How To Build A PvE Combat Ship

[ryan_m]

Thanks, but no, I refuse to use a Chieftan. I’ve been using this FAS since it came out in 2015 (?). She’s gotten me this far, I’m gonna stick with her.

Plus I find the Chieftans addition to the game as an easier to obtain, clear straight-up upgrade at the same price point as the FAS, a direct middle finger to the FAS and everyone who spent hours grinding rank to get one.

Plus I don't like the cockpit.

Haha you're not wrong! I miss the FAS being viable in PvP.

 

[Phisto Sobanii]

Wondering if you (or anyone else) has any cautions in terms of these weapon choices. Like is there something I am missing that makes them a bad idea? Especially how I am mixing burst and beam...I never see that done in builds I've looked at, but my time using them I couldn't figure out why it was not okay.

I've been messing around with a Bi-weave FDL with three Thermal Vent Efficient Beams, LR Feedback iHammer, and a LR Corrosive Huge Multi. Gimbals cause scrub and I like flipping around like a dummy. It's fun and a great change of pace when I don't feel like running my usual Multi or PA loadouts.

The LR Multi gets over 3,000 m/s shot speed which helps convergence with the Beams. The effects keep me cool enough to run forever at 0-2-4. I can rock maybe like half a dozen iHammer shots (ROCK AND ROLL MODE \n/ ) before the distro drains.

Biggest issues are range control (damage falloff on the Beams) and need to make sure I'm sub-targeting modules.

Was just debating with a squaddie if Efficient is the best choice here. LR would help range control obviously and Focused would help AP. Just... cutting loose with everything thanks to Efficient is so fun.

EDIT: Just saw your comments about Efficient, Ryan. I'll give Lightweight a try and see how I like it.

 

[Sayne]

Haha you're not wrong! I miss the FAS being viable in PvP.

All it needs is a Class 6 slot for a bigger shield (and to take advantage of the artificially faster regen FD put on 6C and 7C Bi-Weaves) and it could compete.

Come on, FD, throw us a bone!

 

[ryan_m]

What we REALLY need for the FAS is for point defense/ECM to get a buff so it doesn't get shredded by seeker spam.

 

[Sayne]

What we REALLY need for the FAS is for point defense/ECM to get a buff so it doesn't get shredded by seeker spam.

It doesn’t help the FAS that all 4 utility slots are on the bottom either. Even if point defenses got a buff, it’s totally vulnerable on its top side.

 

[NCFCpaul]

Yeah you have to use it as a hybrid really. Shields kinda suck and it doesn't move well compared to the FDL. There are better ships for that role, though.

Thanks for your thoughts, like I said before your FDL build is awesome.

What ship would you go for as a hybrid/hull tank? I had always thought the Gunship was the best for this? Certainly for that size of ship?

I really like having the variety to switch between very different ships. At the minute I have your FDL design and an FGS as my combat choices. If there's a better choice for Hull Tank than the FGS I'd like to give it a go

 

[Rubbernuke]

I'm not sure if its mentioned but with Bi Weaves you might want to note they drain SYS power quickly if the pips are set low and you have sustained shield hits- this also means other defensive modules can run out of power and become unresponsive when you need them.

 

[Kzak]

Can't find the section you're talking about but I think I know what you're saying. So on a stock heat sink, you get 3 total. With A-rated SCBs, you get 4 charges. If you double bank properly, you can do this 3 times before you run out of sinks for your SCBs.

You can also use SCBs entirely without heat sinks - if you've engineered your beam lasers properly with Thermal Vent to cool down your ship. This does, of course, require you to have a target nearby that you can hit to get the cooling effect, letting you use the utility slots for other things.

 

[NCFCpaul]

You can also use SCBs entirely without heat sinks - if you've engineered your beam lasers properly with Thermal Vent to cool down your ship. This does, of course, require you to have a target nearby that you can hit to get the cooling effect, letting you use the utility slots for other things.

This is what I've tended to do on my ships, letting me use a sturdy beam with thermal vent on my largest hard point and use SCB when I've got a nice shot lined up, it works well - certainly for PvE.

Although I'm guessing people will tell me sturdy mount is useless but I find it helps with my aiming

 

[CMDR Khadaji]

Great guide, thank you for writing it up! I plan to make use of this when I decide to get out of my deep space exploration comfort zone.

One question regarding engineering the FSD... while range is key for Explorer builds and great for traders, i’ve sort of thought that reducing boot time on the FSD allows a builder to more aggressively power manage a combat build, disabling FSD with hardpoints deployed. This would allow for more power from a potentially lighter power plant to be applied to weapons, shields, and thrusters. When it’s time to bug out, stow hardpoints and hopefully the FSD is ready to rock by the time you break mass-lock?

 

[ryan_m]

Thanks for your thoughts, like I said before your FDL build is awesome.

What ship would you go for as a hybrid/hull tank? I had always thought the Gunship was the best for this? Certainly for that size of ship?

I really like having the variety to switch between very different ships. At the minute I have your FDL design and an FGS as my combat choices. If there's a better choice for Hull Tank than the FGS I'd like to give it a go

Chieftain is the go-to hybrid at the moment. Hull tanking is kind of outclassed by just running a hybrid ship, so that's the path I'd recommend.

This is what I've tended to do on my ships, letting me use a sturdy beam with thermal vent on my largest hard point and use SCB when I've got a nice shot lined up, it works well - certainly for PvE.

Although I'm guessing people will tell me sturdy mount is useless but I find it helps with my aiming

Lightweight works better for the vent effect.

Great guide, thank you for writing it up! I plan to make use of this when I decide to get out of my deep space exploration comfort zone.

One question regarding engineering the FSD... while range is key for Explorer builds and great for traders, i’ve sort of thought that reducing boot time on the FSD allows a builder to more aggressively power manage a combat build, disabling FSD with hardpoints deployed. This would allow for more power from a potentially lighter power plant to be applied to weapons, shields, and thrusters. When it’s time to bug out, stow hardpoints and hopefully the FSD is ready to rock by the time you break mass-lock?

Some PvPers use fast-boot FSDs but generally, if you're good, you know when you need to get out so it's not a big deal to run a quality-of-life improvement mod like range over fast boot. Most PvP builds have more than enough power so you can run whatever you want, too.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

PvE Combat ships are, well, nearly any ship can be a PvE Combat ship.

I’ve put down NPC Anacondas with a Dolphin, cleaned house in Haz RES with a Beluga, taken out Cyclops with an Orca, and fended off mixed pirate wings with a Type-9.

Granted I’m not your average player, and was probably a bit above bar back when I was a newbie too, but the bottom line is that PvE Combat is really no harder than you make it.

Yes, you will run in to some surprise NPC’s that are tougher than they should be, or hit harder than you expect, so there are some good tactics to know too. Being on my phone atm, at work, I can’t look at the Google Doc right now, but I suspect many of these basic tactics are covered, like using heat sinks to break target locks and keeping a high wake target queued just in case things take a trip to the sideways.

 

[dubsdj]

Over the weekend, I put together a pretty detailed guide for the Galactic Academy discord server explaining how to build a combat ship for PvE, both with and without engineering. The server is meant for newbies to have a place to ask questions and learn the basics of the game, so the guide is targeted towards that crowd.
It's a little too long to post here, so I linked the Google Doc above and put a little rundown below.
What is in the guide?

• Basic concepts around weapons, defenses, positioning in combat, utilities, pip management
• Outfitting examples for a non-engineered Viper mk 3 and an FDL while explaining the choices behind every selected module
• Very basic explanation about engineering
• Outfitting example for a fully G5 rated FDL with explanations for every engineered module
• Engineering "tier" list
• Build links to multiple ships with and without engineering
• Useful utilities section that makes building ships easier

I'm also working on a PvP guide as well, but that's still in process.
Hope this can help some of you with your ship builds!

Good post +rep however newbies will still get their ar$e handed to them on a plate. Doesn't matter what build they have.

 

[CMDR Slee Piboi]

But it sure won't hurt to remove bottlenecks from the learning process. Easier to concentrate on learning the moves when the build cannot be blamed. +rep @ryan_m for the guides.

 

[Kushiel's Dart]

Great guide. Great discussion.

 

[ryan_m]

But it sure won't hurt to remove bottlenecks from the learning process. Easier to concentrate on learning the moves when the build cannot be blamed. +rep @ryan_m for the guides.

That's pretty much the goal. I'm a mentor in the FDev Galactic Academy server and I wrote it specifically to cover outfitting theory and very basic piloting skills to give people a jumping off point. It is not meant to be exhaustive as tactics change constantly while the underlying theory doesn't change much.

 

[Jaggid Edje]

@ryan_m Just circling back to thank you again.

I followed your advice regarding the beam lasers and also adjusted the experimental on my bursts. My ttk on the enemies at CZ's has increased and I'm also getting around ~33% more enemy kills before I need to restock (the MC) So thank you!

You're willingness to share insights with the community and newbies like me is much appreciated.

 

[ryan_m]

@ryan_m Just circling back to thank you again.

I followed your advice regarding the beam lasers and also adjusted the experimental on my bursts. My ttk on the enemies at CZ's has increased and I'm also getting around ~33% more enemy kills before I need to restock (the MC) So thank you!

You're willingness to share insights with the community and newbies like me is much appreciated.

No problem. Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[CMDR Khadaji]

Some PvPers use fast-boot FSDs but generally, if you're good, you know when you need to get out so it's not a big deal to run a quality-of-life improvement mod like range over fast boot. Most PvP builds have more than enough power so you can run whatever you want, too.

LOL, i’m definitely NOT good. But I can play with it both ways and see what I like ... thanks for the help.

Regarding the Utilities on the Engineered FDL, if you wanted to run a KWS, would you drop one of the Resist booster, or one of the HD boosters, to make room? Or is the idea that by the time one gets to this point, one should be financially stable enough to not worry about getting every last credit possible out of each kill?

Thanks!

 

[ryan_m]

LOL, i’m definitely NOT good. But I can play with it both ways and see what I like ... thanks for the help.

Regarding the Utilities on the Engineered FDL, if you wanted to run a KWS, would you drop one of the Resist booster, or one of the HD boosters, to make room? Or is the idea that by the time one gets to this point, one should be financially stable enough to not worry about getting every last credit possible out of each kill?

Thanks!

By the time you're running a fully engineered FDL, credits shouldn't be an issue. If they still are, I would drop an HD booster.