Ships Cutter Build - Any improvements?

[CMDR_Raikkonen]

I'm building a multi-role cutter that I basically use for a bit of trading and shipping around NPCs.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

Is there anything I can do to improve it? Specifically engineer wise?

Here is the ship lore on INARA...

CMDR Raikkonen - ship details | Elite:Dangerous | INARA

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inara.cz

 

[GroG79]

• Unlikely you will need the afmu. Perhaps a SCA has more value in daily use
• Consider using a bi-weave shield or just an A-rated shield
• You can mod your thrusters to dirty drive for 100-150 m/s extra speed
• Replace some burst lasers for multi cannons. They are much better at reducing Hull (when shields are down)
• Perhaps change the manifest scanner for a KWS

 

[CMDR_Raikkonen]

Switched to Bi-weave, modded the thrusters (grade 3 - but now Im half way through 5ly run to unlock Palin), switched out manifest scanner for KWS

Thanks for the tips!

 

[sinisalo]

Congrats on the Cutter mate. This is the big time

I always have to take a step back as I have a tendency to try to turn your ship in to my ship. That said, this is what I'm thinking.

Add a point defense on the underside of your ship to ward off hatchbreakers

Get thrusters to G5 dirty drag, which you are in the process of doing. Speed is life.

Drop the weapons? Probably too late for that, right? But doing so reduces mass, adds speed and jump, reduces power draw perhaps allowing a lighter power plant which in turn increases speed and jump even more. Maybe you want to fight in your Cutter, but to me that is just asking for trouble. If the ship's role is trading and transport, weapons can probably be discarded, but I get it if you want to keep them.

Do you have the revised build link? I guess you've ditched the class B shields? Yeah, do that if not.

The build shown in the OP is a bit scattered for role. Cabins, cargo, rover, manifest scanner and all at the same time. Consider specializing for missions, which maybe you will. All cabins, or all cargo, etc. Its all modular, so easy to swap in and out on the fly as the mission dictates.

Put heavy duty on your HRPs. Integrity is important. Those shields seem good, but the Cutter is a big target and they can be shot away if you're not careful, especially if you intend to fight, so more meat on the bones is advisable.

See if you can get more thermal resistance on your shields too. If you will submit, run and jump on interdictions maybe not important, but if you intend to slug it out, thermal is the most important resistance in my view.

My Cutter is a single role ship. She delivers the freight and no mistake. So the design reflects this. No weapons, pretty fast for a Cutter, good jump. No weapons.

Preacher's Daughter Cutter -- Freight Train

 

[HRDiagram]

Personal view: the Cutter I use for errands around the Bubble has no fuel scoop, it has a good range already to cover a good distance with its fuel tank. If I need to refuel I stop by a starport, but generally I don't have to.
Obviously, that might not work if you plan to carry tourists.

 

[SergMx]

Congrats on the Cutter mate. This is the big time

I always have to take a step back as I have a tendency to try to turn your ship in to my ship. That said, this is what I'm thinking.

Add a point defense on the underside of your ship to ward off hatchbreakers

Get thrusters to G5 dirty drag, which you are in the process of doing. Speed is life.

Drop the weapons? Probably too late for that, right? But doing so reduces mass, adds speed and jump, reduces power draw perhaps allowing a lighter power plant which in turn increases speed and jump even more. Maybe you want to fight in your Cutter, but to me that is just asking for trouble. If the ship's role is trading and transport, weapons can probably be discarded, but I get it if you want to keep them.

Do you have the revised build link? I guess you've ditched the class B shields? Yeah, do that if not.

The build shown in the OP is a bit scattered for role. Cabins, cargo, rover, manifest scanner and all at the same time. Consider specializing for missions, which maybe you will. All cabins, or all cargo, etc. Its all modular, so easy to swap in and out on the fly as the mission dictates.

Put heavy duty on your HRPs. Integrity is important. Those shields seem good, but the Cutter is a big target and they can be shot away if you're not careful, especially if you intend to fight, so more meat on the bones is advisable.

See if you can get more thermal resistance on your shields too. If you will submit, run and jump on interdictions maybe not important, but if you intend to slug it out, thermal is the most important resistance in my view.

My Cutter is a single role ship. She delivers the freight and no mistake. So the design reflects this. No weapons, pretty fast for a Cutter, good jump. No weapons.

Preacher's Daughter Cutter -- Freight Train

DSS ?

 

[BetaToaster]

If you want to keep the ship fight-capable:

Make your MC corrosive, the debuff is a huge deal. Short Range/Overcharged/Long Range depending on your preferred fighting distance. If unsure, get low-grade Overcharged and see how you like it.
Dirty+Drag thrusters have already been mentioned.
Super Conduits on the PD.
On Biweaves, I like to go all in on the regeneration aspect, which means Thermal Resist and Fast Charge/Low Draw. That'll also mean you can keep your boosters as they are.
You'll notice if Lightweight D sensors are holding you back.

And get a pre-engineered Detailed Surface Scanner from a human tech broker, they have +100% radius, which translates to 78% more area than a perfectly engineered one.

 

[SergMx]

If you want to keep the ship fight-capable:

Make your MC corrosive, the debuff is a huge deal. Short Range/Overcharged/Long Range depending on your preferred fighting distance. If unsure, get low-grade Overcharged and see how you like it.
Dirty+Drag thrusters have already been mentioned.
Super Conduits on the PD.
On Biweaves, I like to go all in on the regeneration aspect, which means Thermal Resist and Fast Charge/Low Draw. That'll also mean you can keep your boosters as they are.
You'll notice if Lightweight D sensors are holding you back.

And get a pre-engineered Detailed Surface Scanner from a human tech broker, they have +100% radius, which translates to 78% more area than a perfectly engineered one.

I still don't understand why a merchant would need a DSS.

 

[sinisalo]

DSS ?

Is there more to the question? Not sure what you are asking.

 

[sinisalo]

I am left to ponder the meaning of your presumed question.

I suspect you are wondering why a DSS on a freight train, yes? It's because sell destinations can take me to a system with valuable planets, which I can probe and make good money.

I know you aren't wondering what a DSS is, so you must be questioning why it is there. Explo data, and by extension cash money, is the answer.

 

[SergMx]

I am left to ponder the meaning of your presumed question.

I suspect you are wondering why a DSS on a freight train, yes? It's because sell destinations can take me to a system with valuable planets, which I can probe and make good money.

I know you aren't wondering what a DSS is, so you must be questioning why it is there. Explo data, and by extension cash money, is the answer.

Hmm.
In that case I suggest you also set up a purifier and mining equipment, in case you come across some good rings.

 

[sinisalo]

Sarcasm?

 

[SergMx]

Sarcasm?

Sorry, couldn't resist as I consider the presence of dss to be nonsense.

 

[sinisalo]

I could tell.

And just to add, I don't scan the system and go all over. But oftentimes the buy/sell station orbits an earth like or other valuable planet, so it's already on the route. This adds up.

This is a good use of not having auto dock.

 

[SergMx]

I could tell.

And just to add, I don't scan the system and go all over. But oftentimes the buy/sell station orbits an earth like or other valuable planet, so it's already on the route. This adds up.

This is a good use of not having auto dock.

Well then I would add as the author has a FSD wake scanner.
On departure, scan

 

[V'larr]

I'm building a multi-role cutter that I basically use for a bit of trading and shipping around NPCs.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

Is there anything I can do to improve it? Specifically engineer wise?

Here is the ship lore on INARA...

CMDR Raikkonen - ship details | Elite:Dangerous | INARA

The companion site for Elite:Dangerous with the game database, market data, trade routes, outfitting, engineers, blueprints, crafting, Thargoid war, squadrons, logbooks, galleries, galaxy information and much more...

inara.cz

This is the armed-hauling Cutter outfit I use. https://edsy.org/s/vazfZnc

I want to raise a number of points that perhaps contrast with or expand upon advice given thus far:

• "Multirole" in Elite is "able to be outfitted differently for different things pretty well", not "do all the things at the same time", the result of which is doing everything poorly.
• Using a Class 8 shield is terrible for your cargo room potential. The smallest a Cutter can use is the 6, so if you want to focus on hauling, that's the ideal option.
• Since you're going to be frequenting stations anyway and aren't focusing on prolonged sessions of combat, you won't get the benefits of the bi-weave shield. The Prismatic shield is ideal here, to get the most up-front effective MJs out of the smallest possible slot.

(As an aside , when you do use a bi-weave shield, the thing unmentioned by Betatoaster is the choice of fast charge/lo draw is related to your distributor size relative to your shield generator size, as this determines how much of your SYS regen drain you can sustain with 2 or less pips. Basically, if the PD is same size or larger, it's safe to go Fast Charge, otherwise you want Lo-Draw, and sometimes it's still worth going Lo-Draw for spare power + more spare pips more of the time.)

• The Cutter is very, very, very massive. Especially when laden with cargo. Adding more weight to it will not meaningfully impact your jump range or the ship's agility in any way (we're talking about 0.07% turn rate and maybe 1.2 light years, tops, if you strip down everything and try to reduce weight as much as possible vs not). The main thing to do to get more jump range & maximize the ship's agility is to engineer the thrusters (dirty + drag as always), the FSD, and make use of the Guardian Frameshift Drive Booster - even the smaller ones make a big difference, as it's just a flat addition to the jump range regardless of any other factors, so you can opt to minimize the cargo space trade-off by using a size 3 or 4 instead of the 5.
• I guarantee you want the benefits of Armoured + Thermal Spread on the powerplant. Not only does it permit you to make jumps & scoop fuel (when a scoop is installed in place of a cargo rack to get from place to place in the bubble as the need arises) faster and save time that way, it's crucial for combat owing to how heat is tied to your distributor & the way it interacts with sustaining your WEP & weapons fire.
• It may be worth going for Long Range on the sensors depending on how much you want to the focus to be on combat capability, having an Emissive laser solves most target-resolution issues regardless.
• The fighter bay is not worthwhile; not just because of the cargo aspect, but also if your aim is to gain combat rank, NPC pilots steal half your gains (and they take a percentage cut of all credit profits you make even when inactive).
• If you're going to do passengers, you probably want a Python or the new Type 8. Medium-pad capability plus the fact that passenger racks don't go up past size 6 make the Cutter a lackluster option for it. Whichever way you choose to do passengers, it's not at all ideal to do it at the same time as cargo.
• If your shields never drop - and you can build for that, you can observe how much shielding my setup has - you never have to worry about your modules. On top of that, if everything goes wrong and the shields go down and your ship is going to run out of hitpoints long before your modules are going to break, then it's wasteful to invest in module protection. The ship is not a hull tank in any situation here, so I don't recommend taking an MRP. Guardian Shield Reinforcement Packages are ideal here.
• The limpet controller might have some niches for a mission-running Python, but it won't serve any purpose for an armed trader.
• The AFMU is a tool mostly for explorers wishing to extend trips without making a visit at any stations to repair with. As mentioned already, you'll be frequenting stations a lot anyway, so the benefit of an AFMU is entirely moot.
• It's been mentioned, but because it's such a powerful effect, I will double the emphasis: having a source of Corrosive is very important for combat. The Huge MC is an ideal place to put that, because the Huge MC has a very high ammo duration. Short Range is a viable blueprint for MCs because the range still goes out to 2Km and, owing to gimbal sway & having projectile travel time, you won't be hitting much past that range regardless. The exception to consider is when running Incendiary on MCs, because then the heat penalty becomes a real problem.
• Regarding beams, the Cutter only has the size 7 distro and it may struggle with much more than two Efficient Large beams. Having Thermal Vent on one is very handy, while Thermal Shock on the other does well at making NPC opponents do heat-causing things less often (SCBs, boosting, using rails/PAs). Efficient is more damage out to 1070m compared to Long Range, and you want to be closer up to hit consistently with gimbals + MCs anyhow - so I would advise to only consider LR1 if you want to be cheap with materials, when thinking about engineering gimballed lasers.
• A few things regarding the burst laser turrets: With Corrosive in use against hull, Focused has little benefit for anything that isn't a small laser. Bursts are better as fixed mount weapons, owing to needing less time being precisely on target overall. Bursts also can't use the Emissive special. Gimbals are stronger and easier to control than turrets are (two words: chaff spam), but if you do really like the turrets, you also have to mind the constant distro draw they will be using, so Efficient is the most ideal option - especially in combination with two large beams.
• Regarding shield boosters - in terms of effective Mjs added, the "_ block" options are generally inferior to Super Capacitors. Some exceptions do exist, and for dedicated combat ships with enough spare optional slots, it can be better to use Flow Control and use the spare power to bring more Guardian Shield Reinforcement Packages, but for our purposes, every optional slot is valuable, so Super Capacitors is the way to go.
• There are pre-engineered Sirius Heat Sink Launchers that offer more uses than what you can get through engineering. Having one while trading can be pretty useful in a number of situations (binary stars/wrong end of a dwarf star, escaping combat, evading scans if you're smuggling for some reason, adding a temporary boost to WEP charge in combat), otherwise I'd recommend just using another shield booster in that slot as an Armoured + Thermal Spread powerplant will solve heat management problems on its own.
• The Manifest Scanner isn't required by any missions/scenarios in the game and certainly won't be in use for armed hauling, so safe to say, ditch that for another shield booster.
• Ditto for the wake scanner. As pointed out by sinisalo, pirates get trigger happy with hatchbreakers if you are carrying cargo when they encounter you, so having 1 point defense mounted on the underside of the ship will prevent that from becoming an unhappy incident, so that's another better-use candidate for your utility slot.
  - edit: Oh, and power priorities - if you set your priorities the way I have them shown with core stuff on 1/2 to fit under the 40/50% powerplant malfunction thresholds, shielding on 3, weapons on 4, and non-combat-essential on 5, what happens is if you have made a mistake in outfitting power draw anywhere, you'll know because your weapons will simply not deploy - as opposed to losing your shielding and your sensors, under what you have set up on your coriolis link!

I'd encourage you to do some side by side comparisons and play with the blueprint options at your own discretion, and if need be I'm happy to go into more explanation if you'd like.

 

[Three Stars]

I applaud anyone who advises Lo Draw for shields, Short Range for multicannons, Super Capacitors for shield boosters, Thermal Shock for laser weapons, and can explain power distributor/shield class mismatches. Bravo, @V'larr!

The only vaguely useful thing I'd add is that the huge and the two underslung medium hardpoints have a fairly good convergence if you want to use them for projectiles and/or long distance shots. The two larges do as well with each other. The nacelle mediums are lost in space.

 

[Greasetrap42]

I'm building a multi-role cutter that I basically use for a bit of trading and shipping around NPCs.

You said you are basically using this for trading and shipping around NPCs. So use it for that.

• Get rid all the stuff not related to hauling cargo. Replace all the unnecessary stuff with cargo racks.
• Keep whatever weapons you are comfortable with.
• If you get rid of the Kill Warrant Scanner, Fighter Hangar, SRV Hangar, and rescue limpet controller, you can G5 engineer your power plant Armored + Monstered and have enough power for G5 engineered 8A shields. Or 6A Engineered Prismatics with other minor changes.
• A-Rate G5 Engineer the shields, Why is it engineered enhanced low power? Go with Thermal Res, Hi Cap. Keep the boosters.
• Thrusters, change the special effect from stripped to Drag Drives
• Add the special effect Super Conduits to the power distributer
• Change the Hull Armor to Reactive Surface Composite, Engineered G5 Heavy Duty, Deep Plating.
• Replace the AFMU with a 3D Hull Reinforcement, Engineered G5 Thermal Resistant, Deep Plating. This is to balance the hull resistances. Or skip it for additional cargo rack.
• I like the wake scanner, until my material bins are full. Then replace it.
• Pledge Aisling Duval. Run the silly Power Play whatevers back-and-forth for 4 weeks so you can get the prismatic shields. Its super easy, just google it. You can then comfortably replace the 8A shields with 6A Prismatic shields G5 engineered thermal + Hi Cap. Giving you space for another size 8 cargo rack.

This ship will have enough shielding, if interdicted by pirates you fire your weapons until they blow up.

You can easily flip this into an excellent mining ship whenever you need one.

This is my Trade Cutter. I'm not very good at combat but this is easy. FA on, Keyboard & Mouse. Interdicting NPCs is not an issue. Notice no turret weapons. Just point the ship in the direction of the bad guys and fire the weapons.

 

[Greasetrap42]

And just to add, I don't scan the system and go all over. But oftentimes the buy/sell station orbits an earth like or other valuable planet, so it's already on the route. This adds up.

When trading you generally visit the same systems over-and-over-and over. Because you are doing missions to nearby systems and increasing rep, to get better missions.

The cutter has only one size-1 slot. I rather have a flight assist. And for a trade ship I wouldn't waste a size 3 or size 4 slot on a DSS that will not get used again after visiting the nearby systems.

 

[V'larr]

I applaud anyone who advises Lo Draw for shields, Short Range for multicannons, Super Capacitors for shield boosters, Thermal Shock for laser weapons, and can explain power distributor/shield class mismatches. Bravo, @V'larr!

The only vaguely useful thing I'd add is that the huge and the two underslung medium hardpoints have a fairly good convergence if you want to use them for projectiles and/or long distance shots. The two larges do as well with each other. The nacelle mediums are lost in space.

I do find the underchin mediums to be just far enough apart to be annoying, though. The two larges up top are closer together and I find they make a nice place for fixed weapons, if you opt for that. Those other mediums - yeah, kinda gimbal/turret/seeker or go home