My Fleet your thoughts

[RELEASE 7HE NUT]

To say my "fleet" is a total overstatement due to the fact that I only have three ships, but ow well.

Test mates, I wanted to ask for your opinion on the fleet that I would love to have in the future and whether or not it would suit the role that I am wanting to fulfill.

To start off I am wanting to specialize in exfiltration and infiltration of troops, ordinance, and vehicles. Pretty much a dropship kind of role, but with the ability to kick a** in other ways as well. The ships I currently have and want are listed below.

Have

1. Mustang alpha
2. Aurora
3. Mercury star runner

Want

1. Redeemer
2. Hercules (not sure of the variant yet)
3. Vanguard Hoplight (maybe)

I want to learn how to be one of the go-to guys in times where we need to effectively transport troops and vehicles all the while making sure they get there even if hell itself is raining upon me. Kind of like a seal team operator piloting the stealth Blackhawk in a crucial mission. All this being said, I want to be a leader in the field but not the captain himself. I feel this role suits that position just well.

Thoughts???

 

[SullyQuindarius]

Melt the Aurora/Mustang, or just keep one as a shuttle of sorts.

Get the Starlifter and the Hoplite. Once the Redeemer is reworked and released, you can decide if you want to keep your Hoplite or CCU up to the Redeemer.

 

[Rear_Intruder]

On a least one exercise we have seen the importance of having people who can fly and land troop carrying ships quickly and safely.

 

[Sethious]

Buy what you can afford and no more. All ships will be available in the verse. And you can always borrow one of mine.

 

[Printimus]

^ Basically this

 

[Shadow Reaper]

Sounds like you have great fun in store. Try to keep in mind that working with others is always the most effective thing, so flying your Hoplite in a wing of other Vanguard should be fantastically effective in the long haul.

Also, don't discount the Prowler as a troop transport. I think it is going to surprise people. A covert ingress force made up of Eclipse and Prowlers is going to be very effective, methinks.

 

[RELEASE 7HE NUT]

Shadow you know you're totally right! I don't know how I missed out on that ship!

 

[August]

Part of being in a larger org is having ships at your disposal which you don’t need to burn your hard-earned on.

Fly then like you stole them.

 

[Zapper Weisman]

I would hold off on the Redeemer. Last I heard they were not sure if it was going to keep the drop-ship role or go pure gunship. No one is sure what will happen with it.

Also, don't discount the Prowler as a troop transport. I think it is going to surprise people. A covert ingress force made up of Eclipse and Prowlers is going to be very effective, methinks.

^This is the sort of stuff I hope to do with mine. I worry about the Prowlers range however; it might need something to move it around. That's the drop-ship I look forward to the most.

I agree that the Hercules is likely a good choice for you, particularly the M2. You can land, provide cover, and pick-up/drop-off people and their vehicles. The extra armor and guns will help keep you and your passengers safe.

 

[August]

Also, we can carpet bomb an area with orbital aurora strikes. That will surprise the fuck out of anyone.

 

[Sirus7264]

Buy what you can afford and no more. All ships will be available in the verse. And you can always borrow one of mine.

i agree with this you dont have to buy more than what you have. as for the mustang melt it and get a ground vehicle. maybe there will be a new one soon.

 

[DirectorGunner]

Get a $27,000 credit card and buy everything... NO! Don't do that! lol

Imo you've got a great fleet already, if you must have one of those 3 wants.. the hercules will give you the most utility among them as I can tell for the time being.... unless the redeemer is completely redone and gets bigger/better. Even so.. Hercules would probably have better total usage value.

 

[at-2500]

Melt the Aurora/Mustang, or just keep one as a shuttle of sorts.

Get the Starlifter and the Hoplite. Once the Redeemer is reworked and released, you can decide if you want to keep your Hoplite or CCU up to the Redeemer.

You can't tell him to melt his Aurora - How are we going to blot out the sun then?

 

[Citadel]

I'm sure we have a decent number of ships like the Hercules within the fleet that you'd be able to loan however If you're set on changing up your personal fleet based on what you outlined as being your gameplay goals then I'd recommend the following:

~ Vangaurd Hoplite (Even though I personally have a Redemeer rumour has it that the Redeemer will evolve more into a pure gunship and the dropship part will be reworked)

~ C2 Hercules (It's the lowest priced variant and requires the least amount of crew to manage whilst still remaining capable of being the vehicle dropship you'd want it to be with plenty of cargo space / If funds allow though I'd give a higher recommendation to the M2 military variant just for the extra armour and weapons)

~ Mustang/Aurora (I'd say either of these aren't a bad choice for no other reason but to have a small runaround ship for any number of reasons)

 

[Bambooza]

The Hercules is a beautiful ship and you'll need to figure out if you want to do hot drops thus need more protection and go with the M2 or if you don't mind dropping further back from the front line and be able to carry two tonks which will call for the C2. The A2 while having some cargo capacity is more for close air support. Another thing to think about is space station and capital ship inserting. While the Hercules would be effective on bringing re-enforcement to the battle its not going to be as effective as a first strike against these places given the limited landing spots. (of course attacking a station that is non hostile initially would make the Hercules a great ship) Better ships would be the prowler (a great first strike for both air and ground) and possibly the redeemer. The Retaliator is also a great ship for first strike and bringing in exo suited marines while having a smaller cross section then the Hercules. Just not as versatile to be used for hauling cargo when not being used as a drop ship.

I personally am not so sure about the Vanguard Hoplight. While it does make for a great small drop ship allowing for a small strike force when playing with a couple of friends doing missions it really doesn't have a place in any larger join operations. And even the smaller operations might be better served by ships like the Redeemer and Prowler, while overkill for the smaller missions would give more versatility in the kinds of missions they can tackle.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

I personally am not so sure about the Vanguard Hoplight. While it does make for a great small drop ship allowing for a small strike force when playing with a couple of friends doing missions it really doesn't have a place in any larger join operations.

I think you need to consider the role that CIG has planned for it as part of the military. It's a long range strike weapon, intended for use in mixed groups. Sentinels, Harbingers and Hoplites together can take on highly complex, long range strike tasks and are going to give us a real model for civilian operations. We're going to see what wings of Vanguard are capable of in Squadron 42, and I think they'll be most impressive.

In order to do all you could with a wing of Vanguard, you could just send a Polaris, but the Polaris would be slower, less stealthy, and would not necessarily bring more force to bear. Think about the effect if you had half dozen Vanguard--about twice the cost of a Polaris, but 1/3 the cost to any given player. With a Sentinel, two Harbingers and three Hoplites, you have available more firepower against small targets than the Polaris. Only the Polaris S10 Torps are missing, but you actually have more guns, more speed, more stealth, probably more endurance since the Vanguards are harder to hit, though that depends upon your opponents. 3 Hoplites actually lands more troops than the Polaris, and we are only guessing to think the Polaris could have ewar capability. There's been no direct statements that EWar will be available anywhere but the Sentinel and Herald.

So yeah, think about group engagements with mixed groups of Vanguard as a model for long distance strike capability. There are not going to be any other ships that fit that role, so far as I'm aware. Even the Defender can't be used to such effect.

 

[Bambooza]

With in the scope of the OP I still stand by my assessment. You are right in the Vanguard do bring a lot of versatility in their long range. While not able to go toe to toe with ships like the Hornet, Gladius, Sabre, or Hurricane (Buccaneer is iffy as I am not sure it has enough firepower to overcome its weak armor and shields especially if turrets become useful) They are more combat focused then the Freelancer series, but I am not sure if that is helpful in fleet engagements. It really will matter their ability to engage bombers while lasting longer against a Hammerhead then the dedicated fighters.

For me their fit is as you mentioned a small group (less then 4) doing long distance missions as a surgical strike. Where the freelancer and Reliant would be used more for one or two player trade focused missions.

The Buccaneer is an amazing ship especially coupled with a Cutlass and my ideal pirate strike force would be three Buccaneers, two Cutlasss (might replace a Cutlass for a Vanguard Sentinel) and a Caterpillar.

 

[Crymsan]

Stick to what you have and buy in game. This is the route of no regrets no making posts wanting to sell ships etc. It is just another video game what is a sensible spend? Note it is also years away from any release and looks no closer to release now than when I backed! (people were talking at least several years then!).

 

[Xist]

@RELEASE 7HE NUT As much as I love SC, and as much as I have in this game, my honest advice to you is: Your fleet is amazing! You don't need anything else.

One of 2 things is going to happen. Either the game is going to launch and it's going to be amazing and you will be playing it a ton and you'll need something to spend your hard earned UEC on (ships), or not. If not, well that sucks.

But assuming it does come to be true, you have a great set of ships to play a lot and earn UEC. As the game is built out, things are going to change. Ships are going to end up working differently than we imagine, etc. You can play the buy, melt, buy, melt, CCU, rage/whine/cry game like so many people, or you can just chillax and let them build the game and then play it when it comes out.

You're in TEST which has so many ships that we quite literally don't know what to do with them all. If you want to fly something you can ask and there will be many people with extras of that ship sitting around and you can see if you like it and want to spend your own money to buy yet another one. Or you can crew someone else's multicrew and you don't even need a ship. Or who knows. There is so much game play that doesn't yet exist, anything anyone tells you is just a guess. (Some are more well informed than others).

TLDR your fleet is great, personally I'd stick with that. If you have too much money burning a hole in your pocket, you can get something else, but it's definitely not needed IMO.

 

[Bambooza]

Wait this is not like Pokemon?