Here's the Crusader Ares

[Joehockey]

It's sexy and all I'll be sure to fly it anytime there is an opportunity during a free fly or IAE going on. But I really wanted the Ares to be a Vanguard competitor. I mean the Vanguard is still the ONLY real Long Range, Heavy Figher. Sure there are other heavy fighters that have a long range, but the Vanguard is the only that has an interior living space, weapon racks, armor storage, extra seats, space for mission items/dropables, etc. So for an exploration escort it's Vanguard or broke.

I like the Ares. It's a clever plan and CIG nailed the hype between an A-10 style fighter that pack a massive fucking punch. But it's not what I was hoping for unfortunately.

 

[Zapper Weisman]

I get why the Ion has 2 power plants for the laser canon but why does it get one more shield generator than the Inferno? I don't get that bit.

It seems like these ships would work well together, IE. both ships approach a HH, the Ion opens fire and takes the HH shields down, the Inferno moves in closer and unloads that Gatling gun on the HH cutting her in half.

I am guessing balance, as far as the two shield generators. Generally, you need to keep lasers on a target longer than with ballistics, correct? I'm guessing the extra shield is so it can stay on target a little longer, whereas with the ballistic gun I think they want you to take your shots a little more carefully and bug out sooner when taking hits.

 

[LoicFarris]

I am guessing balance, as far as the two shield generators. Generally, you need to keep lasers on a target longer than with ballistics, correct? I'm guessing the extra shield is so it can stay on target a little longer, whereas with the ballistic gun I think they want you to take your shots a little more carefully and bug out sooner when taking hits.

That makes sense to me, plus if one of those are coming at us I'd be trying to light it up with my super hornet.

 

[Smithory]

I demand the CI Nemesis StarHunter with a Size 10 Rail Gun be built w00000000

 

[LoicFarris]

I'm weak, a black ship with a LARGE gun that vibrates when you pull the trigger... I mean really, what kind of sick bastard knows how to get in my head like that.

 

[atpbx]

Lovely looking ship, but another flawed concept for me.

 

[LoicFarris]

Lovely looking ship, but another flawed concept for me.

What's your thinking along those lines? I figured I can always use it as a CCU if I change my mind about it.

 

[Phil]

It's sexy and all I'll be sure to fly it anytime there is an opportunity during a free fly or IAE going on. But I really wanted the Ares to be a Vanguard competitor. I mean the Vanguard is still the ONLY real Long Range, Heavy Figher. Sure there are other heavy fighters that have a long range, but the Vanguard is the only that has an interior living space, weapon racks, armor storage, extra seats, space for mission items/dropables, etc. So for an exploration escort it's Vanguard or broke.

I like the Ares. It's a clever plan and CIG nailed the hype between an A-10 style fighter that pack a massive fucking punch. But it's not what I was hoping for unfortunately.

I think you are right, we do need another long range escort fighter but I think looking at this ship even though most will compare it to the Vanguard its not what they were aiming for, i still think we will see a couple of long range escort fighters come out, these ships were clearly meant for IMO fleet escorts or fleet interaction where there would be support craft available, these weren't meant to dogfight or engage fighters directly. People are alreadly comparing the two but i dont think its a fair comparison to me they have two different jobs.

I think what CGI is trying to do is bring immersion to life, by adding all these ships with unique abilities or niche type roles they start to give us the image of what this game could be and to me this is why they bring these ships out like this, I mean the Nautilus minelayer? The Mantis? I think its actually pretty smart because it does paint a picture of how immense and detailed and just massive this game is trying to be, I mean 5 years ago I never imagined ships like the Nautilus or A2 Hercules these completely niche type of ships that have such specific roles you never even thought would occur in the game until now lmao.

 

[AntiSqueaker]

Gonna drop my Buccaneer for one of these, but gonna wait for the Q/A before deciding on pulling the trigger on the Ion or Inferno.

Ion has great shieldbusting potential, so great for group play and has the advantages of ammo independence and more buffer tank. Stated to have more long range potential.

Inferno has more direct damage potential, since ballistics ignore partial shields. Also has thicker armor, but depending on ammo reserves could be the downside. But much better for ground work and probably superior for fighting equal sized ships since you can lay down a blanket of shells vs the Ions much lower rate of fire cannon.

 

[StdDev]

The Ares are listed as 'Heavy Fighter' (s).. anything about 'long range' is speculation. Like most if not all ships they will have a fairly narrow range of abilities that it excells at ( i.e. pew pew), it will undoubtedly suck somewhere else... which I'm fine with

 

[Esctasy]

Where this dps stats coming from?

The only other s7 gun that I know of is M9A Laser Autocannon with 38 shots/min and 1742 dps

I extrapolated it from the existing S1 to S5 laser repeaters. For every size up there was a 67% dps increase.

Edit: If you could put in a S7 laser repeater then I estimate it would have around 2206 dps

 

[Chip Hazzard]

The Ares are listed as 'Heavy Fighter' (s).. anything about 'long range' is speculation. Like most if not all ships they will have a fairly narrow range of abilities that it excells at ( i.e. pew pew), it will undoubtedly suck somewhere else... which I'm fine with

It does say "long-range deployment" in the brochure, how long-range that is I don't know! I was hoping it would be an alternative to the Vanguard's, not really interested in carrier born ships, but this is a sexy beast!

 

[FZD]

Ehh, either you can't swap that S7 laser cannon out and the ship will be kinda underwhelming, OR you can swap it out for S7 distortion scattergun, and the ship will be imba af.
Seems to me someone ends up disappointed in anycase, whether they're looking up or down the barrel I can't say.
Kinda hoping distortion scatterguns get balanced tbh.

 

[Sky Captain]

Can't wait to hear that sound of that S7 gun firing, given the cockpit is immediately next to it.

 

[Tei]

Ehh, either you can't swap that S7 laser cannon out and the ship will be kinda underwhelming, OR you can swap it out for S7 distortion scattergun, and the ship will be imba af.
Seems to me someone ends up disappointed in anycase, whether they're looking up or down the barrel I can't say.
Kinda hoping distortion scatterguns get balanced tbh.

Problem is that Scatterguns are very short range. From my tests in last few days, although they are listed at 1500m range (s2-s6), the really effective range is 500m or closer, otherwise loads of projectiles just miss the target. that might be slightly more on big ships, but it will still beat concept of Ares being long range.

 

[BUTUZ]

Yeh the shotgun types are not easy (maybe semi useless) to fast dogfight with small ships but come in to their own if you get close up to a much bigger ship - boom boom time.

 

[FZD]

Problem is that Scatterguns are very short range. From my tests in last few days, although they are listed at 1500m range (s2-s6), the really effective range is 500m or closer, otherwise loads of projectiles just miss the target. that might be slightly more on big ships, but it will still beat concept of Ares being long range.

Ares is specifically meant to fight against larger ships. If you try to use a laser cannon with 2k dps to take down shields with 774521hp that regen 7k hpps with regen delay of 0s, you're going to have a bad time regardless of what range you do it at. If you get up close and personal with a gun that does 25k dps, well, you're actually doing something.

 

[AntiSqueaker]

I doubt that (initially) you'll be able to swap weapons, the brochure heavily implied the "bespoke" weapons were locked in options. This also allows CIG to balance the ship and the weapon at the same time relative to other weapons, which have to be compared to every single ship that can mount them and gimbal vs autogimbal vs fixed.

However, similar to how the Vanguard has a series of S2 weapons for the nose mount, it may be possible in the future for the Ares to get some more options (maybe keeping the Ion as an energy platform and the Inferno as ballistic). I would personally love to see an Ion with an S7 Distortion cannon from Joker Engineering. If you want something to knock down shields look no further! A Inferno with a S7 Railgun/Mass Driver would also be pretty rad.

 

[FZD]

Yeah, which then means that Ares owners are going to be a bit disappointed. It's not a capital ship hunter, the Ion couldn't really even take out Large ships (Assuming they're using Sure Stop, their shields regen faster than Ion does damage. Those shields have no regen delay.)

Then again, if Ares can use S7 Distortion Cannon, well, it goes like this:
You spend 30 minutes assembling a crew of ace turret gunners for a hammerhead. You're joining a fleet of 5 smaller escort ships to escort a hull C carrying precious cargo. After 5 coordinated quantum jumps, and a wormhole travel, you arrive at an asteroid field and the goal is in sight. Suddenly an Ares appears out of nowhere, drops the shields on Hull C in seconds and then unloads the missiles on it before any escort even has the time to react. The Ares yeets the hell out of there, Hull C goes up in smoke, escorts are looking mighty stupid and the trade excursion is over.
And don't even get me started what would happen if there were TWO Ares laying an ambush.

 

[Bambooza]

Yeah, which then means that Ares owners are going to be a bit disappointed. It's not a capital ship hunter, the Ion couldn't really even take out Large ships (Assuming they're using Sure Stop, their shields regen faster than Ion does damage. Those shields have no regen delay.)

Then again, if Ares can use S7 Distortion Cannon, well, it goes like this:
You spend 30 minutes assembling a crew of ace turret gunners for a hammerhead. You're joining a fleet of 5 smaller escort ships to escort a hull C carrying precious cargo. After 5 coordinated quantum jumps, and a wormhole travel, you arrive at an asteroid field and the goal is in sight. Suddenly an Ares appears out of nowhere, drops the shields on Hull C in seconds and then unloads the missiles on it before any escort even has the time to react. The Ares yeets the hell out of there, Hull C goes up in smoke, escorts are looking mighty stupid and the trade excursion is over.
And don't even get me started what would happen if there were TWO Ares laying an ambush.

Not sure it's going to go up in smoke but it should be disabled and thus the escort now needs to figure out how to protect the hull until its repaired and flying again. This gives the Kracken a chance to field the right ships to counter the escorts and loot the prize.