Need a small mission-running ship

[SouthernGorilla]

I've been messing around in coriolis.io and I just can't make up my mind. So I thought I'd see what others had to say. I'm trying to decide which small ship to use for just running missions in Horizons. The goal is to load it up with an SRV, DSS, collector limpets, and be ready to do anything except bounty hunting of any sort. I want one of the faster ships so I can get away from a base if a scan mission goes sideways or just get out of a USS spot if somebody decides to pay me a visit. But the really fast ships tend to have limited space or limited power. Before I became a wealthy trader I was doing this in a Dolphin. It had a lot going for it-- decent speed, good space, cool running-- but it was made of tissue paper and didn't really have the guns to fight back if needed. I also used a Cobra and even a Vulture. Can't say any one of them really shone in the role. They weren't awful, just not amazing. But maybe that could be fixed now that I have access to some engineers. I want to stick with a small ship just because they're easier to land on planets. I enjoy the planetary scan missions and do a fair bit of materials hunting as well. Finding a place to park a Clipper in a valley can be a pain. Then again, is the difference between a small ship and a medium ship even significant when landing on a planet?

I know there's no "right" answer. It will likely come down to what takes priority, space, speed, jump range, etc. Just wanting to get some ideas bouncing around, see what I'm missing.

 

[Rugbyfan1972]

Try a Cobra Mk3 with engineered shields, powerplant, power distributor and thrusters (actually that will be a decent ship without the engineering, or rank up as an imperial and use an imperial courier, again it will be better engineered.

 

[Iron Golem]

I use Courier for what you describe but not for collecting and holding limpets. May be a bit tight. She goes 782 with a full size biweave and power distributor though. Even has a weapon loadout capable of combat (Weps are all lightweight engineered). Killed a deadly Conda once but it did take forty five minutes lol.

She's also my fav ship so far when doing Odyssey ground stuff.

 

[CMDR Corlas]

For me, it depends a lot on the "feel" I'm going for while playing. I find the Viper Mk IV is a great fit for what you're describing, but it feels very... aggressive. If that's your thing, give it a shot. Despite its reputation, it's a fantastic ship and engineered is fast and lethal in a fight.

For a more peaceful vibe, I really like the Type-6. Plus it's a lot of fun to take down pirates in. It's not technically "small", but if your criteria is finding a place to land when clear ground is hard to come by, both it and the Keelback are small enough, I feel. I like flying them because there's no mental pressure to be "good" at fighting in them, but they can both still deliver when they need to.

Both Diamondbacks are also great for the sort of use you're describing.

Adder too, but you're losing on shield strength there. But with engineered Enhanced Performance thrusters, you can get a lot of speed.

If you have it, the Cobra Mk IV is fantastic for Odyssey content.

 

[goemon]

courier is amazingly to handle above surfaces and its great acceleration and decelleraition.
my personal favourite for surface is a diamondback scout, but you'll have to choose between srv or collector - a courier has enough interbnals for all the goodies.
a viper mkIV is often overlooked, beside being very small and very durable - i'd take it for surface over a cmkIII (which i love to fly).

btw. - all ships can be made shieldtanks with guardian shield boosters.

as for - does it make a difference? sure it does. smaller ship finds easier landing spot. in my experience widths being more important - for exampel i'd take a python over a krait.

 

[askavir]

Cobra III or Viper IV. Small, versatile, enough module slots for your needs.

The only con is the Viper IV looks like a grasshopper when landed, due to it's hugely oversized landing gear (compared to the ship size) which is needed to allow an SRV to deploy from underneath.

 

[Erei]

My go to ship for odyssey was the Diamonback explorer. Small, cheap, long range, decent number of slots. I added a bunch of dumb missiles for "air support"/"freedom delivery".

OFC, if I want to go real exploring far, I will still use the krait phantom.

 

[Sedum]

This is likely to be controversial, but I've been really enjoying using a Federal Dropship for Odyssey stuff, particularly salvage. Armoured as a tank, enough MCs to be viable, and a dumbfire missile if there are ground troops around.

Still looks ugly as hell, but that's part of the appeal.

(Oh, and 2 SRVs, collector limpets, cargo, all the quality of life stuff as well)

 

[photomankc]

I like the Viper Mk4 over the Cobra since it is just about the same ship with a few better attributes at the cost of a little bit of module space. I've got reasonable armor and shield on it at just G3 levels and it can land anywhere. Little better convergence on the hardpoints too. Cobra however is nicer to live in and you at least have one extra crew seat.

 

[Dextio]

Edit: Oops, didn't read. Cobra all the way

 

[Donaldi]

tc. Just wanting to get some ideas bouncing around, see what I'm missing.

DiamondBack Explorer.
It can fit the Engineered FSD v1 (Size 5) and thus jumps 50LY even when fully loaded, sports a large hardpoint and has four utility slots for point defence to defend against guardian sentinel missiles and scanners or thargoid shutdown protection.
The size 4 thrusters can be engineered, the powerplant needs overcharging, though.
The Krait is nice too, but that's a medium pad ship, as is the Keelback.
Fully equipped the DBX will cost you about 28 millions.

 

[SouthernGorilla]

I'm surprised to see so many recommendations for the Viper MkIV. It's generally considered an abomination, but in coriolis it definitely looks good for this role. My original Cobra was okay. But now I'm looking at it engineered and it looks like it really would be outstanding. Lots of speed and room for the FSD boost module to give it 40+ ly range. That's crazy. But pretty weak on shields even with prismatics.

I also decided to go with mirrored surface on the hull for added protection. So that's altering the numbers a bit from what people may be expecting. It's not going to be a combat ship, but it does need to survive hostile zones long enough for me to get away.

I also run Clean tuning on my thrusters to keep my heat signature down. On a pure combat ship I'd run Dirty, but otherwise I prefer as much stealth as I can get.

Back on coriolis, I've narrowed it down to the Cobra and the Viper MkIV. Both are highly engineered, of course. So either would take me a while to finish since I don't have everything I need to get them to that point yet. But it's a bit of a toss-up. Both have basically the same jump range. Cobra boosts to 559. Viper only hits 483. That's a massive difference. But the Cobra only has 199mj shields WITH a booster. Viper has 298mj without a booster. Cobra has a hull of 431, Viper has 539. The Viper also has a military slot I could use for added protection. So the Cobra might get out of harm's way first. But the Viper would definitely survive a confrontation longer. I'm kind of leaning towards the Viper. The fact it's something of a hated ship also appeals to me. But it is slow.

 

[goemon]

I'm surprised to see so many recommendations for the Viper MkIV. It's generally considered an abomination, but in coriolis it definitely looks good for this role. My original Cobra was okay. But now I'm looking at it engineered and it looks like it really would be outstanding. Lots of speed and room for the FSD boost module to give it 40+ ly range. That's crazy. But pretty weak on shields even with prismatics.

I also decided to go with mirrored surface on the hull for added protection. So that's altering the numbers a bit from what people may be expecting. It's not going to be a combat ship, but it does need to survive hostile zones long enough for me to get away.

I also run Clean tuning on my thrusters to keep my heat signature down. On a pure combat ship I'd run Dirty, but otherwise I prefer as much stealth as I can get.

Back on coriolis, I've narrowed it down to the Cobra and the Viper MkIV. Both are highly engineered, of course. So either would take me a while to finish since I don't have everything I need to get them to that point yet. But it's a bit of a toss-up. Both have basically the same jump range. Cobra boosts to 559. Viper only hits 483. That's a massive difference. But the Cobra only has 199mj shields WITH a booster. Viper has 298mj without a booster. Cobra has a hull of 431, Viper has 539. The Viper also has a military slot I could use for added protection. So the Cobra might get out of harm's way first. But the Viper would definitely survive a confrontation longer. I'm kind of leaning towards the Viper. The fact it's something of a hated ship also appeals to me. But it is slow.

a) you really want to unlock guardian shieldreinforcement package if you intend to make a cobra shieldtank. a class 2 almost doubles a cobras class 4A shieldstrength - and you free up utilities as well.

b) the viper mkIV is much, much smaller. can land even easier anywhere.

as for speed - there are no NPC boosting faster than 440 m/s. a cobra can outrun missiles (625 m/s) - but not in your build. i used to fly armour heavy cobras (before guardian shieldboosters), but missile spam basically makes that impossible. your ship might survive, your external modules including thruster will not. and for running from bases 483 vs. 525 makes no difference - imho.

 

[SouthernGorilla]

This is likely to be controversial, but I've been really enjoying using a Federal Dropship for Odyssey stuff, particularly salvage. Armoured as a tank, enough MCs to be viable, and a dumbfire missile if there are ground troops around.

Still looks ugly as hell, but that's part of the appeal.

(Oh, and 2 SRVs, collector limpets, cargo, all the quality of life stuff as well)

That is an interesting suggestion. But it's a medium ship and I really want to stick with a small one for this role.

 

[SouthernGorilla]

DiamondBack Explorer.
It can fit the Engineered FSD v1 (Size 5) and thus jumps 50LY even when fully loaded, sports a large hardpoint and has four utility slots for point defence to defend against guardian sentinel missiles and scanners or thargoid shutdown protection.
The size 4 thrusters can be engineered, the powerplant needs overcharging, though.
The Krait is nice too, but that's a medium pad ship, as is the Keelback.
Fully equipped the DBX will cost you about 28 millions.

There's a lot to like about the DBX. It even matches the MkIV on shields and hull. But it's almost as slow as my Cutter. The MkIV has another 50m/s on it, which makes more of a difference to me than the DBX's insane jump range.

 

[Peshees]

good all-rounders start at medium size ships imo. re-evaluate this ship size. are those landings in mid ships really such a problem?

 

[Episparh]

Cobra MK3...and you can definitely put something on the hardpoints and even do bounty hunting in High RES.

Here is my Chase

 

[VirtueXOI]

courrier seems nice for what you'r saying ,Cobra MK3 could do the job too.
I'm currently doing this in a Viper MK4 but mostly because i liek the cockpit

 

[SouthernGorilla]

a) you really want to unlock guardian shieldreinforcement package if you intend to make a cobra shieldtank. a class 2 almost doubles a cobras class 4A shieldstrength - and you free up utilities as well.

b) the viper mkIV is much, much smaller. can land even easier anywhere.

as for speed - there are no NPC boosting faster than 440 m/s. a cobra can outrun missiles (625 m/s) - but not in your build. i used to fly armour heavy cobras (before guardian shieldboosters), but missile spam basically makes that impossible. your ship might survive, your external modules including thruster will not. and for running from bases 483 vs. 525 makes no difference - imho.

I didn't know that about NPCs. Good info. That means the Courier almost wouldn't even have to boost to get away. But I also worry about base turrets, that's what sent me to a penal colony before. That's where pure speed comes in, have to get out of range quick. Of course, should never be in range, but y'know....

The problem with reinforcing modules is the space they take up. So if I go with the Cobra I'll have to sacrifice something to reinforce it. Which defeats the purpose of the build. So the Viper is really looking like the one. It boosts fast enough to get away from anything and has the shields/hull to survive long enough to get away. Plus a decent jump range and room for everything I want inside.

Haven't decided on weapons yet. And still want to add a wake scanner so I can get those mats as well from time to time.
Viper MkIV mission runner

 

[CMDR Harada]

Vipers/Vulture/Eagles are combat ships. Interior slots will be problematic, and they won't carry much.

Adders/Haulers are just as slot limited as the small combat ships, but have less armament/defense.

The DBS/DBX is a decent option, but has fewer internals compared to a Cobra. You get a better jump range, but that is not usually an issue with a mission runner.

Out of all the small ships, I think you'll find the Cobra III is your best bet. It can do any job well, has enough internal slots to carry almost anything, and can fight/flee like a champ.

But if you're looking for a mission runner, why not take the king of mission runners ? The Python. It lands on medium pads, can fit in just about any planet side landing spot, and carries the most out of any medium ship ( 200+ tons with good shields ). It has better defenses that any small ship, and better weapons too. For a mission runner, you can't beat it.