Mamba exists solely for APA PVP? I don't understand what it's for.
- Thread starter XW_Ziggy
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I agree.
The Mamba should have a noteworthy speed advantage.
What else are these huge thrusters supposed to do? Why are they so huge if they do not offer anything that justifies the size of them..
I has a noteworthy speed advantage. With lightweight alloys the boost speed is close to 600 m/s.
Lightweight alloys alone is not enough to get it to 600... you have to make other sacrifices, especially HD shield boosters and prismatic shields, and as a result you end up with a fast ship that is no longer able to hold its own against an FdL which doesn't have to make such sacrifices.
Mine boosts 595 with lightweight alloys, 4A prismatic shields + 5A SCB, 5 boosters (including 1 HD).
A typical FDL boosts 560 (555 with LW reactive, 4A prismatic, 4 boosters including 2HD, 5A+4A doublebank), and its hull is not that much sturdier (1300 vs 1200), the shield is better though (2200 vs 1700, plus the extra SCB). But it's significantly slower.
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Its so odd that the phantom goes 585ms but the mamba is slower unless you go light waight.
The mamba has good acceleration. Thats its advantage over the phantom witch is slugish as hell, it takes two boosts to reach top speed and the lateral thrusters might as well be deodorant cans.
I think theat fdev dont fully understand why the fdl is so prevalent. Its the combo of pitch, acceleration, speed, hardpoint convergance and shields that make it so good.
Perhaps the mamba could use some of the FAS's pip endurance, so that blue zone and pips dont have a large impact on handling like the fdls does. This might balance thing but in a more interesting way than raw speed and stuff.
The mamba has good acceleration. Thats its advantage over the phantom witch is slugish as hell, it takes two boosts to reach top speed and the lateral thrusters might as well be deodorant cans.
I think theat fdev dont fully understand why the fdl is so prevalent. Its the combo of pitch, acceleration, speed, hardpoint convergance and shields that make it so good.
Perhaps the mamba could use some of the FAS's pip endurance, so that blue zone and pips dont have a large impact on handling like the fdls does. This might balance thing but in a more interesting way than raw speed and stuff.
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Im withholding judgement on what I think FD Understands until the post launch patch comes out.
No it doesn't. Atleast in pve. If it would, no-one would use Cutter in PvE.
It exists for the most important reason of all: variety. Not everyone chooses his ship(s) just for the sake of META. Some people fly ships simply because they like it.
Just be glad it's actually a brand new ship, and not just yet another copy pasta variant that seems to plague the medium ship segment.
Just be glad it's actually a brand new ship, and not just yet another copy pasta variant that seems to plague the medium ship segment.
Only swag matters.
That is a bad excuse for imbalance.
What else is is good for? Unless you can give me an example of a non-combat use for the Mamba, I'm going to treat it as a pure combat ship - and that's where it is objectively worse than its direct competition (FdL) and subjectively worse at combat than a few multi-role ships!
I could be pidgeonholing the Mamba here, but currently it takes the FdL as a starting point and makes it worse in every way that matters - agility, shield strength, ability to evade (lateral thrusters + huge hitbox), internals for HRP/MRP, weapon convergence. What it claims to offer in exchange for those downsides is speed and cheap boosting, both of which were taken away in Beta to make it much more like an FdL.
I guess I could run it as a PVE ship but the pitiful class-4 sensors don't work in its favour and it's a pretty significant downgrade from anything with an SLF and more hardpoints.
I hope so. If it's not at least an equal to other ships in combat, they need to make it good at something else. Racing? Target scouting? Smuggling?
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This is the lightweight version of the Mamba I was using in Beta 3: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...-)-Mamba-PvP?p=7193244&viewfull=1#post7193244
Didn't win every fight I was in (though I did actually win every fight against every Phantom I fought 1v1), but I was a match for some well piloted FDLs and it was a pretty durable setup. Mostly had trouble with ships that had several focused PAs...something I'll need to work on countering (probably with focused PAs of my own, now that a large and a huge won't melt the ship) once the Mamba settles into it's more or less final state.
The 'heavy' version I now have on live still does 582m/s boost and has ~600MJ more shielding (over 2k of fast charge bi-weaves) than the one I was using in Beta 3. Obviously, it can't boost as often, which hinders it's PA evasion a bit, but it's also got the buff to heat dissipation and rotation that it didn't have in Beta 3.
They know, but I don't think they want to duplicate it, for good reason.
Anyway, the Mamba doesn't need to outbrawl the FDL to have a niche, but it does need to be different in a way that isn't synonymous with 'suck'.
Oh, it's definitely a combat ship, but it's still not an FDL and the same loadouts and tactics that work well with the FDL will not be ideal with the Mamba.
Beta 4 did make it more like the FDL, which is unfortunate, but I don't feel the situation is as dire as you make it out to be.
- It can still evade ok because it still has silly good forward and reverse acceleration; just tapping reverse at an opportune moment will cause quite a few projectiles to miss their marks. Forward and side profile is also comparable to the FDL, even if it's a proverbial broad side of a barn from above or below.
- Internals are a wash...4/3/2/2 is barely worse than 4/4/2/1 and the Mamba has slightly higher base hull integrity.
- Hardpoint convergence is decidedly worse, but hardpoint sizes are generally more useful, unless you lock yourself into the all PA/rail 'meta' (which exists for a very good reason, but is far from the only viable weapons loadout). Most non-rail/PA medium weapons suffer fairly extreme damage reductions against the hulls of higher-tier combat ships, but large weapons do not. There are also some weapon types that get dramatically better from medium to large in other areas.
- It's speed is still a good deal higher than an equivalently fit FDL, which does matter.
- Also, it doesn't have the FDL's propensity to stall if you are less than perfect with throttle/thruster management. Edit: This was more true of the Beta 3 Mamba, but even the live version is a bit more tolerant than the FDL. However, something about the flight model seems to make ships more likely to do this the faster they can rotate (possibly simply to to them reaching the opposing vector more quickly), so it may lose what's left of this advantage if it's buff the 'wrong' way.
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Coriolis tells me 592 but in game is really 577.
Yeah, the stall characteristic of the FdL is very much the problem with the current, live version of the Mamba. I was in Open on Friday/Saturday getting interdicted around Shinrarta by the usual gank squads. In unfair situations (2 or more versus just me) I found the extra 20-30m/s over an FdL was enough to let me low-wake and carry on my way. In 1v1 where I gave it my best shot I found that if I tried to fly it any way other than like a stall-happy FdL I failed hard.
I like the FdL but the game doesn't need a second one. IMO the Python's on-rails turning in the blue-zone would be more welcome. It would reward competent pilots able to juggle the overall speed whilst maintaining blue-zone and as a result make the Mamba both more interesting and more rewarding.
LOL, for someone who hates company, you have a nice sense of humor.
I have said that it handles like the 1960's batmobile in other threads - this comment is legit.