Imperial Courier Fast Battle Courier

[sinisalo]

Great post Na'Qan, excellent presentation.

While your PvP interceptor is more battle Courier than fast battle Courier, the ideas and execution are impressive. I know it's intentional, to avoid overrunning your flechettes and not a criticism in any way. I would not have thought to make a hull tank Courier. And I enjoyed reading the way you analyze and play on the psychology of your opponents. Good stuff.

I don't intentionally PvP, but I could reconsider for a tactical wing of highly engineered Couriers

 

[Na'Qan]

Great post Na'Qan, excellent presentation.

While your PvP interceptor is more battle Courier than fast battle Courier, the ideas and execution are impressive. I know it's intentional, to avoid overrunning your flechettes and not a criticism in any way. I would not have thought to make a hull tank Courier. And I enjoyed reading the way you analyze and play on the psychology of your opponents. Good stuff.

I don't intentionally PvP, but I could reconsider for a tactical wing of highly engineered Couriers

I think 3 Medium Harpoints on this ship is just not enough raw DPS to eat through entire rings of engineered shields and hardened hulls.

The time it would take to deliver enough damage to enemy, would deplete the SCBs and shields of a fast light weight Courier.

And I saw too many, fast couriers slamming into their targets at too fast speed, those resulted in accidental suicides. In my eyes, the faster my opponent is, the squishier they are underneat, very vulnerable to flechettes. Engaging silent running, it actually draws my opponent closer to me, as they try to get within auto-resolution range, which is part of the tactics as well.

No need for speed, if enemies naturally wants to get close.

 

[sinisalo]

Yeah good points, I got caught in a fit of fantasy. I had visions of coordinated elements of dual fast Couriers employing Schwarm tactics using ultra high speed against the hapless target.

But it starts to fall apart if he has any friends

I like how you describe getting in your opponents' heads, both to puppet them (predicting what they might do, and using tactics to make it more likely) and the more traditional meaning of getting them off their game. Or that's how I see it. Good stuff mate.

 

[cmdr Ramius007]

And I saw too many, fast couriers slamming into their targets at too fast speed, those resulted in accidental suicides. In my eyes, the faster my opponent is, the squishier they are underneat, very vulnerable to flechettes. Engaging silent running, it actually draws my opponent closer to me, as they try to get within auto-resolution range, which is part of the tactics as well.

I can confirm, i get my enhanced thruster 1 shooted in courier by another courier with flachette, so even single 1d mrp may come handy. I probably died in courier about same number of times as in my other ships alltogether. To Na;Qan list of threats i would add stacked phasing.

 

[Morbad]

Other offensive/defensive feature of Flechettes Is that if enemy deploys SLF. Use Flechettes to destroy SLF thrusters, but don't finish it off. As long as the SLF remains present in the instance, they can't deploy another SLF.

A good point, and a good reason for SLF users to carry railguns, so that they can quickly scrap an SLF that becomes unresponsive after losing it's thrusters.

It's also one of the reasons I transitioned from Taipan to GU-97s. The Taipan has a lot of hull for a fighter, but it's thrusters aren't any more durable; it was not uncommon for seeker hits to leave them adrift.

 

[sinisalo]

A question for the build gurus... I want to understand this. At one point my beams (2x efficient thermal vent, plus a lightweight corrosive multcannon at full G5) were done to G4, and about 80% through G5 before I ran out of mats. So just 20% short of complete. At that point Coriolis gave me a TTD (time to drain capacitor, four-pips) of 1:52.

Once I got the Proto Heat Radiators I needed to finish the job, the TTD jumped to 7:01. Why did such a small increase (of around 20%) result in such a large gain (more than triple the TTD)?

Power distributor is G5 charge enhanced with super conduits. Here's the build (ignore missing slots)

Velocity

 

[Na'Qan]

A question for the build gurus... I want to understand this. At one point my beams (2x efficient thermal vent, plus a lightweight corrosive multcannon at full G5) were done to G4, and about 80% through G5 before I ran out of mats. So just 20% short of complete. At that point Coriolis gave me a TTD (time to drain capacitor, four-pips) of 1:52.

Once I got the Proto Heat Radiators I needed to finish the job, the TTD jumped to 7:01. Why did such a small increase (of around 20%) result in such a large gain (more than triple the TTD)?

Power distributor is G5 charge enhanced with super conduits. Here's the build (ignore missing slots)

Velocity

If it was a problem, I’d deep dive to the side effect. But since it worked out in your favor to get the large gain, I’ll just run with it.

If I were to guess, Coriolis doesn’t account for the incremental TTD increases within a certain grade prior to going to next one.

 

[sinisalo]

Yes, no complaints here, just wanted to understand what I was seeing.

Another interesting thing that I have noticed about a build like this is collision damage. I've smacked in to enough ships now, or they have crashed in to me, that I can see a trend. Collision damage was my main concern in a PvE Courier as I built the ship. NPCs don't pose much threat really with such a fast, agile ship. As long as you have decent shields I reckon you'll be fine against anything you come up against (and of course actually take advanatge of that speed and agility and don't choose to face tank in it).

My first collisions were me hitting something else at very high speed. I think I mentioned hitting my friend's Vette at 660 m/s, cartwheeling away and losing just half a ring. Bounced right off his nose, and he hardly noticed it. He was barely moving at the time.

But other collisions have done far more shield damage. It seems to me that the damage I take in collisions is tied to the speed the other ship is making. The speed I am going seems to have little effect on the resulting damage I absorb. But if I hit a ship that is travelling very fast it can knock my shields out completely. Of course all of this can be avoided by NOT running in to things, but it's going to happen at these speeds and in dense instances like a CZ or a RES.

Just an observation I've made. I would expect the damage to be a sum of both ships (mass and speed = force), but that doesn't seem to be how it works.

 

[Villany]

A question for the build gurus... I want to understand this. At one point my beams (2x efficient thermal vent, plus a lightweight corrosive multcannon at full G5) were done to G4, and about 80% through G5 before I ran out of mats. So just 20% short of complete. At that point Coriolis gave me a TTD (time to drain capacitor, four-pips) of 1:52.

Once I got the Proto Heat Radiators I needed to finish the job, the TTD jumped to 7:01. Why did such a small increase (of around 20%) result in such a large gain (more than triple the TTD)?

Power distributor is G5 charge enhanced with super conduits. Here's the build (ignore missing slots)

Velocity

At infinite TTD, the WEP capacitor recharge is larger than the weapons drain. The actual TTD is: (capacitor capacity) / (weapons' combined drain) - (capacitor recharge)
As the weapons drain gets closer and closer to the recharge rate, the net capacitor drain comes closer and closer to zero, so small changes can result in very high increases in TTD.

One bit of extra weight saving that could be done is to downgrade the FSD to D rated, and partially offset the range decrease with a guardian FSD booster. The ship would still have over 24LY of jump range, but would boost just over 800m/s.

 

[baudelier]

I built my armed racing courier after being inspired by the Swordfish II from Cowboy Bebop.

She's fast boosting too 885m/s. With four pips to SYS she hits your mark for shields . And with a 48.9Ly jump range, dual AFMUs and, repair limpet controller makes for an excellent ship for Buckyball events as well as canyon/station racing.

CNR Saluki

 

[sinisalo]

Is Saluki available to be viewed in Coriolis?

Thanks for the tip Villany. That does indeed work. It trades jump for speed. It would require an additional level or two of overcharge to cover the power (class 3 GFSDB), and would mean a hotter ship as well. But it does get the ship back to the speeds I was gunning for at the outset. The tradeoff would be 6 light years of jump and additional heat for +16/21 speed.

This Courier has bumped combat rank 20 points so far. It's fulfilling it's intended role quite nicely. One of my PG mates was inspired by my tales to build his own. He went for slower speed but much better shields and a rail, and we met up for some bounty hunting yesterday. Good fun in dual Couriers.

 

[baudelier]

Is Saluki available to be viewed in Coriolis?

Thanks for the tip Villany. That does indeed work. It trades jump for speed. It would require an additional level or two of overcharge to cover the power (class 3 GFSDB), and would mean a hotter ship as well. But it does get the ship back to the speeds I was gunning for at the outset. The tradeoff would be 6 light years of jump and additional heat for +16/21 speed.

This Courier has bumped combat rank 20 points so far. It's fulfilling it's intended role quite nicely. One of my PG mates was inspired by my tales to build his own. He went for slower speed but much better shields and a rail, and we met up for some bounty hunting yesterday. Good fun in dual Couriers.

Here you go, CNR Saluki , I just had to update it with the April update changes. I've moved away from Coriolis because ED shipyard's numbers are more accurate.

 

[sinisalo]

It was said earlier in this thread somewhere that 861 m/s was theoretical maximum. Uh, no

Goodness, but that's fast! Must be a blast to fly. I couldn't take a ship like that in to combat, but it would make a good wake scanner or for canyon rides. Maybe eventually I'll build a second just for speed.

A 52 ton, 50 jump Courier is outrageous don't you know. Nice ship, thanks for sharing it.

 

[baudelier]

It was said earlier in this thread somewhere that 861 m/s was theoretical maximum. Uh, no

Goodness, but that's fast! Must be a blast to fly. I couldn't take a ship like that in to combat, but it would make a good wake scanner or for canyon rides. Maybe eventually I'll build a second just for speed.

A 52 ton, 50 jump Courier is outrageous don't you know. Nice ship, thanks for sharing it.

I'm pretty sure that 885 is the maximum possible speed for the Courier. I've tested it in game by storing my ships weapons, repair controller and shield generator. And my boost speed remained unchanged.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

I'm pretty sure that 885 is the maximum possible speed for the Courier. I've tested it in game by storing my ships weapons, repair controller and shield generator. And my boost speed remained unchanged.

You won't lose any speed by running medium LW MCs, since you'll still be below minimum mass for the thrusters.
That is a pointless loss of DPS, ftr, not to mention the small projectile issue.
That PD is not well suited for combat, nor are those shields.

That is also a very fragile build.
With no chaff you will be a sponge for any gimbal fire.
One salvo of gimbal frags and you'll pop.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

It was said earlier in this thread somewhere that 861 m/s was theoretical maximum. Uh, no

Goodness, but that's fast! Must be a blast to fly. I couldn't take a ship like that in to combat, but it would make a good wake scanner or for canyon rides. Maybe eventually I'll build a second just for speed.

A 52 ton, 50 jump Courier is outrageous don't you know. Nice ship, thanks for sharing it.

851 IS max for 3A EPTs with drive distributors.
That build is using drag drives, which drops the minimum mass.
It's not considered practical for a Courier combat build to use drag drives w/EPTs, since when you add all the mass (eg weapons and shields) you'll want, you'd be better off with drive distributors.
It's fine for a LW racer.

That was the premise of the first post I made in this thread.

 

[sinisalo]

OK gotcha.

 

[baudelier]

You won't lose any speed by running medium LW MCs, since you'll still be below minimum mass for the thrusters.
That is a pointless loss of DPS, ftr, not to mention the small projectile issue.
That PD is not well suited for combat, nor are those shields.

That is also a very fragile build.
With no chaff you will be a sponge for any gimbal fire.
One salvo of gimbal frags and you'll pop.

Thanks for letting me know about the multi-cannon. When doing my build I should have gone back over to see if I had enough room for larger components.

She is very fragile but that's by design, I built her based in Spike Speigal's racer turned snub fighter the Swordfish II.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

Thanks for letting me know about the multi-cannon. When doing my build I should have gone back over to see if I had enough room for larger components.

She is very fragile but that's by design, I built her based in Spike Speigal's racer turned snub fighter the Swordfish II.

Fair enough.
You could certainly also squeeze in a larger PD under min mass in your current build, for more frequent boosting.
Chaff seems prudent too.
Even a 3D w/ charge enhanced or engine focused/stripped down(in addition to the above weapons) only loses you 3/5 m/s top/boost speed.

 

[CooterCrickets87]

The Imperial Courier has some mean stats but dont I need to gain faction with the Empire to buy?

What ship would you guys suggest a New player to work towards. One that would like to Bounty Hunt for a living.

I will be Starting over in the Noob area I've heard about. Shouldn't be a big loss since I only played a couple weeks before the update.

What says the Elite Hive Mind