Imperial Clipper
Heavy Multipurpose

Description

The Imperial Clipper is the quintessential Imperial ship. It epitomises elegance of form while delivering speed and agility. Because of its balance of Speed, Luxury and strength it is used for transporting valuable items and personnel of importance across the Empire.

The Imperial Clipper, built by Gutamaya, is one of the Empire's ships and thus are generally sold at Stations that are aligned with the Empire. To purchase the Imperial Clipper players must have earned the rank of Baron with the Imperial Navy.

This ship is quite popular with pirates, traders, and some combat pilots. It is a reasonable pirate ship due to the large cargo capacity and heavy armament. Traders may find this ship appealing due to its superb cargo capacity and defensive capability; while it is more expensive than the Lakon Type-7 it can easily defend itself against a pirate.

Pilots of any profession may appreciate its speed; it is second only to the Cobra MkIII with fully upgraded Thrusters. Additionally, its pitch rotation and yaw speed are higher than most ships, making it feel like a very hefty, weighted-down Eagle with a boost speed that is slightly higher than that of the Viper. Its only manoeuvering drawback, and likely the reason for its low overall agility rating, is its poor lateral thruster capability; the vertical-lateral thrusters are very weak compared to those of other ships.

This weakness, combined with very weak shields for its size and wing-mounted hardpoints ill-suited for fixed weapons, limits the Imperial Clipper's efficiency as a PvP combat ship even if the shields are upgraded to maximum. The Imperial Clipper is also currently the second widest ship controllable by players, which may pose a challenge with docking.

Speed and manoeuvrability fall off more heavily when heavily loaded than other ships, bringing it back into more normal speeds and turn rates when hauling cargo.

Both the ships interior and exterior are luxurious in design, the engines sport a radically different sound than other ships, and the large cockpit canopy features an unobstructed view of space.