Few Questions about the Keelback

[Lucid]

Hey all,

Just made a blind purchase on a Keelback and I have a few questions about the chassis that I can't seem to find by searching around.

First off it has a Fighter Bay which can hold up to 6 ships. Does this mean I can hire up to 6 crew and dispatch all 6 fighters at once? Currently I only have 1 crew member and I will generally put her in control of the Mother Ship (This seems fairly dangerous as she doesn't seem the best pilot yet.) while I take control of a fighter.

Would you suggest running this ship without a shield generator? The hull seems very durable so wondering if I could possibly squeeze some other module on there and be more effective. I'm currently running mostly cargo racks for now to re-coop some of the cash I've invested.

And the last question is... what sort of utilities should I use? All utility slots are currently empty as I'm not sure what to use or if it's worth the extra power consumption.

Thanks ahead of time!

[Dread Lord]

only one fighter can be flying simultanously with you... that goes for any ship that can launch fighters.

[Moobs]

Ships can only launch 1 fighter at a time no matter how many fighter bays or how many fightersthe bays can hold.

Once that fighter gets destroyed the fighter bay starts building another ship. This takes a minute or two. Having a fighter bay that can hold 2 fighters means that you can launch a second fighter whilst the other is destroyed and being rebuilt.

Keelbacks are not the most combat worthy ships as they have crap hardpoints.
Probably better having the Keelback run heavy defences and having the fighter do most of the offensive work.
I would run it with the best shields you can get and fill the utility slots with defence modules like Chaff, Shield boosters, ECMs or whatever.

[Lucid]

Gotcha, well that makes it a little less effective I guess. I just had this grand dream of that Terran ship in Starcraft..

[Lucid]

I guess another question is what is the benefit of hiring multiple crew members? And will Harmless crew members rank up and ask for a lower cut than say hiring an expert pilot right out of the gate?

[Ottomic]

The general consensus seems to be that hiring lower skill pilots is the best idea since they take less cut from payouts.

[Sozzky]

Alittle offtopic but are there any info on increasing the max active crew? I'd love to have atleast 2 flying alongside my combat conda

[Chaos567 [GER]]

You can use only 1 Fighter with 1 crew member. I hope for anaconda and big ships you can use 2 fighter and 2 crew member .

For youre question you can only use 1 Fighter and 1 Crew member for it

[TiberiuS]

Originally posted by Chaos567 GER:

You can use only 1 Fighter with 1 crew member. I hope for anaconda and big ships you can use 2 fighter and 2 crew member .

For youre question you can only use 1 Fighter and 1 Crew member for it

You can't. 1 Fighter max at a time. It's a design decision. I think it has to do with netcode.

[Lucid]

So why hire more than one crew member?

[cosporcos]

Originally posted by Lucid:

So why hire more than one crew member?

If you die the pilot that is on your ship dies.
you can have more than 1 pilot so you can train them all and have backups.
Note that even Inactive crew take their cut from your earnings.

[Lucid]

Do they also die if I send them out in a fighter that gets destroyed?

[Dread Lord]

Originally posted by Lucid:

Do they also die if I send them out in a fighter that gets destroyed?

no if they fight for you and the fighter gets destroyed they still live because they actually control that fighter from your ship like a drone!

if your ship explodes, they are dead for good! you need to hire a new one!

[Ember]

If enjoy bounty hunting, and get the hang of flying the fighter yourself you can park the keelback off a ways in a RES and just use the fighter to take down targets.

I wouldn't advise targeting wings, but lone ships of pretty much any ship is fine to take on. The most dangerous would probably be the Dropship, as the AI enjoys FA-off turns then one shotting you with Railguns/PAs

And if you die it's not even 2 thousand credits, and you're still in your ship ready to go fight again once a new fighter is assembled.

As for shields, I'd say run at least class 4. The hull is durable, but shields regenerate, so are much better for taking occasional shots. And for the utilities, if you're trading 2 shield boosters and a chaff launcher is generally a good idea. Same goes for if you're doing the bounty hunting method I talked of previously.

[Lucid]

I'll admit I had a little buyers remorse when I first bought it.. but it has grown on me. I now love the Keelback! I feel it's a great mid-sized ship.

I just recently dropped the fighter bay for an additional 32 cargo so I can now carry 92 total. I've decided to keep my crew as they keep me company out here. Alaysia is quite the cook and it keeps the other crew members morale high. I might eventually end up dropping my scanner for an additional 4 as well. Still undecided!

Overall it feels like it handles alot like the cobra so it didn't take me long to get the handling down. Sometimes the rotation even feels faster than the Cobra.

I need to fine tune these utility slots.. thanks for the suggestions.

[Ottomic]

I had a lot of fun with it on regular RES in the beta. Lil spud would annoy the hell out on wanted ships while I followed behind them with turret beams. It was the best. I tried upgrading to an FGS and go to higher intensity sites but got destroyed a couple times and didn't bother anymore.

If I go back to fighters I'll probably be on the keelback, or maybe the conda if I ever decide to go back to fighting on that mole. But it's it's probably gonna be a kback especially if it's for funsies.