Ships Imperial Courier vs Vulture

[Rickk Deckard]

I picked up a pirate lord assassination mission and when I found the target, I found out he was on a Vulture. I went there on an Imperial Courier with a Beam Laser and two Multicannons. The Vulture apparently only had Beam Lasers, at least that's all he fired at me.

As I attacked him, I started with the Beam Laser to deplete his shields and when they were down (and my beam laser overheating) I hit him with the Multicannons. I was able to stay away from his Beam Lasers most of the time. With this tactic I managed to beat the Vulture. The thing was that when he was with is hull at around 35% he simply charged his fsd and disapeared before I could finish him, even keeping on his tail firing everything I had (both Multicannons and the Beam Laser).

This happened several times as I continued to hunt him down. In the end I gave up because he always managed to run away when his hull was getting below 35%. I just didn't have the fire power to finish him off before he blasted away.

I even tried to lure him to a nav beacon hoping to get some help from the local authorities and maybe being able to finish him off before he could run away again. He didn't take the bait, however...

Any suggestions to finish this mission or was this impossible to do with my unengineered Courier?

 

[Bortas]

Any suggestions to finish this mission or was this impossible to do with my unengineered Courier?

Fleeing NPCs can be annoying but otoh why wouldn't they try to... you can do it in your Courier but need either different tactics or different weapons.

You could target his powerplant and try to destroy it, before wearing his hull down too much. If you continue to damage his PP when it's at 0%, he will eventually explode.

If that doesn't work for you, try something with more punch. Frag cannons instead of multis are probably worth a try in that case.

 

[bicarbon8]

I picked up a pirate lord assassination mission and when I found the target, I found out he was on a Vulture. I went there on an Imperial Courier with a Beam Laser and two Multicannons. The Vulture apparently only had Beam Lasers, at least that's all he fired at me.

As I attacked him, I started with the Beam Laser to deplete his shields and when they were down (and my beam laser overheating) I hit him with the Multicannons. I was able to stay away from his Beam Lasers most of the time. With this tactic I managed to beat the Vulture. The thing was that when he was with is hull at around 35% he simply charged his fsd and disapeared before I could finish him, even keeping on his tail firing everything I had (both Multicannons and the Beam Laser).

This happened several times as I continued to hunt him down. In the end I gave up because he always managed to run away when his hull was getting below 35%. I just didn't have the fire power to finish him off before he blasted away.

I even tried to lure him to a nav beacon hoping to get some help from the local authorities and maybe being able to finish him off before he could run away again. He didn't take the bait, however...

Any suggestions to finish this mission or was this impossible to do with my unengineered Courier?

Have you tried using the Special Effect that can be applied to Burst Lasers that causes random module failures? I've found that can kill the Thrusters, leaving the ship a spinning target and it should also be able to cause random FSD failures. The key with it though is you have to shoot their hull so you're best off applying the Focused engineering mod with Scramble Spectrum special effect and targeting the Power Plant so you both have the possibility of random module failure as well as benefiting from the extra piercing of the Focused mod on the Bursts.

 

[_Xplosive]

I think that the courier isn't a very good combat ship at all. If you have the credits I highly recommend you getting a Vulture or Viper MkIII. Other than that, killing a Vulture in an unengineered Courier should be possible, try out targeting the enemies modules such as power plant or FSD to stop him from escaping.

 

[Jaxterix]

I picked up a pirate lord assassination mission and when I found the target, I found out he was on a Vulture. I went there on an Imperial Courier with a Beam Laser and two Multicannons. The Vulture apparently only had Beam Lasers, at least that's all he fired at me.

As I attacked him, I started with the Beam Laser to deplete his shields and when they were down (and my beam laser overheating) I hit him with the Multicannons. I was able to stay away from his Beam Lasers most of the time. With this tactic I managed to beat the Vulture. The thing was that when he was with is hull at around 35% he simply charged his fsd and disapeared before I could finish him, even keeping on his tail firing everything I had (both Multicannons and the Beam Laser).

This happened several times as I continued to hunt him down. In the end I gave up because he always managed to run away when his hull was getting below 35%. I just didn't have the fire power to finish him off before he blasted away.

I even tried to lure him to a nav beacon hoping to get some help from the local authorities and maybe being able to finish him off before he could run away again. He didn't take the bait, however...

Any suggestions to finish this mission or was this impossible to do with my unengineered Courier?

As soon as you drop his shields, target his FSD and take it out before taking his hull under 35%. No more fleeing after that!

 

[Rickk Deckard]

Ok, I'm still not very combat savvy and I've never tried to target specific modules at a ship. I suppose you do that by selecting the corresponding module at the targets list on the left hand side menu, right?

At the moment I still don't have many materials and/or engineered parts so I can't use any special effects to weapons.

Regarding the Imperial Courier as a combat ship, I bought it specifically for that role and after trying a Cobra Mk III and a Viper, I'm actually enjoying the Courier much more for this role. I'ts fast and very manouverable and can carry some fairly powerful weapons. And it's small enough not to be hit easily. Plus, it's looks are outstanding and is great fun to fly!

 

[Barracudina]

Ok, I'm still not very combat savvy and I've never tried to target specific modules at a ship. I suppose you do that by selecting the corresponding module at the targets list on the left hand side menu, right?

At the moment I still don't have many materials and/or engineered parts so I can't use any special effects to weapons.

Regarding the Imperial Courier as a combat ship, I bought it specifically for that role and after trying a Cobra Mk III and a Viper, I'm actually enjoying the Courier much more for this role. I'ts fast and very manouverable and can carry some fairly powerful weapons. And it's small enough not to be hit easily. Plus, it's looks are outstanding and is great fun to fly!

I'd try a beam laser to take down shield, then seeker missiles to take out drives.

 

[_Xplosive]

You certainly can do it via the left hand panel, but I recommend using a specific Hotkey bound to "Target next/previous subsystem" which can be found under the targeting menu in the options.

I think that the Courier can be a good combat ship if used correctly. To kill a Vulture you could try out with a fixed beam and 2 gimballed MCs or just use 3 MCs, they will do. Howerver I don't think that an unengineered Courier is a good good ship to get started in combat. If you have the money I recommend you to get a Vulture. This was my build when I started with combat: https://s.orbis.zone/2g0_

 

[Rebel Yell]

...last time I've picked up 2 assassination missions with my PvE (mostly lazors) 'conda, both were flying Corvettes.

The most annoying thing is once they're in SC, they're back *magically* at 100% hull.

Removed to med beams to add two Grom Bombs launchers... made the trick, but it was pretty annoying.