Federal Dropship (FDS)

There are 3 replies in this Thread. The last Post () by Martind Forlon.

    ED: Federal Dropship

    Federal Dropship stats:

    • Weapons: 4xM, 1xL
    • Utility: 4x
    • Bulkhead: 8 (with Military Grade Composite MGC - 1050 armour)
    • Reactor: 6 (really allot power to spent)
    • Thrusters: 6 (with MGC 200 m/s, thrust 330 m/s)
    • FSD: 5 (fully kitted and armoured max jump: 12-13 ly)
    • Power Distributor: 6
    • Sensors: 4
    • Fuel tank: 4 (for longer runs expect the need use Fuel Scoop every 2-3 jumps)
    • Internals: 1x6, 2x5, 1x4, 2x3, 1x2 (nice multi-role ship options)

    Full price A kitted (combat): 87M (without discounts!)

    Ship review: It was more coincidence and my overlook for the FAS (Federal Assault Ship) requirements (I had one Federation rank less, as it was needed) which brought me to this ship. I need to say that from start I liked only ship design, ... after more time spent in ASP it was like if you change easily sliding stone for anchored concrete block which not want move. Add to this slow boost speed, short jump range and very different weapons placement and you will instantly start think about change this ship for something else :D ... luckily there was not any other adequate ship for buy and this forced me to learn more about this ship. I have put aside ship travelling/flying abilities and started search for optimal weapons loadout. My first experiments with gimbaled large canon was terrible since I was not able use it with any other medium gimballed canon and when I tried put gimbaled weapons on side hardpoints it was even worse. Then I put on large hardpoint big fixed pulse laser, on two sides hardpoints medium fixed pulses and on bottom medium hardpoints two plasma accelerators - PA (they only fixed). And exactly this was a point when things started look very different. I needed to leave CZ (combat zone) earlier (RL) when I had still 1/4 ammo for accelerators and surprisingly found that I have 1,5M in combat bonds. Using PA needs some practice, but they works on bottom hardpoints really good and allows hit also smaller targets. Next thing is, that this ship is somehow able absorb huge amount of incoming fire. Situations, where I have heard sound for breaking canopy in ASP, vanished ... it was not only one situation when I was standing still right in front of front anaconda side and have it finished off with PAs while absorbing incoming heavy fire ... Dropship was like a stone which storm raging around can not touch :) . Also in the Dropship movement is missing such heavy drift effect, which was typical for ASP. You can find that this "brick" is flying slower, but her reaction to controls are much more precise ... especially during landings were differences really obvious.

    It is clear that this ship is not the best choice for PvP, but for PvE and with some tweaking also as multi-role, it definitely have something to offer. Will use this ship more and add further experience.

    Yesterday I tested more different weapons setups, one were fixed beam lasers on all medium slots and large gimballed cannon which had variable success. In some cases it worked better and in some worse as setup with pulses and plasma accelerators (PA). It definitely need more experience with PAs when you want use them on Dropship because this ship low agility. You also have very small chances hit smaller ships with them. On other side when you will need to dealt with some tougher opponents (like it was "in the Mirror" image I posted), then PAs can be a huge help. Another thing which I want to test is use different targeting mode (had Leading) but it looks like Trailing could work better (targeting mode can be switched in right HUD under options Functions), example you can see on this video.


    Great thing on multi-role ships is, that once you have enough fighting, you can only change equipment and do something else (trade, missions, mining). I was fighting in Ross 199 combat zones, then I visited bulletin board and saw 3 mining missions (800k in total) and decided to give them a go (side Note: as I want rank up in Federation, I do mainly missions for federation factions and exactly these were offered). Nicollet Terminal in Ross 199 have nice variety of the equipment, which allowed easy switch for few mining runs (basic mining setup) and then also quickly back to combat. You can see that this setup have big reserves, but still I get around 4M from 2 mining trips to Njikan which is only 9ly far and have pristine metallic rings. In second case, like a bonus, I accepted pirates cleaning mission and except mission payment had 300M from bounty vouchers :) . With above mentioned mining setup you can quite easily dealt with small attackers, and if you will not go for Hazardous RES (do not do this in mining setup ... ) you can have very good use for FEDs presence. Last thing which I forget to mention is a HUGE difference between small and medium mining lasers. 2 medium mining lasers vs 3 small works 2x faster. I was really surprised how quickly I depleted asteroids and therefore most time on all this mining was in waiting then 2 collector drones collect mined asteroid. When I will find place with proper equipment, I will try use next build ... I expect mining will be really quick.







    Tested above mentioned mining setup (5A col, 2 prosp, 2A ref, 96 cargo, 4A shield) with 2 gimballed pulses on sides and large fixed beam and it worked perfectly ... unless you will want kill anacondas, it is perfectly able defend yourself.


    If anyone will want build this ship from low grades at start, be sure to upgrade thrusters to 6A as soon as possible. Between 6B and 6A is really a huge gap for ship agility. ... I thought that I'm flying another ship when did this upgrade.