Fighters and (New) Flight Model?

[Cugino83]

...

I suggest go 4 BVRS in the nose for high speed to target, and real damage from first hit, and the M7A on the chin since it has the same pip. Two stage trigger fires unlimited ammo out to 5km with the laser, and squeeze a little more when your target gets near 2 km. Using the same pip for both weapons should result in more hits and faster kills.

I'm using this very same setup on the Hoplite and is really effective: the M7A with 6km range is a really snipe weapon and can get rid of small/medium target with a couple of shot, if target get pass that 4 BVRS overclocked grant an almost constant laser stream and can take donw or heavily damage a target in a single burst...

I'll like to go ballistics usually, but both the cannon and the repeater for the Vanguard nose have a ridiculus amount of ammo, you'll run dry to fast for my taste, especially on the repeaters.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

I'm using this very same setup on the Hoplite and is really effective: the M7A with 6km range is a really snipe weapon and can get rid of small/medium target with a couple of shot, if target get pass that 4 BVRS overclocked grant an almost constant laser stream and can take down or heavily damage a target in a single burst...

Once the modules for the 4 Vanguard are fully swappable, the Sentinel frame is going to be my go to, since it enables such powerful stealth. Fully dressed for combat looks like this (EM 78K):

#DPSCalculator

Star Citizen tools for DPS, damage, power and cooling simulations including an up to date ships and components database

www.erkul.games

and in stealth mode, sneaking about with Medium radars and missiles from nowhere looks like this (EM 175 !!!!):

#DPSCalculator

Star Citizen tools for DPS, damage, power and cooling simulations including an up to date ships and components database

www.erkul.games

In that you can put EMP, 3 S5 torps or a squad of fighting men. Yowzzah! I have not found another frame with such a low full stealth configuration number. I'm pretty sure this is the quietest bird in SC. In full black out stealth, the Eclipse is 189, and that's running just one stealth S1 reactor when the Sentinel uses S2. The Sentinel EM box around the reactor is the stealthiest piece of kit in game.

 

[Blind Owl]

Once the modules for the 4 Vanguard are fully swappable, the Sentinel frame is going to be my go to, since it enables such powerful stealth. Fully dressed for combat looks like this (EM 78K):

#DPSCalculator

Star Citizen tools for DPS, damage, power and cooling simulations including an up to date ships and components database

www.erkul.games

and in stealth mode, sneaking about with Medium radars and missiles from nowhere looks like this (EM 175 !!!!):

#DPSCalculator

Star Citizen tools for DPS, damage, power and cooling simulations including an up to date ships and components database

www.erkul.games

In that you can put EMP, 3 S5 torps or a squad of fighting men. Yowzzah! I have not found another frame with such a low full stealth configuration number. I'm pretty sure this is the quietest bird in SC. In full black out stealth, the Eclipse is 189, and that's running just one stealth S1 reactor when the Sentinel uses S2. The Sentinel EM box around the reactor is the stealthiest piece of kit in game.

I've loaded erkul up . . .now to figure out how to use it, lol. So many numbers.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

I've loaded erkul up . . .now to figure out how to use it, lol. So many numbers.

Yes, but at least they're right in front of you. The alternative is switch things on and off after you buy components. That's not wise. This way you can see if you have enough power with chosen gear before you buy.

So for instance, if you want stealth gear in your Cutty, you have to overclock the single reactor on those occasions everything is on and overclocked.

#DPSCalculator

Star Citizen tools for DPS, damage, power and cooling simulations including an up to date ships and components database

www.erkul.games

 

[Cugino83]

Once the modules for the 4 Vanguard are fully swappable, the Sentinel frame is going to be my go to, since it enables such powerful stealth. Fully dressed for combat looks like this (EM 78K):

#DPSCalculator

Star Citizen tools for DPS, damage, power and cooling simulations including an up to date ships and components database

www.erkul.games

and in stealth mode, sneaking about with Medium radars and missiles from nowhere looks like this (EM 175 !!!!):

#DPSCalculator

Star Citizen tools for DPS, damage, power and cooling simulations including an up to date ships and components database

www.erkul.games

In that you can put EMP, 3 S5 torps or a squad of fighting men. Yowzzah! I have not found another frame with such a low full stealth configuration number. I'm pretty sure this is the quietest bird in SC. In full black out stealth, the Eclipse is 189, and that's running just one stealth S1 reactor when the Sentinel uses S2. The Sentinel EM box around the reactor is the stealthiest piece of kit in game.

Well, I''m quite sure that the EMP will be part of the module, but I'll very likely to be proced wrong since that mean that the Sentinel will actually be one of the two only Vanguard chassies you'll ever need, the second will be Oplite one, that, as far as the statistics keep up, should have more armor... that is something to be seen in the future.
The base and the Harbringer variant as a chassies will be non existing at that point, unless CIG manage to banace them out in some way, like implementing bigger capacitor for the base and more missile rack for the Harbringer... but that is pure teoricrasft right now

 

[Shadow Reaper]

They are balanced. Each has different armor, speed and base weapons. The Sentinel is the only one with stealth. What I am hoping for is the swap modules are side specific, so if you wanted some seats but not all the Hoplite offers, you could have it. Swap in beds, bath, etc. when you need them. People tend to think of the Harby 3S5 torps not so great, but they add 50% bang to the other. My guess is the best bounty hunting ship will be the Sentinel with the Harby bombing package. Great for deep strike teams as well.

 

[Blind Owl]

Yes, but at least they're right in front of you. The alternative is switch things on and off after you buy components. That's not wise. This way you can see if you have enough power with chosen gear before you buy.

So for instance, if you want stealth gear in your Cutty, you have to overclock the single reactor on those occasions everything is on and overclocked.

#DPSCalculator

Star Citizen tools for DPS, damage, power and cooling simulations including an up to date ships and components database

www.erkul.games

I'll dive into it here shortly. I'm excited to try it out. Wanna upgrade sentinel and learn to fly!

 

[Graptor]

This is a great conversation. I'm learning a ton! I'm glad there is some Cutty brainstorming in here, as that's the only ship I have (other than an Aurora, of course). I'd love to get the Cutty outfitted to be an all around good beast to take into combat or do some small cargo runs! But now I need to get into the Xenothreat to make 200k like @Blind Owl has managed to do. Then I can afford all the upgrades!

 

[Shadow Reaper]

I'll dive into it here shortly. I'm excited to try it out. Wanna upgrade sentinel and learn to fly!

If you get an itch, there is one special tweek to the stealth Sentinel loadout to consider. If you have the proper ship to thieve a Sukoran from, combining one Sukoran with one FR-76 looks very exciting. Why?

The Sukoran has a much higher shield value, and a 33% higher refresh rate. However, it also has an 18 second time delay before it begins to recharge, which is why you don't want to fly two of them.

What this means is that by combining the FR-76 with a Sukoran, you get more shield and lower refresh at first than you would have from a pair of FR-76, but higher refresh after 18 seconds of taking hits. Most importantly, the Sukoran blocks ALL ballistics while it is up, and if the FR-76 refresh rate applies to it, it will stay up. Also, the Sukoran uses less power and you don't need to overclock a reactor when you overclock all guns and shields, the way you do with two FR-76.

We don't know until we try. I'm not a fan of mixing shields because I think players misunderstand how that works, but this is one case where the combination could be very exciting, as this means you don't take physical damage from ballistics. That MATTERS a LOT! Lots of battles with no repair costs. Just note you can't buy the Sukoran. You have to buy a ship that comes with it like the Defender (which I would never fly), or the Prowler. Since you only need one, the Defender is enough. That's the cost of flying a super-tonk.

#DPSCalculator

Star Citizen tools for DPS, damage, power and cooling simulations including an up to date ships and components database

www.erkul.games

 

[Blind Owl]

I need to get into the Xenothreat to make 200k like @Blind Owl has managed to do

600+ now. ;)
If you get an itch, there is one special tweek to the stealth Sentinel loadout to consider. If you have the proper ship to thieve a Sukoran from, combining one Sukoran with one FR-76 looks very exciting. Why?

The Sukoran has a much higher shield value, and a 33% higher refresh rate. However, it also has an 18 second time delay before it begins to recharge, and a 30 second delay if it goes down.

What this means is that by combining the FR-76 with a Sukoran, you get more shield and lower refresh at first than you would have from a pair of FR-76, but higher refresh after 18 seconds of taking hits. Most importantly, the Sukoran blocks ALL ballistics while it is up, and if the FR-76 refresh rate applies to it, it will stay up. Also, the Sukoran uses less power and you don't need to overclock a reactor when you overclock all guns and shields, the way you do with two FR-76.

We don't know until we try. I'm not a fan of mixing shields because I think players misunderstand how that works, but this is one case where the combination could be very exciting, as this means you don't take physical damage from ballistics. That MATTERS a LOT! Lots of battles with no repair costs. Just note you can't buy the Sukoran. You have to buy a ship that comes with it like the Defender (which I would never fly), or the Prowler. Since you only need one, the Defender is enough. That's the cost of flying a super-tonk.

#DPSCalculator

Star Citizen tools for DPS, damage, power and cooling simulations including an up to date ships and components database

www.erkul.games

Damn. I'm going to hit you up later about some thoughts. I saw a video or an explanation (probably from you) about how having higher shield refresh was more important that high HP. And I want to talk loadout on both Sentinel and Harby. But for now, more work.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

If you're designing against alpha strikes by ambushing players, and don't want to stay in a fight (read the MSR running away), then highest shield strength is the key (Rampart or Sukoran). If you're going to stay and shoot, then highest refresh is the key. The FR-76 has very high strength, and highest refresh except for the Sukoran, which has more of each, but no refresh for the first 18 seconds of getting hit.

When you get to erkul, you can curse over the various different shields and their stats will instantly pop up on the lower left of the screen. Very helpful.

On the Harby. . .if you own a Sentinel, the only time you'll want to fly the Harby is for bombing larger ships. The Harby torp package will be useful in the Sentinel on bounty and bombing missions, but most bounties I think you're still better off to have stealth at your disposal, and the Harby will never be stealthy.

As a bomber targeting larger, easier to hit ships; you want cannons. The Harby comes with, but if you want some improvement you could go fixed, Deadbolt V on the chin. The only changes really necessary to the Harby are better shields (FR-76 or Rampart, so you can take heavy damage on a single strike run) and the rocket loadout on the turret. The rocket loadout is designed to put massive damage on a single large target you can't miss. They're unguided--point and shoot at medium range--like an extended range shotgun. If you're not going to use them for that, almost any other gun is better for defense, the way turrets generally work. Rockets should be useless against small and medium ships, but I've seen one vid of a guy one-shotting small ships with them. Go figure. We've been told they do serious damage to large and cap ships, and will probably work well against terrestrial targets like tanks and buildings. Unlike missiles and torps which have now been fixed to fire only one per launcher at a time, rockets are designed to fire all at once. I think it's 18 rockets per salvo, something like ten salvo's. Erkul stats say 18X250hp is 4,500 damage per salvo if all of the rockets hit the target. No confindence in number of shots based upon the vid I saw, and the animation of the rockets was not yet working. Best is go fly your Harby and let us know how the rockets work.

Both Sentinel and Harby are intended to be used in groups of Vanguard. The Q Drive should be the same for every ship in such a unit, and select distance or speed depending upon mission. For bounties, choose the fastest Q drive so if your target jumps, you can jump after them and arrive before them.

 

[marcsand2]

But now I need to get into the Xenothreat to make 200k like @Blind Owl has managed to do.

quick hint, if you accept it but aren't in the fight, then you also will earn money ;)