Is Cobra mk5 op?

Cool ship, but I don't know if FDev didn't overdo it by making the agility and controllability of this ship arcade-level? Better agility by 20 points than Eagle.

Not that I'm nitpicking, but do we want new ships to go in the direction where they're super easy easy to control and literally have no flaws? Each of the previous ships had some quirks, smaller or bigger, and that made them interesting, leaving a lot of room for experimentation. This one had this, that one had that, etc.

And we get a ship that beats the Eagle and Vulture in agility, speed, etc. Boost acceleration beats other ships hands down, top speed with full armor and weapons - wow. And... those insane lateral thrusters.

I regret that a bit, because I like small ships and I had each one for special tasks, because each one is unique in something. And here I get a ship that's better at everything. I know I don't have to fly it, but... those previous ships look pale in comparison and in fact in your game you can limit yourself only to ships that came out this year, right?

Many new players will ask - what small ship would you recommend? Of course everyone will write that Cobra mk5. Because this ship simply beats everything in its category hands down. Previously there were different opinions. For example, take Vulture for combat, some recommended Cobra mk3 others Viper 4 or DBS. So, it's a bit of a shame that few people will recommend other flavors, when the meta ship is within reach, you can't blame them for that.

And what is your opinion, is Cobra mk5 too good for a small ship and don't you feel control of Cobra mk5 feels too arcade?

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Eagle/Imp Eagle/Viper are faster (enhanced thrusters). Vulture has better hardpoints. DBX is colder, jumps further and has a bigger fuel tank (for plasma slug). Courier has better shields. Any of the meta medium combat ships can beat it.

The MkV is definitely an improvement, but it's not hands-down the winner in every category. That said, it is very, very good, and (cards on the table) I'm fine with the level they've put it at. The Cobra is the spaceship for the discerning CMDR. It should be so good that it tempts people away from the obviously better ships with bigger numbers (FdL, Mamba, Cutter, Mandalay).
 
Flying the Cobra makes feel like I’m doing something wrong and I will get in trouble if I get caught (in an enjoyable way), maybe this is where that feeling comes from. I don’t know what all of the factors are that go into ship design behind the scenes, so far as pros and cons being weighed against each other until a reasonable balance can be achieved by those making the decisions, but there is no way we are playing with the same rules as in the past. I can’t help but wonder if the (unfortunately) now largely irrelevant balancing factor of in game credit cost has been replaced with a consideration of IRL credits being maxed in the pay to play window. I don’t see what benefit of the Cobra V came at the cost of something else, other than the obvious module size restrictions of it being small when comparing against larger ships. And for the things it isn’t #1 small ship at in a singular focus, it will quickly catch up once adding other purposes to the build. I’ll still fly my Viper IV and other smalls for enjoyment, but ya, they were not made on the same playing field.
 
The Cobra series should be good, it should make sense in-game why the line is so iconic and popular. The maneuverability may be a little too good, but this must be part of the accessibility drive the devs are aiming for. The Mandalay is a bit OP in this regard as well, but it's nice to fly a really fun ship sometimes.

Having said that, I prefer the look and sound of Vipers so I'm sticking with my Viper 4. As far as other ships go, other CMDRs including myself love the Type-7 and still use it, despite using Type-8s as well.

Doesn't matter too much if every ship after the Python 2 and Type-8 are perfect ships. The new players have some obvious go-to ships, which is good, and the old line will be kept alive by us.
 
I don't own one (yet) - I'm torn between finally putting my ARX to some use, or sticking to my principles. But I'm a Cobra guy so I'll probably get one eventually.

I just played a bit with the ship online, slapped together a general activity build without too much thought - and unfortunately I'm leaning towards OP's sentiment. This thing has speed, defences, convenience. It seems to always be just one module swap away from matching or even outperforming another dedicated small ship. Multiroles are supposed to be about compromise, jack if all trades, yadayada, not master of all trades... Just looking over the shipyard stats on edsy, it's got the best boost in the game, second-best shields in its class, best armor and jump in its class... sure it loses in other categories, but still...
 
t6 doesnt fit on a small pad but mk5 carries more and faster while defending itself properly imagine having spent 25k arx on the ''mining jumpstart'' t6 and then this comes out lol.
its high time all ships and modules get a rebalance, nothing has ever made any sense in the slightest in this game, and i mean litterally nothing

edit: t6 carries 4 tons more when including a size 3 shield whoopie
 
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Hi. No.

Thanks for attending my Ted-X talk.
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Frontier is dispensing with the horrendous 'bus' handling of ships and offering medium and small ships that are maneuverable and useful. This is very good for a game of this vintage with so many poorly performing ships (there is a reason engineering becomes almost a requirement for some to even be useful) - what does a mediocre ship offer, that the other 40 variably mediocre ships don't, already?

I think it's the opposite, the new ships are all 'new' ship designs; they aren't hundreds of years old. Anything new is going to be very 'sporty' compared to the old.

Contentious point: I'd prefer to see Frontier lift the old ships up closer to the new.
 
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Yes, but not in a bad way.

The only problem is the price. At the current price point, there's no reason for a new player to buy anything else. There is room for a premium small ship class, with the MkV being the first of several, but they'd need to bump up the price SIGNIFICANTLY.

I'd like to see something like....

Cobra Mk5: 110,000,000 Credits
Federal Viper Mk 8: 125,000,000
Imperial Vulture: 170,000,000
 
Yes, but not in a bad way.

The only problem is the price. At the current price point, there's no reason for a new player to buy anything else. There is room for a premium small ship class, with the MkV being the first of several, but they'd need to bump up the price SIGNIFICANTLY.

I'd like to see something like....

Cobra Mk5: 110,000,000 Credits
Federal Viper Mk 8: 125,000,000
Imperial Vulture: 170,000,000

Tell me you have forgotten how long it takes to get the first few million as a new account owner, without telling me.

Anyone playing for years, that's a rounding error in the bank balance, anyone starting out suddenly has to find huge amounts of credits (given a starting balance of 4 figures) to purchase a small ship. That's just "everyone farms for anaconda" 2.0 silliness.

SCO is changing the paradigm, but if people had been paying attention to what Frontier have been hinting, rather than being ultra-cops over ship handling, they may have spotted that perhaps there are some plans on the horizon. There have been hints.
 
New ships should be good. Technology evolves and improves over time, and something designed now should be a lot more effective than something designed (in universe) 200 years ago.
yes of course but if small ships are gonna be bigger on the inside than mediums there should've at least been a galnet article celebrating faulcon de laceys discovery of clown car tech or something.
 
yes of course but if small ships are gonna be bigger on the inside than mediums there should've at least been a galnet article celebrating faulcon de laceys discovery of clown car tech or something.

The Cobra Mk V isn't small; it's as wide a small pad and about 75% of the total length of a pad. The ship internal space would be more than a Mandalay (which is really all wing) by a decent margin.

None of the ships are small, next to a human. Even the ubiquitous Sidey has a surprising volume. I think people are letting assumptions get the better of actual physics (since I assume this is the crux of the argument). Box of the same dimensions as sidewinder: 14.9×21.3×5.4 = 17.4 meters³

Obviously sidey is a wedge, so perhaps closer to 14 meters cubed or some such. That's still a pretty large volume. For context, Cobra Mk V dimensions are considerably more at 41.2m x 55.1m x 9.47m and to compare, Mandalay is recorded as 49.6m x 74.4m x 14.9m (which is mostly wing).

Mk V is bigger than people realise.
 
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Tell me you have forgotten how long it takes to get the first few million as a new account owner, without telling me.
No, that's exactly my point. These are not ships you should be flying in 2 hours, like a cobra 3. It's too much better than all the other options for that.

They SHOULD take a good while to access, so the other small ships still have SOME purpose. That purpose being, being cheap.
 
Great ship, it does everything I want it to do well, and the things it's not best at it's still good.

Yaw is surprisingly responsive, especially compared to a MkIII but does make sense given how broad the hull is (lots of leverage). Acceleration/deceleration could be better, I'm used to using the Viper MkIV & Eagle but a) it's got a higher top speed and b) it's a bigger ship than both (not checked the hull mass).

I'm using it as an explorer & it's as good as a Cobra MkIII at landing on rough terrain, it's two round main thrusters remind me of the Python at the back which is nice but the MkIII/MkIV's main thruster shape is iconic imo & the MkV should have kept that.

I appreciate the small footprint but if it had been a medium pad ship I would have been neither surprised nor disappointed considering how good it is.

Almost too good, but I'm happy to fly it ;)
 
yes i know sidey is big as a house, now a mk5 has the same core internals as an asp sout, same hull mass, same base armor number, yet the mk5 has more internal space, one more hardpoint, 2 more utilties.
 
No, that's exactly my point. These are not ships you should be flying in 2 hours, like a cobra 3. It's too much better than all the other options for that.

They SHOULD take a good while to access, so the other small ships still have SOME purpose. That purpose being, being cheap.

It's a larger Mk 3 with a class 5 optional and SCO. That's it. Still has class 4 internals. Same 4 utility. It's 1.9 mil or something to buy (once unlocked) which is like 6 times the cost of a cobra mk 3. The hand wringing is not really justified imho. Frontier offering compelling ships is just exposing sunlight to the remaining fleet.
 
yes i know sidey is big as a house, now a mk5 has the same core internals as an asp sout, same hull mass, same base armor number, yet the mk5 has more internal space, one more hardpoint, 2 more utilties.

It sounds nicer too. And yes, it does. Which suggests Frontier has some work to do to improve the existing ships rather than just drag the new ships down to mediocrity. I hope they do.

Elite has been given a bit of a second wind, I do hope Frontier will capitalise on that.
 
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