Interested in a Vanguard

[marcsand2]

Rented a Warden for a week and ended up buying a Sabre instead....and then I bought a Warden because I'm a sucker for Aegis design.

Cosmetically the ship is beautiful, functionally it's a flying brick. The damage it could deal unfortunately is gimped by how horrible it is to fly.

Not trying to talk you out of it all, just giving my feedback as others have.

After the Delta I bought a Gladius because the Delta had no effective shields. At first I could survive much longer, but couldn't do much damage because the Gladius was much too agile and fast to get a good aim.
Zoom improved my aim allot. Strafe gives me more control over firing distance, so longer good aim.
In the beginning I would mount 3 fixed CF-117. After the Avenger I got used to a ballistic in the nose. Perfect to finish off when close enough.
Conclusion: a fighter isn't by definition a good or a bad fighter. A fighter like a pilot has skills. The skills of a fighter must match the skills of a pilot. The fighter isn't flexible, a pilot is, so it's up to the pilot to make his skills match to the fighters skills. The pilot makes a good or a bad fighter.

 

[Metal-Muffin]

problem with mixed weapons is multiple pips. If you fly on the 6, then it would be OK, unless you strafe to keep your own 6 clear.
[EDIT] I have a 2 stage trigger. firegroup 1 or firegroup 1 and firegroup 2. It has its advantages and disadvantages.

I don't have an issue with the multiple pips. Lately, I haven't been using both weapon groups unless I'm head on and everything is aligned, which is often with the AI pirates; but when engaging a real pilot I know that the pip closest to the target craft is for energy weapons. I'm still trying to master aiming with alternate pips, though. My strategy lately has been to align the far pip, shoot, then let the target drift into the nearest pip and shoot- and as the target moves use the pip that alows me to make as little adjustment to my AOA as possible.

 

[Metal-Muffin]

I like the idea of setting up the Sentinel for exploration and EM Warfare. It's going to be really handy in a serious combat to have at least one ship with powerful active radar, IR and EM sensors, especially if that data can be shipped to comrades. I just don't want to fly it with the guns lacking. A big ship ought to have big guns and if they nerfed them so you have to use ammo for primary and energy for secondary, I'm sure they will get serious complaints. Either we get to pick our own weapons on ships or we don't. If they don't allow that, I will pass on this lovely bird.

I agree completely, but I think the devopment is shifting towards limited weapon options. I imagine that, with the Sentinel, a pilot/crew is going to want to focus on outfitting More defensive options like strong shields and thrusters. Though there's no hard information yet, the pictures of the Sentinel look like the manned turret removes the guns all together in favor of EM equipment.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

Has anyone fit the MXOX LaserGatling as primary on the swivel? I would love to see vid of that baby rocking out. It fires fast, is fast to target, does great damage and should never overheat. It's the perfect primary fighter weapon, except that it won't fit on most fighters.

 

[marcsand2]

OK I tested the Vanguard :( (my bucket list just got longer)
She is sluggish!!!! Has enough speed, but when turning into a target you must really control your turn not to overshoot. If you are in an asteroid field, get out. It takes allot of power to navigate her trough the asteroid field, wasted killing time.
Because she is so sluggish and large, groups of enemies can minimize your shield. Good shield management is a must, otherwise they will punch a hole in it and finish you off.
The 4 guns in the nose punch hard, but because they are so tight formatted, you won't have spreaded fire, pure concentrated power, you must zoom / aim very good!!! If your aim is right, then you will kill fast. The Apocalypse Ballistic Gatling does a good job at close range!!!! Surprisingly the pips of the gatling and the Behring MVSA laser cannons aren't that far away from each other, but still, gatling at close range. The Behrings cant be replaced. A CF117 repeater would increase the hit ratio, but the quad MVSA does a good job. Yes, the turret isn't linked, you will need a gunner.

First run with the Vanguard accompanied by an Aurora LN went surprisingly good. The LN had to spawn 5 times :rolleyes: and left me dealing with wave 17 and 18 alone but in the end I finished them all off.

In the verse it will be a potent gun platform, but with allot of more agile fighters it is not advisable to ride alone
My bucket list just got longer, today I thought that I was ready with my collection :confused: think again :p

Stand alone price would be $250, just ask @Just Jake, Jake will know what it costs at buyback, grey market lowest price is $230 - $240. Luckily allot of people think that the warden is a bad fighter... think again, the pilot makes the fighter, not the fighter the pilot ;)
[EDIT] I just found one for $215, CCUd, as long as you don't want to put it on ice for a while that should be OK o_O $215 would place it under my hard limit......o_Oo_Oo_O nope, I must stay firm until payday

 

[Shadow Reaper]

I watched the vids of Tactical Advance and Bored Gamer flying her, and they love her, but I did note she doesn't rotate fast like some others. It looked fast enough, so long as you're careful not to let anyone behind you. If that happens it sounds like she has burst speed to get away, though I did not see that. I don't have any confidence of the top turret hitting anything since this ship is going to maneuver to stay safe. The turret needs to be able to fire from the pilot station.


I am mesmerized by the S5 Gatling Laser's stats--the fact is fires 10X/second at good speed (50% less time to target than the Apocalypse) and huge DPS unless the power limited thing happens which I still do not understand. It just makes sense to have an energy weapon as primary so you can fire forever and you want your gimbaled weapons for primary especially with something that rotates slower than others.

The secondaries though. . .4 fixed weapons gotta come onto target slower. The Sledge II would be great here, and the Blade Plasma Cannon might work miracles if you can hit with it. Question is really are the rumors true that you can't swap them out? I just cannot see the point of having 4 fixed weapons that hit so light. What's with that?

 

[marcsand2]

I watched the vids of Tactical Advance and Bored Gamer flying her, and they love her, but I did note she doesn't rotate fast like some others. It looked fast enough, so long as you're careful not to let anyone behind you. If that happens it sounds like she has burst speed to get away, though I did not see that. I don't have any confidence of the top turret hitting anything since this ship is going to maneuver to stay safe. The turret needs to be able to fire from the pilot station.


I am mesmerized by the S5 Gatling Laser's stats--the fact is fires 10X/second at good speed (50% less time to target than the Apocalypse) and huge DPS unless the power limited thing happens which I still do not understand. It just makes sense to have an energy weapon as primary so you can fire forever and you want your gimbaled weapons for primary especially with something that rotates slower than others.

The secondaries though. . .4 fixed weapons gotta come onto target slower. The Sledge II would be great here, and the Blade Plasma Cannon might work miracles if you can hit with it. Question is really are the rumors true that you can't swap them out? I just cannot see the point of having 4 fixed weapons that hit so light. What's with that?

Until now you can't swap them, but, I killed almost all Vanduuls with them. It is not the slower target, its the better aim. They are "only" S2, all focused so 4x S2 at one point.
Yes, she doesn't turn as fast as other fighter and when she turns, be careful not to overshoot. If you are in the middle of a pack, get out, turn and engage again, not zoom and boom but more like keep your firing distance.
But that is not so surprisingly, check her size!!!! bigger then a Lancer, smaller then a Connie

 

[marcsand2]

As for the look, I think it is suppose to resemble the P51 from WWII.

Check out the P38 Lightning!!!! 2 beams, 4 .50-caliber machine guns and one 20mm canon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_P-38_Lightning
"Clustering all the armament in the nose was unlike most other U.S. aircraft, which used wing-mounted guns with trajectories set up to crisscross at one or more points in a convergence zone. Nose-mounted guns did not suffer from having their useful ranges limited by pattern convergence, meaning that good pilots could shoot much farther. A Lightning could reliably hit targets at any range up to 1,000 yd (910 m), whereas the wing guns of other fighters were optimized for a specific range. The rate of fire was about 650 rounds per minute for the 20×110mm cannon round (130-gram shell) at a muzzle velocity of about 2,887 ft/s (880 m/s), and for the .50-caliber machine guns (43–48-gram rounds), about 850 rpm at 2,756 ft/s (840 m/s) velocity. Combined rate of fire was over 4,000 rpm with roughly every sixth projectile a 20 mm shell. The duration of sustained firing for the 20 mm cannon and .50-caliber machine guns was approximately 14 seconds and 35 seconds, respectively."

"In the South West Pacific theater, the P-38 was the primary long-range fighter of United States Army Air Forces until the appearance of large numbers of P-51D Mustangs toward the end of the war."

"It was extremely forgiving and could be mishandled in many ways, but the rate of roll in the early versions was too slow for it to excel as a dogfighter."

 

[Shadow Reaper]

The "fork-tailed devil" it was called. It shot down over 3k enemy planes in WWII.

 

[marcsand2]

IIRC, the P-38 shot down more planes than any other fighter in WWII. The "fork-tailed devil" it was called.

"The P-39 was used with great success by the Soviet Air Force, which scored the highest number of individual kills attributed to any U.S. fighter type."

 

[Shadow Reaper]

Yeah, I looked and it turns out the Mustang and Hellcat had more kills than the Lightning. Still, an amazing aircraft. And there was a reason to put the weapons all in center. That's much more effective than focusing the weapon at one range. The Aircobra had its cannon shooting out from inside the center of the prop hub, IIRC. That was a crazy thing but it worked.

 

[Super Jayhawk]

Rented a Warden for a week and ended up buying a Sabre instead....and then I bought a Warden because I'm a sucker for Aegis design.

Cosmetically the ship is beautiful, functionally it's a flying brick. The damage it could deal unfortunately is gimped by how horrible it is to fly.

Not trying to talk you out of it all, just giving my feedback as others have.

Good to know!

 

[Super Jayhawk]

Get some flight lessons, start with the Vanduuls. There you will learn to avoid asteroids, evasive flight, dealing with missiles.
Good configuration and use of controls also is very useful.

I am afraid the Super Hornet I rented spoiled me. I slept walked through Vanduul swarm in that thing a few weeks ago. But it got me hooked on the combat aspect that I wasn't previously sold on.

I love the idea of a long range heavy fighter so I am going to rent a Vanguard and try it. If it sucks, I might just hang on to my Avenger and upgrade it over time.

 

[marcsand2]

I am afraid the Super Hornet I rented spoiled me. I slept walked through Vanduul swarm in that thing a few weeks ago. But it got me hooked on the combat aspect that I wasn't previously sold on.

I love the idea of a long range heavy fighter so I am going to rent a Vanguard and try it. If it sucks, I might just hang on to my Avenger and upgrade it over time.

wise decision ;)

 

[AstroSam]

OK I tested the Vanguard :( (my bucket list just got longer)
She is sluggish!!!!

Not shit...! :D

Would love to have your further impressions and experiences in this thread here: https://testsquadron.com/threads/pimped-your-spaceship-lets-share-information.7421

 

[marcsand2]

Not shit...! :D

Would love to have your further impressions and experiences in this thread here: https://testsquadron.com/threads/pimped-your-spaceship-lets-share-information.7421

More impressions concerning the Vanguard???? I thought that it was short but complete :oops:

 

[AstroSam]

Then just... copy&paste! :D

 

[marcsand2]

Then just... copy&paste! :D

yes ma'am o7
:D

 

[marcsand2]

If you want a cheap Super Hornet LTI or Gladius LTI and dont mind greymarket:
$136 for a SH LTI
$84 for a Gladius LTI
Real cheap!!!!
https://www.reddit.com/r/Starcitizen_trades/comments/4qqj5w/wts_kanes_special_summer_sale/

 

[Shadow Reaper]

Looking at this list above made me wonder why anyone would want to fly the Cultass Black and not pay for the Blue upgrade. Seems to me just the added shield is worth that money.