Challenger is not a challenge it's just no good.?

[askavir]

Making variants or very similar-looking designs does not equal copy/paste.

I have to agree with this.

Look at the Asp, the Explorer variant is a great ship, regular top-3 on any system's traffic list. The Scout on the other hand, a pile of poo that nearly anyone ever uses, a regular missing entry on any system's traffic list.

 

[Bunkerkind Anni]

i wouldn't mind an adder variant with the pilot seat in the middle and a bit more forward (similar to dolphin)
with two more roof windows increasing the field of view.

then replace the one medium with two small hardpoints and deal done -> i would totally fly it (multicrew)

 

[Bunkerkind Anni]

I have to agree with this.

Look at the Asp, the Explorer variant is a great ship, regular top-3 on any system's traffic list. The Scout on the other hand, a pile of poo that nearly anyone ever uses, a regular missing entry on any system's traffic list.

because that scout did not add anything usefull.
if it had a different weapon layout, like having the two medium slots in a different place (one on the top center, the other one bottom center) it could have been my medium multicrew ship with 360°/360° fire-angle with turrets in those slots.

but as it is, ist just an oversized cobra...

 

[Sysmon]

The Challenger is good fun. Quick and agile, and with lots of firepower. Kitted one out for thargoid hunting in the bubble, but am spending more time hunting pirates while waiting for the apparently never-spawning NHSS sites...

S

 

[Pville_Piper]

My biggest complaint about the Challenger is that the distributor drains too fast. Other than that, it offers very little to the way I game that the Chieftain does.

The Krait on the other hand fits my needs to a "t".

 

[Audaxxx]

Fix the canopy and it'll be a great ship. Seeing as it's designed to be a hulltank/hyrbrid ship it has a pretty pathetic canopy. I've fought many Cmdrs that have had to leave the fight at 80% hull because the canopy exploded.

I think it's more of a wider problem too though. Engineering made the rest of the ship stronger but left the canopy's untouched. We could really do with the option to engineer them like the rest of the ship.

 

[Starman 1966]

The Chieftain wasn't my favourite due to its drift. The Challenger is a pleasure to fly and the hardpoint convergence is way better compared to the FAS.

 

[Bunkerkind Anni]

Fix the canopy and it'll be a great ship. Seeing as it's designed to be a hulltank/hyrbrid ship it has a pretty pathetic canopy. I've fought many Cmdrs that have had to leave the fight at 80% hull because the canopy exploded.

I think it's more of a wider problem too though. Engineering made the rest of the ship stronger but left the canopy's untouched. We could really do with the option to engineer them like the rest of the ship.

your canopy benefits from the same resists as your hull,
it also benefits from MRPs and AFMUs
neither was it "untouched" as i remember that it was changed to count as an "internal" at some point.

so, if you are face-tanking other commanders, you may want to keep that in mind.
as i read in many other topics - a hull-tank build needs to focus on keeping the modules alive, not only the hull as such.

 

[Audaxxx]

your canopy benefits from the same resists as your hull,
it also benefits from MRPs and AFMUs
neither was it "untouched" as i remember that it was changed to count as an "internal" at some point.

so, if you are face-tanking other commanders, you may want to keep that in mind.
as i read in many other topics - a hull-tank build needs to focus on keeping the modules alive, not only the hull as such.

Do you fight mostly PVP or PVE? I'm aware this isn't a problem for PVE as NPC's don't carry a full set of 5 plasmas that can deal 150 DPS. Someone gets a lucky shot of that to your canopy and its game over no matter how good you are at evasion.

It doesn't quite count as an internal module as it also receives direct damage bypassing the module protection and with an integrity of 30hp it doesn't stand much of a chance to a direct hit.

I meant untouched in the sense of engineering possibilities. I could be wrong but I think everything else can be engineered apart from the canopy (oh and MRP's but that;s not really an internal module) which seems strange to me and an obvious weak point to what is supposed to be a combat ship.

I'm guessing the resist you talk about is the bleed through it receives as a percentage of hull damage which isn't really the issue it's more the direct damage that is causing a problem.

On a final not the AFMU isn't any good if you get one shotted which is what i'm talking about here and is quite common in PVP. It's not just me i'm talking about, i've been in numerous fights with the new ships where the cmdrs had to call it due to canopy failure at >80% hull.

 

[TheMegaTurnip]

So what will happen to the challenger

Hopefully nothing. I love that ship, it's tougher than the FAS, more DPS than the Chief and FDL, a better moveset than all three of those and it looks a hell of a lot better.

For my flight style at least, the Challenger is the only medium ship i fly, otherwise its smalls allll day.

It's only downside imo, is the speed, but even thats not that much of a worry when you can silent run the thing as well as a FAS can.

EDIT: Don't use shields neither on it, 2MRP's usually get me through with ease.

 

[Thrym]

I agree with those who are essentially suggesting that a poll favoring the Krait over the Challenger means very little for the Challenger itself

The Krait is a rather masterfully placed ship. It handles roles in essentially the same way as a Cobra--versatile and fast, with a new and interesting aesthetic in the size range that truly encompasses the content that the game offers. Everything from cargo space to jump range to hardpoint choices and placement are exactly where a player would want a multi role ship to be. The Krait would fare well, and in most cases outright beat, any ship in the game in a popularity poll , not just the Challenger.

The Challenger is not at all a bad ship, and while it is certainly not as "original" as the Krait, it has a great deal to offer. From my own personal preferences, I have learned that I dislike the Federal dropship variants, which are all quite different from one another. The thing I dislike about them is "living with them"---I hate being in their cockpit. By contrast, I love the modernized Lakon cockpit(which is new and original) of the chieftan and challenger. For me, a line of ships centered around this is a great thing and I enjoy them tremendously. I want one with muti-role rather than military capacity---give me a T8 that's a ized Challenger/T7 hybrid(yes, I know this would probably be an aesthetically ugly ship, haha!) so that I can use it for planets, rescues, exploration and cargo hauling!

 

[aRJay]

Frontier placing a poll earlier on twitter krait or Challenger which do you prefer, last time I looked it was 82 - 17 in favour of Krait.

So what will happen to the challenger, scrapped or design change or nothing, with the amount of reviews on it, it does not look to bright for the challenge, to much of a challenge, well not the ship for me.
Don't worry i'm not starting a poll, but it kind of shows the way forward for ship design.

A, No more rehashes and lazy design ships as the challenger has just proven (may delay the Crusader ?? Krait phantom?? maybe (will these be rehashes also!!)
B, start designing ships we don't have Boa, Mamba, gecko, Moray, and the rest make these version 2s if you wish the Krait worked out K...not gonna say it "Great"
C, Maybe design ships that are not just for the thargoid threat all the time (T10, Chieftain, Challenger so on) lets get some explorer versions from the original elite ships.

Your thoughts on ship design and where it should be going, before more of the same rehash designs come along. We got the Krait eventually so nothing wrong with wanting other new ship types, without making them from what we already have even though there are 17 cmdrs that like the challenger:/ probably more by now!.

I like both ships, probably prefer the Krait.

The trouble with social media polls is they are rarely worth the paper they are written on, so should be taken with a large pinch of the forums favourite compound.

Ships with dedicated exploration or mining slots would be good, a real bulk carrier as well.