Imperial Courier Fast Battle Courier

[Noobilite]

I love this ship, and for a long time now it's been half-done and now I want to get it closer to all done.

It's a challenge. I am looking for the following...

-- Fast. Around 800 boost
-- Armed. Want to use it for bounty hunting
-- Good shields, 600 mj as a minimum

The challenge arises from the fact that in order to achieve these speeds you need Dirty Enhanced Performance Thrusters, which drop optimal mass to such a degree that fitting the other things you need to make it combat worthy are hard to fit. To get all hard points filled I see no option other than lightweight, which means they don't hit hard.

So I am hoping some others that have a Courier that meets these criteria would post their build and maybe give me some ideas.


Velocity

Main issues I have with this build are low thermal resist and very low DPS. I want gimbals, because you know, shot opportunities are fleeting at these speeds. To keep the boost speed around 800 I can only choose to lightweight the weapons, which means opportunity cost of not going with a better damage-dealing modification. I don't need all three hardpoints filled if there's a better solution. When I fly this ship in a RES I am not looking to destroy ships necessarily, just get my claims in. It's an 'energy fighter', saddling up defeats the purpose, or at least the idea. It's meant to boom and then zoom zoom.

Let's see those fast battle Couriers

2 ideas.

1. Go all turrets. (not sure if the turn rate is fast enough or not)
2. Thermals can be gotten with thermal mod.

I use a thermal shield and do an omni setup with equal thermal/kinetic on almost everything I make. Not sure if it's the best, but it simplifies things a lot.

And if turrets work you could simply emphasize maneuvering and stay out of fire. Can that get fast enough to stay ahead of any turrets gimballing... Would you have enough gimballing?

Also, you didn't lightweight the PP or the weapons etc. And the Light alloy does not have weight you can max it out.. Unless you have less hull on purpose. I'm probably missing why. I'm still learning combat. Edit: NVM, noticed it's a current build. 8)

At what speed can turrets not keep up? If just tagging you could use turrets on current target and switch targets as needed for the tag.

And if you can avoid fire enough what about a nice Bi-weave shield?

Best guess <- half sheild with biweaves, but 600 armor! Not sure if that helps. Hoping biweaves would make up for lack of volume. Edit: Edited to have drive distributor.

 

[sinisalo]

Yeah, the ship in the quoted bit is what I started with. It's no longer quite like that. Throughout this thread I talked about the changes I made and my reasons for each. In the end I was pleased with it, even if it wasn't quite what I had in mind at the outset. But it's a fast battle Courier for sure

 

[Noobilite]

Here is a frag version. It might allow maxing of shields and engines as you only need 1/2 pip for infinite fire. 0 weapon pips is 56 seconds of fire. If you take off the sheild boosters you can get it to 800 boost.

Change some of the frags to pack hounds for more DPS. You can also change out an AFMU or shield booster for a GFSB and get 30lys.

Edit: Edited both to drive distributor. Didn't realize it gained more speed.

These can be run at 1.5 sys, 4 engines, 0.5 weapons pips.

 

[Northpin]

Thinking to go for this Fasta-Bomba
602 speed. 817 boost while still packing a really solid punch.

From time to time i do fly a DBS with 2 Cytos and 2 Dumbfires so i know how capable is such a build.

 

[sinisalo]

I tried frags but ultimately rejected them as not viable. The reason is they are a short-range weapon. Projectile spread is too much at longer ranges. And if you are going to fight at high speed you need something accurate and effective from longer ranges since the attack windows close so quickly. Frags works great when saddled up, but that's not how I wanted to fight this ship.

Nice one Northpin. Great dps, speed and integrity at the cost of jump and resistances. The Courier is such a fun build as it's so interwoven. Give here is to take there. Knife-edge engineering is how I think I described it earlier in this thread.

 

[Noobilite]

Can the courier go fast enough to mainting a circle around the target and just spin them to death?

 

[sinisalo]

Depends on the target I suppose, but yes. One of the best things about it is how little drift or speed bleed it has. Compared to say the FDL, which ends up flying backwards if you pull it in tight, the Courier maintains it's forward speed nicely. That allows you to continue through your arc at high speed, and that's how I like to fight it. I suspect my arcs are much wider than what you have in mind. I am circling the target ship, but not too closely.

 

[Northpin]

I tried frags but ultimately rejected them as not viable. The reason is they are a short-range weapon. Projectile spread is too much at longer ranges. And if you are going to fight at high speed you need something accurate and effective from longer ranges since the attack windows close so quickly. Frags works great when saddled up, but that's not how I wanted to fight this ship.

Nice one Northpin. Great dps, speed and integrity at the cost of jump and resistances. The Courier is such a fun build as it's so interwoven. Give here is to take there. Knife-edge engineering is how I think I described it earlier in this thread.

The way i see it, small ships have to stay glued to their targets. Long range fights are not in their advantage nor fast head-on passes - being rammed in a small ship can be nasty.
The speed is there only for fast disengagement - retract weapons, pop a heatsink, engage fsd, boost, wake out.

I did made another quite similar build but with better shield resists and obviously lower absolute value, but since Plasma and Rams are doing absolute damage...

 

[sinisalo]

The way i see it, small ships have to stay glued to their targets.

Fair point. I already had that in the Vulture. This project was for an entirely different profile. Not just having a fast ship, but fighting at those speeds. I love it. Make a gunnery pass, then by the time I look back over my shoulder the target is already 3km away

 

[VectorX]

I never flown with small ships long enough, mainly fighting my way to Triple Elite with big ships.

But your thread made me so curious i will copy your build - it looks really interesting

thanks for this thread!

o7

 

[sinisalo]

Small ships are the most fun, in my opinion, of course. Good hunting.

 

[VectorX]

Just one question though: You seem to have an energy problem with your ship. One which seem to be solveable with Overcharching the PP to G5. In your build it's G3. What is the reason that you didn't do that? Heat?

Thanks for letting me know!

 

[sinisalo]

Exactly. PP is usually the last thing done after all other aspects have been decided on. Then it's a matter of covering the power draw. Use just enough of whichever mod you need to get it done. In this case I went overcharged until it could handle it. Additional grades will not add anything to the ship aside from heat (and more mats)

 

[VectorX]

but you have 108% Power draw with weapons drawn. How can you handle that?

 

[sinisalo]

Module priorities. In the right hand panel you can set the module priorities and have certain things shut down when power requirements dictate it. For example when hardpoints deploy, the cargo hatch, scoop, FSD and GFSDB are offline, leaving that power to the weapons.

Module priority control

Module priority control is a feature that allows pilots to prioritize power for specific modules, so that in the event of a power shortage due to an insufficient or damaged Power Plant, modules that the pilot deems vital can remain activated. It is accessible in the right panel of the HUD...

elite-dangerous.fandom.com

 

[VectorX]

thanks! o7 cmdr.

Will let you know how it handles gonna go to a CNB to try it out

 

[sinisalo]

Good hunting. Be sure to test your module priorities with hardpoints deployed before entering combat. Having the ship shut down under fire is bad for it

 

[Madrax573]

I'd keep your scoop powered so you can use scoop boosts for extra control during combat.

You can do similar with landing gear but it's a toggle whereas you can set scoop to a hold press for finer control.

 

[sinisalo]

So how did it go? Can you post a Coriolis link to your build Vector?

 

[BurntJello]

but you have 108% Power draw with weapons drawn. How can you handle that?

My courier is at 140% power draw with everything turned on and hardpoints out.
Setting priorities and turning off AFMU and SRV Bay keeps my ship running with just barely enough power. You can check my build for how I manage that.