Newcomer / Intro Imperial rank - does it have to be boring?

[CMDR SleepyDelegate]

Here is the Silver Archangel doing what she does best. Earning me 100 million credits in 15 minutes knocking out a couple of those 50 million mining rush missions for silver that I can buy. I've had this ship about 7 months, and frankly when it comes to generating credits to buy the Fleet Carrier I know have, and fetching tritium fuel to be able to jump it, the Cutter is indispensable. It feels nice doing the somewhat mundane task of fetching and carrying stuff in this ship. A Type 9 could do the same job, but I wouldn't enjoy doing it. Its 500t of tritium per carrier jump. I can fetch 750t+ per run in the Cutter. Every fleet carrier owner needs a Type 9 or a Cutter.

I agree that the cargo capacity, combined with speed and resistance is unbeatable and what you described is probably the best fit for this ship... But I like to use it to fight at the moment, leveraging the shield and hull strength, the firing power and ability to launch fighters... I understand that it is like bringing a luxury yacht to a gunship battle, but I like to fight in style...

 

[CMDR SleepyDelegate]

I always throttle way back and get real close to their belly.

I usually do the same... They usually start scanning me, I do the same with KW scanner and then when they turn away to find another target, I usually start shooting at their belly and close in at the same time, this way, even if they start chaffing, my two fixed beams and both gimballed beams are hitting the shields and strip them down in seconds... Cannons then finish the job... Sometimes I ram them to speed up the shield stripping process...

 

[CMDRQuainMarln]

I agree that the cargo capacity, combined with speed and resistance is unbeatable and what you described is probably the best fit for this ship... But I like to use it to fight at the moment, leveraging the shield and hull strength, the firing power and ability to launch fighters... I understand that it is like bringing a luxury yacht to a gunship battle, but I like to fight in style...

Certainly no criticism from me on how you use your Cutter
I'm currently working on Federation rank to be able to buy the Corvette. I'll engineer the hell out of it so I can solo High Intensity CZs with relative ease. The first thing I'll do when it's ready to fight, is take it out to do some.... exobiology..... for comedy value. The same joke would work with the Anaconda. You need to see the ground to find the next plant sample and the nose of the Vette and Anaconda are somewhat obstructive to this goal. It just needs a bit of upside down thinking....
The Vette will make it faster to get through pirate massacre mission stacks to bring in the credits to keep the fleet carrier maintained and fueled for an (exobiology) expedition I will do with it one day - for the science and exploration, not credits 'cause pay outs for exobiology are a joke considering time spent.

 

[CMDR SleepyDelegate]

Certainly no criticism from me on how you use your Cutter
I'm currently working on Federation rank to be able to buy the Corvette. I'll engineer the hell out of it so I can solo High Intensity CZs with relative ease. The first thing I'll do when it's ready to fight, is take it out to do some.... exobiology..... for comedy value. The same joke would work with the Anaconda. You need to see the ground to find the next plant sample and the nose of the Vette and Anaconda are somewhat obstructive to this goal. It just needs a bit of upside down thinking....
The Vette will make it faster to get through pirate massacre mission stacks to bring in the credits to keep the fleet carrier maintained and fueled for an (exobiology) expedition I will do with it one day - for the science and exploration, not credits 'cause pay outs for exobiology are a joke considering time spent.

No offence taken...

I fully understood your post and I do agree, that the fight is kinda slow turning dance... I have just started thinking, whether turreted beams woudl have been a better choice, but I guess I will have to collect some more materials to try that out... I am now doing bounty hunting, combined with material collecting... I have around 250 limpets, I kill and I scavenge...

 

[d8veh]

The Vette will make it faster to get through pirate massacre mission

Fedaral Assault ship is the best ship for pirate massacre missions because of its speed and agility. I normally complete 140 pirates in 2 to 2 1/2 hrs using one.

 

[CMDRQuainMarln]

No offence taken...

I fully understood your post and I do agree, that the fight is kinda slow turning dance... I have just started thinking, whether turreted beams woudl have been a better choice, but I guess I will have to collect some more materials to try that out... I am now doing bounty hunting, combined with material collecting... I have around 250 limpets, I kill and I scavenge...

I put turret multi cannons on the outer nacelle hard points, one corrosive, one incendury. The idea was they could take out small fast ships. Not sure how good they are.
Some say beam turrets that you don't control when they fire can drain the power distributor too quickly. I'm sure efficient engineering is essential for them at the very least - then I'd have thought they'd be OK

 

[CMDRQuainMarln]

Fedaral Assault ship is the best ship for pirate massacre missions because of its speed and agility. I normally complete 140 pirates in 2 to 2 1/2 hrs using one.

Makes me think sticking with the Krait MKII with SLF might be better. How do you even find 140 pirates fast enough to destroy them in 2 to 2.5 hours? I go for the signal sources and I'll guess at about 45 per hour.

 

[0threeleven]

Makes me think sticking with the Krait MKII with SLF might be better. How do you even find 140 pirates fast enough to destroy them in 2 to 2.5 hours? I go for the signal sources and I'll guess at about 45 per hour.

The system beacon is a great place to find dozens of pirates. I found a high rez spot in the Luchtaine system when as soon as you drop in you get a message on your screen that your signal is blocked and you're on your own, no help will be coming. There were at least a dozen fire fights going and all of them were pirate vs pirate, I promptly left, knew I wasn't that good.

 

[aRJay]

The system beacon is a great place to find dozens of pirates. I found a high rez spot in the Luchtaine system when as soon as you drop in you get a message on your screen that your signal is blocked and you're on your own, no help will be coming. There were at least a dozen fire fights going and all of them were pirate vs pirate, I promptly left, knew I wasn't that good.

With the signal blocked message that would be a Haz(ardous) RES, there is a similar escalation at Nav Beacons with the Compromised Nav Beacon. As long as you don't have or pick up any cargo you are fairly safe even if you attack one of the pirates only his wing will help him, if you pick one that is being attacked it is just like having the security ships in a safer area.
The thing is both locations will tend to have more higher ranked and or tougher ships and often more ships in general so they are places to bring you better combat ships to.

I have in the past seen NPCs actually trying to mine in a Haz RES which can lead to some fun roleplaying trying to defend them.

 

[0threeleven]

With the signal blocked message that would be a Haz(ardous) RES, there is a similar escalation at Nav Beacons with the Compromised Nav Beacon. As long as you don't have or pick up any cargo you are fairly safe even if you attack one of the pirates only his wing will help him, if you pick one that is being attacked it is just like having the security ships in a safer area.
The thing is both locations will tend to have more higher ranked and or tougher ships and often more ships in general so they are places to bring you better combat ships to.

I have in the past seen NPCs actually trying to mine in a Haz RES which can lead to some fun roleplaying trying to defend them.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes the NPC cops will do absolutey nothing? They'll buzz around your firefight and get in the way but never fire a shot, usually a wing that I'm taking on too.

 

[aRJay]

Have you ever noticed that sometimes the NPC cops will do absolutey nothing? They'll buzz around your firefight and get in the way but never fire a shot, usually a wing that I'm taking on too.

Doughnut time.

At least they mostly don't fight each other nowadays.

 

[d8veh]

Makes me think sticking with the Krait MKII with SLF might be better. How do you even find 140 pirates fast enough to destroy them in 2 to 2.5 hours? I go for the signal sources and I'll guess at about 45 per hour.

You don't need a fighter. Do the missions that have a target system with a low RES. When you drop into the RES and there aren't immediate targets to shoot, log until there are. That will be a good spawn. For the fastest kill rate, you need highest speed, longest range sensors and at least two long-range lasers. All weapons should be lasers.

To use the lasers effectively, you need to be able to get close and stay there. The Vulture is best at that, but lacks fire-power on the tougher targets. The FAS is a good compromise between agility and fire-power. The FDL and Chieftain drift too much, but would also be good if you're skilled at flying them.

On my FAS, I have efficient class three lasers and long range class 2 and special effects are thermal vent and overcharge on each pair. I can then leave pips permanently at 1.5-1.5-3. Ocassionally, a wing of serious ships will turn up, like two dangerous Anacondas and a deadly FDL. To deal with them, I go 3-0-3.

 

[CMDRQuainMarln]

You don't need a fighter. Do the missions that have a target system with a low RES. When you drop into the RES and there aren't immediate targets to shoot, log until there are. That will be a good spawn. For the fastest kill rate, you need highest speed, longest range sensors and at least two long-range lasers. All weapons should be lasers.

To use the lasers effectively, you need to be able to get close and stay there. The Vulture is best at that, but lacks fire-power on the tougher targets. The FAS is a good compromise between agility and fire-power. The FDL and Chieftain drift too much, but would also be good if you're skilled at flying them.

On my FAS, I have efficient class three lasers and long range class 2 and special effects are thermal vent and overcharge on each pair. I can then leave pips permanently at 1.5-1.5-3. Ocassionally, a wing of serious ships will turn up, like two dangerous Anacondas and a deadly FDL. To deal with them, I go 3-0-3.

So an all beam laser built. Wouldn't that be a bit slow to take out the hull?
Do you make it work with fixed or gimballed?

 

[d8veh]

So an all beam laser built. Wouldn't that be a bit slow to take out the hull?
Do you make it work with fixed or gimballed?

I don't think beams would wotk. Mine has 2 class 3 pulse and 2 class 2 burst. I chose them to keep the power consumption below what the PD can provide so that I can shoot continuously without over-heating. Also, many of the targets try to run away, so you have to chase them down before they jump, which means firing continuously while boosting, I'm pretty sure that beams would boil your ship doing that unless you engineer in some way to reduce the heat. Thermal vent doesn't work because the targets are too small and too far way. I have that on my all-turret T10 that I use for material farming, but the ship overheats when the targets move out to 1.5km and taunt me, even though they're long range beams.

Ships have weak hulls in the low RES. I normally target powerplants on competent Anacondas to speed up the kills a bit. For all other ships the hull goes at the same time as the PP. I use gimballed weapons. The FAS and Vulture can get very close to the target when they chaff, which goes a long way to negating the chaff, otherwise just wait and blow them up in three seconds when the chaff stops. When dealing with wings, I find it best to leave any chaffing ones til last to avoid the police finishing wing-ships while I'm waiting for the chaffing one to die. Any chaffing slows down the police killing the targets, so it's mainly an advantage to you. It's very often a race to get all three ships in a wing before the police get one or more. For the same reason you should always take the wing-men fitst unless one chaffs.

Here's mine that works very well:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

The point defence doesn't seem to work very well due to its position on the ship. I tried both forward and rear positions, but both were pretty ineffective, so I think a shield booster would be a better option, though the most shields I lose is about 1 1/2 rings due to frequent rammings, which is the quickest way to despatch target ships. Conveniently, they like to fly straight at you, so it's difficult to say who's ramming who. PD works very well on a Vulture,

 

[CMDRQuainMarln]

I don't think beams would wotk. Mine has 2 class 3 pulse and 2 class 2 burst. I chose them to keep the power consumption below what the PD can provide so that I can shoot continuously without over-heating. Also, many of the targets try to run away, so you have to chase them down before they jump, which means firing continuously while boosting, I'm pretty sure that beams would boil your ship doing that unless you engineer in some way to reduce the heat. Thermal vent doesn't work because the targets are too small and too far way. I have that on my all-turret T10 that I use for material farming, but the ship overheats when the targets move out to 1.5km and taunt me, even though they're long range beams.

Ships have weak hulls in the low RES. I normally target powerplants on competent Anacondas to speed up the kills a bit. For all other ships the hull goes at the same time as the PP. I use gimballed weapons. The FAS and Vulture can get very close to the target when they chaff, which goes a long way to negating the chaff, otherwise just wait and blow them up in three seconds when the chaff stops. When dealing with wings, I find it best to leave any chaffing ones til last to avoid the police finishing wing-ships while I'm waiting for the chaffing one to die. Any chaffing slows down the police killing the targets, so it's mainly an advantage to you. It's very often a race to get all three ships in a wing before the police get one or more. For the same reason you should always take the wing-men fitst unless one chaffs.

Here's mine that works very well:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

The point defence doesn't seem to work very well due to its position on the ship. I tried both forward and rear positions, but both were pretty ineffective, so I think a shield booster would be a better option, though the most shields I lose is about 1 1/2 rings due to frequent rammings, which is the quickest way to despatch target ships. Conveniently, they like to fly straight at you, so it's difficult to say who's ramming who. PD works very well on a Vulture,

You mentioned thermal vent effect so that's why I though beam lasers. I'll have to give a FAS a try. Bit prejudice against it die to looks, class 6 PD and only 4 hard points compared to Krait MKII, and I've brought my NPC pilot up from mostly harmless so like to make him work for the 10% he takes.

 

[d8veh]

You mentioned thermal vent effect so that's why I though beam lasers.

Sorry, I made a mistake about the thermal vent. I got confused by all the experiments I did. The build I posted above is what I have used for the last 20,000 kills. It's an absolute brute. Remember, an unengineered Vulture can do these missions very well for beginners. A FAS is overkill, and a fully-engineered one is just insane.

Don't worry about the 10%. My NPC crew has had 37 billion from me, but when you make a billion a day, it's insignificant. I can't see a fighter making any useful contribution, and I can see some circumstances where it might slow down your kill rate.

What I've been concentrating on is getting the highest earnings rate, which seems to be the FAS. You can use just about any ship for this, even a Sidewinder. The only thing that changes is the time to complete the missions.

 

[Cmdr BrinBrown]

You do what you have to do, if you want it

BB