Cobra Mk.III for Trading?

[wolfheart303]

I just upgraded from the starter Sidewinder into the Cobra Mk.III and I'm at something of a loss as to how I should set it up for trading. The hold space is great, but I'm going to have to replace some core modules before the jump range overtakes the range on my Sidewinder. I threw the hardpoints in storage (playing on Solo, running has worked well so far) and that helped some. Any suggestions on which core modules to replace first?

[Harrison]

One thing to remember is that D rated modules, core or optional, all have the lowest weight and B rated the highest. Weight has the greatest impact on jump range.

For the best jump range getting an A rated FSD is vital. For long range trips a fuel scoop is equally important, other wise you’ll have to dock up to refuel.

Thrusters can probably be fit to taste, as can the power plant and power distributer. I recommend D rated for a purpose built trader.

Edit-
Something like this for a short range trade run: https://eddp.co/u/SE2oj9pZ

This is basically the fit I used early on for the circular rare trade route early on to build up funds.

[Agony_Aunt]

Ok, don't listen to Harrison here. This is how you die, especially if playing in Open.

You A rate most things (life support and sensors can D rate), slap some military or reactive armour on there, and put some decent shields on it. Either biweaves or A class.

The loss of jump range is worth the extra safety.

The CM3 is fast, but unless engineered, you're not outrunning a player engineered ship which will also likely mass lock you. So you need to be prepared to high wake, now low wake, unless you are much faster. You could look at fitting some mine launchers to act as deterrents to people chasing you in a straight line.

Also, when running, don't run in a straight line. Weave around a bit.

[wolfheart303]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Ok, don't listen to Harrison here. This is how you die, especially if playing in Open.

You A rate most things (life support and sensors can D rate), slap some military or reactive armour on there, and put some decent shields on it. Either biweaves or A class.

The loss of jump range is worth the extra safety.

The CM3 is fast, but unless engineered, you're not outrunning a player engineered ship which will also likely mass lock you. So you need to be prepared to high wake, now low wake, unless you are much faster. You could look at fitting some mine launchers to act as deterrents to people chasing you in a straight line.

Also, when running, don't run in a straight line. Weave around a bit.

I play on Solo, so I'm not overly worried about surviving a hostile encounter, but the basic shields definitely make me nervous now that I'm hauling around 20t of cargo and six-digit-reward contracts. So, A-rated or Bi-weave: check.

How effective is chaff, really? Should I waste the space/weight or just use the mine launchers? In my mind the chaff seems like it would work well, but I'm pretty sure I read that it only works on gimballed/turreted weapons. I'm pretty good at weaving or doing a pitch & roll manouver to get out of the crosshairs, but to be fair, I'm still messing around in the Bootis area and I've not encountered much resistance. I've only been interdicted a few times so far and I've escaped each time. I have a feeling it won't always be that easy.

I'm still not totally clear on how engineers work. Are they people you find at certain stations or do you hire them to work on your ship? I have Horizons, so I assume I have access to them, wherever they are.

[Harrison]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Ok, don't listen to Harrison here. This is how you die, especially if playing in Open.

Playing solo that fits works fine. NPC are fairly stupid and give you plenty of time to boost away from them and out of range.

I definitely wouldn’t recommend it for Open either.

I also wouldn’t have said anything if OP had asked for an Open fit as I don’t play in that mode myself.

[L37]

Chaff is extermely usefull on small ships. It makes gimballed/turreted weapons almost 100% ineffective for its duration.

As for defences... IMO it is pointless trying to build not engineered cobra to survive player interdiction, especially since OP plays in solo. As for NPC-s - IIRC they do not have upgrades, so lightweight cobra with A-grade thrusters should be completely safe here. Even shieldless.
Actually, once you accepted inevitable risk of something going wrong, flying shieldless works well on small ships built around speed as their primary defence. Mostly because those <100Mj of shields do not matter in most cases, unlike speed reduction biggest A-grade shield generator will cause.

[Agony_Aunt]

Chaff is useful against NPCs as many run gimballed or turrets. Just watch out for those sporting fixed weapons, especially PAs or Rails,, especially if they are high ranked.

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by Harrison:

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Ok, don't listen to Harrison here. This is how you die, especially if playing in Open.

Playing solo that fits works fine. NPC are fairly stupid and give you plenty of time to boost away from them and out of range.

I definitely wouldn’t recommend it for Open either.

I also wouldn’t have said anything if OP had asked for an Open fit as I don’t play in that mode myself.

I'd say its a bad habit to get into relying in sub-standard builds. Even in PG/solo there is little to be gained by running such builds. Especially thrusters, if you can't fight, make sure you can run.

Shields are also important. Those d-rated shields will just melt, and if they are packing missiles as well, the next thing you know your thrusters are gone and you are as good as dead.

[ExtremelyMift69]

Originally posted by wolfheart303:

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Ok, don't listen to Harrison here. This is how you die, especially if playing in Open.

You A rate most things (life support and sensors can D rate), slap some military or reactive armour on there, and put some decent shields on it. Either biweaves or A class.

The loss of jump range is worth the extra safety.

The CM3 is fast, but unless engineered, you're not outrunning a player engineered ship which will also likely mass lock you. So you need to be prepared to high wake, now low wake, unless you are much faster. You could look at fitting some mine launchers to act as deterrents to people chasing you in a straight line.

Also, when running, don't run in a straight line. Weave around a bit.

I play on Solo, so I'm not overly worried about surviving a hostile encounter, but the basic shields definitely make me nervous now that I'm hauling around 20t of cargo and six-digit-reward contracts. So, A-rated or Bi-weave: check.

How effective is chaff, really? Should I waste the space/weight or just use the mine launchers? In my mind the chaff seems like it would work well, but I'm pretty sure I read that it only works on gimballed/turreted weapons. I'm pretty good at weaving or doing a pitch & roll manouver to get out of the crosshairs, but to be fair, I'm still messing around in the Bootis area and I've not encountered much resistance. I've only been interdicted a few times so far and I've escaped each time. I have a feeling it won't always be that easy.

I'm still not totally clear on how engineers work. Are they people you find at certain stations or do you hire them to work on your ship? I have Horizons, so I assume I have access to them, wherever they are.

Chaff does only effect turrets & gimballed but it's worth it for that reason, if you're weaving around you're already trying to avoiding fixed weapon fire. Bind the chaff to a key rather than to a fire group (I use 'C'), swapping fire groups in a fight takes too much time and can waste it if it's bound with your weapons. Save the chaff for when it's really needed such as when your shields are going down fast. Fit a point defence module also, this will take care of torpedoes & missiles automatically with no input required from you.

Do the 'A' grade thing with your modules as suggested above, it costs, but it is worth it in the end.

Fly safe & have fun Cmdr. o7

[Shredz]

Best trading you can do in Cobra is Rares Trading: Here's the "Standard Rares Run" utilizing the Lave Cluster, the closest concentration of Rares in the Bubble.

http://needsmorepolish.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/fingerbobs-guide-to-elite-dangerous.html

[Alshain]

Even in open, you don't need much in the way of defenses for just trading. stay our of systems like Leesti (only a fool would carry cargo into that system in open play) but you won't run into a lot of hostile players running trade otherwise. I don't even have weapons on my trade ship and I use lightweight alloys. D rate everything you can except FSD and thrusters.

In most cases you should be able to evade NPC interdiction, even in my Type 9 I evade everything, and it has terrible turning.

These people telling you to A rate everything and stock up on weapons and military alloys have probably never done any serious trading. The truth is, a trade ship isn't going to be able to fight a player pirate anyway. Your better off giving them what they want (your cargo bay will be bigger than theirs anyway). However, I have yet to lose cargo to a player, because encounters don't happen that often.

The only defense you need is shields, in case you hit something. Otherwise, make your ship as light as possible, Max out your jump range, and thrusters so Docking isn't painful and add as light as power plant and distributor as you can get away with.

By the time you have a Cobra you are getting to the point you can do better with standard trades, time to leave the rare trades to the newbies. (The guide posted above was written in 2015! It's no longer accurate, we didn't even have passenger missions then )

[wolfheart303]

Thank you, I really appreciate the feedback. I'm going to run a few more contracts to build up funds, then I'll see about upgrading my FSD and adding chaff/missile defense. I'm planning on doing pure trade until I hit ~5 mil cr, then I want to do some exploring so I can get away from the starter systems.

Have fun & fly safe, Cmdrs! o7

[Tag]

Go do trading rarity cargo. Cobra is perfect fit for them, because the supply is always limited for rarities.