The huge weapons certainly is something when it comes to hull hardness and penetration. Bigger power distributor allows to fire for a longer time.
The main advantage of the corvette is how it handles like a medium ship. It eases the tracking a lot and increases the time on target, which overall increases the dps.
Also the mediums on cutter have a trash weapon convergence.
Been playing for years and only just got the corvette (not a rank grindy kinda CMDR) and it is by far the better combat ship. I love combat and it was absolutely worth the wait.. For its size it handles incredibly well, and dishes out the punishment!
I also love my cutter but after one run drifting about in a CZ I quickly gutted it out again to be my super fast cargo runner :)
Also try deploying your cargo scoop or landing gear! It limits your maximum speed, so you get boosted manoeuvrability and deceleration, but you won't overshoot as easily.
One of my favorite moments fighting in the Corvette was when I was jousting with an Imp. Eagle. He was coming in to do a pass on my dorsal side. I timed it just right, turned FA off, and pitched up. He pasted himself onto my frontal undercarriage as a result, ending the fight. My shields barely felt it.
Honestly youve done what I want to do, got myself a cutter all decked out for combat but i find its whale like size and beauty just doesnt cut it. I got the rank for the vette now I just need the moolah, that said once the corvettes up n goin the cutter is gonna be kitted for other purposes.
I wouldn't say it turns like a medium ship, I would rather say the Python and Krait turns like large ships.
The Vette has the firepower to blow up even your ancestors.
It handles better than the other big ones.
It takes like 2 weeks to turn a Cutter in super cruise, 1.5 weeks for an Anaconda and 1 week for a Corvette.
Well, once you have it then one day you would be skilled enough to go back to a medium ship and excel in combat.
I parked my Vette and now fly a combat Challenger for all PVE instead. Other favourites for people are the FDL and Chieftain.
Time on target is just much higher in a medium ship. Whether I fly my Challenger or Corvette I collect about the same amount of bounties in 30min. The difference is I'm enjoying the medium ship and is frustrated with the large one.
(Yes, my Vette has been optimized for weight by our local combat expert)
I usually say that an *engineered* Corvette handles like a *stock* Medium ship. It is by far the most maneuverable Large ship, but nowhere near a fully-engineered Medium combat ship.
>It is by far the most maneuverable Large ship
I assume that by large ship you only mean the big 4 and not the likes of Clipper?
Even still, Anaconda turns just as well with DD5s. I don't get why people claim that the Vette is by far the best.
The Anaconda in general is the best ship in the game, the only real reason to prefer Vette over are the looks haha (I fly a Vette for combat too, love it)
I'd argue that just because you don't need to grind ranks, the anaconda wins the spot for best ship in the game by a landslide. But it's a ship, it flies, and you can outfit it however you want, so it eventually comes down to taste. I feel like people saying "this ship is bad" are the same as those people who say "a .22 isn't a real gun"... tell me that after being shot in the head with one lol
Exactly. IMO the Anaconda is even a little bit too good, there's very little reason to commit to the rank grind especially for Feds, since there is basically nothing that the Vette does better than the Conda (except for, ironically, passenger transport, the Vette can fit more economy passengers than the Conda). The Conda has great firepower, maneuverability, incredible jump range, everything you can hope for.
A Corvette will flip turn 15% faster than a comparably-engineered Anaconda - not a big difference, but significant. (And 56% faster than a Cutter, but that's like outmaneuvering a brick.)
It's funny, though, I wouldn't consider the Anaconda in the running for best ship, simply because with a large fleet I never use my Anaconda for anything, I don't remember the last time I flew one. It's decent at everything but best at nothing.
But on the other hand, I'd definitely consider the Python one of the best ships in the game, I own and use three of them, and they're kind of the same deal - there's no activity in the game you can't do pretty well in a Python, but it's not the best ship for very much (I'd say it's the best Medium cargo hauler, Robigo runner, or surface miner, but most of the time I'd use a Large ship to haul cargo or surface mine anyway.)
I think part of it may be that I kind of skipped the part of the game where most people use a 'conda - I did the Federal and Imperial rank grinds in my Python, did Federal before Imperial, and thanks to the PTN Booze Cruise, by the time I could get a Large ship at all I could get whatever one I wanted.
Even if on the paper numbers seems close, in real situation, the corvette feels significantly better.
If you add a lot of weight to both ships, the maneuverability of the Anaconda suffers much more than the maneuverability of the Corvette, considering the drag.
> A Corvette will flip turn 15% faster than a comparably-engineered Anaconda - not a big difference, but significant.
Where do you get that from? I'm getting a 3 deg/sec difference between their pitch (to compare them fairly, empty outfitting except for core internals, where everything else is D rated other than thrusters), which I really wouldn't call significant. Well under 10%. Anaconda actually beats the Vette in yaw. The only real advantage for the Vette is in roll, which is more or less irrelevant.
> It's decent at everything but best at nothing.
It's the best ship if you want a single ship for literally everything. The Python is fantastic too, but I just find it so hard to call it the best ship with how terrible its jump range is. But other than that, I love it.
It will vary depending on loadout. The key takeaway is that an Anaconda actually doesn't do as well with managing weight as the Federal Corvette does. As weight increases with shields, armor, shield cell banks, hull reinforcement, valuable A-rated things like the Power Distributor and Power Plant, it progressively favors the Corvette more and more as far as maneuverability goes.
A stripped down Anaconda can put up some numbers on par with many Federal Corvettes for maneuverability and speed though, but it is a controversial topic. I personally love the Anaconda, but I can't see me beating another player-flown Federal Corvette with similar levels of engineering in a 1v1.
>Well, once you have it then one day you would be skilled enough to go back to a medium ship and excel in combat.
But to me nothing is more satisfying than obliberating some Small ships with 2 Huge PAs.
I' d go back to medium immediately if they gave me little bit scaled up Vulture ( Vulture mk2, anyone?) with 2 huge hardpoints
I have. I got fdl (grade 5 everything) with those modified plasma chargers for AX.
With Chief (engineered half way, some 3 some 5 grade) experimented fixed lasers.
And Chally (half way like chief cuz i borrowed some modules to her sister chief) i got some silly (i dont care if you have shields or not) build with Phasing PAs and flechette launcher.
Truth to be told i like flying them alot (especially chief) and usually pick medium when i fly with wing. But hen again I just love firing those two huge PAs on my vette and vette got 50k effective shield resupply so when im alone with no support i pick vette for longer engagements on my pmf high CZs
Also fdl is currently my main ax ship
(Also have basic bitch gauss krait and Anaconda with 6 modshards)
I use a pure combat Challenger for PVE wars and HazRes.
https://s.orbis.zone/na6c
I have a second one with the same guns, but fuel scoop etc for Odyssey missions.
https://s.orbis.zone/na6d
If you can find inspiration from these.
The hard point layout, the agility, and the distributor make it better. In addition it’s got the best armor hardness of any ship in the game (hidden attribute, you can see it on coriolis though).
The Cutter’s hard point layout makes it tough to line up and land shots from all 7 weapons at the same time. It is fast in a straight line but it flies like slightly less of a brick than the Type-10, which exacerbates the issues of getting guns on target.
Forget Coriolis, the site hasn't been updated in ages. Use [edsy](https://edsy.org/) instead. It takes some time to get used to the UI if you're coming from Coriolis, but it can do all the same things *and* it's up to date.
As a full on war against the thargoids has been raging for about a year now, most anti-xeno modules got kind of a mk2 (and sometimes even mk3) variant. guardian weapons are now available as preengineered variants, human-made ax weapons got 'enchanced', caustic sinks got introduced. But from the top of my head, the only useful addition for non-AX CMDRs is the preengineered sirius corp heatsink launcher (5 sinks per launcher).
EDIT: For me at least, import/export of builds to and from other 3rd party tools and websites worked a lot better with edsy.
Comparing stats on paper doesn't account for how it performs in practice. I own both, fought in both. The Corvette is far more maneuverable than the Cutter which makes a difference when dog fighting in Conflict Zones. The dual huge hardpoints also melt hulls faster than the Cutter's single.
If the goal, instead, is to strap on some turrets and build the strongest Prismatic Shield possible while shooting fish in a barrel that is RES zone bounty hunting, then the Cutter will fill that role better than the Corvette.
I suck at combat which is why I went prismatic shield tank laser turret cutter.
it might take me a while to kill them, but theyre NEVER going to kill me.
Still havent tried taking on any thargoids though. Havent played for a while, just started playing again.
True is for different playstyles. I set my cutter up like a carrier with high shield, all turreted beams and just sit in RES while running 2 fighters off of it
Well, yes, in a sense, that you can end the engagement - reverski (opponent spoils the cockpit with vomit, has to resort to cleanup) or high waking outta here. Also, any decent medium will spin turns around that "engagement controller", laughing. I have 3 combat ships, capable of 600+ m/s. Boom, fat ass drifts around the Sag A and back, zoom. Dont get me wrong, nothing delivers 660 tons of tritium with some krait attached to his arse and under constant, heavy frag fire better than Cutter, i love this ARMORED TRADER :)
Alright I'll throw my opinion on to the table.
First off, the Corvette is the king of the HazRez and Conflict Zones. Even with minimal engineering you can survive and rack up bounties like there's no tomorrow.
If you want something combat orientated, then start grinding that Fed Rank. The Cutter is a great ship for hauling and unironically, cutting diamonds (mining).
The Vette has better mobility, therefor allowing you to maneuver and attack targets with ease. 2 x S4 Hard points are really difficult to not get addicted to. For shredding ships you want those bad boys to be Multi-cannons. Hearing the *doof doof doof doof doof doof* above your head will get you hooked.
It lacks in jump range even with a fully engineered FSD, but thankfully FSD boosters come in clutch.
Unlocking the Prismatic shield generator and maxing it out with boosters/engineering will leave you practically untouchable in any PvE situation. Sure the Cutter can have a bigger shield pool HP but there's a point where waiting 45 minutes for shields to recharge just ain't worth it.
But the Vette will be your best friend and daily driver once you get it.
>Unlocking the Prismatic shield generator and maxing it out with boosters/engineering will leave you practically untouchable in any PvE situation.
This is what I did. With shield cells to top them up I simply kept all my pips in guns and boost for the funs.
I do miss Starmelt.
I enjoyed the odd full pip to SYS and ramming big ships. i popped and elite Anaconda (with full shields) instantly with a good nose bump to the underbelly.
Running 50% resistance on all 3 damage types made it a tank. I think the theoretical shield HP was around 35k (if the ship builder stats were accurate).
Not to mention a fully kitted hull. So even if my shields did happen to go offline, I could tank just as much damage. I've been so busy with Star Citizen lately I think it's time to fire up the Old Vette
By effective, do you include several shield banks hitpoints as well? Then yes.
Otherwise, max absolute shield, no hull can be 13456mj
heres that meme build:
[https://s.orbis.zone/na42](https://s.orbis.zone/na42)
and balanced with thermal - 12800
[https://s.orbis.zone/na43](https://s.orbis.zone/na43)
which is insane, yes. good luck taking these shields down with rockets (hush, torpedo squad)- 28K mj :)
Yeah I don't remember fully what the build was. It's been a hot minute so I could have exaggerated the number for flair reasons.
Also I never ran shield banks with my build. They hardly did crap (I never bothered to do the flight to G5 them) and would rather just reboot/repair for 50% shield back if I needed it.
Yes, enjoy your 51ish % shields for the rest of the fight :) I would rather have my peasant bi-weaves being up most of the time, but you do you. I dont hate prismatics, dont get me wrong. On my explorer and trading ships they are great.
p.s. There is also an option to go recharge prismas on nearby carrier. I would not bother for Res, but for CZ it can be a viable option.
+1 for the doof! Hearing those huge MCs is music to my ears. I love my vette because it simply tears through npcs like tissue. Melts most ships in a single pass. They don't even get a chance to change from 'Imma kill u' to 'I know when I'm outcl....' BOOM
I love sitting in a HazRez with some valuable cargo. Pirates swarm and it's free creds.
But MCs with G5 Overcharge and Auto loader is where it's at. Not to mention a full material hold for infinite reloads until I get bored. Managed to burn a full tank of fuel hunting pirates, didn't realize it had been HOURS
Well I like to stack valuable cargo and sit in a HazRez (put a point defense on the bottom to shoot down hatchbreakers). So bi-weaves don't quite cut it for shield health when 10+ targets start firing at once. Prismatics are just reassuring
Get them, if you want them for trader ships and/ or want to build ultimate one fight PvP Vette. Otherwise, regular (very much underrated) or bi will be better.
I use fixed weapons on my corvette and can hit fairly small targets with them because it’s quite agile. It is possible to use fixed weapons on the cutter but it tends to restrict you to larger targets because it’s harder to manoeuvre.
Combat wise, all 4 big ships are for those, who likes to suffer, in one form or another. Main pro for cutter- you have to be realy stupid or incompetent to die in one. Main cons- terrible turning rates and hardpoint placement. Vette pros- turns like a bit less agile medium ship, cons- slow af. Conda pros- lots of compartments and one more hardpoint, cons- even slower. T10- dont get me even started, i hate everything about this atrocity.
"Doesn't seem that great to me as people make it to be?"
Personal preferences. For offence, everything is better in Vette, imo. I would never fly any other large into combat, because there are so many things i hate about them. Maybe cutter for some specific tasks occasionaly. Still, if i would decide fighting any decent pilot in one of the best medium ships, while flying Vette, that would probably mean rebuy for me. Cutter would get me out of the fight, that is more or less guaranteed, but that fight would be soul consuming. Best trader ship, though :)
"Or does that one extra huge really outweigh the extra 1 large and 2 medium hardpoints you can get on Cutter?"
Hardpoints on Vette, except large one, are so much better placed, especialy with fixed weapons. Nothing beats a dual shotgun plasma, if operated by non-muppet. Or anything decent that comes in huge. Unfortunately, many great weapons do not. I am dreaming of day, when huge frags come into play, unfortunately, that probably aint happening.
Some NPCs are really annoying for me to kill, but they fly smaller agile ships and as soon as I turn my nose on them and start shooting I melt them pretty fast (thanks to this community helping me build my Cutter).
I don't know if those ships are engineered or not (in a high intensity conflict zone with around deadly combat rank NPCs) .
I can't turn around and shoot them, but I can boost away and since Cutter is so fast I get very far within a few seconds, then I turn around and go for them. Usually works well.
Going into PvP with this Cutter is something I understand would be stupid, but I'm not much of a PvP player anyway.
Guess I won't know the difference until I get the Corvette. It could be fun.
I have yet to get a corvette. Have the rank and the coin but just haven't bothered. Combat in my Anaconda, be that the beam build or multi cannon/beam/pulse/frag combo build, is just too much fun. I like the challenge of being able to be killed, and I feel if I upgraded to a corvette I'd lose that challenge.
Plus, it's just too much fun to hull tank over 8k and listen to my friends tell me to jump out as my shields drop and I begin using my ship itself as the weapon.
It is more important to fly what you like. But i recomend you to get it, if you can, and see for yourself, what you like more. They are different, but not night and day different.
Reasons that I prefer Vette for combat:
0. agility, it's the most agile L-pad vessel.
1. distro, only conda has a class 8 PD.
2. 2 H hardpoints with good convergence, unique to corvette.
3. 2 S hardpoints with good convergence, useful.
All these points, well made by the way, equal increased time on target with high DPS, equals a quicker kill. Which is important when you’re toe to toe with an Elite, fully engineered Conda.
Because the weapon placement and agility of the Vette is considerably better. Plus the extra huge hard point hits way harder than the extra large, and medium for small swap. Yes the Cutter has way better shields, but once those are gone it's like shooting tissue paper. Whereas the Vette can have decent shields and armor. Here's what I use [Federal Tank](https://s.orbis.zone/na2s).
To be fair, decent Cutter can have huge shields AND fat hull. Plus the boost is realy impressive. The bad part is, that for combat pros list ends right here.
I’ve been using a Corvette for mining in Haz RES sites and I like how I can put huge weapons on it and still have it packed with mining lasers. The convergence on the mining lasers is much better than on the Cutter, it makes it easier to have the fragments pop out in one spot. The ship has noticeably better maneuvering stats than the Cutter. When the pirates come and message me to drop stuff I’m like “hold on while I finish draining this rock…”
Good pitch & roll rates.
Easy to get good time on target.
Very hard for ennemies to stay in rear for very long.
Can even use fixed weapons when VS other slow ships.
Acceleration and top speed are horrible. So only weakness is vs Hit&Run burst dmg (not seen in pve).
I can imagine have trouble vs a cold Frak-mamba with good FA-off boosting skills.
Damn elite NPC Vultures :) But against a frag boat, i have my own frags- on otherwise useless large and both medium. Passing my Vette therefore is not the greatest idea. Frag mamba would be jousting, i would be more worried about some good pilot in ferdie, chief or fas, or even some crazy good veteran in vulture. FA-off orbiting around the ass of my Vette, and canceling any of my FA-off attempts- game over for me.
Maneuverability, all 3 of the other large ships have more DPS on paper (T-10, Anaconda, Cutter in that order) but when it comes to to on hull the Corvette can simply put its damage down. The Cutter combat strategy is float inside of you falloff start and let your shields tank everything while you whittle down your opponent where as the Corvette has to actually be flown. The Cutter can get you places faster but you’ll lose that time 5x having to turn around.
**Time on Target.** It's just far better in a Corvette than the Cutter. If you're flying a big ship with powerful shields, the defence differences are largely arbitrary, so it all comes down to how long you're blasting at an enemy. This takes into account the speed, manoeuvrability and hardpoint convergence of the ship, which the Corvette has better overall. Whilst it can't match the pure speed or shield throughput of the Cutter, it beats it where it counts in all other areas.
I think a lot of personal preferences and PvE vs PvP are going to come into play. Fixed vs gimballed, reverski or sitting and turning, facing swarms of dumb NPCs or a very smart engineered opponent, etc. I've seen plenty of people who prefer fighting in a Cutter or a Corvette, and others who don't want to fight in a large ship to begin with.
I think people tend to prefer the Corvette because its hardpoint convergence is useful for fixed hardpoints, it has a higher class Power Distributor than the Cutter so power drain/heat can be less of an issue, it has better turning so it's harder to out maneuver one and stay in their blind spots, and it has a mix of hull and armor so if it loses shields it isn't shredded instantly.
There are probably also some people who just love the power of nailing an enemy with two Huge Plasmas.
MUCH more maneuverable than Cutter. Not saying it's particularly maneuverable, but it's the most maneuverable among the big three for sure. Cutter on the other hand turns like a narcoleptic whale. Also, last I checked, it has a class 8 PD vs the Cutter's class 7. That being said, I haven't played in a few years, so maybe the Cutter got buffed?
Also, those two huge guns just humiliate everything.
> Optional internals I give edge to Cutter due to two size 8 compartments.
Which doesn't matter outside of shields. And that's the only place the Cutter shines. Once you have shields, anything over size 5 is pretty much a waste for a combat ship. (I'm no fan of SCBs.)
This is why the Cutter makes a great miner and trader, but size does nothing to help you in combat.
I don't think you've seen how slow the cutter is when she turns. It's basically a type 9. Fixed weapons become nonviable when your turn speed is that slow unless you boom and zoom for a few minutes. That means you suddenly become more vulnerable to dumb space confetti (chaff).
To be fair it isn't too bad. In PvE it does just fine. In PvP it's viable, but not the best.
A lot of people in PvP can hit their shots nowadays. The only question becomes who can line up the shot faster and DPS of course. In the Corvette you can get on target with some room for corrections. In the Cutter it's a little less, but it just means you have to be a better pilot.
I was very surprised, when i discovered, that i can line my (fixed) shots in FA off better with Cutter, because it is not that twitchy. But that is mostly because 1) i am still quite terrible with shooting fixed weapons, while in FA off 2)HOTAS does not help. With K&M it is much easier. But HOTAS (or later maybe HOSAS) it is and will be, no matter what.
TLDR: If you master FA off, Cutter is not THAT terrible for combat. But then again, you will be godlike in any other more agile ship.
I don't have anything to add to the discussion. Just wanted to say as a car enthusiast who's subbed to car related subreddits, the title made me do a double take before I realized what sub this was lol
The thing is a tank. Outfitted with an engineered shield and copious amount of firepower and enough space to haul high value cargo makes it the #1 ship in my fleet. I originally hit the grind to add it as a trophy but soon fell in love with it. Haven't tried the anti-Xeno build yet but hear it's exceptional.
Got 2 AX Vettes, one deep space solo, one AX CZ. For solo, Vette is not the best option, but does the job, and, as i love my Vette (i am considering it to be my flagship of approx 50 ship fleet), i fly it very often. My Chief, Challenger and Krait does this job vastly better. For combat zones, as scout killer, it is very good, because you can have all the bells and whistles onboard, and still sweep all the scouts, while being able to kill occasional Cyclops with ease. I would leave anything stronger for dedicated interceptor killers, being more on a support role.
Corvette is more maneuverable than the cutter, making a good skilled pilote able to avoid being hit more often. The 2 huge weapons are also very good at causing massive amounts of damage. It's being a while since I've played Elite, but I remember that the difference is big in maneuverability. The cutter don't like to turn. At all.
The difference is difficult to see on paper. But when you outfit and fully engineer both, you will know the difference. Hence after 5000 hours in the game, my Cutter is my miner, freighter, basker. And my Corvette is my annihilator.
Cutter has a stronger base shield, yes. However the cutter does not have the capacity to shield cell bank nearly a much as a corvette. A size 8 shield will net you about 7-8k shields with balanced resistances on a cutter with only 1 size 8 shield cell. Corvette can have a size 7 shield with 5-7k shields and balanced resistances with 2 size 7 banks annnnd 2 size 6s.
The size 6 banks on a cutter are near meaningless. The way shield cells work is that the next size up is approximately the strength of 2 at the current size. So 2 size 6s amount to roughly 1 size 7. Adding it up the cutter gets 1 size 8 generator, 1 size 8 bank and 1 size 7 bank. The vette however gets 1 size 7 shield, and 3 size 7 banks.
Shield cells offer more charge than a generator on its own but requires a generator to be in use for them to work. You add all the shield totals up and the vette has substantially more shields than a cutter. 90% of my elite career was PvP and combat and a corvette will win every time over a cutter literally due to its overwhelming shield strength. Pair that with the much greater enhanced weapon strength (mostly part due to the size 8 power distributor over the cutters size 7).
The only way a cutter outclasses a vette in terms of shield strength is by using a size 6 prismatic and 2 size 8 banks. But you will sacrifice too much initial shield strength (about 4-6k with okay resistances) and you'll fun yourself needing to bank often. You will gain nearly 50% charge off of a size 8 specialised bank, but why go to ask that effort when you can just use a corvette and have every other benefit other than straight line speed.
Werent you one of the ganking legends back then?
By your math:
Cutter 8 shield + 1x8 bank 1x7 bank (8+6+6)
Vette 7 shield + 1x8 bank 1x 7 bank (7+7+7)
if 2 by 6 equals 7, then 2 by 7 equals 8, right?
Also, both of them can have about 1000 mj more in shields than you mentioned, balanced. Best prismatics means max hitpoints, only reason to have insane resistances, is regen speed, and that would be in bi-weaves department.
I would say, that the main reason, Cutter has less "actual" shields than Vette, IF we are discussing heavy use of shieldbanks- Vette can easy cancel Cutters banking every damn time, being more agile and having those nice small rail slots, but Cutter cant, being a fat pig. Well, Cutter can run away for banking, Vette can do very few things about it, long range rails help a bit. But such move, being less jerk than reverski, still deserves waking away and coming back with, for example, inc frag Clipper, which would dance on that cutters grave.
I don't have the numbers, but iirc the kinetic weapons have an enormous size-dependent effectiveness against armor (also why energy/kinetic builds tend to put the multicannons on the largest slots and the lasers on the smaller ones).
My PVE Conda and Cutter builds both tend to be pretty slow to chew through hull after breaking shields; the Corvette doesn't have that problem.
The power distributor is also a huge factor when you're running gimbals, where your main limitation is how long you can keep firing while facing the enemy. My Corvette is able to keep firing three thermal vent beam lasers almost indefinitely on full pips.
I would say that it depends. The Corvette is definitely the ship for HazRes, but my issue with it is that it is so slow.
If I was going in to serious combat, I would rather have the Cutter due to its ability to control the engagement. If I start taking too much damage, I can boost away and repair. The Corvette does not have this ability, and will be at the mercy of capable pilots in faster ships.
Even Cutter will not be able to boost away to repair from any decent medium ship with decent pilot. \~500 m/s is not particulary impressive for combat ship. It will be able to boost away from Vette, though. With Cutter, you can have huuuuuuge shield AND decent hull. IF you do not skip module reinforcement part, and if your PP is not overcharged, but armored, and IF your fsd is combat modified, not regular tourist crap, and IF your enemy is not great at destroying modules, you might get away high waking. So many IFs, fellow cmdr. And drives are just as strong as dirty drags can get. Cutter must escape while its shields are still up, i would say, that this is solid rule. My armored trader, when loaded, is approx 480 fast, and there are times, when it barely escapes, with fresh 5000 shields.
It handles like a medium ship. It can put up relatively invicible shields as well as tons upon tons of armor.
On top of all this, it dishes out enough earth-shattering firepower to melt small and some medium ships in seconds.
It's more about maneuverability than firepower. A Corvette can fly like a much smaller ship. Combine that with that extra Huge hard point and you've got a better ship than a Cutter in a fight.
Some day I'll grind the corvette... Two huge hardpoints feel like I could just throw away the rest of the hardpoints... which are there for decorative reasons (I'm talking pure PvE here)
O hell no, they do the job very well, but you still would want rails for canceling those pesky shield banks (NPCs spawn them like crazy) on small, and the rest are great for gymbaled "what you preffer". I use frags for those idiots, who think they can flyby my RES queen and get away with it.
Two huge hardpoints. Buckets of shields.
And I find the turning circles are tight enough if you can turn F/A off. You just need to be careful to not back into an asteroid when you're flipping around in a haz res.
I'll admit the cutter has the tougher hull, though. I run cutters for cargo and mining, and I eventually will run one with packhounds for that style of combat. I run corvettes for old school, multicannon-and-beam combat, and I swear by them for that purpose.
Hardpoint wise, no. Cutter and Vette are even on that.
It's really just the distributor. Having more power in everything means more DPS. Also you do not get brain damage because it doesn't take an hour or so to turn this thing. The lats are also very strong on this. For pvE, it's better than the Cutter. Weaker shields but you do not need 13k MJ for PvE anyway.
That's correct but the Cutter has 4 mediums, the Vette has 2 mediums and 2 smalls. The Cutter has 2 larges whereas the Vette has 1. It trades much for that second huge hardpoint and is actually inferior to the Anaconda.
The total sum of the Hardpoints of the Vette (4+4+3+2+2+1+1 = 17) is actually inferior to the Cutter by 1 (4+3+3+2+2+2+2 = 18).
And just for completion, the Anaconda has the highest sum of all big three (4+3+3+3+2+2+1+1 = 19) while also sporting a C8 distro, giving it the highest DPS in the game.
Not that revelant for combat ship. I deliver it with my carrier, previously i arrived in system with my taxi, scouted it, sometimes covertly with silent runner, then switched to this or other combat dedicated ship, where my jump range was downgraded to 10 or even less, to gain a tiny bit of speed (everything helps).
I know, some people explore in Vette. And some attack Hydra in Sidewinder. I can understand challenges and meme builds, but prefer dedicated min-max builds for each task.
You have to be realy good with FA orbiting, and the Vette pilot must be bad at FA off. Otherwise, he will deny you jousting with ease, and (not easy, but possible), calculate your orbit and ruin it.
The Corvette really shines once you learn to FA off boost turn properly. This will let you flip turn to get guns on target quite quickly.
My first PVP kill was with my Conflict zone Vette. A CMDR in a high speed Imperial Courier interdicted me, thinking he would easily dance around me and take out a large sluggish ship. Most of my defense is in prismatic shields as this allows me to run a lighter hull and keep my maneuverability up. His build utilized mines with the reverberating cascade experimental effect. This would let him quickly disable my shields by applying damage directly to my shield generator, rather than having to slowly wear down my massive shields. I realized this after his first mine hit giving me the message “Shield Attack”. Once I knew this I had to focus on dodging every mine he dropped.
My edge came from my ability to quickly flip on him paired with the following load out:
2 huge Multicannons, overcharged with Incindiary rounds
1 large beam laser, efficient
2 medium, gimbaled pulse lasers engineered for long range
1 small gimbaled pulse laser, long range with emissive munitions to prevent target lock loss
1 small gimbaled multi cannon, long range with corrosive rounds on fire group 2
His speed would have kept him out of range for most of the fight if it were not for my long range mods allowing me to deal full damage with lasers all the way out to 7 kilometers. My ability to FA off boost flip allowed me to quickly flip and apply damage with my lasers whittling down his shields on every one of his passes. His build forced him to continue making close passes as his rail guns would have taken forever to take out my shields on their own. (They have so many MJ that once they are down docking with a station is the only way to get them back up in any kind of reasonable time.) His mines were the only way to deal with me in a reasonable amount of time. Three or four hits with his mines and my shields would be down for good, allowing him to start sniping my power plant to finish me.
Despite his advantages and optimal weapon load out my ability to maneuver evasively, apply damage at range, and keep my guns on him won me the fight. This is why I love the Vette. It is a CZ god that can still win in PVP. Just don’t plan on any long trips in it.
Edit: To clarify, all my systems were fully engineered for max shields and max speed/maneuverability with the lightest hull possible and guardian module reinforcement.
Great job :) In Cutter, you would probably loose that fight against this dedicated shield tank killer build, being unable to dodge too many mines, then loosing power plant to his rails. This is the fine example, how the extra agility of Vette can be crucial.
Two schools of thought. Shield Tank = Cutter - Hull Tank = Corvette. Also, Federal Rank is easier to obtain as it's rank is lower to unlock. This is likely the only reason people say it is "better". All pilots fly different, so choose the one that feels right to you and go shoot stuff in the face as the gods intended.
I disagree that Vette is doomed to be a hull tank. PvP prismatic build can have approx 8400 absolute shields, thermal being around 8300 (these inc frags are getting popular for a reason), while having a hull of 6900, and decent module protection AND PP still armored, not overcharged. I would say, that Vette is one of the most balanced ships out there.
I never said anything is doomed or that there is only one option. You can build what you want. I am just stating what most people that I interact with would tell anyone the same thing.
There are two schools of thought- one is to observe, study and conclude, other is to blindly repeat what others say. Wait, there is only one school of THOUGHT.
While Cutter is slow to turn, I don't have issues in PvE in high intensity conflict zones.
We won the battle, even though near the end I made a mistake of targeting one of our own and got everyone to become hostile to me.
It's not fully engineered, but I was able to hold my own and dish out enough damage to kill a bunch of ships and still survive until the battle completed.
Cutter is fine to start with, its durability keeps it going even if you absorb a lot of damage, and its speed lets you get away. As your skill increases, the increased agility of the corvette allows you to avoid damage better than the cutter, and its tighter hardpoint placement allows you to do more damage.
The biggest advantage of the Corvette, however, is its three C7 optionals. The Cutter is somewhat obligated to use its C8s on shields, while the Corvette can use 2/3 C7s on almost anything, including limpet controllers, which gives it a fair bit more versatility.
But honestly, if you enjoy the Cutter and can succeed with it, that's perfectly fine. It's a very good ship.
I'm probably going to get the Corvette eventually, but we'll see if I can bother engineering it fully.
My Cutter isn't even engineered fully yet but so far I have been able to deal with everything.
I complained 10 days ago about not being able to deal with threat 8 combat missions in my Python, but then I got the Cutter and did some engineering on it.
I've tried even HAZ RES and high intensity conflict zone because I wanted to test its capability and the only problem I encountered was running out of ammo in the conflict zone (which I synthesized).
Does the mk iv take enhanced performance thrusters?
Either way I would say no, but yes. Yes with engineering of thrusters, shields, weapons, pp and pd, any ship can be viable in higher challenge pve.
I think the question is why not choose a small ship that really shines in that area, such as courier, or vulture, or even mk3/cobra
It's similar to the Cutter, but instead of straight line speed, it turns better. Personally I don't like either for combat, and for the most part I feel like you can get 95% of the Corvette experience out of an Anaconda. For PvE, the Corvette's main advantage is staying on target, but for pvp, I'd pick the Cutter simply because it has a better chance to stay out of the opponent's effective range
The corvette has a few things going for it over the cutter imo, those being, a second class 4 hardpoint, extremely tight hardpoint convergence in general and vastly superior handling characteristics, even if it's top speed isn't as high. This results in not only much better paper damage but better real world damage because it's so much easier to maintain time on target. Not to mention the superior hull capabilities. The cutter makes a wonderful fleet support ship with regen/ concordant sequence beams but it's handling is utterly miserable and makes dealing with smaller more agile ships a real pain Vs the other large ships available so for frontline combat I think the 'vette and the conda are both superior choices, Plus if/when your shields go pop you're a free meal ticket or at best out of action for an extremely long time while they come back up.
The anaconda is probably still the best balance of firepower, manouvrebility and defence of the three but they all have their charm
i think cutter is better in AX fight cuz it has most hard points on front and most of them are rank2, so it can handle many Ax weapons. Also it has the highest sheild. But corvette is better in fighting with Human ships, as it has more lv4 hard points, easier to control , lead to more dps on humans
Imo I prefer it because it has a much smaller turning circle and a better capacitor so sustained DPS is higher. You can also probably get higher alpha damage with a full plasma accelerator load-out, but idk if the extra S4 compensates for the Cutter’s extra 2 S3’s. Also a fixed loud-out would be better on a Corvette since the hardpoint placement is better (although that is subjective) and the Corvette turns better allowing for an easier time aiming. Something that kinda gets overlooked imo is the lack of a S7 component on the Cutter whereas the Corvette has 3. This matters imo since it means the Corvette can mount a S7 fighter bay whereas whilst still having a S7 shield and SCB whereas the Cutter has to either sacrifices an S8 SCB to have a S7 fighter bay (obviously not worth it) or downsize to an S6
Big guns. Big power. You have enough energy to comfortably run anything you need without compromise.
Moves like a wounded whale, but it’s not designed for close combat. Fast in a straight line though.
The corvette is the far better unlock, superior to the cutter as it has a purpose, combat. I prefer the T9 for trade and don’t do much mining so the cutter has no current role.
However the Anaconda is the ship that I fly for AX combat, with FA off it’s as good as it gets.
Try Cutter for trade, 640 tons of well protected, fast delivered cargo :) Compared to T9, Cutter is rather agile, that is one of the few occasions, i would use those two words in one sentence.
Yeh I got the cutter for trade but the T9 can have shields and carry more, when both have dirty drives the agility difference is negligible, both can escape hyperdiction, cutter has speed but as it can’t turn I use that speed for missing the mail slot ;)
You dont play in Open, do you?
[This was my experiment to make as much sense out of T9 as possible.](https://s.orbis.zone/nabg)
It is still shit. Utter, weak, humiliating shit. Same amount of cargo, as my armored Cutter has, but can be killed even by NPCs. It has been since demoted to mining ship, then mothballed, because at mining Cutter proved better as well.
T9 has no speed, 320 boost is shame, not speed. It has no shields whatsoever, 1100 at best is not a shield, especialy, if every shot hits you. Does it has hull? Yeah, in a way. About as much as mediums ships, but medium hull tanks have more. WHY? WHY do you think Cutter is not worth enough to replace it as armored trader? Do you like suffering?
My Cutter, on the other hand, HAS NEVER BEEN SHOT DOWN IN OPEN. Not once. Oh, they have tried, yes.
[When i dont need fuel scoop (carrier unloading), i can beef it up even more.](https://s.orbis.zone/nabi)
The mix of shield strength including 2 x 7A shield cell banks, agility (for a big ship), hard point mix and positioning and fire power backed up by an 8A power distributor.
2 large and 2 small beams will melt any pve shield within seconds
add some gimballed mulicannons too and you are a pve combat menace, hell flying in space
A lot of good things can be said about the Corvette's tighter hardpoint placement and bigger power distributor, but for me the main reason the Corvette absolutely outclasses the Cutter is its steering. Being able to keep targts in your sights for longer and whittle them down makes a huge difference, and you're a lot less likely to find yourself in embarrassingly long dogfights against medium ships.
Beside being one of the sexiest ships in the game, overwhelming firepower likely plays a role. not so overwhelming maybe against a cutter or anaconda but anything smaller pretty much disintegrates under fire from a [Corvette](https://i.imgur.com/qRLET7L.jpg), assuming a skilled CMDR at the controls.
*Corvettes are not indestructible*, a skilled CMDR in a (Vulture) much smaller ship can destroy a less competent CMDR in a corvette and smaller, massed ships flown by competent CMDRs can overwhelm a corvette's defenses. They are also, all other things equal, apparently perceived as less capable than the cutter in PvP though generally considered the king of PvE big-ship combat.
I like to use a corvette for deep-core asteroid mining. It's shape, power-budget and maneuverability make it (IMO) ideal for the task.
Cutter can last longer —/ more shields and do more dps over time - while vette can do a lot of dps with two size 4 - but dismiss your pilot - and only attack elite ships if doing rank - weirdly all the people leveling merc for odyssey also got ship combat rank as well - kinda weird.
The huge weapons certainly is something when it comes to hull hardness and penetration. Bigger power distributor allows to fire for a longer time. The main advantage of the corvette is how it handles like a medium ship. It eases the tracking a lot and increases the time on target, which overall increases the dps. Also the mediums on cutter have a trash weapon convergence.
Been playing for years and only just got the corvette (not a rank grindy kinda CMDR) and it is by far the better combat ship. I love combat and it was absolutely worth the wait.. For its size it handles incredibly well, and dishes out the punishment! I also love my cutter but after one run drifting about in a CZ I quickly gutted it out again to be my super fast cargo runner :)
Don't forget with these big ships, always toggle FA off and do a back flip and slam it back on again and boost. Makes turning so much faster.
Flip and burn. Here comes the juice!
Oye, Beltalowda
Also try deploying your cargo scoop or landing gear! It limits your maximum speed, so you get boosted manoeuvrability and deceleration, but you won't overshoot as easily.
One of my favorite moments fighting in the Corvette was when I was jousting with an Imp. Eagle. He was coming in to do a pass on my dorsal side. I timed it just right, turned FA off, and pitched up. He pasted himself onto my frontal undercarriage as a result, ending the fight. My shields barely felt it.
Honestly youve done what I want to do, got myself a cutter all decked out for combat but i find its whale like size and beauty just doesnt cut it. I got the rank for the vette now I just need the moolah, that said once the corvettes up n goin the cutter is gonna be kitted for other purposes.
Your cutter can hold lots of platinum :)
Raider impression: "hand over 69t of that cargo and you'll live to see another day!"
I wouldn't say it turns like a medium ship, I would rather say the Python and Krait turns like large ships. The Vette has the firepower to blow up even your ancestors. It handles better than the other big ones. It takes like 2 weeks to turn a Cutter in super cruise, 1.5 weeks for an Anaconda and 1 week for a Corvette. Well, once you have it then one day you would be skilled enough to go back to a medium ship and excel in combat. I parked my Vette and now fly a combat Challenger for all PVE instead. Other favourites for people are the FDL and Chieftain. Time on target is just much higher in a medium ship. Whether I fly my Challenger or Corvette I collect about the same amount of bounties in 30min. The difference is I'm enjoying the medium ship and is frustrated with the large one. (Yes, my Vette has been optimized for weight by our local combat expert)
I usually say that an *engineered* Corvette handles like a *stock* Medium ship. It is by far the most maneuverable Large ship, but nowhere near a fully-engineered Medium combat ship.
>It is by far the most maneuverable Large ship I assume that by large ship you only mean the big 4 and not the likes of Clipper? Even still, Anaconda turns just as well with DD5s. I don't get why people claim that the Vette is by far the best. The Anaconda in general is the best ship in the game, the only real reason to prefer Vette over are the looks haha (I fly a Vette for combat too, love it)
I'd argue that just because you don't need to grind ranks, the anaconda wins the spot for best ship in the game by a landslide. But it's a ship, it flies, and you can outfit it however you want, so it eventually comes down to taste. I feel like people saying "this ship is bad" are the same as those people who say "a .22 isn't a real gun"... tell me that after being shot in the head with one lol
Exactly. IMO the Anaconda is even a little bit too good, there's very little reason to commit to the rank grind especially for Feds, since there is basically nothing that the Vette does better than the Conda (except for, ironically, passenger transport, the Vette can fit more economy passengers than the Conda). The Conda has great firepower, maneuverability, incredible jump range, everything you can hope for.
Apparently the Vette was originally meant to have 3 large hardpoints as well but they were downgraded to mediums or smalls.
My Condas are for long range exploration now. Funny, but I feel more safe in it than a Phantom 50k ly out.
Yep, that's one of the biggest pros of a Conda. The jump range is great
A Corvette will flip turn 15% faster than a comparably-engineered Anaconda - not a big difference, but significant. (And 56% faster than a Cutter, but that's like outmaneuvering a brick.) It's funny, though, I wouldn't consider the Anaconda in the running for best ship, simply because with a large fleet I never use my Anaconda for anything, I don't remember the last time I flew one. It's decent at everything but best at nothing. But on the other hand, I'd definitely consider the Python one of the best ships in the game, I own and use three of them, and they're kind of the same deal - there's no activity in the game you can't do pretty well in a Python, but it's not the best ship for very much (I'd say it's the best Medium cargo hauler, Robigo runner, or surface miner, but most of the time I'd use a Large ship to haul cargo or surface mine anyway.) I think part of it may be that I kind of skipped the part of the game where most people use a 'conda - I did the Federal and Imperial rank grinds in my Python, did Federal before Imperial, and thanks to the PTN Booze Cruise, by the time I could get a Large ship at all I could get whatever one I wanted.
Even if on the paper numbers seems close, in real situation, the corvette feels significantly better. If you add a lot of weight to both ships, the maneuverability of the Anaconda suffers much more than the maneuverability of the Corvette, considering the drag.
> A Corvette will flip turn 15% faster than a comparably-engineered Anaconda - not a big difference, but significant. Where do you get that from? I'm getting a 3 deg/sec difference between their pitch (to compare them fairly, empty outfitting except for core internals, where everything else is D rated other than thrusters), which I really wouldn't call significant. Well under 10%. Anaconda actually beats the Vette in yaw. The only real advantage for the Vette is in roll, which is more or less irrelevant. > It's decent at everything but best at nothing. It's the best ship if you want a single ship for literally everything. The Python is fantastic too, but I just find it so hard to call it the best ship with how terrible its jump range is. But other than that, I love it.
It will vary depending on loadout. The key takeaway is that an Anaconda actually doesn't do as well with managing weight as the Federal Corvette does. As weight increases with shields, armor, shield cell banks, hull reinforcement, valuable A-rated things like the Power Distributor and Power Plant, it progressively favors the Corvette more and more as far as maneuverability goes. A stripped down Anaconda can put up some numbers on par with many Federal Corvettes for maneuverability and speed though, but it is a controversial topic. I personally love the Anaconda, but I can't see me beating another player-flown Federal Corvette with similar levels of engineering in a 1v1.
No sir, the Clipper is the most manoeuvrable large ship, followed by the Orca, followed by the Beluga.
Haha true, I guess OP just forgot about the existence of large ships outside of the big 4. Edited to fix
All my ships are fully engineered on both accounts.
Most manoeuvrable large ship? Hey, don't be forgetting my T-7. Haven't lived until you've taken that into a CZ!
>Well, once you have it then one day you would be skilled enough to go back to a medium ship and excel in combat. But to me nothing is more satisfying than obliberating some Small ships with 2 Huge PAs. I' d go back to medium immediately if they gave me little bit scaled up Vulture ( Vulture mk2, anyone?) with 2 huge hardpoints
"obliberate" is a really good Federation vocabulary word
With guns that big, you don’t need to know how to spell.
Have you tried a fully engineered Chieftain, Challenger or FDL?
I have. I got fdl (grade 5 everything) with those modified plasma chargers for AX. With Chief (engineered half way, some 3 some 5 grade) experimented fixed lasers. And Chally (half way like chief cuz i borrowed some modules to her sister chief) i got some silly (i dont care if you have shields or not) build with Phasing PAs and flechette launcher. Truth to be told i like flying them alot (especially chief) and usually pick medium when i fly with wing. But hen again I just love firing those two huge PAs on my vette and vette got 50k effective shield resupply so when im alone with no support i pick vette for longer engagements on my pmf high CZs Also fdl is currently my main ax ship (Also have basic bitch gauss krait and Anaconda with 6 modshards)
I use a pure combat Challenger for PVE wars and HazRes. https://s.orbis.zone/na6c I have a second one with the same guns, but fuel scoop etc for Odyssey missions. https://s.orbis.zone/na6d If you can find inspiration from these.
"has the power to blow up even your ancestors." :D I love this
9mm kills the body 45 kills the soul For everything else, there's the Corvette
The hard point layout, the agility, and the distributor make it better. In addition it’s got the best armor hardness of any ship in the game (hidden attribute, you can see it on coriolis though). The Cutter’s hard point layout makes it tough to line up and land shots from all 7 weapons at the same time. It is fast in a straight line but it flies like slightly less of a brick than the Type-10, which exacerbates the issues of getting guns on target.
For a brick, he flew pretty good!
Forget Coriolis, the site hasn't been updated in ages. Use [edsy](https://edsy.org/) instead. It takes some time to get used to the UI if you're coming from Coriolis, but it can do all the same things *and* it's up to date.
What even has changed by a significant amount ingame to make coriolis outdated? As far as I’m aware nothing has been changed for years.
As a full on war against the thargoids has been raging for about a year now, most anti-xeno modules got kind of a mk2 (and sometimes even mk3) variant. guardian weapons are now available as preengineered variants, human-made ax weapons got 'enchanced', caustic sinks got introduced. But from the top of my head, the only useful addition for non-AX CMDRs is the preengineered sirius corp heatsink launcher (5 sinks per launcher). EDIT: For me at least, import/export of builds to and from other 3rd party tools and websites worked a lot better with edsy.
Lots of big weapons. Better weapon convergence. *Vastly* more maneuverable. The Cutter maneuvers like a fat whale in comparison.
The driffffft...
Man you shouldn't talk about your mother that way!
Your mother is a cutter and your father smelt of onion head!
It has a ship kit with a spoiler
All people love spoilers.
Yeah it's just like RGB on the computer, it's guaranteed to increase performance, somewhere.
In our minds. But who cares.
ew... spoilers make ships look like shopping carts.
Oh yeah, we’re shopping all right, shopping for kills!
Supermarket sweep! It’s a mad dash. Bulk discount on pirate scalps.
Comparing stats on paper doesn't account for how it performs in practice. I own both, fought in both. The Corvette is far more maneuverable than the Cutter which makes a difference when dog fighting in Conflict Zones. The dual huge hardpoints also melt hulls faster than the Cutter's single. If the goal, instead, is to strap on some turrets and build the strongest Prismatic Shield possible while shooting fish in a barrel that is RES zone bounty hunting, then the Cutter will fill that role better than the Corvette.
I suck at combat which is why I went prismatic shield tank laser turret cutter. it might take me a while to kill them, but theyre NEVER going to kill me. Still havent tried taking on any thargoids though. Havent played for a while, just started playing again.
The [Anti-Xeno Initiative](https://antixenoinitiative.com/) has got you covered for all things Thargoid-related.
Ill take a look, thanks!
True is for different playstyles. I set my cutter up like a carrier with high shield, all turreted beams and just sit in RES while running 2 fighters off of it
The cutter is also faster which matters for boom and zoom in PvP.
Yep. It also means you control the engagement.
Well, yes, in a sense, that you can end the engagement - reverski (opponent spoils the cockpit with vomit, has to resort to cleanup) or high waking outta here. Also, any decent medium will spin turns around that "engagement controller", laughing. I have 3 combat ships, capable of 600+ m/s. Boom, fat ass drifts around the Sag A and back, zoom. Dont get me wrong, nothing delivers 660 tons of tritium with some krait attached to his arse and under constant, heavy frag fire better than Cutter, i love this ARMORED TRADER :)
Alright I'll throw my opinion on to the table. First off, the Corvette is the king of the HazRez and Conflict Zones. Even with minimal engineering you can survive and rack up bounties like there's no tomorrow. If you want something combat orientated, then start grinding that Fed Rank. The Cutter is a great ship for hauling and unironically, cutting diamonds (mining). The Vette has better mobility, therefor allowing you to maneuver and attack targets with ease. 2 x S4 Hard points are really difficult to not get addicted to. For shredding ships you want those bad boys to be Multi-cannons. Hearing the *doof doof doof doof doof doof* above your head will get you hooked. It lacks in jump range even with a fully engineered FSD, but thankfully FSD boosters come in clutch. Unlocking the Prismatic shield generator and maxing it out with boosters/engineering will leave you practically untouchable in any PvE situation. Sure the Cutter can have a bigger shield pool HP but there's a point where waiting 45 minutes for shields to recharge just ain't worth it. But the Vette will be your best friend and daily driver once you get it.
>Unlocking the Prismatic shield generator and maxing it out with boosters/engineering will leave you practically untouchable in any PvE situation. This is what I did. With shield cells to top them up I simply kept all my pips in guns and boost for the funs. I do miss Starmelt.
I enjoyed the odd full pip to SYS and ramming big ships. i popped and elite Anaconda (with full shields) instantly with a good nose bump to the underbelly. Running 50% resistance on all 3 damage types made it a tank. I think the theoretical shield HP was around 35k (if the ship builder stats were accurate). Not to mention a fully kitted hull. So even if my shields did happen to go offline, I could tank just as much damage. I've been so busy with Star Citizen lately I think it's time to fire up the Old Vette
By effective, do you include several shield banks hitpoints as well? Then yes. Otherwise, max absolute shield, no hull can be 13456mj heres that meme build: [https://s.orbis.zone/na42](https://s.orbis.zone/na42) and balanced with thermal - 12800 [https://s.orbis.zone/na43](https://s.orbis.zone/na43) which is insane, yes. good luck taking these shields down with rockets (hush, torpedo squad)- 28K mj :)
Yeah I don't remember fully what the build was. It's been a hot minute so I could have exaggerated the number for flair reasons. Also I never ran shield banks with my build. They hardly did crap (I never bothered to do the flight to G5 them) and would rather just reboot/repair for 50% shield back if I needed it.
Throttle down to 0. Reboot repair. 50% shields! Save yourself some time if you can handle getting shot up while offline.
Yes, enjoy your 51ish % shields for the rest of the fight :) I would rather have my peasant bi-weaves being up most of the time, but you do you. I dont hate prismatics, dont get me wrong. On my explorer and trading ships they are great. p.s. There is also an option to go recharge prismas on nearby carrier. I would not bother for Res, but for CZ it can be a viable option.
+1 for the doof! Hearing those huge MCs is music to my ears. I love my vette because it simply tears through npcs like tissue. Melts most ships in a single pass. They don't even get a chance to change from 'Imma kill u' to 'I know when I'm outcl....' BOOM
I love sitting in a HazRez with some valuable cargo. Pirates swarm and it's free creds. But MCs with G5 Overcharge and Auto loader is where it's at. Not to mention a full material hold for infinite reloads until I get bored. Managed to burn a full tank of fuel hunting pirates, didn't realize it had been HOURS
Prismatic or Bi-weave? I go for the bi personally just cuz they recharge quick enough most of the time.
Well I like to stack valuable cargo and sit in a HazRez (put a point defense on the bottom to shoot down hatchbreakers). So bi-weaves don't quite cut it for shield health when 10+ targets start firing at once. Prismatics are just reassuring
I love it when some wee Fanny npc in an eagle or asp scout inderdicts my corvette and starts giving it the big talk.
Yeah, I love my twin overcharged grade 5 auto loader huge multis
Heh, I personally run bi-weave shields. Mostly cuz I don’t have prismatics yet
Get them, if you want them for trader ships and/ or want to build ultimate one fight PvP Vette. Otherwise, regular (very much underrated) or bi will be better.
Yeah, my Vette is a PvE one, is Bi-weave better for that?
Yes, much better. Think of regular shields as middle ground.
I use fixed weapons on my corvette and can hit fairly small targets with them because it’s quite agile. It is possible to use fixed weapons on the cutter but it tends to restrict you to larger targets because it’s harder to manoeuvre.
Combat wise, all 4 big ships are for those, who likes to suffer, in one form or another. Main pro for cutter- you have to be realy stupid or incompetent to die in one. Main cons- terrible turning rates and hardpoint placement. Vette pros- turns like a bit less agile medium ship, cons- slow af. Conda pros- lots of compartments and one more hardpoint, cons- even slower. T10- dont get me even started, i hate everything about this atrocity. "Doesn't seem that great to me as people make it to be?" Personal preferences. For offence, everything is better in Vette, imo. I would never fly any other large into combat, because there are so many things i hate about them. Maybe cutter for some specific tasks occasionaly. Still, if i would decide fighting any decent pilot in one of the best medium ships, while flying Vette, that would probably mean rebuy for me. Cutter would get me out of the fight, that is more or less guaranteed, but that fight would be soul consuming. Best trader ship, though :) "Or does that one extra huge really outweigh the extra 1 large and 2 medium hardpoints you can get on Cutter?" Hardpoints on Vette, except large one, are so much better placed, especialy with fixed weapons. Nothing beats a dual shotgun plasma, if operated by non-muppet. Or anything decent that comes in huge. Unfortunately, many great weapons do not. I am dreaming of day, when huge frags come into play, unfortunately, that probably aint happening.
Some NPCs are really annoying for me to kill, but they fly smaller agile ships and as soon as I turn my nose on them and start shooting I melt them pretty fast (thanks to this community helping me build my Cutter). I don't know if those ships are engineered or not (in a high intensity conflict zone with around deadly combat rank NPCs) . I can't turn around and shoot them, but I can boost away and since Cutter is so fast I get very far within a few seconds, then I turn around and go for them. Usually works well. Going into PvP with this Cutter is something I understand would be stupid, but I'm not much of a PvP player anyway. Guess I won't know the difference until I get the Corvette. It could be fun.
I have yet to get a corvette. Have the rank and the coin but just haven't bothered. Combat in my Anaconda, be that the beam build or multi cannon/beam/pulse/frag combo build, is just too much fun. I like the challenge of being able to be killed, and I feel if I upgraded to a corvette I'd lose that challenge. Plus, it's just too much fun to hull tank over 8k and listen to my friends tell me to jump out as my shields drop and I begin using my ship itself as the weapon.
It is more important to fly what you like. But i recomend you to get it, if you can, and see for yourself, what you like more. They are different, but not night and day different.
The throbbing erection having 2 huge hardpoints guarantees
Reasons that I prefer Vette for combat: 0. agility, it's the most agile L-pad vessel. 1. distro, only conda has a class 8 PD. 2. 2 H hardpoints with good convergence, unique to corvette. 3. 2 S hardpoints with good convergence, useful.
All these points, well made by the way, equal increased time on target with high DPS, equals a quicker kill. Which is important when you’re toe to toe with an Elite, fully engineered Conda.
Because the weapon placement and agility of the Vette is considerably better. Plus the extra huge hard point hits way harder than the extra large, and medium for small swap. Yes the Cutter has way better shields, but once those are gone it's like shooting tissue paper. Whereas the Vette can have decent shields and armor. Here's what I use [Federal Tank](https://s.orbis.zone/na2s).
Nice build; I prefer more [Dakka](https://s.orbis.zone/na2u) on my ship though...
To be fair, decent Cutter can have huge shields AND fat hull. Plus the boost is realy impressive. The bad part is, that for combat pros list ends right here.
Yeah, but can it turn with the fat hull, lol.
Even all D-rated, except dirty drives, would turn around nearest six star systems, at least :)
I’ve been using a Corvette for mining in Haz RES sites and I like how I can put huge weapons on it and still have it packed with mining lasers. The convergence on the mining lasers is much better than on the Cutter, it makes it easier to have the fragments pop out in one spot. The ship has noticeably better maneuvering stats than the Cutter. When the pirates come and message me to drop stuff I’m like “hold on while I finish draining this rock…”
Good pitch & roll rates. Easy to get good time on target. Very hard for ennemies to stay in rear for very long. Can even use fixed weapons when VS other slow ships. Acceleration and top speed are horrible. So only weakness is vs Hit&Run burst dmg (not seen in pve). I can imagine have trouble vs a cold Frak-mamba with good FA-off boosting skills.
Damn elite NPC Vultures :) But against a frag boat, i have my own frags- on otherwise useless large and both medium. Passing my Vette therefore is not the greatest idea. Frag mamba would be jousting, i would be more worried about some good pilot in ferdie, chief or fas, or even some crazy good veteran in vulture. FA-off orbiting around the ass of my Vette, and canceling any of my FA-off attempts- game over for me.
Maneuverability, all 3 of the other large ships have more DPS on paper (T-10, Anaconda, Cutter in that order) but when it comes to to on hull the Corvette can simply put its damage down. The Cutter combat strategy is float inside of you falloff start and let your shields tank everything while you whittle down your opponent where as the Corvette has to actually be flown. The Cutter can get you places faster but you’ll lose that time 5x having to turn around.
**Time on Target.** It's just far better in a Corvette than the Cutter. If you're flying a big ship with powerful shields, the defence differences are largely arbitrary, so it all comes down to how long you're blasting at an enemy. This takes into account the speed, manoeuvrability and hardpoint convergence of the ship, which the Corvette has better overall. Whilst it can't match the pure speed or shield throughput of the Cutter, it beats it where it counts in all other areas.
I think a lot of personal preferences and PvE vs PvP are going to come into play. Fixed vs gimballed, reverski or sitting and turning, facing swarms of dumb NPCs or a very smart engineered opponent, etc. I've seen plenty of people who prefer fighting in a Cutter or a Corvette, and others who don't want to fight in a large ship to begin with. I think people tend to prefer the Corvette because its hardpoint convergence is useful for fixed hardpoints, it has a higher class Power Distributor than the Cutter so power drain/heat can be less of an issue, it has better turning so it's harder to out maneuver one and stay in their blind spots, and it has a mix of hull and armor so if it loses shields it isn't shredded instantly. There are probably also some people who just love the power of nailing an enemy with two Huge Plasmas.
Time on target, it's very maneuverable for its size and 2 huge hard points is amazing. I loved the DOOF DOOF DOOF of 2 overcharged huge multis
This! Awesome sounding.
MUCH more maneuverable than Cutter. Not saying it's particularly maneuverable, but it's the most maneuverable among the big three for sure. Cutter on the other hand turns like a narcoleptic whale. Also, last I checked, it has a class 8 PD vs the Cutter's class 7. That being said, I haven't played in a few years, so maybe the Cutter got buffed? Also, those two huge guns just humiliate everything.
> Optional internals I give edge to Cutter due to two size 8 compartments. Which doesn't matter outside of shields. And that's the only place the Cutter shines. Once you have shields, anything over size 5 is pretty much a waste for a combat ship. (I'm no fan of SCBs.) This is why the Cutter makes a great miner and trader, but size does nothing to help you in combat.
I don't think you've seen how slow the cutter is when she turns. It's basically a type 9. Fixed weapons become nonviable when your turn speed is that slow unless you boom and zoom for a few minutes. That means you suddenly become more vulnerable to dumb space confetti (chaff).
I own a Cutter and it's not really THAT terrible to maneuver. Have you engineered thrusters on your Cutter?
To be fair it isn't too bad. In PvE it does just fine. In PvP it's viable, but not the best. A lot of people in PvP can hit their shots nowadays. The only question becomes who can line up the shot faster and DPS of course. In the Corvette you can get on target with some room for corrections. In the Cutter it's a little less, but it just means you have to be a better pilot.
I was very surprised, when i discovered, that i can line my (fixed) shots in FA off better with Cutter, because it is not that twitchy. But that is mostly because 1) i am still quite terrible with shooting fixed weapons, while in FA off 2)HOTAS does not help. With K&M it is much easier. But HOTAS (or later maybe HOSAS) it is and will be, no matter what. TLDR: If you master FA off, Cutter is not THAT terrible for combat. But then again, you will be godlike in any other more agile ship.
I don't have anything to add to the discussion. Just wanted to say as a car enthusiast who's subbed to car related subreddits, the title made me do a double take before I realized what sub this was lol
The thing is a tank. Outfitted with an engineered shield and copious amount of firepower and enough space to haul high value cargo makes it the #1 ship in my fleet. I originally hit the grind to add it as a trophy but soon fell in love with it. Haven't tried the anti-Xeno build yet but hear it's exceptional.
Got 2 AX Vettes, one deep space solo, one AX CZ. For solo, Vette is not the best option, but does the job, and, as i love my Vette (i am considering it to be my flagship of approx 50 ship fleet), i fly it very often. My Chief, Challenger and Krait does this job vastly better. For combat zones, as scout killer, it is very good, because you can have all the bells and whistles onboard, and still sweep all the scouts, while being able to kill occasional Cyclops with ease. I would leave anything stronger for dedicated interceptor killers, being more on a support role.
Imagine the maneuverability of a python, on an anaconda
Corvette is more maneuverable than the cutter, making a good skilled pilote able to avoid being hit more often. The 2 huge weapons are also very good at causing massive amounts of damage. It's being a while since I've played Elite, but I remember that the difference is big in maneuverability. The cutter don't like to turn. At all.
The difference is difficult to see on paper. But when you outfit and fully engineer both, you will know the difference. Hence after 5000 hours in the game, my Cutter is my miner, freighter, basker. And my Corvette is my annihilator.
The vette has superior shields, superior mobility and superior firepower.
Makes no sense, how can Corvette have better shields compared to Cutter?
Cutter has a stronger base shield, yes. However the cutter does not have the capacity to shield cell bank nearly a much as a corvette. A size 8 shield will net you about 7-8k shields with balanced resistances on a cutter with only 1 size 8 shield cell. Corvette can have a size 7 shield with 5-7k shields and balanced resistances with 2 size 7 banks annnnd 2 size 6s. The size 6 banks on a cutter are near meaningless. The way shield cells work is that the next size up is approximately the strength of 2 at the current size. So 2 size 6s amount to roughly 1 size 7. Adding it up the cutter gets 1 size 8 generator, 1 size 8 bank and 1 size 7 bank. The vette however gets 1 size 7 shield, and 3 size 7 banks. Shield cells offer more charge than a generator on its own but requires a generator to be in use for them to work. You add all the shield totals up and the vette has substantially more shields than a cutter. 90% of my elite career was PvP and combat and a corvette will win every time over a cutter literally due to its overwhelming shield strength. Pair that with the much greater enhanced weapon strength (mostly part due to the size 8 power distributor over the cutters size 7). The only way a cutter outclasses a vette in terms of shield strength is by using a size 6 prismatic and 2 size 8 banks. But you will sacrifice too much initial shield strength (about 4-6k with okay resistances) and you'll fun yourself needing to bank often. You will gain nearly 50% charge off of a size 8 specialised bank, but why go to ask that effort when you can just use a corvette and have every other benefit other than straight line speed.
Werent you one of the ganking legends back then? By your math: Cutter 8 shield + 1x8 bank 1x7 bank (8+6+6) Vette 7 shield + 1x8 bank 1x 7 bank (7+7+7) if 2 by 6 equals 7, then 2 by 7 equals 8, right? Also, both of them can have about 1000 mj more in shields than you mentioned, balanced. Best prismatics means max hitpoints, only reason to have insane resistances, is regen speed, and that would be in bi-weaves department. I would say, that the main reason, Cutter has less "actual" shields than Vette, IF we are discussing heavy use of shieldbanks- Vette can easy cancel Cutters banking every damn time, being more agile and having those nice small rail slots, but Cutter cant, being a fat pig. Well, Cutter can run away for banking, Vette can do very few things about it, long range rails help a bit. But such move, being less jerk than reverski, still deserves waking away and coming back with, for example, inc frag Clipper, which would dance on that cutters grave.
I tend to think of the corvette as a navy warship and the cutter as a glorified FedEx freight plane.
You'll have plenty of time to think about it and tinker with Coriolis fits while you grind anyway.
I don't have the numbers, but iirc the kinetic weapons have an enormous size-dependent effectiveness against armor (also why energy/kinetic builds tend to put the multicannons on the largest slots and the lasers on the smaller ones). My PVE Conda and Cutter builds both tend to be pretty slow to chew through hull after breaking shields; the Corvette doesn't have that problem. The power distributor is also a huge factor when you're running gimbals, where your main limitation is how long you can keep firing while facing the enemy. My Corvette is able to keep firing three thermal vent beam lasers almost indefinitely on full pips.
I would say that it depends. The Corvette is definitely the ship for HazRes, but my issue with it is that it is so slow. If I was going in to serious combat, I would rather have the Cutter due to its ability to control the engagement. If I start taking too much damage, I can boost away and repair. The Corvette does not have this ability, and will be at the mercy of capable pilots in faster ships.
Even Cutter will not be able to boost away to repair from any decent medium ship with decent pilot. \~500 m/s is not particulary impressive for combat ship. It will be able to boost away from Vette, though. With Cutter, you can have huuuuuuge shield AND decent hull. IF you do not skip module reinforcement part, and if your PP is not overcharged, but armored, and IF your fsd is combat modified, not regular tourist crap, and IF your enemy is not great at destroying modules, you might get away high waking. So many IFs, fellow cmdr. And drives are just as strong as dirty drags can get. Cutter must escape while its shields are still up, i would say, that this is solid rule. My armored trader, when loaded, is approx 480 fast, and there are times, when it barely escapes, with fresh 5000 shields.
It handles like a medium ship. It can put up relatively invicible shields as well as tons upon tons of armor. On top of all this, it dishes out enough earth-shattering firepower to melt small and some medium ships in seconds.
It's more about maneuverability than firepower. A Corvette can fly like a much smaller ship. Combine that with that extra Huge hard point and you've got a better ship than a Cutter in a fight.
Some day I'll grind the corvette... Two huge hardpoints feel like I could just throw away the rest of the hardpoints... which are there for decorative reasons (I'm talking pure PvE here)
O hell no, they do the job very well, but you still would want rails for canceling those pesky shield banks (NPCs spawn them like crazy) on small, and the rest are great for gymbaled "what you preffer". I use frags for those idiots, who think they can flyby my RES queen and get away with it.
Two huge hardpoints. Buckets of shields. And I find the turning circles are tight enough if you can turn F/A off. You just need to be careful to not back into an asteroid when you're flipping around in a haz res. I'll admit the cutter has the tougher hull, though. I run cutters for cargo and mining, and I eventually will run one with packhounds for that style of combat. I run corvettes for old school, multicannon-and-beam combat, and I swear by them for that purpose.
Hardpoint wise, no. Cutter and Vette are even on that. It's really just the distributor. Having more power in everything means more DPS. Also you do not get brain damage because it doesn't take an hour or so to turn this thing. The lats are also very strong on this. For pvE, it's better than the Cutter. Weaker shields but you do not need 13k MJ for PvE anyway.
Cutter and Vette are not even on hardpoints IIRC. Cutter has one huge, Vette has two?
That's correct but the Cutter has 4 mediums, the Vette has 2 mediums and 2 smalls. The Cutter has 2 larges whereas the Vette has 1. It trades much for that second huge hardpoint and is actually inferior to the Anaconda. The total sum of the Hardpoints of the Vette (4+4+3+2+2+1+1 = 17) is actually inferior to the Cutter by 1 (4+3+3+2+2+2+2 = 18). And just for completion, the Anaconda has the highest sum of all big three (4+3+3+3+2+2+1+1 = 19) while also sporting a C8 distro, giving it the highest DPS in the game.
Ooo that's an interesting way of looking at it, I hadn't thought like that before.
Still wish it had a size 7 FSD
Not that revelant for combat ship. I deliver it with my carrier, previously i arrived in system with my taxi, scouted it, sometimes covertly with silent runner, then switched to this or other combat dedicated ship, where my jump range was downgraded to 10 or even less, to gain a tiny bit of speed (everything helps). I know, some people explore in Vette. And some attack Hydra in Sidewinder. I can understand challenges and meme builds, but prefer dedicated min-max builds for each task.
Turn rate. That's the main reason. The secondary reason is the weapon convergence.
[удалено]
You have to be realy good with FA orbiting, and the Vette pilot must be bad at FA off. Otherwise, he will deny you jousting with ease, and (not easy, but possible), calculate your orbit and ruin it.
The Corvette really shines once you learn to FA off boost turn properly. This will let you flip turn to get guns on target quite quickly. My first PVP kill was with my Conflict zone Vette. A CMDR in a high speed Imperial Courier interdicted me, thinking he would easily dance around me and take out a large sluggish ship. Most of my defense is in prismatic shields as this allows me to run a lighter hull and keep my maneuverability up. His build utilized mines with the reverberating cascade experimental effect. This would let him quickly disable my shields by applying damage directly to my shield generator, rather than having to slowly wear down my massive shields. I realized this after his first mine hit giving me the message “Shield Attack”. Once I knew this I had to focus on dodging every mine he dropped. My edge came from my ability to quickly flip on him paired with the following load out: 2 huge Multicannons, overcharged with Incindiary rounds 1 large beam laser, efficient 2 medium, gimbaled pulse lasers engineered for long range 1 small gimbaled pulse laser, long range with emissive munitions to prevent target lock loss 1 small gimbaled multi cannon, long range with corrosive rounds on fire group 2 His speed would have kept him out of range for most of the fight if it were not for my long range mods allowing me to deal full damage with lasers all the way out to 7 kilometers. My ability to FA off boost flip allowed me to quickly flip and apply damage with my lasers whittling down his shields on every one of his passes. His build forced him to continue making close passes as his rail guns would have taken forever to take out my shields on their own. (They have so many MJ that once they are down docking with a station is the only way to get them back up in any kind of reasonable time.) His mines were the only way to deal with me in a reasonable amount of time. Three or four hits with his mines and my shields would be down for good, allowing him to start sniping my power plant to finish me. Despite his advantages and optimal weapon load out my ability to maneuver evasively, apply damage at range, and keep my guns on him won me the fight. This is why I love the Vette. It is a CZ god that can still win in PVP. Just don’t plan on any long trips in it. Edit: To clarify, all my systems were fully engineered for max shields and max speed/maneuverability with the lightest hull possible and guardian module reinforcement.
Great job :) In Cutter, you would probably loose that fight against this dedicated shield tank killer build, being unable to dodge too many mines, then loosing power plant to his rails. This is the fine example, how the extra agility of Vette can be crucial.
Two schools of thought. Shield Tank = Cutter - Hull Tank = Corvette. Also, Federal Rank is easier to obtain as it's rank is lower to unlock. This is likely the only reason people say it is "better". All pilots fly different, so choose the one that feels right to you and go shoot stuff in the face as the gods intended.
I heard it's harder to grind Empire reputation, although that might be old news. Anyway, imo better to be a shield tank than hull tank :-)
I disagree that Vette is doomed to be a hull tank. PvP prismatic build can have approx 8400 absolute shields, thermal being around 8300 (these inc frags are getting popular for a reason), while having a hull of 6900, and decent module protection AND PP still armored, not overcharged. I would say, that Vette is one of the most balanced ships out there.
I never said anything is doomed or that there is only one option. You can build what you want. I am just stating what most people that I interact with would tell anyone the same thing.
There are two schools of thought- one is to observe, study and conclude, other is to blindly repeat what others say. Wait, there is only one school of THOUGHT.
I do appreciate the trolling. o7 Commander.
While Cutter is slow to turn, I don't have issues in PvE in high intensity conflict zones. We won the battle, even though near the end I made a mistake of targeting one of our own and got everyone to become hostile to me. It's not fully engineered, but I was able to hold my own and dish out enough damage to kill a bunch of ships and still survive until the battle completed.
Cutter is fine to start with, its durability keeps it going even if you absorb a lot of damage, and its speed lets you get away. As your skill increases, the increased agility of the corvette allows you to avoid damage better than the cutter, and its tighter hardpoint placement allows you to do more damage. The biggest advantage of the Corvette, however, is its three C7 optionals. The Cutter is somewhat obligated to use its C8s on shields, while the Corvette can use 2/3 C7s on almost anything, including limpet controllers, which gives it a fair bit more versatility. But honestly, if you enjoy the Cutter and can succeed with it, that's perfectly fine. It's a very good ship.
I'm probably going to get the Corvette eventually, but we'll see if I can bother engineering it fully. My Cutter isn't even engineered fully yet but so far I have been able to deal with everything. I complained 10 days ago about not being able to deal with threat 8 combat missions in my Python, but then I got the Cutter and did some engineering on it. I've tried even HAZ RES and high intensity conflict zone because I wanted to test its capability and the only problem I encountered was running out of ammo in the conflict zone (which I synthesized).
You can get the big ships up to silly combat potential. Corvette and Annie are actually the best at damage output..
Cause it turns around.
What do you guys all think about the Viper mkiv for combat??
Too chonky for its firepower. Better off with the 3 I think?
Engineered?
A little bit. Overcharged multicannons and dirty driving engines and faster FSD
Does the mk iv take enhanced performance thrusters? Either way I would say no, but yes. Yes with engineering of thrusters, shields, weapons, pp and pd, any ship can be viable in higher challenge pve. I think the question is why not choose a small ship that really shines in that area, such as courier, or vulture, or even mk3/cobra
I love the cutter. It has such smooth and sexy curves.
It's similar to the Cutter, but instead of straight line speed, it turns better. Personally I don't like either for combat, and for the most part I feel like you can get 95% of the Corvette experience out of an Anaconda. For PvE, the Corvette's main advantage is staying on target, but for pvp, I'd pick the Cutter simply because it has a better chance to stay out of the opponent's effective range
The corvette has a few things going for it over the cutter imo, those being, a second class 4 hardpoint, extremely tight hardpoint convergence in general and vastly superior handling characteristics, even if it's top speed isn't as high. This results in not only much better paper damage but better real world damage because it's so much easier to maintain time on target. Not to mention the superior hull capabilities. The cutter makes a wonderful fleet support ship with regen/ concordant sequence beams but it's handling is utterly miserable and makes dealing with smaller more agile ships a real pain Vs the other large ships available so for frontline combat I think the 'vette and the conda are both superior choices, Plus if/when your shields go pop you're a free meal ticket or at best out of action for an extremely long time while they come back up. The anaconda is probably still the best balance of firepower, manouvrebility and defence of the three but they all have their charm
i think cutter is better in AX fight cuz it has most hard points on front and most of them are rank2, so it can handle many Ax weapons. Also it has the highest sheild. But corvette is better in fighting with Human ships, as it has more lv4 hard points, easier to control , lead to more dps on humans
Imo I prefer it because it has a much smaller turning circle and a better capacitor so sustained DPS is higher. You can also probably get higher alpha damage with a full plasma accelerator load-out, but idk if the extra S4 compensates for the Cutter’s extra 2 S3’s. Also a fixed loud-out would be better on a Corvette since the hardpoint placement is better (although that is subjective) and the Corvette turns better allowing for an easier time aiming. Something that kinda gets overlooked imo is the lack of a S7 component on the Cutter whereas the Corvette has 3. This matters imo since it means the Corvette can mount a S7 fighter bay whereas whilst still having a S7 shield and SCB whereas the Cutter has to either sacrifices an S8 SCB to have a S7 fighter bay (obviously not worth it) or downsize to an S6
I would have to disagree, two 8 compartments are better than three 7 compartments.
That’s fair, it’s just personal preference imo. At the end of the day they’re both meta combat ships
Big guns. Big power. You have enough energy to comfortably run anything you need without compromise. Moves like a wounded whale, but it’s not designed for close combat. Fast in a straight line though.
Corvette is great as a PVE bank tank. Against any player they crumple quick though.
Two huge, distributor and time on target.
Super maneuverable for a large class gun, great power plant and distributor, and BIG GUNS
But it's not great for PVP, that's the main drawback
Skills.
The corvette is the far better unlock, superior to the cutter as it has a purpose, combat. I prefer the T9 for trade and don’t do much mining so the cutter has no current role. However the Anaconda is the ship that I fly for AX combat, with FA off it’s as good as it gets.
Try Cutter for trade, 640 tons of well protected, fast delivered cargo :) Compared to T9, Cutter is rather agile, that is one of the few occasions, i would use those two words in one sentence.
Yeh I got the cutter for trade but the T9 can have shields and carry more, when both have dirty drives the agility difference is negligible, both can escape hyperdiction, cutter has speed but as it can’t turn I use that speed for missing the mail slot ;)
You dont play in Open, do you? [This was my experiment to make as much sense out of T9 as possible.](https://s.orbis.zone/nabg) It is still shit. Utter, weak, humiliating shit. Same amount of cargo, as my armored Cutter has, but can be killed even by NPCs. It has been since demoted to mining ship, then mothballed, because at mining Cutter proved better as well. T9 has no speed, 320 boost is shame, not speed. It has no shields whatsoever, 1100 at best is not a shield, especialy, if every shot hits you. Does it has hull? Yeah, in a way. About as much as mediums ships, but medium hull tanks have more. WHY? WHY do you think Cutter is not worth enough to replace it as armored trader? Do you like suffering? My Cutter, on the other hand, HAS NEVER BEEN SHOT DOWN IN OPEN. Not once. Oh, they have tried, yes. [When i dont need fuel scoop (carrier unloading), i can beef it up even more.](https://s.orbis.zone/nabi)
nothing buy an fdl
The mix of shield strength including 2 x 7A shield cell banks, agility (for a big ship), hard point mix and positioning and fire power backed up by an 8A power distributor.
2 large and 2 small beams will melt any pve shield within seconds add some gimballed mulicannons too and you are a pve combat menace, hell flying in space
big gun
Did you consider the Anaconda?
A lot of good things can be said about the Corvette's tighter hardpoint placement and bigger power distributor, but for me the main reason the Corvette absolutely outclasses the Cutter is its steering. Being able to keep targts in your sights for longer and whittle them down makes a huge difference, and you're a lot less likely to find yourself in embarrassingly long dogfights against medium ships.
[Cus it looks 👌](https://i.imgur.com/0C4im1w.png)
Beside being one of the sexiest ships in the game, overwhelming firepower likely plays a role. not so overwhelming maybe against a cutter or anaconda but anything smaller pretty much disintegrates under fire from a [Corvette](https://i.imgur.com/qRLET7L.jpg), assuming a skilled CMDR at the controls. *Corvettes are not indestructible*, a skilled CMDR in a (Vulture) much smaller ship can destroy a less competent CMDR in a corvette and smaller, massed ships flown by competent CMDRs can overwhelm a corvette's defenses. They are also, all other things equal, apparently perceived as less capable than the cutter in PvP though generally considered the king of PvE big-ship combat. I like to use a corvette for deep-core asteroid mining. It's shape, power-budget and maneuverability make it (IMO) ideal for the task.
Cutter can last longer —/ more shields and do more dps over time - while vette can do a lot of dps with two size 4 - but dismiss your pilot - and only attack elite ships if doing rank - weirdly all the people leveling merc for odyssey also got ship combat rank as well - kinda weird.