Imperial Courier Fast Battle Courier

[sinisalo]

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

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

First of all you want drive disributors on the EPTs.
That increases optimal mass and gives you 846 boost without changing anything else...

I've found Couriers more effective when built a bit heavier that said.

 

[sinisalo]

Ooh, so it does. Good tip, thanks. That's a lot more zoom.

 

[RELSPI]

Rocket Couriers are perfectly viable - probably the only viable near-maximum-speed EPT ship.
I don't have a build because I don't have all the engies and mats I'd need, but even at my low level I've got a ship that goes at about 780 (don't have G5 dirties) while mounting high-cap rockets and a beam laser.
I don't know an optimal build, but the Imperial Courier's biggest asset is that you can essentially play turn-based: you take jousting to the extreme, as literally nothing worth worrying about can turn and keep up with you. You want something that can deal a lot of damage in a short period during a fly-by: I think a frag courier could do wonders.

 

[sinisalo]

Bob's tip was really useful, and I am not sure why I didn't do that straight off. I have the mats to make this change and will do so this evening. It opens things up. Either I can now add additional mass and keep it above 800 boost, or I can have a Courier that four-pips at six and a quarter.

Excellent Bob, thanks.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

I'd point you towards something more like this, assuming you want to keep the same weapons:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

 

[sinisalo]

Thanks for the build. Better DPS, better resistances.

But not really what I am going for. A little slow, and poor jump.

I have yet to experimentalize the weapons. Leaning toward thermal vent for the beams and corrosive for the MC, which will help my DPS of course.

I am a big fan of Bi-Weaves, especially on smaller fighters. But the C3 Bi-weave weighs double and mass is always a factor here. The reinforced 2A gives higher mj, but at the cost of resistances, especially thermal (and recharge rate). A C2 Bi-Weave is too little.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

Well, I suggest it's still faster than you'll need, as you will run circles around all NPCs.
Ftr, I have a lot of hours in the Courier, and spent many more hours picking the brains of better pilots.
A PVP FDL is only around 550/560, so it's still very far from "slow".
My FGS does only ~420 boost, lol.

Jump is sacrificed in a combat build, sure.
Notice the fuel tank too.
The biweave regen is what will pay off over time in a RES or similar.
The effective thermal shields are important, as lasers and such will be the easiest to hit you with.
The HRP is for the occasional collision.

You'll generally want to use a taxi (easiest) and send the combat ship(s) via transfer, or use a different FSD, fuel tank + Guradian booster for transport.

The "glass cannon" builds force you to run if anything goes astray.
I think it's way more fun and more effective to have a little bit of toughness too.
Ymmv.

 

[sinisalo]

Yes indeed, all good points. I have a highly engineered FDL that boosts 570. Got that niche covered. This one is all about speed. I am sure you have flown a ship that boosts over 800. It's magic

I mean I call the thing Velocity. I know it's way overkill in PvE. But that's the point really.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

Yes indeed, all good points. I have a highly engineered FDL that boosts 570. Got that niche covered. This one is all about speed. I am sure you have flown a ship that boosts over 800. It's magic

I mean I call the thing Velocity. I know it's way overkill in PvE. But that's the point really.

Yeah it's great until you have to park, lol!

I don't know if you recall, but there was an amazing speed bug some time ago.
Might have been confined to one of the betas but there are some vids floating about.
I wanted more of that one, being able to boost to pilot blackout is a nice touch of realism!

 

[sinisalo]

That may have preceeded me as I do not recall it. For landing I take all pips off engines and it's still twitchy, so I know what you mean.

I guess you could say that instead of a good combat ship that is fast, I am looking for an ultra fast ship that can survive combat. My FDL has 1600 mj Bi-Weaves and good integrity and that's what I fly when I want a serious combat boat.

This ship is for the sheer fun of it all, not effectiveness if that makes sense. I will have fun just boosting past a station or overtaking a ship that just left the slot ahead of me. Jump range is important to me too. This ship is also a wake scanner and USS investigator.

I'm excited to get home and put the DDs on it. I have never flown anything that will be as fast as this will be in a few hours. I had an iEagle that was really fast, but I never put the time in to it to make it all it could be. Eventually I sold it to concentrate on the Courier.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

Cool, just remember that minimum mass on the thrusters is the point where going any lower will not help you go faster.
851 is theoretical max.

 

[CMDR Cknarf]

I like running a fat stack of armor and small biweaves myself. Sure, you won't see 800, but anything close to 650m/s is generally fast enough.

Nothing worse than scraping something and exploding immediately, you know? Done that plenty of times in my iEagle before adding hull. Bouncing off an FAS, losing shields, and only 2% hull is always a good time.

 

[Non Grata]

I find boosting to 650-750 feels amazing enough, and if you settle for that you can use non-lightweight weapons, have stronger shields, and practical FSD etc. 800+ leaves you too compromised IMO. 650+ is enough to escape the vast majority of players too should PVP be a factor.

 

[sinisalo]

Thanks for the thoughts. I'm aware of the vulnerabilities inherent in this sort of design. And I fully accept them in order to go as fast as I can while still having a ship that can rack up bounties.

I may in the end opt to add integrity, or more powerful weaponry, trading it off for the speed. But not at first. Maybe the fun factor of all that speed will wear off over time and she will morph in to a more rounded and robust fighter. Then again maybe not! Like I said I have other good combat ships with few holes in their design. This ship is to be a special case. It already is, I just need advice on getting it over the line, the final touches so to speak. The drive distributors alone will make a huge difference, I can either add about 8t and keep performance where it is now, or just ride with the excessive speed.

At first though I will opt for insane speed. Ludicrous speed. And can always change it from there. I've read threads where folks show off their 900 m/s ships and I've always wanted one myself. This won't be quite that fast, but 846 boost and 623 cruise is pretty darn fast in Elite.

Once done, I can rebuy the iEagle, swap everything over, do 900+ just to have done it, then put it all back in the Courier and sell the Eagle again.

I just like fast ships, I have since starting to play this game, and this ship will be the apex of that pursuit, for better or worse

 

[Akaradrin]

This is my iCourier build: 851 m/s, 35 ly jump range, and 290 shields, but you only need 2 pips for the weapons, so you can have 4 pips at SYS in combat, and you have a shield cell bank just to run away and recharge.

 

[sinisalo]

Nice whip Akaradrin. That's the sort of thing I'm after. You've packed a lot of features in to 75 tons.

How do you use this ship? What's your experience in combat? The all-MC build is interesting. One thing I was thinking about last night as I was flying back from Deciat is that at the speeds I plan to fight, lasers with 600m falloff might be a poor choice. Still undecided on the weapons. I have a lot of class 2 semi-engineered weapons in storage so I'll give different combinations a go before deciding on a final fit.

How do your shields hold up in combat? Does the speed mean you are rarely hit? Depends on how you fly it I suppose. Are you flying combat in the upper registers of your speed curve? Or do you slow it down for attacks and use the speed to escape? Do the double incendiaries do a good job stripping shields?

 

[Akaradrin]

Nice whip Akaradrin. That's the sort of thing I'm after. You've packed a lot of features in to 75 tons.

How do you use this ship? What's your experience in combat? The all-MC build is interesting. One thing I was thinking about last night as I was flying back from Deciat is that at the speeds I plan to fight, lasers with 600m falloff might be a poor choice. Still undecided on the weapons. I have a lot of class 2 semi-engineered weapons in storage so I'll give different combinations a go before deciding on a final fit.

How do your shields hold up in combat? Does the speed mean you are rarely hit? Depends on how you fly it I suppose. Are you flying combat in the upper registers of your speed curve? Or do you slow it down for attacks and use the speed to escape? Do the double incendiaries do a good job stripping shields?

It's fast and nimble, so you can stay under the main weapons of your target almost all the time, at least in PvE. I've used this build to fight elite pirates in corvettes and I've defeated them unescratched. If something gets ugly, you can just run away. 4 Pips in SYS give you more than enough shields for some mistakes. I don't boost a lot in combat, because is easy to hit the target too fast by mistake and explode for the collision.
The double incendiaries are like lasers, so they work fine stripping shields . Also, they have more range, something very helpful with a ship that changes the combat range in seconds.

The only "problem" of this build is the "meh" DPS, as you have to use lightweight weapons to be fast (even my Eagle has better DPS), and the gimballed weapons. You can use frags instead of multicannons if you want much more DPS.

 

[sinisalo]

Thanks. How much of that fuel tank does a full jump use?

Also, they have more range, something very helpful with a ship that changes the combat range in seconds.

Yes, that's what I was getting at with my laser comment. I'm surprised you can take down Elite Corvettes in that ship. Not you specifically, but it's reassuring to know you can whittle good shields down with so little firepower.

How do you get on with the short sensor range? I was thinking that flying a very fast combat ship you'd need a bit more range to sort things out. But of course that depends on how fast you're flying.

I don't want to waste mats trying various weapons, so I need to sort this out. Gimballed multicannons do seem sensible, and have low distributor draw so you can just keep firing through the entire attack. I envision slashing attacks at speed and then extend away. I don't have the mats to do three MCs to G5, so I'll need to get sourcing. That'll slow me down until I can get what I need. I think a stop at Davs is in order.

Your point about crashing in to target ships is a good one. On a different forum I commented that even though this build is vulnerable to thermal attacks, NPCs don't worry me as I have the speed to dictate terms or skeddadle if things go wrong. The real danger is smashing in to something at very high speed. Asteroids and other ships seem the real hazard. Your HRP gives you some margin. I should probably do the same and have a couple of unused slots at the moment to get max speed.

Do you have any plans for the new slots we get next week?

 

[Northpin]

This is a modified build based on Akaradrin's loadout posted above. Better hull, stronger shields - but no scb, same speed
The variant with frags might yield better dps as long one can manage to keep really close to the target