Imperial Cutter Starting a Cutter build with 8A armoured power plant, monstered or thermal spread?

Sevenperry

Sevenperry
I see most builds involve a lot of shield reinforcements, some with ecm capabilities. I’m wanting the ship to do future powerplay and hauling in open play. Not so bothered about weapons, may not even place them and going for prismatic shields when I can.

But wanting to start the engineering with the power plant and hoping to provide versatility for future proofing.

So would you suggest thermal spread or monstered? I’ve seen builds with thermal spread predominantly for the cutter and monstered for the corvette. Hoping my cutter won’t be turned into dust in open, but hoping to submit and boost away from player interdictions with my ship intact…… or am I being too hopeful?
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
Sevenperry said:
But wanting to start the engineering with the power plant and hoping to provide versatility for future proofing.
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I'd say you've got it backwards, and suggest doing power plant last. Mock up your build in a shipyard like Coriolis. Get everything set as you want to build your ship, and look at the power requirements.

You may need some monstered to cover the power, you may not. If you do, you do. If you don't, go thermal spread if you like it. My Cutter uses G1 Overcharge and thermal spread, which is kind of a wash, but covers my power requirements. Class 7 since my freight train carries no boom sticks.

Preacher's Daughter Cutter -- Freight Train

So mock it up, and which power plant and power plant engineering you need should be self-evident.

Good hunting commander
 

Aleks Zuno

Aleks Zuno
Sevenperry said:
Hoping my cutter won’t be turned into dust in open, but hoping to submit and boost away from player interdictions with my ship intact…… or am I being too hopeful?
Click to expand...

Based on that, there is a case for grade 5 Overcharged to keep as many modules as possible still working on 40% power output! Armoured and Monstered may cover that sufficiently, though.
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
Sevenperry said:
Ok, would this survive a beating and escape?

https://s.orbis.zone/qtH8
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In my opinion, probably? The Cutter is a big target, and I think you want a bit more. This will come with engineering. In PvE your build would probably be fine, but you want to make it a certainty, ya know?

You have many A rated shield boosters, which are fine. But in order to boost their protection you might apply heavy duty mod which increases power draw (and mass), and whichever engineering you choose for your shields might increase power requirements as well.

Two changes you might consider are to swap the A-rated sensors and life support for D-rated, which will gain 1.5 MW of overhead so you have more room to engineer your shields and boosters. And add weapons, if you intend to. If going unarmed you have a lot more wiggle room.

As mentioned, you should use Coriolis to fully mock it up so you see what the final power numbers are. Raw shield MJ is important, and especially so for things like collisions. But for me the more important numbers are the "HP" numbers, which are your raw MJ modified by your resistances. For me thermal is the most important one.

I mocked up your shields and boosters just to see what that final power number would be and it's not bad. Including the sensor and life support change, with shield engineering (reinforced hi-cap) and all boosters done up as G5 HD and supercapacitors, the final number is 36.6 MW, which can be covered by a class 7 power plant with some overcharge on it. This is a minor change, but saves money, mass and gives a small increase to speed and jump, plus rebuy is lower, not that you will ever need this :)

Pinata Mock up

If it were my ship I would be looking to increase both the shield HP and hull integrity, which will be simple enough with the right engineering. If you are paying attention at the controls, and do it right, I don't think you'll be smoked in any interdiction as your ship is currently shown. But you can improve it and give yourself some margin for error with better protection.

Good hunting commander
 
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GJ51

GJ51
1720188068680.png


Now there's a Cutter...

Don't let that shield stat fool you
 

SergMx

SergMx
Sevenperry said:
I see most builds involve a lot of shield reinforcements, some with ecm capabilities. I’m wanting the ship to do future powerplay and hauling in open play. Not so bothered about weapons, may not even place them and going for prismatic shields when I can.

But wanting to start the engineering with the power plant and hoping to provide versatility for future proofing.

So would you suggest thermal spread or monstered? I’ve seen builds with thermal spread predominantly for the cutter and monstered for the corvette. Hoping my cutter won’t be turned into dust in open, but hoping to submit and boost away from player interdictions with my ship intact…… or am I being too hopeful?
Click to expand...
These are additional effects and the only inconvenience is that you have to go to an engineer to change them. Otherwise, they cost so little in materials that they can be changed every day.
 

BetaToaster

B
Get a SCO FSD. If you're out of interdiction range, or already docked, you don't have to worry about being shot at.

And if you have access, Guardian Power Plants are excellent for fiddling with your build. They have a huge power output and standard integrity. And when you know your final configuration, you can just sell it and engineer the perfect human PP. The only drawback is that they're relatively hot, which won't matter for your Cutter.
 

Oh Seven Commander

Oh Seven Commander
Sevenperry said:
Ok, would this survive a beating and escape?

https://s.orbis.zone/qtH8
Click to expand...

imo probably not. One guy in a Krait/PythonMk2 with frags and a reboot missile and that ship is super dead. You want something like this to start off https://s.orbis.zone/qtVs

Notes:

G3 engineering is easy to get, but get G5 ASAP. Start with the Shield Generator once you go for G5, because this will give you greater returns faster.
The Cutter is a shield tank, you don't worry about hull too much. You want MRPs to block flechette rounds from people shooting through your shields to knock out your FSD, though. 1k hull is plenty if your shields don't drop.

Fast Boot FSD means that you will not be around long enough for someone to knock out your shields. Your reboot time, even against the strongest reboot in the game is like 3 seconds. If you get rebooted, 3 seconds later you high wake out. Always high wake from PvP and that linked build shouldn't die.

Until you have G5 shields/shield boosters, you leave off Point Defense and ECM. Once you get G5, then just take a PD or ECM to help stop hatchbreakers.

4 pips in Systems, otherwise even the linked build is dead. A Python MkII with 4 pacifiers running OC+Incendiary is an insane amount of DPS. Bolster the defense by running 4 pips in Sys when you get pulled.

Shielded scoop is a waste of materials and power, D rate your sensors/life support on trade builds.

End game version of the trucking Cutter here - https://s.orbis.zone/qtVt
 

Oh Seven Commander

Oh Seven Commander
For clarification, this is an example of what I'm recommending you prepare for. https://edsy.org/s/vtAQhuh

Huge sustained shield cracking DPS, the ability to reboot your FSD and the reboot time will be 1.5x your standard reboot time (standard is 10 seconds, so the applied time is 15 seconds where you can't wake out, unless you run Fast Boot G5, then it's 3 seconds), boosts to well over 500m/s, and drag seekers for killing drives. You are mostly likely to see SRB FDLs right now, but I would expect more of this once the Python MkII goes live without the pre-purchase.
 
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