what a beauty the Cobra turrets animation

[martinld2000]

Hi, recorded this video because the animation of the turret being deployed, moving and then hidding in is a pure beauty.

https://youtu.be/PEY1tGtqa-8



will try to catch next the animations of the L new 3.2 turret in the split destryer, they are like massive cannons moving in every direction, really cool.



The Cobra is probably the best frigate in 3.2, in this showcase is firing its four M turrets Bolt Mk1 at the same target.



The four turrets are extremelly well placed pointing to the front and upper side of the ship, combined with its three frontal guns and strong hull make her ideal for a frontal confrontation.
But also its MK4 combat engine makes her imposible to catch or hit if you need to take distance.
No weakness, the shield is not great but enough, and its huge mass makes it hard to dodge but compensates with a super acceleration.




Paradoxian:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN7yf- ... /playlists

[martinld2000]

someone asked about the Cobra specs:
here they are:

https://youtu.be/uMW5TzwbrbA

with some action taking down an ARgon destroyer wandering alone in split space.

[Imperial Good]

For anyone wanting to personally fly a Cobra, just do not. Take a Dragon Raider and save yourself the frustration. The Cobra is fantastic at exploit boarding ships and low attention loot grabbing, but next to that it really is not that good. It sucks at dogfighting, and soaks up shots like a sponge which given it has only 2 shield generators is not a good thing. It practically never flies anywhere, it drifts there instead and since weapon aim does not factor in drift that means it has the accuracy of a drunk.

The Dragon Raider is technically more capable in every way that matters. It is a lot smaller so hit profile is better. It is faster with fantastic handling, unlike the out of control train wreck that is the Cobra. It has 3 more guns. Even the WASD strafing is far superior to the point you can dodge XEN Gravton trivially, let alone slower Plasma. Throw on SPL shotgun weapons and you can melt Ps in 1-2 seconds.

[Rastuasi]

For anyone wanting to personally fly a Cobra, just do not. Take a Dragon Raider and save yourself the frustration. The Cobra is fantastic at exploit boarding ships and low attention loot grabbing, but next to that it really is not that good. It sucks at dogfighting, and soaks up shots like a sponge which given it has only 2 shield generators is not a good thing. It practically never flies anywhere, it drifts there instead and since weapon aim does not factor in drift that means it has the accuracy of a drunk.

The Dragon Raider is technically more capable in every way that matters. It is a lot smaller so hit profile is better. It is faster with fantastic handling, unlike the out of control train wreck that is the Cobra. It has 3 more guns. Even the WASD strafing is far superior to the point you can dodge XEN Gravton trivially, let alone slower Plasma. Throw on SPL shotgun weapons and you can melt Ps in 1-2 seconds.

Except one bit that matters most.. I don't like the dragon, won't like it, cobra looks 1000000000000 times better, cobra has way more utility with bay, drones, fighters, etc.. oh and is more fun imo, so no thanks, cobra is better to me in every feasible way. This is a solo player game, don't come ragging on this guy's post of him showing off something he likes with your min maxing. Not everyone plays the way you do nor values what you do for their game.

[GCU Grey Area]

Except one bit that matters most.. I don't like the dragon, won't like it, cobra looks 1000000000000 times better, cobra has way more utility with bay, drones, fighters, etc.. oh and is more fun imo, so no thanks, cobra is better to me in every feasible way. This is a solo player game, don't come ragging on this guy's post of him showing off something he likes with your min maxing. Not everyone plays the way you do nor values what you do for their game.

Agree with this. Tried both Dragon variants & found them both to be incredibly fragile. Only useful thing they ever did for me was enable me to steal the next M warship in the sequence (i.e. Dragon Raider -> Dragon -> Cobra). Was very glad when I no longer had to put up with tinfoil hulls & shields that are essentially non-existant.

[Imperial Good]

Agree with this. Tried both Dragon variants & found them both to be incredibly fragile. Only useful thing they ever did for me was enable me to steal the next M warship in the sequence (i.e. Dragon Raider -> Dragon -> Cobra). Was very glad when I no longer had to put up with tinfoil hulls & shields that are essentially non-existant.

Dragon is fragile? It practically never gets hit and does so much damage that lone enemies are dead before they can deal much to the shield.

I did tests between the two as I tried to get the Cobra to work. Target was a swarm of 3-4 XEN P ships to destroy while player flow. Cobra consistently lost most of its shield and took over 1 minute to kill them. Dragon Raider consistently ends with full shield and takes under 30 seconds to kill them. This is because with the Dragon Raider I can boost into combat and not drift for 10 km, thanks to its lower mass, and then use the double gun count which can aim, thanks to not drifting everywhere, to kill them in 1-2 seconds each. Main limiting factor to how fast the Dragon Raider can kill fighters is the heat cooldown on the weapons, as opposed to the time the ship takes to stop drifting to line up a shot that stands a reasonable chance of hitting the target.

Another example of why the Dragon Raider is technically superior. Stripping XEN L Gravton turrets off a K. Cobra cannot do this in a non-tracking missile configuration. In order to line up non-tracking shots the cobra has to fly straight for such a long time that between its massive drifting problem and its huge hitbox it will tank every shot from the Gravton turrets. Since it has only 2 shield generators these quickly fail and you are forced to flee before dealing much damage to the surface elements, or having to spend a long time waiting for repairs and shield recharge. Dragon Raider can stay up to as little as 1 km from the turrets and just WASD strafe the shots taking no damage at all for as long as the player wants, which is not too long given how its 6 high accuracy guns make short work of the huge L turrets.

Cobra works well as a tracking missile delivery vehicle. The huge speed, large missile capacity and little need to aim suit its flight characteristics perfectly. It even has +1 gun over other frigates to do this allowing more missiles per volley. Certainly gets my recommendation for that as best in class. It also is fantastic at boarding other ships since it holds 25 marines which with enough skill can take practically any ship the NPCs own. But for dog fighting and killing ships without missiles use a Dragon Raider is far superior.

[jlehtone]

Dragon is fragile? It practically never gets hit ...

... drift for 10 km ...

Dragon Raider can stay up to as little as 1 km from the turrets and just WASD strafe the shots taking no damage at all for as long as the player wants

I don't know what "drift" is, can't see any turret shooting at me except from the THE END text that the game prints, ...
I don't know all the flight controls and probably explicitly ignore some, ending up flying ships "all wrong". Am I bovvered? No.

The point is, the way the player controls a ship has huge impact on the result.
Dragon's features suit your style and Cobra's features suit better to GCU Grey Area's style and/or preferences.

On one had a comparison should be made by flying each ship "optimally". That would yield "absolute" best ship. For some purpose.
On the other hand such comparison is pointless, unless the same player can fly all ships optimally. Not all of us can.


When metric of "best" is which ship has most beautiful Cobra turret animation ... it is hard to guess the winner.
It is, however, appropriate to ask: Have you explored other options?

[martinld2000]

I will never be a good pilot because I am techically blind = vision less than .5/10, i played a lot with Argon frigate and found thatI could not escapefrom a dogfight when things where going bad.

Also played with the dragon but they blew me up in seconds, with low vision a super agile ship does not help much , on the other hand, the Cobra sits there i wait and the turrets plus the frontal gun badly damages anything coming, and when things go wrong with the tab key super acelerates a few times buster than any Argon ship and was never traapped ina fight i didnt want.

thatsawhy I love the Cobra. It suits me perfectly, more than any other ship soo far.

[GCU Grey Area]

Dragon is fragile? It practically never gets hit and does so much damage that lone enemies are dead before they can deal much to the shield.

Yes, very fragile. Might do ok against lone enemies or easy targets (such as Xenon), however at the time I was flying my Raider I was mostly hunting ZYA Colonial Police (they had ships I wanted & couldn't obtain from FRF). They rarely travelled alone (wings of 3+ were far more common) & were substantially better armed than any Xenon S or M ship. Every time they'd cut through my shields as if they weren't there & virtually every encounter ended with my Raider taking significant hull damage. Things got considerably less dicey after I captured a ZYA Dragon (shields were still crap, but at least I had a bit more hull), but only became easy encounters after I got my Cobra - the extra shield generator & much thicker hull made all the difference.

Stripping XEN L Gravton turrets off a K.

I use heavy torps for that. Usual approach is a full speed attack run, short burst of gunfire (2x Tau) to soften shields, then launch torp at point blank range to finish the job - couple of seconds later BOOM! Repeat a few times & K is effectively disarmed with minimal risk. Even more effective against an I - burst radius of a torp can hit multiple L turrets in close proximity.

It also is fantastic at boarding other ships since it holds 25 marines which with enough skill can take practically any ship the NPCs own. But for dog fighting and killing ships without missiles use a Dragon Raider is far superior.

Never tried using Cobra for boarding ops. Rarely do them & only if the client is offering something really good (e.g. purple weapon mod). In such circumstances prefer to use an L freighter to transport the marines, while I deal with engines & turrets with my Cobra. For dogfighting still prefer my Cobra. It's far more durable, not limited to boom & zoom tactics, & with 2x Tau + 4x Shard turrets can still rip apart enemy fighters & M ships fast enough for my purposes.

[Imperial Good]

I use heavy torps for that. Usual approach is a full speed attack run, short burst of gunfire (2x Tau) to soften shields, then launch torp at point blank range to finish the job - couple of seconds later BOOM! Repeat a few times & K is effectively disarmed with minimal risk. Even more effective against an I - burst radius of a torp can hit multiple L turrets in close proximity.

I just fly to within 2 km range and shoot the turrets with 6 guns. No ammunition or fancy flying needed since Gravton turrets cannot hit anything more agile than a frigate. If things get too risky just a quick tab boost and I am well out of range. Tried this with cobra and that did not go well...

Again this supports my recommended use case above. If you want to blow stuff up with ammunition use a Cobra as between its high speed, 3 guns and good ammo capacity it is perfect for it. However if you want to shoot stuff use a Dragon Raider. Dragon Raider is faster and hence better for personal flying than the Dragon.

Never tried using Cobra for boarding ops. Rarely do them & only if the client is offering something really good (e.g. purple weapon mod). In such circumstances prefer to use an L freighter to transport the marines, while I deal with engines & turrets with my Cobra.

Why deal with the engines or turrets? Just dump the marines in front and let the ship scoop them up. Sure hull cutting takes 30 minutes odd but the ship will even turn friendly by then. Cobra is perfect for this as it holds 25 marines and goes quite fast in a straight line.

One can get most L and XL ships doing this trivially and with skilled enough marines usually for a fraction of the cost of buying it. Very useful early game before you get massive L/XL build capacity. Best target are construction ships when one has 25 x 3 star marines as some of them will occur few to no losses and due to the unnecessary deployable will even downgrade for millions of profit while keeping the ship fully functional.

For dogfighting still prefer my Cobra. It's far more durable, not limited to boom & zoom tactics, & with 2x Tau + 4x Shard turrets can still rip apart enemy fighters & M ships fast enough for my purposes.

A Dragon Raider with 6 Tau Accelerators modified with exceptional weapon mods can explode practically every M ship in seconds at most. It also can hit fighters much more easily since it is not drifting/skidding all over the place due to its mass. Where as my cobra takes 10-20 seconds per Xenon S ship kill due to having to wait for the drifting to stop to line up a shot, my Dragon Raider only takes a couple of seconds as it does not drift everywhere.

[shanrak]

Just let the man enjoy his Cobra

Its good everyone has different preferred ships. Mine is the Nemesis and I prefer it over any other ship. I have 4 of them fully modded/outfitted for me to hop around and do missions/capping in.

[Alan Phipps]

The beauty of this game compared with X Rebirth is that we can get to try out different ships and pick the ones that best suit our choices of playstyle, roleplaying, utility and aesthetics. The added bonus is in the little details and animations that we might notice for the first time as we experience different assets and situations.

One animation detail that really impressed me was the pilot's seat expanding and contracting to suit pilots of different races and statures.

[shanrak]

One animation detail that really impressed me was the pilot's seat expanding and contracting to suit pilots of different races and statures.

Holy crap, 500 hours in and I haven't noticed that, I'll have to pay attention to it next time.

[martinld2000]

Decided to take a look again at the Dragon and here are the results:

https://youtu.be/_QANFJ3qkeI

I think there is room for both ships, each for its role and pilot preferences.

The Cobra style is to stop engines, go backwars and exchange punch to punch with the enemy.
if things go bad, press tab and noe is able to ctch the cobra in acceleration.

The Dragon style is to snipe the enemy discharge the six cannons and hopefully the enemy will blow up before reacting, as soon as you receive a hit, should do evasive and hit again. kind of a dogfighter role.

for taking down a destructor however i would use the Cobra. any lucky shot by the plasma will take down the dragon.

[GCU Grey Area]

Where as my cobra takes 10-20 seconds per Xenon S ship kill due to having to wait for the drifting to stop to line up a shot

10-20 seconds? That's atrocious. Have not experienced anything remotely like that with mine. No waiting to line up shots - I just get on their tail, adjust throttle to approx same speed & shoot them. What mods do you have on your Cobra? Some setups can have a noticeable impact on handling, though have never managed to mess up one of my ships to quite that extent. Here's the current specs on my Cobra & mod list:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3jt0r7zltj18v ... 1.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/clwttszc55cf4 ... 1.jpg?dl=0
This setup works well.
Only other thing I can think of is cargo, which can also have a significant impact on handling. Best not to have anything at all in the hold when heading into combat.

[Imperial Good]

The Cobra style is to stop engines, go backwars and exchange punch to punch with the enemy.

Which requires taking a lot of hits because one cannot execute evasive manoeuvres the entire time. It only has 2 shield generators to do this with, compared with the 3 of other Frigates, and so will lose significant shield against other M ships. Hence my statement about losing a lot of shield when fighting a couple of Ps.

The Dragon style is to snipe the enemy discharge the six cannons and hopefully the enemy will blow up before reacting, as soon as you receive a hit, should do evasive and hit again. kind of a dogfighter role.

Not so much sniping but more dominating the battlefield in general. Select a victim, fly to it, explode it, repeat. The occasional breather is needed while the 6 guns cooldown, but given nothing can remotely hit it while at full speed this is fine. As long as you are not the only target and so have 20+ ships gunning just at you it is literally an unstoppable slaughter ranking up kills like crazy. It is also agile enough that against lone S and M ships it can boost past them, turn around and shoot them while they are still turning around which allows it to avoid direct volleys against the shields. It only has 1 shield but for player operation this is more than sufficient.

The situations it struggles are where the Cobra also struggles, when horrendously outnumbered and everything gunning at it. Cobra can use drones in these situations to help distract some of the firepower but the mileage of drones varies and with aiming improvements is significantly less than before where they were nearly unkillable by most NPCs. In such situations I recommend throwing a couple of L or XL ships to act as bullet sponges and distract some of the fighters. Alternatively a fleet of 10 or 20 split S ships can help out, but losses might occur as they are less durable. This gives enough distraction to let you prowl around and kill ships unhindered.

for taking down a destructor however i would use the Cobra. any lucky shot by the plasma will take down the dragon.

Plasma cannot really hit the dragon if flown properly. The highest risk is being hit by plasma balls that were targeting other ships by accident.

That said I agree Cobra is better for the job. Missile spammage is pretty much the most effective way to kill L ships using a M ship. Especially given how slow NPC L ships are.

What mods do you have on your Cobra?

Exceptional mass reduction with high rolls to both drag and mass reduction. Exceptional forward thrust.

Weapons are not modified. I was using Neutral Gatling Mk2. Might give it a try with Tau Accelerator Mk2 again, but this will make little difference given that my main problem with it is how bad it flies rather than its firepower. I started to use tactics that relied on taking hits to kill stuff rather than with the Dragon Raider where I just fly up to something and explode it while dodging most of the shots.

[GCU Grey Area]

Exceptional mass reduction with high rolls to both drag and mass reduction. Exceptional forward thrust.

Prefer the blue Lubricator mod myself. Still get most of the drag reduction (goes up to 17%), but instead of the mass reduction (which only affects acceleration) there's a whole host of secondary effects available. For my Cobra ended up with a fair bit of extra hull & capacity for 3 more drones. Need to be careful with that forward thrust mod. Easy to overlook some of the secondary effects. In particular if you end up with near max forward thrust but significantly lower modifiers to strafe and/or rotation it can make a ship a bit of a handful, especially in conjunction with mass/drag reduction mods.

Weapons are not modified. I was using Neutral Gatling Mk2. Might give it a try with Tau Accelerator Mk2 again

Very fond of Taus myself - the damage they do is really quite exceptional, though also carry around a Tuatara (1x Mining Drill + 1x Beam Emitter) for those circumstances where I need a bit more precision. Taus, for example, are utterly useless for opening lockboxes. Aside from that the main downside with the Tau is it overheats like crazy. Like to use Benguela mods to cool them - slight damage nerf, but that's more than compensated for by increased rate of fire.