Formidine Excursion: P4 Final
17 May 2019Nullvektor
An uneventful hike back from the EAFOTS sector to the Heart and Soul nebulas, then another uneventful hike back to Sothis. I've noticed a few quirks about the Cutter. It's real sluggish in supercruise. Even after ripping most of the extraneous junk out of this thing, it's still got far too much mass to be nimble. Like I said, I haven't been in any situations that require hard maneuvering, but I DID during DW2. It takes a good long time to throttle down It's also a bit of a pig in normal space. Oh, it's fast enough in a straight line, but even with flight assist *ON* this thing sideslips and drifts. That might come into use in a combat situation, but I have yet to be in one with this ship. What I did have plenty of experience with, however, was regularly coming in far too hot during a planetary landing and performing an undignified bounce off the surface.
I'm also not exactly thrilled with the autolaunch and autodock; it repeatedly drives me into the sides of the mailslot no matter which direction I'm going-- and this is a problem when I've still got the shield turned off after coming in from the black.
Why I have my shield switched off is also pretty simple: I'm trying to save every last ounce of heat. The Cutter has a very big fuel tank, which feeds the equally big FSD and Fuel Tank, but despite the fact that it's got a big ol' honkin fuel scoop, it still takes too long to fill your massive tank before you start taking heat damage.
It's got a massive cargo capacity and its aesthetics are second to none (which, I should point out, is essential for staving off space madness) but exploration-wise? Hmm.
It's starting to look like a No from me, pal. I'll give the Beluga a whirl to know for certain, but it's looking less and less like the Cutter being the ship that'll fill the Very Large Deep Range Exploration Vessel role.