It's good for exploring planets and gathering materials which is what I use mine for now. Oh yeah I also used it to rank all the way up through the Imperial Navy. Good light cargo smuggler too.
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http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=707,5Rr5Rr9qS01Q0Wg0_g0_g,2-6Q4s4s224s3m5A,7Pc05U03w03w1IM02M
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http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=707,5Rr5Rr9qS01Q0Wg0_g0_g,2-6Q4s4s224s3m5A,7Pc05U03w03w1IM02M
i'm using it all the time, owning half a dozend. preferred bounty hunter and combat oriented multipurpose swiss army knife mission runner.
there are basically two ways to outfit it.
- one is shieldtank (which can run railguns...)
- one is to keep it as lightweight as possible (aim for 50% optimal trhuster mass - you won't make it, but you feel every ton less!), than it gets an eagle on steroids. this requires using a class 2A shield (10% less shield then with a class 3), and you can fit an undersized powerplant (3A): for reference: http://coriolis.io/outfit/imperial_...AwRj4zKA.EwBhrStAWE5EA===?bn=Michael Strogoff (mostly running low on fuel -> less weight)
and this, too! great planetary explorer, can land where many larger ships have problems finding a spot.
Fantastic ship, wonderful shields for such an agile little ship. Here's a good combat build, designed to have two banks of SCBs available at once (It's only slightly worse without prismatics, you can swap one chaff/heatsink for another booster):
http://coriolis.io/outfit/imperial_...66.AwRjdcpVKA==.Aw1-gLEA?bn=Prismatic Courier
EDIT: Just noticed you asked about rails, I tried this recently and it's ok but the convergence for rails is a bit wide when targets get close.. Might be better with one rail and a couple of multi/frags.
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I love this ship and have written several posts on outfitting it etc. The bottom line is that it can be a very formidable ship, a good deal of fun, and feels so nice to fly. It's excellent for learning FA off flying and sounds like a missile when you hit boost.
They're not used as much as some would like, though, because of the vulture. The vulture is in the same vein of ships, is slower but doesn't involve Empire ranking and has 2 large hardpoints, which means although they have minimal room for creativity they're a cash cow for PvE (let's face it, if you're buying a PvE vulture you're going for two C3 pulses or biding time until you realise them pulses are the only way).
Spec these things right though and they're several times the fun and with a hefty amount of extra speed they are certainly not short of excellent ships, not to mention their size making them tough to hit. If you want any help with speccing I have a couple of threads about but more specific tips are always on offer
They're not used as much as some would like, though, because of the vulture. The vulture is in the same vein of ships, is slower but doesn't involve Empire ranking and has 2 large hardpoints, which means although they have minimal room for creativity they're a cash cow for PvE (let's face it, if you're buying a PvE vulture you're going for two C3 pulses or biding time until you realise them pulses are the only way).
Spec these things right though and they're several times the fun and with a hefty amount of extra speed they are certainly not short of excellent ships, not to mention their size making them tough to hit. If you want any help with speccing I have a couple of threads about but more specific tips are always on offer
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The Courier is a joy to fly in RES/CZ/Fed vs. Imp PvE, while being perhaps a bit "easymode" solution. I'm running a shield tank build with 2 gimballed multis and a centerline fixed beam. You feel almost invulnerable since the enemy has hard time hitting you, the shields are strong and the agility gives you sense of having options during the fights. The weaponry feels slightly underpowered but that's the price to pay for having pretty much everything else just right for the A-kitted price point of below 10M creds. Beware of losing the shields, though. When unshielded you'll be dead surprisingly fast.
HRPs, my friend
For PvE, a few HRPs in any spare internal slots will beef up your hull enough to give you some longevity when your shields are down. I forgo military bulkheads because their hull to weight ratio is generally awful, but with three C2 and one C1 HRP I jump from 144 to 824 hull HP. That's from "once my shields are down so am I" to "actually I don't even need to high wake out when my shields go down".HRPs, my friend
uh, never thought about that! well, it isn't really my way outfitting a courier (i'm flying it as lighteight as possible), but it is impressing to see, that it gets more hull-points in your way then my military bulkheads vulture! need to try it.
Bought it twice and sold it twice.
Didn't get into touch with the Courier. Poor View, great shields but hull is paperthin and it
heats up very quickly, but its a fast, maneuverable ship.
On the other hand I lvoe the Clipper.
So using a viper 4 instead which is getting good, even if I fly it rarely.
Regards,
Miklos
Didn't get into touch with the Courier. Poor View, great shields but hull is paperthin and it
heats up very quickly, but its a fast, maneuverable ship.
On the other hand I lvoe the Clipper.
So using a viper 4 instead which is getting good, even if I fly it rarely.
Regards,
Miklos
Yeah, the main "meh" point I have with the Courier is that with its current thrusters it has any weight you add immediately starts reducing speed/agility. That said the HRPs I use really don't seem to damn the agility much and I can still keep behind the majority of NPC ships without much work.
Ratio wise, HRPs beat bulkheads every time. Military bulkheads on the courier give 136 hull HP at a weight of 8T. A 1D HRP is 110 hull HP at just 2T. So if you avoid the bulkhead trap, the courier still keeps its zip but has enough flesh to keep going when the shields die.
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i basically fly my (class 2 A, undersized class 3A powerplant) courier in a way, that i don't get hit much, but against smaller wings in a RES or for assassination missions this isn't always possible ... playing that convoy beacon CG some weeks back i was the one in my wing seeing the rebuy screen two times that night (never happened to me before....)... for an assassination or against wings your HRP tip is golden!
I know the feels. Went to a com-nav beacon the other day and forgot I had some bounties on my head. Got started on by a bounty hunter wing...I can fly well enough, but half a minute in and I realised I would have to turn my piloting skills to running very fast.
I think wings are real limitation of the courier; nice shields yes, but the firepower isn't monstrous enough to mow down enemies quickly. Glad I could spread a useful word though
I got one to try as a short range 'explorer'. I liked it in some ways but wasn't happy with the view from the cockpit. The way way the front comes up in a point almost to the centre of the screen and the very thick hoops in the canopy seemed quite restrictive.
I haven't got rid of it yet and will retry it but I am also going to have a look at the Viper 4 in the meantime although I suspect I will go back to a dbx.
I played with a courier for a little while with this build: http://coriolis.io/outfit/imperial_...C1g1b1b0404040040296c27272j.AwRj4zKA.Aw18gjKQ
It's basically half a FDL. Good fun in a RES and great for practicing with a PA before moving up to a class 4 PA in a FDL especially since the hardpoint locations are pretty similar in both ships.
It's basically half a FDL. Good fun in a RES and great for practicing with a PA before moving up to a class 4 PA in a FDL especially since the hardpoint locations are pretty similar in both ships.
Nobody's mentioned that the courier is tiny. The courier has durability on par with a vulture, but it's the size of an eagle. It's a stubborn wasp with a terrible sting. With a blue zone speed comparable to a DBS, the courier can maintain long range and duel with the biggest. Outside of 2km, the natural wobble of gimbals have maybe a 50% hit rate against its front profile.
![[DOOK] Droogie](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/124/124078.jpg?1553527149){kind=avatar}
Durability.. Eh. The vulture has good shields and a decent armor tank, on top of amazing maneuverability for defensive flying. The courier has real good shields, and the hull is made out of wet recycled paper. Much less firepower, and an anemic distributor.
So, yeah, as long as your shields stay up, you're OK.
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