It’s been just under a week since I came back to the bubble from completing the old CNE route. I’ve been doing Sothis runs, and I nearly have enough… for my own ANACONDA!! 😀
Yes, you heard right. My.. own.. Anaconda! Biggest player-purchasable ship (that doesn’t require rep) in the game! However, it didn’t start like this.
I actually wanted a Python, because I had thought it was a pretty big ship. But it’s 71 mill..a LOT more than I had. So as I said before, the guy that was trying to help me tried to get me into Sothis.
I’ve been trying to focus on it, but it hasn’t been easy. Started innocently enough by doing data delivery missions to Ceos. They didn’t pay much, but they helped to get rep up with the four factions.
There is also a war that’s been going on (possibly since I started doing this), which limits the profitable missions. The factions are pretty much fighting eachother for reasons unknown to me. All I do know, is with lack of missions has really put a hamper on me.
Speaking of missions, the real money-makers are when you’re no longer Neutral with them, and you start to see deliveries of Biowaste and Hydrogen Fuel for 1 to just over 5 million. Yes, your ship is being used as a HAZMAT tanker. But no problem, the canisters are airtight, and they won’t stink up your cargo hold.
The way I went, is looking for 2-4 mill jobs that are 24 or less canisters. The really good ones are “Deliver 24 for 4.8 mill” or even higher.
I had to continiously flip gamemodes in order for the mission board to reset (similar to what I did in Robigo). But unlike that place, these missions are perfectly legal. And what’s better? Pirates don’t want them! 😀
And due to extreme persistence, I finally had enough to afford a Python! ..And then I sold it. Even due to it being two times bigger than my ASPX, it still requires a Medium pad. And that felt like a slap in the face. I wanted something BIGGER. I wanted something new. I wanted something that felt like I’m finally advancing my player progression.
I wanted..an Anaconda!
But getting one would be no easy feat. 143 mil alone, just to afford the ship all by itself. Outfitting it raises this pricetag to nearly 160 mil. Plus, I kept getting these ‘bad’ attempts, no matter times how I flipped the gamemodes. I was getting these ‘good’ missions, yet they required me to have a large cargo hold to do them (something like 55 or so).
And today (later on today anyway).. finally, I had enough to afford the ‘conda! The most money I had, was 173 mil. Now I’m down to 18 mil. That just tells you how much this ship is, and the outfitting to make it a ‘tradeconda’. And man, is she a BEAST!!
I even did something I swore I was never going to do, which is to purchase paint packs. But from what I went through to get this ship, I felt they finally deserved some money out of me. And this red on black paintjob..it just looks so badass. I also bought a paint pack for my ASPX.
Flying around in this behemoth, I could feel just how big and bulky this ship is. Because bigger ships are slower ships. But DAMN does it feel fun to fly around in!
Am I happy with my purchase? Honestly, I’m not 100% sure yet. I still need to practice on getting through the mailslot of stations without scratching the paint on the way in. Sometimes I feel I have to physically duck to fit through. It’s a really tight fit.
Landing is somewhat of a problem. With my ASPX, I can just fly down head first towards the platform and line up. With this, I got to see it and -hope- I’m lined up enough and start to slowly lower down. Not much I can do with limited downward visibility. Though I feel (in ways), that I can’t wait to attempt to land on a planet — let alone a high G planet. Though I don’t think the landing is going to be problematic..the takeoff could be (as even taking off from a station pad takes a bit to get off the floor).
But what I’m going to be doing is more Sothis missions with a much..much larger cargo hold. It also has weapons (turret pulse cannons) to deal with any would-be pirates that might be trying to go after me, including for the first time I’ve ever used them; shield boosters. They are reported to be passive(or probably made passive in 2.1), which is good for me (as I don’t have any buttons on my HOTAS to assign for them).
Once I have enough credits (and feel comfortable flying around in this thing (aka being able to cover at least 10 rebuys)), I’ll flip to an explorconda build (that my friend is currently working out the bugs on) and then focus on getting to Farseer and improving the jump distance even further (before the GNE, anyway). Plan to get at least the Grade 3 FSD Boost upgrade.