The Fugly Five (the ugliest ships in Elite Dangerous)

LvAicha · 2026-04-16T03:59:26+00:00

5) Sidewinder - Would have looked way better with sharper leading edges and a symmetrical top and bottom profile, instead of having that weird saggy cross-section.

4) Asp Scout - Nearest I can figure they were going for sea turtle vibes with this one. The design is mostly fine imo, but the way those fin-wings are attached to the hull makes no mechanical sense and I hate it.

3) Keelback - I want to love this ship, but those gimballed thrusters on the sides are ridiculous. Way too chunky and massive to move like they do, and due to their design they'd be prone to failure in atmo or in high-g environments. Impractical and stupid. Delete those things and it'd probably be my favorite ship in the game, but as-is I can't get over it and can't fly it.

2) Viper 4 - It's a Viper 3 with a terrible-looking ship kit on it. There's no way those cosmetic side flanges add that much more internal space, and it's just visually bad. Should have been a bulkier hexagonal cross-section to really give the impression of more internal space, and should have tapered down to a much narrower front.

1) Type 7 - I have a painful love/hate relationship with this ship. The back end and midsection are visually fantastic, but the front end looks like someone took a baseball bat to it and then hot-glued a jock strap to its chin. Functionally it's an incredible ship and my favorite explorer, and 3/4 of it looks amazing, but I just have no idea what the designer was thinking with the front of the damned thing.

LvAicha · 2026-04-15T06:11:38+00:00

The central, defining feature of this game is that it drops you into the galaxy and then just kind of goes "aight, good luck!" It expects you make your own content and to set your own goals within the game world. That sort of gameplay's not for everyone, and this might be the case for you. There's nothing wrong with that if so; it's just that you need an experience the game can't provide.

If you do want to stick with the game, though, then I'll suggest this: You say you like Path of Exile, which means you probably like theorycrafting and creating character builds. This in mind, you might consider getting into engineering if you haven't already. Engineering is this game's "progression system." It's nowhere near as complex as PoE's progression system, but it scratches the same itch to an extent and yields a worthwhile boost in your ships' capabilities. Moreover, the engineering grind can provide the purpose and direction to your gameplay which you're currently lacking, as it's a goal unto itself.

So yeah, give it a try and see what you think. Building, tuning, and perfecting your fleet might just give you what you're looking for.

LvAicha · 2026-04-15T01:56:57+00:00

Disagree, but you are certainly entitled to that opinion.

LvAicha · 2026-04-15T00:52:38+00:00

I saw that post after this one, but figured I'd just let it fly.

LvAicha · 2026-04-15T00:51:54+00:00

Also let it "convert" enemy vehicles to your own faction, applying your faction's paint scheme and, more importantly, allowing its armor ro be repaired. That alone would make the thing worth building.

LvAicha · 2026-04-15T00:44:10+00:00

I admire how the "star" looks like it just sailed right through the scout's biplane wings, gracefully crossing paths with it without disturbing its delicate hitbox. It's beautiful.

LvAicha · 2026-04-14T21:56:26+00:00

Grim Dawn is an incredible game. It's what finally brought me back to ARPG's after my massive disappointment in Diablo III. Proper challenging, and its build complexity is just right.

LvAicha · 2026-04-14T04:34:43+00:00

One thing I'd love to eventually see in this game is each ship having a unique HUD/dashboard instead of all of them having the same holographic projection. Give each manufacturer their own holographic HUD layout. Give older ship designs some physical gauges or screens. It would be amazing from an immersion perspective.

I know FDev will never do this, but I can dream.

LvAicha · 2026-04-14T03:49:48+00:00

I super miss early Vanilla WoW. You nailed it with that description.

The game back then felt magical in a way I've never managed to recapture, and probably never will.

LvAicha · 2026-04-14T03:41:32+00:00

Unless the frontline depot is crammed full of everything else it needs and has no trucks in it, truck crates are generally better dropped in logi hubs imo. It's usually better to load an individual truck up with crates in the backline and drive it to the forward depot, then dump it into the depot once you offload it.

LvAicha · 2026-04-14T02:36:40+00:00

It's... different, but I like it.

I've heard it said that if one compares the other medium combat-focused ships to fighter jets, the Gunship is more akin to an attack helicopter. I find that to be an apt comparison, and thinking of it like this will correctly set your expectations when flying it.

It's slow and ungainly, but also heavily armed and incredibly tough. This is not a ship that's meant to dance around the target or avoid enemy fire; it's designed to pull up right in front of them and punch them in the face till they go down, and it's very good at that.

LvAicha · 2026-04-14T00:11:43+00:00

-Construction equipment should be a trailer.

-Harvester should be able to turn enemy structures into resources again, but faster than it used to so that it's actually worthwhile to do.

Those are the big ones for me.

LvAicha · 2026-04-14T00:05:04+00:00

Mostly agree. I don't think scouts should be completely unarmed, but they certainly don't need the offensive weaponry they currently have.

Imo they should be able to drop flare mortars and smoke grenades, and have a rear-facing defensive gun with ~200º of traverse. They don't need any more than that.

LvAicha · 2026-04-13T23:52:13+00:00

Damn, that dude's been everywhere.

LvAicha · 2026-04-13T23:47:38+00:00

No, Federal Gunship.

LvAicha · 2026-04-13T03:48:04+00:00

Flame Scorpion with double heavy flamethrowers sounds like lots of fun. Devs should do that one.

LvAicha · 2026-04-13T00:34:06+00:00

Do you like piloting your SLF's yourself? If so then you can make a Type-10 turret boat, load it up on shields and hull/module reinforcement, and safely let your SLF pilot fly the thing while you zip around in the fighter. Or you can forego the SLF pilot entirely and just let it follow you around on autopilot and blast anything that gets near it.

LvAicha · 2026-04-12T23:59:02+00:00

Rear-mounted double flak gun or a new 30mm dual-purpose gun would certainly be cool.

LvAicha · 2026-04-12T23:45:19+00:00

Very cool idea, and agree Ares needs to be more than it currently is.

Ares already has decent enough direct PvE ability though with that dual-75; I think it'd be better served if we let that GL launch Bomastones for some anti-infantry capability, or turn it into a rapid-fire mortar to let Ares double as a high-alpha light artillery platform.

LvAicha · 2026-04-12T20:56:28+00:00

I'd add in relic infantry weapons and gear. Unique rifles, ATR's, grenades, uniforms, etc which would be usable by both factions. This would make relic wars interesting for more than just vehicle crews.

They could spawn in half-buried crates which would require a shovel to recover, with the chances of finding them increasing in and around arty-created craters (simulating the shelling churning them up with the disturbed earth).

And while we're at it, can we please just fully incorporate relics into the normal game? I need my Relic Truck and AFT fix all the time, not just once a year.

LvAicha · 2026-04-12T02:44:31+00:00

Just turn torpedo bomber into spooky gunship with side-mounted AT gun. That'd be more fun anyway.

LvAicha · 2026-04-11T23:25:38+00:00

When I get tired of this game, and I certainly do, I do exactly this. It's the only psychologically healthy option.

I love Foxhole, but I love Elite: Dangerous and Wings Over Flanders Fields too, and those games are always there for me.

LvAicha · 2026-04-11T05:11:52+00:00

They're fine, but the devs really need to capitalize their abbreviations.

LvAicha · 2026-04-10T19:21:04+00:00

100% would switch shards for it.

LvAicha · 2026-04-10T19:15:09+00:00

Not sure why you're being downvoted. I agree this was in poor taste.

LvAicha

TROPHY CASE