I’m after a new challenge in Elite Dangerous, I will go back out to the black and explore some more as I really want to get to Elite. This though will probably require another 2-3000 system scans; I guess I could got to the Neutron star field at PHROI PRA YK-X E1-1405 and farm them but I really love the process of discovering new systems and planets.
I’ve still got to tick off the classic destinations of Sagittarius A* and The Great Annihilator.
My new next goal is now to go to the Empire and work up the ranks to get a Clipper. I’ve still bought the ship I wanted as I was initially going to go back the Allied space and have a go at Power Play and combat as I’m still only a novice.
My new ship is the Vulture, which I hope is going to be as good as I’ve read. My initial purchase and load out cost 18 million credits! It took me to 116% power use so I’d have to disable a number of modules during combat so both my beams would work.
One module was the kill warrant scanner which sort of defeats the object in having one if it’s not available during combat:
Back to the drawing board! The biggest issue I think are my beam lasers. I didn’t go for a gimballed weapon so I wouldn’t get affected by chaff. I’d have to be more accurate, but I thought with such powerful weapon it’s damage would compensate for the increase in misses.
If I went for a cannon, they have a lot less power draw so that’s a big bonus. I’d prefer gimballed as I’d need to hit more often as I’d have to consider ammo.
The gimballed beams had less power draw but then I’d be susceptible to chaff but have no ammo concerns. Hmmm decisions decisions!
The massive boon to gimballed is being able to target subsystems. You can then target the power plant on a large ship, once that’s gone, BOOM! No need to eat through the hull.
I could have a laser and cannon, then have them in different fire groups, this is useful as the laser would eat through the shields and then I’d swap to the cannon to eat through the hull. The if I went fixed I’d not worry about chaff and if I ever ran out of ammo I’d still have the laser to carry on.
Or fixed laser and gimballed cannon, I could then target subsystems plus I am 0.01MW under my limit, with no kill warrant scanner. OK that load out is a fair sacrifice, I’ll just miss out on some possible bounty payouts.
I’ll be running missions initially so missing that scanner should hurt my prospects.
My final load out is here. My cost was quite a bit less as I bought it in Shinrarta Dezhra for about 18 million, a saving of 4 million. Those Alpha backer perks are helping! 🙂
UPDATE
After a few tussles on my way to an Empire system I realised my Cannon isn’t really suited to small crafts, TBH I’d got it confused with the multi-cannon, it’s been so long since I’ve out fitted a ship. My aim is a bit poor as well so I’m going to swap the fixed beam for a gimballed, class 3 beams certainly swat little ships quickly so the chaff issue shouldn’t be too bad, just boost through and spin round.
I’m going to keep the cannon though, I think it’ll be helpful when I come across a big ship.
UPDATE
In the end I’ve stuck with two Class 3 gimballed pulse lasers. They’ve served me well the few times I’ve farmed conflict zones and other NPCs