Ships Dropship Club

Fishy

Fishy
So, apparently every ship and his dog has a thread like this. Even the Keelback. Yet, there's nothing around for those of us in love with the workhorse of the Federal Navy, the rugged Dropship whose utilitarian bulky frame ended up being a boon for so multirole use and Navy ship variants.

It's time to officially open Dropship Club.

  • First rule of Dropship Club is you do not talk about Dropship Club. Because if you do, your friends will laugh at you.
  • Second rule of Dropship Club is you do not talk about Dropship Club. I mean, didn't you read rule #1 or what?!
  • Third rule of Dropship Club is that you fly the Dropship. Well, sometimes at least.

Guess that should cover it, but if members have suggestions, we can revisit these democratically, in a Federal Dropship spirit. ;)

So, to get the club started, i'll open with my previous post in a thread about each CMDR's "one ship", the one that feels like it was made for you:

There's nothing like flying 'the one' ship. Glad you found yours.

Mine is the Dropship. Because since a ride as a kid in a french VAB i've had a thing for troop carriers, be they land (VAB, M113, BMPs...), air (Huey, Black Hawk, Mi-8, Mi-24...) or imaginary space (Cheyenne Dropship from Aliens), and the Fed Dropship is just that. The rig that will land the grunts where they are needed or pick them up on demand, no matter how hot the landing zone. I've been using my starting Sidey and Eagle to get a Cobra, then left exploring to SgrA*, coming back to a cool 70m credits with which i bided my time until i had the low-ish rank required to get that ship.

And then, as expected, it was love at first sight. The gorgeous utilitarian box-look with just enough lines and fins to still give it a bit of a shark silhouette, the pretty big size yet fitting on medium pads, the heavy feel of the manoeuvering with its trademark drift, the hull that can take a beating even with lightweight composites, the Core Dynamics cockpit, the utilitarian interior with the extra seatbelts/straps, yet the luxury of coffee dispensers... I. Love. That. Ship.

And then, it does everything. Five hardpoints to pack a punch while FA-off drifting, enough utilities for defense, plenty of slots inside to fit shields, cargo, hangar bay, scanners, extra fuel... Enough also that you can turn it into a decent mining rig if needed. It does it all and feels just great. The one serious downside it had was a small jump range, but after some tuning, i get 22LYs unladen, 20LY with 64t of cargo. Plenty to comfortably jump around, and that's with heavy outfitting, so there's at least 25LYs in it if it was stripped down for exploring. I took the Cobra to the core with less than that.

And soon, my baby will be able to do what it was primarily designed for: move grunts around. I'm so pumped for passengers...

Sure, my Anaconda hauls more stuff at a time and farther out each jump, and my Python is a better mining rig. But they pale in comparison to the feeling of flying my space-APC around. They're so... boring... And one day, at some point in the game development, I'll be landing in formation with a wing of my fellows from the Fed Cav to extract troops from a hot LZ. And it'll be glorious.
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Ceekay

Ceekay
Out of a dozen or so primary ships the FDS is one of my favourites, I especially like the creaks and groans it makes turning and accelerating it gives it character and apart from the Viper 3 it's the only ship I've bought a paint pack for.

Fully engineered it's like a mid range FAS but with more internal flexibility and loadout options and with a 6C L5 DDT mod it'll boost to just over 400 m/s

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Cdr Voorheez

Cdr Voorheez
I have been mulling with the idea of creating a truly good planetary assault/mission ship and the FDS may well be it. I have a FAS which I love and its superb at its assigned role: killing other ships but I think the FDS may well be that niche vessel I've been looking for to complete my collection.
Yep Anaconda is my trader and excells at that.
Yep Asp(E) is my quintessential explorer.
Yep FAS is my muscle ship.
And yep my iCourier is an ultra fast enhanced performance thruster equipped data courier.
But.
I may be getting the FDS and this thread has got me thinking.
I'll let you know how I get on.
 

Hell Razor5543

H
I had an FDS, but I never was in a fit state to fly her, due to issues with the pair of drinks machines (one on each site of the pilot seat). One only gave Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters, while the other only had Klatchian Red Mountain coffee. I was either VERY drunk or SERIOUSLY knurd all the time I had that ship!
 
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Rygir

R
So I figured the Dropship would be great for playing an armoured tank, shieldless, so that stealth became the best way to go. I also wanted to do some smuggling so I have had military plating and reactive armour, a class 5 hull reinforcement, used engineering to increase my thruster durability (which is a class 6D, 5D would fit as well but was very sluggish, 6B would be the best armor but would have worst possible power consumption and thus ruin my stealth. Not to mention my jump range.

So with over 1500 integrity I was minding my own business looking at a combat zone near Maia when a player had snuck up on me. I was dead in seconds...

How is that supposed to be "gameplay"? With that kind of armour I would have expected to be able to atleast have time to think or escape. Even with silent running on he was blasting on shooting me to bits (even though I noticed a pause in the hail of gunfire when I turned it on).

So...is that normal? Or was the other guy very powerfull?
 

Fishy

Fishy
Rygir said:
So I figured the Dropship would be great for playing an armoured tank, shieldless, so that stealth became the best way to go. [...] So with over 1500 integrity I was minding my own business looking at a combat zone near Maia when a player had snuck up on me. I was dead in seconds...

How is that supposed to be "gameplay"? With that kind of armour I would have expected to be able to atleast have time to think or escape. Even with silent running on he was blasting on shooting me to bits (even though I noticed a pause in the hail of gunfire when I turned it on).

So...is that normal? Or was the other guy very powerfull?
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Well, against NPCs, military armour goes a long way. But there's some serious PvP builds flying around since engineers, a lot of rock/paper/scissors going on, and it's very possible that your opponent was the paper to your rock. Can't find it now but there was a thread yesterday of a guy almost losing his Corvette to a DBS so fast he didn't have a clue as to what happened that fast. The DBS guy posted his build in the thread later, and it's a lot of engie-pimped torpedoes and missiles. Basically a Big Game Hunting build, with missiles slowing down the target, torpedoes wrecking modules and hull, etc.

I think silent running only works with agile enough ships to dogfight these days and that's not a niche I expect the FDS will ever get into.

edit: there, found the thread, it's good reading on 'bomber' type builds: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/280919-One-shot-destroys-shields-For-real-this-time
 
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Broadsword1986

Broadsword1986
I've got a FDS parked somewhere and indeed it does fit a niche. It has a special air about it as it ponderously drifts through space.
Truth be told, I haven't taken it out since coming back to the game as I've been switching back and forth between my aspX and the python, but seeing this thread I do become a bit reminiscent of going to get it and perhaps trying to give it some engineer upgrades.
 

PanTast

PanTast
I have one just for parking modules. But there was a time when I flew it very much during federal ranking for the Assault Ship.

o7
 

Armholeeio

Armholeeio
I'm a proud dropship pilot and use her more than my other multirole ships, even my beloved cobra has been neglected while I take the fds out most days
 

Godsailsaqueen

Godsailsaqueen
That is kind of a "mood ship" for me. Sometimes, I'm in the mood for this bulky, straightforward piece of metal with guns on it. I considered using it as a planetary raider too! but planetary raids are so punitive for ships now that I would not risk it.
But I must admit I'm maybe not very good at flying it. If someone has any advice... I've heard it is good at jousting, boosting and fa off 180 turn.

I'm not overconfident about it, so the mood often leaves quickly.
And it has problems. 16 fuel tank = one lost slot for another obligatory tank or fuel scoop, bringing the total to 6. I say "obligatory" because it barely sustains 4 or 5 jumps, and sometimes I had to high wake after being interdicted, only to realise I was just a milimeter from being stranded on the first system I could pick.

Also, with the new meta, his lackluster shield leaves me very vulnerable to module damage - especially thrusters. Once thrusters are dead, you are dead.
His overall good armour with hrps is not enough to sustain the punishment engineers brought. Unless you engineer it yourself but come on... I hate them to be so mandatory...

Still, I have yet to die in it. Always escaped, that's a good sign. But for no significant result. Well, I still love the ship and I've always been disappointed I could not use it like a boss.
 

Zandil

Z
Love my fat @%#$ FDS, I use her as a turret tank with a multi cannon on the large to rip apart hulls. Nothing beats just plugging along taking fire as my bust turrets tear apart my opponent.
I really should go engineer her up a bit one of these days.
 
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Dregory The Crow

Dregory The Crow
FDS is one of two ships I really love (the second one is DBE). ;)
Currently I'm working on my fleet (Python for mining, Vulture for bounty hunting and multi-purpose Dropship). Once they'll be ready I take Asp-taxi to Jaques Station and move there the rest of my fleet when 2.2 will come. [cool]
 

Ozram

Ozram
Rygir said:
So I figured the Dropship would be great for playing an armoured tank, shieldless, so that stealth became the best way to go. I also wanted to do some smuggling so I have had military plating and reactive armour, a class 5 hull reinforcement, used engineering to increase my thruster durability (which is a class 6D, 5D would fit as well but was very sluggish, 6B would be the best armor but would have worst possible power consumption and thus ruin my stealth. Not to mention my jump range.

So with over 1500 integrity I was minding my own business looking at a combat zone near Maia when a player had snuck up on me. I was dead in seconds...

How is that supposed to be "gameplay"? With that kind of armour I would have expected to be able to atleast have time to think or escape. Even with silent running on he was blasting on shooting me to bits (even though I noticed a pause in the hail of gunfire when I turned it on).

So...is that normal? Or was the other guy very powerfull?
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Don't know enough details to comment on much here but the pause in fire when you went silent would have been from him using eyeballs to target you after you broke lock. Anyone who has done any PVP is used to this because of chaff. If they have gimbals and a chaff is loosed, they deselect the target so the gimbals become "fixed". Your ship isn't very fast or maneuverable so it would be easy to target and unload even just with the eyeballs.
 

[VR] optimal_909

[VR] optimal_909
With an FDL parked at Jaques and a Keelback carefully stored (don't laugh!) and to be revived after 2.2, I found myself back in the bubble in a loaned S'winder.

I want to rank up with the Feds and had absolutely no idea what I should buy, so I stumbled upon the FDS. Should be big enough to haul stuff, robust enough to take out easier targets and won't cost a fortune if blown to pieces, so I'm giving it a try - but is this assumption right? Would I be better off with a Cobra?

And do you have a loadout recommendation? I have already specced the bird with upgraded everything, but as usual the approach wasn't very scientific. :)
 

Fishy

Fishy
For multirole, including low-intensity CZs, this is my current rig: https://coriolis.io/outfit/federal_...f4v62i2f.Iw18aQ==.Aw18aQ==?bn=Heavy multirole

There's a fair few engineered parts, but the only one that really matters is the grade 5 FSD getting me between 18 and 20LY range (used to be 20-22, but that was before I fitted the military grade armour). Dirty drives are rather handy too (only got grade 3 right now), and I should really bother sourcing bi-weaves to replace my current shields. I do all my mission running with that, eventually swapping a module or two for cargo racks if a really juicy mission needs just that bit more: hangar, scoop, extra fuel, both scanners are all there for convenience but you generally don't need all of them at the same time.

Compared to the Cobra, the Cobra is cheaper and easily the better smuggler (range, speed and no drift). If you're really only after data missions and smuggling runs, I wouldn't look any further. The Dropship on the other hand will fit more cargo and give you an easier time in combat thanks to better armour and that C3 hardpoint. And until you master the drift, smuggling missions will give you an opportunity to admire the station's paint from up-close. ;)
 

Starbreaker

Starbreaker
I like the drift and flightmodel of the FDS, but I hated the drift on the Asp. I can't put to words exactly why that is. FDS was my second ship that I considered a keeper after the Vulture, didn't really plan to buy it until I checked my fed rank and noticed I was only one rank away from unlocking it. First ship I took planetside when horizons launched on Xbox.

Current loadout: https://coriolis.io/outfit/federal_...005Ce4a326g6vv6.Iw18aQ==.MwBgjCkEwsVcRdKICxqA

Mostly low-mid grade engineering done on it atm. Got a lucky corrosive roll on a grade 1 MC, short range blaster grade 2 beam turrets. Grade 2 dirty drive that can reach 372 boost speed and a grade 4 FSD that gives me 17,5 LY range with the above loadout.

I want to see what this ship can do with all grade 5 mods but I still need to unlock a few more engineers for that to happen.
 
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