I know a lot of people have been suggesting new "craptors" that aren't so crappy, because the ship has potential, just not with the sucky stats.

Now the only good thing about the Raptor is the built in Mineral Scanner, so my suggestion is to make use of the new update to make the Raptor a decent ship. Add a built in Cargo Scanner. (maybe a CS blocker to...?)

If anything merits a built in cargo scanner it is, as previously suggested, the Greyhound.

Raptor mk.III AWACS should have onboard multi-radar:

-multiscanner (ore/cargo)
-Radar group Extender
-Ion Storm Extender
-Cloudy sector radar extender (=ion)
-Longer radar range
-Radar jammer (reduces enemy randar reach)
and those not taking a port.

Add to that some extra speed / trust and reduces armour and you have the ultimate scout ship so far...

An Alloh suggestion that's both a good idea and not too badly garbled (probably because he largely avoided trying to use complete sentences). I'm shocked.

I would add to this that the ship should have no ports.

Eh, it's combat useless with ports, Tumble. Just make it less thrusty/armory.

And stop putting the newer versions of the raptor in the TPG capital! Seriously... the only people using ion storms are pirates.

Indeed. And it would make sense for, say, Corvus, to squirrel away a few hulls to do some tinkering (as you can tell, I've been playing EVN too much lately), and have them sitting, say, at Odia M-14.

Edit: In fact, I feel that special ships and equipment should see dynamic dispersion. Perhaps missions encompassing technology theft? Really hard ones, that have you dying more often than not, possibly in a 3:1 ratio. With a completion bar, that gets filled up with each delivery, but dwindles over time.

Edit2: And counter-IP-theft missions.

To keep format:

Raptor/Raptor mkII (MkIII differences)
Armor: 8300 (mkIII: 7000)
Cargo: 8 (mkIII: 2)
Weapons: 2s (mkIII: 0 or one utility port)
Mass: 3900kg (mkIII: 4200kg)
Length: 17m (55' 9")
Thrust: 260
Spin Torque: 8.5 (mkIII: 7.5)
Max Speed: I: 55m/s II:60m/s (mkIII: 65m/s)
Turbo Speed: 220 m/s (mkIII: 225m/s)
Turbo Energy: I: 54/s II: 57/s (mkIII: 52/s)

Onboard extras:
-Radar group Extender
-Multiscanner (cargo/ore)
-Radar extender working both on Ion storm and cloudy sectors
-Longer radar range
-Radar jammer (reduces enemy randar reach)

This is the perfect recon/scout ever produced (so far). Excellent also for group support role, even more on foggy/stormy sectors. But really not a combat ship, so no need to ports, or try to carry guns.