Ships Needing some advice for my courier

[Psycho Romeo]

Here's my little ship. I like that it's affordable, durable, and fast, with a lot of versatility.
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[Imperial Courier]
M: 2D/G Cannon
M: 2D/G Cannon
M: 2D/F Beam Laser
U: 0A Shield Booster
U: 0C Cargo Scanner
U: 0C Kill Warrant Scanner
U: 0I Chaff Launcher
BH: 1I Lightweight Alloy
RB: 4A Power Plant
TM: 3A Thrusters
FH: 3A Frame Shift Drive
EC: 1D Life Support
PC: 3A Power Distributor
SS: 2A Sensors
FS: 3C Fuel Tank (Capacity: 8)
3: 3A Shield Generator
3: 3E Cargo Rack (Capacity: 8)
2: 2B Shield Cell Bank
2: 2B Shield Cell Bank
2: 2A Fuel Scoop
1: 1A Frame Shift Drive Interdictor
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As you might have guessed, I'm having a bit of an identity crisis.
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For the most part I go to where the money is at. I've little concern for federation rankings, so I usually grab a bunch of missions from them. I usually find myself doing assassination missions in the 100k range, kill missions of all kinds, CZs, and piracy.
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With my modules all over the place, I find myself having a hard time actually getting anything done. Piracy with a cargo hold of 8 is difficult. Two shield cell banks refill maybe a third of this thing's legendary shields. I need chaff to defend myself, but a KWS for those assassination payouts, and a cargo scanner for piracy.
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On one hand, I could drop the cannons and pick up dumbfires. Drop the cargo scanner for a second chaff, and drop the cargo rack and scoop for more shield cell banks.
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On the other hand, I could drop the KWS for a booster, drop the first bank for a cargo rack, swap the scoop and interdictor for a hatch breaker and collector controllers, and drop the second shield bank for a bigger interdictor.
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Both of these would pretty much limit me to piracy OR heavy dueling though. I kinda want the versatility to do both, and the occasional CZ. In both cases it seems I should drop the fuel scoop. Does anyone have any thoughts or recommendations? Am I simply asking too much for a small multipurpose ship? I'm pretty fresh to piracy, so maybe there's something I'm doing wrong.
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I'd really like not to get the asp. It's fat and slow and I hate it.

 

[quickr]

First of all you have to decide what do you want to use your courier for.
Secondly, courier's strongest attribute is his shield, make use of that. Either get another booster or better SCB (3A).
Lastly, I would recommend dropping the piracy role. Internal compartments are not that big so you can't store lots of goods in it.

My thoughts are, you are using the wrong ship. I think cobra would suite you much better.

 

[WR3ND]

Yeah, find the role you want to use your ship for and outfit it for that for the time being. This is why I think it makes sense from a game-play mechanic to charge nothing or very little for switching out ship components. Some in-game taxes or fees (what have you) seem like they might be in order too, but in regard to outfitting ships, it seems like it would disproportionately affect players, making it more difficult for newer players to get things sorted.

Anyway... yeah, optimize for the role that you want to do and then change your ship's setup (or even your ship) when you feel like doing something else.

For piracy with that limited cargo space, I suppose hanging around one of the rare commodities routes would be your best bet. Really though, imagine how much more you could make just trading those goods in a Cobra in the first place (in case you're wondering, a few million credits an hour without much difficulty and very little upfront investment, relatively speaking). Why skim off the top when you can get the whole thing without inconveniencing someone, or in a worst case scenario, ruining their game experience? This is something I never really understood about piracy and why players choose that play style, unless maybe they mostly just like the idea of being a space pirate. This isn't to bash piracy nor claim that it isn't a legitimate play style, as I do think it adds depth to the game.

 

[jou84]

More shield boosters, more shield cells or upgrade to bulkhead. I am pretty sure the lightweight is made of chocolate.

 

[Psycho Romeo]

It absolutely blows my mind that a mind that a multipurpose courier has fewer internal compartment space than a multipurpose cobra a seventh the price.
Shouldn't this thing be classified as a fighter, like it's little brother the viper?

I guess I'll pick up dumbfires and take an assassination kit. Or would frags be better? They're a little hot, if I remember. I'll try both.
It's unfortunate because the vulture is vastly superior or approximately equal in all departments but speed.

More shield boosters, more shield cells or upgrade to bulkhead. I am pretty sure the lightweight is made of chocolate.

Military grade offers approximately 20% damage resistance to hull. Not worth the weight in my opinion when this thing has shields for days and can flee from most anything.

 

[quickr]

You forgot one important thing:

Courier looks so much better than a cobra

 

[Psycho Romeo]

Well, played around a bit with coriolis and pumped this out:

http://coriolis.io/outfit/imperial_courier/04A3A3A1D3A2A3C0r1s1s0404000m405954542o66

The frags use a little less power than the dumbfires which will allows for a second A grade booster. The pair of 2B banks can be used together, and the 3B will be the back up (totalling approximately 1400 worth of shield regen). I could potentially drop the scoop for another. I'm doing a lot of traveling right now so maybe not. I'm on the fence whether I should drop the second booster for a second chaff, as I'm positive that against bigger prey the chaff screen would protect me much better than 80 extra shield MJ.

Critiques?

 

[jou84]

It absolutely blows my mind that a mind that a multipurpose courier has fewer internal compartment space than a multipurpose cobra a seventh the price.
Shouldn't this thing be classified as a fighter, like it's little brother the viper?

I guess I'll pick up dumbfires and take an assassination kit. Or would frags be better? They're a little hot, if I remember. I'll try both.
It's unfortunate because the vulture is vastly superior or approximately equal in all departments but speed.


Military grade offers approximately 20% damage resistance to hull. Not worth the weight in my opinion when this thing has shields for days and can flee from most anything.

Trust me, it needs something. I took out a cmdr flown one in a crippled vulture. Fast forward to 6.25 to see what I mean

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD9vSqnNalk

 

[Psycho Romeo]

Trust me, it needs something. I took out a cmdr flown one in a crippled vulture. Fast forward to 6.25 to see what I mean

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD9vSqnNalk

Maybe hull packages. The armor is paper, just like the viper. But no use reducing damage if your hull health is low as it is.

Also that was a pretty stupid courier pilot.

 

[CMDR Derrida]

Here's my little ship. I like that it's affordable, durable, and fast, with a lot of versatility.

I'd really like not to get the asp. It's fat and slow and I hate it.

Sounds like a good ship for some of the power play missions though, like rescuing political prisoners by pirating craft etc. I think it's biggest attribute is that you can A-class it for (I think) 7 million and that you get serious toughness for your money (probably the nearest contender to the vulture of the cheaper ships). The asp is fat and slow (but fat and slow things punch hard and run fast when they have to! ) but it's not going to be a substitute for courier's combat toughness until your loadout costs above 30 million (A6 shields for 16 million). Unless you're gonna use that fatboy for trade, exploring and being a generally nice guy
Point taken (above) about it being bad against vulture, but might buy one and have a go myself - I tested the A grade courier and even low modules, it seemed tough with plenty of cheap shield cells...sold it because it was a pain to move across the galaxy to new power play home along with FDL and FDS...
PS It's humorous the amount of cmdr's out there at the moment looking for pvp because of powerplay...I keep getting interdicted by people on my own side, then having them turn and fly off when I asked if their intention was to fight...IF YOU'RE GOINT TO INTERDICT, AT LEAST HAVE THE DECENCY TO JOUST

 

[Sylow]

Maybe hull packages. The armor is paper, just like the viper. But no use reducing damage if your hull health is low as it is.

Also that was a pretty stupid courier pilot.

Absolutely not. This very light ship reacts strongly to any mass added, and hull packages add plenty of weight, costing you a lot of agility. I wouldn't do that.