Newcomer / Intro just bought a viper....... help

[Jank]

I absolutely chew through enemies bounty-hunting with 4 gimbaled pulse lasers and a fat power distribution unit to keep the heat under control. The rest is fluff. I have all 4 pulse lasers in FG1/Mouse1 and my warrant scanner on FG1/Mouse2. Definitely go four pips on weapons when you're firing. I never have to worry about ammo so I can stay out for hours at the hunting grounds and rarely if ever take any hull damage due to the overwhelming speed that I can dish out damage.
.
I never really see anything bigger than Cobras when I bounty-hunt though. Every once in a while some Asp has a small bounty, but it's almost always Sidewinders and Cobras. Easy money.

 

[purf]

I never really see anything bigger than Cobras when I bounty-hunt though. Every once in a while some Asp has a small bounty, but it's almost always Sidewinders and Cobras. Easy money.

Nav Beacon or RES? The former doesn't do anthing for me to the point where even a short stopover seems like a waste of time.
On the other hand, the RES I frequently visit has - usually - a steady stream of either two of the big ones.

 

[Gyrehawk]

ok here is my setup. let me know if it is good enough

4 multi gimbled cannon
kws
pp d3
th d3
fsd e3
ls e2
pd c3
swn d3
fuel tank c2 cargo rack e2

 

[Universal Evil]

untill you upgrade your PP d3 to A3 and PD to an A3 I'll guess you be fine with the multicannons
However you will proberly be shooting a lot since Multicannons are poor at taking down shields I would recommend 4 Lasers instead of cannons if you dont want two of each... laser are better at taking down hull than canons are at Shields...

You hopefully also have a Shield yourself and if so you should think about buying some shield cell here in the beginning of your BH-career... And remember Shield cells can also be bind to any keyboard key you want and therefor doesn't need to be handled by the firegroups...

 

[Jank]

Nav Beacon or RES? The former doesn't do anthing for me to the point where even a short stopover seems like a waste of time.
On the other hand, the RES I frequently visit has - usually - a steady stream of either two of the big ones.

I always hunt at Resource Extraction Sites rather than Nav beacons - the pickings are way too thin at NBs. That said, I've never ever seen the big ships bounty hunting, unless they're fellow BHers. I do see that it's usually a single ship type that dominates the Wanted spawns, either Sidewinder or Cobra... sidewinders usually, but Cobras if you're lucky. Then it's money time.

Where is your RES that spawns heavies?

 

[purf]

Where is your RES that spawns heavies?

A Low Security Federation system. Has two ring planets with 3 three RESs each and a Fed starport respectively a Pirate outpost nearby.
Occasionally, I jump out, do a loop and enter again to trigger different ships to spawn but more often than not it's a nice chain only interrupted
by getting rid of the local pirates' Sidewinders and Eagles who have me KOS by now

and yeah, whatever, it's lonely out here: HIP 91786

 

[Gyrehawk]

is this better??

power plant A3
Thrusters D3
FSD E3
Life support E2
Power distriutor A3
Sensors D3
Fuel tank C2
Cargo rack E2
Shield generator
Shield cell A1
Fuel scoop C2
empty
KWS C0

is the shield cell a one time use or seversl times?

 

[willowfan]

The shield cell is multi-use, it uses 'ammo' that can be restocked - the number of charges depends on the rating.

The E rated FSD will give you terrible jump range (it's not great even with an A rated one).

 

[InMemoriamSirocco]

Shield Cell Banks of B-rating have the most ammo, while Shield Cell Banks of A-rating have usually one less cell than B-rated cell banks, but they are more powerful.

Example: B-rated shield cell bank has 5 shield cells, rated D; A-rated shield cell bank has 4 shield cells, rated C

Using one of the 5 B-rated shield cells will probably charge your shield up to 80 % power, while using a C-rated shield cell will fully charge it.

Just a made up example to illustrate how it works. I'd always choose B-rated shield cells simply because they have more ammo and consume less energy.

The E rated FSD will give you terrible jump range (it's not great even with an A rated one).

One doesn't need jump range when going bounty hunting in an RES . I kitted out Vipers with the worst and smallest FSD available (usually 2E) for just this purpose once I had found good hunting grounds. Frees up much energy that you can use for better things.

 

[who?]

A Low Security Federation system. Has two ring planets with 3 three RESs each and a Fed starport respectively a Pirate outpost nearby.
Occasionally, I jump out, do a loop and enter again to trigger different ships to spawn but more often than not it's a nice chain only interrupted
by getting rid of the local pirates' Sidewinders and Eagles who have me KOS by now

and yeah, whatever, it's lonely out here: HIP 91786

Yeah, if I find it's slim pickings, I just jump out and either return, or try the next RES. Was getting nowhere last night, so tried the next RES and within a few minutes had several Anacondas, Pythons and Clippers.

And - if you find BH too easy/boring - ing off a local faction is a great way to increase the difficulty of the game! I was mid-dogfight on a few occasions when a Wing belonging to a local faction I'm hostile with (damn you, Silver Brothers!) attacked me. You take damage a lot quicker fighting a Clipper and a couple of Sidewinders than you do fighting an Anaconda; as it's much more difficult to avoid the fire from all 3.

 

[Loon]

is this better??

power plant A3
Thrusters D3
FSD E3
Life support E2
Power distriutor A3
Sensors D3
Fuel tank C2
Cargo rack E2
Shield generator
Shield cell A1
Fuel scoop C2
empty
KWS C0

is the shield cell a one time use or seversl times?

I would drop the scoop as you are not going to need it really.
While I know the KWS does help a little in extra bounty you normally have to travel to collect so I find unless in an Anarchy system and the fact it sucks power I don't bother with it.
At the moment my Viper is pretty much A grade and for weapons I have 2 small gimbaled beams which are brilliant at taking down sheilds and 2 medium cannons.
I only fire the beams when sheilds are up and switch to cannons when down.
Also if something big does turn up I wait until the feds enguage first and then join in for some very easy money.
Hope this helps.
Loon

 

[Gyrehawk]

thx guys. as always there are lots of opinions to help me. I will upgrade the fsd a little and go t ry ship out. may need more changes as I am not good at fighting. it will be different for sure. thx again.

 

[the100thmonkey]

Someone asked earlier, and I can't recall seeing you answer, but it's really useful so I'll ask it again: what's your budget?

Oh, and the Viper is a bit of a bathtub in pitch and yaw; it's much better at lateral and vertical movement, so I strongly recommend you look at getting the highest-rated thrusters you can afford. They make a big difference.

This was my second-last Viper loadout. I used it until I'd got used to fixed weapons, then swapped the gimballed multicannons for fixed:

[Viper]
M: 2F/G Multi-cannon
M: 2F/G Multi-cannon
S: 1F/F Burst Laser
S: 1F/F Burst Laser
U: 0I Chaff Launcher
U: 0C Kill Warrant Scanner

BH: 1I Lightweight Alloy
RB: 3A Power Plant
TM: 3A Thrusters
FH: 3A Frame Shift Drive
EC: 2D Life Support
PC: 3A Power Distributor
SS: 3A Sensors
FS: 2C Fuel Tank (Capacity: 4)

3: 3A Shield Generator
3: 3B Shield Cell Bank
2: 2A Fuel Scoop
1: 1E Basic Discovery Scanner
---
Shield: 178.50 MJ
Power : 9.34 MW retracted (78%), 14.33 MW deployed (120%), 12.00 MW available
Cargo : 0 T
Fuel : 4 T
Mass : 113.1 T empty; 117.1 T full
Range : 13.17 LY unladen; 13.17 LY laden
Price : 3,053,948 CR
Re-Buy: 152,697 CR @ 95% insurance

Note that the shield cell bank, fuel scoop, FSD and cargo hatch must all be set to priority 2 in the modules screen of the right UI panel or your ship will shut down when you deploy hardpoints. To use the SCB, you will need to stow your weapons.

 

[Gyrehawk]

well my budget was around 2-3 mil. with what I have equipped atm I am at my limit of what I am willing to pay to try this out. so I guess I need to find some res spot and see what happens. thx to all who have helped.

 

[Gyrehawk]

um trying to set fsd,fuel scoop, shield cell bank t o priority 2 but it does not seem to change when I select it and hit spacebar once. how do I set it?
duh! still stupid most of the time. got it.

 

[Gyrehawk]

one more question. when you say RES site where exactly ais it located? is it at one of the planets or what? sorry for yet another dumb question but I have not doen BH before or any fighting for that matter.

 

[purf]

Ressource Extraction Site
to be found at ring planets. They show up on your Navigation list when you're less than 1000ls away.

 

[Gyrehawk]

ty again. you guys have been very patient and helpful. will go see if I can survive t his. lol

 

[nazartp]

one more question. when you say RES site where exactly ais it located? is it at one of the planets or what? sorry for yet another dumb question but I have not doen BH before or any fighting for that matter.

Welcome to bounty-hunting!

RESs are located in the rings of planets within the systems. Check your map for extraction economies, look into the systems and see if there are any planets with rings, ideally within 1,000 ls from any station. Second, check if the system has security - in the beginning avoid anarchies, you'll get killed. Third, make sure the system has a pirate faction. You'll be killing those - they typically have higher bounties and any drop to the reputation with them is not likely to affect you much, unless you plan to land on their station. Once you have some candidates, go and check in those systems if they have resource extraction sites. If I remember correctly, you must be within 1000 ls or so from the planet with rings to see if it has a RES.

Your 2-3 mil budget is more than enough for pretty much A-grade Viper. My favorite build was at about 2.4 mil. As people gave you advice, you'll need gimballed weapons. Priorities in terms of upgrades on you Viper are power plant, power distributor, shield, then thrusters. Unless you are going into an anarchy, avoid having KWS due to its power draw. Chaff is a must, power cell is a must.

 

[Gyrehawk]

ok..I went to RES and flew around. I scanned green ships and yellow ships. I assume neither of these are to shoot. I did not get a wanted... assuming it shows up red or whatever. Am I doing it wrong or just no wanted ships?