Help with my Asp?

[Leeta]

I've been flying my Asp for a while now, and I love it, it's a ship I plan to keep forever, outfitting it later on as an exploration vessel rather than the multipurpose it is now. My current build is this :

http://coriolis.io/outfit/asp/05B5B5B4B4A5C5C1b1b24242424020m--054b02--2i2f.Iw18WQ==.Aw18WQ==

I plan to continue using this ship as a multipurpose until I can afford a well fitted viper or a low end vulture, at which point I'll likely remove the combat focus from the Asp. I want to know if there are any things which can be easily improved upon, as I'm relatively new to the game. I usually run bulletin board smuggling / cargo missions to make my money. I occasionally do some bounty hunting or short exploration trips as well. Lately I have been trying to earn merits with ALD, but when I go into combat sweeps my ship seems to get ganged up on quickly and forces me to run away. Not sure if this is just me being unskilled, or if my ship is underpowered.

Anyways, any input would be super helpful and appreciated! Thanks in advance!

[Mikey D]

Get a Cobra to do the multipurpose. It is fairly cheap to set up. Weapon load out can be altered to suit your play style, it can carry 40 tons of cargo. It's a simple multi-purpose build that works for me.

http://coriolis.io/outfit/cobra_mk_iii/ ... =.Aw1-kA==

If you want an Asp as an explorer vessel, you need to make sacrifices to improve its performance. My Asp is set up for pure exploration. Basic rule of thumb is get the best FSD there is (5A), as good a fuel scoop as you can afford and cut the weight down. Class D modules are the lightest and greatly increase the jump range, oh and no guns.

http://coriolis.io/outfit/asp/04D4D5A4D ... ===?bn=Asp

[Gorf]

First off - if you want to wade into a combat zone in an asp, it needs to be A rated throughout. Its toughness doesn't go far enough to make up for its lack of manoeuvrability.

Second - its shape does not make it a good combat ship. Unless your agressor is ahead or beside you, you're going to take hits just because of its massive profile. If you have four small A rated lasers and two medium A rated lasers, you have a chance of melting your target in one or two passes. If you get into a turning battle, it's not going to end well for you.

If I were considering using my trading asp for combat, I'd ditch the combat tweaks and buy & kit out a separate eagle for CZ missions. For about 1½ million Cr you can get something which will do the job and only cost 75,000 to replace.

[Leeta]

Thanks a ton both of you for the advice. If you have the time could you lay out a good Eagle or Viper build for combat? I'll sell off some of my Asp's modules in order to make up the money.

[Gorf]

...oh and no guns.

or shields.

You might consider the DBX for exploration instead of the asp. it has less cargo space, which is not a massive problem in an explorer, and its jump range is lsightly lower, but it's way cheaper. This is the DBX I'm running at the moment - 33.67 jump range and 234½ ly overall range for under 20 million. Compare that with the Asp - only slightly more range (jump and overall) but costs more than 2½ times as much if you're maxing it out or 5 million more if you're comparing like for like.

[Gorf]

and diamondbacks are 20% cheaper at Wolf 406 for the moment

[Leeta]

While I agree that Diamondbacks are excellent ships, and I was thinking of getting one originally, that would leave me with very low cargo space, which at the moment is my main source of income.I thank you for the build though and will take it under consideration for the future!

[Schmobius]

I used an Asp to get enough credits to buy a Python without trading it in.

I was able to tank it up pretty good while getting 96 cargo. I moved the shield generator to a class 3 slot, put in a 64 cargo, and then a 32 cargo, and put in lots of shield boosters and hull reinforcement, even after I upgraded to military hull. I also ran 6 gimballed beam cannons on there, though having pulse and burst on my python is making me question that, mostly because of the power and heat issues they caused.

This setup was good for doing tons of BB smuggling and trading missions in the local cluster of systems, and I would often get above 75 tons from missions to haul around. I was making almost as much money as I do now with 200 tons of cargo in a Python (the money per ton is usually better with smuggling missions versus trading, you just don't get as many tons), except I was also chasing deadlines to make my deliveries, so it was a bit more stressful. The only times I ever lost to a pirate in that Asp setup were when I decided "Hey, maybe I can take down this Anaconda.... hold my beer."

Obviously going with the small shield (probably too small) and bulking up on hull kept me from dying, but it also leads to large repair bills when tangling with bigger, or many ships. I certainly wouldn't go into a conflict zone with it.

You may hate that setup, but you may not. I'll leave it up to you to decide.

[Flip]

Here's my exploration Asp.

[Skipp]

Here's my Luna - I got to Sag A* and now i'm flying back. Had no issues what-so-ever. The ship is at 94% hull due to a black hole and a neutron star I ran into on purpose just to check how close can you actually get.

Also - you can easily ditch the repair modules. It was my first trip so i took a lot of those just in case. My fit is also MUCH cheper than the one Flip posted, and has a bigger jump range