Let's talk about shuttles!

mcduffie369 · July 2014

I have tried and tried to figure this one out. I have the Veteren shuttles, the Peregrine, and the Stalker. I don't know how to use any of them well.
I am so unconfident in my shuttle ability that I am not even going to tell you what I'm doing, so I want you to tell me what you're doing!
Let's figure this one out together! Tell me all about your shuttles!

woodwhity · July 2014

What shuttles? I use them only on shuttle-Weekends and for mission Gamma, for the latter i even leave the gear they come with on it^^
For daily sto-life i have no shuttles active. Too much bugs in the past.

astimingpyle · July 2014

mcduffie369 wrote: »

I have tried and tried to figure this one out. I have the Veteren shuttles, the Peregrine, and the Stalker. I don't know how to use any of them well.
I am so unconfident in my shuttle ability that I am not even going to tell you what I'm doing, so I want you to tell me what you're doing!
Let's figure this one out together! Tell me all about your shuttles!

For the most part, shuttles are mainly useless. There's too few queued events that involve shuttles, but occasionally, there is the shuttle event which Woodwhity mentioned above. It's actually a lot of fun, in my experience anyway.

But, something my fleet does is every Saturday evening, we hold in-fleet pvp and go a couple of rounds in star ships followed by a couple of rounds in shuttles. It's great fun. The shuttles really level the playing field. We also don't really care how well you can use them because everyone ends up waiting for the respawn button.:D

kermit1013 · July 2014

mcduffie369 wrote: »

I have tried and tried to figure this one out. I have the Veteren shuttles, the Peregrine, and the Stalker. I don't know how to use any of them well.
I am so unconfident in my shuttle ability that I am not even going to tell you what I'm doing, so I want you to tell me what you're doing!
Let's figure this one out together! Tell me all about your shuttles!

well, I can't say that I'm *much* better than you, but I have figured out a few things with some trial, error, and some study, and I may be able to give you a step-up...

1 - shuttle inherent powers - most of the shuttles have a single, rank-1 universal boff station, and an inherent power (like the tractor beam on the runabout, or the epts on captain's yacht) - some have more than one inherent power, but here's the trick - all of the INHERENT shuttle powers are on the LONGEST COOLDOWN possible for the power

that, in my estimation, makes any shuttle that has 2 boff slots and no power (eg the delta flyer) superior to any of the others - with a 2nd boff station, you can use the much lower cooldown on the boff power to use it more often

2 - again, because boff slots are all limited to the lowest possible rank, and I don't think any of the cannon powers are tier 1, the ONLY ship that can take advantage of a cannon power is going to be the peregrine, and again, it's going to be on the longest possible cooldown for the power

3 - what powers to use - MOST of the shuttle based missions have shuttle based enemies as well - and that means lots of tiny, very fast enemies - for this reason, I *personally* feel that +acc weapons are your best choice of weapon, and powers that can lock down or slow your shuttle-based opponents are a great time saver - i'm personally planning a delta flyer around tractor beam and something else, and using it to lock-down enemy shuttles for the killing blow - but that's me

that's all I've got for now - see if I can come up with more soon.

shurato2099 · July 2014

I find tractor beam and and either BFAW or torpedo spread to be very handy to have.

kermit1013 · July 2014

shurato2099 wrote: »

I find tractor beam and and either BFAW or torpedo spread to be very handy to have.

both old favorites. I'm currently debating a hyt (high yield torpedo) and tractor build with a delta flyer, because shuttle shields seem to drop fairly quickly, and then quick tractor/torpedo hit could take the enemy flyer out with one heavy swat

that's the theory, anyway

I'm also trying to gauge shuttle survivability - I'm debating going with a epts (emergency power to shields) on a higher refresh for survivability, and then tractor to keep locking down enemy shuttles, while using a tetryon beam for added shield stripping and then hope that one big powerful quantum torp might be enough to finish them off

another theory - we'll see if it works

don't have data on the drop-box fighters, so I can't say if they'd have a more generous boff layout or not - something to look into if you're serious about flying shuttles

mcduffie369 · July 2014

I'd like more feedback. I'd really like to know a good way to use my Perigrine fighter.

dabelgrave · July 2014

I don't have feedback on the best ways to use small craft, but I do have a spreadsheet where you can compare them all side by side: http://bit.ly/STOSmallCraft. Perhaps that can help somewhat.

dessniper · July 2014

It is fun when you can get a team together for Atmosphere Assault. Other then the Elachi event it is the only place I know of that you can get kills on Elachi ships to complete the Free Thinker kill accolade.

embrosil · July 2014

I never use shuttles and I even skip missions requiring them (Vault, Operation Gamma). They are next to useless, with terrible handling and I am really tired of how enemies hit with every shot while my beams and torpoedos always miss. I would not mind them to be removed completely.

hevach · July 2014

A point defense console (off the Thunderchild Fed side, disruptor version out of one of the lockboxes KDF side) is basically a cheat code in any shuttle. Even after they nerfed it so you only get bonus damage against light craft when it's mounted on a starship, it's still enough to shred a group. If you happen to have the passive point defense tactical console from one of the old boxed sets, that's got its uses on shuttles, too, but you can go without.

As a fun challenge, a Peregrine makes a surprisingly viable tier 1 ship for fed players. It's a bit flimsier than the NX, Blockade Runner, or Andorian Light Escort, but it has rapid fire which none of those can get.

Let's talk about shuttles!

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