Imperial Clipper good in combat?

Spork · May 5, 2015

I don't think those maneuverability/agility ratings on the wiki and edshipyard take into account upgrades. Assuming they're meaningful in the first place. The clipper is a bit of a dog in default spec but with the upgraded thrusters it flies well and turns quickly. FDL's thrusts vertically and laterally far more quickly but the pitch speed is a fair bit slower.

I also think the Clipper AI is just buggy. It often ends up just wiggling about like it can't decide which way to turn making it easy to stay behind it. It seems to do better in conflict zones.

Morbad said:
Are you using your vertical and lateral thrusters, or are you just trying to pitch?

Vertical down thrust, pulling back on the stick and modulating the throttle in the clipper makes it turn on a dime allowing me to keep enemies in target even among asteroids. In the FDL it doesn't turn fast enough to keep up and by the time the enemy is back in my sights I'm going backwards through my engine trails.

It seems ratio of longitudinal to vertical thrust is completely different yielding different results. To be clear, I don't have a problem with that in general. I just have to figure out how to make the FDL work and I'm still new to it. At the moment I've pretty much given up on vertical thrust technique in the FDL and just hold ~40-50% throttle which seems to keep it in the ideal turning band.

Obviously the FDL can take down Anacondas, it's just much easier to do in a Clipper IMO. Doesn't make sense to me given I spent the same amount on them and one is supposed to be a combat focused ship.

Morbad · May 5, 2015

The maneuverability values listed in the sales brochure are often misleading. Sometimes they get the jist right, but they never indicate where the rating is coming from and often make assumptions regarding configuration and mass that are unlikely to be seen in practice.

Symbiont · May 5, 2015

I was talking about that maneuverability value according to the Wiki, is that an objective value to compare?

Morbad · May 5, 2015

Symbiont said:
I was talking about that maneuverability value according to the Wiki, is that an objective value to compare?

Those values come from the in game shipyard listing, which is what I was referring to.

Zephyriel · May 5, 2015

I imagined the Clipper had a very good shield since it can equip a size 7 shield generator, the same size as the Anaconda. Granted it costs a lot, but with enough money does it not have a very powerful shield?

DrakeAurum · May 5, 2015

Zephyriel said:
I imagined the Clipper had a very good shield since it can equip a size 7 shield generator, the same size as the Anaconda. Granted it costs a lot, but with enough money does it not have a very powerful shield?

Ships have an innate shield-power rating, and the actual power of their shields is defined by this more than by the size and rating of shield generator they mount. The Clipper's shield rating is okay for a multi-role, but lower than that of, for instance, the Vulture, as the latter is a dedicated combat craft.

Poseidal · May 5, 2015

Do the shipyard manoeuvrability ratings have anything to do with how fast a ship can change vector, rather than facing change/agility?

Symbiont · May 5, 2015

Btw what weapons do you guys use on the Clipper I can't figure out a good setup atm but when I sell the FDL I have altogether nice amount of credits to get some powerful equipment from the beginning. So what are your favourite weapons on the Clipper. My former setup on Vulture and FDL was fixed beams with gimballed multicannons and worked good, probably it works on Clipper aswell

Poseidal · May 5, 2015

Fixed beam on one side, gimbal pulse on the other and a couple of gimbal cannon. I'm probably not the best to give advice, but that's what's on my current Clipper.

Symbiont · May 5, 2015

Is that large hardpoint position underneath the Clippers a big problem like the huge one beneath the FDL? Considering the size of it's shooting area?

janmb · May 5, 2015

Symbiont said:
Hey bros sorry for that foolish question but how is the Clippers combat performance? Considering the miserable maneuverability, positioning of hardpoints and type of hardpoints I just wondered wether that vessel is any good for fight (single/wing)

Thank you guys

It is definitely a good combat ship, at least for PvE.
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It relies on gimbaled weapons though, the hardpoint placement makes fixed weapons very ineffective at medium to short range (which is what you want for fixed weapons in the first place). And as a well known fact, gimbaled weapons in PvP is less than fantastic and subject to perma chaff.
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The shields are fairly weak, especially for its class, but with boosters they are more than good enough.
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Maneuverability in just fine. Great speed and more than sufficient turning.

Iori · May 5, 2015

I've been using a Clipper for months, it is a great ship, but you'll need a lot of money to unlock its potential. I tried using the Vulture because I had to dock in a small station and... well It felt so inefficient that I just went back to my Clipper, and while the description says its not very maneuverable, it is mainly because of the vertical and lateral thrusters are poor. The pitch/roll/yaw are the fastest of the big ships and so is its top speed.

Shields are weak by default but if you get an A7 and all the boosters you can get they become pretty good.

I just use 1x 3G Burst, 1x 3G Pulse, 2x 2G Multicannons.

I've never lost my ship in combat. The superior speed and mass allows you to dictate your engagements.

janmb · May 5, 2015

TartanDragon said:
Agree with everything said here also due the the shields the only issue I have had in a RES is asteroids. Not very forgiving them things.

It's hardly a valid strategy to rely on shields to save you from astroids anyway

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Don't hit astroids in the first place

A good tip is to stay clear of the dark RESs, and only use the ones with decent lighting. Personally I prefer the hazy/gaseous ones, since the haze/milky gas between the rocks make them a lot easier to see

Poseidal · May 5, 2015

Symbiont said:
Is that large hardpoint position underneath the Clippers a big problem like the huge one beneath the FDL? Considering the size of it's shooting area?

Large hardpoints are on the top of the nacelles, so are at the widest point of the ship. They have pretty good coverage if you are running gimbals.

I generally find fixed is what I used for longer ranged shooting, while gimbals get more effective closer but are much less accurate than me manually aiming from afar.

Having the hardpoint on the end only takes a bit of getting used to (not nearly as much as changing a control system for example), and you can take advantage of the Clipper's fantastic yaw.

GluttonyFang · May 5, 2015

The maneuverability and speed are impressive for its size considering it shares the same hull mass as the Conda and has even better ramming capability. The difference between an A6(16mil/260MJish) and an A7(300MJish) shield generators are about 40-50 MJ, running full boosters will get A7(51mil) to about 550MJ.

However that sacrifices power weapon choice.

I would give it a 7.5/10, since it doesn't have the powerful weapon convergence of a Dropship/Python/FDL, the shield strength of a Python/FDL, nor the maneuverability of a Vulture. It only excels in speed in comparison, but is a good balance between other ships it compete with.

Symbiont · May 5, 2015

Please answer another foolish question: What is the reason that complete outfitting of the Clipper is way more expensive than completely outfitting FDL or Python? They are obviously more superior and expensive ships but cheaper in highend outfitting, what is the reason for that difference?

Poseidal · May 5, 2015

Symbiont said:
Please answer another foolish question: What is the reason that complete outfitting of the Clipper is way more expensive than completely outfitting FDL or Python? They are obviously more superior and expensive ships but cheaper in highend outfitting, what is the reason for that difference?

It is noticeably quite a bit faster than all of those, even the FdL.

Pyrion · May 5, 2015

I think clipper manouverability (2) refers to it's ability to actually change it's course, it's not how fast it can turn. You will notice that with a clipper once you are turned it takes a while (with FA on) for the ship to actually fly into the desired direction. That's not so important in a fight though, where turning is more important. And it turns pretty fast.

TheoZ · May 5, 2015

Symbiont said:
Please answer another foolish question: What is the reason that complete outfitting of the Clipper is way more expensive than completely outfitting FDL or Python? They are obviously more superior and expensive ships but cheaper in highend outfitting, what is the reason for that difference?

You are kind of wrong here in one part....The comparison of Python with Imp. Clipper.

With FDL, you get a dedicated combat ship. It can only do that effectively. Imp. Clipper and Python are multipurpose, ie you can adjust their outfitting for either trading or combat.

I do own all 3 of them.

Fully kitted FDL $ < Imp. Clipper $ < Python $

Ie Python fully kited >200M
Imp Clipper fully kitted around 100M

Symbiont · May 5, 2015

Well I read somewhere a full combat equipped Clipper will take around 200MCr, FDL 120MCr and Python 100MCr I guess that was completely wrong then