Elite / Frontier Your best fighting ship

[LouisdeFuines]

Please feel free to tell me, what your best combat and assassination ship is!

For me:
ASP Explorer:
- Class 3 military hyperdrive (18 Lj.)
- 4 MW-Beam
- NAval-ECM
- 10 shields


I just bought an Imperial Trader and..........almost immediately sold it, because I needet ages to get to my destination systems and couldn`t exchange to a better hyperdrive due to the lock

If you could tell me a better combination,
hey, that`s what the thread is for!

 

[boringnick]

I think your config is the best combat ship available in FFE (aside from the Argent's Quest and the Thargoid of course).

The Imperial Courier is great too, but I prefer the ASP, because you can't fit in a military drive into a Courier that easy. And you need one to take the classified missions.

 

[Geraldine]

Yes, the Asp is a good solid ship, a great upgrade to the Cobra MkIII. Me? I prefere the Sidewinder every time. With a 5MW Pulse laser fitted, it's a fast and deadly little ship that can take on much more heavily armed opponents and due to its maneuverability, dogfights with smaller ships are still fun too.

 

[LouisdeFuines]

How many hits does it take, to get boiled in your Sidewinder?

 

[Geraldine]

You move too fast to get boiled
Also the profile of the Sidewinder makes it a tricky target to hit at the best of times. Facing a group of 3 of em in a battle is bad news. Honestly, this is the ship I mostly used since I started playing FE2 in 1993 and later on, FFE. This was also the ship I won my Elite rating on

 

[vdc]

I like to get myself an ex-police Viper Defence Craft

They're extremely agile for their size. Put it this way, there are no ships heavier than it which match the Viper's agility. The VDC has a 50 tonne internal capacity and the first craft to beat it on agility going down the weight scales is the Eagle III, but the Eagle III has only a 22 tonne internal capacity.

With 24G acceleration, I can out run anything I can't outfight, and with 50 tonnes of weapons i can outfight anything I can't outrun. Simple

I know most people tend to class the Cobra III as the best medium fighter, but the Viper beats it on agility, and is much narrower making it harder to hit when shooting face to face.

If I want to, it's big enough to carry a class 3 military drive, giving it a very good 27ly range while still having enough room to spare for basic equipment like a 1MW beam, radar mapper, autopilot, etc...

Or use a class 2 military drive, giving a respectable 12ly range but now with enough room for either

a.) 4MW beam, 1xShield, plus autopilot, radar mapper, jammer, etc...

b ) 1MW beam, 3-4xSHield, 4xmissiles, plus autopilot, blah blah...

Damn fine ship!

 

[LouisdeFuines]

I like to get myself an ex-police Viper Defence Craft

They're extremely agile for their size. Put it this way, there are no ships heavier than it which match the Viper's agility. The VDC has a 50 tonne internal capacity and the first craft to beat it on agility going down the weight scales is the Eagle III, but the Eagle III has only a 22 tonne internal capacity.

With 24G acceleration, I can out run anything I can't outfight, and with 50 tonnes of weapons i can outfight anything I can't outrun. Simple

I know most people tend to class the Cobra III as the best medium fighter, but the Viper beats it on agility, and is much narrower making it harder to hit when shooting face to face.

If I want to, it's big enough to carry a class 3 military drive, giving it a very good 27ly range while still having enough room to spare for basic equipment like a 1MW beam, radar mapper, autopilot, etc...

Or use a class 2 military drive, giving a respectable 12ly range but now with enough room for either

a.) 4MW beam, 1xShield, plus autopilot, radar mapper, jammer, etc...

b ) 1MW beam, 3-4xSHield, 4xmissiles, plus autopilot, blah blah...

Damn fine ship!

Your and Geraldines report are exactly, what I want to read here.

I want to hear good experiences with the other ships.

Is your viper capable to do military bombing missions (and the other high grade missions) and stay alive?
I will try out the viper.

 

[turwhitt]

For assaassinations yes it's the Asp.
For general combat and high-level military missions my rig is:

Boa Freighter
50 shields
Energy booster
100mw beam (front)
Hull repair
Naval ECM
Some high power pulse lasers on the other mountings just for a bit of fun
Energy bomb, also just for fun
Cameras and nukes of course!


The Boa really has very good range, speed and manouverability for such a big ship.

The Viper II is also an excellent combat ship. Nothing faster in the galaxy (bar the mission ships). Also it's probably an ex-police ship so has some Blues Brothers style.

 

[zmurf]

It´s not the best ship for pure combat.. but I always go for an Imperial Trader. They are pretty good all-around ships.

I usually change the configuration of the ship when I'm doing assassination or combat missions. Better canon, more shield generators, bigger military drive... and then change back again when I'm doing trading with it.

The most awkward thing the the Imperials though is that you have to get the engine destroyed to be able to replace it. But it totally worth it to be able to change the engine.

 

[DraQ]

Please feel free to tell me, what your best combat and assassination ship is!

For me:
ASP Explorer:
- Class 3 military hyperdrive (18 Lj.)
- 4 MW-Beam
- NAval-ECM
- 10 shields


I just bought an Imperial Trader and..........almost immediately sold it, because I needet ages to get to my destination systems and couldn`t exchange to a better hyperdrive due to the lock

If you could tell me a better combination,
hey, that`s what the thread is for!

Pretty much the same, except for 5-30MW pulse on the front (main gun, good eye needed), and 1MW beam (mosquito smacker) on the back. I don't remember the exact number of shields, but the rule of the thumb is leaving enough cargo space to accommodate two jumps worth of fuel.

In superheavy category it woud be Boa with a lot of shields and good lasers on turrets (discounting Quest).

And I wouldn't dismiss light craft like Sidewinder or even Falcon or Eagle - fast, small forward cross-section and you can still mount 5MW pulse on them. If you're good pilot who can afford the risk of not being able to withstand any serious hits, you may find such craft very effective.

Edit:

The only actual limitation of very small vessels is that it's impossible to install sufficient shielding on them to make them withstand energy bomb - the only weapon you can't evade. IIRC it takes 3 shield generators to completely absorb the pulse.

 

[Geraldine]

Buzz Buzz Buzz

The only actual limitation of very small vessels is that it's impossible to install sufficient shielding on them to make them withstand energy bomb - the only weapon you can't evade. IIRC it takes 3 shield generators to completely absorb the pulse.

That is correct if you are close to the energy bomb when it goes off. My tactic (using the Sidewinder) involves either getting in fast n close and attempt to disable the bomb with multiple point-blank shots before the enemy ship can set it off or (if they have strong shields) do fast hit and run attacks. Wear them down but always keeping my distance until either the enemy sets the bomb off (with distance the damage it causes decreases) or I eventually destroy it.

True, there are easier ways to take on such enemies with better armed shielded ships, but where is the fun in that!

 

[DraQ]

That is correct if you are close to the energy bomb when it goes off. My tactic (using the Sidewinder) involves either getting in fast n close and attempt to disable the bomb with multiple point-blank shots before the enemy ship can set it off or (if they have strong shields) do fast hit and run attacks. Wear them down but always keeping my distance until either the enemy sets the bomb off (with distance the damage it causes decreases) or I eventually destroy it.

True, there are easier ways to take on such enemies with better armed shielded ships, but where is the fun in that!

Isn't that a bit hard, though?

IIRC the bomb has 100km radius of effect. A bit substantial unless you somehow manage to score hits while doing hypervelocity fly-bys.

 

[turwhitt]

True, there are easier ways to take on such enemies with better armed shielded ships, but where is the fun in that!

I suppose it depends where you are coming from. If you don't mind a lot of re-loads then by all means fly a littlun. But if you're more of a roleplayer to whom reloading is immersion-breaking, it makes sense to do what a mega-rich character would do anyway - buy a beast.

And sorry i don't accept any claim of having a small ship and never reloading. There are far too many random occurrences in Frontier that take out small ships, for that to be possible.

*EDIT*
Oh but if you can show video proof of doing a bomb/photo mission in an Eagle, i will not only take my hat off to you, but eat it too!

 

[DraQ]

I suppose it depends where you are coming from. If you don't mind a lot of re-loads then by all means fly a littlun. But if you're more of a roleplayer to whom reloading is immersion-breaking, it makes sense to do what a mega-rich character would do anyway - buy a beast.

And sorry i don't accept any claim of having a small ship and never reloading. There are far too many random occurrences in Frontier that take out small ships, for that to be possible.

*EDIT*
Oh but if you can show video proof of doing a bomb/photo mission in an Eagle, i will not only take my hat off to you, but eat it too!

I think it would be rather easy to do a photo run in an Eagle. Hell, I think a good pilot would manage that in an escape pod, was it not for the velocity fudge and lack of hyperdrive.

Try following tactics (tested on classified missions):
-Circle the planet until the objective is almost on the edge, but slightly below.
-Fly towards the objective adjusting your velocity so that you're doinmg about 20-30k when you reach the surface.
-You should still have some distance between you and your objective, so maintain your velocity while flying between 100 and 1000m over the surface (most targets are on airless lumps of rock meaning no atmosphere to hinder you and gravity weak enough for 20k to be orbital velocity at this altitude allowing cruising in engines off mode with only short burns to adjust trajectory to landscsape). Your velocity should prevent successful intercepts by craft launching from the ground until well after you've passed your target (they'd have to accelerate towards you, brake, then match velocity in the short time you take to reach the target).
-Hurtle over your target, photo, blast off at full burn, then hyperspace.

 

[turwhitt]

I think it would be rather easy to do a photo run in an Eagle..

Go on. Use FRAPS to video it. There is a free version.

 

[LouisdeFuines]

Can you survive in big trading ships in systems like Riedquat? I get almost immediatly killed bei MW4 lasers or worse.

 

[Geraldine]

The Bombing Mission

Go on. Use FRAPS to video it. There is a free version.

I would but would need more than 30 seconds to show the full bombing run and I don't fancy paying 20 odd quid just to do one video. Honestly its very possible (with some risk) to do a bombing run in a small ship. Here is what I do.

It all depends on your approach and how the AI chases you. Firstly make sure you have your escape star system locked into your galaxy map, this is important because you have to make a quick get away once the dirty deed is done.

If you fly directly above the target (matching target exactly centered on the planet name) at a high enough altitude (without attracting attention), dive directly onto the target as fast as you dare accounting for the gravity of the target planet.

This is important because the AI will launch ships at you but because you are closing directly above the target, many will crash leaving just a few to dodge on your descent. At about 500 to 250 meters release the nuke (closer the better :smilie, do a 180 and full burn away. Remember and go to an external rear view so that you can have the "Aliens" experience

If you are getting a lot of pursuers, simply do a 90 degree course correction. It will take time for the AI to correct for this giving you plenty of time to attain hyperspace altitude and get clean away. Laugh as you hit the jump key!

With practice (getting you descent right), and you feeling a bit cheeky, you can even land in an enemy base. It's quite funny to watch the base defenders crash all around you. Dont hang around for too long though incase one of them has an energy bomb

 

[Geraldine]

Can you survive in big trading ships in systems like Riedquat? I get almost immediatly killed bei MW4 lasers or worse.

One of the great things about trade ships like the Boa, is with enough shield generators and auto hull repair, you can use them much like a fly swatter. Just ram your attackers! For bigger attacking ships fire a missile. This will distract them long enough for you to orientate your big ship to get a bead on them to fire your main gun.

 

[gunbladelad]

I have to agree with the bigger trade ships - especially the Panther. Simply use Turret view and you effectively just ram your way through enemy ships, and blast those you miss without even slowing down.

Such a pity some of the other big trade ships do shoot themselves in turret view.

 

[turwhitt]

I don't fancy paying 20 odd quid just to do one video.

Why would you pay 20 odd quid?