Ships Chieftain

Flow control unfortunately does nothing useful for power distributors. It decreases the power used by the PD module itself…not the three capacitors. Super Conduits is the best experimental for the vast majority of PDs used for combat.
 
You might wanna explore PvP builds and swapped the weapons. But, I find PA/rails do kill NPCs faster (especially solo those Wing Assassination missions, 1 FDL+ 3 Vultures) and less boring than standard MC/Lasers.
 
I said earlier that this build was not up my alley, and mostly that's due to using a SCB and mirrored armour. I won't advise against these things, but they aren't what I use (never have used either actually)

This is my Chieftain, fixed beams and rails. Class 1 collector for stuffz.

Outrider Chieftain -- Rail Boat

Obviously this isn't a light engineering build, but more to show the path I went with my build, and with limited engineer access it would just be whatever you're capable of modding. It's a lot of fun to fly and fight, nimble, good performance, lightweight, mat collector. Most of my ships use gimbals, but this is fixed just to mix it up.
 
Chieftains are a good fixed weapon platform. All but one of the hardpoints are clustered together, the big ones are centered, and the ship can maneuver well to keep them on target. The only one I tend to keep a gimbal is the medium since it’s offset.
 
The cytos engineered for short range are amazing, go for them: you use them as openers, so the short range is not a problem because they deplete the shields so quickly that the opponent can't run away in time. In addition, the distributor is not drained.
At that point you can focus on the other weapons (it makes sense to keep a gimballed weapon for the little ships).
Well, got her finished and took her to a HazRES. And the thing was utterly hilarious. Terrifyingly effective against big ships, but the short range and jitter/spread of the cytos and frags made it more challenging against smaller ships (but one hit of each and they were toast!).

Don't think I'd use those weapons in a CZ tho, probably switch in long range/thermal vent beams in the larges and overcharged/autoloader multis in the medium/smalls, one of the smalls corrosive. (Not that I know about such things... The only time I visited a CZ (low) was in an A-rated but unengineered Python, where I lasted maybe 20 seconds.)
 
Given the choice, I go with either efficient or overcharged for cytos. It’s true that the falloff is pretty short, but with their baseline jitter you can still get appreciable damage and hit rate out to around 850m.
 
Aw, too bad I missed a Chieftain thread, it's my single favourite ship in the game. ^^

I won't bother posting my build bc it's engineered to the max. However I have various weapon sets to switch between.

Before I started engineering, I used 2 large MCs and 4 lasers. It's basic and works, though it takes forever to build up damage.

Now for RES my favourite setup is 3 Cytos, 2 Pacifiers (OC, Screening Shell) and 1 medium Corrosive MC. The damage output is absurd.
At some point I wiggled a Rail w Feedback Cascade in to interrupt shield cells, but you have to sacrifice something else for it.

Alternatively, Plasmas also work well, particularly in CZs.
 
Chieftains are a good fixed weapon platform. All but one of the hardpoints are clustered together, the big ones are centered, and the ship can maneuver well to keep them on target. The only one I tend to keep a gimbal is the medium since it’s offset.
Bit of a necro shrugs, but (y)

That one M hardpoint does very well with a corrosive turret, even if the rest is fixed like PAs and rails.
 
It's totally OK to run 3x PAs on Chief. Just have to be mindful of the angle and distance. I always tilt like, hmm, 45 degress from north (not sure how else I can explain) against a target at maybe 300m distance? Pretty much all 3 plasmas landed on target.
 
I ply with xbox controller, have very good experience with pacifiers (almost no pip management required) and good experience with plasmas
unfortunately, compared to other ships (krait, fdl, fas) very bad experience with rail guns, the chieftain is so fast and nimble, it need a steady hand to hit
 
Bit of a necro shrugs, but (y)

That one M hardpoint does very well with a corrosive turret, even if the rest is fixed like PAs and rails.

Speaking of fixed, there's something unusual/special about the lower large and the lower small hardpoints on the Chief. They're so close together that they essentially fire from the same point once you take the size of the large weapon and its launch point into account. I've been using a advanced missile launcher with penetrator munitions as a force multiplier for whatever I put in the large to be used against power plants. 20 guaranteed breach damage in a nice spherical impact point on top of the large's contribution. A Short Range/Dispersal PA works best for me, with 124.08 breach damage. Then you add corrosive's bonus and you're doing 180.1 breach damage. That can plant kill any power plant with that amount of integrity, barring module reinforcements and bad aim. :)
 
Looking at the Alliance Chieftain as an upgrade from the Vulture.
Any suggestions on a PvE build? I only have access to basic Engineers: Felicity, Elvira, Tod & the Dweller.
Could add an extra engineer I guess. So Lei Cheung, Selena Jean or Hera Tani?

Here is my PVE ship build. The build isn't a flying towards an enemy while gimble does the work landing hits and the APA provide more firing opportunities than the standard PA. Aside from my preferences, you have a similar question a friend iterates through on effective hardpoints and improving his ship's defenses/resistances; He gets hit hard without fully engineered shields or hull reinforcements.

To get the most out of the Chieftain, or any ship honestly, requires engineers. I would suggest checking out this link on how to unlock engineers. CMDR toolbox site has several beneficial guides and sources of information, laid out in a simple how-to or what-to-know format.

Here would be a ship build that I'd consider. This requires some "Git good" piloting with the 1D Rails, however, you have more latitude for missed shots with Plasma Slug experimental; and using two 3E Pulse lasers engineered with LR/Overcharged will be more effective with damage dealing diversity than beams, and using the 2E MC engineered Overcharged/Autoloader to chew up hulls: Having (1) 3x Rails and (2) Pulse Lasers on one fire group than (1) Rails i.e. opportunity fire and (2) Pulse and MC as another firing group used once the shields are down; The autoloader experimental will stay in sync with the rapid firing nature of the pulse lasers for consistent time on target damage.

And when MC ammo runs out, you still have 3x 1D Rails to land good burst hits on targets, and you can get quite a few shots over the normal ammo allowance with the base Chieftain fuel tank. Since your primary source of resistances comes from shields, I suggested at least one SCB, but remember when you activate this, your ship's heat will spike. So be mindful when using this before or after firing 3x Railguns. The two module reinforcements will help minimize internal damage, however, remember, once your shields are down you're vulnerable: I used a 6A shield with a SCB but you could easily use a bi-weave 6C shield and SCB.
 
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