Rep for everyone ☺ Great thread.
The viper is horrendous
- Thread starter rupok
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Yes I have 12.7 light years and A 3 modules on nearly everything, these are 500,000 a pop and the Viper comes in over a million with the military armor which I choose for best all round protection. It has been nerfed on speed and I only use mine with the 13 mega watt power plant because I can just about run everything I want on the ship then.
Maybe de-nerf the Viper a little and upgrade the other three a little in different areas.There is a good thread on the first page of discussions here that a chap give stats on the roll, yaw and turn radius of the 4 small fighter ships. Good reading and they are closer than you would think in reality chaps. Modules are what made the Viper useful, but not so overpowered as to be the obvious choice over an Eagle or Cobra yet chaps. Wait for the gamma, we will get final..or near as final ship specs then chaps, then we can pays our credits and takes out choices....speed...armor...turn radius...or..agility.
Maybe de-nerf the Viper a little and upgrade the other three a little in different areas.There is a good thread on the first page of discussions here that a chap give stats on the roll, yaw and turn radius of the 4 small fighter ships. Good reading and they are closer than you would think in reality chaps. Modules are what made the Viper useful, but not so overpowered as to be the obvious choice over an Eagle or Cobra yet chaps. Wait for the gamma, we will get final..or near as final ship specs then chaps, then we can pays our credits and takes out choices....speed...armor...turn radius...or..agility.
To chime in on my personal experience with the Viper, it's a bit of a handful until you get to know her. Myself, I was also starting to despair that I'd have to ditch it as I couldn't find any upgrades to her guts within range of the stock FSD.
That just changed; I found a class 3 C-rated reactor, FSD, shield and thrusters at Wolf 437. That now gives me a range of 10LY unladen, and with 4 gimballed pulse lasers up front (not the mix I want, but I was energy-starved until I found the new reactor) and a warrant scanner I still have 0.35MW of power unused.
The rest is all good, but the FSD upgrade is vital, as the Viper's stock drive doesn't have the range to get beyond a small cluster of systems within something like a 40LY radius of where you start from. It's a little tree of stars, each of whose branches just end because it doesn't have the range to jump to the next star. With the FSD upgraded, the galaxy map has cyan lines all over the place. It's not quite perfect, as there's definitely a boundary further along the white hotdog of space in the Beta where I can't cross. For example, I still can't reach Sol. However, it opens up so many more opportunities.
One other thing to note is that some ratings of equipment have oddly different attributes. For example, I also just bought a 2/D life support to replace the stock 2/E. There was a 2/C that would give me 10 minutes of air instead of 7:30, but the 'D' version weighs a tonne and a half less than the versions immediately above and below. The 3/D scanner is similar in terms of weight savings while still being a slight upgrade on the stock unit.
In terms of flying the Viper, it'll pretty much match a Sidewinder in a turn, but you have to give her 4 pips to engines. Without that, you won't turn worth a damn, and you won't have the speed to cope with the likes of a Cobra; you're basically not fighting on your terms at that point, giving up all your ship's advantages.
If you're getting into a turning fight, your weapons are temporarily useless until you bring the nose around anyway, so you can afford to charge them at a lower rate. Similarly, if your shields are shot to hell and need time to recharge, then you're far better off putting all power to the engines and boosting like hell to extend rather than continuing to fight. Build the gap to 3-4km, then you can shunt power to the shields to recover before turning around again to rejoin the fight.
Actually, my biggest complaint about the Viper is the complete lack of upwards visibility. For a fighter, not being able to see the target you're turning into is rather unforgivable, to be honest. There's a reason why all Fighters have bubble canopies these days (and even before then you could still look straight up; it was rearward visibility that used to be more of an issue), and frankly it's galling that the top of the canopy is a sodding great metal plate. You'd think that in the year 3300 you'd at least be able to put a screen there with the view from a camera to improve matters somewhat; you have a multi-Megawatt reactor in the back, so powering it wouldn't be a problem.
That just changed; I found a class 3 C-rated reactor, FSD, shield and thrusters at Wolf 437. That now gives me a range of 10LY unladen, and with 4 gimballed pulse lasers up front (not the mix I want, but I was energy-starved until I found the new reactor) and a warrant scanner I still have 0.35MW of power unused.
The rest is all good, but the FSD upgrade is vital, as the Viper's stock drive doesn't have the range to get beyond a small cluster of systems within something like a 40LY radius of where you start from. It's a little tree of stars, each of whose branches just end because it doesn't have the range to jump to the next star. With the FSD upgraded, the galaxy map has cyan lines all over the place. It's not quite perfect, as there's definitely a boundary further along the white hotdog of space in the Beta where I can't cross. For example, I still can't reach Sol. However, it opens up so many more opportunities.
One other thing to note is that some ratings of equipment have oddly different attributes. For example, I also just bought a 2/D life support to replace the stock 2/E. There was a 2/C that would give me 10 minutes of air instead of 7:30, but the 'D' version weighs a tonne and a half less than the versions immediately above and below. The 3/D scanner is similar in terms of weight savings while still being a slight upgrade on the stock unit.
In terms of flying the Viper, it'll pretty much match a Sidewinder in a turn, but you have to give her 4 pips to engines. Without that, you won't turn worth a damn, and you won't have the speed to cope with the likes of a Cobra; you're basically not fighting on your terms at that point, giving up all your ship's advantages.
If you're getting into a turning fight, your weapons are temporarily useless until you bring the nose around anyway, so you can afford to charge them at a lower rate. Similarly, if your shields are shot to hell and need time to recharge, then you're far better off putting all power to the engines and boosting like hell to extend rather than continuing to fight. Build the gap to 3-4km, then you can shunt power to the shields to recover before turning around again to rejoin the fight.
Actually, my biggest complaint about the Viper is the complete lack of upwards visibility. For a fighter, not being able to see the target you're turning into is rather unforgivable, to be honest. There's a reason why all Fighters have bubble canopies these days (and even before then you could still look straight up; it was rearward visibility that used to be more of an issue), and frankly it's galling that the top of the canopy is a sodding great metal plate. You'd think that in the year 3300 you'd at least be able to put a screen there with the view from a camera to improve matters somewhat; you have a multi-Megawatt reactor in the back, so powering it wouldn't be a problem.
I believe power and the screen wasn't the problem, but they didn't have a spare fuse in the fuseboard...
Yep G 180-18 has power plants, shield generators and system modules in high classes for the Viper, I got a few things at the small orbital platform at Asellus Prime, I think it is Forster platform.
Smeghead is so right about the overhead canopy having no vision to track your prey though, really annoying that is having Track IR, but it also means less glass to loose in a fight I guess.
Smeghead is so right about the overhead canopy having no vision to track your prey though, really annoying that is having Track IR, but it also means less glass to loose in a fight I guess.
Yea, I must admit after trying the Viper again tonight I think I might still prefer the Eagle for dogfighting. I had a hard time against a NPC Cobra, while a player Eagle I wiped out in seconds with little challenge. Up against an Anaconda I still found myself running away as I wasn't maneuverable enough to keep behind it. Power-wise I can't keep it below 105% except without turning off the cargo hatch (Gimbled Class 2 Pulse + 2 Class 1 cannons with my current loadout)
Reading this makes me want to hop back into my Viper and go hunting for Cobras again.
ROFL
Thanks for a good belly laugh!
"I strapped the biggest crap I could on a fighter and it's not a Oneshotpwnmobole"
ROFL
PS I'm going to leave out the obvious "Learn to fly" comment"
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Yeah, I don't buy the less-glass-to-break thing, though. Prior to my recent I've been smacked in the face several times now by what were presumably upgraded ships, going from full shields and a pristine hull to nowt, 10% and a nice open-air cockpit in an instant. That plate above my head has done approximately sod all except get in the way.
I'm looking forward to putting the 'C' upgrades I found this morning through their paces. Gotta get the kids to bed then I'll give it a bash.
Sounder Deeps
Banned
I can't remember the Cmdr name or thread but the guy was testing subsystem targeting and he remarked about the Eagle canopy being hella strong. Being beta and all who knows but that indicates that an intuition based observation (less glass to break=stronger) may be false. We'll see.
If one third of the people tell you the ship "is overpowered", one third that "it's ok" and the others "it's barely useable at all"... then the balance is nearly perfect
I agree, I just spent a lot on the Viper mkIV after having owned the adder. I can tell you that the change in maneuverability is a real slap in the face!
Swapped for a Cobra mkIII and enjoying the experience once more
Ian Phillips
Volunteer Moderator
Whoa! Serious necro here, and in a thread about a different ship!
Closing.
Closing.
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