I need an Asp Scout. It’s a ship that I’ve put off buying because I wanted to save money. The general feeling towards this ship is negative, to say the least. But I want to review it and see for myself. So, the time has come to throw some credits at the nearest ship sales Emporium and pick one up.
Don’t get me wrong, I can afford this ship. But given that AI technology has been advancing rapidly, it’s high time I put it to the test and asked it to build me a ship. So, here’s the plan: I’ll ask AI to spec me a ship with a budget of 1 million credits. That ship will then go and earn me around 4 million credits, which is more than enough to cover the discounted price of an Asp Scout.
Okay, so looking at the build, there are some positives here. I do like the Viper Mark frame, although it’s been a while since I flew one without any engineering. Since AI didn’t specify any engineering, I can’t add any to the build to improve its performance.
Looking at the core internals, I wonder if AI went overboard with the cybernetic enhancements. On the surface, it’s not a bad build, but going a-rated with a full-size power plant and thrusters blows the budget out of the water. But this is a challenge, so I’ll have to cut some corners here. At least it’ll make the ship light, even if it’s underpowered and slow.
For the optional internals, I’ll need to downsize the shield in order to keep within budget. As for the weapons, I can apparently pick anything as long as it’s fixed or gimballed. I’ll go with the tried and tested mix of pulse lasers and multi-cannons. I’ll also go with gimbaled weapons to compensate for the smaller thrusters throwing off my aim.
As for the rest of the internals, I’ll grab a size 2 shield, the two suggested utilities, and I would have liked to throw a shield cell bank into this to bolster the ship’s defensive capabilities. But I can’t see any way of getting a shield cell bank in there while staying within the available power.
So here we have it, sitting on this pad as the abomination that AI designed. In light of this, she’s been christened ‘Skinny’. Offensive, I know, but it’s a reference to her origins. Now it’s time to see what this little creation is made of, with its undersized internals and bog-standard weaponry.
At this point, it feels like death is not just a possibility but inevitable. The ship barely has enough power to function without the weapons deployed, and deploying them just overloads the power plant. The small overcharge would fix the issue, but without any engineering, it’s not an option.
Instead, deprioritizing the cargo hatch gave just about enough power to function, but it is pretty much on the limit. Also, to make things more challenging, I’ve put all my credits into my carrier bank, so my wallet is effectively empty.
Let’s crack on. First off, I took on a low-level weapon fire signal source and dispatched a mostly harmless Eagle. It was a little bit of a low earner, but it was a good warm-up.
To get the money needed via this route would be soul-destroying and take ages, so that’s a no-go. Next up was a normal resource extraction site. Nothing too tricky here, but the effects of a few fights and some stupid decisions started to take their toll.
With 1.7 million credits ready to be cashed in, it was time to head back, get my money, and make a few small adjustments to the firing groups. Heading back out, there was then a choice: I could head back to the same site and do the same drills over and over, or I could take the difficulty up a notch.
And this was possibly my first stupid decision. Spotting an Imperial Courier, it seemed like this would be the first challenging win. My regular Viper would squish this thing like a bug on the canopy, but this isn’t my regular Viper. It’s a budget-cut-down, unengineered Viper with standard weapons and subpar power distribution and handling.
It was a long, drawn-out fight, but in the end, there was only one result: utter failure. Back to the dock to come up with a new strategy. Given that the money for the rebuy was in the kitty now, this wasn’t over. Nor was the idea of a victory in the hazardous RES. It was time to have a nut up or shut up.
This time, it started better. A wild Eagle appeared and was promptly dispatched, proving that this ship is capable of getting some small gains in the hazardous RES. Next up was a Python. Thanks to its shield cell banks, it was time to make a tactical withdrawal.
Basically, run away with my Viper’s tail tucked between his legs in shame. So, for basic resource sites, for a decent earner, the HazRES was proving a little bit too hot for the Viper to handle in this configuration.
And this is where the compromise comes in. It was time to head to the high resource extraction zone. My god, did this payoff. With some more challenging enemies and the support of the local security forces, the credits kept rolling in.
So, with everything added up, we were on top of the damned galaxy. Given that we started this with no credits in the wallet, we were now rolling in it. So, what does this prove? Aside from the fact that asking AI to design a ship on a budget is going to lead to compromises, it proves that you can take a small ship and get yourself on the path to upgrading fairly quickly.
It also proves that, as useful as engineering is, you can get by without it, at least in the PvE situation. Knowing your ship and what it isn’t capable of is key. Although this might be a case of a poor workman blaming his tools, that’s not for me to decide.
With all that said and done, what’s next for Skinny? She’s not being decommissioned or stripped for parts. Instead, she’ll be going back into the hangar for another day. Maybe we’ll ask AI to modify the specs to make her more offensive, maybe by tacking on some engineering or throwing another million credits at it.
This is all something for the future. But if you want to look at the current build of the ship, I’ll include that in the description. If you have any other ideas or suggestions, let me know. In the meantime, I’ll continue writing up the next couple of reviews that are in progress and start getting to know my Asp Scout. Until next time, 07.
