Ships Imperial Courier or Vulture

mikigbch

M
Hi Guys

Just quick questions I'm looking for a new ship for myself to do some fun (PVE / PVP) around I was flying both ships before but know with Engineers we have more variety of choice to improve weak points of both ships, what's your recommendation, which ship I should choice, which ship will give more fun? Any builds, ideas? I will be appreciated for your feedback.
 

theBigDalt

theBigDalt
Forewarning: The following is all personal opinion

I can't speak on PVP as I'm mainly a PVE player. Personally, I'd pick the Courier. It's one of the funnest ships to fly in the game and thanks to the amount of power, enhanced drives, and number of hardpoints, it's very versatile in the spectrum of builds. The four flaws are it's jump range (fixable via engineers), it's power distributor (alleviated by engineers), its heat management (alleviated by engineers), and how sensitive it is to weight (only really an issue if you use the enhanced thrusters, but still alleviated by engineers).

Now, most people would recommend trying to keep it as light as possible and using the enhanced thrusters. Personally, having to constantly be weight and power conscious because of the enhanced thrusters just gives me a headache. I have a minimally engineered (only two rank 3 mods) Courier that I'm using as my main right now. It uses standard thrusters, is completely A-rated (yes, including sensors and life support), has the military bulkheads, a bi-weave shield, and a bunch of internals that give me an opportunity to do all the things I like to do, like an interdictor and vehicle hanger, without needing to refit. It's still under the optimal mass of the standard thrusters so I retain my agility. It boosts to 430 (honestly enough for me for PVE) and jumps over 20ly fully laden (also enough for me). All my choices besides the engineering mods go completely against the general consensus on what the "meta" is. I don't care at all.

Like I said, the versatility in builds is diverse. Engineers just make it even more so. I've flown the Vulture a few times and every time I do, I sell it not long after. For PVE, it's just super boring. Don't get me wrong, it's very effective at what it does....kill things, but I have zero fun flying it and I don't have the patience to grind for all the engineering mods I'd need just to make it a fun ship to fly.

This is my Courier build. I'm not in-game to put in the engineer mod stats, but the actual build choices are accurate. If anyone wants to critique my build, go for it. Just know that I don't care :rolleyes:
 
Last edited:

Kaybe

Kaybe
I disagree with the above. The Enhanced thrusters are absolutely worth investing in if you're going Courier. With them, she is one of the very fastest ships in the game. Stripped down, I easily exceed 600 m/s ... with Clean Drives! I know of people using Dirty Drives on her that far surpasses that. Combat fitted, I still fly her at over 500 m/s.

As a pure combat ship in RESes, Vulture is better because of her power distributor and firepower, but for fun, go Courier. Best engine sounds in the game if you ask me.
 

Ozram

Ozram
Kaybe said:
I disagree with the above. The Enhanced thrusters are absolutely worth investing in if you're going Courier. With them, she is one of the very fastest ships in the game. Stripped down, I easily exceed 600 m/s ... with Clean Drives! I know of people using Dirty Drives on her that far surpasses that. Combat fitted, I still fly her at over 500 m/s.

As a pure combat ship in RESes, Vulture is better because of her power distributor and firepower, but for fun, go Courier. Best engine sounds in the game if you ask me.
Click to expand...

Seconded. Courier benefits from light weight more than any other ship! If pvp though I think you'll find the Vulture a nice and capable ship.
 

mikigbch

M
Thanks for yours replays, I've been flying vulture before on early stage of Elite Dangerous and I liked the agility of this ship, firepower and ability to stay always behind any targets in RES but this ship it was useless for PVP due to low speed now with crafting and extra modules I will give him a chance to see how it's going.

Courier I love the cockpit view and sound of engine hmmm maybe I will buy both of them :)
 

goemon

goemon
definetly courier, and definetly lightweight with enhanced thrusters.

mine goes >700 m/s combat fitted, and is simply amazing.

it is worth it to experiment with some unusual outfitting choice to get the best out of it ... for exampel a class 2 shield (the class 3 gives you only 13% more shields and is too heavy), undersized powerplants ...

it is a huge difference to fly something that fast in combat - opens up a lot of new tactics and loadouts.

also 3 hardpoints to experiment with ... i love 3 frags... beam/mc/cannon is a great combo ...
 

piercehead

piercehead
Everyone should own a Courier and mod it to the hilt - boosting out the slot at >800m/s is the closest to a BSG Viper launch you'll get :)

Mine's lightweight and weaponless atm (for speedy deliveries) - 2D shields, 2A PP and a a 4t Fuel Tank help lots. I gain a bit of weight on my G5 FSD, but well worth it for 35 Ly jump range (definitely not an issue with the Courier).

Fitting it for combat does lose a fair bit of speed, but it's still more than you'll need in a fight :)
 

Kaybe

Kaybe
That's what's fun about this ship. She has the weaponry, agility, and shields to go hunting ... but stripped down, she makes for one hell of a fun canyon runner.
 
Last edited:

theBigDalt

theBigDalt
As I said, most people choose to go lightweight and use enhanced thrusters. I have nothing against that and, in fact, actually think lightweight and enhanced drives is the superior build type. I'm just weird and prefer to not have to worry about weight and power. More power to the people boosting at 600-800m/s compared to my pitiful 430m/s lol. Still, I thoroughly enjoy my anti-meta Courier. If anything, just take me as an example of the fact that you have choices.
 

GammaZ

G
IMO both fighters are fun and have their own advantages and disadvantages.
Courier is fast, one of the fastest ships in game with right loadout. With very good shield and nice hardpoint placement.
Vulture is nice small and maneuverable platform, thanks to engineers with enough power and distributor, to experiment with different large weapons. Plasma accelerators, frags, cannons... there is no better ships to experiment with them. And unlike smaller ones you can use on courier this ones are really devestating.
And IMO you should buy both. Both are reasonably cheap to by and outfit, and both can be fun.
 
Last edited:

CATPAIN KIRK

CATPAIN KIRK
Definitely Courier if you want to tinker around with engineers and like to pilot your ship.

The Vulture isn't a bad ship by any means, but it's so agile and tanky it'll make you forget everything you've learned using your Eagle or Viper and will render you a worse pilot after getting used to flying it.
 

Cdr Voorheez

Cdr Voorheez
I don't do PVP, ever, leave open to the kids.
In answer to the I-Courier/Vulture question: I-Courier all day long. Versatile, tough, manouverable and gorgeous. Harder to gain due to rank grind but well worth it. In fact it's exclusivity marks it out as superior before you start comparing it.
Personal opinion obviously.
 

StiTch

StiTch
I've weighed in on this many, many times as an iCourier lover and previous Vulture user....heh.

Vulture is agile but lacks speed (understatement of the year; they're slower than a T6 by a strong margin) . This means you cannot easily control engagements and for all your agility can have issues getting to a nice spot for attack-and certainly won't sustain that spot. 2xC3 HPs are nice for punch but completely rules out any hope of a versatile setup, and without any C2/below racks it's not viable to use any explosives/rails. It feels...sanitary. There's no excitement in that cockpit, save for watching your weapons fire.

On the other hand it's remarkably forgiving; you can turn easily with it, you won't lose control of it easily, it's reasonably durable, the power issues aren't a major thing if you engineer it or simply don't care for complex setups, and on stock thrusters you would literally struggle to add enough mass to start denting its agility. Without RNGineers in play, it retains max agility/speed possible even with MGC bulkheads.

...

iCourier: So far on the other end of the spectrum in so many ways. Forgiving outfitting? With a modded PE thrusters iCourier, you will want to shave off even small fractions of masses for the respectable results it will deliver. If you're into it, you can get maximum "roadrunner rating" by making loadout sacrifices to lose mass-though you can still just have as a fairly quick/bulky ship. You will prolly want to engineer it. It has heat issues when running hot weapons. It's not actually the fastest turner, though not unreasonable either. You will most definitely not be able to travel around with it, and get very familiar with the (cheap in this case!) ship transfer.

So why use it? Because a 700+ m/s lord of the trolls, with 3 slots for any weapons including rails/missiles, the smallest hit profile for any truly viable combat ship WITH the best shields for any truly viable small ship, really really knows how to embarrass the majority of enemies when flown correctly. With chaff up or dispersal field enemies may as well save their distributor energy and go into hibernation. If you choose to flee, nothing can hope to kill you without immense yet accurate alpha damage. It annihilates subsystems. You can make the loadout as specific to your flying style as you want. Oh and if you want to know how it feels to fly one...

[video=youtube;vfNAzxv7ymI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfNAzxv7ymI[/video]

In summary: For players who want to hit things every now and then but aren't interested in developing L337 skillz, Vulture is as perfect as it gets for casual win-a-thons. But otherwise....there is a reason I've never seen a PvP focused player in one.

Anyone needs iCourier loadout help, happy to assist.
 
Last edited:

n4p0l3on

N
StiTch said:
I've weighed in on this many, many times as an iCourier lover and previous Vulture user....heh.

Vulture is agile but lacks speed (understatement of the year; they're slower than a T6 by a strong margin) . This means you cannot easily control engagements and for all your agility can have issues getting to a nice spot for attack-and certainly won't sustain that spot. 2xC3 HPs are nice for punch but completely rules out any hope of a versatile setup, and without any C2/below racks it's not viable to use any explosives/rails. It feels...sanitary. There's no excitement in that cockpit, save for watching your weapons fire.

On the other hand it's remarkably forgiving; you can turn easily with it, you won't lose control of it easily, it's reasonably durable, the power issues aren't a major thing if you engineer it or simply don't care for complex setups, and on stock thrusters you would literally struggle to add enough mass to start denting its agility. Without RNGineers in play, it retains max agility/speed possible even with MGC bulkheads.

...

iCourier: So far on the other end of the spectrum in so many ways. Forgiving outfitting? With a modded PE thrusters iCourier, you will want to shave off even small fractions of masses for the respectable results it will deliver. If you're into it, you can get maximum "roadrunner rating" by making loadout sacrifices to lose mass-though you can still just have as a fairly quick/bulky ship. You will prolly want to engineer it. It has heat issues when running hot weapons. It's not actually the fastest turner, though not unreasonable either. You will most definitely not be able to travel around with it, and get very familiar with the (cheap in this case!) ship transfer.

So why use it? Because a 700+ m/s lord of the trolls, with 3 slots for any weapons including rails/missiles, the smallest hit profile for any truly viable combat ship WITH the best shields for any truly viable small ship, really really knows how to embarrass the majority of enemies when flown correctly. With chaff up or dispersal field enemies may as well save their distributor energy and go into hibernation. If you choose to flee, nothing can hope to kill you without immense yet accurate alpha damage. It annihilates subsystems. You can make the loadout as specific to your flying style as you want. Oh and if you want to know how it feels to fly one...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfNAzxv7ymI

In summary: For players who want to hit things every now and then but aren't interested in developing L337 skillz, Vulture is as perfect as it gets for casual win-a-thons. But otherwise....there is a reason I've never seen a PvP focused player in one.

Anyone needs iCourier loadout help, happy to assist.
Click to expand...

tell me how do you guys achieved 700ms combat courier because I just checked with edshipyard that even with the best g5 dirty drive dice rolls and totally stripped down empty courier -no weapons, no shield- according to edshipyard it barely achieved 570ms

so how the hell can you get 700-800ms??? what sorcery did you use?
 
Last edited:

StiTch

StiTch
n4p0l3on said:
tell me how do you guys achieved 700ms combat courier because I just checked with edshipyard even with the best g5 dirty drive dice rolls and totally stripped down empty courier -no weapons, no shield- according to edshipyard it barely achieved 570ms

so how the can you get 700-800ms??? what sorcery did you use?
Click to expand...

Firstly I can't comment on the integrity of EDshipyard. It's messier than month old spaghetti bolognese, so I am Coriolis only.

Secondly, iCourier is not a cookie cutter ship. You can't just apply a blanket loadout and go go go. My iCourier has lightweight mods everywhere - various lightweight weapons, lightweight life support etc. 2A shield and not 3A, because it's half the mass but thanks to the iCourier's miniscule hull mass you don't lose much shield cap. D rated shield boosters.

You may well even find that G5 DD is harmful to your ship. Yes DD increases optimal multiplier but a PE small ship is where you actually need to think about what you apply. In this case, the higher optimal multiplier starts to get outweighed by the decrease in optimal mass - despite the multiplier the iCourier starts to struggle with its load so much that you will often find a G5 DD mod worse than a G3 DD mod.

Of course secondary effects will cure all given enough rolls and it's heavily dependent on user loadout.

EDIT: Oh and 700 m/s refers to boost. I will leave 700+ m/s base speeds to racing iEagles...
 
Last edited:

n4p0l3on

N
StiTch said:
Firstly I can't comment on the integrity of EDshipyard. It's messier than month old spaghetti bolognese, so I am Coriolis only.

Secondly, iCourier is not a cookie cutter ship. You can't just apply a blanket loadout and go go go. My iCourier has lightweight mods everywhere - various lightweight weapons, lightweight life support etc. 2A shield and not 3A, because it's half the mass but thanks to the iCourier's miniscule hull mass you don't lose much shield cap. D rated shield boosters.

You may well even find that G5 DD is harmful to your ship. Yes DD increases optimal multiplier but a PE small ship is where you actually need to think about what you apply. In this case, the higher optimal multiplier starts to get outweighed by the decrease in optimal mass - despite the multiplier the iCourier starts to struggle with its load so much that you will often find a G5 DD mod worse than a G3 DD mod.

Of course secondary effects will cure all given enough rolls and it's heavily dependent on user loadout.

EDIT: Oh and 700 m/s refers to boost. I will leave 700+ m/s base speeds to racing iEagles...
Click to expand...

can you give me example with coriolis?
 

StiTch

StiTch
n4p0l3on said:
can you give me example with coriolis?
Click to expand...

https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/imp...S8Pv///8sQiueAClOoRt3gBQXhPrPQCQAAKRqw3ZKAAAA

This build is not viable as I haven't included/changed anything that doesn't affect speed, and it's not at the quoted level of awesome because I've used full min/max values where most rolls I use in game have a stronger positive value than negative. I also have other bits of equipment such as distributor that rolled negative on mass. Also worth noting that's not the utility or weapon setup I necessarily use.

On the other hand this makes a very fine case for my point on paying attention to mods. For that mass exactly, a G4 DD mod happened to give best results. G5 straight up lost it speed thanks to the optimal mass getting too low. On a lighter ship G5 could be stronger and on a heavier ship a G3 mod might be better at overcoming that mass.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom