Ships Engineering an Imperial Courier

Darth Wonko

Darth Wonko
Here's the starting build.

I'm using this to jump around the bubble doing Odyssey engineering grind and general on-foot missions. I like the handling, I like the size and I like the cockpit.

Right now, when I fuel scoop, the ship heats up extremely quickly.

Here's what I plan on doing to the engineering.

Some advice, please:
  • How do I solve the heat problem with the fuel scoop? Is it just "get a smaller one", or is there some other formula?
  • What do you recommend for weapons? I've been running Beam Laser x 2 and a Multi-Cannon and I can handle NPCs in any small ship and about half of the medium ships. I'd like to start learning some of the other weapons that are more effective.
  • What other general engineering tips do you have?
Any advice is appreciated.

o7
 

Darth Wonko

Darth Wonko
BelExandor said:
I would advise using a size 3 fuel scoop and dropping the frame shift drive booster down to a 2.
You don't lose much jump range and scooping faster will help the heat problem.
Click to expand...

Man... it makes a big difference. I'm considering dropping shields to 2A and keep Guardian FSD booster at 3H
 

BelExandor

B
You would only gain 1.8 LYs by doing so.

Edit: Not counting the difference in LY by one size smaller shield genny, which would be about 1 more LY.
 
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Innocentius

Innocentius
Darth Wonko said:
Here's the starting build.

I'm using this to jump around the bubble doing Odyssey engineering grind and general on-foot missions. I like the handling, I like the size and I like the cockpit.

Right now, when I fuel scoop, the ship heats up extremely quickly.

Here's what I plan on doing to the engineering.

Some advice, please:
  • How do I solve the heat problem with the fuel scoop? Is it just "get a smaller one", or is there some other formula?
  • What do you recommend for weapons? I've been running Beam Laser x 2 and a Multi-Cannon and I can handle NPCs in any small ship and about half of the medium ships. I'd like to start learning some of the other weapons that are more effective.
  • What other general engineering tips do you have?
Any advice is appreciated.

o7
Click to expand...
Here is the simplest fix you could make

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone s.orbis.zone

I also have an icourier build for Odyssey that I am very happy with. https://s.orbis.zone/ibff if you want a really cold running ship (probably could enough to not even show up in radars) you can use this variation instead https://s.orbis.zone/ibfi

The advantages of those builds: +13 ly jump range (~40 ly), +250 ms speed (~750 ms). A bit worse shields and a bit better hull - about the same defenses.
 
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Northpin

Northpin
Darth Wonko said:
Here's the starting build.

I'm using this to jump around the bubble doing Odyssey engineering grind and general on-foot missions. I like the handling, I like the size and I like the cockpit.

Right now, when I fuel scoop, the ship heats up extremely quickly.

Here's what I plan on doing to the engineering.

Some advice, please:
  • How do I solve the heat problem with the fuel scoop? Is it just "get a smaller one", or is there some other formula?
  • What do you recommend for weapons? I've been running Beam Laser x 2 and a Multi-Cannon and I can handle NPCs in any small ship and about half of the medium ships. I'd like to start learning some of the other weapons that are more effective.
  • What other general engineering tips do you have?
Any advice is appreciated.

o7
Click to expand...

Well, this it what i would go for

Some explanations:
  • 3A fuel scoop - the fastest you scoop, the less heat build up
  • Size 3 Cargo rack - you will need it for those limpets, no point resynthing
  • SIze 2C be-weaves - almost as good as size 3, really no point going any bigger, thermal engineering for high resists and fast regen
  • size 2H FSD booster, good enough IMO (but the courier is not good enough if you want to go to the Crystal shards farms in Horizons - you do need like 38+ ly jump range)
  • 1d collector - it's really no point to use a 1A. you dont really need the range nor the duration. And if you really want range, you should use a 1B. If the range provided by 1D is not enough use a 1C. A-rated collectors are needed only in laser mining where one needs a collector to last as much as possible

That was for optionals, now for core and utilities:
  • resistance engineering for the 2 shield boosters is the norm if thermal engineering is used on the shield gen
  • extra ammo for the heat sink is a sensible choice, but basically anything goes as good, including no engineering at all
  • armored with thermal is best since it has only benefits: higher efficiency (that is lower value), increased power output, higher integrity
  • if you have the CG FSD, use that one, you'd get a slight boost in jump range, else G5 increased range with mass manager (deep charge is not really worth it IMO)
  • sensors - G5 Wide angle - it's the best mod for a material gatherer - basically you get full scanner coverage for front side - you can select and scan any ship in normal space or in supercruise and scan it IF it is somewhere in the frontal arc
  • 3A normal thrusters - no point to use Enhance performance for a heavy build.

Weapons:
  • laser/mc combo will never fail. Make sure the lasers are efficient and you put corrosive on the mc.
  • another good combo is 3x g5 overcharged frags - 2x incendiary and one corrosive. But you really need to keep close - below 500m - when firing the frags
 

d8veh

d8veh
Darth Wonko said:
Here's the starting build.

I'm using this to jump around the bubble doing Odyssey engineering grind and general on-foot missions. I like the handling, I like the size and I like the cockpit.

Right now, when I fuel scoop, the ship heats up extremely quickly.

Here's what I plan on doing to the engineering.

Some advice, please:
  • How do I solve the heat problem with the fuel scoop? Is it just "get a smaller one", or is there some other formula?
  • What do you recommend for weapons? I've been running Beam Laser x 2 and a Multi-Cannon and I can handle NPCs in any small ship and about half of the medium ships. I'd like to start learning some of the other weapons that are more effective.
  • What other general engineering tips do you have?
Any advice is appreciated.

o7
Click to expand...
Ship heating up when scooping is often an avoidable problem without changing anything. All you need to do is switch off all the modules that you don't need for travelling like this:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
coriolis.io coriolis.io
If you're doing anything that might cause an interdiction, you should switch on the main shields and submit and run from the interdictions. You have more speed than you need to get away unharmed from every interdiction, even with just your main shields.

Switch everything back on as soon as you drop out at your destination system.

Switching those modules off reduces your power consumption by over 50%. I doubt that you'll ever notice overheating while scooping again.
 
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sinisalo

sinisalo
Darth Wonko said:
Here's what I plan on doing to the engineering.
Click to expand...


That build is too heavy for the EP Thrusters. You'd be better off with standard A-class thrusters unless you shed about 25 tons. Drag drives too.

I'd suggest at least HD to the stock bulkheads as well. Your shields are good for a Courier, but there is nothing underneath. HD on the stock alloys will give you a little more integrity while adding no mass.

I would suggest re-thinking those 14-ton shield boosters too. Those are dragging down the performance. This ship could be much faster (not that you care about that?) and would drop it back in to the range for the EPTs. And thermal resist is too low. If you are arming it, you intend to fight with it, and the thermal resist is too low in my view.
 
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Three Stars

T
If HD shield boosters are the goal in a mass and power sensitive ship, I would seriously consider 0E HD boosters.

The shield %bonus is based off of the base shield value of the ship no matter how big the shields actually are, 200 MJ in the case of the Imperial Courier, so the benefit is smaller than it appears. Plus, even though you lose 23.2% of the bonus going from 0A HD/SC to 0E HD/SC, you save 12 tons of mass and 1.25 MW of power. That’s a big swing in power and mass.
 

Northpin

Northpin
Three Stars said:
If HD shield boosters are the goal in a mass and power sensitive ship, I would seriously consider 0E HD boosters.

The shield %bonus is based off of the base shield value of the ship no matter how big the shields actually are, 200 MJ in the case of the Imperial Courier, so the benefit is smaller than it appears. Plus, even though you lose 23.2% of the bonus going from 0A HD/SC to 0E HD/SC, you save 12 tons of mass and 1.25 MW of power. That’s a big swing in power and mass.
Click to expand...

Ofc, but OP didnt ask for a light build
 

Northpin

Northpin
sinisalo said:
True but he did ask for a way to control the heat, and those boosters are pulling 3 MW between them.
Click to expand...

nothing a G5 armored/thermal spread PP can't deal with

Edit: i just checked in Edsy - the build i posted will result in 60% heat while charging the FSD 🤷‍♂️
Not bad, but not very good either
 
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sinisalo

sinisalo
That helps more when there is less, even so.

No it doesn't help 'more', that's mis-stated, but it drops it lower.

Rejigging the boosters would lower mass, increase speed, drop power draw, run cooler, jump farther, reduce recovery and perhaps allow a smaller PP or other changes.

Sure the shields would have lower MJ, but that's ship building innit?
 
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Kzak

Kzak
0A maxed G5 heavy-duty shield boosters give +80% shields. 0E maxed G5 heavy-duty shield boosters give +50% shields, and weigh only 2 tons, with a much lower power draw. Unless the +30% difference is important, I'd just stick with the 0E ones.
 

Northpin

Northpin
sinisalo said:
That helps more when there is less, even so.

No it doesn't help 'more', that's mis-stated, but it drops it lower.

Rejigging the boosters would lower mass, increase speed, drop power draw, run cooler and perhaps allow a smaller PP or other changes.

Sure the shields would have lower MJ, but that's ship building innit?
Click to expand...

Sure, everyone can set their own goals.
I just assumed that shields are important since in the OP build it used a size 3 shield instead of a size 2.
And also A-rated boosters.

If mass, speed and power usage are important, sure, E-rates boosters are great.
If none of the above matter, but shields do... A-rate boosters are the way to go.
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
I'm just presenting some alternatives, not claiming your advice is unsound. The Courier is one of my main ships, and one of the most interesting build projects in Elite. Few ships can be so divergent in build theory approach. But for me not taking advantage of its speed potential is a miss. Speed is life, and the faster it is, the less it gets hit and the less MJ stacking matters.
 

Three Stars

T
In general, the ICourier is a ship that I’d go out of my way to see if I could fit a Low Emissions power plant to solve baseline heat issues forever. It probably wouldn’t be full on LE 5/monstered, but stopping at grade 3 or 4 /monstered would make the ship harder to detect and to lock on with gimbals and such…plus being able to fuel scoop indefinitely without overheating.
 
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