Talk:Federal Dropship/@comment-98.175.69.178-20200110165647
I haven't kitted mine out, but after picking one up during the recent Fed discounts, I'm at a loss as to what to do with it. In every role there's a superior ship either for roughly the same price or even considerably cheaper.
Exploration: laughs in Asp Explorer. Jump range makes this ludicrous; it can be done if you have access to the Guardian FSD booster or you're just a masochist, but...no.
Deep core mining: Huh uh. For half the price you can set up an Asp Explorer for deep core mining; the Dropship will be inferior in every way except that it has about 40% more firepower, better armor, 8 tons more cargo space, and 3 collector limpets instead of 2. The AspX will be much faster and more agile, have a grossly superior jump range both laden and unladen, slightly better shields - in other words, much more able to bug out if pirates pull you.
Unarmed cargo ship: Type 7 has it beat hands down. With the same Class 6 shield and a Class 5 FDS booster, it still carries 3 times the cargo at longer range, for about 75% the cost. AspX again carries almost as much as a Dropship at a faster speed with a much longer jump range, with slightly superior shielding.
Combat: Chieftain is only a couple million more expensive stock and grossly superior. Vulture is probably the equal of a Dropship at much lower cost, or close to it.
If you've already passed on to better ships, the only thing to do with a Dropship for fun is set it up as a hull tank with looooooads of armor - just for variety's sake. It isn't a particularly good ship and isn't the best at any role in its price class.