Elite Dangerous Outfitters - Classic Cobra

Hey space cadets, what is going on?
I'm Cmdr TwingTwang and welcome to the outfitters.

In this outfitters article we'll be looking at the classic cobra flown by Commander Jameson, and equipping a modern Cobra as a timeless tribute to embark on a star-seeing tour from Lave to Sol.

The exact specifications of Jamesons Cobra are going to be hard to match but I'll take everything I can into account and come up with a ship to be proud of. Outfitting a cobra on a budget can be a difficult so I'm not going to limit my spend on this.

This gives my a shopping list of features to consider as I put the ship together.

Its a rare luxury to go premium, but my starting point is a Class-A Cobra.
The 4A Power Plant provides enough juice for the 4A Thrusters, 4A Frame shift and 4A Shield Generator.  The Life support, Power couplings and Sensors are all upgraded to their maximum 3A too.



This ship already looks very premium,
4A - Power Plant
4A - Thrusters
4A - Frame Shift Drive
4A - Shield Generator
3A - Life Support
3A - Power Distributor
3A - Sensors

Internal Compartments
Now we are ready to start outfitting the vessel.  First on the list is a Large Cargo Bay. I'd say that 32 Tonnes sounds about right, so the two remaining size four internal compartments can have 4E Cargo Racks at sixteen tonnes each.

Fuel Scoops are not a problem, and in a premium ship the best I can buy is a Class 2A model so in it goes.

I'm certain that Commander Jameson had a docking Computer, so in it goes too.  And lastly I'm going to add a 1C Advanced Discovery Scanner into the last internal compartment.

Safety Features
Since Commander Jameson is known across the stars for his military lasers and missiles combo, I can't do anything other than a pair of D2 Gimbal Beams and two B1 Seeker Missile packs.

The must-have Electronic Countermeasures fill the first Utility Mount, and the second is going to be home to a Class-A Shield Booster.  Those extra shields keep the luxury feel, but push the power consumption over the top of the A-Rated plant.  When the hardpoints are deployed, the Frame Shift Drive, Docking Computer and Fuel Scoop will all disengage and power down.

To go with the flow I'm upgrading the Hull to Military Grade Composite too. Its reasonably cheap and feels like a good choice. The extra weight will drop my jump range down a tiny fraction, but I'm still going to be making those long 20Ly hops anyway

No mining?
I remember my original cobra sported a rear mining laser, which I could fit to one of the small hardpoints and swap the Discovery Scanner for a Refinery. However, I just don't see this as a resource extraction ship - it's a space-tourism build I'm going to use to see the galaxy a little so I'm grudgingly willing to sacrifice the refinery. Despite the premium build, there are some compromises I just have to make.
Were I optimising for long distance, then I'd replace the Docking Computer with an Auto Repair unit, but I'm happy to stop by several stations on my trip and won't be going to the outer rim territories in this ship. The Docking Computer fits the theme much better.

Energy Bomb? Galactic Hyperspace?
Sadly there are a few items on my shopping list that aren't available yet. I couldn't find the old thargoid-busting energy bomb for sale anywhere.
If I run out of stars to visit, I'll put in a feature request for the Galactic Hyperspace, but to be honest I think it'll be a while before its needed so I'm willing to omit that from this loadout.

One Last consideration.
For an iconic build like this, I'm going to have to choose a spray job that looks good, but I'll leave that for another time.  How would you paint a classic Cobra?

I think I want the colours of the Blue Rattler but in the pattern of the Cobra Serpent.? But I'm not sure. The striking Orange Ignition would be a great way to visit Sol in style, while the bright Orange Rattler has great visibility.
Perhaps I should go back to the original box art and choose the closest match?

I'm Cmdr TwingTwang, and I'll be flying this Classic Cobra on a convoy trip from Lave to Sol soon. Look me up if you want to come and get some photos taken with the stars!
Fly Casual everybody.

Elite Dangerous Outfitters - The Vulture

Hey Space Cadets, What is going on?
I'm Cmdr TwingTwang and welcome to the Outfitters!

The Vulture is one of the newer ships and plenty of people have had their say about its handling, performance, price and whatnot. I'm not going to go into detail about the exact outfitting of the vulture as I've only flown it for a few hours and I don't have a handle on the options yet.

The role of the ship
The viper is a fun ship to fly, and the vulture turns all the dials up to ten providing a similar outfitting and flight experience.  Like the Viper, the Vulture suffers from an undersized reactor and you won't be able to power everything you want to so a good loadout is about compromising and specialising the ship.

This means there are decisions to make and you'll never be able to "Class-A" your Vulture all round, some systems will have lower ratings than others.  Outfitting a Vulture is going to become a matter of personal taste.

I've gone for Class-A Reactor and Power couplings, and Class-B Thrusters. Everything else could afford to shrink a size class to spare some power so I can squeeze in A4 shields too. There are plenty of options to play with, but those were my priorities on this build.

Safety Features
Being power limited you are likely to compromise on lower that top-spec shields, and since your vulture will be taking a lot of heat those shields will feel a lot weaker than they are.
With lower shields you won't be able to hang at medium range and slug it out with other ships while you exchange fire.  Sure, Eagles and Sidewinders won't be able to touch you but those big ships will tear you up at mid range. That means you have to choose between long-range and point-blank.

At long range, you have to rely on your big 5A Power Couplings to recharge your guns and shields enough to turn in for another pass before your opponent has recovered. Relentlessly lancing in and then boosting out engine-to-engine like this will wear down one of the bigger ships.

However at point blank range your turning circle just can't be beat, and this is where you will do a lot of your damage. Holding High-Six on an Anaconda thrusting down toward its engines will keep you out of a lot of fire arcs, and able to target any hardpoints that can cover. It'll also put its Power plant front and centre of your gimbals, for a devestating take down. Its only chance is to pull away to mid range and bring those big guns to bear, and when it does you'll either stay high on its stern or boost away to long range and prepare to lance in and find a good angle.

Exactly how you outfit the ship is going to depend on what your Wing are doing and your personal flying style.

Wingman Vulture
Since power is your currency I spent a lot of mine Gimbal Burst lasers.  The Gimbal burst lasers empty their banks quickly and get hot fast so aren't good for sustained fire, but they do reach a high damage per second while they fire and can either slam into shields or can be used to pick off modules on the enemy ship.  The sacrifice here is that you'll have weaker shields, as you've had to put a lot of power into weapons and that doesn't suit every situation.
The Vulture builds in a similar way to the Wingman Viper where I've put all of my power into weapons over shields.  Its just not a slugger and you are better off tagging and getting out than slugging away and relying on tanking shields.

Fixed beams are also out of the question.  I tried them for a while, they really pack a punch but you have to be a dedicated combat pilot to score reliable hits, and even then its much easier to target modules with gimbals. Because of this, I found I had a much higher effective damage with gimbals.
The power consumption of beams is also sky high, and you'll be sacrificing around 15% of your shield strength compared to burst lasers.

I'm discounting the other fixed weapons - Rail and Plasma - for the same reason that I didn't get on with fixed beams. The module tracking in gimbals is too much to sacrifice.

Hurting Bombs.
Being limited to two large hardpoints feels like it discounts running missiles. Missiles don't play to the strengths of the vulture, which excels at point blank range damage dealing. Missiles have their place on a less maneuverable ship when you have a six pack of them, or even quad-linked, but in a space superiority starfighter like the vulture it's a waste of hardpoints.
I also didn't see any Size-3 missiles for sale, so I'd be stuck with the same missiles I'd have on an Asp - minus four hardpoints - just not an option.

Frag Cannons cause me to worry about ammo limits, too. They still have have a quite high power drain, which is something we are trying to avoid. If you are flying fighter escort for a pair of T7s, then the powerful fraggers probably aren't your cup of tea.
I've dealt so much damage with A2 Fraggers in my Red Venom Viper which packs a huge punch for its size so these are super tempting.  If you are bounty hunting in a wing then speak to your CAG. It could be worth having one ship with frag cannons which excel at punching through those larger hulls. The high damage per second Frag Cannons are ideal at the point-blank range that suits the vultures flight characteristics.

Cannons will significantly reduce your power consumption giving you better shield options and still have reasonable ammo counts. With stronger shields you can get to point blank range and sit there scoring hit after hit.  You won't out damage those big ships, but can duck out of their fire arcs and keep the pressure up.
The fixed forward cannons are dirt cheap, and although you will pay over the odds for the turreted version they are highly recommended so you can target modules.

Multicannons are a popular option, although I didn't get a chance to try them. But they have a low power consumption and you would probably be able to equip one MC and one Beam, switching over after the beam has dropped some shields.

Overall, I can see this is a viable option - run one Beam/Burst laser and have your choice of Cannon, Multicannon or Frag Cannon on the secondary fire. I think this sort of combo will work really well in pairs too, where you can keep up the pressure by tagging on and off to stop your lasers overheating and then both open up the whole nine yards as soon as those shields drop.

Conclusions
Without doubt, I had most luck with dual Gimbal Burst lasers. This loadout is biased because I spent a lot of time in a combat zone and the ammo limits of the cannon were costly. They pack quite a punch against hulls and despite heating up quickly, as long as you fire in short controlled bursts they will keep dealing damage as long as you need them to.

Capable as a lone wolf or pack hunter, the Vulture has been more fun to fly than the Viper although as a small ship it has to be outfitted with a lot less than Class-A. It'll be interesting getting back into the cockpit of a smaller ship although I'm more than a little apprehensive in going up against a vulture. I'm looking forward to bringing the big guns of a Python against the Vulture, where it'll be touch-and-go whether I can keep the fighter out of my blind spot.

If you've got more to add on the Vulture, any tips on power management or how to get the most out of its shields I'd love to hear from you.
I'm Cmdr TwingTwang of the Alliance, Fly Casual everybody.

Elite Dangerous Rules of Acquisition - War profits

Hey Space Cadets, What is going on?
I'm Cmdr TwingTwang and welcome to the Rules of Acquisition.

I've just got back from the conflict at Lugh and wanted to make sure everybody who hasn't done their part gets over there and helps out.  This war won't be won without you, and even including the travel time from Leesti-Lugh this has been the highest Credit-per-hour experience I've had so far.

The four of us headed out there together, a Class-A viper, a top-spec combat cobra with me flying one of the two Vultures.  There are a few conflict zones to choose from in Lugh, and we flew out to Lugh-11 to rendezvous with the capital ship there. Even if you aren't a combat pilot the experience of an epic space battle is well worth the trip out and its a new splash of gameplay.

In a busy combat zone, you need a ship with staying power so you are talking about beams or burst lasers.  I'll have to write a separate outfitters article about the Vulture, I've tried a few different hardpoint options and the Pilots Choice award goes to Gimbal Burst lasers.

With a bit of practice I managed to reach about 1M Cr/H in bounty, and after a few hours cashed in the 12M reward I had earned.  This made it a 15M credit adventure taking a few hours. I really could have stayed out in the stars smoking fools all night but alas I decided to cash in the bounty and get back to civilised space.

The biggest point to be said, is that you can make 1M Cr/H in bounty in a combat zone, but the big 12M payout is available as a mission that you can do just the once. So this was an exercise in reaching that jackpot as soon as possible, then cashing it in and going home.

There are plenty of pilot tricks and combat training you can go through to deal the highest damage per second, but I'm going to leave those on the back shelf and talk about the profit bottom line - this is a Rules of Acquisition article not a Pilot Academy.   To reach the maximum profit, you need to tag as many ships as possible per hour.  You don't need to scrap the highest number of hulls, just contribute enough damage to register for the bounty and then switch targets.
This is where high power Burst Lasers really score well. The short controlled bursts needed to get credits for the kill won't overheat your weapons and will give you a few seconds to cool off and recharge before you hit the next ship.

Just like stopwatch-rares or high-volume freighting, I strongly recommend instrumenting your combat as seeing how much your ship is making. Having a stopwatch ticking away in your eyeline really helps you focus on that profit line. After your 30 or 60 minute limit is hit, check your bounty and try to beat that target.  Switch up your style and see if its led you to a higher or lower income.

The second step is to compare this figure to your trading totals.  E.g. If you are naturally a T7-Pilot, then you'd normally earn two million credits an hour plain sailing.  A Sixer will make a cool one million in the same time frame.  The bigger Fat-9 and Anacondas can carry hundreds of tonnes, and make a significant amount. So much that you don't fight in the war for money - and the profiteering advice doesn't really hold up.  If you drive a Lakon Fat-9 then you go to war for fun, its not about the money.
But I'm a T7 Pilot, so normally pull 2M without breaking a sweat and ended up taking about half that per hour in the combat zone.

A short (few hours) run at the conflict zone gave me a really high return, and while I coulda, woulda, shoulda, stayed there for hour after hour I realised that you can hit the 12M reward very quickly and cash out for a great hourly rate.  Any longer time I spent was likely be become less credit efficient, so stopping and switching back to my T7 was the right move for my bank balance.

So, back to war profiteering. Fighting the war costs me about 1M Cr/Hour.  Thats the profit and loss bottom line. And its not pretty.
One million in bounty, minus the two million lost from not trading, means I'm losing a Million Credits per hour.  However, I'm gaining a flat once-only fixed fee of twelve million.  So.. I could fight in the war for precisely twelve hours and break even.

Every minute after twelve hours is a net loss. Every minute less represents my war profit margins.

With that established, the quicker I can earn that twelve million and bail, the higher the profit margin in going to be.  Granted, I probably could have reached the fifteen million mark in fewer than fifteen hours, so continued to turn a profit for as long as I'd wanted.  But that sounds too much like hard work. This is an article about war profiteering - getting the highest income from the lowest effort, and that sweet spot seemed to be a few hours of awesome fun and a jackpot payout.

So that's my war profiteering, cold and calculating. I ran the numbers, smoked some fools and flew home with pockets full of gold.  If you have war stories, tactics, or profit numbers leave a comment - I'd love to hear from you.

I'm Cmdr TwingTwang, making money one war at a time. Fly casual Everybody.

Elite Dangerous Outfitters - Missile Gunboat Asp

Hey space cadets, what is going on?
I'm Cmdr Twingtwang and welcome to the outfitters.

In today's round-up, we'll be looking at a very simple thematic build for a combat Asp designed for bounty hunting.  I love strongly themed builds more than I like the utilitarian min/maxing I usually focus on at the outfitters, and this ship has provided some real flying moments.

This is a thematic build designed specifically for scoring kills, ideally suited for working your way up the federal or imperial ranks [Cmdr TwingTwang, supporting the feds ... what has the galaxy come to? - Ed] And its going to do this by scoring kills the old fashioned way.

As you can see there is no subtlety here, this is a brute force trauma wrecking ball that knocks it out of the park.  The Missile Gunboat is thematic ship designed to be flown with a Combat Cobra, Wingman Viper or the vicious Vulture that will light up the skies and take down some shields before you swoop in for the coup-de-gras.

Once you get an open shot, the shock-and-awe impact of the missile gunboat is enough to finish the job quickly, and this is what it's all about.  Designed as a bounty hunter to get the job done this Asp isn't built as a profit grinder, so the extra munition costs are going to soon rack up but its all about swapping credits for promotions as you become a drone of the Empire, stooge of the federation, or Hero of the Alliance.

I'm presenting this with dumbfire missiles, as they have the maximum stopping power.  You can swap these out for Seeker missiles at a small reduction in damage and your mileage may vary depending on the targets you are hitting. There aren't many hulls that can survive quad-linked dumbfire missiles, and even a big Type-9 [perish the thought you turn pirate] is going to be reduced to scrap metal in around fifteen or sixteen missiles.

I've found those Anacondas and Federal Dropships are big enough targets that you can lance in when the shields drop and really show the galaxy how we do things down town.  In one-on-one slugfest this tank puts out more damage per second than anything else I've flown, and its maxed out Double-A shields with Boosters means it can take the licks while it dishes out the damage.

In Wing combat the Missile Gunboat Asp is enough of a tank to hold its own for a reasonable amount of time, and carries enough ammo to take out a handful of ships as long as your wingman is sporting plenty of lasers to balance the team.

I don't recommend pulling this bad boy out in a conflict zone, as you'll soon notice that its limited ammo supply (100 Missiles... Limited?) means you'll have to bug out before long.  And also as I discovered - and I'm sorry CMDRs - swooping in like this and stealing big kills for high bounty just isn't cooperating with pilots out there trying to earn an honest buck while they win a war. This isn't such a problem where bounties are shared, but it does feel a little mean in some cases.

Overall this is too specialised a build for general purpose, although I'm more than tempted to try quad-missiles offset with a pair D2 Beams as a trade route loadout since you can only get interdicted once or twice on a short route and will get the chance to reload when you dock.  The top-notch shields mean you can tank with the beams and spank with the dumbfires.

The Missile Gunboat makes its mark as a hunter-killer in combination with a friendly wingman to back it up, It's not as fast an manoeuvrable as a Viper or combat Cobra and you can get caught out unable to score hits if you are at close range corkscrewing around.  I wouldn't recommend the Missile Gunboat unless you are hunting big ships for big bounties, but when you do get the drop on them and unleash your hurting bombs its a hell of a moment.

I'm Cmdr TwingTwang, and this has been the outfitters.
If you've had some good experiences with dumbfires or builds like this, or have a loadout you'd like to see, for a sole ship or as part of a coordinated wing then drop me a line.
And as always, fly casual.

Elite Dangerous Outfitters - Green Stinger Viper

Hey Space Cadets! What is going on?
I'm Cmdr TwingTwang and welcome to the outfitters!

In this article we'll be looking back at some viper builds and trying to improve upon them.  In previous articles I've presented the quad-beam wingman viper, designed to aggro and harass targets, and the Red Venom Viper with big A2 Frag Cannons that was a great space superiority starfighter but its limited ammo meant it lacked staying power in a conflict zone.

The Red Venom
The Red Venom Viper was a good contender for an escort fighter role. The hard hitting A2 Frag Cannons really tore into hulls once the shields were down and their peak-power-to-damage makes them a top pick for a power-limited Viper loadout. They are backed up by a pair of E1 Gimbal beam lasers in the small hardpoints - in combination with the Vipers tight turns you should be able to keep any ship in your sights while you empty the banks and then unleash the fraggers.
The Red Venom is taking a little gamble as an escort vessel - usually it sees 0-1 starfights between chance to dock and reload, but in the case of a second - or third - interdiction you have to start a fight with no ammunition.

The Wingman
The Wingman Viper build relies on quad beam lasers to light up the skies, and is a warzone build designed for sustained sorties by avoiding the ammo limited weapons. It it great in a swarm when you can tag team against a large ship, or you can perform a sustained lance with the beams in conjunction with an opportunist hard hitter like a Missile Gunboat Asp to score quick kills.
Quad beams are also a great way to aggro and draw attention as a convoy escort vehicle, with your freighters packing seeker missiles to compensate for the lack of punch in the wingman build.  A Sixer with dual B1 Seeker missiles can add a lot of muscle as soon as the quad beams have worked away the enemies shields.

Of course, the Solid Gold Viper isn't a serious combat vessel - its a premium ship for a prestige audience and it's a choice to dress-to-impress instead of getting stuck in.  I'm not going to talk about the loadout as a serious ship - I guess you could fly a wing of these with competent pilots and fare well enough though.

Adding staying power to the Quad Beam Wingman viper is pretty tough.  It suffers from Thermal Overload on the weapons, causing them to cut out and the overall temperature raises into the 100-130 range often enough in a dogfight.  Having flown it in anger for a while I can only recommend adding heatsinks to help out. The large power draw of those beams puts it in the 12.22 MW range and it really can't afford the power for the bigger shields and thrusters that it wants.

The Red Venom is a better starting build. At only 11.41 MW, it already has Class-A thrusters and can afford to put the extra power into Shields or shield banks.  Running out of ammo on your primary damage dealers is quite a hassle so the first thing we are going to do is swap out those big A2 Fraggers for D2 Beams on a Gimbal mount.

This leaves the small hardpoints up for grabs, as beams on there are going to draw too much power.

Cannons or Missiles?

The lure of Frag Cannons is very strong for their amazing power-to-damage ratio and high damage-per-second value and it's possible that Fraggers on the small hardpoints is acceptable, since the Size-2 beams on the medium hardpoints will see most of the action, but the Frag Cannons chew through their ammunition quickly and as we are trying to add more staying power I'm going to discard them.

This leaves us with the two real choices for low-power high yield weapons pictured here.  The B1 Dumbfire missiles take the crown for highest impact damage, and can be a crippling one-two punch with the larger gibmal beams.
And lastly I'm going to highlight the E1 Cannons on a Gimbal mount.  They don't pack as much power as the B1 Dumbfires by a long stretch, but the 16 shot missile rack isn't up to our criteria for a long fight. In the end the 100-round Cannons win out as the biggest-damage high-ammo small hardpoint weapons.

To finish the build, I'm going to spend the extra 0.4MW on either a pair of Point Defence turrets, or on upgrading the main shield generator from 3B to 3A. Actually the difference between the 3B and 3A shields isn't that great, so I'm going to try out the point defence turrets this time around. It's possible that I'll revisit this if I think I'm taking too much heat.

And that completes our build.  The Red Venom Viper has been reconfigured to use D2 Beams as its primary and E1 Cannons the hammer on hulls once the shields are down.  The old Red Vipers A2 Fraggers were real can-openers when you bought them to bear, and the replacement cannons aren't going to be as deadly but the faster shield takedown combined with increased ammo makes this a much better ship in larger fights.

Green Stinger Viper
So following my experiences with the Red Venom and Wingman builds, its time to introduce the Green Stinger Viper.  Its not got the poison of the Red Venom, but still has quite a sting from those dual cannons.

The Green Stinger

Thanks for reading, I hope my flight time helps you in your outfits and builds. If you've got experience flying the Viper, or there is another ship outfit you'd like to see then let me know.

I'm Cmdr TwingTwang, and this has been the outfitters.
As always, Fly Casual.

Elite Dangerous profiteering - Life after the Type-7

Hey Space Cadets! What is going on?

I’m Cmdr TwingTwang and welcome to Life after the Type-7.  

In the New Beginnings article we talked about the road from a little ZP-Hauler all the way up to a T7 Transport. And then I covered a bit more detail about what the entry level T7 looks like in my Road to the Type-7 article and recommended the minimum credit balance it'll take to get you into that cockpit in any sensible manner. Today we'll be picking up where that left off and talking about life after the Type-7

I’m assuming here that being a Type-7 owner isn’t your goal - its a means to an end. If your target was to be a space trucker then look no further than the Type-7. The middle child from Lakon Spaceways its not as nimble as our beloved Sixer and not as weighty as the Fat9 but its got a lot to offer any credit-concious pilot as you transition from medium to large ships.

Opening Gambit

Lets talk about the T7 a little - first off the bat you are going to want to get a few upgrades, you are going to max the cargo around the 200 or 216T point and fitting shields, or shields and an extra bank, its kinda up to you.

I’m not going to outfit a T7 for you here, but be aware that you’ll have a couple of upgrades at 5.1M or 1.7M each, and another pair at 1.6M or 0.5M each too.  While your entry-level T7 is going to take around 25M Credits, your workhorse is going to weigh-in on the high side of 30M once you are starting to get really happy with it.

But here I want to talk about upgrade options! From the spacious cockpit of a T7 there are three ships you’ll be looking at next. The Imperial Clipper, the Federal Dropship or the mighty Python.

Imperial Clipper

The first ship after the T7 is the Imperial Clipper. It has about the same capacity, but Two large and Two medium hardpoints so you can join the fight should the worst happen.  One of the first things you notice moving up from an Asp to a T7 is the lack of hardpoints and turning circle, and these are addressed in the Clipper.

To put it in outfitters terms, the “Clipper is to the T7, what the Asp was to the Sixer.”  

An empty Clipper costs 31M with a 5A Frame Shift drive, so not too much higher than the budgets we are talking about in a T7 although there are more upgrades than that you will want.

Once you have a T7 with 12M in the bank, then the Clipper starts to feel realistic, however you need to find one for sale and need an imperial rank of “Baron” or higher, which is going to take hours of Imperial missions to achieve.

I’d only recommend going for the Clipper if you are a dedicated Imperial Pilot, and working up the ranks is something you are already interested in. Its this Imperial affiliation that puts me off, and despite it being a very nice looking ship, the Clipper isn’t for everybody..

Federal Dropship

The Federal Dropship sits at the next price point, at 40-50M Cr.  It has four Medium Hardpoints and one Large, but doesn’t have the capacity of the Clipper.

Its a good buy if you want something with good capacity that hits hard in a fight, but its not the earner that the T7 or Clipper are.  With as standard load of 116 or 132T based on Shield Bank choice the Federal Dropship maxes out at only 164T with no shields - but I’m never going to recommend running a dropship with anything less that double-A shields.

Like the clipper, you’ll need a federal rank to buy one, and its street price of 37M credits might seem low but its packed with Size-5 and Size-6 components, which cost up to 16M credits each. You can fly one for 50MCr, but it won’t be fully outfitted until you’ve spent around the 80M mark.

On the plus side, its huge 6A Power Plant and power anything and even a 5A has enough juice for four Plasma Accelerators. To this end, the Federal Dropship reads like a super-Asp.  Its an all rounder that doesn’t excel, but if you can stand the heat - and it’ll get hot - then Quad 2C Plasma Accelerators is a lot of diplomacy.

The Python

With two medium and Three Large hardpoints, The Python is a heavy hitter and maintains the 200+ T Capacity that you are used to in your Type-7.  Its range-limited compared to the Type-7, which isn’t something you hear every day, and you won’t get a lot out of it fully laden even with a Class-A FSD but the gains in safety features really compensate for the shorter jump range and while your profit runs might be slower the wastage due to piracy will diminish.

Its also much easier to find wingmen in a Python.  As a T7 pilot, you ask Asps or Viper jocks to accompany you on an trade route and they might not want to play nursemaid.  But as an Asp Pilot, I would have queued up to fly on a mighty pythons wing.  When Two asps and a Python get interdicted, the pirates will soon change colours and turn tails.

The Python is available without the need for Federal or Imperial ranks and is going to cost a little more because of it, however for non-aligned pilots the iconic Python is the next big thing since the T7.

A Shop-Floor Python costs 55M Credits, which is a pretty penny by itself and represents some 25M more than the aspiring T7 pilot will have.  After a Class-D refit and maxing the Cargo at 228T you are in the 60.5M range, with a truncated nine light year jump.  The Class-A FSD takes you to 65M and 16.42 Light Years with its big 228T capacity which is the starting point for the ship.

Power Management

With its big 7D Power Plant the mighty python is ready to equip anything, however we’re going to be swapping that out to a Class-A of a smaller size for the better heat efficiency. I don’t know which yet, but the 5A costs a cool 5M Credits and the 6A is going to set us back 16M. You don’t want to contemplate the 7A right now.

I’m going to switch to the 5B plant. Its not quite as heat efficient as the 5A, but will run a lot cooler than the 7D and costs about the same.

Safety features

For the initial purchase, I’m keeping the 6D shields that I fitted in the Class-D refit. They are massive compared to the shields we’ve seen in smaller ships and although it won’t survive a sustained assault or coordinated attack its a lot more protection than any freighter has seen. This will help keep the cost down and give me a minimum purchase value for the Python.

Those big 3C Beams cost 2M credits each, so I’m putting them out of budget for an initial python purchase.  Since the stock python earns the same as a T7 but has shields and guns, even cheaper 2D Beams will be a vast improvement and I can get five of those for 2.5M credits. Its a lot of money, but its enough firepower to see off the riff raff and doesn’t make a dent in the power capacity of the 7D plant.

Summary

So our entry-level Python is a 16.4Ly jumper with a 228T capacity. It weighs in at 67M Credits, but is bristling with five 2D Gimbal Beams which only represents a fraction of its fully armed firepower.

The insurance is going to come in at about 3.5M, and I’d recommend having enough to pay for it twice on a ship like this and a further 2M to cover cargo costs.

So… The Entry level Python requires 76M of assets, subtracting the 30M you already own as a T7 pilot, is still a massive 46M Credits of earning in a T7 before you can upgrade to this space monster.

At 2MCr/H thats 23 Hours of trading… A long days work by any measurement. The road to the Python is a long one, and at 1MCr/Hour to get into the T7 to start with it looks like Lakons Type-7 transport is the half-way mark in being a the proud owner of a Python.

However the Python will earn a fraction faster than a T7, and will be able to upgrade those internal compartments and hardpoints one by one, earning as it goes along, and if you have a spare 76M lying around you'd be a fool not to pick up a python at your local dealership. Its worth stressing that 76M is the minimum spend to buy a python - you'll easily add thirty or fourty million credits to that and still have room for more upgrades.

I’ll have a full T7 Outfitters article for you soon.

Until then, fly casual.

Elite Dangerous Outfitters - Red Venom Viper

Hey Space Cadets! What is going on?
I'm Cmdr TwingTwang of the Alliance, and welcome to the Outfitters!

In this article I'll be putting some venom in my viper some hardpoint choices. In previous articles I've outfitted a thematic Solid Gold Viper that relied on prestiges and looking good and recently a Wingman Viper that was based on Quad-Beam lasers to keep a ships shields down while a bounty hunter sweeps in for the coup-de-gras

This viper has got a lot of venom in its bite.  I've based if off of the wingman viper build, which was a combat ship balanced for its power consumption. The entire thing can be had for a couple of million credits, so this ship won't break the bank and you can afford to lose a couple while you get used to the heat.

Off the bat, I found the wingman viper was fine for tag team combat but I was concerned that the ship was loosing manuverability with its Class-B Thrusters, so I've chosen to upgrade those to Class-A and get the most out of this ship.  I also added military composite alloys, because the price isn't too steep and I wanted that extra snug feeling of safety.

Otherwise its a reasonable Viper build, and well within budget on all fronts.  I took this ship for a spin at a RES and started racking up the kills to get a handle on its performance.

Safety Features
Like the Wingman Viper, the Red Venom has Class-B shields and a Class-C Shield Bank fitted. These weren't really up to standard in a fight, and while I've been spoiled by the Double-A shield standard in an Asp I did expect the Viper to be a bit more hardy.
I found that while I was outside the fire arc, I was fine but each time I squared off head to head with an Anaconda it cost me a shield bank, or more. With the extra 0.6MW of power going to waste, I think better shields are really wanted here.

The small hardpoints have my default option of E1 Beam lasers on Gibmal mounts. I've done so much damage with these in the past they are a good starting point - but more on this later.

For medium hardpoints I carefully considered the Big Four options.
The C2 Plasma Accelerator and B2 Rail gun have the same listed damage and damage penetration, but at 1.43 and 1.63 Megawatts respectively they are out of my power budget.
The B2 Missiles do tremendous damage, but I'm not sold on using missiles as my primary weapons - this isn't a missile gunboat build its a space superiority starfighter.

That leaves the wildcard option, the A2 Frag Cannon. Huge damage per second on the frag cannon for very low power consumption makes it an ideal choice for a power-limited Viper build.  You just have to stay cool in the battle and take those shots when they come.

Flight Feel
I'm not sure I really felt the difference between the Class-B and Class-A thrusters straight away, and circling an Anaconda at point blank is a difficult time to reflect upon the efficiency of your ship however we managed to corkscrew around each other for some time with me emptying my little gimbal lasers into the shields a couple of times before being able to line up the big guns.

While the E1 Beams do empty quickly and suffer from overheating, The A2 Frag Cannons are the star of the show for the damage/power ratio and once those shields were down I was able to tear up the hull pretty quickly. Aiming fixed projectile weapons takes more patience than I'm used to and I only landed half my shots, which really exaggerates both the low ammo supply and the thickness of an Anacondas hull.  I let loose some stray shots, and landed some direct hits on shields that hindsight tells me I should have waited on.

The Second Anaconda ran me out of ammo, and I had to continue the fight with small Beams only - its possible but I wouldn't recommend it. Local security services took some of the heat out of that which meant I felt safer even without such a bite. After that every ship was small enough for beams, including a rather aggressive cobra.




Final Verdict
Those big old A2 Fraggers really put some venom in a viper. With low power consumption and huge damage when you get a good attack vector I'm suddenly more scared about squaring against a viper than I was before.
I can see why Viper Jocks always swear by fixed weapons - those big guns hit very hard and a little pilot skill and patience really pays off.

I can see myself re-outfitting with Size-2 Beams and smaller fraggers, and see how that feels. When your primary damage dealer runs out of ammo, you shouldn't stay for too long in a fight. The larger beams will take down shields faster, be better at targeting modules, and maybe buy me enough time to land those frag cannon shots without wasting half my ammo to the void.

As always, Fly Casual.