Planetary strike ship setup

[CMDR Michael Dodds]

Hello all,

For a little while, I've been playing around with various ships trying to find out what I think would work best when hitting ground targets with a ship. The following criteria are what I took into consideration:

1. Manoeuvrable and fast.
2. Adequate dps forward facing weaponry.
3. Internal Compartments must hold a minimum of: Top spec shield generator for ship, suitable fuel scoop, vehicle bay, some cargo space, both exploration scanners.
4. Light enough to withstand most, if not all gravity strengths.
5. At least one chaff pod.

So far, the best I have come up with is an imperial courier build. See Coriolis link: http://coriolis.io/outfit/imperial_...b2f00040404402tv6012f2i.Iw18UA==.AwiMIyPCg===

I'm still debating whether or not to dump the two scanners for additional cargo racks but the other compartments are a must. I'm open to critisicm of my weapon choice as well as I'm contemplating fixed pulses and a rail gun/plasma acc.

My intention is to have a ship that can get me around the surface quickly and provide aerial support for my wingmates on the ground if I'm with others.

I'd appreciate your opinions/suggestions/links to your own builds.

Cheers,

CMDR Dodds

 

[Imrus76]

Try the new Viper MK IV, not bad bi-weave shield, exellent armor with military grade, lot of internals, good ~20 LY jump range fully equipped.

 

[CMDR Michael Dodds]

Try the new Viper MK IV, not bad bi-weave shield, exellent armor with military grade, lot of internals, good ~20 LY jump range fully equipped.

Hmm, might have to give that a look when I can. Cheers.

Anyone else got an opinion?

 

[CMDR Corlas]

I've been considering this for a while, in hopes that there might be some ground attack and close air support missions with Horizons. (well, not "air" support, but you know...)

I went the other way though; I was thinking a Dropship would be ideal; lots of armor so it can make it in, good internals to pop out a bunch of vehicles of its own, and hardpoints on the bottom for downward-facing turrets while you fly lazy circles and rain down death.

 

[Julio Montega]

If you sacrifice a bit on versatility and all your wishes of exploration scanners,
the DBS is a good choice.
Low profile, agile and well rounded firepower.

The obvious choice is the ASP here,
enough room to stow away all your utility while putting up a fight.
Excellent jumprange is shining, too.

For heavy combat duty pull a Federal Gunship,
lots of firepower, but a bit sluggish.
Whatever you face, you'll live to tell the tale.

 

[goemon]

i fly a courier for that very reason, so i can only second your choice. also, it can land on places where other ships beside the eagle can't.


my build is more or less the same internals, but with a different approach - i like to have it as lightweight as possible. so i run class 2 shields and a class 2 powerplant, and no bulkheads (if shields are down, the courier is dead anyways). so mine is 20 tons less than your build.

i have to pulses, too - and a cannon under the belly. the cannon is great for "cut the power"-missions, but i'm sure dumbfire do the same.

i'm still thinking about the detailed surface scanner. on the one hand, it is great to see g-force of a planet, on the other hand, you get this info in orbital cruise, so i'm not sure whether i will keep it (and fit a FSD instead).

 

[CMDR Michael Dodds]

Thanks for all your great answers, plenty of ideas floating around here and I'm sort of glad that there isn't just one way to go about this. Going off topic slightly but can you even get settlements on high G planets? Say, 4G and up? If not then ship mass might not actually be as crucial as I thought.

 

[goemon]

Thanks for all your great answers, plenty of ideas floating around here and I'm sort of glad that there isn't just one way to go about this. Going off topic slightly but can you even get settlements on high G planets? Say, 4G and up? If not then ship mass might not actually be as crucial as I thought.

achenar 3 has 6.73 G and a settlement.

i don't think ship mass matters as much as thrusters optimal mass in relation to ship mass for handling, with stuff like acceleration/decceleration and manouverability and vertical thrusters. so far i have landed couriers, cobras, Asp, pythons and DBE on planets. eagle and courier performed best, python is better than Asp, Asp better than DBE...

the courier has very strong vertical thrusters, and the best acceleration of all ships.

what i think does matter a lot is placement of weapons, too. weapons under the belly do help a lot, because you don't have to hoover that much diagonally to hit. also - turning around on a higher G planet is deadly, because your upside thrusters are not very strong on most ships. you can't hoover upside down.

 

[domaq]

I've been doing a similar thing playing around while gathering materials. It's also my prospecting build as the 2 Imperial hammers can take down surface to air turrets with ease. The turreted pulse is mounted under the belly for taking out normal sentries. Seems to work better than when I used a med beam for this job.
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=707,9qW9qW5Rs01Q0mI0Wg0_g,2-6Q4s4s2C4s3m5A,7Py05U1IM4xo2jw2UI
This build has worked on every planet I've tried including Achenar 3. The real fun is if you get a goliath with missiles firing at you. Strafing left and right firing the 2 Imperial Hammers while your PDC takes out the missiles. The Courier's low mass is perfect for maintaining position even when 20deg nose down.
.
The Viper MkIV or Cobra MkIV would probably also work.