Now, I am by no means done or even half way through this quest as yet but I feel I have some things to say on the matter. Without any question it is the lowest paid of all jobs in the game. We are talking about reward:time ratio! Pirating takes a lot of time, risk, and even planning and all of that may be for very low returns. This does not deter me though. I am in search of that special system or set of systems that could possibly turn things around. I will discuss in much more detail all of this in my "The Pirate Logs" tutorials on YouTube later though, when I know for sure.
This blog right now is a loadout blog. I Moved early on from the sidewinder to a Viper and the Viper fell short or cargo and internal mounts. So the race to gain a Cobra was on. Bang for buck it has to be the best ship for my chosen career. If you followed any of my live streams you will have noticed that I had to combine Bounty Hunting with Piracy to make the money required to get this ship kitted. Cost millions!
I take no shame in this. Pirating needs to be funded. I have only on a couple of occasions come home with scores to be super proud of and still have not broken the million credit mark for a single haul. Not even close! I think not even half of that. Hard to remember as it all blurs after a while.
I have lost a lot of ships to get this far too. I have tested shields, weapon load-outs, configs, power plants, overpowering those power-plants, all sorts to try and find the perfect pirate ship. Every time I thought I had it (rail guns, I thought I was close) I tested and came back re-thinking. My final load-out may or may not be a shock but I am going to post and list them here. I am also going to justify why I have this equipment. So here goes....
HARDPOINTS
Pulse Lasers all round on Class 2 and 1 points.
- Tried Beam - Extremely effective in short bursts. Large power requirements and energy is often wasted as they are not sniper accurate.
- Tried Rail Guns - They pack a punch. Once again huge power requirements means everything else has to be compromised. Also Re-arming means you need to be close to a port and you spend to steal. Pack a hell of a punch though. Good for killing shields. But just not worth it.
- Tried Multi-Cannons - Really nice to rip a ship apart with these babies. But I think they really are geared for a Bounty Hunter. On a Bounty ship...definitely. I really just need to drop shields and also need to not have to re-arm. Low profit margins in Pirating. Why spend and if it is PVP I don't want to kill necessarily. Multi-cannons are a killers tool!
Pulse laser are free to fire. They allow you to fire for long periods of time and quickly recharge. They are cheap as chips. They have very low power requirements allowing for stronger upgrades on the internals. Gimbled would allow for bad piloting ;)
Chaff Launcher
I flew a long time without them and I can honestly say I probably lost a ship for not having them. A cartridge of ten see's me through a session and really is handy if you are a slow duck picking up stolen cargo while you under fire.
Cargo Scanner
Although I did not equip one straight away as it is not a necessity to have one to be a Pirate. This little scanner will save you a lot of unwanted bounty on your head and a ton of time. Check their cargo and then make a decision. To fully utilize this tool you are going to have to learn some commodities prices. I actually will show you guys in another video how I mark my maps so I find the commodities I want.
INTERNALS
Bulkheads
Reactive Surface Composite. Okay this is very different to what most would recommend. There is good reason too. You must bear in mind that not all my prey will be NPC's. I have used Military Grade Composite and tested thoroughly Mirrored Surface Composite. Why did I end up with Reactive? Every single PVP player I know, also knows that first you bring their shields down with Thermal then switch to Kinetic to tear their hull apart. Now, I understand not everyone goes kinetic and remain with thermal but the point is that if they do I am slightly in a better position. I already have Chaff. I already have Shield Cells Banks. If they get through my shields I need to be thinking about moving. At least defending. My results have been better with this set-up. Tested. There is not a lot in it though guys. Don't expect to be much better off for your money. 800,000 credits and a lot of mass.
Power Plant
The Cobra needs to utilize all the power it can get. Its a good all rounder but it isn't specialized and shields are very weak. To upgrade this ship with kit that your going to need to overcome its short falls are all going to require lots of power. A4 is a must. Bounty Hunt to earn that bit of kit!
Thrusters
C4? Really only C4. To be fair this is in the top list for most sacrificial component. Your Cobra is fast. Yes other ships could gain on you. But still if you are smart and kill your Flight Assist and put power to your thrusters and burned continuously... You will have already repositioned or jumped. The Cobra is quick.... you just need to learn when to get the heck out of dodge!
Frame Shift Drive
B4 allows for huge jumps dropping your fuel requirement and also shedding mass. A4 does require power though and for the money it just is not worth it. It is not a critical to have a high spec component for your job.
Life Support
This was another dilemma but not a huge one. C3 gives me 10 mins of breathable gas which so far has been plenty in any circumstance. The worst case scenario still left me with 2 mins on my counter. Money down the drain to go for 15 mins.
Power Distributor
A3 and nothing less. You need to be able to divert power efficiently. Effecting all these categories
- Weapons Capacity
- Weapon Re-charge
- Engines Capacity
- Engines Re-Charge
- Systems Capacity
- Systems Re-Charge
Adds a fair bit of mass to your ship but you need to manage power especially in the heat of thievery! From dropping a targets shields to switching to defensive management after you have fired your limpet hatch breakers.... you need to be on your game. Get the component to aid you in this!
Sensors
The very last thing I upgraded on my ship. Really more of a luxury than a necessity. I 'hummed and ha ad' over if it was even worth the extra 1km range and quicker ship recognition. Then I read that possibly it can help with targeting. So I went with A3. I have not noticed much if any difference.
Fuel Tanks
Okay guys, The Cobra comes with whopping fuel tanks. One of its best features are the range and cargo facilities on a war-bird hybrid transporter. So why did I dump mine to a capacity of 8? Well I even tried 4 and may do that when I find a better home. Believe it or not... if you reduce the fuel tank you are reducing the mass. This allows you to jump further. I can jump 15.46LY. Handy as I have dropped mass for dogfighting and gained jump threshhold. Just need to remember to fill up. Worth it!
Cargo Rack
Another debate in my mind. I flew with 32. I am now happy (ish) with 16. Once again over my extended tests I really only filled up a 32 ton storage tank once or twice. Limpet Hatch breakers take up some of that space but if it is a good haul you could dump them anyway as limpets are dirt cheap!
Shield Cell Bank
B4, again why not the best. Really just isnt necessary to go higher. Huge amounts of credits and also leaves your ship with a huge power demand. More than the very largest Power Plant can provide with the other gubbins. Smaller means one less charge in the bank too. B4 is a good number. Remember it is not your only Cell Bank as I will discuss later.
Shield Generator
A massive power requirement on this. I consider it essential to a Pirate. The weakest part of the Cobra are it's shields. Even with the best A4 shield generator your at a disadvantage to other ships and you rely on them heavily when you a sitting duck stealing cargo. The best still leave you weak in my opinion. So you cant afford to take anything lower than the very best specs.
Frame Shift Interdictor
Not essential but gives you more options when Pirating. You can pull people out of frame-shift drive with ease with a D2. No need to upgrade. Does the job. Uses power and adds mass if you want better.
Hatch Breaker Limpet
A1. Essential tool for a Pirate. Not everyone is going to give you what you demand. Sometimes prying fingers off is a requirement. If your lucky on occasion someone may be without shields so firing a hatch breaker off means an easy days work.
Sheild Cell Bank
A2 Just another shield cell bank as a backup. Their will be times you will be very pleased you equipped it. Sometimes things just get hairy but you don't want to let go of that ships cargo hold. Hardest thing about Cell Banks is knowing when to charge one. Timing is everything and really makes the difference between surviving or dying!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As a note I also tested Shield Boosters and found that they were inefficient and ineffective compared to other methods of defence. I really struggled to notice the shields lasting any longer across the range of Boosters. Huge amounts of power required to run them too.
So there we have it. My Pirate ship. My Black Pearl other than the fact its orange. Here is the power requirements and mass etc....
I really cant equip this any better in my eyes for the job in hand. Now please before criticism jumps in, whether it is constructive or not, remember that this ship is a tool for a job. I could have built this vastly differently for bounty hunting or exploration or obviously trading. This is for Pirating firstly and on the side Bounty Hunting to fund other endeavours at a later date.
Why the Cobra and not something more ...... expensive? Precisely for that reason. The Cobra is relatively cheap. Cheap to insure and cheap to run. If I loose a Cobra I will not shed a tear (unless I have no insurance). They are 10 to the dozen and really can do everything I require. Still a ship to be feared. Not many transporters or haulers are equipped to deal with a refined Cobra and if they are...the Cobra can run.
Any thoughts.... please leave comments below. I am open to alterations or suggestions. I think I have got pretty close to the perfect Pirate ship though. Paint job maybe!
No comments:
Post a Comment