Ships Struggling to find any practical use for this beautifull ship.

At some point in the past i was using iCourier a lot, it was basically one of my favourite ships. But then SCB changes were made and engineers were added... and now i really can not find a reason to fly one.
First thing i tried is building short-range explorer out of it. SRV, scanners, fuel scoop, shield, cargo rack, chaff/HSL, a pair of E-grade shield boosters and some guns... looks nice on paper, but it turns out that courier has absolutely terrible jump range in such configuration (like slightly better than 20Ly with pretty good upgrade on FSD) and is not that fast (~600m/s boost, which is achievable on ships like clipper or cobra without any "enhanced thrusters"). I can remove guns, shield boosters and use 2D shield, but still SRV is too heavy for it to have good range/speed.
Now if i compare it to Cobra MkIII with similar loadout/modifications... suddenly i understand that it was a waste of time. Cobra has like ~10Ly more range, similar speeds and more cargo...
Then i tried to build a heavy fighter out of it, with A-grade HD boosters and all that. Does not work either. Yes, it has like 1000+Mj shields, but at this point corvette feels much more maneuverable...
Then i tried to build light fighter, basically similar to first loadout, just with empty optional internals. Did not work for me either because of "too fast" issue and somewhat weak shields.
And then finally it turned out to be slower than iEagle in "maximum speed" loadout...

So am i missing something, or it is really as bad as it seems?
 
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I run mine as a light combat ship with 4xE engineered boosters. It has a bi-weave base shield of about 450 (IIRC) but it has +30-40 resistance to all damage types and it does around 650 boost. It incredible because of it's lateral agility. You can circle things so easily that you're never in the line of fire. It's strafe tastic. It's shields are the strongest of any ship that can go that quickly and is that agile. Definitely the #1 small ship.
 
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OK so a few points...

It's a great explorer because of its Thrusters. It's one of the best performers on High G planets.

You're comparing a stock 600M/S boost iCourier with an Engineered Clipper or Cobra? At least do equal comparisons.

An Enhanced Performance Engine, Engineered iCourier goes 750M/S, it's 600*1.25.

You're not getting the build right if you're too heavy to have a quick explorer iCourier.


It's 25% faster than a Cobra. It's far far more agile (where are you getting that from, the Cobra has terrible agility for a small ship!). Yes the range suffers but it is engineerable. The cockpit & engine noises are far more awesome. And yes it does have less cargo.


So a heavy fighter. If you're building it for heavy weight, again you're doing it wrong. It's undisputed as one of the top 2 or 3 small ships for combat!

Try fitting standard engines, a Class 2 shield, & Class 3 SCB. It has the power for all of this. The standard engines have better weight distribution.

Or try a hit & run fighter, fit Enhanced Engines, again Class 2 shield, but keep it below 90T & you'll find you can stay on a ships tail without any issues.



The Courier really is a fantastic ship. Your builds must be a little wrong, but I think the issue is more personal than that.

I think you had expectations of what you could do with the ship, rather than researching into what it can do. From that you're disappointed and you don't really like it.

Honestly it's the Ferrari of the small ships, its awesome and if you don't find a good use for it then I think you need to move onto another ship :)
 
My thoughts... I love the Courier as a ship, but I as well fail to find a proper usage for it.

For combat it is great, its shields and the flight model are very good, but at the end there are better combat ships.

For mission running, a few passengers or smuggling it is also good, but the Cobra Mk III offers more options because of the C4 internals. The Cobra can also get over 500 speed with just dirty drives 3 tuning, and at least in PVE that's enough to run away. The advantage of a mission-Courier to the mission-Cobra may be the stronger shields, but at that speed shields don't really matter anymore. Also the Cobra has higher jumprange and is less affected by weight.

For small passenger missions, class 3 cabins are a bit limited. Again the Cobra excels.

I'm not really complaining and I am not asking for any change to the ship. The Courier is an excellent little ship, which can do a lot of things, but it lacks a niche where it can do something better than any other ship. Perhaps for someone who cannot afford to have all the ships in his hanger yet, the Courier is a good option.

Probably the best option is to use it as a fast light-weight fighter. But I'd rather use it as a mission/passenger runner, but for this I mostly pick my good old Cobra. On the positive side, your survival in the Courier is pretty much guaranteed with this shield and speed.

Anyways, I will keep mine and I like to fly it, but at the end I don't really fly it very often.
 
K-Rose,
I was comparing engineered cobra to engineered courier. With weapons, class3 biweave shield, enhanced thrusters with G5 dirty drive tuning and lightweight mods where possible. And 3A powerplant. Even tried heavily overcharged 2A to save weight... I was not building type of explorer to go to sagA in, but one to fly around the bubble + maybe 1000-1500Ly out, so i wanted weapons and shields.
750m/s... it has to be almost completely empty (and definitely without SRV), and have very good roll on upgrade. Cobra, on the other hand, can have its ~575-600M/s being fully A-grade with cargo, SRV etc. Courier in similar loadout is slower.

And i am not saying that it is bad ship or that i do not like it. I am just trying to find some practical use for it assuming i have all ships available. I was able to do so for ships like hauler or T6, but courier is causing issues... so that's why i am asking for advice here.
Also as i said i used it before and i used it a lot, with relatively heavy ~100T loadout and was happy with it. Before engineers...
 
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K-Rose,
I was comparing engineered cobra to engineered courier. With weapons, class3 biweave shield, enhanced thrusters with G5 dirty drive tuning and lightweight mods where possible. And 3A powerplant. Even tried heavily overcharged 2A to save weight... I was not building type of explorer to go to sagA in, but one to fly around the bubble + maybe 1000-1500Ly out, so i wanted weapons and shields.
750m/s... it has to be almost completely empty (and definitely without SRV), and have very good roll on upgrade. Cobra, on the other hand, can have its ~575-600M/s being fully A-grade with cargo, SRV etc. Courier in similar loadout is slower.

And i am not saying that it is bad ship or that i do not like it. I am just trying to find some practical use for it assuming i have all ships available. I was able to do so for ships like hauler or T6, but courier is causing issues... so that's why i am asking for advice here.
Also as i said i used it before and i used it a lot, with relatively heavy ~100T loadout and was happy with it. Before engineers...

Well in that case you appear to be looking for the "Meta". I'd recommend you use a Python as it can go everywhere and do everything...

The Courier is practical for Combat, Exploration & Missions. you just need to build for it.

Armed Top Speed Explorer: https://coriolis.io/outfit/imperial_courier/0p5tzF5l3dds8f32727-0000--2t023rv62f2i.Iw18UA==.Aw18UA==

Heavy Fighter/Missions: https://coriolis.io/outfit/imperial...i7i0000040402583r016b00.Iw18UA==.AwiMIyucg===

Fast Fighter is more of a gimmick TBH, I used it with a single seeker missile launcher & relied on the System Security to come in and finish them off while I flew rings around them.
https://coriolis.io/outfit/imperial...3-2g-0000--024001010100.Iw18UA==.AwiMIyucg===
 
Handy for going very fast. Although I have found that at 814 M/S Boost, 600 Cruise reducing weight further makes no difference to speed, only jump range. So there seems to be a hull maximum.
 
I just recently purchased both a Courier and a Clipper, so I am by no means an expert on the subject. Neither are long range, but the Imperial ships are the most beautiful in the game, and the interiors are by far the most pleasing to sit in (I have VR). I use my Courier and Clipper for all short to medium range missions. Long range can also be done if you don't mind taking the time to constantly scoop & jump. I think Imperial ships give you the most ship for the money though.
 
I use mine for engineer legwork and I have ships in different locations so I use it to fly between. Not the best ship for either task but I just like the little water bug. lol
 
I run mine as a light combat ship with 4xE engineered boosters. It has a bi-weave base shield of about 450 (IIRC) but it has +30-40 resistance to all damage types and it does around 650 boost. It incredible because of it's lateral agility. You can circle things so easily that you're never in the line of fire. It's strafe tastic. It's shields are the strongest of any ship that can go that quickly and is that agile. Definitely the #1 small ship.

I'd like to see your build on that :)

- - - Updated - - -

There's always Buckyball Racing!

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...op-n-Scoop-(7th-9th-February)-midweek-madness
 
I use the Courier as a pure fun ship. I go fighting with it and when I die... who cares? The insurance is pretty low, I can die whenever I want with it, it doesnt hurt. So if im in it and there is a Conda, either I win and it was a great fight, or I lose and go on
 
You can't bring numbers to this argument when the cockpit is this beautiful. A lovely place to sit in. I use it for general purpose mission running, in-bubble planetary exploration, searching for volcanism etc. There are better ships for the job, but flying Courier is just...fun.
 
I finished engineering mine this morning and took it to a HazRez to try it out. The first spawn was an elite Anaconda which I took down without even getting hit, let alone losing any shields. It's all I need now, and I'll only fly something else if I'm bulk trading.

Overview:

Enhanced 3A thrusters, engineered with level 5 dirty drive
2A shield, level 5
2 D0 boosters, heavy duty 3
D0 booster, resistance 3

Two gimballed multis, one rail gun, both stock.

I'm not afraid of anything.
 
I'm currently flying a Courier, built for agility https://eddp.co/u/VPZKVhSr

Been using this in the current CG, for example, and I can take down pretty much anything with a bit of concentration. Same applies for other players, with the exception of the shield stacked FdLs and Cutters.
 
Just enjoy flying it. Take it to combat, search USS for Data & stuff to collect, a few Skimmer Missions and anything as it adds variety to not just use Beams on all Ships.
 
Behold the "trying to have it all" Courier build I've been working on. https://eddp.co/u/YwivriEq

35.56 LY range with full (half sized) tanks.
554 speed, 752 boost! for canyon running
Vehicle hangar and all scanners for exploring, plus 3a scoop
even 3 multicannons for occasional pirate table turning. (I need to redo one of these with thermal bullets to take down shields, or just use a lightweight pulse instead)

You can easily dump the multicannons for another couple of heatsinks, or just more speed.
dump the vehicle hangar for max possible speed (over 800 boost!!), and even some shield boosters if you want a more sustainable fight build.
 
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I finished engineering mine this morning and took it to a HazRez to try it out. The first spawn was an elite Anaconda which I took down without even getting hit, let alone losing any shields. It's all I need now, and I'll only fly something else if I'm bulk trading.

Overview:

Enhanced 3A thrusters, engineered with level 5 dirty drive
2A shield, level 5
2 D0 boosters, heavy duty 3
D0 booster, resistance 3

Two gimballed multis, one rail gun, both stock.

I'm not afraid of anything.

What have you got in the size 3 internal? SCB?
 
Punchdrunk, I think the OP was not looking to do a ton of engineering in order to make it work for him.

Well, actually i am ready to do the engineering required.... the issue here - i still do not seehow it is usefull. I almost completely gave usp on this, the main problem is probably my "too practical" approach. For every ship i own i try to find a reason, something that this ship can do at least in some ways better than all other. And for some reason it just does not work with courier... i mean i have engineered thrusters, they work great in iEagle, giving those 800+ boost easily, i have engineered FSD... but when i am trying to put it together it all falls apart, i mean it is slower than iEagle, has less range than cobra, does not work as good for combat as vulture, etc...

Punchdrunk,
What this loadout is primarily used for? Explorer? Actually it looks reasonable, i will probably end up with something like this too, because it is the only option which looks somewhat usable to me...
 
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