Need a combat ship

[Telengo]

So having thrown my trumbles out of the cockpit today, after finally having it drilled into me that the Imperial Clipper is just rubbish at combat. The drilling was done by several NPC's with big lasers. Such a shame as it is my favorite ship in the whole universe, just too many problems make it unusable.

So I need a new combat ship!

For trading I have just purchased an Anaconda, which may be possible to outfit with some weapons and use. Although this would have to be cheap as I just can't afford that 8A power plant. Other options are a Python, but even that would not be totally A rated to start with, or a Fer De Lance. (long term thinking the FDL could be much better when it gets the new 6A power plant).

Options? Advice? Loadouts?

I fly solo, and want to be able to take on a wing of DBX, Eagle, Cobra with out getting my ship blown up. Clipper was terrible today. Oh and as you can tell by the last bit I suck badly at combat. But still need to visit Haz Res, Compromised Nav's to progress my Combat ranking and also get away from the boring grind that is trading.

[Roger Wilco Jr]

Python Python Python

The Anaconda ain't bad, and I'm flying one now. To be fair, it may be more of a push with the Python. The extra guns just don't seem to speed things up and seem to be less accurate, making it harder to plant ships. The Conda also costs quite a bit more. My Conda has 4x 3E gimbaled pulse lasers, and beam turrets for the other hard points to finish off ships that get behind me. That doesn't use any cargo space, so just using the Conda may be the cheapest option.

I'm not a fan of the FDL - hard points too small.

[240khon]

I took my trading conda into a haz res with 3 large pulse turrets, 2 med multi turrets, 2 small smart missiles and a huge gimballed cannon with all D rated except A rated FSD. I can take solo pythons, condas and fdls but wings can be a bit much. I dont have a SCB on either so equipping 1 or 2 of those could be all the difference. Also have 4 A shield boosters, chaff launcher and KWS (at work trying to do this from memory). I feel comfortable going in haz res just picking my battles carefully

[IronDuke]

Try out a FAS (Federal Assault Ship). I had great success with one. It has good manoeuvrability and can keep on the tail of most ships. I used an all pulse laser set up and can fire for a long time. The jump range is not fantastic but heck, neither is the Clippers (but I do love that ship )

[LionOfNarnia]

PYTHON all day every day!

(That's my CZ variant, no KWS required )

[Roger Wilco Jr]

I should add the the best, relatively cheap, option is still the Vulture. It's main problem being power management (really not too bad) and it's a lot slower than Pythons and Clippers, so be prepared to high wake out of bad situations. I used one to rank up to about 50% Deadly before switching to the Python to 85% and now the Anaconda to 95%.

[Telengo]

Thank you very much for your replies guys.

I have gone with the Python for the moment. A slightly cheaper version of Monty! Only rocking Pulse lasers and Multi Cannons instead of Beams. And also a 6A Power Plant and a 6A Power Distributor due to the cost. Not bad only a couple of shield banks as well.

I would be interested to know what people are going to do when 1.5 goes live, in regards to the SCB change. Will people still run many of banks of them? Oh also have a single chaff instead of one shield booster.

Going to give this a run and hope to make Master soon enough.

[Roger Wilco Jr]

If you are going to be in Haz Rez and CNBs, then I'd suggest a KWS too in place of one of those shield boosters.

I think I've had better luck with pulse lasers because they can keep firing longer. I used to love beams, and still love the thought of them, but I feel they just gave me power and heat problems and ended up causing less overall damage in the long run (but I could be wrong).

As for SCBs, it will depend on the ship and how much spare power is available for cooling, but just downgrading the SCB may solve the issue. There is also the bi-weave shields that may negate some of the shield problems, but I didn't like the sound of them just from the description and I haven't tried them. I really should do some experimenting.

[LionOfNarnia]

Yes, the Missions variant of Monty does have a KWS.

I'm trying out a slightly different loadout right now, because I noticed that lasers don't usually do much hull damage (while the MCs are re-loading) I've replaced the 'bottom' beam with a 3rd MC - Means I can run 3-0-3 distribution while de-shielding then switch to 4-0-2 for the (faster) kill. Only runs 99% total power load (in anticipation of the 'spool-up time' in 1.5) & obviously less thermal load.

I've only had one jaunt with it so far, it seems to make the most difference when taking on FDS & above.

Theory is, the sooner I can kill the wing leader, the less time the wing-men have to take free shots at me, and the better shielding I can use while doing it.

Easy enuff to switch back if I'm wrong

[Roger Wilco Jr]

Yes, the Missions variant of Monty does have a KWS.

I'm trying out a slightly different loadout right now, because I noticed that lasers don't usually do much hull damage (while the MCs are re-loading) I've replaced the 'bottom' beam with a 3rd MC - Means I can run 3-0-3 distribution while de-shielding then switch to 4-0-2 for the (faster) kill. Only runs 99% total power load (in anticipation of the 'spool-up time' in 1.5) & obviously less thermal load.

I've only had one jaunt with it so far, it seems to make the most difference when taking on FDS & above.

Theory is, the sooner I can kill the wing leader, the less time the wing-men have to take free shots at me, and the better shielding I can use while doing it.

Easy enuff to switch back if I'm wrong

I'm sure that's a fun loadout, but I prefer full energy for making credits. Now that I don't really need credits or ranking, I may go back to multis.

As for wings, I tend to shed off the wingmen first, or at least one of them, to limit the gnat effect. Of course, if there are 3 Pythons, I'll probably just let them be until someone else attacks them.