Where does the Ares fit?

General
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Hi all,

I am disenchanted with the Prospector mining. Aside from the fact that it is a terrible way to make money, it’s just not really my game-play style.

So… I was looking to melt it or upgrade it to something else. I can’t see how to buy a Caterpillar, so I was looking at the Ares. (I know, very different)

Which brings me to the question: where does the Ares fit? it is a single-player ship, with a massive gun. The description talks about capital ships - which makes sense, but how often does that happen ? seems like for day-to-day play, it would not be a good choice of single-player fighter. I think I have talked myself out of it already, but… thoughts?

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I’d say the chance of earning credits with an Areas are far, far less than a Prospector.

I did purchase an inferno but doubt I will use it often - fleet battles will be the primary use. Technically it can fight solo but I’m not sure how well it will do in an actual dogfight. One niche it may have is bounties on Hammerheads and Valks.

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I think you may have overlooked the Prospector’s greatest asset; its mineral scanner. Hand mining can be even more lucrative but you need the Prospector’s mineral scanner to take the fullest advantage of what’s lying around waiting to be discovered. I urge you not to give up on it before you’ve had the chance to experience everything mining has to offer in SC.

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Also worth mentioning that you can buy a caterpillar any time of the year now if you complete pirate swarm multi-player in arena commander. That will unlock the caterpillar pirate edition. It’s a 6-mo insurance version of the caterpillar, but it can get you by until next years anniversary sale where you can CCU up to the regular caterpillar for LTI.

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I plan on getting both ares variants for escort in my career, but I don’t plan on doing anything else with them.

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The Ares seems like it might make a better heavy fighter than the Vanguard, depending on just how resilient it winds up being. The long range size 7 gun (laser or ballistic) should give the Ares at least equal firepower up close (within size 2 gun range). However, outside of that almost point-blank range, the Vanguard will only be able to use it’s single size 4 or size 5 gun, losing out on both range and striking power versus the Ares’ size 7.

Comparing missile loadouts, the Ares can carry a much heaver load of missiles missiles (16 size 3 or 8 size 3 with 16 size 2) compared to the 4 size 3 and 8 size 2 available to the Vanguard.

The Vanguard seems to have an edge in fuel capacity and the ability logout anywhere due to onboard bunks. The Ares appears to still have a relatively large fuel and jump capacity, though it will likely require more planning for logout opportunities.

The Vanguards seem best used for long range patrols and long range force recon, when they are not being used as dropships.

The Ares seems (so far) to be designed with heavy strike missions in mind, with lots of missiles for self defense against more maneuverable ships. How much damage it can take remains to be seen.

Another use of the Ares is as a highly mobile hover tank. In addition to strafing ground targets, the Ares might actually be used as direct fire artillery, with their long range guns, relative high speed compared to ground vehicles and heavy shields and armor compared to most other small craft.

We may actually have to wait for the F8 Lightning to get a heavy fighter that is optimized as an anti-fighter brawler.

If you want a daily driver capable of the largest number of current money making jobs, I’d recommend the Cutlass. I went with the Cutlass Blue, myself; but, since it remains to be seen what, if any, capability it may lose to the Black in order to gain it’s prisoner transport equipment.

I have heard that the Freelancer series is also a good all-rounder; though I have no personal experience with it.

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If you don’t enjoy mining then you may want to change your ship to a role you enjoy, but don’t take mining or any aspect of the game in its current state as any indication of where it will be in the future. This game is still in development and I read what the ships stated intent is as a guide to what it will be.

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My opinion on this is that the Ares is a powerful yet specialized ship. It only has a combat role so you will only really be using it for that purpose. It also doesn’t have a secondary seat or lockdown seat, so capturing bounties alive is out of the questions. It also carries zero SCU like most fighters.

With that said, I would advise as not having an Ares as your only ship due to its specialization. There are two flavors of the Ares and both are very different beasts.

ARES ION: This is really a group play/support combat ship that is made for flying wing against capital and large size vessels. The ion is armed with a massive S7 laser cannon that is very high damage but also very slow in fire rate. ADI discourages solo flying in almost all cases, but the Ares even more so. This ship will most certainly be food if jumped by a faster and more nimble fighter like a Sabre. If you do get a lucky hit in on a single seater, they will be vaporized, but it will be difficult. Also with 3 shields, the Sabre will likely need 2 shots to go down. Where the Ares shines is that against a larger or capital vessel, it can really pound that larger ship with its giant gun while safely staying out of range of point defense and manned turrets. The Ares Ion makes a simple statement to larger ships: bring escort vessels or die. It is basically a flying artillery ship, and just like modern combat, you don’t want to roll the artillery cannon out on the field by itself.

ARES INFERNO: This ship is armed with a massive S7 gatling gun and has heavier armor. It’s better for multipurpose combat play. Note that all gatling guns have some level of spread, so while the gun is massive its effective range will be much shorter than the Ion. However it will shred most targets if you can accurately get guns on target with the fixed weapon. It will be especially effective against medium ships ranging from a Cutlass to a Constellation. It will also match the vanguard and be a very large threat to it. The Inferno was also advertised as being very strong from air to ground and is basically an A-10 warthog. The downsides of the inferno is that it relies one large gun that is locked the hull and is ammo based. Unless you have a base, carrier, or rearming ship like a crucible nearby; your effective range and staying power won’t be too great due to running dry and having to resupply.

They are great ships but are definitely not the end all be all. They will be very good at what they do. If you’re looking for a more multi purpose combat ship, I’d steer you towards the Freelancer MIS because it brings the pain and can be used for some light cargo hauling.

If the gameplay above interests you, go for it. I bought both Ares because… I have no impulse control. I do however, love the ships and plan on mastering each one as my primary in org wars or operations.

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