Hey, Trade Cutter Pilots

MrFailfactory

MrFailfactory
Use the planet gravity assist to make a fast supercruise landing to station. This is hard to pull off but practice makes it perfect.
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I have seen you post this elsewhere, and I use it myself, where applicable.

I would be interested in seeing a video of you doing this in a big ship when the station is between you and the planet. Without making a large loop to get the planet at least somewhat between you and the station first (as this pretty much negates the time savings). This is a maneuver I can't seem to get quite right in a big ship, so I would like to see whether or not I am wasting my time trying.

I don't boost towards mail slots for the same reason I don't accelerate hard in front of the police. Neither action saves you any real amount of time, but both can cost you quite a bit.

I do, however, think I want to switch my Thruster mod from 5 Clean, to 5 Dirty, and during the shakedown, I quickly realized that I needed a distributor mod for boost.

Riôt
 

capt_sparks

C
MrFailfactory said:
I have seen you post this elsewhere, and I use it myself, where applicable.

I would be interested in seeing a video of you doing this in a big ship when the station is between you and the planet. Without making a large loop to get the planet at least somewhat between you and the station first (as this pretty much negates the time savings). This is a maneuver I can't seem to get quite right in a big ship, so I would like to see whether or not I am wasting my time trying.

I don't boost towards mail slots for the same reason I don't accelerate hard in front of the police. Neither action saves you any real amount of time, but both can cost you quite a bit.

I do, however, think I want to switch my Thruster mod from 5 Clean, to 5 Dirty, and during the shakedown, I quickly realized that I needed a distributor mod for boost.

Riôt
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On this one I used the gravity assist, although poorly done: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/127862114?t=21m40s

Also G5 dirty is faster than G5 clean. In my experience with NPC pirate/police, only 1 or 2 boost is enough to escape (silent running is activated only when I deal with CMDR pirates or I use 7D Thrusters). I only need a 4A distributor unmodded to do all the boosting.
 

ITZC0ATL

ITZC0ATL
NecasekO said:
If you don't want to fight, you just boost and low wake. No ship apart from another Cutter can mass lock you, and NPC pirates don't fly those.
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Slightly off-topic, but does anyone know the reasoning behind this? Surely it's more immersive to have NPCs fly a mixture of all ships, I'm love to see more Corvettes and Cutters around the place.
 

EXE Sasser

E
Flavourless said:
You got a cutter without passing Novice rank? Many people seem to think that ED is combat only game.
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ive seen many peeps with top end ships like the corvette and cutter. some aren't even past Novice. I tend to chuckle at those at "mostly harmless" though but at the same time, credit to them. they earned that ship .
 

Anthemeia

A
When I run my Cutter for trade, she has engineered 5A shields, G5 Dirty Drives, and a mess of defenses. Base speed in the upper 300s with 4 pips to engines. Boosts around 460-470. I always submit to interdiction, then boost-and-wake. It's usually Anacondas and FDLs. With the upcoming shield nerf, I doubt I'll be taking this ship into Open too often, because I am a credit hoarder and fairly risk averse.
 

thearmysredneck

T
I ran mine shieldless for smuggling/trading. I put G5 dirty drives, reinforced armor, 3 heat sink, 4 point defence, 1 chaff. Never had an issue. Silent, cold, and fast, that's how I did it.
 

L.S Algir

L.S Algir
congratulations CMDR !

Frankly you've got nearly nothing to fear from NPC if you don't want to fight. Only another Cutter may threaten you , and even so you can highwake. Just don't play the interdiction minigame if you don't feel confident. submit then boost+wake. and off you go.

But the main and biggest threat for you is the station letterbox. For your Cutter's sake (and your wallet's) , mind your speed. It's easy with this beast to be just above 100m/s speed without noticing that, and as you gonna fill the entire space in the letterbox , the mere scratch on another vessel , should it be a small or weak one , can lead you to be destroyed because you'll simply blow it out.

I've learned the lesson the hard way cause I flew as I was to tired to be cautious. You've been warned.

Fly safe
 

Noctover

Noctover
Don't fly a cutter, so cant respond to that particular part..Interdiction's however...well i've seen shieldless T9's all over the latest CGs because you wont lose an interdiction at the moment unless your AFK, so i wouldn't worry about that part.
 

Hank

H
Well, I got one a couple days ago. So I'm in the Cutter Club now. I have not had a scrap with it yet but will be submitting to the next unfortunate soul who decides to interdict me. I got real good at killing NPC interdictors in my T10 and I'm anxious to see how this beauty performs.

GL HF Commanders
 

Stealthie

Stealthie
MrFailfactory said:
What kind of speed and boost puts me in a good place for escaping with minimal damage or less?
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"Escaping"?

What on earth could you want, or need, to escape from when you're flying a Cutter?

I had 8A DD5s and an 8A PP on my Cutter and then I realised I could gain an extra 5Ly jump-range by swapping them for 8D DD5s and a 7A PP.
The ship's 30m/s slower but, so what?
There's no NPC ship in the game that can dent it's shield so there's no particular need to be able to go fast.

Even in PvP, a 520m/sec Cutter isn't going to be able to outrun a PvP dakka ship.
If you survive, it'll be because of your shield/hull and your tactics rather than your speed.
 
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d8veh

d8veh
Hank said:
Well, I got one a couple days ago. So I'm in the Cutter Club now. I have not had a scrap with it yet but will be submitting to the next unfortunate soul who decides to interdict me. I got real good at killing NPC interdictors in my T10 and I'm anxious to see how this beauty performs.

GL HF Commanders
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It makes absolutely no sense to fight any ship that interdicts you unless they're your mission target for a combat mission. All it does is waste time when you could be earning credits. the battles are often long, and,even if you win, you get hardly anything for it. If you're mining, carrying stuff or on any non-combat missions, submit and run back into supercruise to get back to money-making as fast as possible.
 

Teepers

Teepers
Nobody asked the important question. OP, do you play open? If you do then I hate to break this to ya, but trade Cutters are the kind of thing that get my piratey saliva glands flowing. I know you have money to burn and a hold with enough cargo to fill my smaller hold five times over, and if you want to survive that kind of exchange you are gonna need at least 2 point defense and I would highly recommend ECM. Having decent shields and thrusters are nice things, but if someone is packing reverb torps/mines then your shields aren't gonna help you and I guarantee they will be able to run down your cutter in a speed race. PD is mainly to help deal with hatch breaker limpets and missiles if they have FSD reboot (which gives time for the hatch breaker to do its job). The ECM will help against torps and missiles, the big thing being torps because if reverb torps hit your shields you are pretty much screwed as now your drives are open to damage and thats the next thing to get focused.
 
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CMDR Karrde Sun

CMDR Karrde Sun
There's another way.. with boosters one 6A shield will get 1500-2k shields.. and turreted weapons are a unique and kind fun combat experience (this isn't pvp).

At least you can do it reasonably vs the type 9. A fighter bay doesn't cost that much and you have 2 military slots to take advantage of.

eg: https://s.orbis.zone/3kv7 (the engineering balance isnt final but the principle is. also thrusters are deliberately left untouched and d class for the rp)

Just in case, the cutter flies differently to all other ships. Without being able to use the drift in fa off you're going to be in alot of trouble and likely be distressed or upset about the whole thing. Id spend some time around flecicty's base getting comfortable with slingshotting yourself with boosts and fa off. Also won't spoil it for you, but lateral thrusters do work at the right speeds.
 
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SpaceScania

S
Prismatic shields and trading Cutters were made for each other. If you haven't started the 4 week PowerPlay timer to get your Prismatics (assuming you have enough credits) why are you waiting any longer? Even 6A prismatics and with a load of shield boosters means you pretty much never have to worry about PvE damage ever? Of course this requires some engineering, but once your shields are many thousands of MJ's you can just ram pirates to death. Yeah, the Cutter sure does have its upsides for a space trucker in a hurry :)
 

AsukaZ

AsukaZ
Mostly Anacondas and T10's for me at competent, with a sprinkling of FAS, FDS and FDLs. A-rated and engineered it's practically immune to NPC attacks. Prismatics yes, I have them on mine as well.
 

CMDR Harada

CMDR Harada
What you can't outrun you'll out gun.

Big old shields with resistance boosters to get you to 50% all the way around, and then G5 dirty drives. If you really want, turrets on the pylons to discourage followers. Let them beat themselves to death against your defenses.

As previously mentioned, nothing can mass lock you. Just turn the engines up, point at your destination, and fly away. If I really don't want to be bothered again by the same idiot I just fly away for ten minutes. Eventually you lose the NPC and it counts as a 'win', meaning they don't try again.
 

CMDR Redcrest

C
D rated thrusters with dirty drive mod will have you out running npc's.
The one thing that is needed is the engineer mod for shields that lets you use a size 5 shield on a Cutter. I have a legacy mod on a shield but everyone should be able to have it. 762 cargo is nice to have.
 
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