Ship Builds & Load Outs Federal Corvette Lightweight Corvette optimization

Melanthes · Apr 27, 2019

I'm currently building a Corvette and I want to ask, how to improve it. This is my first big ship and I wanted to keep the rebuy low, to get a good feeling for the ship and to explode without losing 50 mil each time. Thus it has lightweight hull and is build in Li Yong-Rui territory. This keeps the rebuy below 20 mil.
I'm trying to build the ship with Open mode PvE and Powerplay in mind and also for occasional PvP. That's why I'm also building two configurations based on the same ship.
The basic premise is to counter at least some big ship threads, as I'm simply more vulnerable with the lightweight design. This is the main reason for using reinforced double braced 7B shields as they offer much more integrity to survive reverberating cascade torpedos. I also have a reinforced high capacity 7A shield stored, but it would need another configuration and more power to run. The shield banks are B rated, also because of power concerns, as I don't want to run without an armoured power plant.
I'm not set on the weapons, especially the large hardpoint, but I prefer fixed weapons.
The PvE build loses roughly 500 hull and shield and the shield banks, as well as gaining 20ly by using an 6A range enhanced frameshift drive with guardian booster. The other modules are changed depending on the requirements, but as I enjoy the new PvE Piracy, there is usually a 7 Cargo hold and a 7A Collector in there. An 3A Hatchbreaker is also exchanged with the module protection.

So the question is: Is this somewhat viable, or is a lightweight corvette simply an attempt of squaring a circle?

PvP build:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

coriolis.io

Morbad · Apr 27, 2019

Build looks competent enough, but there isn't much point in shaving 78T off a 2100 ton ship in the name of speed/maneuverability, especially when you are spending even more on B rated shields and SCBs.

Also, you don't have enough heatsinks to leverage your SCBs effectively...double banking in PvP with a large ship defeats the purpose of rapid charge by telegraphing the second SCB use so far ahead of time that you'll never get the charge off if anyone has feedback rails. Also, a class 6 AFMU is overkill for combat use and you could increase armor, save mass, and get more total shield recharge with A7 rapid charge recycling cells, by replacing it with a smaller and less power hungry one.

Melanthes · Apr 27, 2019

Thanks for the critique! That's really helpful.
I'll replace the lightweight with military composite and downgrade the AFMU to 3A. The slot will be used by a hull reinforcement, allowing me to reach 5k hull. And this also enables me to install the 7A shield gen, which I'll just double brace. That removes just 30 points of integrity and I'm still at 4k shields. At 181 integrity the shield still takes 5 torpedos to go down. I can also install both 7A shield banks and add another heat sink launcher. That leaves two hot banks, as reserves.
And it's still a "reasonable" rebuy at ~28mil.

Starman 1966 · Apr 28, 2019

If integrity is a concern why not using a 7B thermal resistant and double-braced shield generator?

Krash · Apr 29, 2019

Here's my lightweight Vette.
https://s.orbis.zone/2ygd

We made some similar choices. I lean more toward shields with mine. When those go down, I'm headed for the hills asap. But the 25mil rebuy is much easier to swallow than the 42mil on my other build with reactive.

Melanthes · Apr 30, 2019

Starman 1966 said:
If integrity is a concern why not using a 7B thermal resistant and double-braced shield generator?

Because I would now lose 1200mj of shield that way. I went for a reinforced double braced 7A Shield, because there is no difference in the amount of torpedos it can take in comparison to the original reinforced double braced 7B shield. It's not that integrity is a special concern, I just tried to build the ship to be as unspecialised as possible, while keeping the rebuy low.

Krash said:
Here's my lightweight Vette.
https://s.orbis.zone/2ygd

That's some impressive shielding. I unfortunately haven't unlocked the prismatics and I tried to give the ship some basic hull tanking capabilities. I want to test out how long I can stay without running, which will, without any doupt, send me to the rebuy screen.

By buying everything in Li Yong-Rui territory I'm at 28mil insurance and even slightly lower if I explode within his territory, which is reasonable and equates to one short PvE piracy session.

I've also changed the large efficient PAs to focused PAs, because if I shoot a fast ship with the efficient PAs nothing else can be used. The focused PAs allow for seekers and soon pack hounds to be used in tandem. (Focused because Long Range is too powerhungry)

I've settled for this build and started engineering it:

Corvette Vainglorious Finitude

Captain Willard · May 3, 2019

Thanks for posting. I always enjoy seeing other peeps builds and style of combat.
My toy. PVE only.
https://coriolis.io/outfit/federal_corvette?code=A4putpFklkdzsuf50x0x1p1m1m1j1j0404040404040202p05s5s3cfm1O2d2d2L2b2bm524.Iw18ZVA=.Aw18ZVA=.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.EweloBhBmSQUwIYHMA28QgIwVyKBQA==&bn=Calm Horizons

Bob Lighthouse · May 3, 2019

Melanthes said:
...
I've also changed the large efficient PAs to focused PAs, because if I shoot a fast ship with the efficient PAs nothing else can be used. The focused PAs allow for seekers and soon pack hounds to be used in tandem. (Focused because Long Range is too powerhungry)

I've settled for this build and started engineering it:

Corvette Vainglorious Finitude

That doesn't make sense to me, could you elaborate?

Bob Lighthouse · May 3, 2019

Also a thermal resistant biweave w/ fast charge actually has a hair more integrity than the 7A reinforced/double braced.

Melanthes · May 3, 2019

It's still a work in progress, but my reasoning is this: Because of the low projectile speed of PAs the leading crosshair is usually quite far away from the other (fast) ship. This means if I shoot with PAs, I cannot at the very same time use other weaponry which requires me to stay on target.
By using Focused PAs I'm losing 40 points of damage in comparison to efficient, but the leading crosshair normally sits next to the target ship, which means I can use for example seekers in tandem. This also means that I have a better view of what the other ship is doing and can react better to SCAs.
It also turns the large PAs into weapons which are far more difficult to evade, which gives them actually better dps as they are hitting more often, but that's purely anecdotal evidence. Although against big ships efficient PAs are probably better, but the focused projectile speed of 1750m/s still means nearly zero chance of evasion for the bigger ships.
Edit:
I thought about using thermal resistant shields and they offer the ability to take 5 torpedoes without collapsing, but I'd also lose a lot of mj that way. At 181+ integrity the shields will survive 4 torpedoes and collapse on the fifth.

Bob Lighthouse · May 3, 2019

Melanthes said:
It's still a work in progress, but my reasoning is this: Because of the low projectile speed of PAs the leading crosshair is usually quite far away from the other (fast) ship. This means if I shoot with PAs, I cannot at the very same time use other weaponry which requires me to stay on target.
By using Focused PAs I'm losing 40 points of damage in comparison to efficient, but the leading crosshair normally sits next to the target ship, which means I can use for example seekers in tandem. This also means that I have a better view of what the other ship is doing and can react better to SCAs.
It also turns the large PAs into weapons which are far more difficult to evade, which gives them actually better dps as they are hitting more often, but that's purely anecdotal evidence. Although against big ships efficient PAs are probably better, but the focused projectile speed of 1750m/s still means nearly zero chance of evasion for the bigger ships.
Edit:
I thought about using thermal resistant shields and they offer the ability to take 5 torpedoes without collapsing, but I'd also lose a lot of mj that way. At 181+ integrity the shields will survive 4 torpedoes and collapse on the fifth.

(Ftr c4 = "huge" and c3 = "large")

Is this something you've experienced with this loadout already, or is that just theory crafting?
I use eff. PAs, rails and seekers on a lot of my ships and don't seem to have the issue you describe.
It sounds as if they are flying across your fov, instead of closing?
In my expreince NPCs fly right towards you, and smaller/faster player ships will probably avoid the PAs anyhow.
I tend to get missile lock on when I'm using the rails.

The thermal biweave also has the regen benefit which is why I brought that up.

Do you find the pulse turret very useful?
I'd be more inclined to put the missiles in the lg hardpoint, and use a corrosive MC and a dispersal cannon in the mediums.

Melanthes · May 3, 2019

My mistake, of course I meant the huge hardpoints. At this point it's no longer pure theory crafting, although it hasn't been tested against CMDRs. I tested the build with wing assassination missions (1x engineered elite FDL and some vultures).
Generally I'd say the focused PAs are hitting quite reliable, even smaller and quicker targets. The projectile speed is slightly faster than a multicannon, this should make it very difficult to evade by reaction, which is possible against efficient PAs. The other big improvement here is the ability to focus most of my hardpoints with little time on target. After shooting the PAs, I can often nearly immediately get a salvo of railshots and at least two seekers out. The alpha damage is impressive and smaller ships don't have a much better chance of evasion. The corvette also seems to run very cool, so that the increased heat is no real problem. The heat damage to modules, even against a heat experimental NPC, was below 3% (after the encounter).
The large pulse is most of the time in action as I still have to lead the target. I think its damage is acceptable, although the whole hardpoint down there feels underwhelming. I'm inclined to try a focused scramble burst turret there, which should do slightly better with better penetration.
The biweave is something I've pondered for quite some time and I'm still planning to get one for pure PvE and maybe even another pair of PAs with Plasma Slug (I wish they would also get the heat reduction). The 7A Shield regen is bad (not prismatics bad, but still), although I've never lost more than two rings in the tests. That was against a corvette and a engineered FDL + vultures.