Which Ship: Decision time!

[Raze]

So I have dabbled in BH, Trading, Mining(ugh), and Exploring over the past week or so. As of right now I am enjoying the combat the most therefor I am going to start trying to collect my large sums of cash via Bounties, so I need to make a decision on which ship I wish to do that in and would like some opinions.

I have 7.3M credits, that is all the cash I have as I sold my Viper and downgraded to a SW to get a full scope of how much I had to spend on a ship/outfitting.

I know I can afford a Cobra/Viper/Asp/Vulture, but obviously with my limited cash the Asp/Vulture would be far from kitted out, basically stock. So my question is, would it be better to get a fully kitted Viper/Cobra or get an Asp/Vulture with whatever priority upgraded I can afford after purchase?

This is for 100% combat. RES BH farming and the such. Hopefully Combat Goals if the war sparks up again

aaaannnndddd.... GO.

[Harma]

Vulture. Flown all four in combat, basically the Vulture kicks A55 though.

If you're RES farming, then lack of kitting out isn't an option. A few hours of farming will get you a few millions in credits, more than enough to upgrade your modules. Take it easy to begin with, don't go steaming in solo on Master Ana's, play the numbers game (more security peoples mean less shots you need to do) and the money soon mounts up.

RES farming in a Vulture paid for my FDL. And there isn't much difference in ability between a good spec Vulture and a poor spec FDL. Except the Vulture manoeveres sooooo much better. The FDL can feel like you're basically flying a large brick with a huge cannon - I miss those days of small turning circles

[KleinerFisch]

Viper.

For your money you can FULLY combat-upgrade it, plus A-grade thrusters/Pplant/distri/shield and have fun flying circles around enemies. Add chaff, KWS, SCB. With that ship you'll be able to rack up bounties and even if you loose a fight, rebuy cost is tiny.

Cobra is fun, but the shields are weaker than a Vipers.

Bytheway, Asp will never be as good for combat as a Vulture ... as with Cobra to Viper, the shields of Multipurpose are never as good as those of Combat ships. Even if you add shield boosters and high-class shields (like A6 on Asp that costs 16million creds!).

My path is to have one Multipurpose ship (trading, exploration, a bit of combat) that is now my Asp and one pure combat that now is the Viper. Working towards a Vulture, as soon as I got that beast I will sell my Viper ... or maybe keep it, for funsies

[clivewil]

I will sell my Viper ... or maybe keep it, for funsies

keep it. as you say, they are cheap and it won't break the bank to have one lying around idle - and they are good to take out on the odd occasion for a spin

yesterday the Python and Vulture stayed home for a while, and i went out doing coffee deliveries in an Eagle. it's a different kind of fun, but often that's what ED needs

[KleinerFisch]

I will sell my Viper ... or maybe keep it, for funsies

keep it. as you say, they are cheap and it won't break the bank to have one lying around idle - and they are good to take out on the odd occasion for a spin

yesterday the Python and Vulture stayed home for a while, and i went out doing coffee deliveries in an Eagle. it's a different kind of fun, but often that's what ED needs

That's exactly what I had in mind, and one of the reasons why I have at least two different ships ... always flying the same vessel is boring and after hours in the Asp, flying the Viper is pure fun. Vulture is a killer beast, but maybe too easy to pew pew even the Biggies, so Viper will keep the adrenaline pumping

[Sendraks]

Bytheway, Asp will never be as good for combat as a Vulture ... as with Cobra to Viper, the shields of Multipurpose are never as good as those of Combat ships. Even if you add shield boosters and high-class shields (like A6 on Asp that costs 16million creds!).

I think the two are comparable, you just have to pay a helluva lot more for an Asp that is comparable to the Vulture in combat. This said, the Asp doesn't have the fun of being able to fit a great big cannon to it that can gut even a conda in a few hits.

[HAMM3R]

Put your (combat) pilot skills to test and grab a Hauler. Comes with one awesome small hardpoint

[Khali Nephtys]

I have a combat fitted viper, and have been having a blast in the conflict zones with it. I went with 4x multi-cannons so it helps to wait till you see a target with it's shields down, but it can shred a python or anaconda up close with ease. I've been making around 190k per reload using this ship, and highly recommend it over the cobra or asp for this task.

[Boozeman]

I have the Cobra kitted about between A and B. Today i was bought Viper. I upgraded it about Grade A for just bounty hunting.

Two fixed Class 1 beams, 1 Class 2 Multi-Cannon, 1 Class 2 Cannon. Flied about 20min on slight low traffic Nav Point, Bountys 261751cr + 24000cr for Empire. I really love that thing! I give her a name too...

She is the Shredder

Cobra is on stable for the moment.

[KleinerFisch]

Bytheway, Asp will never be as good for combat as a Vulture ... as with Cobra to Viper, the shields of Multipurpose are never as good as those of Combat ships. Even if you add shield boosters and high-class shields (like A6 on Asp that costs 16million creds!).

I think the two are comparable, you just have to pay a helluva lot more for an Asp that is comparable to the Vulture in combat. This said, the Asp doesn't have the fun of being able to fit a great big cannon to it that can gut even a conda in a few hits.

There was a thread on the official forums about shields, with a Dev post ... shield modules even of the same class (like A5 or A6) on a multipurpose ship are weaker than on a pure combat ship. As far as I understood, shields are a multiplicator of the base shield, so with a lower base shield you will get less efficient shields with shield modules. And shield modules are only efficient within a range of the ships mass. With lower weight of the combat ships its easier to stay within that optimal mass range, multipurpose ships weight more and the more modules you build in the more mass you get and that results in less efficient shields too.

I got a fully upgraded Asp (with A5 shields) and compared to the shield efficiency of my Viper I feel that the Vipers shields can pack way more punches. Can't say anything about Vulture, haven't got one yet.