The Imperial Clipper

[Hooplah]

Greetings,

It is an awesome large pad landing ship. Probably the fastest and the most maneuverable large ship in the game. It's weakness are low shields and hull no matter how many boosters or hull reinforcements makes a difference. Add in the awful targeting reticle on the pylons and class 3 long range beams with thermal vent is the logical choice. Then add your favorite weapons on the class 2 hard points.

I used it for years as an asteroid miner. Then with all the new mining toys a Python works better.

Perfect in a wing they love the Clipper as a support ship with weapons taking out a FSD and immediately dropping shields. A fast maneuverable ship with engineered torpedoes is difficult to defeat.

Still in Solo mode it is fun to fly. I use long range beams and shock cannons close up. How do you fly your Clipper?

Regards

 

[Cmr_Honkalot]

Its the best in game explorer with a fuel scoop in the largest slot. Luxury in action. I have mine parked at colonia. Try it, you can never go back.

 

[Borko]

The large pad requirement for the clipper killed it for me. Now i point guns at them and hold down the trigger until they go away.

 

[Speedcuffs]

HGE hunter.
Slapped some AX turrets on it, very good for Scouts and collecting junk.

 

[Hooplah]

Its the best in game explorer with a fuel scoop in the largest slot. Luxury in action. I have mine parked at colonia. Try it, you can never go back.

My second PC account is in Colonia with a Cobra Mk III, Dolphin, Fer de Lance, Python, Orca (how I got here}.
I would have to fly 21,000 LY back to the bubble to purchase a Clipper. Darn...

 

[Hooplah]

The large pad requirement for the clipper killed it for me. Now i point guns at them and hold down the trigger until they go away.

Killing NPC Clippers OK. Killing live players knowing how to fly a Clipper? Good luck.

 

[Ydiss]

I love blowing them up when they've got a bounty, if that counts? They're high up on my "love to kill" list. Easy to hit, relatively weak, pay a handsome bounty.

That said, I did once fight a wing of three after accidentally agroing 2 other elite ships as well. Ended that fight almost losing my Corvette shields for the only time to date (PvE only obviously). They're quite deadly if you're not facing them.

 

[Dillon Fallon]

4100 hull on mine make for a viscous central hardpoint.

 

[Astaran]

I've turned one into an explorer and may turn my second one into a Core Miner (when core mining becomes competitive again)

 

[Tetra Trash]

I use mine as an explorer/canyon runner (which is a fun, but bad idea since not great shields + canyon wall = bye bye explo data )

 

[Bigmaec]

All hull and gimballed frags.
swooooooooosh….boooom.

 

[Borko]

Killing NPC Clippers OK. Killing live players knowing how to fly a Clipper? Good luck.

Oh, cheerfully agreed. I’ve never fought a player in a clipper and the NPCs are rubbish with it. Yeah, try to ram a hull-tanked chieftain. See how that works out, Computer Joe...

 

[Sublime]

It’s crazy... those stats on the clipper... it’s almost as if it was a medium sized ship...

 

[Taifu]

It’s crazy... those stats on the clipper... it’s almost as if it was a medium sized ship...

Its almost as if FDev purposely designed it with a flaw to balance those stats...

 

[Mrat13]

I just thought, would the clipper be better, if it had a weight reduction?

 

[Sublime]

Its almost as if FDev purposely designed it with a flaw to balance those stats...

It’s really much more of an annoyance than an actual flaw for balancing purposes. It has plenty of other flaws that would keep it from being the automatic go-to medium ship.

 

[Florenus]

Every once in a while I take it out of the garage and sit in the cockpit for a moment. I consider outfitting it for casual exploration, or just for hanging around Bubble.
Then I realize how I actually prefer my Python, so I put it back.

 

[Bashy81]

I just thought, would the clipper be better, if it had a weight reduction?

yes i believe it would. Now im wondering if it might be better with a huge hardpoint between the two mediums. tricky questions, these

 

[CMDR Deano The Imperial]

My second PC account is in Colonia with a Cobra Mk III, Dolphin, Fer de Lance, Python, Orca (how I got here}.
I would have to fly 21,0'00 LY back to the bubble to purchase a Clipper. Darn...

Free-winder it back to the bubble and get one to fly back to Colonia. Engineered properly you'll easily get 50+ light years a jump out of it.

 

[marx]

I just thought, would the clipper be better, if it had a weight reduction?

For exploration, there's an interesting thought experiment. If you were to take the Clipper and give it a class 6 FSD, it would equal the Anaconda in jump range.
So, you could remove (or shorten) the wings, delete the hardpoints there, increase the FSD class (along with the fuel tank), and call the resulting ship the Imperial Explorer: then we'd have a viable alternative for the top jump range. Compared to the Anaconda, it would have roughly the same jump range and scooping, and while it would have better supercruise handling, it wouldn't be as good a multirole ship (due to the internals and hardpoints).

In any case, back from wishful thinking to reality: the Clipper is in my opinion great for exploration because while it only has an average jump range (50-52 ly on a full 16T tank), it has the best fuel scooping in the game (class 7 internal slot vs class 5 FSD), surprisingly good handling in supercruise for its size, especially if you use yaw as well, and good visibility from the cockpit too. The unobstructed view (no struts, beams etc running through the cockpit glass in front of you) is a nice bonus.