Timber Wolf summed it up. Maybe it's because someone says they're only into cruisers and big ships or maybe it's because someone didn't like the aesthetics. There's a lot of variables to take into account.
I like their mechanics, but not the aesthetics... i hope they reléase a new ship with better looks..
T6 Defiant was released, a popular and canon design. Yet it's a challenge to find anyone flying ANY Defiant (T6 or otherwise) these days.
Timber Wolf summed it up. Maybe it's because someone says they're only into cruisers and big ships or maybe it's because someone didn't like the aesthetics. There's a lot of variables to take into account.
I like their mechanics, but not the aesthetics... i hope they reléase a new ship with better looks..
T6 Defiant was released, a popular and canon design. Yet it's a challenge to find anyone flying ANY Defiant (T6 or otherwise) these days.
This guy still does. If i'm not tooling around in one of the pilot ships.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
Timber Wolf summed it up. Maybe it's because someone says they're only into cruisers and big ships or maybe it's because someone didn't like the aesthetics. There's a lot of variables to take into account.
I like their mechanics, but not the aesthetics... i hope they reléase a new ship with better looks..
T6 Defiant was released, a popular and canon design. Yet it's a challenge to find anyone flying ANY Defiant (T6 or otherwise) these days.
Wut?! T6 Fleet Defiant is still my fave ship. It's very canon, has a fantastic boff layout, great speed/turn rate, and is very sturdy.
I honestly can't remember the last time I have seen a Defiant in game. I'm honestly surprised by how unpopular it appears to be.
I don't own one, but that's only because it did not offer something that my Phantom or Pilot ships can't do better. Then on top of that, my Hestia is better for my use compared to the Phantom and the Pilot ships.
That's why I didn't get a Defiant. I deemed it a waste of money.
I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite colored text = mod mode
I own all three Defiant variants, T6 Fleet Defiant, what a fun little ship, small but armed to the teeth
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
I honestly can't remember the last time I have seen a Defiant in game. I'm honestly surprised by how unpopular it appears to be.
I don't own one, but that's only because it did not offer something that my Phantom or Pilot ships can't do better. Then on top of that, my Hestia is better for my use compared to the Phantom and the Pilot ships.
That's why I didn't get a Defiant. I deemed it a waste of money.
I wanted the Romulan and KDF ships so the three pack was the same price as buying just the two of them. I have the t6 defiant, but none of my feds have flown it yet because of the exact reason you said: the phantom and the pilot ships. I expect I'll eventually give it a go on someone. Because, it IS the defiant afterall.
I busted out my Icarus Pilot Escort earlier. I was just flying around and decided to do a Na'hkul Red Alert. The team was 3 Pilot ships, a Phantom and an Odyssey.
That was probably the most escorts I have seen on one screen in months. Funny how it happened right after seeing this thread.
Completely agree - and on the polar oposite side of that scale, I played Borg Disconnected last night. And the team was:
Me - FT5-U Rhode Island
Two Vengance class dreadnoughts
One T6 Bortasqu
Scimitar (didn't check if was T5 or T6)
The player with the Bortasqu actually stated, in team-chat, that I was "making his ship feel huge and fat"!
With my main, I'm almost always these days in one of my pilot ships or my defiant. Full phaser cannon build for STB when they whip out a battle, but I do have the quantum phaser set with it.
Ever catch me, I'm always in a light fast escort. These days you can find me in the badlands ripping it up.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
Reyan1, I fly battlecruisers but I outfit them with cannons. FAW lost it's appeal for me on larger ships after watching some guy in a random sto youtube video beat ISA with faw in a matter of minutes for the 100th time.
On the topic of which pilot ships I see the most, I would say I see the fed pilot ship every 1 out of 4 pub stf runs. I rarely ever see the klingon or romulan ones.
However, pilot ships are more commonly seen in the undine space battlezone or in borg/tholian alerts, especially the romulan pilot ship.
I would even venture to say that it could be that veterans like pilot ships and sometimes buy them but veterans tend to play in private queues which could partially explain the absence of these ships in public queues.
Reyan1, I fly battlecruisers but I outfit them with cannons. FAW lost it's appeal for me on larger ships after watching some guy in a random sto youtube video beat ISA with faw in a matter of minutes for the 100th time.
I've flown my Arbiter with DHC's (and torps!) for a while now because yea, FAW bores me too. But I got the itch to go back to Escorts, and now I'm flying the absolutely gorgeous Hestia. I'm honestly still on the fence about which one I like more. I loaded my Arbiter up with Fleet RCS's, so she flew kinda similar to an Escort (close enough). But I do find myself just staring at my Hestia now like a goober.
Also to have an opinion on this matter I bought one two days ago. I can say, I do like small, manoeuvrable ships. Escorts are not so my favourites, but I do like them. So I bought the Icarus, fed science pilot ship and I have to say, it is no love affair between me and the ship.
The design. It is an inflated defiant. They could have bring out a T6 defiant with pilot manoeuvres. With the variants, you would have had a better looking ship. It is just an opinion of course.
The pilot manoeuvres. They are in fact ground skills transported into the space sphere. Nontheless, they add an extra to the combat and flight experience. I only wonder, why I roll sideways and leaps forward and backward. It must be some experince inside the ship to make that roll. Does everything stay in place?
However, if we forget about immersion, the pilot ship gives a space combat experience that has its own right. I would have loved to see this type of combat brought into the small craft combat, so we would have three combat spheres, ground, space and small crafts or atmospheric.
My biggest complaint is that the pilot ship is in fact an escort with something extra. You have 5/2 layout, 5 fore, 2 aft. Since you can be all over the place I would have liked to see a special weapon set up for these ships. 2 fore. 2 aft and 3 universal. I would like to use mines on these ships, but then I end up with only one aft weapon.
I see Defiant variants from time to time... but you have to look REALLY CLOSE because they're about the size of some of the frigates my carrier launches
Pilot-science and even pilot-cruisers would be good exploration into the design space surrounding what we have now.
"I see Defiant variants from time to time... but you have to look REALLY CLOSE because they're about the size of some of the frigates my carrier launches
Pilot-science and even pilot-cruisers would be good exploration into the design space surrounding what we have now."
Yeah my Callisto Light Escorts are roughly the same size as a defiant.
Also the Callisto Light Escorts are nearly as well armed, possibly better armour, and fly like cruiser, so I'm wondering where the "light" part of Light Cruiser comes from.
The T6 Fleet Defiant is very good, it's rugged if built right, fast and powerful with a pilot seat. I'm also a DS9 fan so I'm biased in favour of the Defiant
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
I like the Defiant. It's a tough little ship that's served the majority of my fed tac officers pretty well. The other draw for me is the abundance of costumes the multi tier ship has spawned. There are so many pieces you can put together some really nice combinations. The pilot ships are stronger ships with some pretty impressive advantages over the Defiant but aesthetically I don't like them at all. The same can be said about the Kor on the KDF side and The Republic's Morrigu (I know the is the Malem is the analog here but I prefer the look of the former and whether Romulan pilot ships are actually better at all is debatable).
I purchased the Fed pilot ships a while back but haven't even looked at the starship traits let alone ground them out. Of the three sets I thought the fed ships might allow me to cobble together one nice looking ship. I didn't manage it and I dislike the look of the other two sets so much I wouldn't even make the attempt. The fed pilot ships make decent pinch hitter admiralty cards.
Saw a (Fed) pilot in a Days of Doom run yesterday. Very nimble, great small core-bomb runner. I picked up the dreadnought warp core on my Vengeance as it spawned, hauled it about half way to the maw before I needed to drop it at 4% hull - I got some good heals put on my along the way, was nice. The pilot ship slipped right in, picked it up and rammed it down the DDMachine's throat. Exceptionally smooth run.
I am an escort fan, but the combo of being satisfied with what I have, the cost and not really knowing how well the pilot stuff works has kept me from buying any. Maybe they needed a event with a pilot ship reward so people could try out the mechanics?
Intel and Command bonuses are sold on the numbers, Pilot bonuses are sold on the "feel", and it is hard to do that with a couple of animated GIFs.
Gotta say I love my Kelvin Timeline Klingon D4x Pilot Raider. Its amazing and soo much fun to fly.
Was really afraid when I got it that it was gonna be a super soft target, but here I am, able to take so much damage, and still kill everything around me in seconds.
"Please, Captain, not in front of the Klingons." Spock to Kirk, as Kirk is about to hug him.
Star Trek V: "The Final Frontier"
They never interested me, I get my fun in with Sci ships and Cruisers. I got my Wells up near 60 turn rate so it can spin on a dime. On my Tac I got my Acheros at 47-ish turn rate with a DBB build so it's almost always facing it's target.
Timber Wolf summed it up. Maybe it's because someone says they're only into cruisers and big ships or maybe it's because someone didn't like the aesthetics. There's a lot of variables to take into account.
I like their mechanics, but not the aesthetics... i hope they reléase a new ship with better looks..
^This.
The pilot ships are fun to fly, but they're ugly... and it kind of feels weird to be flipping around and doing incredibly quick dogfighting maneuvers in a ship that has the length of a modern day Naval Cruiser.
"Intelligence is finite, stupidity is infinite" -- Umberto Eco
Klingon Pilot Raptors are not bad looking except for the impulse engines in the rear. Someone should take off the candycorn and replace it with something a bit more conventional.
Comments
T6 Defiant was released, a popular and canon design. Yet it's a challenge to find anyone flying ANY Defiant (T6 or otherwise) these days.
This guy still does. If i'm not tooling around in one of the pilot ships.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
Wut?! T6 Fleet Defiant is still my fave ship.
I don't own one, but that's only because it did not offer something that my Phantom or Pilot ships can't do better. Then on top of that, my Hestia is better for my use compared to the Phantom and the Pilot ships.
That's why I didn't get a Defiant. I deemed it a waste of money.
| USS Curiosity - Pathfinder | USS Rift - Eternal |
The Science Ship Build Thread - Share your Sci Ship builds here!
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
I wanted the Romulan and KDF ships so the three pack was the same price as buying just the two of them. I have the t6 defiant, but none of my feds have flown it yet because of the exact reason you said: the phantom and the pilot ships. I expect I'll eventually give it a go on someone. Because, it IS the defiant afterall.
With my main, I'm almost always these days in one of my pilot ships or my defiant. Full phaser cannon build for STB when they whip out a battle, but I do have the quantum phaser set with it.
Ever catch me, I'm always in a light fast escort. These days you can find me in the badlands ripping it up.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
On the topic of which pilot ships I see the most, I would say I see the fed pilot ship every 1 out of 4 pub stf runs. I rarely ever see the klingon or romulan ones.
However, pilot ships are more commonly seen in the undine space battlezone or in borg/tholian alerts, especially the romulan pilot ship.
I would even venture to say that it could be that veterans like pilot ships and sometimes buy them but veterans tend to play in private queues which could partially explain the absence of these ships in public queues.
I've flown my Arbiter with DHC's (and torps!) for a while now because yea, FAW bores me too. But I got the itch to go back to Escorts, and now I'm flying the absolutely gorgeous Hestia. I'm honestly still on the fence about which one I like more. I loaded my Arbiter up with Fleet RCS's, so she flew kinda similar to an Escort (close enough). But I do find myself just staring at my Hestia now like a goober.
The design. It is an inflated defiant. They could have bring out a T6 defiant with pilot manoeuvres. With the variants, you would have had a better looking ship. It is just an opinion of course.
The pilot manoeuvres. They are in fact ground skills transported into the space sphere. Nontheless, they add an extra to the combat and flight experience. I only wonder, why I roll sideways and leaps forward and backward. It must be some experince inside the ship to make that roll. Does everything stay in place?
However, if we forget about immersion, the pilot ship gives a space combat experience that has its own right. I would have loved to see this type of combat brought into the small craft combat, so we would have three combat spheres, ground, space and small crafts or atmospheric.
My biggest complaint is that the pilot ship is in fact an escort with something extra. You have 5/2 layout, 5 fore, 2 aft. Since you can be all over the place I would have liked to see a special weapon set up for these ships. 2 fore. 2 aft and 3 universal. I would like to use mines on these ships, but then I end up with only one aft weapon.
Pilot-science and even pilot-cruisers would be good exploration into the design space surrounding what we have now.
Pilot-science and even pilot-cruisers would be good exploration into the design space surrounding what we have now."
Yeah my Callisto Light Escorts are roughly the same size as a defiant.
Also the Callisto Light Escorts are nearly as well armed, possibly better armour, and fly like cruiser, so I'm wondering where the "light" part of Light Cruiser comes from.
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
I purchased the Fed pilot ships a while back but haven't even looked at the starship traits let alone ground them out. Of the three sets I thought the fed ships might allow me to cobble together one nice looking ship. I didn't manage it and I dislike the look of the other two sets so much I wouldn't even make the attempt. The fed pilot ships make decent pinch hitter admiralty cards.
Intel and Command bonuses are sold on the numbers, Pilot bonuses are sold on the "feel", and it is hard to do that with a couple of animated GIFs.
Was really afraid when I got it that it was gonna be a super soft target, but here I am, able to take so much damage, and still kill everything around me in seconds.
Spock to Kirk, as Kirk is about to hug him.
Star Trek V: "The Final Frontier"
The Plesh Brek begs to differ.
^This.
The pilot ships are fun to fly, but they're ugly... and it kind of feels weird to be flipping around and doing incredibly quick dogfighting maneuvers in a ship that has the length of a modern day Naval Cruiser.