Sharpening the Courier

[Envy661]

I want to start by saying by design, the Courier is my favorite ship in the game visually. I will look for any excuse I can to fly it, and even named it Courier 6 in homage to the 400+ hours I put into Fallout New Vegas (And that's just the vanilla console version) and how it is my favorite Fallout title of all time.

That being said, can we please, for the love of God, have the ship rebalanced? It currently feels like an overpriced underpowered Cobra Mk III. And that is saying something since the Cobra is effectively a tank. The Courier isn't much better at maneuvering, and doesn't really do a whole lot of damage in comparison. For a multi-role ship that costs over 2.5 million credits to be worse than another multi-role ship at less than half the price, this is just sad. Given it's price point and rank requirement, I think the ship should be less comparable to the Cobra Mk III, and more comparable to the ASP scout.

For a ship called the Courier, it has a pretty abysmal jump range, looking more like a dedicated fighter than a multi-crew vessel, since it's jump capabilities are about the same as my Vulture, minus the handling, as the Courier pivots and maneuvers poorly in comparison.
Overall, in every role, from combat to exploration and trading, the Courier feels like it falls short. It could do for one additional maneuverability pip, an additional 5LY to the max jump range or maybe the ability to fit a bigger FSD, and POTENTIALLY one S4 optional internal replacing a S3. This, or faster shield regen.
These aspects, I feel, would make the Courier actually feel balanced given it's price point and required empire rank to purchase vs the Cobra Mk III, and would properly place it in a more comfortable place near the Vulture and ASP Scout, which is where the ship price-wise rests at 2.5 million. Right now it's nice to look at and really doesn't have much else going for it.

 

[3m@nnon]

I want to start by saying by design, the Courier is my favorite ship in the game visually. I will look for any excuse I can to fly it, and even named it Courier 6 in homage to the 400+ hours I put into Fallout New Vegas (And that's just the vanilla console version) and how it is my favorite Fallout title of all time.

That being said, can we please, for the love of God, have the ship rebalanced? It currently feels like an overpriced underpowered Cobra Mk III. And that is saying something since the Cobra is effectively a tank. The Courier isn't much better at maneuvering, and doesn't really do a whole lot of damage in comparison. For a multi-role ship that costs over 2.5 million credits to be worse than another multi-role ship at less than half the price, this is just sad. Given it's price point and rank requirement, I think the ship should be less comparable to the Cobra Mk III, and more comparable to the ASP scout.

For a ship called the Courier, it has a pretty abysmal jump range, looking more like a dedicated fighter than a multi-crew vessel, since it's jump capabilities are about the same as my Vulture.
Overall, in every role, the Courier feels like it falls short. It could do for one additional maneuverability pip, an additional 5LY to the max jump range, or maybe the ability to fit a bigger FSD. One thing is for certain, this ship definitely needs to turn better.
These aspects, I feel, would make the Courier actually feel balanced given it's price point and required empire rank to purchase vs the Cobra Mk III. Right now it's nice to look at and really doesn't have much else going for it.

Engineer it.......

 

[Envy661]

Engineer it.......

Any ship can be engineered. Including the Cobra. The point is to make the ship with standard components actually comparable to it's price and requirements for attaining. Unless it comes with Engineers upgrades, that's not a solution to the overarching problem at hand.

Or did you miss the part where the main crux of the issue was how a 450,000 credit ship performed as well as a 2.5 million credit ship with an empire rank requirement?

 

[goemon]

- the courier has 17% more potential jumprange than a cobra mkIII - unengineered.

- the courier has a much, much smaller hitbox than everythng beside an eagle and a sidewinder.

- the courier has much, much better shields than a cobra.

- better acceleration, decelleration. stronger lateral thrusters for surface work.

- if you own horizons, you can buy enhanced performance thrusters in outfitting of 3 engineer bases for your courier and gain even more speed and manouverability from them ... something like 600 m/s pre engineering. cobra is slow compared to that.

it looks to me as if you love the courier a lot (like i do), but you haven't explored the possibilities of that ship as a combatship, multipurpose ship or explorer. or we are not flying the same imperial courier.

 

[Envy661]

- the courier has 17% more potential jumprange than a cobra mkIII - unengineered.

- the courier has a much, much smaller hitbox than everythng beside an eagle and a sidewinder.

- the courier has much, much better shields than a cobra.

- better acceleration, decelleration. stronger lateral thrusters for surface work.

- if you own horizons, you can buy enhanced performance thrusters in outfitting of 3 engineer bases for your courier and gain even more speed and manouverability from them ... something like 600 m/s pre engineering. cobra is slow compared to that.

it looks to me as if you love the courier a lot (like i do), but you haven't explored the possibilities of that ship as a combatship, multipurpose ship or explorer. or we are not flying the same imperial courier.

-Stock unladen jump range for the Courier is 2LY less than the Cobra. A fully outfitted for combat variant of both these ships, the Cobra has better jump range.

-This is true...ish It has the smallest hitbox for it's class, and I'm not arguing counter to this. But the courier is also larger than the Adder, Hauler, and Vipers Mk III and IV as well.

-The Courier has better shields. The Courier also has the lowest Armor value in the game, placed below the stock Sidewinder, even when equipped with Military Grade Composite armor.

-The Courier has better acceleration, but lower max speed than the Cobra Mk III without Enhanced Performance Thrusters, which are blocked by a paywall to obtain (but yes, I do have them. They are very expensive and jumped my rebuy cost to 500,000. Chump change where I am in the game, but for newer players, it makes the speed of the Cobra look a lot better).

It looks to me like it's been a long while since you actually flew a Cobra Mk III to understand where this argument is coming from. Remember, the main argument here is where the Courier stands price-wise. For a ship that should be performing around the point of the Vulture and ASP Scout, it is instead more comparable to the Cobra Mk III. That is the main problem.

 

[goemon]

It looks to me like it's been a long while since you actually flew a Cobra Mk III to understand where this argument is coming from.

absolutely not.

i'm flying both ships running missions, and both in combat regularly, and both engineered on my main account, and unengineered on my secondary account. i also have a strong liking for a HRP cobra - unengineered the courier is a better bountyunter imho, and a cmkIII the better CZ ship.

- as for jumprange - comparing stock ships is a bit funny, don't you think so? conda and corvette also have only 2 ly difference in stock fittings

- as for jumprange in combat outfit: define combat outfit. if you throw weight on your courier where it doesn't help, you'll sure end with a lower jumprange. as the courier has a smaller hull mass and a smaller fsd, it is more weight senisitive.

- Adder and Hauler are larger than a courier, check out the handy size comparison charts

- generally most small ships don't gain from armour compared to HRP. the 224 "hitpoints" a cobra gains by armour for 27T will be outclassed by 2 class 2 HRP of 4T of weight. the 136 hitpoints of a 8T courier-bulkhead are outclassed by a single class 2 HRP of 2T weight.

both vulture and AspScout are more expensive, and more expensive to outfit, even if you fit a courier with enhanced performance thrusters. vulture is anyway much to cheap, the original price was more matching its ability.

i think, part of the fun of a courier is how differently you can outfit it - you can build a shieldtank, you can use it as a combat capable mission running sports car, it makes a great explorer, you can fit it lightweight and fly an eagle on steroids... and many more.

you have written in the OP:
" It could do for one additional maneuverability pip" - get rid of your bulkheads and other useless weight, and enjoy the added manouverability (even without enhanced performance thrusters, it handles significantly better <80% optimal thrustermass.

", an additional 5LY to the max jump range" - which you can easily get by fitting it lightweight /without engineering)

"This, or faster shield regen." - fit a bi-weave for faster shield regeneration, the base shield value is high enough for that.
___

the cobra mkIII on the other hand is right where it is - a very sturdy general purpose ship, which neither suffers a lot from weight, nor gains a lot from shields and boosters etc.

 

[Envy661]

I'm on mobile, so I only have time to respond to one statement atm, so I'll go with this one:

Yes, the courier is a cheaper ship than the asp scout and vulture. But it is 500,000 credits cheaper than the asp scout and requires an empire rank to obtain. On the flipside, it is 2 million credits more expensive than the cobra mk III