[REVIEW] The Imperial Cutter: Cuts your wallet like a Katana

Iskariot

Iskariot
Un1k0rn said:
What if I told you that jump range isn't that important to a trade ship unless you're one of those weird min-maxers?
Click to expand...

Completely and utterly agree.
For all practical sense and purpose the Cutter is an outstanding tradeship.
I do not need 40 ly jumprange on a trader.

It is a spacious, fast and strong trader that cannot be intercepted and killed in any PvE situation I can think off.

As far as I am concerned in a trading role its only true disadvantage is that it cannot visit outposts.

In a combat role it is a different story though.
I think large ships in general are not the best in combat roles. If they get damaged the costs are relatively high for little extra gain they can bring to the table.
A medium sized vessel like the FDL is cheaper to run in combat situations and can do the job better.

Vorxian said:
My cutter has been responsible for approx 70bn net credits since its purchase back in 2016.

and this is the first thing I did when I got it: MOON PICNIC!
Click to expand...

70 bn?
SEVENTY BILLION??
Really?
I feel very poor now.
 
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Krash

Krash
kilon said:
Summary:

Cutter is a combat ship thatsacrificies agility for insane defense but in the end it suffers from the same issues of all end game ships (Anaconda and Corvette) , extremely high costs. Compared to the best ship in game, Python, it does offer some solid advantages but none of them are remotely close to justifying the extreme costs that can easily reach up to a 1 billion. If money is not the problem it may not be the Python's big brother, that title is well earned by Anaconda, on the other hand its a solid purchase that will add a considerable cargo hold, firepower and defense in the expense of agility. Like Corvette is less multipurpose and more specialized towards combat but none the less it serves its multipurpose role very well.

Example build:

https://eddp.co/u/VEz4NXtt


=============

SCORE
=============

Fighter 9/10
Explorer 2/10
Trader 4/10
Mission runner 8/10
Tourism 1/10
Investment (value/cost) 1/10


OVERALL : 6/10

===========

REVIEW
==========


Trader role:
It's easy to fall into the trap of regarding it a trader because it has the max potential cargo hold in the game currently. However, it's not a trader for the same reason that Corvette is not a trader.
Jump range.
Anaconda is more trader friendly because it has considerable cargo hold and amazing jump range, plus it can be built to defend and attack any pirate that considers taking a peek to its valuable cargo.
However for short-range trading Cutter is very hard to beat with its max cargo hold. Of course, max cargo hold means that you will have to sacrifice the shield which is pretty much the biggest bonus of the ship, fortunately, its thrusters are powerful enough to outrun NPC pirates, but you will be an easy pray for player pirates if they have the speed to catch you up.

Combat role:
Cutter is a combat ship , just the polar opposite of Corvette. What it loses in maneuverability it gains in ridiculous defense. Cutter is the king turtle, this ship has been designed to fill in the tank role and take as much beating as possible. With a 8B shield cell, 8C shield generator and 6x OA Shield Booster this thing comes almost unkillable. And that is just its warm up ,for the icing on the cake add to its 2 military compartments 5B shield cells.You end up with this monster

Even with a powerful opponent, it can take up to 30 minutes to bring down that insanely powerful shield. Especially if its a 8C shield that will full recharge in just 6 minutes which become a very deadly problem for opponents without enough firepower. Cutter also has a very powerful mass lock so if you engage a fight with it make sure you can outrun it. Don't be fooled by its mass it has a considerable boost for its size and its upgraded power plant and power distributor more than enough to keep boosting forever.
If you are the one in the Cutter against NPCs bellow a Python class it will be a case of you lauching your fighter pilot, pressing left click to lauch your turrets and going for a coffee. This is the king of afk fighting.


Having a fighter bay is a must because of the terrible turn rate. You may be extremely slow to kill and is highly unlikely a player that is not in a powerful enough ship will engage you but tailing you is very easy and its just a matter of time before your shield dies. With a fighter bay it makes certain that not even an army of small manouvarable ship will challange you and those that will dare, will crash and burn with Cutter's undisputed elegance.

If you love to fly circles around your enemies , forget about it, this is a sloowwww turning ship.

Miner role:
As long as you dont plan to move long distances this is definitely an ideal if not the best miner ship. Again its the huge cargo hold together with its considerable firepower and variety of module slots.

Explorer role:
Forget about it, bad jump range

Love boat:
Forget about it, passengers will kill you out of boredom , again bad jump range.



Why should I buy it?


1) You love the way it looks
2) You have to carry the absolute maximum cargo
3) You love to afk and can afford its ludicrous insurance (although you will rarely lose it)
4) You love to fight a small army of enemies

Why I should not buy it?

1) If you cannot afford its insurance
2) if you cannot afford to pay at least as much for its module upgrades
3) You move around large distances
4) Don't like ships that make you sleep
5) Don't want to sacrifice your first born for it to hear your pleads to turn


Engineering:
Like all ships the Cutter can be engineered to compesnate for most of its flaws and enhance much of its strenghts , I ignore the potential in this review because that it takes even longer to engineer a Cutter than buy and upgrade it.
Click to expand...

Good review and I agree with your assessment overall. You seem to imply 1 ship can do it all and that's where I disagree (if I inferred correctly). I need a fleet to accomplish different goals in ED. e.g. dedicated explorations ships to explore. I wouldn't think of heading to Colonia in the cutter. I use the python for missions when M pads are involved, the cutter where L pads are involved. The cutter is my favorite miner, CG runner, taxi and overall utility ship for the defensive benefits you mentioned. It can hold its own versus gankers as well, at least long enough to high wake if needed. I have another area of the hangar set aside for dedicated combat, dueling, etc..

+repped
 

Duckfather

Duckfather
Hmm, I have an Explorer Cutter that can do 42Ly and a Trader Cutter that can do 30Ly with 728 tons of cargo on board. And outrun anything that interdicts it. And easily survive anything that can still land a shot. And looks way cooler than a 'Conda.

My takeaway from this post OP is that you're Imperial Cuttering wrong :p
 

Deleted member 110222

D
Duckfather said:
Hmm, I have an Explorer Cutter that can do 42Ly and a Trader Cutter that can do 30Ly with 728 tons of cargo on board. And outrun anything that interdicts it. And easily survive anything that can still land a shot. And looks way cooler than a 'Conda.

My takeaway from this post OP is that you're Imperial Cuttering wrong :p
Click to expand...

Ironic that your avatar is a Clipper.
 

Xyggy

Xyggy
Cutter is the best looking ship in Elite, imo. That style just compliments its great trading capabilities.
 

Hossi

Hossi
Sorry OP, the cutter is without a question the by far best trader in the game.
You immensely overestimate the lack of jumprange while at the same you underestimate the benefit of the enormous cargo capacity.
I'm currently not in game, so feel free so correct me since I'm just getting my numbers from corriolis. You said you did not consider engineering, so here we go:
A trade cutter with a nice 6a shield and the best fsd (everything else stock, because I'm lazy) carries 728t with a jumprange of 13.23ly (fully laden).
The trade conda, again 6a shield, best fsd only has 402t and a jumrange of 14.65ly.
The jumprange of the conda is only 10% higher, this will shave of maybe one jump, but you loose 44% of cargo.
The legendary jumprange of the conda comes from its low hullmass, when you fill it with cargo thats largly irrelevant.
 

IndigoWyrd

IndigoWyrd
The Clutter is one of the best looking ships. Unfortunately, looking good is what it does best.
It maneuvers like a block of soap on ice, and pound-for-pound, fully stripped down, hauls only 4 more tons of cargo than a Type-9

https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/imp...A=.Aw18ZFA=..EweloBhA2AWECMcQFMCGBzANikiIFA==

https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/typ...w18RQ==..EweloBhA2AWEDMsAcICmBDA5gGzSEARghKA=

No point in putting any kind of weapons on either of these flying pinatas, but look at the price difference.

Stripped down, and lighted fully:

https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/typ...w18RQ==..EweloBhA2AWEDMsAcICmBDA5gGzSEARghKA=

https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/imp...A=.Aw18ZFA=..EweloBhA2AWECMcQFMCGBzANikiIFA==

You can actually get a better jump range out of the Clutter, but credit-for-credit, the Type-9 is still the better buy. You'll make up the cost considerably sooner, and the rebuy is less than half.
 

kilon

K
Hossi said:
Sorry OP, the cutter is without a question the by far best trader in the game.
You immensely overestimate the lack of jumprange while at the same you underestimate the benefit of the enormous cargo capacity.
I'm currently not in game, so feel free so correct me since I'm just getting my numbers from corriolis. You said you did not consider engineering, so here we go:
A trade cutter with a nice 6a shield and the best fsd (everything else stock, because I'm lazy) carries 728t with a jumprange of 13.23ly (fully laden).
The trade conda, again 6a shield, best fsd only has 402t and a jumrange of 14.65ly.
The jumprange of the conda is only 10% higher, this will shave of maybe one jump, but you loose 44% of cargo.
The legendary jumprange of the conda comes from its low hullmass, when you fill it with cargo thats largly irrelevant.
Click to expand...

Jumps in trading is everything because it comes with a big fat 30 seconds penalty per jump in time which when you make long routes it matters a lot. Lost time is lost money.

Sure if you do single jump trades you can avoid the penalties but good luck finding those routes. Plus the fact that you have to isolate yourself to single jump trade routes is a reason for me enough to give a 4/10 to the trading abilities of Cutter. In the end it comes down to how you like to do your trading , personally I prefer a ship that gives me freedome to choose my own trade routes and allows me to maximize my profits with ease.

I am afraid that review will remain unchanged unless the Cutter gets a real buff in trading, which I don't see happening any time soon.

Its not a bad trading ship, but not a good one either, just a mediocre one at best. Unless its engineered.
 
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SCTrojanbulldog

SCTrojanbulldog
IMO, the Cutter is the most convenient ship in the game and that's why you pay through the nose to get it properly fitted. You can't land on medium pads, that is it's only real drawback except for price. The only area's were it fails (again, my opinion) is Exploring and Pitching. The latter is easily fixed with DD and FA off.
 

Bob Lighthouse

Banned
Bob Lighthouse
kilon said:
My review does not mention engineering for the simple reason its pointless.

The very purpose of engineering is to make a ship to something it was not designed to be and as much it may be important on enhancing the fun of owning a ship its such a long grind that its kinda pointless to include it in a fair review. A Cutter even without good upgrades will fall in the letter of the review still.

But yes you can engineer any ship to be anything you like , well almost.
Click to expand...



You are contradicting yourself.
It's far from pointless for combat, it's vital.
It changes everything from a QoL perspective.

You cannot build a squishy Cutter and blame the Cutter, so perhaps it is your review that is unfair.
 

Durden T.

Durden T.
kilon said:
Summary:

Cutter is a combat ship that sacrificies agility for insane defense but in the end it suffers from the same issues of all end game ships (Anaconda and Corvette) , extremely high costs. Compared to the best ship in game, Python, it does offer some solid advantages but none of them are remotely close to justifying the extreme costs that can easily reach up to a 1 billion. If money is not the problem it may not be the Python's big brother, that title is well earned by Anaconda, on the other hand its a solid purchase that will add a considerable cargo hold, firepower and defense in the expense of agility. Like Corvette is less multipurpose and more specialized towards combat but none the less it serves its multipurpose role very well.

Example build:

https://eddp.co/u/VEz4NXtt


=============

SCORE
=============

Fighter 9/10
Explorer 2/10
Trader 4/10
Mission runner 8/10
Tourism 1/10
Investment (value/cost) 1/10


OVERALL : 6/10

===========

REVIEW
==========


Trader role:
It's easy to fall into the trap of regarding it a trader because it has the max potential cargo hold in the game currently. However, it's not a trader for the same reason that Corvette is not a trader.
Jump range.
Anaconda is more trader friendly because it has considerable cargo hold and amazing jump range, plus it can be built to defend and attack any pirate that considers taking a peek to its valuable cargo.
However for short-range trading Cutter is very hard to beat with its max cargo hold. Of course, max cargo hold means that you will have to sacrifice the shield which is pretty much the biggest bonus of the ship, fortunately, its thrusters are powerful enough to outrun NPC pirates, but you will be an easy pray for player pirates if they have the speed to catch you up.

Combat role:
Cutter is a combat ship , just the polar opposite of Corvette. What it loses in maneuverability it gains in ridiculous defense. Cutter is the king turtle, this ship has been designed to fill in the tank role and take as much beating as possible. With a 8B shield cell, 8C shield generator and 6x OA Shield Booster this thing comes almost unkillable. And that is just its warm up ,for the icing on the cake add to its 2 military compartments 5B shield cells.You end up with this monster

Even with a powerful opponent, it can take up to 30 minutes to bring down that insanely powerful shield. Especially if its a 8C shield that will full recharge in just 6 minutes which become a very deadly problem for opponents without enough firepower. Cutter also has a very powerful mass lock so if you engage a fight with it make sure you can outrun it. Don't be fooled by its mass it has a considerable boost for its size and its upgraded power plant and power distributor more than enough to keep boosting forever.
If you are the one in the Cutter against NPCs bellow a Python class it will be a case of you lauching your fighter pilot, pressing left click to lauch your turrets and going for a coffee. This is the king of afk fighting.


Having a fighter bay is a must because of the terrible turn rate. You may be extremely slow to kill and is highly unlikely a player that is not in a powerful enough ship will engage you but tailing you is very easy and its just a matter of time before your shield dies. With a fighter bay it makes certain that not even an army of small manouvarable ship will challange you and those that will dare, will crash and burn with Cutter's undisputed elegance.

If you love to fly circles around your enemies , forget about it, this is a sloowwww turning ship.

Miner role:
As long as you dont plan to move long distances this is definitely an ideal if not the best miner ship. Again its the huge cargo hold together with its considerable firepower and variety of module slots.

Explorer role:
Forget about it, bad jump range

Love boat:
Forget about it, passengers will kill you out of boredom , again bad jump range.



Why should I buy it?


1) You love the way it looks
2) You have to carry the absolute maximum cargo
3) You love to afk and can afford its ludicrous insurance (although you will rarely lose it)
4) You love to fight a small army of enemies

Why I should not buy it?

1) If you cannot afford its insurance
2) if you cannot afford to pay at least as much for its module upgrades
3) You move around large distances
4) Don't like ships that make you sleep
5) Don't want to sacrifice your first born for it to hear your pleads to turn


Engineering:
Like all ships the Cutter can be engineered to compesnate for most of its flaws and enhance much of its strenghts , I ignore the potential in this review because that it takes even longer to engineer a Cutter than buy and upgrade it.
Click to expand...

As a Cutter only pilot since I managed to get her years ago (I have an ASP Explorer with +30 LY for collecting mats and exploring, and an Imperial Eagle for no particular reason, but rarely use them), I think you did a good review, but you managed to arrive to some conclusions that really go against the popular believe, specially the "Cutter is not a good trader" thing. You are implicitly claiming that most of the people are mistaken on this regard.

The jump range on the Cutter, even if it is not the best, it is neither the worst, and the immense cargo bay makes it one of the most profitable ships available.

That being said, I run a Cutter worth well above one billion credits, with an insurance cost of +63 M credits, which I think pretty much speaks about the insane amount of money you'll need to A rate it and equip it with the best possible gear. (that is, of course, a fully PvP combat build, other builds may not be that expensive, but won't be cheap either...).

I also think the engineering part would have been very interesting. At this point, the stock capabilities of a ship are not that important. I think people is more willing to know what they can achieve if they bring the ship to its maximum capabilities, and everybody knows, that has to do with engineering...

Also, even as sad as this may sound, I think the Cutter (don't know other ships since I did not try to improve them, but it may feel similar) excels when you engineer it to the max. At that point, a very good ship starts becoming impressive and, from a combat perspective (the only one I care about now), a competent and capable ship becomes the monster and total beast the Cutter is when properly outfitted, A rated and G5 engineered...


Only real drawback of this Ship is, I agree, the massive direct and indirect costs, not only from a price point perspective, but also taking into consideration running costs...

The pitch rate also sucks, but the drawbacks of that can be compensated with engineering, proper FA-OFF technic and the use of gimballed or turreted weapons...

Overall, a very interesting thread about one of the ships in fashion...

Rep to OP.

Fly safe commanders.
 
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krylite

krylite
I think the cutter's extra exorbitant pricing is fairly justified by its basking qualities. Namely beautific hull, interior bar with ice cold drinks, luxurious curvilinear reflections under different sunlights.. But besides that, as mentioned, its exceptional hull and shield factor. And topping off , it's physically designed as a boosting rocket able to extricate vips and passengers from most dangers. And with the new engineering, it's not that difficult to upgrade the cutter into a decent self-sustaining explorer ship. 30Ly jumprange compared to 50Ly just means the cutter will encounter more star systems on its route, and with neutron boost or synthesis boost, it still has a decent chance to jump more rifts in jump connections.
 
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Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
kilon said:
Jumps in trading is everything because it comes with a big fat 30 seconds penalty per jump in time which when you make long routes it matters a lot. Lost time is lost money.
Click to expand...

Which is why you use galmap filters to find your routes. I've been trying it the last two weeks, and I've been founding plenty of +-5k/ton routes where the combined sum of BOTH stations towards their star is less than 400LS and one jump. That means +-12 trips per hour at 3.6 million each, or over 40 million per hour using nothing but in-game tools.
 

Marklar_

Marklar_
I really don't understand complaining about the cost of the Cutter. Credits aren't hard to get and a Cutter pays for itself pretty quickly.
 
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