Federal Assault Ship

[oneilbell42]

I have been grinding for a Fer de Lance and recently have become intrigued with the Federal Assault Ship. It seems like a very flexible platform with a very high combat capability coupled with the ability to do light cargo work. I have about $30 million credits, so I am about $25 million short for the Fer de Lance, but right within the price range of the Assault Ship. How do the Assault Ship owners feel about this platform in comparison to the Fer de Lance?

[Turd Ferguson]

they're very different.

FAS is slow but very manuverable and a hull tank

FDL is fast but less manuverable and a shield tank.

Both are deadly in a skilled pilot's hands. The FDL I think is a little more forgiving to less skilled pilots.

[Delfino]

Like mentioned before FAS is more a hull tank. Unfortunately in current meta hull tanks seem weaker. It's because when your shields go down (and this is supposed to happen in hull tanks) you will be affected by all those modifications from engineered weapons. This makes FAS less effective.

With FAS I don't really have any problems fighting large vessels. I use 6 plasmas. But FDL is a problem. It is too fast for me. Hard to hit with plasmas and difficult to take down shields with any other weapon type. So unless I can ram it I will lose to FDL.

I'm talking about PvP of course.

[meucha]

Don't look at stats, look at style.
Honestly, do you think any hot blonde chick would jump in your FAS ? No way, brick drivers aren't the hottest thing right now.
FDL is another story, they're going crazy about it.
Fly with style, fly a FDL.

[Turd Ferguson]

Originally posted by meucha:

Don't look at stats, look at style.
Honestly, do you think any hot blonde chick would jump in your FAS ? No way, brick drivers aren't the hottest thing right now.
FDL is another story, they're going crazy about it.
Fly with style, fly a FDL.

my wife is a hot blonde chick and I fly a FAS.

[meucha]

Originally posted by Turd Ferguson:

Originally posted by meucha:

Don't look at stats, look at style.
Honestly, do you think any hot blonde chick would jump in your FAS ? No way, brick drivers aren't the hottest thing right now.
FDL is another story, they're going crazy about it.
Fly with style, fly a FDL.

my wife is a hot blonde chick and I fly a FAS.

You probably met her while you were flying a Vulture.
Then she saw your brand new FAS, shrugged, and turned around.

[Agony_Aunt]

The key to flying the FAS is to not get hit, then shield or hull tank doesn't matter. Its a manouverable little beastie. If you like dogfighting, its a good choice.

[Paprika]

fas is cannon. if you love lasers, stay away.

if you love cannon, you're a tank god.

[Turd Ferguson]

Originally posted by Melande:

fas is cannon. if you love lasers, stay away.

if you love cannon, you're a tank god.

I run a FAS with 4 beam lasers.

[Rragar]

I own the Lance as well as a Dropship, Assault Ship and Gunship. This is what I can tell you:

The Lance is a shield tank. It's shields are inevitably pushed beyond optimal hull mass as its generator is smaller than it could be (one size larger would be perfect). This means that, while you do get strong shields, their downtime can be very long. My Anaconda has stronger shields and they come back online faster than my FDL's, even with bi-weaves.

Now, as for the engines... both ships have the potential to attain very high speeds. With full combat loads, I get about 460 m/s boost speed out of my Assault Ship with G5 clean drives, and about 485 m/s boost from my Lance with G5 dirty drives. Note that I used heavyweight setups in both cases; you could break the 500 m/s mark with either ship, so long as you have the right setup.

The Lance has a tendency to stall when making tight turns. It accelerates slower than the FAS so I have to boost if I want to recover faster after stalling. The boost puts me in a speed threshold far greater than I desired, which affects my fighting capability negatively.

The FAS is less susceptible to deteriorated performance from heavy loads. It also offers more maneuverability at high speeds than the Lance. The Lance is nimble, sure, but due to the tendency to stall, I find the FAS more adequate for close quarters combat as you get good maneuverability at any speed.

The FAS doesn't shine as much until you have high hull health and damage resistances (I also recommend a size 5 module reinforcement package).

Also, the FAS (as well as the Dropship and Gunship) is great for ramming other ships due to how massive it can become once fully upgraded. Heavy duty armor mods highly recommended, but I advise against offensive ramming unless you have military, mirrored or reactive hull alloys (lightweight takes a lot of damage from collissions).

Also gotta say, despite the fact that my FAS has a low emmissions power plant and clean drives, it doesn't take the heat as well as my dropship or gunship can (both of which use dirty drives and must deal with overall higher thermal loads anyway).

If you were considering some light cargo work, you may want to take a look at the Dropship, too. It is cheaper, most of its modules are compatible with the FAS (so you could swap them) and it has more internal slots, as well as more of the bigger ones. Its shields are weaker but since it can accomodate a larger shield generator, they can come back online crazy fast. It is slower and less agile, but can potentially attain slightly higher firepower.

[caaront]

Will it be a good dogfighter/skimmer killer in PVE for a novice? The FAS that is?

[Rragar]

Originally posted by caaront:

Will it be a good dogfighter/skimmer killer in PVE for a novice? The FAS that is?

I think you might struggle with it at first because you'll be lacking the ability to adequately reinforce its hull and increase the damage resistance of its shields (if you install them). The ship has weak shields. It is a great ship when you earn 3500+ hull with 40%+ damage resistances across the board and a module reinforcement package or more. But this requires access to Engineers.

The FDL would be more friendly to a beginner, simply because it has good shields to begin with, and you don't have to worry about managing internal damage or malfunctions as long as your shields are up and you're not overheating.

If you want to raid ground bases, the FDL can serve you better because it has top-mounted utility slots where you can install point defence turrets to protect yourself against the missiles that will be sent after you from planetary bases (the assault ship has less utility slots and they are all underneath). It you just want a ship to deploy an SRV so you can fight skimmers with it, then any ship will serve you well.

If you wanted something akin to the Assault Ship but with top-mounted utility slots, the Gunship is what you're looking for.

If you want to get into Dogfights with a FAS as a beginner, and you can find another pilot who will join you so you can fight together, I think you should be fine.

[oneilbell42]

Originally posted by Rragar:

I own the Lance as well as a Dropship, Assault Ship and Gunship. This is what I can tell you:

The Lance is a shield tank. It's shields are inevitably pushed beyond optimal hull mass as its generator is smaller than it could be (one size larger would be perfect). This means that, while you do get strong shields, their downtime can be very long. My Anaconda has stronger shields and they come back online faster than my FDL's, even with bi-weaves.

Now, as for the engines... both ships have the potential to attain very high speeds. With full combat loads, I get about 460 m/s boost speed out of my Assault Ship with G5 clean drives, and about 485 m/s boost from my Lance with G5 dirty drives. Note that I used heavyweight setups in both cases; you could break the 500 m/s mark with either ship, so long as you have the right setup.

The Lance has a tendency to stall when making tight turns. It accelerates slower than the FAS so I have to boost if I want to recover faster after stalling. The boost puts me in a speed threshold far greater than I desired, which affects my fighting capability negatively.

The FAS is less susceptible to deteriorated performance from heavy loads. It also offers more maneuverability at high speeds than the Lance. The Lance is nimble, sure, but due to the tendency to stall, I find the FAS more adequate for close quarters combat as you get good maneuverability at any speed.

The FAS doesn't shine as much until you have high hull health and damage resistances (I also recommend a size 5 module reinforcement package).

Also, the FAS (as well as the Dropship and Gunship) is great for ramming other ships due to how massive it can become once fully upgraded. Heavy duty armor mods highly recommended, but I advise against offensive ramming unless you have military, mirrored or reactive hull alloys (lightweight takes a lot of damage from collissions).

Also gotta say, despite the fact that my FAS has a low emmissions power plant and clean drives, it doesn't take the heat as well as my dropship or gunship can (both of which use dirty drives and must deal with overall higher thermal loads anyway).

If you were considering some light cargo work, you may want to take a look at the Dropship, too. It is cheaper, most of its modules are compatible with the FAS (so you could swap them) and it has more internal slots, as well as more of the bigger ones. Its shields are weaker but since it can accomodate a larger shield generator, they can come back online crazy fast. It is slower and less agile, but can potentially attain slightly higher firepower.

I want to get to a point where i can own both vessels as you have. I prefer a ship with high shield capacity and a tight turn ratio without stalling. It looks like i would have to choose between those factors with the FDL and FAS. When in combat, i seem to take a lot of hits, so having a vessel with weak shields is not ideal. That is my issue with Aspx, the shields are weak. No shields means modules can be targeted and if crucial systems are damaged.....rebuy time. Since the FAS is cheaper, i will probably buy it first. I have $25 million credits, so i like to have at least $10 million over the purchase value to accommodate for upgrades and insurance. But the FDL fits my flying profile more. Gotta keep on grindin'. 😀

[caaront]

Thank you, I love the FDL and plan on keeping my next one forever.

[Rragar]

Originally posted by oneilbell42:

Originally posted by Rragar:

I own the Lance as well as a Dropship, Assault Ship and Gunship. This is what I can tell you:

The Lance is a shield tank. It's shields are inevitably pushed beyond optimal hull mass as its generator is smaller than it could be (one size larger would be perfect). This means that, while you do get strong shields, their downtime can be very long. My Anaconda has stronger shields and they come back online faster than my FDL's, even with bi-weaves.

Now, as for the engines... both ships have the potential to attain very high speeds. With full combat loads, I get about 460 m/s boost speed out of my Assault Ship with G5 clean drives, and about 485 m/s boost from my Lance with G5 dirty drives. Note that I used heavyweight setups in both cases; you could break the 500 m/s mark with either ship, so long as you have the right setup.

The Lance has a tendency to stall when making tight turns. It accelerates slower than the FAS so I have to boost if I want to recover faster after stalling. The boost puts me in a speed threshold far greater than I desired, which affects my fighting capability negatively.

The FAS is less susceptible to deteriorated performance from heavy loads. It also offers more maneuverability at high speeds than the Lance. The Lance is nimble, sure, but due to the tendency to stall, I find the FAS more adequate for close quarters combat as you get good maneuverability at any speed.

The FAS doesn't shine as much until you have high hull health and damage resistances (I also recommend a size 5 module reinforcement package).

Also, the FAS (as well as the Dropship and Gunship) is great for ramming other ships due to how massive it can become once fully upgraded. Heavy duty armor mods highly recommended, but I advise against offensive ramming unless you have military, mirrored or reactive hull alloys (lightweight takes a lot of damage from collissions).

Also gotta say, despite the fact that my FAS has a low emmissions power plant and clean drives, it doesn't take the heat as well as my dropship or gunship can (both of which use dirty drives and must deal with overall higher thermal loads anyway).

If you were considering some light cargo work, you may want to take a look at the Dropship, too. It is cheaper, most of its modules are compatible with the FAS (so you could swap them) and it has more internal slots, as well as more of the bigger ones. Its shields are weaker but since it can accomodate a larger shield generator, they can come back online crazy fast. It is slower and less agile, but can potentially attain slightly higher firepower.

I want to get to a point where i can own both vessels as you have. I prefer a ship with high shield capacity and a tight turn ratio without stalling. It looks like i would have to choose between those factors with the FDL and FAS. When in combat, i seem to take a lot of hits, so having a vessel with weak shields is not ideal. That is my issue with Aspx, the shields are weak. No shields means modules can be targeted and if crucial systems are damaged.....rebuy time. Since the FAS is cheaper, i will probably buy it first. I have $25 million credits, so i like to have at least $10 million over the purchase value to accommodate for upgrades and insurance. But the FDL fits my flying profile more. Gotta keep on grindin'. 😀

One thing to consider, however, is that if you had a shieldless Asp and a shieldless FAS, both with the same armor health and damage resistances, the FAS would receive considerably less internal damage than the Asp (which would be further decreased by the module reinforcements) because of its hull hardness score. It has a higher hull hardness value than an Anaconda, in fact; this implies that you need big guns to reliably cause internal damage, or smalls guns modified for armor piercing.

Also, the physical location of the modules in the FAS makes them harder to hit. The Asp has its power plant located right at the center of mass, which is where target locks track even if the power plant is not selected.

Gotta say though, your flight style will affect how the modules get damaged. In all of my Federal Ships, I usually take the most damage to the power distributor, which is located towards the front, at the top of the ship. However, the FAS's cockpit is beneath the centerline so it takes less damage than, say, a Vulture's cockpit would (or an Asp's)

[Rragar]

Originally posted by oneilbell42:

Originally posted by Rragar:

I own the Lance as well as a Dropship, Assault Ship and Gunship. This is what I can tell you:

The Lance is a shield tank. It's shields are inevitably pushed beyond optimal hull mass as its generator is smaller than it could be (one size larger would be perfect). This means that, while you do get strong shields, their downtime can be very long. My Anaconda has stronger shields and they come back online faster than my FDL's, even with bi-weaves.

Now, as for the engines... both ships have the potential to attain very high speeds. With full combat loads, I get about 460 m/s boost speed out of my Assault Ship with G5 clean drives, and about 485 m/s boost from my Lance with G5 dirty drives. Note that I used heavyweight setups in both cases; you could break the 500 m/s mark with either ship, so long as you have the right setup.

The Lance has a tendency to stall when making tight turns. It accelerates slower than the FAS so I have to boost if I want to recover faster after stalling. The boost puts me in a speed threshold far greater than I desired, which affects my fighting capability negatively.

The FAS is less susceptible to deteriorated performance from heavy loads. It also offers more maneuverability at high speeds than the Lance. The Lance is nimble, sure, but due to the tendency to stall, I find the FAS more adequate for close quarters combat as you get good maneuverability at any speed.

The FAS doesn't shine as much until you have high hull health and damage resistances (I also recommend a size 5 module reinforcement package).

Also, the FAS (as well as the Dropship and Gunship) is great for ramming other ships due to how massive it can become once fully upgraded. Heavy duty armor mods highly recommended, but I advise against offensive ramming unless you have military, mirrored or reactive hull alloys (lightweight takes a lot of damage from collissions).

Also gotta say, despite the fact that my FAS has a low emmissions power plant and clean drives, it doesn't take the heat as well as my dropship or gunship can (both of which use dirty drives and must deal with overall higher thermal loads anyway).

If you were considering some light cargo work, you may want to take a look at the Dropship, too. It is cheaper, most of its modules are compatible with the FAS (so you could swap them) and it has more internal slots, as well as more of the bigger ones. Its shields are weaker but since it can accomodate a larger shield generator, they can come back online crazy fast. It is slower and less agile, but can potentially attain slightly higher firepower.

I want to get to a point where i can own both vessels as you have. I prefer a ship with high shield capacity and a tight turn ratio without stalling. It looks like i would have to choose between those factors with the FDL and FAS. When in combat, i seem to take a lot of hits, so having a vessel with weak shields is not ideal. That is my issue with Aspx, the shields are weak. No shields means modules can be targeted and if crucial systems are damaged.....rebuy time. Since the FAS is cheaper, i will probably buy it first. I have $25 million credits, so i like to have at least $10 million over the purchase value to accommodate for upgrades and insurance. But the FDL fits my flying profile more. Gotta keep on grindin'. 😀

Tight turn ratio without stalling, and high shield capacity? Sounds like you may be looking for a Vulture.