Been meaning to register here for a while, but only now am I actually getting around to it. ^^
My Challenger is the result of my search for a suitable HazRES Mat farmer that's combat effective and enjoyable to fly, as discussed and developed in this thread:
Akshually, I have very rarely bothered with picking up mats when hunting pirates in RES. Sometimes I notice some goodies floating around and then I pick them up manually, but I don't need to tell you that is a bit of a pain. So I noticed several of you mention that you bring collector limpets...
forums.frontier.co.uk
The main contenders were the Challenger and the Krait Mk II, supplemented by the Phantom. I built all of them and tested them extensively, refining the setups several times.
Kraits have no obvious flaws? I beg to differ. I find the MkII a solid pain to fly, being forced to boost each and every time you want to change vector. I find it incrediby arduous to fly. The Phantom is a little better, but really not by much. The other day I wanted to take out my Phantom for a change, then after 1 or 2 kills I was like "Nah, this is
work" and went back to get out the Chally.
Compared to the Kraits, the Challenger is a swift. Personally I prefer the flight model of the Chieftain, but the Chally handles well enough to fight in it for hours. The internals are especially suited for mat gathering by virtue of its internals, with room for two class 3 limpet controllers and 64 drones.
However, after several iterations I ended up using only a single controller, because I really had to barter for every LED's worth of power. My issues with finding a suitable setup for this ship were twofold:
1. the hardpoint layout is very generous, but the class 6 distro can really hit its limits supplying a whopping 7 hardpoints.
2. I discovered the benefits of running ships on an Armoured reactor instead of Overcharged, but this goal didn't make finding a setup for 7 weapons any easier.
Ofc it would be trivial to set it up with pulse lasers and multicannons, but I don't like these kinds of weapons very much. They take way too long to build up damage for my liking, and the damage pool of multis isn't that glorious either. I love the Pacifiers on my Chieftain, but on the Chally I'd be limited to a single one -- not good. When I experimented with two medium PAs, I knew I was on the right track. The loadout evolved into a pretty complex setup to combine performance, versatility and utility:
L: LR Beam /w TV
MM: Rapid Fire PAs /w p.slug
M: LR Rail /w FC
SS: LR Beam /w TV
S: HiCap MC /w Corrosive
This setup proved to be workable and actually pretty good in a Wing, since you can easily "tag" enemies from far away. It's also okay going solo but damage output could be better. Also, it requires careful firegroup management to have the Rail available when an enemy fires a shield cell. Rapid Fire Plasmas are plain fun and offer the highest SDPS of all PAs so I knew I wanted to stick with those.
The main downside of this setup was that it was impossible to supply with an Armoured reactor - it had to be OC, which of course has worse efficiency, and means you will overheat measurably quicker, cutting into your SDPS. Thermal Vent can help with it somewhat, but it has its limitations.
So then I began adjusting the entire setup (inc. shield boosters etc) for power economy, swapped out all those weapons for Efficient versions etc, and eventually was able to run everything on an Armoured PP with Thermal Spread. Now it had become impossible to overheat, but the downside was that the Alpha (burst) damage had suffered a lot. The whole thing felt... gelded. Or watered down, whatever. In short, not really satisfactory anymore.
Finally I unlocked Cytoscramblers, and those would prove to be a gamechanger. I redid the entire loadout. The high anti-shield damage of the Cytos meant I could get rid of the railgun entirely-- when an enemy procs a shield cell, you just shoot 3, 4 more times and it's gone again. I still trimmed the lasers and shield boosters for efficiency, but with a refit of the PP to Monstered, I was actually able to fit in a third, large PA. The setup is now also simpler, more straightforward:
LMM: RF PAs /w slug
M: HiCap MC /w Corr
SSS: Eff Cytos /w Flow Control
Here is the complete (current) build on EDSY, as it can demonstrate my thermals-centered design philosophy better than Coriolis:
Grimlock
Oh, and the name?
Well, I've always thought the Challenger model looks stupid, with its tiny stub front winglets that don't do anything useful, it kinda reminds me of a Tyrannosaurus, or more precisely a T-Rex made of metal...
