I've not flown the Valk yet, but I do enjoy the Hammerhead. I use boring single-weapon setups--with the Hammerhead I'm torn between GMG Skyblast A/B's and Salamanca Mk I/II's. The Skyblasts have rapid refire and do a tad more damage over one second but the Salamancas are more energy efficient and work well with a Tizona del Cid or two for shield-stripping if you're willing to juggle weapon groups (i.e. turn the del Cids off once your opponent's shields have dropped).

There are many options though, especially if you like to mix and match weapon types--the Kraken Type 2 from Ruiz Base in Omicron Beta (Outcasts) is the most destructive over one second, so may be worth a try.

--/\/

Well I can tell you my loadouts on my other VHF's.

Eagle: 6x Skyblast B
1x Skyblast B Turret

Titan: 2x Wyrm Type 2
2x WILD FIRE
2x Nomad Cannon


Sabre: 2x Kraken Type 2
2x Nomad Cannon
2x DIAMONDBACK

And on all I have Hornet CS,Ripper Mines, and Adv. Countermeasures. Oh yeah and they all have Skyblast B Turrets.

P.s. These are all separate accounts.

Johnny:"And Leon's getting larrrrger."

Edited by - [RSSF--FLancing on 29-07-2003 00:29:24

I cannot say much about the Hammerhead because I have flown it so little but forget the Valkyrie. For only $50000 more you get the Falcon and it is so much better that it isn't pretty; the designers gave everything to the Falcon: better armour, better powerplant, better agility, bigger hold, more nanos/batts and nothing at all to the Valkyrie. And the Falcon is even easier to get ... Whoever is responsible for this should be flogged but that's how it is.

As regards loadout, my favourite is one class 8 Adv. Debilitator and the rest GMG guns. Perfectly matched projectile speed, perfect targetting characteristics (8.33 refire, 750 m/s projectile speed), decent damage, and since there is only one shield buster you can use caps lock for toggling it instead of having to use weapon groups. Another good loadout is 2 x Debilitator + 3 x Kraken but you have to use weapon groups and you have to remember that the projectile speed and range are not perfectly matched. And keep your Starkillers topped up since they have to deliver the knockout punch.

Umm, thanks for the input so far, wasnt exactly what I was looking for though RSSF Still, would be good to have more input. Maybe some RES will give me the Rheinland advice.

Cheers for that Sherlog. How could they do that? I mean, in SP you started off in fear of the Rheinland navy, and their Heavy Fighter is nullified by an extra 50k? Forget the flogging, keelhaul him through a Jump Hole . . .

I'm back to piloting my Hammerhead with the full Salamanca loadout, torturing Red Hessians in Omega 41. I've got a Falcon with full GMG loadout that I may run back to Omega 41 to see how it compares--considering my Hammerhead was using the same loadout (Sunblast B's/Skyblast A's--though the Falcon has one less hardpoint so I lost one of the Skyblast A's) that I've moved to the Falcon (using a Titan as the courier ship so I could strip its class 8 graviton shield for the Falcon ), I imagine the Falcon would do fine, just have to watch the radiation hits it takes.

I'll have to snag an Adv. Delibitator for it too--that thing is insanely energy efficient compared to a Tizona del Cid.

--/\/

Gambit, I agree on the keelhauling but I disagree regarding fear and the Rheinland navy. Have a look at the thread Plan for a maximum-fun campaign where T-Hawk and I worked out the proper relation between a freelancer and a Rheinland fleet.

Nukenin, I am a tiny bit disappointed. First you said you are sick of the VHF overkill against AI and now you plan to use class 8/9 ships against Red Hessians . Now, if you had said Crusader or Dragon ...

P.S.: I forgot to say what the proper relation is. It is one completely unharmed freelancer (though depleted of all Ripper mines and torpedos) but 7 very dead Rheinland battleships and 7 equally dead Rheinland cruisers plus uncounted numbers of vaporized Valkyries (mission 10).

Edited by - Sherlog on 29-07-2003 01:40:39

My favourite guns are class 8's and 9's, I can't help it. (Well, 6's and 7's too.) GMG's photons have spoiled me.

And I've grown to like hunting the Hessians, with their trademark "we brake for Skyblast and Salamanca shots up our tailpipe" maneuver.

--/\/

Nukenin, I can understand that. The class 6/7 GMG guns are nice but nothing to write home about. The class 8/9 thingies rock.

The Sunblast B is actually the most damaging class 7 weapon over one second--not the most efficient though (and weak vs. graviton shields). Class 6 of course is where the Advanced Tarantula and Pyros Type 3 reign.

I wonder how I would fare in my "fully Tarantulated" Drake in Omega 41? Hmmm...

--/\/

Yes, the Sunblast B is a pretty decent gun but it does only 15% more damage than the class 6 Adv. Tarantula or Pyros Type 3 (872 vs. 759 hull dmg/s). Compare that to the class 8 Skyblast A (1325) or Kraken Type 1 (1526) ...

The Sunblast B is the best class 7 gun simply because there are no excellent guns available in that class. You can see that also by looking at the damage rate of the missiles or the shield busters. Excellent guns tend to have roughly the same damage rate as missiles, and shield buster guns do twice in shield damage what an excellent gun does in hull damage. This rule of thumb would put an excellent class 7 gun at about 1000 dmg/s (i.e. 1050 minus fudge factor). Another way to get that figure is to double the damage rate of the weakest gun. Of course, the lack of an excellent class 7 gun makes the missiles look more interesting than usual ...

That is also the reason why I like to put two Debilitators into the class 7 slots of the Valkyrie/Falcon and Krakens (or Skyblasts) into the class 8s. Using only one Debilitator and putting a hull gun into the other class 7 slot would increase hull damage output only marginally but using two Debilitators ensures that shields go away pronto and so it creates more opportunities for torping.

I'd be more willing to use pulse weapons if there were a mechanism by which they wouldn't fire if your target no longer had shields. I did try out mounting an Advanced Debilitator on my Falcon's central class 8 hardpoint--it is amazing the difference in kill times a shield-dropper makes.

--/\/

Well, having tried the Hammerhead, all I can do is quote Star Wars.
"You came in that thing?!"
"What a piece of junk!"
So its down to the nice industrial looking Rheinland fighters, so, its between Banshee or Valkyrie now . . . woooo . . .

go for the valkyrie and if you want to dogfight instead of haveing really powerful slow fire weapons go to gas miner naha in the sigma 13 system there is a jump hole their from new berlin to make the trip there faster. i sure that its there but its not in the offical book...