When Beyond drops, will we see NPC T10s and Chieftains? Also, combat ship balance?

[Aashenfox]

I don't know about anyone else, but I haven't seen an NPC T10 yet. Naturally, I assume the NPC spawn tables just haven't beenupdated yet, but of course that made me think about hte Chieftain, and not just if we will see NPCs flying it, but also I started thinking about how effective it will be in the hands of NPCS. NPCs are made effective by agility combined with hardpoints, as it allows them to keep their weapons on you, the perceived agility of the Chieftain from the stream makes me believe it will instantly become the most challenging NPC ship to fight against. Lots of hardpoints, lots of agility. Fortunately, it seems to have comparable shields to the FGS (as opposed to the FDL), and plenty of milslots for hull protection, which NPCs don't tend to use a lot of, but still.

Let;s face it, this is going to be the ultimate hybrid, which brings me to balance.

The criteria that make a combat ship great are:

Sufficient size power plant to accept almost any combination of weapons and shield boosters/batteries. Chieftain, check!
Sufficient size distro to power said weapons. Chieftain, check!
Sufficient agility to point those weapons at a mobile enemy. Chieftain, check!
Good hardpoint placement. Chieftain, check!
Good yaw. Chieftain, check!
Plenty of slots for HRPs and MRPs as well as minimal mission equipment. Chieftain, check!
Good nominal shield values. Chieftain...ok, not so great, kinda comparable to Fed ships.
Vertical and Lateral acceleration... Chieftain... To be confirmed...

The Chieftain already appears to be best in class, as it has all of the above. The only advantage any other combat ship will have (and even then, we're basically talking FDL and just aboutnothing else) is better shields, which on a hull heavy (potentially) ship like the chieftain, doesn't count for a lot. Then tack on that it has the best jump range of all the medium combat ships (20ly fully A rated, without engineering, so 30ly with 50% increased range, making it the longest jumping combat ship fully loaded).

Does anyone else think this is going to render the FDL and even the mighty FAS a little less relevant? I know there's a balancing pass to come during and/or after beta, so I also want to say I hope they don't nerf it too much. It's the perfect ship for the way I fly and play the game, I will sell several others once I've got it, as their roles (agility, lots of hardpoints) will not only be covered, but combined into one ship.

 

[Urbanski101]

Yes it did seem to tick a lot of boxes which is a good thing.

TBH it's about time we had some useful ships we actually want, the T10 seemed to go down well and had a (mostly) positive reception and the Chieftan looks to continue that....bodes well for the Krait.

I don't like hull tanking at all so I think it will be a ship I will use but it won't replace my FDL. I think the PVP crew will love this though, agile, tough and good hardpoint placement.

Agree about wanting to see the new ships flown by NPCs

 

[Frenotx]

Will the chieftain make the FAS and FDL irrelevant? Not likely. Will the chieftan make the FAS and FDL LESS relevant? I certainly hope so, and it looks like it has a chance to. Right now, those two are the far-and-away best medium combat ships. Adding a third legitimate choice would reduce their market share so to speak, but ideal just because it's going from 50/50, to 33/33/33.

 

[WR3ND]

There was an interesting video I saw on infinite boosting potential for Engineered PVP ships which rather negates the stock agility of the Chieftain to that end, so I think it won't likely change the PVP meta so much, but I'm not really personally interested in the PVP meta all that much anyway since Engineers came out in the first place. It makes it way too much about the meta and Engineering for combat builds more than playing the game within the context of the game's universe for my tastes.

Other than that, the Chieftain does seem to be shaping up rather nicely and looks like a nearly ideal upgrade from my combat capable Vulture explorer ship, which is the main ship I've used in the game for over two years now.

Only thing I might prefer differently about the Chieftain is having 2 size 5 military slots and a 3 or 2 sized free slot instead of 3 size 4 military slots, but that's just me.

 

[Kaocraft]

Will the chieftain make the FAS and FDL irrelevant? Not likely. Will the chieftan make the FAS and FDL LESS relevant? I certainly hope so, and it looks like it has a chance to. Right now, those two are the far-and-away best medium combat ships. Adding a third legitimate choice would reduce their market share so to speak, but ideal just because it's going from 50/50, to 33/33/33.

Is it really 50/50 with the FDL/FAS? Seems more like 90/10 to me. I don't see Chieftain shifting the balance very much. Weak shields + only 4 utility mounts means it likely won't unseat the FDL.

 

[WR3ND]

Oh, by the way, here's the video I referenced...

[video=youtube_share;XIECMsOAk-s]https://youtu.be/XIECMsOAk-s[/video]

 

[WR3ND]

Is it really 50/50 with the FDL/FAS? Seems more like 90/10 to me. I don't see Chieftain shifting the balance very much. Weak shields + only 4 utility mounts means it likely won't unseat the FDL.

Yeah, that's more toward my general take on things too, but then I'm not much into PVP-centric gameplay, so take that as you will.