Changes

| AB

| AB

| AB

| AB

| BC

| CD

| Warthog Mk II UpgradedOrion Hornet Convoy Guardian Elite| "Red Dart" (lost in DR82)

! Thrust<br/>(NkN)

The Deneb Run is a timed race, and having good top speeds (both cruise and turbo) is indeed critical. Cruising at 65 m/s and boosting at 220 m/s, the Hornet has the (nominal) highest speeds among the contenders. While the acceleration leaves a lot to be desired, there are enough "long streak" race segments (think Itan or SolII) where you can catch up and outrun slower ships. As a rule of thumb, on distances greater than 3000m4000m, a higher top speed can compensate for a slower acceleration, even more so with infiniboost. It has also a cruise speed of 65 m/s, which means it's faster than the Raptor when the turbo is not engaged - like when you're just waiting for your battery to replenish, as in the Bractus-Odia wormhole.

With an armor rating of 13000, it's the toughest racing ship. The Deneb Run is a dangerous event, where people players and NPC are '''supposed''' to fire onto racers. You will cross sectors where Strike Forces, battling capital ships, unrats, and especially other players are ready to vaporize you, so having a solid hull is very, very important in my opinion.  I often docked in Odia M-14 with just a few percentage points of my ship framework. With anything else than an Orion Hornet, that stray flare, or that neutron burst, could have meant the premature end of my run. Too many debris of ECs (half the armor of OHCGE) and Vultures (2/3 of the armor) float near the wormholes of Sedina, Metana and Bractus to convince me that's a good idea to give up good protection during the race.

The downside of the Orion Hornet is quickly assessed: its acceleration and manevuerability are only slightly better than those of a concrete brick. Even the massive Atlas has better acceleration, due to higher thrust/mass ratio. The weight, acceleration and spin torque prevent this ship from being able to efficiently dodge, or quickly align toward the wormholes. It needs some training to steer itcompensate its inertia, and on the short distances it's left in the dust by lighter vessels with explosive accelerations, like EC and , Vultureand Raptor.  The length and cross section are rather large, too, and making it an easier target to hit than the smaller and thinner ships have a distinct advantage.

A minor annoyance, but you You need an high standing with Orion (720) to be able to purchase it. Gaining such standing may be non-trivial, especially since Orion is a gold/gray space faction, the missions needed to increase the standing can be boring and/or dangerous, and the risk of hopelessly ruining the reputation with Orion by doing a wrong move is always lurking. Furthermore, Orion has only four stations: two in Azek, one in Dau, and one in Latos. The other ships are much more available, across the entire galaxy; even the TPG Raptor and Atlas X are present in nine stations, spread over five systems.

Furthermore, Orion has only four stations: two in Azek, one in Dau, and one in Latos. The other ships are much Only the EC-107 is more availabledifficult to obtain, across since it needs a whopping 50 bus kills to unlock the entire galaxy; even the TPG Raptor is present in nine stationstiny, spread over five systemsdarting racer.