What ships to fly ?

[Lone_Wolf]

I typically play as a bounty killer/courier pilot with a personal honor code . (Somewhere between lawful neutral & lawful good in roleplaying terms) .

I also like fast ships and do use Shield Cycler, Shield Equaliser & Capacitor and Naval Grid Next oxps.
For defense I prefer turrets.

In the past I've flown Tiger MK1, cobra III-XT, Cobra Courier, Python ET special, Dragon M and Fer de lance 3G (the + turret version)
I've also tried several isis Interstellar models, but found their civilian versions to be to weak.

I enjoy scooping cargo and escape pods so do need some cargo space but 20 to 40 is enough.
Ships like the neoCaduceus are to strong for my taste.

I do like an upgrade path, but the final ship should be able to fight iron ass opponents like those from Random Hits .
(currently the Fer-de-Lance 3G+(t) has that role)

Please suggest other ships that may work for me.

[cbr]

Upgraded python or boa class cruisers are well suited to jump to less friendly systems...

[Lone_Wolf]

Thanks for the response.
The PCC is not bad, but suffers from low rechargerate and lack of mil. shields .
BCC does allow mil. shields but is slower and has worse rechargerate then pcc.
Both probably need escorts.

I've tested the FDL 3G with turrets and although I don't consider it an uber ship, it does make things to easy.
(having 8 energy banks helps a lot)

Currently testing the (old) Dragon M.

[Cholmondely]

Thanks for the response.
The PCC is not bad, but suffers from a low recharge rate and lack of mil. shields .
BCC does allow mil. shields but is slower and has a worse recharge rate then the pcc.
Both probably need escorts.

I've tested the FDL 3G with turrets and although I don't consider it an uber ship, it does make things too easy.
(having 8 energy banks helps a lot)

Currently testing the (old) Dragon M.

You could always try downgrading one of the uber ships (ie remove a couple of energy banks), no?

[Lone_Wolf]

Yep, good idea.

I've (re-)tested Dragon M, Wolf MKII and FDL 3G+(t) .

Dragon M is very stable platform, great for a sniper but not very good at dogfighting

Wolf MKII is a great dogfighter but hard against large groups (6+ )

FDL 3G+(t) with one less energy bank is still tough, but more balanced now.
(May need to decrease max energy a bit further.)

All 3 have a hard time building rep up to get the gold/plat/gem cargo contracts.,
Having the oxps for all 3 ships installed helps to get stronger opponents.

Thinking cobra III > Python ET special (from The Classic SuperPythons) > either of the 3 above would be a decent upgrade path.

[Lone_Wolf]

The Python ET special energy recharge rate of 3,5 is not good enough for my fighting style and would require me to focus on avoiding most fights.

I did pay closer attention to cargo contracts and noticed more between 35-40 TC then below 35 TC .
A cobra III with some extra space would probably work for those.

Since I rarely use missiles, adding a 10 TC container from [wiki]https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Goods_Container_OXZ [/wiki] or similar oxps looks like a viable solution .

[Balisongdalo]

I recommend the Vortex, 150 tc of cargo, 25 missiles, and turrets, this is my other favorite ships aside from the DTT war lance. Vortex is an outstanding multirole ship for any scenario. i see you also like the Dragon M, loved flying that ship for bounty hunting.

[Lone_Wolf]

I never tried the vortex (or hypercargo) as I dislike having 5 separate cargo bays and 5 separate missile bays .
The automatic microjump capability feels like it should not be present in a player ship,
If it was manual and came with a substantial cost (like not beimg able to move until energy banks are full again) I could accept it.

The DTT Tomahawk has been tested by me, but it felt more like an alternative to the cobra 3 then an upgrade.
War Lance is interesting though it's speed is a bit low for me.
(I like chasing targets and asps gettin away when I'm in a cobra always annoys me)

In my current playthrough I have managed to get to a iron-assed wolf MK II with parcel contracts, missions from UPS courier, RH & feudal states but it took a lot of effort and running away from large groups more often then I like .

Even at highest parcel rating the amounts parcel contracts pay still feel low and like they need to have a premium added to cover repairs

I kinda doubt I'll have the patience to hang on to the wolf until I can afford multi-million ships.
War lance & vortex will get a chance.

[Balisongdalo]

How long did it take for you to get higher paying parcel contracts? Most seem pocket change to consider taking. I made consistent credits doing towbar bounties with an escort deck mixed with trading on my war lance. The agility feels a bit slow, but the war lance makes up for it with 3 lasers and 8 missiles slots with no turrets. Pretty good multirole ship that served me well compared to a stock cobra mk3 that can handle heavy combat and anything else.

[Lone_Wolf]

All 3 contract types require 70 succesfull deliveries to get the highest rating.

Looking back in old save files around 50 successfull parcel contracts payment increased steadiy.
Number of opponents that try to stop you (and their toughness) also went up .

By that time I usually had 5-8 parcel contracts running plus a RH mission , that may play a role also.

[Lone_Wolf]

I did some more testing with the dragon M and found the 256 energy ls to low.
In fights with lots of opponents it a fully iron-assed dragon M (incl. NEU) goes from full shields / full banks to boom in just a few seconds.

Increasing energy to 320 (5 banks) helps , but 384 / 6 banks seems to be the correct number to get several damaged equipment items before going boom .

The FDL 3G with turrets needs a reduction in energy, with 448 it's more balanced. It also makes it easy to rack up kills fast.
I'm inclined to block FDL purchase below Dangerous (512 kills) , but no idea if that's possible .

Apart from increasing energy adding shield capacitors from SEC also can help .


I'm not happy with my current playthrough or older saves, so I'm starting over.

Plan for now :
- Milk runs until I have all equipment < TL 14 .
- Start long way around mission, do parcel contracts and Feudal challenges
- Once money gets close to 1 million: visit many systems to buy suitable ship (probably war lance) for cargo contracts with NEU installed.
- head to nearest TL 14/15 to complement equipment
- Cargo contracts until rating > 50
Try to keep Kill count below 256
- switch to dragon M / Wolf MK 2 or other
- Black baron mission / easy RH & feudal missions
- Constrictor/G2 / FDL ?

[Cholmondely]

I'm inclined to block FDL purchase below Dangerous (512 kills), but no idea if that's possible .

There are things called "condition scripts" which allow/disallow purchase of equipment/ships (these can be set to location, government type, species type, specific stations, et cetera).

See Oolite JavaScript Reference: Condition scripts

Some examples are as follows:
Equipment by species:  New Lasers - see Hiran's database: https://ooliteproject.github.io/oolite- ... asers.html
Equipment by govt type:  Weapon Laws OXP - see Hiran's database: https://ooliteproject.github.io/oolite- ... _laws.html
Ships by location:  Riredi OXP - see Hiran's database: https://ooliteproject.github.io/oolite- ... iredi.html

[Lone_Wolf]

Damn 'verify you're a human' check obliterated my post content.

Thx for the tip, it works .

Currently in Edzaon with 63 kills and 160k (4 feudal challenges against korvette netted about 130k) .

Adder seems to be harder to hit then cobra , considering switching to manta ray from aquatics oxp.
It's mil player version is small, has 2 defensive turrets and flies at 0.37 LM (just 10 cargo though).

Seems like a good starter ship for random hits missions.

[Cholmondely]

Adder seems to be harder to hit then cobra...

The Adder should be harder to hit than a Cobra: it only measures 28m×15m×51m. A Cobra Mk.3 measures 130m×30m×65m - a football pitch only measures 105m x 68m!

[Lone_Wolf]

I'm still in a cobra MK III in G1, currently in Ededleen with 214 kills.

Did 36 parcel contracts and 10 cargo contracts, none pending.
Got 829 K money, 780k of which came from feudal challenges (6x 3:1 , 6x 10:1 ).

Long way around, two easy RH and 1 moderate RH mission completed.
I am on my 2nd moderate RH mission and started 'scourge of the black baron' .

My biggest expenses have been Fuel and tune ups from Maintenance on Demand . profit mostly came from occasional gold/plat/gem & furs/computers trade.

The feudal challenges are getting to easy and although adjusting my flying helped to improve survival in the cobbie, strong clean assassins can still make mincemeat of me .

I'm heading to Tianve now to buy/upgrade a mil. manta ray (aquatics oxp) to see how it holds in combat.
It's small and has top/bottom turrets . Also you can't do feudal challenges in turreted ships, so no more easy money from those.

Once I've finished black baron I should have a good idea about capabilities of the manta ray.