Ship Builds & Load Outs Imperial Courier advice

TerranJupiter

TerranJupiter
Hi iv just got my self an Imperial Courier i felt this was a natural upgrade from my old diamondback explorer anyway currently i use my ships for multi role i do mostly freight and courier missions but have taken on assassinations and seen off attackers in the old ship that had 2 rail guns and a missile rack.

Anyway iv switched from the rail guns to multi cannons but decided to keep my seeker missile rack iv given it 24 t cargo space upgraded my power c which has boasted its jump range to 18 i think its ok my concern was that my rail guns could knock out shields in no time how but im hoping that the rapid fire and better targeting from the multi cannon will make up for the loss of the rail guns.
 
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rxay579

rxay579
From the little bit that I've flown around my Courier, it appears to have a profile of fast acceleration and good speed with less great turning; and OMG, those shields. With that flight profile, I don't think multicannons are the best fit for a Courier, but like anything, you can make it work. For mine, I put gimballed cannons in the wings (for the spread) and a rail gun underneath; I like symmetrical builds, but asymmetrical would probably be more efficient. The plan is to line up, get in a good hits from a medium distance, zoom past, FA off turn, repeat; rails for shields, cannons for hull. Haven't flown enough combat to know if it works as well in reality as in my mind, though.

If you get good results from the multicannons, let me know.
 

bicarbon8

B
TerranJupiter said:
Hi iv just got my self an Imperial Courier i felt this was a natural upgrade from my old diamondback explorer anyway currently i use my ships for multi role i do mostly freight and courier missions but have taken on assassinations and seen off attackers in the old ship that had 2 rail guns and a missile rack.

Anyway iv switched from the rail guns to multi cannons but decided to keep my seeker missile rack iv given it 24 t cargo space upgraded my power c which has boasted its jump range to 18 i think its ok my concern was that my rail guns could knock out shields in no time how but im hoping that the rapid fire and better targeting from the multi cannon will make up for the loss of the rail guns.
Click to expand...

I've only had my Courier for 30 minutes of testing in a High Resource Extraction site (just bought it last night and transferred everything I could over from my Imperial Eagle) so I don't know if this will help you or not, but I found the following loadout to work fairly well:

https://eddp.co/u/1QBm9uTE

I'm unfortunately running smaller multicannons than the slots allow because I transferred them from the eagle and they have some good special effects, but it takes longer than I'd hoped to take down a Dangerous NPC. But even without engineering on the rest of the ship (something which I plan on doing tonight, hopefully) I found it was able to stay on the tail of most opponents and my shields never dropped once (though an Asp Scout came the closest to making that happen).

I'm considering swapping the Burst Laser for a Plasma Accelerator, but the aftermarket XBox controller I'm using on my PC is a bit twitchy so manual aiming is more miss than hit (hence the gimballed loadout), but the few times that NPC's deployed heat syncs I was able to continue firing on them with my burst laser and line-of-sight aiming. I don't know if I'll keep the multicannons and might replace them with burst lasers so I needn't leave to reload so often (something else that makes me hesitate when considering the plasma accelerator).

I may be able to provide an update tomorrow after some engineering and trial and error with different loadouts.
 

bicarbon8

B
bicarbon8 said:
I've only had my Courier for 30 minutes of testing in a High Resource Extraction site (just bought it last night and transferred everything I could over from my Imperial Eagle) so I don't know if this will help you or not, but I found the following loadout to work fairly well:

https://eddp.co/u/1QBm9uTE

I'm unfortunately running smaller multicannons than the slots allow because I transferred them from the eagle and they have some good special effects, but it takes longer than I'd hoped to take down a Dangerous NPC. But even without engineering on the rest of the ship (something which I plan on doing tonight, hopefully) I found it was able to stay on the tail of most opponents and my shields never dropped once (though an Asp Scout came the closest to making that happen).

I'm considering swapping the Burst Laser for a Plasma Accelerator, but the aftermarket XBox controller I'm using on my PC is a bit twitchy so manual aiming is more miss than hit (hence the gimballed loadout), but the few times that NPC's deployed heat syncs I was able to continue firing on them with my burst laser and line-of-sight aiming. I don't know if I'll keep the multicannons and might replace them with burst lasers so I needn't leave to reload so often (something else that makes me hesitate when considering the plasma accelerator).

I may be able to provide an update tomorrow after some engineering and trial and error with different loadouts.
Click to expand...

ok, so I spent some time last night testing different loadouts in the Courier in a Resource Extraction (High) zone. All trials had non-engineered components with the exception of my FSD. I used the following for all of the below trials:
3A Enhanced Performance Thrusters
Lightweight Alloy Hull
3A Frame Shift Drive
1D Life Support
2D Sensors
3C Fuel Tank
2C Bi-Weave Shield Generator
0I Heat Sink Launcher
2D Hull Reinforcement Package

TRIAL 1
2 x 2F Multi-Cannons
1 x 2C Plasma Accelerator
3A Power Plant
I was able to keep the pips balanced throughout and my throttle at maximum. The lone Plasma Accelerator lacked the strength to drop shields (my aiming wasn't helping, but the delay between shots was the biggest issue). Was having a good run and this could be a very workable loadout for a commander with very steady aim. Unfortunately, an Asp managed to take my shields offline and after he was destroyed an NPC Security Ship crashed in to and destroyed me. This was a decent enough loadout, but I didn't like the fact though that I was 100% reliant on consumable ammo and that I struggled to take down shields on my own. Of note, this was the only loadout where I managed to lose shields completely.

TRIAL 2
2 x 2C Plasma Accelerators
1 x 2F Multi-Cannon
4A Power Plant
because the Plasma Accelerators are out on the wings it was extremely difficult to have both actually hit a small target like a Cobra (III or IV) or an Adder and it was nearly impossible to hit an Eagle. This meant that I was still struggling to take down the opponent's shield. Also, the distributor struggle to keep up with the demand of 2 Plasma Accelerators so sometimes I was only shooting from one of them. Once the shields were down the Multi-Cannon was not doing much damage so I still needed to use the Plasma Accelerators and with their limited ammo I don't feel this was a good loadout to use. Of note, this is the only loadout in which I managed to take down an Anaconda (with help from the security forces)

TRIAL 3
1 x 2B Rail Gun
2 x 2F Multi-Cannon
3A Power Plant
0A Shield Booster
I hadn't realised it previously, but in this trial I became aware that even with 2.5 pips to Systems, the distributor would lose power due to the Enhanced Performance Thrusters combined with the extra load of the Shield Booster. This was probably my least favourite loadout because of the delay that the Rail Gun has between when you pull the trigger and it fires. For commanders with steady aim this may not be an issue, but I found it difficult to land my shots when in close proximity to the target unless I was directly above, below or behind. This loadout again struggled to take down shields, though once down the Multi-Cannons were sufficient to take out the NPC enemies. Of note, I managed to crash into an asteroid (though didn't lose shields) because it took such concentration to keep the shots from the Rail Gun lined up.

TRIAL 4
1 x 2D Beam Laser
2 x 2F Multi-Cannon
4A Power Plant
0A Shield Booster
this was, by far, the best loadout of all I tried. The Beam Laser was able to take down shields for most small ships (Adder, Viper, Cobra, Eagle) within two passes though the distributor couldn't keep up with the draw even with 3 pips in Weapons. While the pips recharged though I was typically able to use my Multi-Cannons to keep pressure on the opponent's systems distributor. I also was able to stay out and fight much longer because the Beam Laser didn't require any ammo and I used the Multi-Cannons less than with the other loadouts above. Of note, I ended up sticking with this loadout.
 
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Bob Lighthouse

Banned
Bob Lighthouse
This is pretty close to how mine is set up for planetary scans and light combat missions etc:
https://eddp.co/u/2VhYk8TF
In lightweight trim w/weapons but no srv it boosts ~840.

Great ship!

Dual long range beams with a corrosive mc is another fun mix, and I have full sets of PAs and rails for it too.
 

Burlsol

B
My Fighter Courier:
https://eddp.co/u/HgQsU5zK

Have used this for a fairly long time. It is my bread and butter ship for the most part. Good speed, decent range and refill time so is handy for getting around bubble. Can swap out shield cells for cargo or passenger cabin for mission running, or vehicle bay so you can get alot of utility without much module swapping. Has great shields and survivability, so is good for mission running and prolonged battles. Weapons are setup to be easy and versatile, pulse for shields and small ships, cannon for armor or larger ships. Meanwhile the rebuy cost is pretty small so you don't feel too bad when things go horribly wrong.
 
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