Cobra Mk IV

[Micha]

On the whole I'm on the fence regarding opening up the CobraMkIV to everybody. While no, it wouldn't hurt me personally if others were given access, it was promised as an exclusive and there are enough people who value it because of that. Personally I didn't pre-order just to get the CMIV (in fact, I have yet to fly it, something I was hoping to do with my alt account as my main account is never in the Bubble) but primarily because I wanted to support the Developer and also to get access to the beta for early feedback.

But I do think it is within my rights and within the legal terms of the original offer that all of my Commanders should have access to it. It was me, the human, that pre-purchased Horizons and nowhere did it state that it's restricted to a single account. It's not our fault FDev doesn't have a proper way of managing multiple Commanders on PC (funnily enough Console players don't need to buy multiple copies of the game to enjoy multiple Commanders, but that's another argument) requiring us to create a new account and buy another copy of the game in order to do so.

I feel the same way for any other exclusives which are earned "by the human" rather than the Commander, such as LaveCon decals etc.
Other exclusives, such as CG participation or Special Event participation (eg DW2) is Commander-based, so yeah, I'm fine with those being restricted in that manner.

 

[Clicker]

The answer is obvious.

FD create a Cobra MkV which is better than both the CobraIII and CobraIV...make it an exclusive only for LEP holders....THEN...give everyone access to the Cobra MkIV.

 

[Guyperson]

I got Horizons for the promised gameplay features, not for exclusivity over a certain ship. I fully support both releasing it to everyone and de-crapifying it.

Its a great miner, pirate ship, exploration ship, and even makes a decent heavy combat ship.

I disagree pretty much completely. It can maybe laser mine effectively, but it's too slow for effective core mining and you'd graduate from it in a single run anyway just like you would the MkIII. For piracy it's too slow to catch up to anything smaller than a T9, and unless you only want to gamble with a couple of hatch breakers before they leave, disabling them is more troublesome than it needs to be with such sluggish handling and wimpy PD. It's also not a great explorer due both to its mediocre jump range and awful supercruise maneuverability. The extra internals aren't much help for exploration either unless you really want to stack way more AFMUs than you need. As for combat you can armor it up into a little brick of steel but it's still just going to sit there and get pounded on if the opponent has even the slightest notion to exploit its poor speed and maneuverability.
Its defining trait is that it has a ridiculous amount of optional internal space for a small ship, but it lacks everything else that could allow it to do anything noteworthy with it.
It's a great NPC ship if feel like bullying easy targets, though.

 

[Sysmon]

I want a Cobra Mk I please!

S

 

[Tarman]

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

I see what you did there. You saw that the cobra 4 outfits like a small sized anaconda and wanted one yourself.

Nice trick. I just want to confirm that it is as a good as you think it is.

EDIT: for the record and from last threads:

• I personally think everyone should have one as exclusivity just fills communities with snotty denial of others people (or its the only time you hear them speak anyway).
• Frontier have explicitly stated in a bunch of places its not going to happen. There's a couple of support articles on it.
• They seemed to imply its coming to ps4 at some point, that's probably your best bet.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

I got Horizons for the promised gameplay features, not for exclusivity over a certain ship. I fully support both releasing it to everyone and de-crapifying it.

I disagree pretty much completely. It can maybe laser mine effectively, but it's too slow for effective core mining and you'd graduate from it in a single run anyway just like you would the MkIII. For piracy it's too slow to catch up to anything smaller than a T9, and unless you only want to gamble with a couple of hatch breakers before they leave, disabling them is more troublesome than it needs to be with such sluggish handling and wimpy PD. It's also not a great explorer due both to its mediocre jump range and awful supercruise maneuverability. The extra internals aren't much help for exploration either unless you really want to stack way more AFMUs than you need. As for combat you can armor it up into a little brick of steel but it's still just going to sit there and get pounded on if the opponent has even the slightest notion to exploit its poor speed and maneuverability.
Its defining trait is that it has a ridiculous amount of optional internal space for a small ship, but it lacks everything else that could allow it to do anything noteworthy with it.
It's a great NPC ship if feel like bullying easy targets, though.

Its plenty fast enough for core mining.

And its not always about "graduating". Once you have more than enough money for everything then flying just big ships is boring for some. Some people don't focus on credits or getting bigger ships.

For piracy it works fine as well, trust me, i've done it.

Exploration isn't just about jump range. Jump range is important for rushing from A to B. Its good enough to get you anywhere you need to go unless wanting to hit stars out on the edge. Its SC manouverability is way ahead of some other ships people use for explorartion. Its internals are useful for a range of modules, including multiple SRV bays in case of accidents.

Regarding combat, works lovely as a heavy combat ship and can take a pounding.

Trust me, i know what i'm talking about.

 

[Captain Willard]

NO It's not a mk III
YES It's a mk IV
A very fine ship in it's own right.
No other small ship has those stats.
NO You can't have it.
Have a nice day.

 

[Morbad]

Every Cobra IV I've ever encountered has had 3500+ hull and a bunch of cascade mines and superpen railguns. Most of them were promptly shot down.

I built one for mining out in Colonia, but as I couldn't be bothered to Engineer it, or even find good parts, and the area was crawling with DG at the time, I wound up mining ten tons of osmium with my Courier instead.

Anyway, I don't really care what is done with it, but I do not expect Frontier to change either it's specifications or to open it up to non-backers/non-preorders.

 

[dxm55]

The Cobra Mk4 is more of a symbolic ship than anything else. A token for LEPs/early backers.
A regular subscriber like me has no access to it, and probably won't even need one... or maybe even want one, since there are better ships out there.

But I guess with Horizons released so far back, maybe its time for FDev to just let it go and let the general public at large have access to it finally.
The early backers have had access to it for a good what? 2/3 years now?

I think FDev should in future, give early backers or LEPs something else as a reward. Special decals, paint jobs, kits or whatever. Or even 100m in-game credits.
Ships are a main feature of the game, and it's not really a great thing to deny other paying users access to a particular model.

 

[Guyperson]

Its plenty fast enough for core mining.

And its not always about "graduating". Once you have more than enough money for everything then flying just big ships is boring for some. Some people don't focus on credits or getting bigger ships.

For piracy it works fine as well, trust me, i've done it.

Exploration isn't just about jump range. Jump range is important for rushing from A to B. Its good enough to get you anywhere you need to go unless wanting to hit stars out on the edge. Its SC manouverability is way ahead of some other ships people use for explorartion. Its internals are useful for a range of modules, including multiple SRV bays in case of accidents.

Regarding combat, works lovely as a heavy combat ship and can take a pounding.

The speed is painful for core mining and unless you've got a penchant for insta-killing SRVs by hurling them off high-G mountains, synthesis makes redundancy rather redundant.
You can make do with the MkIV for a lot of things, but that's just forcing it to do things it's not good at much like using other choices for tasks they're not suited to. Like shooting down a Clipper with an SRV just because you can (not recommended, it took like 20 minutes and was extremely boring). The MkIV is simply much less effective than the other options. You deliberately hobble yourself when you sit in one, which is fine if that's your bag and you're enamored with the idea but do not expect other people to share your enthusiasm for that mess.

 

[Micha]

The speed is painful for core mining

Not everybody is a Munchkin. Some of us play because we actually enjoy the activities in the game, not just maximising some onscreen numbers.

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

The ship is mostly pointless. And locked so it does not bother anyone.

I propose:

• add it to the Frontier Store for few bucks
• inherit Cobra Mk III speed bonus (that way it will be still somewhat slower than Mk III due to increased weight)

It is not pointless. It would be the cheapest multirole new players could get their hands on that has 10 optional internals and 5 guns - if new players could get their hands on it. And even in my veteran fleet it has it's place as my engineering materials collector.

Also no to both your suggestions. No ships in the store ever. And Cobra IV is fine as it is.

Rather finally lift the exclusivity and make it available to everyone. Or at least bundle it for everyone who preorders the 2020 DLC. LEPers get it for free then, since they already preordered.

 

[Guyperson]

Not everybody is a Munchkin. Some of us play because we actually enjoy the activities in the game, not just maximising some onscreen numbers.

I like the minigames of setting charges and sniping deposits, and the pretty explosions. The long stretches of drifting along listening to the high pitched scanner ping somewhat less so.
Also there's no reason you can't take a leisurely approach to the game in a ship that isn't junk.

 

[WR3ND]

I propose the Asp Scout Mk 2 is a non LEP owner exclusive. So if you own Mk 4, you can't have this. That way, everyone can be miserable in equal measure.

Cobra Mk IV isn't an LEP exclusive, so I second this proposal. Since I happen to have an LEP and don't have any Federation nor Imperial ranks, it seems only fitting that all rank ships should likewise be exclusive to not having ranks for them.

Everyone wins.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

The speed is painful for core mining and unless you've got a penchant for insta-killing SRVs by hurling them off high-G mountains, synthesis makes redundancy rather redundant.
You can make do with the MkIV for a lot of things, but that's just forcing it to do things it's not good at much like using other choices for tasks they're not suited to. Like shooting down a Clipper with an SRV just because you can (not recommended, it took like 20 minutes and was extremely boring). The MkIV is simply much less effective than the other options. You deliberately hobble yourself when you sit in one, which is fine if that's your bag and you're enamored with the idea but do not expect other people to share your enthusiasm for that mess.

I can assure you, as someone who has done core mining in one, its absoloute fine. You don't need mega speeds for core mining. You can be in and out with no problem. If you are having problems with the speed when core mining in one, then i'm not sure what to suggest. An engineered CM4 has a speed higher than an unengineered CM3, and i don't think anyone would say an unengineered CM3 is a slouch.

If you are going to take the postiion there are better ships for things, then yes, there are always better ships for many activtivies than other ships. Does this mean you should only fly the best ships for a particular task? Should we all fly to Beagle Point in Anacondas? Should we only do trading in Cutters? Should we only bounty hunt in Corvettes?

Personally I fly what I enjoy flying. Its not like these days anyone needs to worry about credits if that is your focus. I fly a type 10 for mining these days... and you are saying that a Cobra mk4 is too slow

 

[Non Grata]

otherwise, a case of mis-selling may well have occurred and a report to Trading Standards might well be in order.

Are you sure you've thought this through fully?

 

[Guyperson]

An engineered CM4 has a speed higher than an unengineered CM3, and i don't think anyone would say an unengineered CM3 is a slouch.

It is compared to an engineered one. Engineering does nothing to redeem ships in the areas where they fall short. As engineering is based on percentages it only widens any existing gaps between different ships.
There's the best tool for the job, but then there's hammering in nails with a broken tool handle. The MkIV doesn't do anything particularly well and it's not as fun to throw around as its older sibling as a jack-of-all-trades. For instance an FDL may not have the raw shields and armor or damage output of a Corvette but they're still quite high, as well as being very fast and maneuverable. Its attributes leverage each other and that makes it also great for an activity like bounty hunting. Different, but not worse. I'd like to be able to say something similar of the MkIV one day.
I'm not a fan of the T-10 either as it's billed as an AX ship while being pretty mediocre at it, and its brand of facetanking isn't a very exciting way to fight Thargoids, nor does its speed or driftiness lend it very well to AX support with objectives like timely delivery of decon limpets in a wing. I certainly wouldn't use a one for core mining, for exactly the same reason as the MkIV is undesirable. I would use a Type-9 for laser mining because there isn't much travel involved and it has the beefcake cargo hold.
You clearly have a soft spot for for the underdog but I don't believe it's a popular opinion.

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

When the T10 came out and I had the first look at internals and hardpoints, my only thought was "mining ship". I promptly retooled my Anaconda to long range S&R and put all the mining stuff on the T10. It has served me faithfully as such ever since....and ripped all NPC pirates wanting a piece of my minerals a new one.

As for the Cobra IV, I quite like how it handles on the task I've given it. When told to stop, it stops. When told to turn it turns. It does all that with a roughly equal speed as a medium ship would, but the important thing is it's near zero drift when maneuvering.

 

[domingo]

Use the search function and you'll see that you're not the first, second, tenth, eightysecond or onehundredandtwentyseventh to start whining about the Cobra mk4.

Sorry for that, but it already happened. Sometimes happens even for hardened veterans ...

I see what you did there. You saw that the cobra 4 outfits like a small sized anaconda and wanted one yourself.

It was more about much better hardpoint placement than Mk III ... that can't be really used effectively (PvP/Thargoids, anything is good enough for NPCs) due to much worse speed and maneuverability.
If it would get same-ish speed bonus as Mk III then due to its increased hull mass it will still fall behind it in both speed and maneuverability. But not by order of several classes.

Also no to both your suggestions. No ships in the store ever. And Cobra IV is fine as it is.

Rather finally lift the exclusivity and make it available to everyone. Or at least bundle it for everyone who preorders the 2020 DLC. LEPers get it for free then, since they already preordered.

I proposed unlocking it in store as a way for new commanders to get hands on it, as it is the single ship that is inacessible no matter what you do.
But I don't really care about exact unlock method.

And FDev messed up here, and they know it, and if they would do anything to change this, there would be several CMDRs that would be very upset about FDev changed their exclusivity, just as there are CMDRs that would not really care if they changed this.


So OP, care to explain how you would go about to convince everyone that was promised this exclusive access to this ship that they are OK with changing is, as that is at the core of this issue...And even if FDev would launch a Cobra Mk5, for all important aspects are a copy of the Mk4, you would still get CMDRs that complain that they still cannot have a Mk4 despite them having access to Mk5 that is the "same" ship, just a different name...

What I learned at this community is that it is impossible to please everyone.
Anything somebody will change or propose will be opposed by some group.

It is a pity that in game named Elite, where everyone should strive to become one, many people became Elitists instead ... status instead of skill ...