So I notice just the other day that I'm apparently ranked a "Knight" in the Empire. I've barely even been through Imperial space, much less done any missions for them. Even after spending all my time in the Federation, I'm only a Chief Petty Officer, the equivalent rank to Knight in the Empire. My reputation with them is just Neutral.
Is that a thing from the beta or something? Not really complaining, mind.. I just bought a Courier the other day to be my new "runner" ship, it's got a pretty good jump range when you strip it down (a fair bit further than my old Eagle that I was using before), and it looks cool (I'll give the Imperials that much).
So, what with the new buffs and all, how's the FDL look as an upgrade from a Vulture? My Vulture tears through shit, but it can't *quite* go toe-to-toe with the big ships (particularly Anacondas) without burning through shield cells, which are getting the big nerf-hammer in 1.5. It's also got power problems when you start going crazy with weapons. I'd like something that can both hit harder and take more of a beating than the Vulture. Is the FDL viable, or should I go for something like a Federal Gunship? (which I don't even have the rank for right now)
I would argue that FDL is the best middle ground of attack power and manuverability in the game, especially after the 1.5 buffs:
Zorgon Peterson has offered all of its FDL customers a free upgrade kit: slight improvements pitch and roll rates, a larger power plant housing (size 6) and more efficient cooling systems.
The size 6 power plant is the biggest thing, as that was the biggest limiting factor on the FDL previously. I was barely scraping by before, having to set items on lower priorities just to be able to keep all my weapons on during combat. If I had to use a Shield Cell Bank, I would turn it on with the SCB being one priority level higher than my Plasma Accelerator, meaning my Plasma Accelerator would turn off during the SCB duration. It was annoying, but manageable. My weapon loadout on my FDL in 1.4 is 4 C2G Pulse Laser, and 1 C4 Plasma Accelerator. If I fired too much in conjunction with my Plasma Accelerator, I would be going over 100% territory in heat and take some heat damage.
Before you really didn't have much viable options in your loadout on the old power plant and heat. You could get better weapons for the medium hardpoints, but of course you would have to sacrifice having a Plasma Accelerator on the huge. Having a Cannon wasn't a bad tradeoff though, and I imagine will still be good, but you can still pack substantially more on the mediums with this buff.
I tried two different loadouts in the 1.5 beta with the FDL:
1 x 4C Plasma Accelerator
4 x 2B Imperial Hammer (multi-shot rail gun that is available to you if you're been aligned with Arissa Lavigny-Duval for long enough, I think it's 4 weeks)
This loadout was an excellent PvP build for sure. I didn't get to test any of this on players, but tearing through Dropships, Clippers, Anacondas, and more with it definitely shows it's potential. I would recommend setting two separate buttons for two of the Imperial Hammers, as firing all four at once every single time will get you overheating quickly if you are too reckless with it. If you have them on two buttons, you can fire all four at once if you need to, but otherwise stick to firing two. Put the Plasma Accelerator in it's own Fire Group, along with your Kill Warrant Scanner if you want. Having that many Imperial Hammers and not being cooked to a crisp is amazing. You should still probably bring at least one slot worth of Heat Sinks, in case you get in a situation where you have to fire shots in succession. This build is not optimal for PvE though as you will chew through Imperial Hammer railgun ammo very quickly. I really wish they would let us use Internal Compartments as additional ammo storage, but I could see how that might be unbalanced for some weapons.
I used this loadout for PvE:
1 x C4 Plasma Accelerator
2 x 2DG Beam Laser
2 x 2FG Pulse Laser
Plasma Accelerator ammo will last you a long time, so you can pretty much hunt until your shields drop or you are just done and want to go turn in your bounties. Heat is very easy to manage with this build and shouldn't give you much trouble. You can really do a lot with even just two pips in Weapons in either build.
Speaking of shields, I used this shield setup on both builds:
5C Bi-Weave Shield Generator
2 x A Shield Boosters
1 x Heat Sink Launcher
2 x Chaff Launcher
I actually went with no SCBs and I was really happy with the results, that Bi-Weave Shield Generator really comes through, even with two shield boosters. It's especially great at letting you stay out in RES/CZ for longer, as you don't have to worry about your supply of SCBs. It's hard to say how well this will work in a PvP environment though. If anyone else here is in the beta and has a good combat ship there, I would like to PvP you for fun (dying in the Beta doesn't really matter since it doesn't carry over to main game, and everything is 10% cost) and see how this works. I'd also like to try an A-grade Shield Generator and see how that works out.
As for the pitching speed, I noticed it immediately when I was leaving the station. Man it is incredible. I was able to pull off manuvers to keep facing ships that were simply impossible without getting into a "pitch war" before.
TL;DR: If anyone here is in the beta and would like to 1v1 me, add me, my CMDR name is HylianSeven.
