FDL: the most fun ship or just the best ship

[Darth Ender]

First off. I'm drunk.


Secondly, the FDL is the most fun ship I've flown in ED. The huge port fixed cannon is just awesome. It is everything a cannon should be except ED doesn't simulate kick-back. Other than that, the game is the most fun I've ever had playing it. I dont know if the FDL will be a compentent PvP ship, and I really dont care because 99% of Open game-play is not pvp.


Thank you FD. You have succeeded in making a incredibly awesome bounty hunter ship (his is coming from someone who had a fully classed out and loaded Vulture). This ship is perfect. Do not change it at all. Except paint jobs.

 

[Maidrus K]

I have to agree that I'm extremely satisfied with this ship even after having a decked out Vulture. I've never used it in PVP yet (no one has bothered to try to harm me) but against NPCs it's deadly. The first time I boosted the engines I had a big dorky grin on my face. It's engine sounds like a space Lamborghini.

 

[Mohrgan]

I'm sure you'll be successful in what you do in such a fine ship. The FdL is a formidable platform. Fly safe and rid the skies of the criminal scourge. Keep it air-tight.

 

[Pyrion]

I guess i am missing something. When i flew it i was not impressed. But i guess it's because i was very bad with that huge hard point.

 

[Maidrus K]

I guess i am missing something. When i flew it i was not impressed. But i guess it's because i was very bad with that huge hard point.

It took me a couple hours of RES dogfighting for me to get the hang of it. I always point up a bit to get the best angle. I was also using a gimballed C4 cannon, so that's maybe why I wasn't having much trouble.

 

[Jerakeen]

Me too. I bought one but sold it almost immediately because I couldn't hit anything with it at ranges over about 10 feet. I agree it is a nice ship but a bit too single purpose.

That huge cannon is wasted on anything smaller than a Python so effectively for normal use you only have the 4 medium points which to my mind makes it less useful than an Asp.

If there was the option to have two large hardpoints rather than the huge one it would be an awesome ship. Two large beams coupled with 4 medium multicannons would be a monster death machine but, for me at least, the huge hardpoint is too much of a compromise.

 

[hanks01]

I bought one last night after cashing in 67m of exploration data and I'm really enjoying it. Gimballing the cannon does make it possible to hit smaller ships, it's just a question of waiting for them to come in close and whack them before they pass under the ship. 99% off a sidewinder in one hit is very satisfying. 4 medium lasers are stripping everything small at range and the convergence is pretty decent (I'm using a mixture of beams with 2 pulses on the outer hardpoints, convergence seems decent on the set.)

Not having the money to fully A everything I do have A grade thrusters on a light loadout which are giving me a boost speed of 406 and pretty decent maneouverability. Love the sound of it as well, can't stop grinning.

 

[Nereus]

I've been flying one for a couple of days, and I don't like it very much.

Feels like flying a bloated Asp, and the huge hardpoint is not that useful. Not only the weapons of that size you can fit there have a very situational use (very large and semi-stationary targets), but that hardpoint location makes hitting stuff a pain.

I greatly prefer the Vulture, I can take down stuff on it just as fast and it is much more pleasant to flight.

I will give it a few more days, perhaps I will learn to enjoy it. : )

 

[Alvatore]

First off. I'm drunk.


Secondly, the FDL is the most fun ship I've flown in ED. The huge port fixed cannon is just awesome. It is everything a cannon should be except ED doesn't simulate kick-back. Other than that, the game is the most fun I've ever had playing it. I dont know if the FDL will be a compentent PvP ship, and I really dont care because 99% of Open game-play is not pvp.


Thank you FD. You have succeeded in making a incredibly awesome bounty hunter ship (his is coming from someone who had a fully classed out and loaded Vulture). This ship is perfect. Do not change it at all. Except paint jobs.

From what I've been reading here on the forums, the FdL doesn't do so well with shield cells but performs very well when you give it a bunch of shield extenders.

 

[Matthias46]

I am too satisfied with my Python to even try a new ship! Maybe will buy the Vulture because it seems to be very good (maybe too much for the price).

The Python has such a firepower and defensive capability that is good for everything. Apart from catching other CMDR's

 

[Bortas]

First off. I'm drunk.

That helps a lot in order to find the FdL fun

Secondly, the FDL is the most fun ship I've flown in ED.

It's fun, once you are in the system you want to use it in. Once you have to travel more than a few light years... it's not so fun. 8T fuel tank and only a class 2 compartment left for a fuel scoop. Or you have to rip out a SCB and look for a replacement one, after reaching your destination.

Thank you FD. You have succeeded in making a incredibly awesome bounty hunter ship (his is coming from someone who had a fully classed out and loaded Vulture). This ship is perfect. Do not change it at all. Except paint jobs.

Don't listen to him. It's not perfect at all... please increase the fuel tank size to 16t, or replace the C2 compartment with a C3 one for a half-way decent fuel scoop. Btw. shouldn't the FdL - according to Lore - come with an integrated fuel scoop?

 

[HeavyGroovez]

I think the Vu!ture is a lot more fun to fly.

So why have I spent the entire Lugh campaign in an FDL ?

As a combat platform it is very flexible.

Its ability to masslock, high speed, hardpoints, agility, strong shields, utilities....all add together to create a formidable fighter.

The huge hardpoint is capable of mounting any weapon in the game and converges with the upper hardpoints when using fixed thermals.

It takes time to truly appreciate her but once that bond is formed she will be your goto fighter.

As far as the tank size and range goes its not a deal breaker. Jump, scoop until you get to where you need to be. Job done.

 

[Lasse B.]

Anyone else having problems with a gimballed cannon mounted to the huge slot? I found that although the cannon is fully armed and the target is within an angle to be hit by it and the refire cooldown has run out, two out of three times it just wouldn't fire.

 

[Maxwellou]

As far as the tank size and range goes its not a deal breaker. Jump, scoop until you get to where you need to be. Job done.

True meaning: jump, fuel, jump, fuel, jump, jump, fuel, jump, detour to go to another station since no stars in your direction is scoopable, refuel, jump, jump, fuel...
45 minutes for 112 ly.
For you ? Boring.
For your friends waiting at JUST 112ly ? Boring too.
Yeah, I really don't see where this downside is needed. I mean, the FDL already has a low power grid (wich is fine like this, souldn't be buff), SCBs that are useless and a very poor choice of internal compartment wich are all fine and needed. But not the 12ly jump range or the 8t fuel tank ! That's just frustrating as hell to have less capacity than a Viper.

14ly and a 16t fuel tank would be much appreciated ( and in line with what the Python offers) and wouldn't turn the ship in an explorer type, especially at that price with the ASP still at 7M.

 

[Raf von Thorn]

I guess i am missing something. When i flew it i was not impressed. But i guess it's because i was very bad with that huge hard point.

Anyone else having problems with a gimballed cannon mounted to the huge slot? I found that although the cannon is fully armed and the target is within an angle to be hit by it and the refire cooldown has run out, two out of three times it just wouldn't fire.

FDL rules! The cannon needs a bit of adjusting your piloting technique. Watch this:

[video=youtube;dBGplNaIXK4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBGplNaIXK4[/video]

And sometimes when you try to fire it too often, the cannon "overcharges" and refuses to fire. FDL is still THE beast for me. Oh, and its VERY effective in PvP .

 

[Mephane]

True meaning: jump, fuel, jump, fuel, jump, jump, fuel, jump, detour to go to another station since no stars in your direction is scoopable, refuel, jump, jump, fuel...
45 minutes for 112 ly.
For you ? Boring.
For your friends waiting at JUST 112ly ? Boring too.
Yeah, I really don't see where this downside is needed. I mean, the FDL already has a low power grid (wich is fine like this, souldn't be buff), SCBs that are useless and a very poor choice of internal compartment wich are all fine and needed. But not the 12ly jump range or the 8t fuel tank ! That's just frustrating as hell to have less capacity than a Viper.

14ly and a 16t fuel tank would be much appreciated ( and in line with what the Python offers) and wouldn't turn the ship in an explorer type, especially at that price with the ASP still at 7M.

I agree with the sentiment under the condition that whatever love the FDL would get in terms of jump range, is equally applied to the Viper, too, for it suffers from the exact same issue.

 

[Vagabond]

Yup. Love me my FDL.

And the huge hardpoint doesn't necessarily need a huge. I run a fixed c3 beam on mine and x4 gimballed c2 multi-cannons. Strips a shield fast and the guns tear out the heart of a power plant.

Mine does 14.2 ly btw. In my experience, the fdl is so tough out of the box it doesn't need armour. And one shield booster is more than adequate.

Having said that, I'd love maybe 3-5 extra LYs on its range. It was a bit cheated IMO.

 

[Lasse B.]

And sometimes when you try to fire it too often, the cannon "overcharges" and refuses to fire. FDL is still THE beast for me. Oh, and its VERY effective in PvP .

How is that communicated to the player if there is no indication whatsoever of it overcharging?
It's really quite simple:



If

a) target is in range (in case of the FDL a bit "below" the ship)
- and -
b) weapon has ammo
- and -
c) weapon refire delay has run out
- and -
d) weapon has cooled down

and yet it doesn't fire, there's definitely something not working as it should be.

 

[Darth Ender]

There is no need for a fuel tank bigger than 8ton for this ship, max jump distance fuel use is 3 ton and a fuel scoop should do you fine if you find yourself far away from any stations. Since it can dock at outposts, I dont believe a larger fuel tank is warranted. \

14-15 ly jump distance is fine. Sure it can be out jumped by some ships, but those ships are not the FDL and thus, their pilots have to cry themselves to sleep every night. Plus it can't be awesome at everything.

Huge port cannon is awesome. Much more effective with the slower accelerating FDL than the class 3 cannon is on the much faster accelerating Vulture.

There really is nothing wrong with this ship. It's priced right. It's very achievable once you roll with a vulture if you're strictly making money in combat. It's a viable alternative to something like a python. You dont have to "A rate" everything for it to be effective but the power supply is very generous compared to the vulture, so you have more than enough flexibility with how you outfit it.

this is the ship boba fet would fly if he had to pick a ship from the Elite universe and he would be happy with just how it is. Though, he would demand that damn fuel scoop.

 

[Noddie]

You always have the option of installing an additional fuel tank.