Squadron Reporting : Ship Talk #3 'Fighters' - Part 1

Which ships listed do you like most?

  • Gladius

    Votes: 15 48.4%
  • Aurora LN

    Votes: 13 41.9%
  • Mustang Delta

    Votes: 5 16.1%
  • 300I

    Votes: 3 9.7%

  • Total voters
    31
  • Poll closed .

Black Sunder

Rock Raiders
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Squadron Reporting : Ship Talk #3 'Fighters' - Part 1

Welcome to another edition of Ship Talk. For those new to this where have you been? I have a whole 2 more of these written. Ship Talk is me taking the current on paper stats for a group of ships similar in either role or hull, analyzing them, and giving my own thoughts on how they compare to each other. You can find older Talks below because I'm nice to link them:

Ship Talk #1 - Exploring the Unknown: The top 4 Exploration Ships
Ship Talk #2 - Aurora Rain: All about the MVP of TEST, the Aurora + Variants

This 3rd Edition is this one and it is all about the 'Fighters' or as close as we can get. This was supposed to be one big 8 ship talk but it's really too much for one sitting and reading so it will be broken into 2 pieces with Part 2 posted sometime this weekend along with the Vanguard Talk.

A couple disclaimers before we go further. First, this Talk only has 8 ships which I consider to be the most 'pure' fighters we have access to now and I have to start somewhere on these. These 8 ships are: Gladius, Aurora LN, Mustang Delta, 300I, 325A, F7C Hornet, Avenger, and F7C-M Super Hornet. If your favorite isn't on that list I'll eventually get to it but I picked these for this Talk. The first part here will consist of the Gladius, Aurora LN, Mustang Delta and 300I with Part 2 being the 325A, F7C Hornet, the Avenger and the F7C-M Super Hornet.

The 2nd disclaimer for this is that some comparisons will be unfair but the game isn't fair and I won't be either when discussing how these stack up to each other. Each has different strengths and weaknesses and those will be highlighted. Third, all of these ships in Arena Commander can be upgraded to be super death cannons in their own right and I'm not going to get into the 'what ifs' of that. Needless to say you can fit these to your taste but I'm going to be sticking to the out of the box configurations because CIG is still nailing down limitations for upgrading and swapping weapons. Also I don't have a computer to play AC :(.

Disclaimers out of the way, the 4th Ship Talk will be focused on the hauler ships from large to small with more information on that at the end of the Talk. To be clear the following is just my thoughts and how I see these ships as they currently are and drawing logical conclusions based on those listed attributes.



Right now we have a good set of ships that are flyable. We have others that are in the Hangar and/or almost ready to go while we have even more in concept and design. All of these ships have vital roles in our org's rise to the top but today we will talk about the most blasty of them. The Fighters, or as close to fighters we can get.

As stated before this Talk focuses on 4 of the 8 of the ships currently available. These 8 ships are: Gladius, Aurora LN, Mustang Delta, 300I, 325A, F7C Hornet, Avenger, and F7C-M Super Hornet. For this Part 1 of Ship Talk #3 I will be sticking to the Gladius, Aurora LN, Mustang Delta and 300I . They all shoot things very well and have wildly different attributes which make them all a challenge to master but also allow a person to choose their perfect ship and outfit it how they want. So without further ado lets get started.

Thoughts on the Ships

General Thoughts on Stats

First let me acknowledge again that these stats and listed equipment are all subject to change. However, unless something drastic occurs in testing I would expect these stats to still give a good general direction and capability for each ship. Below is a link to a composite picture I made with all the stats listed from the RSI site and ordered by power plant size of all things but it worked out well enough:

Part 1 Ship Stats

Descriptions and Roles

ps I know the pic says Focus instead of Role but the plural of Focus(Foci) just sounds awful when read over and over.

First topic will be looking at all the descriptions and roles. Do they fit the stats? Has CIG gone too far? We'll find out here. First up is the Gladius. The Gladius is simplistic but still kicks ass despite it being an older design. It has been continually upgraded with new tech not unlike modern fighters. Used for short range patrol duties none will find the Gladius wanting as it has proven its worth many times over.

Our next ship is TEST's own beloved Aurora LN. Again it is for patrol duty and you can find my expanded thoughts on this back in the last Ship Talk. Third we come to the Mustang Delta. Though something of a new player in the field of military aircraft the Mustang Delta comes with a nifty feature: a reduced cross sectional signature thanks to its Calvary Class Mass Reduction Armor.

Finally we start getting to some larger ships. First up is the 300I. While a strange choice to add to this list it can hold its own. Sleek and silver the 300I can still deliver some punishment with its weaponry. Tour enemy wreckage in style and comfort.


Structure and Propulsion

A quick note on all of these ships, each one has a radically different silhouette when viewed from the side, front and top. While this is obvious to everyone it is important to know what angle you present to the enemy and show them the last amount of 'skin' to shoot at.

Quickly going across the structure stats we can see that the Aurora has the least amount of mass out of the ships while the 300I has the most here in Part 1. This is expected as the Aurora is a very bare bones ship while the 300I is meant for some luxury and comfort.

Drilling deeper we see that the Gladius and Delta offer no cargo room at all. You will NEVER be able to make an emergency beer run in these ships which may discourage many of you from flying them. You can probably squeeze a bottle in one hand and fly with the other one but this is not recommended while flying to the Op. On the other hand the Aurora and 300I are ready to go for long beer fueled excursions in the middle of space with room for 16 Kegs each.

Going further we see Power Plants. Power Plants is also how the list was sorted when I made these pictures because facts are awesome. the first 2 ships feature a class 2 PP while the Delta and 300I both get a class 3. This makes sense because the Gladius is an older design and probably never got retrofitted for a larger PP when they were adding newer and better weapons and the Aurora LN is meant to be a starter fighter for newbies. This can also cause some issue though because a Class 2 may not be able to support the upgraded array of weapons you would surely add to both ships so some corners may have to be cut.

On the other hand the Delta and 300I both get a nifty class 3 PP to play with. On the 300I this is understandable as well because of its sheer size.Fr the Delta this is made possible by the removal of any and all cargo space and putting it in that area and carrying a class 4 weapon it needs it.

For main engines you can either go fast or slow. This isn't entirely the engine's fault though because mass certainly has a large role to play. The Gladius uses a dual engine design of 2 TR2s. This can make for an incredibly fast ship despite a lower engine rating than say an Aurora LN with a single engine rated at TR3. I would actually expect the Gladius to be a bit slower than the Aurroa if only do to it having almost 2x the mass of the Aurora. The Mustang also features a dual engine loadout again of 2 TR2s and from here we see a marked increase in TR level with the 300I with the use of a TR4 engine.

Next we come to Thrusters. There isn't much to talk about here except the 300I gets 50% more of them than the others. But it needs it trying to haul all those friends and beer around. Seriously though the additional thrusters coupled with the TR4 engine give it the ability to potentially do maneuvers and other things the others can not match despite its size and mass.

All ships have a Class 3 shield with the exception of the Delta with a Class 2. This makes sense as the Mustang in general is supposed to be cheaper than the Aurora so some corners would have been cut with protection being one of them. However the Mass Reduction Armor may negate some of this by providing a smaller cross section for missiles or other weapons to lock on to despite its visual size.

Continued Below.....
 
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Black Sunder

Rock Raiders
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Weapons

Can't go wrong with weapons. From the top we see that the Gladius is exactly as it said it was: A Fighter. A good balance of weapons with missiles rounding out the set. Next is the Aurora LN with a couple more Class 1s but no Class 2s to use and only a single missile rack. While the class 1s offer a good short range punch we move on to something truly special in the Mustang Delta.

For this Part 1 the Delta is the only one to mount a Class 4 gun on a turret making it a deadly opponent if it can get the jump on someone. It also features a couple of rocket pods slung under the wings so you can watch them exit and speed toward their soon to be dead opponent. A couple fixed Class 1s round out its unusual weapons mix. Finally the 300I offers a more traditional use of its hardpoints by copying the Gladius and only differing on what types of weapons are used.

As with all of these ships you can mix and match what weapons you think will suit you in your hangar while keeping an eye on your power, CPU, and cooling requirements to get maximum firepower but also able to run everything when you need it. If any of you have played Eve Online you know what I'm talking about here and fitting your ships to the maximum and squeezing out those last bits of Power or CPU to make it all work.

Equipment

I'm afraid this time there isn't much to talk about as far as equipment goes. The LN can carry a Mini box for cargo but again we see that the Delta has the goodies in the form of a Jump Engine and the earlier mentioned Calvary Class Mass Reduction Armor. Though not shown it has been said that it also carries adaptive camo for visual cloaking.

The Long and Short

Gladius - It looks good. If you're looking for a good light fighter then you can't go wrong with the Gladius. It features a good all around set of attributes besides the lack of a cuholder and does not come in Yellow unfortunately. We'll have to wait for the paint system to do that. The Gladius looks to be a tough ship that can scrape its way out of most encounters if the pilot is careful and doesn't overdo it. The Gladius' lack of a Jump Drive or obvious fuel tanks means of course it is a very short range craft that will need a home base nearby to make use of it. Still a solid ship compared to the others.

Aurora LN -
THE BEST SHIP! A box with wings the LN excels at encounters against ships of its level. Check out the last Ship Talk for more thoughts on the ship. Again the other ships listed here it can hold its own well but against something like a Hornet you better hope you get the first shot.

Mustang Delta - This one is very unique. As said before it has a Class 4 weapon on a turret underneath the cockpit which will let you track ships even as you circle around them and strike from a distance. This is good news because your weak shield means you can't engage most things head on and expect to come out on top. Speed, stealth and opportunity will be your greatest allies here. Overall it looks like a fun ship to fly and when you close in to firing distance let loose your rockets on your enemy for good measure. Of all the ships listed here I would not want to face a Delta the most because of its unique qualities. The mentioned visual cloak while not listed was mentioned in a concept picture that had been posted on RSI. It will be interesting to see what form this takes.

300I - We come to the last ship of Part 1. This was difficult to put on here but it has many of the same attributes as the more dedicated 325A by way of sharing a hull. The weapons compliment is fairly standard and doesn't stand out. It is still a great ship though with additional maneuvering thrusters that the others don't have making it particular dangerous in close quarters. If you can't follow its movements you may find it on your tail and blown away. Overall, good but not great out of the box but it will get you where you need to go.



Closing Thoughts

This one was particularly difficult due to my lack of experience in AC with these ships and that isn't changing any time real soon. I'm also not much of a 'fighter' myself but can certainly climb into one and do what needs to be done and in fact own several combat oriented ships. I apologize for splitting this Talk into 2 parts. 8 Ships is a lot to talk about so I had to split it into a more manageable group of 4 each. Looking things over I'm glad I bought a Delta.

Future Talk

The next Talk will be the Vanguard on Sunday along with Part 2 of this Talk. Next Friday will see a return to normal form with the discussion of some cargo haulers. I haven't decided which ships to really talk on yet but it will include some good ones for sure.

Now its YOUR Turn


It was suggested to me by Space Monkey that since I'm just going off the paper stats that I don't know how these ships handle in the game and the stats only provide so much of the picture. I don't have a computer capable of playing SC yet unfortunately so I need some help from you guys. The other factor here is I'm trying to limit myself somewhat on writing these so they don't become TOO long which I may have already failed at but would surely be much longer if I had played the ships myself and gave my thoughts on how they felt to me.

Back to my request though, if any of you desire, please make a post below detailing your thoughts and feelings on the 4 ships listed. How do they fly and handle? Are they dependable or do they break easily from everything? I'll link to your comments just below this for people to quickly find and jump to.

Check out Part 2 by going here.
 
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WarrenPeace

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Jul 17, 2014
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I haven't managed to get much flight time in on the Gladius yet, and I've not played the stock 300i, only it's upgunned big brother. But for the LN and the Delta I have a bit of experience in.

I do like the Delta, but it is sooo fragile. I feel like I can get oneshot from full health and shields even in Vanduul Swarm. With that said, the 4 gun mounts and the rocket pods give this thing a ridiculous punch. Catch someone by surprise and you might even drop them with a single pass. Also, the speed and agility give you some options for setting up a fight to your advantage. Just remember that getting shot is bad, mmmkay?

I've already rambled on at length about the LN, so I'm not gonna get into that too much here. Strangely enough, I've found the LN fits my playstyle a little better currently. I'm rubbish at dogfighting, so having a ship that can endure some hits and give out disproportionate punishment without having to worry overmuch about maneuvering lets me focus on bringing the pain. That said, someone in a Delta or Gladius will steal your Cheerios and piss on your thunder as they dance around and strafe you. For those fights, I like to get in close asteroids or structures and limit their maneuvering opportunities. This has had limited success, but I blame that on the pilot.
 
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Derkerter

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I had a 315p, and have flown all but the Mustang (I think they're ugly) and the 300 series always performed better for me than the other 3 listed (Gladius was a close second). Very smooth and nimble handling, and only slightly less punch than my current fav (Avenger).
 

PhosphorusForFun

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Great read! I'm concurring with your findings so far, so even when the stats page doesn't project what the actual gameplay is, you're doing great! The one downside is that some of the ship-specific mechanics haven't been introduced yet (you mentioned Delta having a cloak and the Ghost isn't anything special either at the moment and of course fuel/ammo isn't a thing yet).

I'm still fairly new to SC (a month maybe?) but I know there's people even moreso, so thank you very much for doing these and I hope you get to fly them soon!
 

Desterion

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May 20, 2014
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I thought they'd mentioned that everything but snub fighters can fit a jump drive, they just might not come stock on it. I'd hope for the 2nd (now 3rd) most expensive fighter they'd stick one on it.
 

user28374

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I'm sure you'll get to have a proper fly of them all at the next Test Drive and of course the Gladius is available for everybody to fly at the moment.

Personal preference (just based on Vanduul Swarm) is Gladius > LN > Delta

I haven't flown the 300i in ages so have forgotten what it's like to fly :-/

Only thing to bare in mind with the LN is the low max speed of 150 where-as the other ships are at or above the 200+ mark IIRC. The Delta in particular accelerates/moves like shit off a shovel but as has already been mentioned it's a glass cannon.
 

Feral Oxide

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Mar 13, 2015
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Only been flying for a week but...
I love my 315p. It flys like a dream and keeps my beers cold. Swap out the currently useless tractor beam for something with some punch and I don't die too quickly.
The Gladius was fun to fly, I'd buy one.
I'm not buying an Aurora, but it's a great little cracker box. I'm only not buying one cause it's the first ship in the game supposedly, so supposedly we'll all get one anyway. But it flys and fights nicely. I'll be proud to have a bright yellow one in my hangar.
Haven't spent enough time in a Mustang yet cause I'm too drunk or stupid to read the fine print on how a weekly rental with REC works (got it sussed now}
 
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