What is the best module systems and armament for the Viper regarding traveling speed and distance, and the best weapons to use in gimballed and fixed settups?
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Newcomer / Intro Best modules/armament for Viper?
- Thread starter Zeromancer
- Start date
Non-negotiable Modules
You simply need these or you'll get skinned alive.
Modules that vary depending on your role
Weapons and combat gear
You simply need these or you'll get skinned alive.
- A3 power plant - the Viper only has 12Mw at max output. You need the max output.
- A3 power distributor - advanced weaponry must be fed. Your Viper is a beast of a ship; you must feed it.
- A3 Thrusters - You'll find the default thrusters make your Viper sluggish and slow. These make it dance around like a cat on a hot tin roof.
Modules that vary depending on your role
- A3 shield generator - this is why you need the A3 power plant: You can't actually have A3 shields with A3 thrusters. There simply isn't enough power. Unless, of course, you choose to skimp on weapons or can find a way to prioritise your modules to allow an A3 generator to stay online when the hardpoints are deployed.
- Kill warrant scanner - actually, you can have a KWS as standard kit, but only the lower rated ones - it's a real power hog when deployed. I have an E0 rated KWS, which scans at 2KM. Useful for resource extraction sites, but rather more risky when you are hunting/are accosted by pirates - they'll often shoot straight away, and 2KM is within weapons range, especially seeker missiles and lasers.
Weapons and combat gear
- This will vary depending on individual preferences, hence why it's here, but c'mon. It's a Viper... Weapons are really non-negotiable. I run with:
- 2x class 1 fixed beam lasers on the small hardpoints. Gimbals are useless when the target drops chaff. An all-gimballed or turreted setup can go for up to thirty seconds unable to land any damage on its target - enough time or it to escape.
- 2x class 2 gimballed multicannon on the medium hardpoints. The class 2 are awesome against hulls, even big ships like Anacondas and Pythons.
- Chaff. Ner-ner-ne-ner-ner. You can't hit me.
- Shield cell bank
- Varies by power budget and preference. Suffice to say, however, the default FSD is absolute crap. I can't remember what I run right now (I'm away from my computer), but I get around 9.5LY laden.
- I have an A2 scoop. The Viper is a thirsty snake. Multi-system jumps are much easier and cheaper with a scoop.
- I use an 8T cargo rack. Great for rep-building delivery missions and *ahem* accidentally hoovering up cargo dropped by careless litterbugs.
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the best of everything does not make a good pilot
My suggestion is you try various loadouts until you find something that suits you.... I've got gimballed pulse and multi-cannons at the moment..... I've found, however, that 90% of my current prey use chaff over and over which defeats or confuses gimballed weapons... so I'm going for fixed multi's and try them... and over and over
It's one of those games that you have to sacrifice one for a gain in another and visa versa.... If I put more armour on my current set-up the jump range will drop further
simply.... nothing is best
EDIT
LOL.... see what I mean....... I don't have 1, 2 or 3 above and I certainly don't get skinned...... bah !!!!! LOL
2nd EDIT
the lowest rated KWS has such a short range that it's useless... u may as well throw a rock
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Total ship price is around 2.8 Mil. I have:
A Rated
FSD
Shields
Power
Power Distribution
Thrusters
B Rated
Shield Cells (B2)
D Rated
Interdiction (D2)
Sensors and Life support is E or D, whichever is lighter.
For weapons:
Med Beams, Small Cannons, Chaff, Point Defense. Military Armor.
No discovery scanner. Usually I have no cargo slots at all. The empty slot holds a fuel scoop if I'm planning to travel.
A Rated
FSD
Shields
Power
Power Distribution
Thrusters
B Rated
Shield Cells (B2)
D Rated
Interdiction (D2)
Sensors and Life support is E or D, whichever is lighter.
For weapons:
Med Beams, Small Cannons, Chaff, Point Defense. Military Armor.
No discovery scanner. Usually I have no cargo slots at all. The empty slot holds a fuel scoop if I'm planning to travel.
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I've just learned in another thread that you can, apparently, go something like 0.4 - 0.5MW over budget in the Viper with no ill-effects. That might significantly impact loadout.
I'll test when I get home from work tonight and report.
I'll test when I get home from work tonight and report.
Yep yep.
You can definitely run A-rated modules like I listed above, just may require some juggling and testing. I recommend flying outside the No-Fire Zone and see if you can fire off shots, chaff, etc. If something goes over max, then you can just turn around again to re-dock and see what needs to be adjusted in your loadout.
Also - OP: note that weapon types (fixed vs gimbals, etc) have different power levels too. My beams are fixed, my cannons on gimbals.
You can definitely run A-rated modules like I listed above, just may require some juggling and testing. I recommend flying outside the No-Fire Zone and see if you can fire off shots, chaff, etc. If something goes over max, then you can just turn around again to re-dock and see what needs to be adjusted in your loadout.
Also - OP: note that weapon types (fixed vs gimbals, etc) have different power levels too. My beams are fixed, my cannons on gimbals.
It's a pain, but at 2KM you can easily kite the big ships using reverse and lateral thrusters, and in RES or at nav beacons, the bad guys often don't engage you until you give a bit of provocation by shooting at them. If it's a pirate Anaconda at a RES, I hang back at the edge of the furball and scan - the pirate doesn't react because he's got 10 other ships to worry about.
I think the key is the KWS - 1.3MW! :/thorn- said:
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My current total power load is 13.58MW on a 12MW Viper, and I suffer no ill effects whatsoever for it. Everything FSD-related should be reduced to low priority so that it turns off when you go weapons hot - those modules are unusable with hardpoints out even if they're powered, so it makes no difference. On top of that, I also keep my Cargo Hatch as the lowest priority, as it is usually pointless to waste an entire equipment slot for one of the viper's pitifully small cargo holds. Just imagine how many things could be making your ship even better at fighting compared to what you get from storing 2, 4, or 8 tons of commodities.
Priorities:
Cargo Hatch - 5 (lowest, turns off first)
FSD, Interdictor, Fuel Scoop - 4
Utility hardpoint modules - 2
Weapons and everything else combat-relevant - 1 (highest, never turns off)
Lowering the utility modules to 2 is pointless as it doesn't use enough power to drop them anyway, but I do it just in case there's something in the game capable of temporarily hurting my max power output.
As for loadout, I've got A rank everything except for D sensors, D life support, and a D3 Interdictor, and the lightest possible armor. The other bottom slots are filled with A3 Shield Gen, A2 Shield Cells, and A1 Fuel Scoop. My weapons are 2x Fixed Medium Beam and 2x Fixed Small Pulse, with a C-rank KWS (if i used more power-hungry weapons I would happily downgrade it to D or E) and either a Chaff or Point-Defense depending on my mood. The whole thing totals around 3 mil, gets a jump range of over 14Ly, and uses every bit of power the ship can squeeze out.
You just have to go into the Modules Section in the RH panel and juggle the priorities around to balance the power out.... no need to keep re-docking.... unless you are changing out stuff in outfitting
power levels also differ on class, thermal type and many other things it's not a straight black and white answer
Helped me immensely. I love you.
Right, that's what I meant. You want to be sure all your gear will actually activate before you jump out away the station, so that you can redock and swap parts out if needed.
Update
Yes, you can go a tiny bit over the stated maximum, but with proper power management, you can run:
Yes, you can go a tiny bit over the stated maximum, but with proper power management, you can run:
I completed a kill mission using this loadout last night. I didn't realise it at the time, as the ship I'd been hired to kill was actually an Asp rather than an Anaconda. The Viper in this configuration is absolutely deadly.
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[Viper - Combat - 2T]
M: 2F/G Multi-cannon
M: 2F/G Multi-cannon
S: 1G/G Multi-cannon
S: 1F/G Pulse Laser
U: 0I Chaff Launcher
U: 0C Kill Warrant Scanner
BH: 1I Military Grade Composite
RB: 3A Power Plant
TM: 3A Thrusters
FH: 3A Frame Shift Drive
EC: 2A Life Support
PC: 3A Power Distributor
SS: 3C Sensors
FS: 2C Fuel Tank (Capacity: 4)
3: 3A Shield Generator
3: 3B Shield Cell Bank
2: 2A Fuel Scoop
1: 1E Cargo Rack (Capacity: 2)
---
Shield: 115.57 MJ
Power : 9.67 MW retracted (81%)
12.51 MW deployed (104%)
12.00 MW available
Cargo : 2 T
Fuel : 4 T
Mass : 121.6 T empty
127.6 T full
Range : 12.28 LY unladen
12.09 LY laden
Price : 3,114,565 CR
Re-Buy: 155,728 CR @ 95% insurance
This was my loadout until I sold it today.
With the 3B shield cell bank I was able to take down an anaconda 1 on 1 pretty much without much evasive maneuvers.
With my larger ships I tend to push the Power Deployed to around 105-108% and if possible, have a smaller Power Plant but A rating.
The A rating will help mitigate the heat when fuel scooping, the 105-108% won't affect the ship if you set Cargo Hatch and Fuel Scoop to Priority 2.
When you're in battle and deploy hardpoints, priority 2 will shutdown, which are not needed when you're dogfighting, meaning that you will be below the 100%
Test this before leaving station by disabling those 2 modules and check your loadout usage.
M: 2F/G Multi-cannon
M: 2F/G Multi-cannon
S: 1G/G Multi-cannon
S: 1F/G Pulse Laser
U: 0I Chaff Launcher
U: 0C Kill Warrant Scanner
BH: 1I Military Grade Composite
RB: 3A Power Plant
TM: 3A Thrusters
FH: 3A Frame Shift Drive
EC: 2A Life Support
PC: 3A Power Distributor
SS: 3C Sensors
FS: 2C Fuel Tank (Capacity: 4)
3: 3A Shield Generator
3: 3B Shield Cell Bank
2: 2A Fuel Scoop
1: 1E Cargo Rack (Capacity: 2)
---
Shield: 115.57 MJ
Power : 9.67 MW retracted (81%)
12.51 MW deployed (104%)
12.00 MW available
Cargo : 2 T
Fuel : 4 T
Mass : 121.6 T empty
127.6 T full
Range : 12.28 LY unladen
12.09 LY laden
Price : 3,114,565 CR
Re-Buy: 155,728 CR @ 95% insurance
This was my loadout until I sold it today.
With the 3B shield cell bank I was able to take down an anaconda 1 on 1 pretty much without much evasive maneuvers.
With my larger ships I tend to push the Power Deployed to around 105-108% and if possible, have a smaller Power Plant but A rating.
The A rating will help mitigate the heat when fuel scooping, the 105-108% won't affect the ship if you set Cargo Hatch and Fuel Scoop to Priority 2.
When you're in battle and deploy hardpoints, priority 2 will shutdown, which are not needed when you're dogfighting, meaning that you will be below the 100%
Test this before leaving station by disabling those 2 modules and check your loadout usage.
Very good but dropp the multi-cannons replace with M-Laser and you will skin any alive,,
I to love the multi-cannons but Small on lower slots, that way when reverse you are all over the enemy constantly beating them,, skin their shields with the Laser, keep pounding with all power to weapons.. simply a beast I totally agree - thanks for the tank tips Shield Cells I have tried them out yet,,
NB Lasers are free and costfree to shoot with
I to love the multi-cannons but Small on lower slots, that way when reverse you are all over the enemy constantly beating them,, skin their shields with the Laser, keep pounding with all power to weapons.. simply a beast I totally agree - thanks for the tank tips Shield Cells I have tried them out yet,,
NB Lasers are free and costfree to shoot with
i have 4 fixed MC's on mine, because, BSG...