Well I was not speaking about the general classification of a ship. I was meaning this more in landing capabilities.
It seems to be highly nonsense and a bit imbalanced that a Clipper with less weapons less internals can not land on them, while a Python user can enjoy medium landing pads. And with this comes the full scale opportunaties of also trading and refuleing/repairing at Outposts. Just the python being more expensive is hardly a valid reason. So all the clipper has on it's side is speed. Hardly interesting as a choice in true comparison. So the only real + for the clipper is looking a bit more stylish and futuristic. And being faster at the locations where you can't dock to trade or get missions, that kinda hardly makes the bit extra speed a balancing factor in the choice here.
generally speaking, the python seems to have no real downside at all. Unlike the fer de lance for exampel which at least has a low amount of Internals
Further given that many outposts act as refineries but excludes type 7's form landing while they are nearly as big as pythons, well bummer that it got those few more polygons and pixels restricting the access for it.
I am prbably too new to the game for detailed balance discussions, but lookign at the spreadheets I don't know why one should not own a python, its the jack of ALL trades while not with a real downside as others but still exceeding many other bigger ships or ships that should have a role exceeding the python ones.
You have a point. Originally the Python was much more manoeuvrable, was nerfed. It is literally the tank, good defence, offence and internals. Poor speed, and turn rate. Now it can be out-turned by many things like Anaconda/FDL etc.
It is very susceptible to being attacked by many smaller ships like Eagles or Vultures. 2 good eagle pilots or a single Vulture pilot can normally lay waste to a player Python sitting in blind spot.
To take your example Clipper has amazing speed for it's size, FDL is also much faster.
T7 is actually a bit of a limp fish, you are correct it isn't the best but it does have a very low cost and outfitting/repair/rebuy price for what you get. It's height is only thing that stops it from going to outposts
Ship wise it's all balanced with a certain degree of ish. Most can be flown well by the right player. Weapon wise it's quite imbalanced, some big changes coming in 1.4 though.
