.
That's true when you play solo, as you can only have one NPC active at any time. If you go muti-crew, you can deploy two fighters, just make sure you have a ship with a sufficient number of seats.
.
Fighters have had their DPS artificially inflated, so they're actually very serious damage dealers. A decently ranked NPC in a fixed beam fighter can generally mincemeat small NPC ships without your intervention, and against something bigger, you can jump in it to drop a heat sink. The heat sink is not used by NPCs but when used by you, it not only cools the ship but gives you a massive recharge bonus to your WEP capacitor, allowing you to sustain the fixed beam fire for the entire duration of the heat sink. It's pretty devastating.
If you want a decent small ship that isn't a fighter I can recommend the iCourier. It's like the Imperials took the Viper and applied their magic to it - the speed/handling/internals are relatively similar, but the iCourier has slightly different hardpoints, double the shields and double the utility slots.
If you want a decent small ship that isn't a fighter I can recommend the iCourier. It's like the Imperials took the Viper and applied their magic to it - the speed/handling/internals are relatively similar, but the iCourier has slightly different hardpoints, double the shields and double the utility slots.
Last edited:
Has anyone tried tanking out a Keelback for max AI controlled survivability, with the CMDR piloting the SLF? If so, how did it fare?
Something like this?
https://eddp.co/u/x3SDzLyH
I like the positions of the Keepback's C1 turrets, a decent firing arc
Something like this?
https://eddp.co/u/x3SDzLyH
I like the positions of the Keepback's C1 turrets, a decent firing arc
Last edited:
Anyone who has focused on Threat Level 4 Pirate Lord Assassination Missions knows that there are those moments when you drop into the USS and one, sometimes two of the additional bad guys attached to that mission also drops in at the same time.
I use the SLF with an NPC pilot to distract and keep busy that other Corvette and/or Anaconda while I deal with the actual Pirate Lord. I had one yesterday where (2) additional Corvettes dropped into that USS along with the main target Corvette at the same time!
If I didn't have the SLF to distract the other two ships while I focused on taking out the main target, I don't think I would have been able to deal with that much firepower directed at my Corvette. They were all Elite piloted ships with engineered weapons including Plasma Accelerators (All threat level 4)
In the end, I and my NPC pilot managed to take down all three of those Elite piloted Corvettes. And because they were all in the USS instance I had ZERO help from the local system authority ships.
I don't think a Vulture would have faired too well in that scenario.
I use the SLF with an NPC pilot to distract and keep busy that other Corvette and/or Anaconda while I deal with the actual Pirate Lord. I had one yesterday where (2) additional Corvettes dropped into that USS along with the main target Corvette at the same time!
If I didn't have the SLF to distract the other two ships while I focused on taking out the main target, I don't think I would have been able to deal with that much firepower directed at my Corvette. They were all Elite piloted ships with engineered weapons including Plasma Accelerators (All threat level 4)
In the end, I and my NPC pilot managed to take down all three of those Elite piloted Corvettes. And because they were all in the USS instance I had ZERO help from the local system authority ships.
I don't think a Vulture would have faired too well in that scenario.
Last edited:
I have a combat Keelback with a similar build, and I fly it in RES's when I'm collecting bounties. I generally let the NPC fly the SLF but sometimes I like to zip around in it. A better combat pilot could probably survive in CZ's with it as well.
Something to keep in mind once your pilot is dangerous or above (basically, competent), is that they aren't hampered by the atrocious 2 fire buttons per weapon group rule. I hopped into my SLF once for a laugh and noticed my NPC crew member using all of my Corvette's weapons at the same time - multi cannons, cannons and railguns. There were fireworks.
Afaik a SLF approximately does the damage of a large hardpoint, which is approx a medium+small. Also even more sustained damage in practice if you employ the heatsink/beam tecnique, and considering it's fairly easy to stay below the dropoff range of weapons in a SLF. Sooo they are pretty good, not just novelty.
.
I know. But i also fell into the Keelback trap when MC was introduced. A friend logged in, was all like "i want to try MC". As i refused to buy one of the big 3, i thought i'd just get a Keelback and off we go. So alas, Keelback bought, outfitted, found that it doesn't have a second seat, sold again. That were the ships 15 minutes (at best) in my inventory...
.
By now i also have an Imperial Cutter in my arsenal. Steering it feels like turning a cathedral around, but hey, two friends can hop in at the same time and fly my SLFs. It's fun enough to make up for the cumbersome ship. (When not needing seats for SLF pilots, the courier still is my prefered combat ship, though. )
.
That's why i just more commonly say to make sure you have enough seats, so everybody can determine for himself, how many seats his ship needs.
.
I've never bothered to find out. In my experience, while an EXPERT rated NPC pilot can do a good job with the fighter, they tend to be rather incompetent when it comes to flying an A Rate/G5 Engineered Combat ship.
At least they are far less capable at it than I am. Therefore... I only use them to fly the fighter.
.
Let's simply say: give them a simple and efficient loadout to handle. Just like a trigger-happy new pilot, they seem to quite often end up firing whatever weapon the cap just allows to fire, instead of waiting for a few seconds to recharge, then use the better weapon. Even worse though: they don't really bother about heat and eagerly cook your modules if you give them weapons which allow them to do that.
.
Yeah, it's the most expensive of the dinky ships. The only more expensive small ship is the Vulture, which to be fair is less of a small ship and more "large artillery strapped to thrusters". When you have a few mill it's excellent for PvP and PvE alike; even in your local RES it teaches you not to rely on face tanking, but is forgiving enough that basically any mistake can be shrugged off with a boost.
Gunship is good if you got the rank for it..
I know. But i also fell into the Keelback trap when MC was introduced. A friend logged in, was all like "i want to try MC". As i refused to buy one of the big 3, i thought i'd just get a Keelback and off we go. So alas, Keelback bought, outfitted, found that it doesn't have a second seat, sold again. That were the ships 15 minutes (at best) in my inventory...
.
By now i also have an Imperial Cutter in my arsenal. Steering it feels like turning a cathedral around, but hey, two friends can hop in at the same time and fly my SLFs. It's fun enough to make up for the cumbersome ship. (When not needing seats for SLF pilots, the courier still is my prefered combat ship, though. )
.
That's why i just more commonly say to make sure you have enough seats, so everybody can determine for himself, how many seats his ship needs.
.
I've let my pilot take the helm from time to time.
For some reason, on ships with PA's they seem to like to go crazy with them and will fire off barrages of PA's at something, anything and nothing, especially when the PA's are Plasma Slugged. I dunno if they just like watching them go, or they don't realize how they work, or if this is just some crazy AI tactic, but it makes them a hazard when they do this, and I always end up putting them back in the fighter and fixing my pips again.
For some reason, on ships with PA's they seem to like to go crazy with them and will fire off barrages of PA's at something, anything and nothing, especially when the PA's are Plasma Slugged. I dunno if they just like watching them go, or they don't realize how they work, or if this is just some crazy AI tactic, but it makes them a hazard when they do this, and I always end up putting them back in the fighter and fixing my pips again.
.
I got one. It does well enough as long as only one friend is around as SLF jockey.
.
The fighter isn't meant to be a replacement for a fast combat ship, if that's what you want. You'll notice that all the ships that can carry them are slow - the fighter is meant to help you deal with the annoying smaller ships like Eagles and Vipers when you're in a big slow ship like an Anaconda.
I find that the killer app for the fighters is to hand them off to an NPC crew member, who defends the mothership from smaller, faster ships while I deal with bigger game.
For instance, in some of the harder space salvage missions, you gets jumped by as many as five ships. Usually, it's one bigger ship, like a Python, plus a few smaller ones, like Eagles or Sidewinders. The smaller ships are the real threat here, because there are so many of them, and they're painfully difficult to draw a bead on with a big slow ship like the Anaconda. Having even one SLF watching your back more than levels the playing field in these fights.