Which Ship: Decision time!

[emeketos]

well its only 122 ly away I should make some good money exploring heh
destination set. Is a viper really that much better than a cobra? I know I run into maneuverability problems with some opponents. Turning off flight assist to do a 180 turn and turning it back on lets me do a good skid to get back into arc. I am not against upgrading/sidegrading since cobra has alot of slots I just do not use.

[Cmdr Kharma]

IIRC a fully A-graded Cobra is around 8 million

My fully A rated was about 8.5 million...I think.....

Sell the Viper (sell upgrades first, then ship!), hop into your Cobra and move to a system that sells a Vulture + upgrades.

I keep bloody forgetting that.....Just sold a fully A rated sidey outright.......

All in all good advice old chap......

[emeketos]

I am flying a Cobra ATM viper wasn't in my system when I upgraded its working ok for me. I understand the Viper is better in many respects. I have about 3 million in invested in my cobra where most of my mountings are at "B" level. I am looking to upgrade but the question is at what point of total cash is a good upgrade point. Vulture costs what 7 million? but at stock its barely equipped better than a eagle, large weapons are very expensive. So what do you think is the best point to upgrade?

I think the best point to upgrade to a bigger ship is when you're able to both buy it AND fully upgrade it. For Vulture that'd be 18 million, for Asp 40 million credits. Remember to have at least 2-3 million credits saved, for rebuy and trading and whatever. DO NOT RISK ANYTHING !

IIRC a fully A-graded Cobra is around 8 million, so for you it might be faster to for a cheap but effective Viper instead. I'd suggest to move your Cobra to a system where they a) sell Viper and b) the neccessary upgrades (Viper + upgrades cost 2million credits) and c) has a RES. Do some RES-hunting in your Cobra until you got 2 million. Buy Viper and upgrade it. Take the Viper for RES bountyhunting and earn 1.5 - 2 million in bounties per hour. Hunt until you accumulated 20 million credits. Sell the Viper (sell upgrades first, then ship!), hop into your Cobra and move to a system that sells a Vulture + upgrades.

Wherever you're at now, check how far it is to Anlave ... that's a system that sells Vipers and Vultures and most of the highest upgrades. Close to Anlave are systems with RES (just one or two hops away) for profitable bountyhunting. Empire and Federation systems nearby, so its easy to hand in both faction bounty vouchers. If you're bored with hunting, close to Anlave is Zeessze / George Pantazis for Rares-Trading Circuit. Or do some missions in between. Within a relative short time you got a fully upgraded combat Vulture and a fully upgraded Multipurpose Asp. Keep your Cobra and the Viper if you like, compared to the fully upgraded medium ships they're cheap but it's nice to have them parked somewhere, for change of pace every now and then.

I made it to anlave my cobra had a jump range of 17?ly although its about 11 now since my armor upgrade. I have mostly been hunting at the nav points have you had better luck at the Resource extraction sites? I usually end up with about 250k per run due to ammo running out. I haven't timed how long each run takes at the nav point though, its been pretty random depending on what pops up of course always snice to get that 100k slice of an anaconda

[KleinerFisch]

Is a viper really that much better than a cobra? I know I run into maneuverability problems with some opponents.

Depends on your fighting style ... Viper has the better manouverability, slightly less top speed. Cobra turns a bit slow, but has highest top speed. With a Viper you can easily stay in the big ships dead zone, while with Cobra you rather zoom-and-boom and you can get some distance to have your shields regenerate (and you might need to do that more often, Cobra shields are weaker than a Vipers).

I have mostly been hunting at the nav points have you had better luck at the Resource extraction sites? I usually end up with about 250k per run due to ammo running out. I haven't timed how long each run takes at the nav point though, its been pretty random depending on what pops up of course always snice to get that 100k slice of an anaconda

You answered it yourself ... NAV points have random spawns, lots of un-wanted and small ships and too many pauses between kills. At a good RES you get many wanted big ships (Dropship/Clipper/Python/Conda) that respawn as fast as you kill them, so almost no pauses between kills. Space police attacks them and brings their shields down, while you KWS and target subsystem. I suggest you bring energy AND kinetic weapons, save your kinetic ammo for the subsystems of Condas ... you'll want to kill them QUICK

At RES the Viper shines, fast enough to get to the prey and their agility helps to fly around the asteroids

If you drop into a RES and after like 5min you notice you only get small prey (Sidey/Eagle/Adder/Viper/Cobra ... good for training your combat skills, but with smaller bounties), jump out and back in again ... repeat until you got a big-ship-RES (good combat skills needed against dangerous/elite enemies but for high bounties). With the big ship RES you can earn 1.5-2mill per hour and you'll have permanent action. NAVs are not as good to earn credits that fast.

[KleinerFisch]

Sell the Viper (sell upgrades first, then ship!), hop into your Cobra and move to a system that sells a Vulture + upgrades.

I keep bloody forgetting that.....Just sold a fully A rated sidey outright.......

All in all good advice old chap......

Daaw ... a Sidey's 10% is negligible, just shoot another wanted ship But for a 8.5mill Cobra it's already 1/2 hour work ...

[emeketos]

In my Cobra I can take down some of the big prey its a bit difficult to stay in their blind spots but not impossible. I usually run into troubles when I see wanted wings even the low crap when they are all firing at you are a bitch on your shields. I tend to fight Systems 3/Engines 0/weapons 3 again a bit of a maneuver hit but it keeps the shields going a bit longer.

how do you equip your vipers? my cobra is 2 small beam lasers (gimbled) + 2 medium multicannon (gimbled)
viper doesn't seem to allow the medium multi-cannons. So not all mediums are the same? how are yours equipped for maximum carnage?

[Octopoid]

Same here Emeketos, gimballed E2 multi cannons on the front and gimballed E1 beams to take down shields. I rekcon my Cobra is about half kitted and I've had about enough of trading. My 15 year old son did one run then announced it boring and will only go hunting stuff to shoot at

I didn't know about RES sites, I've been going backwards and forwards to the nav beacons. I'll try the RES tonight, then I think I'll be off to find a vulture if they are that good... but I shudder to think how long raising 16 million will take me :/

Thanks for the info on Anlave, I'm still knocking around LHS 3447 with a newly joined friend, not been any further than Orrere and Leesti. I Time for a ride out I think

[Octopoid]

Did the "buy a viper and kit it out to the 9's" last night, and went to a RES site at Wolf something or other, 1 jump from Anlave...

By the end of the nights I'd sold my Cobra, vowed never to go back to trading, ever, and made almost 4 million credits.

Got a lot of the "small ship" instances though, which were good for 150-200k credits per lot of multi-cannon ammo. And I'm now "Competent" Finished the night at a RES site at Yakabugai I thnk it is, a bit nearer where my mate is starting. I'll be talking him there as soon as he gets into the game

[savinup4adeathstar]

As an explorer I'd suggest you avoid the cobra and the asp - they're perfect for what I'm doing, which in turn makes them less than ideal for you.