing now for a few weeks. I have made a few bob and I' am currently doing the rares in a T6. I enjoy trading and a little short range exploring too but I have read on here that the T6 can be quite good once modded for that, so I intent to keep it once I get my T7 and use it as a dedicated explorer until I have enough bread to get an ASP.
What I' am after is a good ship for bounty hunting and general pew pew, just for a fun break from constant trade runs. I have about 7 million to spend and was thinking of a Vulture. I have read a couple of threads on the Vulture vs the Viper but it seems opinion is split. I would like the craft to be fairly good at jumping too so I can roam around a bit, say 13 - 16 ly. I have been on ED's brilliant shipyard app but realize that the numbers dont always tell the whole story. So to summarize its need to be a good fighter with good jump capabilities but most importantly great fun to fly. Please let me know what you think would be a "gud un"

Cheers!
 
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Captain w00t

C
Get a Viper for now and upgrade it to top modules, you'll have great fun until you afford the full amount for a tricked-out Vulture. Viper is a great ship and doesn't cost the earth to upgrade
 

quickr

quickr
Wanna fun and cheap pew pew ship, go for viper. 7M is enough to fully upgrade it and have some credits to spare.
Wanna ship capable of pew pew and good enough jump range, go for ASP. Be warned, 7M is not nearly enough for it.
Wanna OP pew pew ship that runs over any wanted NPC than go for vulture. You'll need around 15M to outfit it.
 

BlackLegionnaire

BlackLegionnaire
Yeah, go Cobra or Viper, both very capable, if fitted properly the Viper goes 400 m/s upon boost and the Cobra at least 430.
If you want a challenge do bounty hunting in an Eagle.
 

ExcaliberX

E
I own a vulture and its a great ship. It was built for maneuverability (2nd to eagle) so the top speed is not as impressive as the viper. Another downfall is that you need about another 10 million to get its best modules. The power supply is limited, so you cannot fit all the best modules in too. I find that the glass canopy is trash since every fight I have been in usually against npc condas/pythons, after the shields drop my canopy is the first to go.

Still, even with those few flaws it does very well in combat. Dont let the two large hard points deter you from getting it cause its firepower is worth it. I have two E3 and it takes down the lower tier ships really quick and can solo npc condas/pythons.
 

Shoovul

S
The Vulture is really amazing for bounty hunting but it needs much more credits to upgrade the power plant and shields and other stuff. I'd say around 5-10 million + to it's 5 million initial cost. And it is VERY short-ranged in terms of the jumping. Also if you fit it really well you will lose about half a million if you get blown up. It may have energy\overheating problems with some weapon sets.

The Viper is kinda appealing because of its speed but I didn't really like it because it has a weapon capacity of a cobra but is a fighting only craft. If mounted with all weapons it has really low jump distances. And it has some heat\energy capacity problems if not outfitted to the max.

The Eagle is a beginners best bet because it costs nearly nothing compared to later ships and it's good to try out the pew-pew thing in general. Don't remember if it's any good at exploring, I think it's too small so don't expect more than 15 ly jumps.

I'd say the best choice would be a Cobra. It is an amazing ship all around. Bounty hunting is fun with it and you can refit it for anything you wanna do. I've mostly been doing rares on cobra since you can get about 60t cargo and it's not an easy prey for pirates. An investment in the frame shift drive will give you around 20-25 ly jump distance. I've done a 1000 LY exploring run to the Witch Head Nebula on it. Man, I've even tried mining on it! Not the best for that tho, always get distacted by the pirates:) The only thing it needs is ~5 millions for outfitting for greatly better performance in all fields. The best thing about it is you lose so little credits if you don't upgrade it much so you're safe to die a few times while you get the hang of combat.

My advice would be to start from the Eagle if you haven't done much combat at all, then move to the Cobra and try it out. If you know what combat is already you can try to go Viper straight away, but mind the short jump range. So I'll still recommend the Cobra in this case.

P.S. Don't look at this as if you are buying a car irl, you can easily change your craft in this game so better try all and see what fits you best.
 

quickr

quickr
Shoovul said:
The Vulture is really amazing for bounty hunting but it needs much more credits to upgrade the power plant and shields and other stuff. I'd say around 5-10 million + to it's 5 million initial cost. And it is VERY short-ranged in terms of the jumping. Also if you fit it really well you will lose about half a million if you get blown up. It may have energy\overheating problems with some weapon sets.
Click to expand...

That's right, you'll need about 10M for outfitting + 5M initial price of the ship. Wouldn't agree that's very short ranged. 13ly is decent enough. It's not an exploration ship. And you'll lose much more if you outfit it well, around 800k - 1M




ExcaliberX said:
elaborate
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Well, the best part of the vulture are it's shields and maneuverability. Add some shield bank cells with that and you should never lose your shields again. Fighting NPC that is. CMDRs are diferent kind of story.
 

Ancipital

Ancipital
Keep the T6, A-fit a Viper (for about 4M). Then divide your time between trading in the T6 and fighting in the Viper, until you have enough money to upgrade . A fully kitted Vulture will set you back around 25M. You could upgrade the T6 or a T7 or a Clipper (if you get the Empire ranks) for a similar amount, for trading.

Whatever you do, though, hang onto a viable trader too, having options and the ability to vary what you do is invaluable.
 
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Yomamas Fett

Yomamas Fett
Sell you're T6(3m or so) and buy an Asp, you can haul more cargo, explore better and trade faster wilst handling a LOT better, with a Much better shield.

You'll be able to own NAVs adding 200-300k onto a trade run.

I went sidey, viper, t6, asp, t7(briefly), clipper, python as I love multirole play.
 

CMDR Hagglebeard

CMDR Hagglebeard
Buy the Vulture. It's no fun to buy a well-specced ship for the first time, buy it stock and have fun upgrading it, and NPCs being an actual challenge!
 

quickr

quickr
It's fun at first, but soon it gets dull. No NPC is match to fully upgraded vulture, no mater the rank of the NPC. Even a 3 man wing is no match to it.

When you are flying in a viper/cobra it's a cat and mouse game, much more fun.
 

BlackLegionnaire

BlackLegionnaire
Shoovul said:
The Vulture is really amazing for bounty hunting but it needs much more credits to upgrade the power plant and shields and other stuff. I'd say around 5-10 million + to it's 5 million initial cost. And it is VERY short-ranged in terms of the jumping. Also if you fit it really well you will lose about half a million if you get blown up. It may have energy\overheating problems with some weapon sets.

The Viper is kinda appealing because of its speed but I didn't really like it because it has a weapon capacity of a cobra but is a fighting only craft. If mounted with all weapons it has really low jump distances. And it has some heat\energy capacity problems if not outfitted to the max.

The Eagle is a beginners best bet because it costs nearly nothing compared to later ships and it's good to try out the pew-pew thing in general. Don't remember if it's any good at exploring, I think it's too small so don't expect more than 15 ly jumps.

I'd say the best choice would be a Cobra. It is an amazing ship all around. Bounty hunting is fun with it and you can refit it for anything you wanna do. I've mostly been doing rares on cobra since you can get about 60t cargo and it's not an easy prey for pirates. An investment in the frame shift drive will give you around 20-25 ly jump distance. I've done a 1000 LY exploring run to the Witch Head Nebula on it. Man, I've even tried mining on it! Not the best for that tho, always get distacted by the pirates:) The only thing it needs is ~5 millions for outfitting for greatly better performance in all fields. The best thing about it is you lose so little credits if you don't upgrade it much so you're safe to die a few times while you get the hang of combat.

My advice would be to start from the Eagle if you haven't done much combat at all, then move to the Cobra and try it out. If you know what combat is already you can try to go Viper straight away, but mind the short jump range. So I'll still recommend the Cobra in this case.

P.S. Don't look at this as if you are buying a car irl, you can easily change your craft in this game so better try all and see what fits you best.
Click to expand...

The Eagle is for beginners and pro's alike.
 

Ancipital

Ancipital
quickr said:
It's fun at first, but soon it gets dull. No NPC is match to fully upgraded vulture, no mater the rank of the NPC. Even a 3 man wing is no match to it.
Click to expand...

Don't blame the Vulture for your lack of imagination :) Three words- "Strong Signal Source". HAND.
 

Sgt.Barnes

Sgt.Barnes
Wow lots of opinions, but thanks for all the replies ! Having read through a couple of times I think that the best bet for me (taking money into account) is too buy an Eagle to acclimatize to basic combat a bit better in some res zones. I have no doubt that I will get my rear handed back too me at first and the buy back insurance will be negligible and allow me to go a bit ham at first.
Then as I get better I will go for a viper and use it (as well as trading in my T6) to build up cash. Then I will have to ponder further as to which I go for next, Cobra or Vulture. The Cobra (as Shooval mentions) seems to be a great all rounder and will allow me to sell the T6 (instead of refitting to be a dedicated explorer) to add more cash to my T7 purchase in the future. Plus it can be used for a bit of exploring & trading whereas the Vulture seems very focus on blasting baddies. So I will see how much I enjoy pew pew in the viper before I go and choose to focus a further purchase on that career. Who knows I may not enjoy hunting and decide to go exploring as well as trading.

Cheers! See you in the blackness.
 
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Philip Coutts

Volunteer Moderator
Philip Coutts
Depends on how far you want to go with the bounty hunting really. If you really want a cheap pew-pew ship get an Eagle, they are great fun to fly and very cheap. other than that a Viper will do you just fine. The Vulture is a wrecking ball of a ship but as pointed out to do it justice you are going to spend a load of cash.
 
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