-
Greetings Commander, want a more instant approach to your questions and need for help? Check out the Galactic Academy Discord server!
Feel free to join the Galactic Academy Discord server by clicking here!
Newcomer / Intro Chieftan
- Thread starter hawknerd
- Start date
I like the concept but it doesn't fit my shield tank preference, drifts too much for my liking and has military slots, which could be a strength, but instead are a restriction based on the odd way FDev approached that feature.
The hardpoints though put out a nice cone of fire. I liked it at first, but eventually sold it due to the way it flew. Personal thing and don't let that discourage you.
The hardpoints though put out a nice cone of fire. I liked it at first, but eventually sold it due to the way it flew. Personal thing and don't let that discourage you.
I like the Alliance ships. They are certainly better for combat than a Python (for some reasons many people's favourite) and I personally prefer them over the Krait mk.II as well although that is entirely subjective.
Plus I like the looks of those ships.
What Sinisalo said is the key, though - if you like the ship, try it. Make it work. There is no such thing as a "bad ship". There may be "bad ships for the job", but honestly, except the little ones, all ships in Elite will work in any role if you're not trying to "win too hard".
Plus I like the looks of those ships.
What Sinisalo said is the key, though - if you like the ship, try it. Make it work. There is no such thing as a "bad ship". There may be "bad ships for the job", but honestly, except the little ones, all ships in Elite will work in any role if you're not trying to "win too hard".
I like the Vulture for it's agility, but tried the Chief once as a possible upgrade. It's pretty agile once it's engineered, and packs a punch, but I still found the Vulture more fun. It's also easier to engineer, with only two large hardpoints, and it can orbit a Chief that tries to wiggle.
The only problem with Vulture (personally) is that on higher ranks, everything takes ages to kill. Same with the Clipper, although I love that ship to bits. Chieftain and co., Krait, Fed ships, etc. are simply more comfortable, because of said "punch"
The Vulture truly shines when it's fully engineered, especially with frag cannons. The agility and speed of the Vulture makes it much easier to get close to the opponent, which is key when using frags, and with engineered frags (rapid fire screening shell) you can actually take down a NPC Conda with very few well placed shots. The only problem is that it runs out of ammo in the blink of an eye, but with FCs scattered all over the galaxy now it's become much easier to restock if you don't want to synthesise.
The tight convergence of the two large hardpoints, and the medium being pretty close too, make killing small ships at ~1km a pleasure. It also feels a bit damped like a diamondback scout, which makes bringing the guns to bear very easy.
The three smalls are great with railguns for killing big ships at close range.
But it all feels a little lethargic.
Supercruise manoeuvrability is poor, but slightly offset by the good view out.
IMO it's no better or worse than an FdL/FAS, just a different set of compromises.
I also like the Vulture even if it takes a bit longer to kill stuff.
I like the Chieftain it has a good view and weapons placement, it is brilliant if you want to scoop things and does great skid turns (if you like that sort of thing). I find it fun to fly.
The downsides are that it can feel a little frail at times and lacking in punch, some will hate how it turns.
The other two Alliance ships feel a little tougher and have a little more punch but don’t feel as much fun to fly.
I quite like the Chieftain, she is a well-built and versatile heavy-medium vessel. Her unique design I find quite interesting and if not attractive, then at least distinctive.
Otherwise, I'm not really a fan. The Chief does many things good but she does NOTHING great. She's not manoeuverable enough in combat, her weaponry isn't devastating. Her carrying capacity is decent but not great, neither is her Jump range. She has good shields but can be neither shield- or hull-tanked without serious loss of performance.
And I REALLY don't like those military internals, telling me where I HAVE to place defensive systems.
She is a GOOD ship - and looks pretty cool. But she's not a great ship.
The Chieftain is the ship a skilled Commander can do wonders with, particularly with good engineering. But she doesn't stand out in any single class.
She flies good, looks good, fights good. If you like her you can build her into an EXCELLENT ship.
It's just that so many other birds are much better.
Cheers!
Great ship... I have one for piracy.
Unfortunately the Chief needs some FDEV's love for PvP as its drives are too much exposed.
Unfortunately the Chief needs some FDEV's love for PvP as its drives are too much exposed.
I moved from a Vulture to a Chieftain recently and found it to be quite an improvement. I found the Vulture was having trouble against some larger ships due to the lack of weapons, and when the shields broke I had to break off and wait for regen, as any head on shot would instantly reduce my canopy to 50%. With the Chief, my shields not only remain solid for much longer, but the dps is much higher (I went full frags at first) and she was able to rip the largest of ships apart in short order, but with that setup I did find fighting smaller ships a problem, so I eventually compromised and brought in some large beams. She's less effective at killing larger ships now, but she's solid at killing most things in general and is still more tanky than my vulture. I find I run out of ammo for the frags long before my hull is in danger of failing.
Because of this thread, and because lots of mats from Robigo to get my elite explorer thingy, I decided to try the Chief again. Last time I might not have engineered it completely, so this time I did. Wow! After adding drag drives at Palin, I went to a nearby Haz Res and found a couple of Condas. Bam-bam, no more Condas. Might have to fool around with this ship some more. I had a FragDL that I didn't like, so I scrapped that and used some of the frag cannons, and had the rest fixed. Contrary to the FDL the Chief has the HPs placed much better. It does drift slightly, but it doesn't stall like the crappy FDL. I would like the six utility mounts of the FDL, but I guess it's time to go visit them Guardian sentinels again to get the Guardian shield recipies.
Way better ship than I recall
Now it's ganker hunting time
Slightly OT. I want the pink desert paintjob, but I need one single more ARX to buy it, and I've hit the weekly limit. Mkay, I guess having something to look forward to is mkay, and the pink color suits the ships name, Eisenschwein (Iron Pig). Also, back when Ivanhoe lived, pink was the baddest color of them all. Badder than black.
Way better ship than I recall
Now it's ganker hunting time Slightly OT. I want the pink desert paintjob, but I need one single more ARX to buy it, and I've hit the weekly limit. Mkay, I guess having something to look forward to is mkay, and the pink color suits the ships name, Eisenschwein (Iron Pig). Also, back when Ivanhoe lived, pink was the baddest color of them all. Badder than black.
Imo, if you like how it flies and it suits your combat flight style, can be fantastic fun. Which is how I treat all my combat ships - they all fly a bit differntly and have different weapon options. If you have the resources, here's two weapon loadouts for my Chieftain.
1. HazRez / CZ: 3x Cytoscramblers in the smalls - nice tight grouping; 3x multicannons (2 large, 1 medium)
2. Other fun: 2x APAs (TLB & Dispersal) + 1 Gimballed Canon (HYS - engineered to shot speed match the Focused APAs); 2x LR Rails (SuperPen & FCascade) + 1 missile rack (FSD disrupt)
1. HazRez / CZ: 3x Cytoscramblers in the smalls - nice tight grouping; 3x multicannons (2 large, 1 medium)
2. Other fun: 2x APAs (TLB & Dispersal) + 1 Gimballed Canon (HYS - engineered to shot speed match the Focused APAs); 2x LR Rails (SuperPen & FCascade) + 1 missile rack (FSD disrupt)
You and I have very different fighting styles it seems. Yours is much more sophisticated than mine. I ram the opponent to stop their ship, and then I spray them with frags, before they can say "boost". Nothing fancy, just a good old brawl. At a distance frags are hopeless, but once you cling onto the back or belly of a large ship, those 1337 dps are real. You can't do that in a larger less agile ship, but it's definitely doable in the Chief. I used have to go and get ammo every 5-6 kills, but it's "cheap" to synth the ammo.
Regarding the Chiefs agility, I like doing the "racetrack" at a station in an Eagle. I've modified the track a bit, so I go under the
Last edited:
Yeah, sure, but I don't think we're talking PvP here. If we only chose our ships by their viability for PvP, we'd all fly like... two ships. Life would be very boring.
@WeComeInPeace Oh no, I have Frag loadout options for my Krait(s), Mamba and Clipper - those are my preferred Fraggers when I'm in the mood for that sort of fun. In fact I currently have 5 on my mission runner Python to make quick work of Anacondas sent after me. 
No Gunship? The quintessential flying shotgun?