Ships Federal Gunship Turret Build

K-Rose

K-Rose
So I'm working my way up to getting a Federal Gunship, plenty of time till 2.2 drops so I have some time to build up the cash to A rate it by then. I'm really looking forward to taking this thing down to planets and drop a maneuverable fighter to do some canyon flying, whilst having a beefy "Mothership".

Anyway I'm looking at builds in the short term, wondering what a good combination of turrets/gimballed/fixed weapons would be.

Correct me if I'm wrong, there are:
  • 2 Small HP on top
  • 2 Medium HP on side
  • 2 Medium HP on bottom
  • 1 Large HP on bottom

I think that the 2 on side & 2 on top are the best for turrets, with the 3 underneath having Gimballed/Fixed.

For the Large HP I'm torn between a PA (for finishing off the big ships) or a Gimballed Pulse for Sub Systems and hitting the faster ships.

So what spread of weapons do you suggest for the turrets and underneath?
 

Arithon

Arithon
Obviously chaff will affect G & T weapons, but it doesn't last and for a large ship they are pretty much standard.

Gimballed weapons do more damage, but turreted use less power.

Turrets are more useful where they are going to get a good line of fire for the longest period of time on the target. Since 60% of your view is the top half of the screen, top-mounted and side-mounted weapons get the best firing solution the longest.

For example, on a Python there are 3 Large and 2 Medium hard-points. Four are on top (2 large & 2 medium) so I tend to put 2 Large turret pulse lasers on there with medium gimballed. Why? When an opponent over-shoots me, the turrets turn and continue to fire as I climb round. This means I have a constant barrage on their shields/hull until my ship has a front-on firing solution where the other three hard-points can engage.

On the gunship, I'd look at it from the perspective of "which guns have a good line of sight below or behind me?" With the shape of the ship and hard-point locations, the ship is all about the front. Anything directly behind you will be outside the line of fire of all but the side-mounted weapons.

GUNSHIP TURRETS.jpg

My idea would be side-mounted turrets, a large turret on the bottom with two gimballed weapons and two turrets on top. Ideally a mixture of multi-cannons, pulse and burst lasers.

That choice really depends on your style of play.
 

K-Rose

K-Rose
With a picture and everything! I'm impressed.

I like the idea, more turrets is more my style (I'm lazy).

So when we're talking about the weapons themselves I notice you don't mention beams or cannons. I know it's down to preference but are there any widely accepted rules? Are MC, Pulse & Burst the most efficient ways to go?

Maybe 2 Gimballed Cannons in the Medium Slots, or a single Gimballed Cannon and a PA...
 
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Kaybe

Kaybe
Yes, excellent! I was just brainstorming turret placement on the gunship myself and I'm glad someone decided to create a thread about this very topic :D

I was also thinking of having turreted top smalls and side mediums, with the large and two mediums underneath being gimballed. What I'm still trying to figure out is what weapons to place there.

The top two should be beams, for sure. Anything less than beams is simply not enough damage. I'm debating on whether to put beams or pulses on the side ones. For turrets, I'd never ever use kinetics simply due to the fact that they keep firing and ammo is finite.

I was thinking of putting pulses on the bottom three as that's working quite well for me on the FAS, especially in regards to smashing power plants. But I'm also thinking of putting one large pulse and two medium cannons to minimize energy usage. Overall, I'd like to stick to just two pips into weapons for as long as possible so as to be able to maneuver a little and have some shield hardness.
 

Arithon

Arithon
All weapons have pros and cons. They are best used in some kind of combination to be most effective. However, if you are staying in a crime sweep or combat zone for extended periods, then a laser combo that requires no ammo replacement is preferable to a setup using cannons or multi-cannons or plasma.

I'd say 2x Class G1 turret multi-cannons on top for most effective damage ratio from the small hard-points. 4 x Class F2 turret Pulse-lasers on the side and bottom hard points and a C3 Gimballed Beam laser on the bottom.

You then have a means to fire a short controlled blast of the beam to strip shields. The power distributor (if a higher rating) should stay ahead of the power requirements of the turrets and keep firing at the target when not face-on. The combination of pulse and multi-cannon will chew apart most ships in short order.

EDIT: In the 1.5 Beta I tried the gunship with 7 rail-guns and 7 multi-cannons. The rails were super-effective, but ammo ran out very fast. Multi-cannons were very slow to get shields down, but once they were; well, it wasn't pretty!

So a Multi-cannon turret-fest with a beam laser or all pulse turrets with two small rails?


Pulse lasers
Pros: Damage hull and shields equally. Don't use much power. Don't produce much heat.
Cons: Don't do lot of damage per shot.
Tagline: "Where we're going, we don't need ammo!"

Burst lasers
Pros: More effective against shields than hull. Do more damage.
Cons: Use more power. Make more heat.
Tagline: "Sucker-punch"

Beam lasers
Pros: More effective against shields. They pour on the damage.
Cons: Use lots of power and make a lot of heat. Can only be used for short bursts.
Tagline: "You may fire when ready General Needa"

Multi-cannons
Pros: More effective against hull than shields. Fire rapidly. Little heat.
Cons: Sadly the candle that burns twice as bright, burns half as long. The ammo runs out.
Tagline: "Tear 'em a new one!"

Cannons
Pros: Low heat. Big damage. Splash damage.
Cons: Limited to 100 shots. Takes skill to hit a moving target with slow projectile.
Tagline: "Bang! and the module's gone.."

Frag-cannons
Pros: Low heat. Big spread of damage. Space shotgun.
Cons: Only effective at short range. Limited ammo.
Tagline: "Handy for those *close* encounters"

Plasma Accelerator
Pros: Eats shields for breakfast. Takes hull as second breakfast.
Cons: Produces a lot of heat. Slow fire rate. Slow projectile. Limited ammo. Fixed only.
Tagline: "We come in peace; shoot to kill"

Rail guns
Pros: fast projectile. Rips through shields. Available in smaller sizes. Cheaper than plasma.
Cons: Produces a lot of heat. Very slow fire rate. Limited ammo. Fixed only.
Tagline: "Kapow!"
 
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Kaybe

Kaybe
I suspect people are getting themselves ready to use the FGS now in preparation for it's hopeful godliness once 2.2 launches.

Plus she's, by far, the prettiest of the Federal ships.
 

cmdr scott

C
I also use dropship. I have large pulse turrent, bottom, two med burst turrents side, and two med gimballed multicannons on bottom. I bern looking at gunship and thinking small turrent on top, copy dropship on sides and bottom. With the gunship getting a figther , made me think about getting one or a keel back ,but only have one ship for now.
 

K-Rose

K-Rose
Kaybe said:
I suspect people are getting themselves ready to use the FGS now in preparation for it's hopeful godliness once 2.2 launches.

Plus she's, by far, the prettiest of the Federal ships.
Click to expand...

Pretty much yeah!

I've gone through the DS (excellent miner), now have the AS (excellent BH), my aim has always been the GS though.

I don't have nearly enough time to get one of the big 3, I've calculated that I'll be able to have a net worth of about 120M by the estimated time 2.2 comes out, perfect for a top spec GS.

I guess first it's a decision between a turreted Class 3, or two turreted Class 2's...
 
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Kaybe

Kaybe
Personally, I just want to have the top and sides turreted, with the bottoms as gimballed. Rolling is quick and easy, so I can always have my top facing the enemy, while still allowing the large and two mediums as hard hitters once I get them to bear.

And yeah ... while I have my Python in storage (got it 30% off ... no way in hell I'm EVER getting rid of her), I've first flown the FDS, now the FAS (don't like weapon placement so much, but holy hell is she agile ... a pleasure to fly!). But my goal is to jump into that slow wall of guns that looks like the space shuttle got busy with a tank and had kids.
 

Chris Simon

Chris Simon
With my love of big ships comes a love for turreted builds, I guess. Though I would probably go for something fixed in the C3, just to keep them busy while they spill chaff around.

It will be hard to watch all the dead zones, though. Every turret has a cone directly above where it can't shoot, roughly 20 degrees, I'd say. But then again, the side mounts would cover the others.
Very nice, all and all.
 

K-Rose

K-Rose
Managed to get my D spec Gunship this weekend, loaded it with Turretted Pulses, little did I know that Turrets "Fire at Will" are currently broken!

A bug has already been reported on https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=216730

Have to say though when using "Target Only", using free look to see a Sidewinder on my flank being blown up was mightily satisfying, felt like I was in Star Trek :)
 

Ceekay

Ceekay
Try some beam turrets in the two small hardpoints as small beams have the same DPS as medium pulse turrets, similar power drain but a higher thermal load, with a 7A PD you can sustain about 3.5 - 4 MW power drain.
 
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K-Rose

K-Rose
Small Beams are certainly my aim! I'd only just built up my net worth to 43M this weekend.

I've bought this in Li Yong space: http://coriolis.io/outfit/federal_g...c1919040404004i05042724.Iw18aQ==.EwBhrSuriA==

Took it to a regular Resource Extraction to hunt some wings of small ships, that's where I found out Fire at Will doesn't work properly...

I really enjoy buying the basic ships & working my way up.. First on my list is a C rated power plant, though I may swap out the Fixed Beam for a Gimballed Pulse and buy better Thrusters.
 
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Kaybe

Kaybe
So I ended up trying the turret build on her ...

Meh. It's not bad, don't get me wrong, but with FA-Off, she's not hard to turn, and the amount of firepower she dishes out with gimballed guns is truly withering. 4 multicannons and 3 beams, and things melt.
 

K-Rose

K-Rose
Kaybe said:
So I ended up trying the turret build on her ...

Meh. It's not bad, don't get me wrong, but with FA-Off, she's not hard to turn, and the amount of firepower she dishes out with gimballed guns is truly withering. 4 multicannons and 3 beams, and things melt.
Click to expand...

Have to say I know there are more efficient builds, I just had a FAS and it was much more battle ready, it's just the feeling of the ship that does it for me :)
 

Kaybe

Kaybe
Oh I never said get rid of the Gunship. I'm totally in love with her and find her damage output superior to the FAS'. I'm just saying you don't need turrets on her ;)

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P.S: I'm sad there's still no Federal Gunship category in the forums yet. I'd love to see an FGS owner's thread.
 
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