Ships COBRA . . . . Mk.III or Mk.IV ????

Beachwalker

Beachwalker
I've been looking at the Cobra Mk.IV for some time now and still can't decide.
I'm currently flying around in a MK.III and have no problems with it. Decent cargo (36t.) and with the weapons I have, it looks after itself very well.
I was wondering if the Mk.IV could be an improvement until I get afford a bigger and better ship.
I'm sure there are a few commanders out there that have experience with both and I would love to hear any feedback you might be willing to divulge. I look forward to hearing your comments.
Yours faithfully
 

GammaZ

G
Depends on what you are doing. Main advantage of MKIV are internals, a lot of them. Main disadvantage is speed. Going from MKIII to MKIV will mean that you will switch from the fastest ship in game to one of the slowest...
 

InMemoriamSirocco

Banned
InMemoriamSirocco
If you want to abandon combat as a choice of gameplay, and focus more on trading, the Cobra IV offers the largest possible cargo capacity among small ships. As much as the Keelback, which is a medium sized ship.
 

Psycho Romeo

Psycho Romeo
GammaZ said:
Going from MKIII to MKIV will mean that you will switch from the fastest ship in game to one of the slowest...
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This is what it comes down to.

If cargo is a priority, then a CIV will absolutely be good for you. The CIV can do just about everything but pirate and race quite effectively. Its weapons are a vast improvement over the CIII.

But you need to be very wary taking it into combat. It's a very different experience. Ships like eagles and vultures will become terrifying. However, ships like pythons you can handle while dozing off at the stick. With a few HRPs, the CIV will keep you, your cargo, and your SRVs very safe. The CIII has the option to flee from combat whenever it wants, for the most part. In the CIV, you must make this decision early on in the engagement.
 

Beachwalker

Beachwalker
Welcomed Feedback

Thanks for all your comments.
As I'm a trader by profession, I'm going to give it a go. With some decent weapons, I'm sure I can defend myself if necessary.
At the moment, my priority is "TO MAKE MONEY", and the larger cargo bay will certainly help.
And I don't like to run from a fight anyway.
Hopefully, this will speed me on my way to bigger and better ships in the near future.

Thanks again for your advice.:D

 

Beachwalker

Beachwalker
Psycho Romeo said:
Unless you're going to be looking for the occasional fight, the T6 or even the keelback might serve you better.
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I've tried both of these beauties. Great for trading.

Unfortunately, if you get jumped or interdicted by an undesirable, the you can kiss goodbye to a hefty chunk of change.
It happened to me a few times, wiped out all my profits from that day.

How come we can't get our cargo insured, like we do with the ship?????
 

GammaZ

G
Problem is, Cobra IV is even worse than T6 in terms of running away. Similar shield, similar armour and much slower.
Seriously, a-grade thrusters, shield, chaff launcher, and you have nearly 100% chance to escape any NPC in T6. And if you are worried about player interdictions, not NPC ones, both T6 and Cobra IV are a death trap, basically no chance to escape.
 
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Psycho Romeo

Psycho Romeo
GammaZ said:
similar armour
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Not even close... The CIV has over 50 more points of armor, and a better geometric profile in my opinion. It can't bring a booster with a double chaff though. The T6 has a few more lightyears in jump range and 24t more in cargo, so I suppose it really depends what your priorities are. The T6 will perform as a better trader in almost every regard, but the CIV is going to punch pirates with some serious sass.

At any rate, a simple chaff screen will protect you from all but the best equipped pilots, so escape is an issue with neither.

Example builds:
T6
CIV
 

GammaZ

G
And what those 50 armor will actually change? Depending on attacker weapons it will be either one more shot or just a fraction of a second... Also in your example builds T6 has exactly 50 more shield to compensate...
Neither of ships is going to survive 15s to be able to highwake, and neither of them has enough speed to run away and lowwake, if we are talking about pvp.
In terms of pve... one can run away in any ship, because npc-s are dumb. But escaping something big and relatively dangerous, like python/anaconda, will be easier in T6 because of ~70ms/s more boost speed.
Of course it will be possible to kill some small npc pirates in cobra, but is it really wise to waste time and risk all the cargo, fighting in ill-equiped ship? Honestly I'd just dump weapons to increase jump range a bit...
 
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Galanthalas

G
Just stick with your mk3 until you can snag yourself an asp explorer. Your chances of death are minuscule in that compared to the mk4 or the t6, and ya either trade or fight, so dump your weapons.
 

Psycho Romeo

Psycho Romeo
GammaZ said:
And what those 50 armor will actually change? Depending on attacker weapons it will be either one more shot or just a fraction of a second... Also in your example builds T6 has exactly 50 more shield to compensate...
Click to expand...
For ships of this class, 50 points of armor is quite a bit. On the other hand, 50 points of shielding is not.
Both of these ships would easily survive 15 seconds unless they were completely outclassed by their attacker to begin with.
 

Kaybe

Kaybe
Here are the cons and pros of the Mk IV compared to the Mk III:

Cons:

- SLOW! The Mk III is the single fastest ship in the game. Hence the best at smuggling, running away, or catching others. Pretty good pirate ship, really. You won't be moving very fast in the Mk IV, though. It is MUCH slower, topping off at around 310 m/s or so boosting.
- Less Agile: There are obviously much less agile ships in game, but the Cobra Mk IV is quite sluggish, especially at top speed.

Pros (and pay attention here as many don't notice these):

- AMAZING weapon placement! Not only do they have all have great weapon convergence, hence allowing for fixed weapons like dumbfire missiles and rail guns, but they are also all mounted above, so you can actually have an all turret setup if you want. It also has one additional small weapon hardpoint over the Mk III.
- Great internals! It has 8 internal slots, more than any ship in it's price point. More than most ships even not in it's price point. And you know what you do with all those? How about bounty hunting with shields + 2300 armor?

Check this: Two gimballed multicannons + 3 small beam turrets:

http://coriolis.io/outfit/cobra_mk_...70q0q0q000lB32b2b2b29292727.Iw18SQ==.Aw18SQ==
 

Starender

Starender
Keep the MK 3.
Then take the T6 for trade, the ASP explorer if you can afford it for trade/missions/explorations, and if you want to fight take the Vulture.

In Elite a bigger number mk X doesn't mean it's better, and often it's even worst.
 

Deleted member 110222

D
As much I love the Mk IV, (it's my favourite ship), I would never fly it in open. Not a problem for me per se, seeing as I always fly in Mobius, but I digress.

If you're playing in open, use the Mk III. It's the king of evading combat. And does better in combat anyway, which is ironic.
 

CMDR Argent Steel

CMDR Argent Steel
I have a load of experience with the Mk III and middling experience with the Mk IV, but I have to say everything so far stated in this thread with regards to comparing the two ships matches up with the experience I have. I really like the Mk IV but it is just a different ship from the Mk III with an entirely different mission-set, and it takes a different flying style to use it effectively. I would say that flying a Mk IV feels to me like flying an Asp Explorer, except of course the Asp Explorer is larger, faster, more upgradeable, far more flexible, and just does more. It's also much more expensive so you're paying for that overall better ship.

Just know your intended mission and choose the ship that best suits it, is my advice.
 
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