I'm looking for a good combat ship for pew-pew and collection of materials for engineers. This is my current Python fit



I'm not too sure if I'm happy with this fit to be honest. Maybe swap my weapons so I have 3 large MCs and 2 medium beams so I can shred hulls quicker. I noticed AI ships seems to all mount bi-weave shields so I want to deal as much damage as I can when the shields are down. I wonder if there are better fits or better ships that people are enjoying? I'm tempted to build an Anaconda for pew-pew or even a Fed Corvette with 2 huge MCs, luckily I'm about 150M credits short for that build.

I'd like to see what other people are flying or any recommendations for this goal? The only real requirements would be that its fitted for combat but has the ability to collect materials and scan wakes, so collector limpets and a wake scanner would be required.

A tip. When you want to do something in Elite do it. Don't disperse your modules to things that you don't need. If you want to combat to collect materials, concentrate on that. In long run you''l save time by being much more efficient.

Change your 6A shield cell for a smaller one. A 5 or a 4. Remove Heat sink, chaff and scanner launcher and put shield boosters.
Never use a life suport other than D. If you can't reach a starport in 7.5 minutes you better do something else. Usually it takes 2 to 3 minutes. I always use just D sensors.
You don't need a fuel scoop neither a stellar scanner to fight.

You can store these modules on nearest starport to have them after combat.
Fill your ship to at least 50 collector limpets.


This is a sugestion without engeneer.
Combat python

If you have acees to engeneers I would use:
Beams-efficient weapon
multi canons-rapid fire
Engines-dirty
power plant-armoured (for heat efficiency)
power distributor- charge enhanced
Shield booster-heavy duty
Shield generator-Reinforced

Your on the right path.
WEPS; 4 MC on top, 1 3CG beam on bottom is what I'm using
Utilities; once you improve shields and thrusters you can swap out the chaff launcher for another shield booster.
I'll try to post my stats for you later if your interested let me know.


Wingy

Thanks for the reply, alexb! I wonder what makes you say what you said here??


Points taken! But why put in a smaller shield cell?

Heatsink - I usually fire off a HS as I use a SCB, why take it off?
Chaff - swap for a booster, I can see the point. I usually fire chaff so that they're not tracking on me, so I guess it's a swap between not getting hit and being able to take the hit
Scanner - as this build is to collect materials for Engineers, I'll need that as I move around the galaxy or go to distribution centers and scan wakes. I could have a different ship for this, but then I'd be swapping ships all the time.

Life Support - I agree with you on this. I was just A-rating the Python, hence the A-rated LS.

Sensors - won't better sensors mean I can track targets further out? I'm planning to mod my guns for Long Range and they can reach out to 8KM which means anything the scanner can see (7.2KM), I can shoot at. I'm not going for good jump range anyway so the extra weight isn't an issue.


That's an interesting build. So far, I've not lost my shield on my Python, maybe due to the bigger SCB. I'm guessing the HRPs and MRPs are there to increase the survivability if the shields go out?

As I said in the first post, I'm collecting materials for engineers hence the need for collector limpets and wake scanner.

Remember, I'm not asking for builds limited to the Python, if you think a better ship has a better fit (remember the collector limpet and wake scanner requirements though!), I'd love to hear it.





Please do post your fit! I just have the chaff launcher due to "I've always done that" plus you know how annoying it is to stop firing on AI to let their chaff disperse, so I'm giving them a taste of their own medicine!

I loaded up on 2 medium MCs and 3 large MCs on the way to Tod and someone thought it would be a good idea to interdict me. Suprising how quick the MCs took care of the issue.

Ice, I'm also collecting materials myself to Prof. Palin and I've been collecting materials for the last couple of months so I understand why you need to have the wake scanner. But I assure you that you would collect faster if you concentrate your task and ship on one kind of materials at a time. If you are after materials from destroyd ships, my advice is to mount your python do be a serial killer and do just that. You would be a much faster killer, you will stay on combat for much more time and you will be much more efficient in finding the materials you need. Then, after that concentrate on wake materials and so on. Believe me. You would need a lot of materials do engeneer to level five all main modules and weapons and doing things like this is de diference between taking a couple of weeks or take a couple of months.
The reason why I would change your shield cell for a smaller one is because a class 6 generates to much heat. Having a smaller one could allow you to get rid your heatsinks. And because you would have more shield boosters you won't need such an heavy shield cell. The main advantage is that you would use less charges and so more time on combat. If you were doing PvP , my advice would be diferent but against Ai there's no need.
The same against Chaffs. Ai these days are using alot of fixed weapons and to me chaffs are for small ships that can't stand a single big hit or for really big ships that have a lot of utility mounts.
About sensors I can half agree with you. Most players prefer big sensors and I can understand . For myself, I never found the need for big ones when fighting in high intensity combat zones because ships are usually close to each other, but this is very personal and I really understand the need for big ones.

In the end all of this is very personal and everybody have their own preferences and there is no right or wrong. I'm just showing you my preferences so you can think about them and even try some of them so you can have a broader range of solutions.

Just three tips that I really think are important when collecting materials from combat:
-Never go after canisters.
-Never go after common and very common materials, even if you need them. Its just a waste of time and limpets and in a material trader a single unit of rare materials can give a lot of units of common ones.
-Go after all rare and very rare materials you find, even if you don't need them. You can change these later for the ones you need.
-If there is a pain in the ass material that simple doesn't apear don't spend to much time on it. Material traders have infinite suply of every material and you can change another rare material for the one you need. Of course you have to give more units than what you will receive but its still a faster solution.

Thank you for the insight and point taken alexb!

My main targets are Type-9s in Distribution Centers and the nature of the instance is that there are a lot of wakes, so it seems like such a waste to not capitalize on the opportunity. Besides, where else can you get so many wakes? I've also noticed that my increased efficiency came with a downside --- I'd take out all the Type-9s faster than the instance can replenish them, so I'm left wake-scanning for a while, then back to pew-pew. I have a feeling that doing pew-pew in a RES site would be slightly different But then I'm under the impression that Type-9s drop different materials compared to wanted AI ships in a RES site?

As for the SCB, I don't have to disengage to use it. Fire it, release a HS, done. I can do this easily as I come around after a joust. So I don't really lose combat time which I think is what you're saying. Without the HS, yes, I'd have to pause a bit to cool off so that's why the HS is there I will try your suggestion though and see how it works out.

Re: Chaff, the Type-9s use turreted weapons But I can probably lose the Chaff launcher and replace it with another shield booster and not sweat it.

As for your tips --- why not collect them all? The common ones can be traded up and the rarer ones don't drop that often, I think. I don't really pay attention to what the limpets collect, just that they collect everything. I often times end up with hundreds of the lower materials which I can then swap into 1 or 2 of the higher ones without having to sacrifice any of the other high-tier materials.

I thought all stuff were in canisters? You make it sound like some are and some aren't. Again, I don't really look at my left panel to see.

As for collecting, I have two 5A collector limpets on my ship now, so with 6 limpets out, it takes them 1.5 trips to collect all materials so I'm not in pause mode for very long. In Distribution Centers, I think we're so close to the planet that when the ship blows up, the materials scatter and keep moving and I end up chasing some of them due to the planet's gravity, so the quicker I can collect, the better.

Ice asked me to post up my Corvette build: Link to EDSY

It's certainly doing well for me in PvE combat.

The size 4 Efficient/Thermal Vent beam lasers can fire indefinitely if they are firing alone, without running out of power or overheating. They also deal well with smaller ships, so the cannons provide punch against the big ones. Cannons are modded for Long Range in order to have the higher speed, which means a shorter time-of-flight and thus more actual hits.

Cobra MK IV with 5 rails, no shields and heatsinks + maximum hull reinforcement packages.

Dunno if it works well now, but it used to be able to take down player FDLs.

I hear heat no longer melts your weapons... supposedly... so I may be trying this again, soon.

As I am getting close to a Corvette, I was looking at Type 10 Builds for funsies, figuring I could buy the big ugly whale, and then sell it off re-purposing the modules for the Corvette. Really just to goof around. All the test builds I did in Coriolis looked good until I realized that the Power Distributor is too small for such a whale of a ship...at class 6 (vs. 8 for the Corvette) so all the nice hard points are probably useless without heavy engineering of weapons for Efficiency and Power Distributor engineering for Charge or Weapons Focus. I guess a heavier MultiCannon or Cannon centric build + Large Beam like Wingy's Python (with additional Turreted Pulse Lasers) would ease the pressure on the Capacitor somewhat

I dunno, I still think it might be fun (ONCE) to wallow around a RES in that Behemoth!!!

Recluse Type 10 Defender Build For Fun

TYpe 10 Projectile Heavy Build

Honestly I haven't really looked to see what the Hard Point Placement is, so things might need to be shifted around.

Doubt I will actually do it...

Thanks for indulging me there James! With that price tag tho....

Mr_B, the ever-reliable Cobra is good, no doubt, but I figure the bigger ships have more firepower? It'll be fun to do a Cobra pew-pew though so I may return to that ship sometime!

Recluse, DO IT!!!!

Lately I have been flying around in my Old Cobra Mk III with an SRV to do Planetary Scan missions. It was cheap and easy to have the Cobra transferred and I was having some problems with the ASP at the time (fixed now). While I think I would be afraid to take the Cobra into Combat without lots of backup, it was lots of fun to fly around in and still represents my favorite ship to fly in the ED Universe.

Never flew a Mk. IV

I think any ship that's decent at combat can fulfill this role. I've been doing this in the Vulture and Courier. But the Python is especially well-suited, particularly if you wan to run a limpet controller or two. Personally I ditched the controllers, they are heavy as sh!t, and just fly around scooping it all up. The 6A I had been running in the Python weighs 40t!

The Chieftain and the Corvette also seem like good choices for these requirements.

I'm in a bit of a bind now. I think I want a Corvette for pew-pew, but I can't afford it and I'm not exactly looking forward to grinding out more credits via trade. Maybe I'm approaching burnout again, maybe it's that other thing that's rearing its head again and making me broody.

What's the next-best ship after the Corvette? The Anaconda?

I've loaded up on 5x MCs on my Python for the trip to Mr. Blaster and had some fun with an all-MC build with auto-reloader and I can keep firing until the cows come home.... or until my ammo racks run dry which was surprisingly quick! I'd kill for an ammo storage module!! Swapped to an all-beam build and I think I cooked my testicles there at 200% heat, plus the power distributor struggles to keep up. I'm told that Engineer mods can probably lessen this a bit, but..... maybe try a pulse laser build next? Basically I'm trying to find a build that will allow me to stay at sites and do pew-pew for longer, and I think that means no ammo-reliant weapons

Why not have a bit of a sell-off? You can always buy them again later, but maybe you wouldn't want to sell the Imperial boats if you don't have the rank to re-acquire them. An A-rated Clipper, if you fitted it out, would bring minimum 80 million. Sell the Asp, Clipper and Courier and you've got 2/3 the cost of the base Corvette. That hurts just to type it