Talk:Asp Explorer/@comment-90.200.46.38-20181024104856

Weirdly, my Asp Explorer, though not a dedicated combat ship design, got me a Master combat rating just from derping around doing trading and missions and not even trying to be a fighter.

You see, when you're in a bigger ship like a Python, smaller ships don't tend to attack you. So you either don't get interdicted, or its by another big ship (or something nasty like a Vulture) which will probably result in the kind of dangerous and potentially expensive encounter I prefer to avoid.

In an Asp, everything attacks you, but unlike a Cobra III or smaller, and even with a trader loadout, you still have the firepower, armour and shields to take on anything same size or smaller and win without worrying about repair bills (or even worse, insurance claims).

PvP it's a liability though. Too slow, and with a cockpit that smashes if you sneeze at it. And its wide profile and relative lack of nimbleness for its size makes it easy target for powerful fixed mount guns the PvPers like.