Ship Builds & Load Outs Imperial Courier Theorycrafting: The Courier as a 'run & gun' nightmare, what build can you live with?

[Rock Hunter]

I think there's a huge element of the playerbase that has blueprints knocking around their living rooms or their cabin quarters for making the most of the Courier's speed alongside some actual firepower. Trying to get up around that 850(ish)m/s boost speed, making the most of those three well placed medium hardpoints and the pretty exceptional shields is a tricky proposal. I know, I've been flailing around in the dark for months trying to find something that I was happy with.

Hitting a boost speed of 856m/s (according to Coriolis, perhaps 853/4 in-game) was easy enough with no weapons. Adding weapons but keeping the top speed meant losing masses of jump range either by dumping the FSD booster, using a tiny FSD or both. Then I read the Ship Of The Year thread over in DD and another Cmdr was kind enough to post their build - Prismatics....C1 Prismatics...why hadn't I even entertained the idea (other than the fact I think I was daft enough to only go for larger classes when I was pledged.) That build was good but gave up more jump range than I was prepared to concede to achieve, an extremely impressive, 841m/s. So I tinkered away again trying to hit a good balance of 800m/s+, good integrity and absolute shielding figures with some decent resistances and the ability to jump far further than many combat builds.

Finally I came up with this...

Run & Gun Courier

....and would love to know from any theorycrafters out there what their thoughts are, if I've missed anything obvious and how this may stack up as a general 'fly in the ointment' ship for Open? It's not an all out PvP ship, clearly, but the idea is to be able to run and(/or) gun depending on who pulls me out of SC and either lead a merry dance or just 'do one' as far and as quickly I possibly can.

 

[Ethaidan]

Imperial Courier - Fast Battle Courier

I love this ship, and for a long time now it's been half-done and now I want to get it closer to all done. It's a challenge. I am looking for the following... -- Fast. Around 800 boost -- Armed. Want to use it for bounty hunting -- Good shields, 600 mj as a minimum The challenge arises from...

forums.frontier.co.uk

 

[AlSki]

Warbird https://s.orbis.zone/57an
I used to love using this build in CZs until the recent(-ish) changes. The biggest difference to your build is that I don't lightweight the weapons, so it has maximum firepower. It was still the fastest way from kill to kill. It's bi-weave shields, and no hull protection, on the grounds that if they do hit you enough to get your shields down, you just boost away, and you want the shields back as fast as possible.
However, following the changes, I found it just doesn't have enough DPS to actually win a medium CZ fast enough, so its been collecting a little too much dust. Maybe I should tweak it for BH-ing....

 

[B.Roberts]

Here's one of my favorite Couriers https://s.orbis.zone/57v0 It is not too sophisticated and rather simple but more universal and does many things for me. It doesn't go over 615 as is but I still have my SRV on board for when I need to go on the surface, 4 tons of cargo space (so I can steal or deliver something small) and interdictor. I can fire my efficient beams indefinitely without overheating (they pretty good at stripping shields) and MC helps with hulls.

 

[Jumpin' Jack Flash]

Hi Rock Hunter

I'm having some difficulty uprating my Couriers Speed from it's present level. I have a feeling I'm doing something drastically wrong here, or not seeing something obvious.
Here's what I've got at the moment...

Imperial Courier Core Internal slots.
Slots...
1. Lightweight Alloys
4. 2A Power Plant Overcharged, Experimental Stripped Down.
3. 3A Thrusters Clean Drive Tuning, Experimental Stripped Down & also have tried Drag Drive.
3. 3A Frame shift Drive, Increased FSD Range, Experimental Stripped Down.
1. 1D life support, misc. Lightweight.
3. 3A Power Distributor, Engine focused Stripped Down.
2. 2D Sensors, Lightweight Scanner
3. 3C Fuel Tank (Cap 8)

Optional Internal.
2A Shield Generator
3. Empty
2. Empty
2. Empty
2. 2H guardian FSD Booster
1. 1E Adv. Docking Computer
1. Empty.
1. Empty.
1. Empty.
1. Planetary Approach Suite.

No Weapons in Hard Points (all empty), Utility mounts All Empty.


Ship Specs.
Integrity154.
Top Speed 422 m/s, Boost Speed. 573 m/s
Total Mass 61.1/60.7/162.0 T
Total power Max 13.44 mw, Deployed 9.96 mw
Jump max 28.53. LY

So, I 'should' be getting a better top speed and boost speed?...but I'm obviously not seeing where I need to focus my attention here.
All the main Core modules are engineered to the max 5 levels (except the Shield Generator & Hull at the moment), so I really have no clue what's going on. I suspect I'm not picking a certain engineering choice on some modules but I'm stumped as to which ones......Help!

Jack

 

[Max Bothin]

Hi Rock Hunter

I'm having some difficulty uprating my Couriers Speed from it's present level. I have a feeling I'm doing something drastically wrong here, or not seeing something obvious.
Here's what I've got at the moment...

Top Speed 422 m/s, Boost Speed. 573 m/s

should be Top 510 and Boost 775. Don´t know what is wrong here

 

[B.Roberts]

Hi Rock Hunter

I'm having some difficulty uprating my Couriers Speed from it's present level. I have a feeling I'm doing something drastically wrong here, or not seeing something obvious.
Here's what I've got at the moment...

Imperial Courier Core Internal slots.
Slots...
1. Lightweight Alloys
4. 2A Power Plant Overcharged, Experimental Stripped Down.
3. 3A Thrusters Clean Drive Tuning, Experimental Stripped Down & also have tried Drag Drive.
3. 3A Frame shift Drive, Increased FSD Range, Experimental Stripped Down.
1. 1D life support, misc. Lightweight.
3. 3A Power Distributor, Engine focused Stripped Down.
2. 2D Sensors, Lightweight Scanner
3. 3C Fuel Tank (Cap 8)

Optional Internal.
2A Shield Generator
3. Empty
2. Empty
2. Empty
2. 2H guardian FSD Booster
1. 1E Adv. Docking Computer
1. Empty.
1. Empty.
1. Empty.
1. Planetary Approach Suite.

No Weapons in Hard Points (all empty), Utility mounts All Empty.


Ship Specs.
Integrity154.
Top Speed 422 m/s, Boost Speed. 573 m/s
Total Mass 61.1/60.7/162.0 T
Total power Max 13.44 mw, Deployed 9.96 mw
Jump max 28.53. LY

So, I 'should' be getting a better top speed and boost speed?...but I'm obviously not seeing where I need to focus my attention here.
All the main Core modules are engineered to the max 5 levels (except the Shield Generator & Hull at the moment), so I really have no clue what's going on. I suspect I'm not picking a certain engineering choice on some modules but I'm stumped as to which ones......Help!

Jack

Looks like you need those enhanced performance drives, not the regular ones. Here's your Courier https://s.orbis.zone/5802

 

[B.Roberts]

Also, if you want to go even faster, go for dirty drives with drive distributors (drag drives better for the heavier ships). With that mod you should be able to hit 850.

 

[Jumpin' Jack Flash]

Hi, thanks for your suggestions

Enhanced Performance?....Excuse me for being a bit dumb but is this upgrade obtainable from the regular engineers?...for example Professor Palin?
As I said earlier, I'm obviously missing something obvious.

Jack

 

[B.Roberts]

Enhanced Performance Thruster is not an upgrade that you can install, this is different kind of thruster. You can buy Enhanced Performance Thrusters from professor Palin, Cinder Dock, Chloe Sedesi, Felicity Farseer, Elvira Martuuk and from Mel Brandon. They sell those thrusters in their outfitting shops. These thrusters only available in Class 2 and Class 3 and they pretty expensive.

 

[Fish172]

I can confirm that with suitable engineering the courier will comfortably hit 880 - 885 boost. I can do this with 450 shields and lightweight enhanced weapons still on board. As for speed, use drag drives every time with enhanced thrusters. Also make sure your ship stays within the minimal weight for the thrusters. Those figures show at the bottom of the panel. Weight is everything if you want speed. You will need to be quite anal about it at times as every kilo counts.

1. Lightweight Alloys good
4. 2A Power Plant Overcharged, Experimental Stripped Down. 2d overcharged stripped down you need as much power as you need. Bigger is heavier.
3. 3A Thrusters Clean Drive Tuning, Experimental Stripped Down & also have tried Drag Drive. 3a enhanced dirty drag drives ..trust me I have done the testing!
3. 3A Frame shift Drive, Increased FSD Range, Experimental Stripped Down. good
1. 1D life support, misc. Lightweight. G5 lightweight available with effort
3. 3A Power Distributor, Engine focused Stripped Down. 2a enhanced stripped down or 3d enhanced stripped down. as long as it can boost use smallest you can use.
2. 2D Sensors, Lightweight Scanner good
3. 3C Fuel Tank (Cap 8)

Optional Internal.
2A Shield Generator 2d low power enhanced plus one lightweight enhanced shield booster this is strong enough and ultimately lighter!
3. Empty
2. Empty
2. Empty
2. 2H guardian FSD Booster remember the fsd booster will cost speed!!!
1. 1E Adv. Docking Computer no..this ship is a doddle to handle in starports.
1. Empty.
1. Empty.
1. Empty.
1. Planetary Approach Suite.

Hope this helps a bit

 

[Morbad]

In my own Courier, I've always had the most trouble dealing with Enforcer equipped Couriers that could achieve a better mass/sustained damage balance than my CMDR could manage without access to those weapons.

As for shielding, I can't imagine many scenarios where I'd rather have that class 1 prismatic over a class 2 bi-weave, unless I needed all the bigger slots for something else.

Anyway, this is a revision of what I used to fly, updated to take into account the new extra slots they added:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

Obviously, it would need to be altered for non-combat tasks.

 

[Jumpin' Jack Flash]

Hi All

Thanks for all the information. I hadn't realized that Engineers also sold 'special modules' as well as module upgrading. ....in this instance, special thruster/engine modules.
Okay!...I'm at Prof. Palins base and have just bought one or two class 3 Enhanced Performance Thrusters......Wearing my 'Dunces Cap' I shall now experiment with the new modules, and Yep, speed has now increased roughly between 750- 850 m/s with tinkering.
Also....Don't be surprised if you hear on Galnet news that Professor Palins base has just exploded, due to a certain Commanders incompetent meddling.

Gawd!...I've been playing this game since it was first released.....I'll never live this down. ......

Jack

 

[Rock Hunter]

Sorry, it’s been a busy few days so missed the replies to this thread until tonight. Thanks for sharing your builds. I’m in the lucky situation of already having a speed focused Courier, so I’ve bought another one and for now am using modules from that to slip into my combat focused build and engineering both overcharged frags and lightweight (whilst also having three stored efficient frags to try out) plus trying a 2A overcharged PP to go with the lightweight frags and a 3A PP to power the O/C and Efficient frags.

It turns out I didn’t buy any C2 or C1 prismatic shields so for now I’ve put in a C2 bi-weave and have a 2A therm resist to try out. Some speed loss for extra dps or integrity is worth trying out, so I‘ll have to see how it goes and what I end up with.

Hi All

Thanks for all the information. I hadn't realized that Engineers also sold 'special modules' as well as module upgrading. ....in this instance, special thruster/engine modules.
Okay!...I'm at Prof. Palins base and have just bought one or two class 3 Enhanced Performance Thrusters......Wearing my 'Dunces Cap' I shall now experiment with the new modules, and Yep, speed has now increased roughly between 750- 850 m/s with tinkering.
Also....Don't be surprised if you hear on Galnet news that Professor Palins base has just exploded, due to a certain Commanders incompetent meddling.

Gawd!...I've been playing this game since it was first released.....I'll never live this down. ......

Jack

Don‘t worry. It took a lot of reading, a lot of misunderstanding and a lot of tinkering before I understood where you can get Enhanced Thrusters from, when they‘re best applied and even longer to get on top of drag drives and drive distributors. EDSY and Coriolis are well worth playing around with, but as you’ve already found...nothing beats the experience of your fellow Cmdrs.

As Alski says, sacrificing all out speed for better dps may work better than lighter weapons and faster movement - I’m lucky, I’ve got lots of engineered modules and materials to play around with so I can see what works for me. Whatever you end up with the Courier is a surprisingly versatile ship for both Open and Solo/PG, even without weapons my current Courier isn’t afraid of submitting to player interdictions - boost, boost, boost and an annoyingly cheery “Toodle-Ooh” in Comms is all you need

 

[Faded Glory]

I already had a bunch of iCouriers, the fastest of which has top speed 652 m/s, boosts to 885 m/s and has shields and a couple of weapons, but not what I would use for combat. I have others that are either multi-role or combat builds, but much slower, only boosting in the low to mid 600 m/s. Great ships. So, I decided to try for a fast combat build, and this is what I came up with.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

Spoiler

So, that's the 5th iCourier, and she's already done a couple of assassination missions. The shields hold up well (against NPC's), and she feels fast. Great fun.

 

[Stabby_Dave]

Here's mine. If anyone can tell my a way to make it faster, go for it.

 

[Faded Glory]

Here's mine. If anyone can tell my a way to make it faster, go for it.

I think you've hit the limit for an iCourier. That's as fast as my stripped down canyon racer goes, and taking any weight off that doesn't increase the top speed or boost.

If you want to go faster you'll need an iEagle.