Newcomer / Intro Cobra or Viper?

[InMemoriamSirocco]

I currently have an Eagle kitted out with beams, and they do indeed have issues with sustained fire.

I have a question related to OP's, though. I'm looking at the same choice, and thinkin thinking I will do almost only combat. The thing is, I have friends picking up the game, and they're looking at trade. Would the viper make a decent escort, or would the cobra be better because of its longer range? Cost isn't an issue, because I plan to stay in my eagle until I'm decent at dogfighting.

I would prefer a Cobra as an escort, simply because it can easily have the same jump range as a dedicated trader and still be combat capable. Also, you can do your own fair share of (rare?) trading in it on the side, doing the same routes as your friends.

For long hauls trading rares you could, for instance, use this loadout:

Spoiler

M: 2F/G Multi-cannon
M: 2F/G Multi-cannon
S: 1G/G Burst Laser
S: 1G/G Burst Laser
U: 0D Shield Booster
U: 0D Shield Booster

BH: 1I Lightweight Alloy
RB: 4A Power Plant
TM: 4A Thrusters
FH: 4A Frame Shift Drive (20 - 22 ly jump range)
EC: 3C Life Support (10 min emergency oxygen supply)
PC: 3A Power Distributor
SS: 3C Sensors (5 km range)
FS: 4C Fuel Tank (Capacity: 16)

4: 4E Cargo Rack (Capacity: 16)
4: 4A Fuel Scoop (~46 sec to fill all 16 tons)
4: 4A Shield Generator
2: 2E Cargo Rack (Capacity: 4) ---> 16+4 = 20 tons cargo capacity
2: 2A Shield Cell Bank (4 C-grade charges)
2: 2D Hull Reinforcement Package

If you put your fuel scoop to priority 2 in modules, this loadout will have enough power in a fight.

Cost is about 10 mill with 500k rebuy.

For short back-and-forth trips you can use this loadout, for example:

Spoiler

M: 2F/G Multi-cannon
M: 2F/G Multi-cannon
S: 1G/G Burst Laser
S: 1G/G Burst Laser
U: 0D Shield Booster
U: 0D Shield Booster

BH: 1I Lightweight Alloy
RB: 4A Power Plant
TM: 4A Thrusters
FH: 4A Frame Shift Drive (19 - 23 ly jump range)
EC: 3C Life Support (10 min emergency oxygen supply)
PC: 3A Power Distributor
SS: 3C Sensors (5 km range)
FS: 4C Fuel Tank (Capacity: 16)

4: 4E Cargo Rack (Capacity: 16)
4: 4E Cargo Rack (Capacity: 16)
4: 4A Shield Generator
2: 2E Cargo Rack (Capacity: 4)
2: 2E Cargo Rack (Capacity: 4) ---> 16+16+4+4 = 40 tons cargo capacity
2: 2A Shield Cell Bank (4 C-grade charges)

You won't have to prioritize modules for this loadout.

Cost is about 7.3 mill with 361k rebuy.

 

[Universal Evil]

I've got a couple or three mil stashed at the moment and currently flying an Adder that's not to pimped, but has been upgraded a bit and I'm making some reasonable green BHing in RES at the moment. However, I'm finding that the hardpoint positions aren't the best on the Adder for pew pew and it's sometimes tricky to get all the weapons to bear on the target.

Now I want to keep the Adder as I'll be outfitting it for exploration, but now thinking of a combat ship and I'm torn between the Cobra and the Viper. I know that people rave about the Cobra as a general purpose craft, but how do the two compare on a purely combat and survivability basis?

Oh and I meant to add, I see from ED shipyard that the Viper is significantly cheaper.

Well for purely combat I would always choose the viper over the cobra and in your case I would simply sell the adder too and upgrade the viper go back to the res and very quickly earn enough to buy a cobra as well and the outfit the cobra for you exploring it is actually better for exploring than the adder and can be outfittet to have bigger cargo than the adder too... You do not want to use the viper for anything else than fighting it has pure range in jumping and if you outfit it for combat it doesn't have any cargo at all(mine doesn't, but it doesn't matter I don't intend to use it for transportation at all)

I think you'll earn money so fast in the viper that you might even skip the cobra for exploring and save enough money to buy the asp instead for exploring

 

[Vin Cross]

I would prefer a Cobra as an escort, simply because it can easily have the same jump range as a dedicated trader and still be combat capable. Also, you can do your own fair share of (rare?) trading in it on the side, doing the same routes as your friends.

For long hauls trading rares you could, for instance, use this loadout:

Spoiler

M: 2F/G Multi-cannon
M: 2F/G Multi-cannon
S: 1G/G Burst Laser
S: 1G/G Burst Laser
U: 0D Shield Booster
U: 0D Shield Booster

BH: 1I Lightweight Alloy
RB: 4A Power Plant
TM: 4A Thrusters
FH: 4A Frame Shift Drive (20 - 22 ly jump range)
EC: 3C Life Support (10 min emergency oxygen supply)
PC: 3A Power Distributor
SS: 3C Sensors (5 km range)
FS: 4C Fuel Tank (Capacity: 16)

4: 4E Cargo Rack (Capacity: 16)
4: 4A Fuel Scoop (~46 sec to fill all 16 tons)
4: 4A Shield Generator
2: 2E Cargo Rack (Capacity: 4) ---> 16+4 = 20 tons cargo capacity
2: 2A Shield Cell Bank (4 C-grade charges)
2: 2D Hull Reinforcement Package

If you put your fuel scoop to priority 2 in modules, this loadout will have enough power in a fight.

Cost is about 10 mill with 500k rebuy.

For short back-and-forth trips you can use this loadout, for example:

Spoiler

M: 2F/G Multi-cannon
M: 2F/G Multi-cannon
S: 1G/G Burst Laser
S: 1G/G Burst Laser
U: 0D Shield Booster
U: 0D Shield Booster

BH: 1I Lightweight Alloy
RB: 4A Power Plant
TM: 4A Thrusters
FH: 4A Frame Shift Drive (19 - 23 ly jump range)
EC: 3C Life Support (10 min emergency oxygen supply)
PC: 3A Power Distributor
SS: 3C Sensors (5 km range)
FS: 4C Fuel Tank (Capacity: 16)

4: 4E Cargo Rack (Capacity: 16)
4: 4E Cargo Rack (Capacity: 16)
4: 4A Shield Generator
2: 2E Cargo Rack (Capacity: 4)
2: 2E Cargo Rack (Capacity: 4) ---> 16+16+4+4 = 40 tons cargo capacity
2: 2A Shield Cell Bank (4 C-grade charges)

You won't have to prioritize modules for this loadout.

Cost is about 7.3 mill with 361k rebuy.

Thank you very much. I'll definitely be keeping this in mind as I work towards a Cobra.

 

[Conde]

Although it's generally accepted a Cobra is a better all-rounder, consider the following: In combat I found with it's wide profile, pop-up "Shoot Me Now" decals seemed to appear all over the hull. Try it yourself, it's much easier to hit Cobra than the smaller Viper.

 

[Crash1099]

Yep. It all depends what you want to use your Viper for. Conflict zones demand larger multicannons and smaller lasers, as military ships are always heavily armored.

Resource Extraction Sites demand larger lasers and smaller kinetic weapons, as pirate vessels are usually lightly armored if at all, and can be easily destroyed using lasers alone, which helps you save ammunition and keeps you hunting for longer periods of time without having to dock in between.

I'm less a mercenary and more a bounty hunter, so lasers are my weapon of choice. And pulse lasers are the best allrounder weapons in the game I have used so far.

I like the Fixed Beams better.

 

[Elvo]

Yep. It all depends what you want to use your Viper for. Conflict zones demand larger multicannons and smaller lasers, as military ships are always heavily armored.

Resource Extraction Sites demand larger lasers and smaller kinetic weapons, as pirate vessels are usually lightly armored if at all, and can be easily destroyed using lasers alone, which helps you save ammunition and keeps you hunting for longer periods of time without having to dock in between.

I'm less a mercenary and more a bounty hunter, so lasers are my weapon of choice. And pulse lasers are the best allrounder weapons in the game I have used so far.

All useful information thanks. I haven't ventured into combat zones as yet I need much more practice before I venture into one of those. Also at the moment I'm also more of a Bounty Hunter (although a casual one at that) than a Merc, though that might change given how easy the RES hunting has become.

It's all a bit to easy now to make money in a RES since the bounties have increased and the number of pirates spawning has increased also there are just to many NPC security forces kicking about as well, though i may be going off thread here.

I might have to learn how to interdict myself and do some proper bounty hunting.

 

[InMemoriamSirocco]

I like the Fixed Beams better.

Well, with fixed beams you don't have the problem of overheating so much, simply because they don't stay on target on their own and you spend more time trying to get them on target than actually firing them.

Me, I prefer gimballed weapons simply because they have a higher chance to hit the target - and especially subsystems, which is the optimal strategy against larger ships.