Never used EPTs. Putting EPTs on a Viper with no shields and no weapons, does it make sense to downsize distro from 3D to 2D for reduced mass or do the EPs need the power of a 3D distro?
Enhanced Performance Thrusters
- Thread starter CMDR Egmont
- Start date
Is your goal to have speed? If so, keep your distro as good as possible with either charge enhanced or engines focused, I can't remember if you can permaboost in a viper but the closes you'll get will be with an A rated G5 charge enhanced distro.
The things you should strip down are everything BUT the distro if you are wanting a racing ship.
The things you should strip down are everything BUT the distro if you are wanting a racing ship.
I see a lot of racers opt for shields though. My thinking was I can get away with downsized or at least D-rated distro since SYS will be 0 at all times.
If you're mostly canyon running you can sacrifice distro because any gravity will keep you at full boost in FA off, if you're not ascending. Otherwise you'll want to save mass elsewhere.
My Viper is a compromise with a 3D engine focused super conduit distributor which leaves enough mass for quite a bit of shielding using a few SRBs.
My Viper is a compromise with a 3D engine focused super conduit distributor which leaves enough mass for quite a bit of shielding using a few SRBs.
Consider EP thrusters for short range silent running type builds. They maintain a higher top speed and much better rotation stats without the need for boost so we can outmaneuver any target without generating unnecessary heat.
Considering we don't want to use boost (except in dire circumstances) we can then engineer your power distro accordingly, or use the guardian variant to scrape a little more out of a heat efficient reactor.
As for optional internals i like the idea of fill the whole thing with powered down, shielded AFMU's to bolster total internal health values without adding weight. That said i haven't used it in practice because i've yet to unlock that engineer; if anyone has experience with this strategy i'd appreciate some thoughts.
Considering we don't want to use boost (except in dire circumstances) we can then engineer your power distro accordingly, or use the guardian variant to scrape a little more out of a heat efficient reactor.
As for optional internals i like the idea of fill the whole thing with powered down, shielded AFMU's to bolster total internal health values without adding weight. That said i haven't used it in practice because i've yet to unlock that engineer; if anyone has experience with this strategy i'd appreciate some thoughts.
While speed doesn't change, the biggest PD will cut the boost frequency significantly.I would use a 1A PD since it's not much different from 2D.
I put together a build for top boost speed without compromising too much on shields.
If you want speed, you want the best PD available. Boosts are crucial for racing.
Yes you can take shields, but you will sacrifice either speed or boost.
driveby useful link: https://singleplayer.org/2022/08/21/elite-dangerous-racing-builds-eagles-vipers-couriers-and-more/
Offhand, the math on when & when not to use EPT is a bit foggy & the best way is to see for yourself by making a loadout on edsy and comparing indicated results. Ditto for determining acceptable PD tradeoffs!
Offhand, the math on when & when not to use EPT is a bit foggy & the best way is to see for yourself by making a loadout on edsy and comparing indicated results. Ditto for determining acceptable PD tradeoffs!
Depends what you want it for.
I have an EPT Viper for outrunning CG campers and and an EPT Courier for outrunning Glaives.
Both are shielded for obvious reasons.
I have an EPT Viper for outrunning CG campers and and an EPT Courier for outrunning Glaives.
Both are shielded for obvious reasons.
The critical factors for a racing build are minimum mass which is the point where you gain no further benefit from losing weight on the ship and optimal multiplier, which is the performance boost over stock. The enhanced thrusters give much better performance if you can keep the weight off although they do have a more forgiving limit on how much weight needs shedding to hit that top value.
It's these 2 factors which makes enhanced thrusters significantly faster. From what I've played round with it should be possible to hit somewhere near the minimum weight on G5 dirty drive enhanced and get maximum performance, but you're a good way off the weight you need to hit that with the same engineering on standard drives.
Optimal mass and maximum mass would also be a consideration for other builds, but shouldn't be here or the ship is too heavy.
Disto draw is unaffected however so put in whatever worked for standard drives.
It's these 2 factors which makes enhanced thrusters significantly faster. From what I've played round with it should be possible to hit somewhere near the minimum weight on G5 dirty drive enhanced and get maximum performance, but you're a good way off the weight you need to hit that with the same engineering on standard drives.
Optimal mass and maximum mass would also be a consideration for other builds, but shouldn't be here or the ship is too heavy.
Disto draw is unaffected however so put in whatever worked for standard drives.
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For the choice of distro, the combination of boost frequency combined with top speed matters imho and it depends on the race track. You should check the gravity on the planet and how frequently you need to make tight turns. For the viper 3 linked above (https://edsy.org/#/L=HM00000A2C0S20...G03G_W0BWQ00,,4zM10mpT7OWH03N_W0mpT0nG200nF20),
2D engine focused 932m/s 12s(boost)
3D engine focused 924m/s 6.9s(boost)
For low gravity straight line race 2D is clear winner, but depending on terrain 3D or 3A may be better.
Is it worth keeping the shield on a build like that? I'd have thought a collision is going to be bad times either way. Might allow you to trade some weight for a better distro.
As far as I'm concerned if I make it back to the hangar in my max-speed ieagle I wasn't having as much fun as I could have been.
There is 2 routes on the use of ept's one is out and out speed up to the ship design cap. Or design to a maximum, and balance survivability/armed with shields and/or armour.
Eg. For an Icourier you can go for max performance and run at 883 ish straight line speed or run at 851 and fully armed/ shields and armour.
Eg. For an Icourier you can go for max performance and run at 883 ish straight line speed or run at 851 and fully armed/ shields and armour.
Depends on what you want to use it for.
This is my "black ops" viper - you know, those misisons where you are tasked with scanning an unfriendly data port, or discretely disabling a ground base's power plant. Doesn't quite boost to the possible top speed, but has lots of built-in survivability. And I think dual packhounds offfer a lot of discretion for those power plants (or defense turrets)
This is my "black ops" viper - you know, those misisons where you are tasked with scanning an unfriendly data port, or discretely disabling a ground base's power plant. Doesn't quite boost to the possible top speed, but has lots of built-in survivability. And I think dual packhounds offfer a lot of discretion for those power plants (or defense turrets)