are FDC in zen store anygood?

whistlerdavid

i was just wondering if anyone that has the flight deck carriers in zen store can tell me if they are any good. i love the MW fed one but notice there are a couple in zen store

tom61sto

They're pretty decent. Probably not used much just due to their looks: one being a non-canon Cardy boat and three Enterprise era (or equivalent) non-primary Shipyard for the rest

Cardassian Ghemor Intel Flight Deck Carrier works pretty decently as a Energy Weapons boat. The console is OK and the three-set with the other T6 Cardy vessels is nice when leveling a Disruptor toon, the trait Calm Before the Storm is very nice, but just avoid it's pets (and surely don't buy higher end versions), as the Yukawa Frigates are horrible.

The Allied Flight Deck Carriers lose out a little bit by not being full spec (only Lt. Comm Command), but are still pretty nice. Can can handle Energy Weapon or Torpedo builds decently, and has a bit of flexibility beyond that with a Lt. Comm Universal seat. The Suliban Silik Flight Deck Assault Carrier stands out from the other two by having full battle-cloak. Available in C-Store but has Fleet versions for all three that look the same, so you could pick them up with the free Fleet Ship Modules from T6 Reputations. I've got the Fleet Blackguard on my Orion toon from when it was only a Cruiser still, and it works well as a carrier now. The only disappointment is the cannons don't animate, and the Cannon hardpoints don't have different hardpoints for Dual Heavy Cannons versus Dual Cannons now that it can slot them.

questerius

The Suliban FDC is generally regarded in a positive sense.
Personally i like the Tellerite and Orion versions as well, but those are lacking the battlecloak.

Best advice i can tell you is to test the ships out on Tribble prior to purchase on the holodeck.

rattler2

I used to main the Orion Blackguard on my KDF for a LONG time before getting the MW D7. Fight my playstyle perfectly and the only thing that would have been an upgrade would have been the Fleet one I couldn't get because my KDF fleet doesn't have the starbase up high enough for access. The Fed counterpart handles about the same as the Blackguard, and the Romulan counterpart adds a cloak in exchange for slightly lower hull and shield, but I believe it still uses a standard warp core. Customization options for the three are limited so no kitbashing. BUT eventually if Cryptic ports over the tech that gave the Emerald Chain Juggernaut her rotating turrets, the Blackguard would get the upgrade as her hardpoints are visible turrets.

phoenixc

rattler2 wrote: »

I used to main the Orion Blackguard on my KDF for a LONG time before getting the MW D7. Fight my playstyle perfectly and the only thing that would have been an upgrade would have been the Fleet one I couldn't get because my KDF fleet doesn't have the starbase up high enough for access. The Fed counterpart handles about the same as the Blackguard, and the Romulan counterpart adds a cloak in exchange for slightly lower hull and shield, but I believe it still uses a standard warp core. Customization options for the three are limited so no kitbashing. BUT eventually if Cryptic ports over the tech that gave the Emerald Chain Juggernaut her rotating turrets, the Blackguard would get the upgrade as her hardpoints are visible turrets.

I think the Emerald Chain Juggernaut turrets rotate because they were made that way for the show and lately CBS has been giving STO the production models and the devs have been reducing the polycounts and cleaning up the reduced polycount models but otherwise they are the same. On the other hand, the Blackguard "turrets" are probably part of the hull instead of separate pieces, and if so the model would have to be completely rebuilt with turning turrets in mind.

It would be nice though if they did it, Harad Sar's barge was such an eyesore that the Blackguard needs all the help it can get, and tracking turrets would be a nice visual gimmick on the otherwise lackluster trasheap of an aesthetic the thing has.

Anyway, I agree that operationally the ship is very good, it has a nice balance of fighters and guns in a nimble ship that is a nice change from fighting the wallowing that most other carriers are cursed with.

spiritborn

phoenixc#0738 wrote: »

rattler2 wrote: »

I used to main the Orion Blackguard on my KDF for a LONG time before getting the MW D7. Fight my playstyle perfectly and the only thing that would have been an upgrade would have been the Fleet one I couldn't get because my KDF fleet doesn't have the starbase up high enough for access. The Fed counterpart handles about the same as the Blackguard, and the Romulan counterpart adds a cloak in exchange for slightly lower hull and shield, but I believe it still uses a standard warp core. Customization options for the three are limited so no kitbashing. BUT eventually if Cryptic ports over the tech that gave the Emerald Chain Juggernaut her rotating turrets, the Blackguard would get the upgrade as her hardpoints are visible turrets.

I think the Emerald Chain Juggernaut turrets rotate because they were made that way for the show and lately CBS has been giving STO the production models and the devs have been reducing the polycounts and cleaning up the reduced polycount models but otherwise they are the same. On the other hand, the Blackguard "turrets" are probably part of the hull instead of separate pieces, and if so the model would have to be completely rebuilt with turning turrets in mind.

Yeah making turrets that previously were integral to the geo rotate in a way that doesn't break the model can difficult (3D models love to interact in weird and unwanted ways when you want to 2 different geos to interact with each other). The whole model wouldn't need to be rebuilt just the area near the turrets but I suspect that should cryptic do that they'd give the whole model a quality pass anyway.

szerontzur

As has been mentioned:

The Allied(Suliban/Tellarite/Orion) FDCs are quite good at fleet grade. 4 tac consoles let you do decent energy weapon damage with their 5/3 weapon layouts and they come with unique fighter pets that have a damage reflection ability(meaning they punish mob groups that like to BFAW fighters down). The Suliban version is especially standout for having a battlecloak while still using a regular warp core instead of singularity core.

The Cardassian FDC on the other hand has a couple shortcomings and is probably the weakest of the Cardassian ships in the game. 3 Tac consoles means you're generally better off using it as a torpedo platform. The Yukawa Frigates that come with it look nice on paper, but their AI has some rather severe issues that cripple their performance. (It's been a while since I tested them, there's a chance they 'might' have gotten fixed with some of the recent fighter pet changes.)


I'll also give an honorable mention to the Command Battlecruisers as they were functionally FDCs before the swap to twin hangars(that they didn't get for some reason). These ships are still excellent and some of the best "tank" ships in the game(primarily because they can slot Suppression Barrage 3 and Attract Fire while sporting 4 tac consoles on the tactical variants). Their console set is pretty decent/useful as well.

rattler2

Idealy they'd revamp the models when they do inteagrate the turret tracking tech. And based on how they're revamping ships fed side by tiers, its entirely possible that when the ship team starts working on the KDF ships for revamps they will also do something with those that have visible turrets like all the Orion ships.