Is the Viper MK IV that bad?

[Julius Sebastus]

I read over the frontiers forums people complaining a lot about the Viper MK IV to be worst than the MK III and the Cobra, if you already used it, is it that bad or are they exaggerating?

[Bullfrog]

it's my fav cheap fighter with oodles of armor

[ImHelping]

It's less that it's "Bad" and more that it's a disappointment of expectations, because they are afraid to give anything below the 2 million credit price range better firepower than "2 small, 2 medium". Plus the fact all the ships with better firepower between Viper MKIII and the Vulture are all "Multi Role", adding a further feeling of "Wait, what?"

It still gets the job done and is a step up in leeway in power, hull, and internals from the Viper MKIII, (And The "Multi role" Imperial Courier needs Naval rank, Millions of Credits) So if you are eyeing it as your "Next bigger ship", that works fine... But yeah.

It's the biggest "Dedicated Combat" ship there is before the Vulture off at 5 Million, but it's still got as good, or WORSE, firepower than all the "Multi role" ships between that. Which in turn, all have something lacking to "Make sure they are not as good as the dedicated ships" in a vicious cycle.

It goes the other way too. For example, while the Diamondback Explorer (Multi role ship) has better firepower than the Viper MK IV... The Viper MK IV has better internals than the Diamondback EXPLORER.

So you have a Multipurpose ship with it's internals cut "To make sure it's not better than Dedicated ships, I guess". Then the Viper MKIV is actually better than the Diamondback explorer at everything but jump distance, when it comes to the planetside missions and planetary exploration end.

The Viper MKIV can carry:
C4: 16 Tons Cargo.
C4: Class 4 Vehicle bay (2 SRVs).
C3: Keep it's Class 3 Shields.
C2: Class 2 Fuel scoop. (I go bonkers if the "Time to full from empty" is less than 4 minutes)
C2: Detailed surface scanner.
C1: Advanced discovery scanner.

The Diamondback "Explorer" is down by two internal slots. Oh but I bet those extra utility mounts will REALLY help you out exploring planets or running planetside missions, really.

TL;DR: The Viper MKIV isn't "Bad". It's just that when it comes to the Viper MK IV, they basically went out of their way to improve everything BUT it's firepower.

It just leaves you wondering why it's still stuck with 2 Small, 2 Medium hardpoints. When the only ships with better firepower before the Vulture are "Multi role". (And then the Viper MKIV ends up having better internal space than some of those "Multi role explorer" ships, wut).

Speaking of firepower. Don't touch the Cobra MK IV as a primarily combat ship. It might have an extra gun, but it's got one of the slowest speeds in the game.

[Julius Sebastus]

Thanks a lot guys for the replies. Bying one right now.

[Captain Wolf]

I like my Viper MkIV, but I've also put a lot of time and money into upgrading it to make it what it is. The firepower is decent, and it makes for a good combat ship. I've racked up quite a bit of money just in conflict zones with it, so I'd say it's plenty adequate as a combat ship, and she can carry a decent amount of cargo if you dedicate enough space to it.

I just with they had some paint jobs for it :(

[Julius Sebastus]

Bought one last night, and right now I'm having a blast with it, with flight assist off I can turn pretty fast with it, not MK 3 fast but its still good, just need 2 millions to finish grade A equipment in all the slots, and yeah, I was trying to find a paint job for it last night on their website to no avail...maybe they don't need money.