Look at the Size of that Thing....

The rewards for the Zaonce Community Goal - 16% off Faulcon de Lacy ships ends on Tuesday.  I've already got myself a cheap Python as part of the reward, but Faulcon de Lacy also make the Anaconda.

2 weeks ago, I never thought I would have the cash to even think about buying a reduced Anaconda, at 123m the 16% discount is quite a bargain.  But a good trade route, perseverance and also a sizable amount of liquid assets made that discarded thought a reality for me today!

I've been running a 3 hop trade route in the python for the last 2 days, on paper and stopwatch I could do the run in 20 minutes making nearly 3 million an hour, but reality means that that paper estimates never bare any resemblance to the real thing.  So it has been a hard grind to get some cash together.  It probably wouldn't have been so bad if there wasn't a time element involved.

Nevertheless, I've achieved the secondary goal of reaching the trading rank of Entrepreneur:-

I gave up on trading at that point.  Hat's off to @Fireytoad, he did that route for 2 weeks straight, 2 solid days was enough for me!  Now for a break!

Fortunately, I did have some assets to liquidate.  I sold my Viper and Cobra, both of which I've not flown in months so I won't really miss them, and I've taken the Clipper (god I love that zippy ship so much after flying the ponderous Python for 2 weeks) to Shinrarta Dehzra and downgraded the A-rated modules that are sitting there underutilized.  The way I see it, it shouldn't take long once the Anaconda is up and running to full trade capacity to replace them again.  Make your money work for you instead of sitting in the shipyard.  I feel a bit sad to strip the Clipper, but the Anaconda hull discount means I've already saved over 20 million.  So definitely worth it in the long run!

And the Anaconda!  What a big ship she is.....

 

A pure investment for the time being.  I need quite a bit of cash now to start kitting it out and to replace the Clipper modules as my first priority, but at least I can raise that cash at my leisure with no time pressure.

P-P-P Pick up a Python

I bought a Python.   The money off deal from last weekend's community goal (8 Million off the regular price) is a little to much to turn down and its the next logical step in ship advancement for me.

Beta 1.3 is delayed for another 10 days so I might as well do a bit of trading - hopefully levelling all my ranks and getting Entrepreneur until Powerplay hits at the end of May, as at the moment I feel a bit Pew Pewed out!

I don't exactly feel excited about buying the Python, flew it in Beta 1.2, felt very slow and sluggish after the wonder-fly nippy Clipper, but we shall see.  Of course it does have two plus points over the Clipper, it can land on outposts and can hold more cargo.  But then I didn't really feel that excited about the Fugly Vulture to start with either and look at the fun I've had with that!

I did a few upgrades costing about 15m so I'm not flying the bog-standard Python and of course I had to get a paint job for it to match the rest of my fleet of green ships :-)

One Expensive Wing-Waggle!

Its happened.  I finally got blown up.  All my own stupid fault too.  Shows me right for showing off the new Clipper paintjobs and wing waggling inside the station at a fellow CMDR.  Doh.

I get the paid loitering warning. yep, ok, hands up I confess I did that, but when I backed up and returned to my own pad, it didn't like me being their either, even when I landed on it so KABOOM!

Yep, you are reading it right, that little wing-waggle cost me 2.8 million credits - plus another 1.6 million in unsold Beryllium cargo.

Why so much for a Clipper?  I've been fitting her out with A-Rated modules of course!  Finally bought the top thrusters for her yesterday and she did top out at 440m/s whilst boosting. Hope I get a bloody good bonus from the Nu Community Goal to help me get the cash back.  But to be honest its only a small dent in my funds, I've made more than that since Friday trading metal for the Community goal.

Anyway, floating pieces of lime green Imperial Clipper were seen floating around the station afterwards, the station should really organise a clean-up crew (or maybe have used a hankie!).


There she was, the last picture I took of my first Clipper who has served me so well these last few months. Sob! Ce la vie.

When AI's Attack

Last week there was a battle of the behemoths in BD+03 2338 between the new Federation Battlecruiser FNS Nevermore and Hudson Dock itself.

A bug - possibly caused by a player firing on the Nevermore—caused the capital ship to return fire, and miss, instead hitting Hudson Dock.  The Dock returned fire, the Nevermore returned fire back, and so on and so forth.  David Braben denied that it was a bug on twitter and said it was "emergent gameplay".  A few CMDRs braved their ships integrity to get close enough for screenshots, but I would love to see a video of the battle!

By the time Core Dynamics (aka Frontier Developments) got the situation under control, the Farragut class ship was down to 26% hull strength and saddled with a 72,000 credit bounty and had earned "Novice" combat status. During this time dozens of people were killed, and hundreds of millions of credits in damages were done to both structures.

Frontier have used this incident as a new Community Goal for players to supply even more metals to the station, this time to repairs both structures! lol

The incident even made the Galnet News.  CMDR Sam Ishum has now denied any responsibility for supplying sub-standard materials during the ships construction and directed any comments or complaints to his (CRAP) lawyers.

The Vicious Vulture

Spent the last few days earning about 10 million credits trading in my Clipper so I could buy the new Vulture.

I've got mixed feelings about this ship and the way it was released into the game along with the Fer De Lance, and the controversial prices.  I personally think that it should have been priced at 10 million, instead of the inital 22 million, and the Fer De Lance was about the right price (but should have better travel capabilities).  I don't really agree with Frontier listening to all the winers and wingers and dropping the prices the way they did.  5 million is a bargain for this ship, and now they have made it TOO CHEAP.

Nevertheless, the price drop has allowed me to afford it almost straight away and to kit it out with all the top modules with the exception of A5 thrusters, as it seems quite nippy enough with the C5s I've got in it.  After carefully maneuvering in the dock with the Clipper for the last few days I'm over correcting at the moment in this zippy thing.  A friend of mine said it looks like a set of bathroom scales, and I can see where the feet would go. lol

Shiny Ship

After making 6 million to boost my bank balance selling Performance Enhancers "Viagra" to Seeking Luxuries Type 9 Lakons at Beta Sculptoris yesterday; I finally stopped procrastinating bought my Clipper.

The Clipper is probably the best looking ship in the game so far.  Its not really designed for fighting but it is a really good transport ship.  If you have to haul cargo - why not do it in style?  

I stripped my ASP of its A5 drive and the expensive Advanced Discovery and Detailed Surface scanners and installed them in the clipper to save me some cash.  Even with the A5 drive it will still only jump 19 ly which is such a shame as the clear cockpit window makes it the ideal exploration vessel.  

  

It feels quite zippy for such a large ship.  The graphic signature on the large pad almost filled it instead of the fly-sized signature of the Type 7 that I was flying earlier but the Clipper feels like a smaller ship to maneuver.  Or maybe its just that the Type 7 handles like an ugly bus!!

Now the hard grind to kit it out.   I'm not really happy about trading in the size 6 shield generator yet - as doing so will allow me to add another 64 cargo slots - in favour of a less powerful class 4 or even 3 shield.  I think I'll do a few runs at a lower profit margin until I'm happy I've mastered the feel of flying it and that I won't go crunch in it whilst docking.  But even without the class 6 slot I am still sporting a pretty respectable 176 tonnes.  To run without the shield generator - eek - gives it 240.

Definitely needs a larger power plant as the FSD raises 40 heat points when it charges - not good when I was interdicted scooping on my first jump out out Beta-1 Tucanae by an Eagle. Must admit I did panic a bit when I started cooking myself to give me 6% hull loss. Lol - £42k repair bill for that when I docked.

I created a new HUD layout.  The standard orange HUD and the blue lights of the Clipper's cockpit simply do not go!

My HUD.

My ASP is so big

My ASP is so big it casts a shadow...