What's your favorite single seat combat ship ?

[AndyBee]

So, i'll try not to waffle

I'm hoping you guys have much more experience in AC than me, i've never really been into AC competitively, i'm considering trading in my SH for a single seater combat ship, my reasons are many fold so i won't bother listing them, so my question is fairly simple for a change.

If you have experience of using a few single seater ships in combat which do you prefer ? at this point i'm only considering a single seater with at least some cargo space, so i think that is Avenger, Mustang Delta or 325a, i'm not interested in the Aurora (never liked it) or the Hornet (too expensive, if i were to look at the Hornet i may as well keep my Super Hornet)....

Any opinions ? i am going to try and earn some more REC to give these 3 a try, but your opinions are greatly welcomed

[smilodon]

As per my other post my vote goes to the Avenger Titan.

[AndyBee]

So, my maths was BAD on the Hornet... having just looked again, i can melt my SH for $175 and upgrade an existing Aurora i have to a normal Hornet for $85.... that's a LOT of credit towards my Retaliator ! Now i know in basic form the SH outguns a normal Hornet by miles, but they actually have the same hardpoints, and now having played AC a bit more i'm realising that those standard SH guns will soon be in the bin in AC or PU. That basically leaves the SH just weighing a bit more, having an extra seat and a bigger power plant, as ultimately i think everything else that comes wit the SH will be replaced.

I've also got the Avenger for 7 days with REC but i need more practice, feels a bit squishy and underpowered at the minute, but i love the fact a days play bought me access to try it for 7 days !! Saving to test more stuff now

[smilodon]

Try it with matched guns. Get rid of the  standard gimbal, add a fixed  size three 11 series Broadsword on the nose and two fixed size two Tarantula GT- 870's on the wings. That's a size three and two size two guns all matched for range. Only works if you can live without gimbals but you will be able to hit targets with all three guns together and do some serious damage.

[Sneakytiger]

avenger stalker ftw.

[AndyBee]

Try it with matched guns. Get rid of the  standard gimbal, add a fixed  size three 11 series Broadsword on the nose and two fixed size two Tarantula GT- 870's on the wings. That's a size three and two size two guns all matched for range. Only works if you can live without gimbals but you will be able to hit targets with all three guns together and do some serious damage.

I'll give that a try, but the holo-table is crashing my game ATM so i'm stuck with basic load outs... it is looking like the SH will go, but i'll take my time and use my REC, test the Avenger properly but also test my SH with a good loadout, but also with a good loadout minus the ball turret to simulate PU loadouts with a Store-All box like it will run in the PU at least some of the time.

Any more opinions ?

[AndyBee]

Whilst I'm trying to sort the Avenger load out, does anyone have a good Hornet load out they can recommend ? I keep hearing people say Balistic Hornets are devastating but can't find a starter/tips on what they're using ?

[Kal-Nor]

If your looking for a single seat fighter with cargo space then I would also say the Avenger. The only other comparison is the 325, but presently the Avenger handles better. But that may change when we see the redesign of the 300 series.

But to add on to this, I'm also looking for a loadout for my SH. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them. The holo table makes the trial and error experience such a task that you start to get bored trying different things.

[smilodon]

Sadly I have no experience of the SH.

There's a spreadsheet out there somewhere (can't find it) that lists all the projectile velocities for weapons. I think the most important thing is to pick weapons that have the same velocity. Then they will all share the same targeting pip and you can fire whichever is the most appropriate gun without having to retarget for your other targeting pips.

Then decide if you want to use gimbaled or non gimbaled mounts. Mixing them can again lead to target pip issues as you can steer a gimbaled weapon ahead of your ships nose while fixed stay pointing ahead. Personally I use fixed on all my weapons.

Having a turret on a SH is going to complicate stuff a lot. I don't own a Sh so have no idea how the turret affects things.

Finally choose between the targeting pip being a point that is connected to but lags behind your own gun sights (lag pip) or that is connected to but projects ahead of your target (lead pip). For me I use the lead pips as they show the direction my target is going more clearly than the weird circle thing that highlights targeted ships. (you can select lead or lag in the settings menu). I just line my single target reticule up on the single lead pip and fire.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3558[/ATTACH]

this is the lead pip configuration

[AndyBee]

It's funny but in Elite i like a mix of energy/ballistic, for shield/hull damage, but you're right in SC at the minute it's a pain, maybe that will get fixed eventually ?

I admit i'm a fan of gimbaled weapons as i'm not the greatest pilot, and i'm used to leading targets from other sims so prefer the lag-pip setup, but i have enough REC to set up the Avenger loaner i have, as advised below, on fixed guns, so i'm going to test on that tomorrow.

The turret on SH acts like a gimbaled weapon if you are single pilot with no gunner, so i am also considering hiring with REC the fixed mount to replace the turret and mounting a size 4 gatling from a Retaliator :boxing: just for giggles !

Like Kal-Nor says though, and as my other thread, the holo-table-farce makes all this much more fuss than is necessary !