Yes. They've told us all 30 ships have been designed on paper already. I imagine part of that design takes into consideration the various price ranges. I imagine once all 30 ships are released, there won't be many gaps left. If any.
Lets wait for Beta.
After reading what's been said and some thought, it seems this ship has something under its sleeve. Be it maneuverability, shields, upgrade possibilities, it has to have something special if it's indeed equal-or-less capable than a cobra in most departments, but costs quite a bit more.
It would be great if it has some specially potent maneuvering thrusters, or lightning fast acceleration-decceleration. Something that changes the way we fight, but at the same time, having low powered weapons, is unable to exploit combat abusing it.
It would be great if it has some specially potent maneuvering thrusters, or lightning fast acceleration-decceleration. Something that changes the way we fight, but at the same time, having low powered weapons, is unable to exploit combat abusing it.
The stats on the Courier actually look promising, it is the missing information where its real strengths may lay. Since it won't have as good a cargo capacity or jump range of a Cobra, it must have other redeeming qualities. For example a class 4 power distributor (Cobra has class 3), the same class 4 power plant, and better shields and/or agility than a Cobra, it would be a more combat leaning ship in the same general category of the Cobra.
But even if it only comes with a class 3 power distributor and shields equal to a Cobra, I cannot imagine it having a class 3 power plant with 3 medium weapons, because it it'd be just as power starved like the Viper.
My only real fear atm is the hardpoint placement. I prefer gimbales anyway so don't really care about natural convergence, bit a lot of the ship's combat performance will depend on where the hardpoints are place. Imho, the perfect setup would be 2 on top of the nacelles, one on the bottom of the main fuselage. Due to the ship's slim profile, that'd give it the same covergence as a Python's main guns (the 3 large ones), with a similar visual appearance of the beams from the cockpit (a beam from top center can be an impairment to you view, plus tends to suffer from camera clipping issues as seen on the Eagle), ample firing coverage with gimbals when pitching upward, which is the preferred pitch direction in almost any situation, and one hardpoint on the bottom would make sure you never lose firing coverage on the lower half of the view.
Plus, the triangle-pointing-down appearance of simultaneous laser fire from that kind of setup generally looks very cool, and much better than a triangle-pointing-up (don't ask me why, I have no idea but I find the latter very bland. Did I mention I like the Imperial emblem very much?)
I agree - the ship specs as mentioned so far do look interesting and I'm glad you mentioned the issue of the power distributor. The Class 3 on the cobra can be a bit limiting with 2 class 2 beam lasers. A Class 4 power distributor with 3 medium weapons (if the hardpoints are in the right place) could be a very potent layout. The PD's are often overlooked when discussing ship effectiveness, yet they really define how well each of the other main components can function.
From the pictures, it looks like the hardpoints will be above each nacelle and above the cockpit - I generally prefer the above mounted hardpoints, as I usually fly slightly nose-down, and can see more of the combat field when firing.
From the description and discussions above I suspect it will be a small ship, possibly Cobra-sized, but with greater manouverability and 3 decent medium weapons, not just 2 medium with 2 small weapons hidden under the wing.
I wonder if we may see more stealth introduced with this ship, i.e. lower heat signatures etc. for smuggling and less chance of being detected and interdicted?
My feeling is that this is going to be a short / medium range light trader designed for going to more hazardous systems and being better able to get out of trouble. Good for Bulletin Board courier missions maybe?
We'll see next Tuesday.....
To me it looks like all the three hardpoints will be on the underside because it looks like the four utility mounts are on top. Hope I'm wrong.
I think 3 medium hardpoints is actually pretty good for a small ship around 2 million cr - one more than the Asp after all and that's 6.6 million cr. I think most people seemed to be expecting an Imperial Vulture-level ship with large hardpoints... I can see this ship being a tough opponent in the right hands.
If they make it nimble as eagle and it will be
The Asp has a truckload of smalls though. Four smalls are more damage than one Large for the same mass (smaller hardpoints are more damage/mass efficient).
Its hard to know whats a weapon mount, and what just part of the ships design.
I modded this comparison pic I posted elsewhere. If the red highlighted parts (big if) are both utility mount points then you can see the approximate size of the courier.
The pink outlined area on the python is one of its size 2 weapon mounts. I don't see anything that size on the top of the courier, so either the courier is much bigger than my comparison shows, the size 2 weapon mounts on the courier are much smaller than the ones on the python, or they arent on the top of the courier.
Maybe something at the yellow/green arrow deploys and the weapons are mounted there?
Yeah, I think it has to have something special and I wonder if this will be an over-sized fuel tank.
So, if it has a Class 4 FSD as we anticipate, it might have a Class 5 Fuel Tank rather than the Class 4 of the Cobra.
This would mean that, while it doesn't have a long single-jump range (and thus eclipsing the other more exploration-focused ships, i.e. Diamondback), it would have a very good overall distance on a single tank of fuel.
I think this would fit with the 'Courier' name too as it would be good at carrying small loads around multiple systems and provide a new niche for the ship.
This would also mean that the FSD and speed perhaps aren't quite as bad as they may initially seem, as you'd have the extra 16 tonnes of fuel compared to the stock Cobra (although that doesn't necessarily make a huge amount of difference at Cobra sizes).
Otherwise the only room for improvement over the stock Cobra is in power, manoeuvrability and armaments (including shields) which would seem rather combat-centred for what is described as a multi-purpose ship.
Interesting study. I agree with that train of thought. To me the four square ones on the Courier look too utility, like on every other ship, to be just decorative styling.
I hadn't realised the size 2 (medium) hrdpoints were actually that big (from your Python comparison) so the nacelle tops on the Courier could at best only have smalls, which we know it doesn't.
I hadn't considered the inboard (dark area you highlighted) could have the hardpoints side mounted there. I hope something like that is true, because if they are, indeed, all on the bottom, the ship is pretty useless to me. Which would be a great shame as it has a proper jet fighter canopy which would be ideal for my 'roid sorties with a TrackIR.
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I had assumed that the large panel directly behind the red square you have marked (partially covered by the red arrow) was a weapon mount, perhaps I'm wrong though.
That might be, it looks like something that might open up.
The weapon mounts on the python are actually the size of the weapons. On other ships I'm sure I've seen them move through a smaller space, then expand, so something half the length of the pink highlighted area could, in theory, have a size 2 weapon in it.
Not against medium and large sized ships
All four together are roughly the 'power' of 1.5 times a large hardpoint, so with a ~30% damage it is the same as a large against medium ships and at ~60% half against large.
However, this is only against hull damage. If they are against shields (e.g. lasers), it does the full damage (i.e. more than a single Large HP) regardless of size of ship.
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