FAS vs FGS

With their being at least a 20% discount on Fed ships after this weeks CG ends (maybe 35% if it stacks with Li yong rui), I've been wondering....

I already have a FAS, and love it, but I do know the handiness of having a SLF with me, from back when I had a keelback.

So, would it be worth it, with the discount in mind, to sell my FAS in for a Gunship, as an upgrade. I'd be mainly doing bounty hunting.

Or is the SLF overrated, and I should just stick to the FAS?

No rush, of course, you've got just under two weeks, when the discount will end....

Thanks in advance.
 
I've been pootling in an FGS for a few days. Always was put off by initial reaction to the FDS, but this thing is so much fun!

Enough hardpoints to have at least 3 effective weapon configurations, and a tie fighter ripping around. I've not hit the Rez' with it yet as I won't have time to properly figure it out until the new year, but for just ripping around topping off Fed Missions, it's been a marvellously sounding, combat effective, more agile than I would have thought beasty.

The extra loadouts, I'm sure would be worth it. Especially if you're looking to engineer something before the new system lands.
 
It won't stack.

FDS = cargo - sadly outclassed once you can afford an A-fit Python, but it does alright
FAS = speedy fighter, usual PvP alternative ship - good if you like speed and decent firepower, but the two large weapons don't converge the best
FGS = dakka - nuff said

Seriously, load up on MCs on an FGS at least once.
Reminds me I gotta finish engineering the laser version of that sometime...
 
Maybe for you. Plus, never seen a reason to have two combat ships to do the same thing with. One'll just end up gathering dust. Might as well take the money and run with it.
Doesn't stop alot of folk. Didn't stop me and I only have 44 ships now.
 
Maybe for you. Plus, never seen a reason to have two combat ships to do the same thing with. One'll just end up gathering dust. Might as well take the money and run with it.

A adequately equipped FGS is roughly 200 Mcr. A few passenger missions and you have that sum. The base ship is roughly 36 Mcr. - that's 4 hours with my FDS (while not trying to earn a lot of credits).
If you want you can swap most modules between the FGS and the FAS. You would end up with roughly 70 Mcr. for the FGS + military armor and 7A PD.

Buy the FGS, test it with the modules of your FAS. If you like it keep it, if not sell it.
 
The Gunship on paper looks like a BEAST, but here is my issue.


I am Imperial scum so I otherwise won't get a Gunship unless I grab one now


BUT


At the moment I don't do combat. I might down the road at some point but right now I am mainly a Trader/Uber/Explorer. All of which the Gubship is useless for.



Oh and I also have limited funds at the moment thanks to countless donation mission grinding for the Clipper
 
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Doesn't stop alot of folk. Didn't stop me and I only have 44 ships now.
Good grief. I've got ten, half of those are stripped hulls waiting to be repopulated or used as module storage, and I'm still thinking of selling a few just to cut down on the admin. I'm not sure my head could cope with having 44 configurations to choose from.

I've only used the FGS / SLF combination in beta and it was a lot of fun. It is something I've been meaning to try in the main game but never really got around to it. One thing's for certain though: I would only do it if I had the spare cash. I would never sell my FAS to buy a Gunship. The FGS / fighter combination might be a more efficient RES hunter, but the FAS is too much fun to let it go.
 
Dropship: fantastic ranged attacker with good weapons and hull tanking ability.

FAS: pitbull on steroids fed on jet fuel, close up killer.

FGS: Dropship on steroids, nice ranged attacker with SLF capability.

All of them are fantastic.
 
Maybe for you. Plus, never seen a reason to have two combat ships to do the same thing with. One'll just end up gathering dust. Might as well take the money and run with it.
The reason is - they are different. It is nice to be able to choose from few options based on what you are trying to accomplish or simply mood. And you loose money every time you sell any ship.

So IMO buy FGS, sell/reuse modules from FAS if you need to but leave the hull. This way you avoid loosing money and always have an option of returning to FAS without loosing even more money...

An one more thing to think about - FAS is pretty unique in terms of its flight characteristics and firepower combination. It has some drawbacks but is fun to fly even when you have enough money for any ship in game. FGS, on the other hand, while it is fun ship to fly too, feels like it can be upgraded to corvette/conda to get exactly the same playstyle with much better overall characteristics. At least for me. And this is the reason why i still often use FAS, but FGS is mostly gathering dust...
 
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As a pve combat ship, the FGS is clearly superior. Don't get me wrong, the FAS is my second favorite ship in the game after the iCourier, and it's what I hope to be in when a player interdicts me, BUT, in the CZ there is simply NO comparison. The FGS has one size bigger shield, 1 size bigger distributor, uses its shield far better than the FAS, and most importantly of all, a dual fighter bay, which means you will always have fighter support (is hard to kill 2 fighters before the first fighter bay prints another) which is invaluable in any situation. Also, seven hardpoints allows you to carry two different weapon loadouts, one for big ships, one for small ships. I use two medium PAs and 2 medium railguns for big ships, and a large beam and a pair of small Multicannons for small ships, meaning I am always ready for any encounter.

The problem is that the fighter crew steals your Combat experience. :(
 
Ive got 4 assault ships and 1 gunship.

i prefer the FAS, but the FGS is a nice ship to have on the side.
 
As a pve combat ship, the FGS is clearly superior. Don't get me wrong, the FAS is my second favorite ship in the game after the iCourier, and it's what I hope to be in when a player interdicts me, BUT, in the CZ there is simply NO comparison. The FGS has one size bigger shield, 1 size bigger distributor, uses its shield far better than the FAS, and most importantly of all, a dual fighter bay, which means you will always have fighter support (is hard to kill 2 fighters before the first fighter bay prints another) which is invaluable in any situation. Also, seven hardpoints allows you to carry two different weapon loadouts, one for big ships, one for small ships. I use two medium PAs and 2 medium railguns for big ships, and a large beam and a pair of small Multicannons for small ships, meaning I am always ready for any encounter.

The problem is that the fighter crew steals your Combat experience. :(
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I fully agree, start to end. Including that the iCourier is the most fun to fly combat ship around. While i am impressed on what you can do with a FAS, i never got me one, i have a strong tendency to imperial ships.
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So also, FAS and FGS are two completely different ships. The FAS is agile, it's basically the "big vulture". The FGS on the other hand feels rather cumbersome. It moves with glacial speed and turns like a cathedral. Even after engineering it's still quite slow and requires plenty of FA-Off to get the nose pointing where you want it to. But it not only packs a massive punch and can take quite a beating (even more after engineering some HRPs for additional resists), it also is the cheapest ship for any acceptable MC application. I mean, it would be awesome if the FGS would have a third seat, so both my SLFs could be player operated, but at least it has a second one, unlike the Keelback.
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Where i run differently is the weapon configuration. By now my FGS packs one large beam and two medium pulses on the lower hardpoints, while having two medium and two small MCs on the other hardpoints, with one of the small MCs being modded for high capacity and corrosive damage. (While the other MCs are overcharged with autoloader. ) The lasers do a good job at shieldstripping and for smaller targets they also are sufficient to dispose of them without using any ammo. For bigger targets the MCs get into the mix once the targets shields are down, disposing of basically anything in just a few seconds. There's way more interesting weapon mixes to be fielded, but this one is quite effective.
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I fully agree, start to end. Including that the iCourier is the most fun to fly combat ship around. While i am impressed on what you can do with a FAS, i never got me one, i have a strong tendency to imperial ships.
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So also, FAS and FGS are two completely different ships. The FAS is agile, it's basically the "big vulture". The FGS on the other hand feels rather cumbersome. It moves with glacial speed and turns like a cathedral. Even after engineering it's still quite slow and requires plenty of FA-Off to get the nose pointing where you want it to. But it not only packs a massive punch and can take quite a beating (even more after engineering some HRPs for additional resists), it also is the cheapest ship for any acceptable MC application. I mean, it would be awesome if the FGS would have a third seat, so both my SLFs could be player operated, but at least it has a second one, unlike the Keelback.

See, I never liked the Courier that much, as much as I wanted an Imp ship, so I ended up in a vulture.

As much as I bash the Feds, the Vulture flew like a big SLF to me, and I loved it. Only problem I had was lack of firepower, and very little creature comforts. Never felt like a ship I could live in.

So, I upgraded to an FDL......

And immediately sold it due to it's terrible handling compared to the Vulture. Then I remembered the FAS, that was called a the big vulture, right? Got the rank and cash at same time due to haulage missions on my rank grind route (I had a Python), then got the FAS.....

And haven't looked back since, its a joy to fly, and just to sit in and wait for prey to spawn. In the vulture, if I wasn't fighting, I felt out of place in it, in the FAS, it feels like I'm a hunter, stalking my next victim, it's much more the hunters lodge, than the hunters tent.

And now with the price cut to Fed ships, I looked at the Gunship. Nice ship, strong, powerful, but I worry it's not meant for me. I hated the FDL flight model, how much will I hate this one. Is the fighter really that useful, or just a money sink via crew?

This is why I made the thread, I was scared at what I might do. The more I hear how the FGS flies, the more I worry I won't like it, that I'll regret the purchase. Even though I know it's probably a better combat ship.

And so you see my dilemma.....
 
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FGS is different from both FAS and FDL... if you had python it will be more like that.
In addition to lower turn rates it is also slow, which makes it vulnerable if something goes wrong and you need to run.

As for fighters... i did not try them with smaller ships like keelback or FGS, but fron my experience in conda/vette - they deal good damage, but are rather squishy and until pilot gains high enough rank - stupid. Elite fighter pilot is capable of dealing with small-medium targets by himself, but he takes ages to train and is permanently lost in case of ship destruction (and because of this i'd never undock with elite pilot in FGS with its low speed. Seems too risky to me). Low ranked pilots tend to loose a lot of fighters, to the point when redeploying them becomes annoying, especially if you are fighting wings or in CZ. Overall i'd say - fighter is nice addition, it helps dealing with small annoying targets like eagles, sideys etc, bit i would not choose a ship based on fighter availability. It is not that good.
 
It’s also fun to jump into the fighter yourself sometimes, my conda in near enough invincible in a res against single ships and small wings so sometimes it’s a nice change to jump into the fighter and leave the conda in the hands of my npc, keep an eye on them though, they do crash into rocks on occasion.
 
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