Drake Caterpillar Review | Star Citizen 3.10 Gameplay

In this video, I review the Star Citizen cargo freighter Drake Caterpillar, including conducting a full walkaround as well as detailed ship review. I include gameplay footage of the Caterpillar. The gameplay for this Star Citizen Drake Caterpillar cargo ship review is from patch 3.10
00:00 Introduction to the Caterpillar
01:01 Ship Tour & Deck Layout
06:18 Combat Performance
07:34 Visibility & Handling
08:59 Operating Costs
09:58 Verdict & Summary
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[@TheDAWinz]

This ship's earned me alot of money. Even when the HullC is in game, it'll have a special place in my heart.

[@Farrister]

I think a lot of players will feel the same :) I like that about Star Citizen

[@messageinthebottle1673]

When I get into star citizen I definitely want a ship that helps me make alot of money 💰 but of course non-combat ways. This ship and the mole.

[@Xorrin]

Imagine an itinerant fleet of caterpillar filled with counters and goods like a market flying between planets and opening their cargo doors to curious people and buyers

[@Farrister]

BMM vibes xD

[@docteurjekilll2551]

Feels weird to come back to one of your older videos. Makes me appreciate how much the quality improved over the years. Keep up the good work!

[@Farrister]

Thank you, I'm always trying to improve :)

[@realmaxpower]

I cant wait till the command module can disconnect and the side/front elevators all work fully and go to the ground.

[@Farrister]

Such a cool escape pod idea

[@realmaxpower]

@@Farrister I'm not sure if its escape pod only or also a parasite craft for going planet side etc..

[@sneakycactus8815]

@@realmaxpower its a parasite craft. it has landing gear and on the second deck in the pod has an unused door meant for exiting the module when landed

[@titannarwhal7337]

Imagine this thing as a semi-covert ops ship, storing marines in the cargo bays and then opening the sides to let them out all while under the cover of a "industrial ship"

[@Farrister]

Reminds me of a picture I saw from XT with a Nova tank half hanging out of the front xD

[@glenparker20]

I might not play SC yet, but this ship has me totally enraptured. Such a hero ship vibe, and those cargo bay doors just beg for you to use your imagination.

[@Farrister]

Already seen some interesting use cases!!

[@Integer_Overload]

Some guys in my org run a absolutely massive delivery service out of one of these! They park it out in space a little ways to be out of public eye, accept a bunch of Hurston delivery routes, assign delivery/pickup drivers to each route, and run all the packages through the ship. Us drivers drop off all packages in the front for sorting, then pull around to our assigned bay to get loaded up, then we go out and deliver! It's a absolutely massive headache(there's an excel spreadsheet if that tells you anything), but it's great fun!

[@Farrister]

Amazing!

[@TypicalDad1980]

Great video as always, my favorite SC channel and you have a gift for narration.

[@Farrister]

Wow, thank you!

[@51ghardy]

Nice video. Very informative.

[@Farrister]

Thank you :)

[@viperswhip]

It has been updated from here, 2x2 s4 manned Turrets, 1x2 S3, 2 S2 Weapons (all gimballed), and 2 S3 shields. It's a beast.

[@Farrister]

Very difficult to keep all of the videos up to date!

[@brand8590]

Good vid. :) I heard in future those container modules will be swappable and mission profiled: like you can swap one for a med bay, troop carrier etc. Hope it happens. Thanks!

[@Farrister]

That would be cool!!

[@spookytooth2044]

Love this ship and in fact I've just purchased it with the profits from mining in my Mole - my first in game ship purchase. I could only find it at Teach's at Levski and it was nearly 4.7 million creds, not the price you mention. I'm still in the process of trying to find a decent cargo run and using my Mole again to build up funds!

[@Farrister]

The decent cargo runs vary a little at the moment depending on what state the server is in, so hard to say for sure!

[@rolanders7553]

I own 1 and didn’t know some of ur info ty

[@Farrister]

Oh wow, thank you for watching :)

[@andrijagrgic2357]

All the drake ships tickle my visual nerves. I like them all

[@Farrister]

Wow, 3.10 seems like a lifetime ago!

[@andrijagrgic2357]

@@Farrister im new and im quite enjoying your ship reviews.

[@f3ritecore251]

Just bought my cat - first big boi boat I got Now I need to learn how to trade..

[@Farrister]

I'm working on a trading 101 video! Might be a few weeks to finish though!

[@wither5673]

i still think both turrets should be remote access turrets that are accessible from the 2 crew seats in the back of the cockpit, that way if the cockpit ship needs to detache it can do so right away instead of having to wait for the 2 crew members to run for their lives from the turrets themselves.

[@Farrister]

I think they wanted it to be like Star Wars where people ran for the turrets!

[@dnash2131]

Once modularity is added the cat will be a great choice again

[@Farrister]

I hope so!

[@Raizgriz]

I miss the days when this was the biggest ship in the game next to the misc starfarer

[@Farrister]

I'm excited for the days when we'll be walking around some even bigger ships!

[@brody8216]

I was paying more attention to the hammer head in the background, then the video.

[@Farrister]

The Hammerhead in the background?

[@brody8216]

​@@Farrister 8:59

[@Farrister]

@@brody8216 oh, I think that's a Valkyrie?

[@brody8216]

​@Farrister, guess so. I was going off of shape

[@krittua117]

Does it need co-pilot or only single pilot to control this ship? I saw on website it shows minimum crew are 2 persons. And many for review. It’s very good review :)

[@Farrister]

Single pilot needed, but you may want to bring gunners to help keep you safe.

[@qdaniele97]

Any ship can be flown by just one person but without someone in those turrets you will be a sitting duck waiting to be blown up.

[@WanderLusting]

It still seems a bit odd to me that the cargo ramps do not open and go to the ground allowing you to drive something inside. They seem only functional in space not on the ground.

[@TheSilence1]

The not-as-of-yet functioning tractor beam is supposed to be the solution to that.

[@Farrister]

Encourages proprietary use of the Drake Dragonfly too xD

[@WanderLusting]

@@Farrister 😏

[@STNeish]

I wonder... is there a fighter craft that could be launched from the cargo pods? Turning the ship into a light carrier?

[@Farrister]

At the moment, not really. You can do it with the little Dragonfly ships iirc

[@MonteKristof]

I wonder if the Caterpillar will be nearly as popular as now when the C2 Hercules will be out...

[@Farrister]

Definitely, also to see what difference planet Vs station cargo grids will make. All in all more cargo ships make things more interesting, I think we already see that with a few Carrack cargo haulers

[@MonteKristof]

@@Farrister That's for sure. I hope the C2 will attract more people, because I egoistically want to fly an underdog ship, something that you rarely see in the verse! And I like the Cat. So the more people fly the C2, the less will fly the Cat, the better (for me personally!)

[@District.24]

Farrister, what do you use to play Star Citizen - joystick, controller, mouse and keyboard?

[@Farrister]

I use HOTAS with rudder pedals for flight, and mouse and keyboard for first person.

[@District.24]

@@Farrister Just one more question. I ask because my ship just keeps spinning when I plugin my joystick - same with my rudder pedals. So my question is: which rudder pedals and HOTAS are you using? Let me just take this time to tell you how much I appreciate your videos. I can see just how much work you put into them. I’ve enjoyed being a subscriber.

[@Farrister]

@@District.24 thank you! I use Thrustmaster pedals, Warthog throttle and F/A-18C grip on Warthog base. Every patch I go in and unbind a lot of the default controls, and overwrite with my devices. From time to time, SC also forgets which device is which and I have to rebind

[@nicolobraghini1546]

Damn seeing these hauling missions makes me want to start playing the game but the starter packs are still to expensive for me at this moment

[@Farrister]

Keep an eye on the website, from time to time they run offers for Starter Packs. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw something in November

[@hugo5467]

They are very cheap right now

[@vi683a]

I am trying to find reasons to like the Cat over lets say another equivalent hauler? C2 comes to mind!

[@Farrister]

I think it's just a different feel to it. Price would be one consideration, as well as the way each bay is split up. I do love the C2/M2 though lol

[@tobiask.7346]

If you just want to haul cargo or vehicles then the C2 is the better choice, but the tractor beams and the easy exes to the bays on the Caterpillar makes it an excellent ship to take the goods of other ships, not only from wrecks and raided ships but also from your friendly miner and salvagers out there. And then we have to see what the promised modules will bring to the table.

[@christopherhancock1723]

I love the CAT, but I will never really use one. I like to play solo and I don't want to lose cargo to a 30k. Cargo running with that thing is a big investment.

[@Farrister]

Understandable, hopefully there are fixes for that in the future :(

[@Lead1121]

Such a cool design, wish it didn't cost so much

[@Farrister]

I know - I recently updated this review too!

[@Lead1121]

@@Farrister Love your videos btw, I just started playing and have been going through all of your content!

[@Platinumsniper]

Even with the hercs out I still make it a point to let my cat stretch its legs.

[@Farrister]

Let the cat out :D

[@Gongasoso]

If one could arm one of these to the teeth, it would be a legendary corsair ship

[@Farrister]

I do think that would fit quite well with the Drake theme too!

[@ryanreel8902]

I upgraded to this ship and it wiped everything out. now i have no ship or gear its been so annoying. i messaged RSI and they were no help smh

[@Farrister]

Oh no :(

[@Dervraka]

The go to cargo freighter in the game....well at least until the get around to putting the "Hull" series in. Seriously! have you looked at the specs on the "Hull E", 372 meters and a cargo capacity of 98,304. To put that in perspective the Kraken is only 270 meters and the Idris Frigate is only 242 meters.

[@Farrister]

At one point, the Hull E was slated to be larger than the Javelin!

[@Dervraka]

@@Farrister Yep, as a transport fan, I can't wait to see the Hull series in game, unfortunately they seem to have slipped pretty far down the development ladder. Though some work on the Hull A,B,C is suppose occur in 3rd quarter (according to the development plan) so maybe we'll finally see the Hull E by this time next year.

[@Farrister]

@@Dervraka I think ship to station docking is a key enabler for the larger vessels

[@philconey11]

Why's this thing look like it has 2 CAT 3508's for space stuff

[@Farrister]

Appropriate for the name!

[@jihadclaimon8447]

Serious question is this game fun to play just with a shit ton of bugs or does it feel like just a big tech demo? I know it's in Alpha but really have been wanting to get into it, I think what they're aiming for long run is sick and some of the stuff they've done already is nuts. So yeah tech demo or fun buggy game?

[@Farrister]

Somewhere between the 2. It's my main "game" these days, I play a lot, but I do constantly encounter bugs too. It's certainly not the finished article. So it purely depends on your mindset, if you are accepting of an unpolished game, then go for it, if you'd rather have a more full experience, probably better to wait.

[@jihadclaimon8447]

@@Farrister But aside from bugs there is a game here to play? Objectives, rewards, etc? I know about the server wipes already so I know the rewards are temporary but still. Also it seems you've been playing for a little while, based on the rate YOU'VE noticed new content releases how much longer do you think until this game reaches beta? Really just in YOU'RE opinion, I know there's likely a ton of ifs regarding that question but just how long you think based on how much you've noticed change over time.

[@gagida1829]

Imagine you decide to raid this ship and see like 6 Arrows fly out of the cargo space 😂😂

[@Farrister]

Haha like wasps leaving the nest

[@DoomOfConviction]

The space truck flys like a truck, hmmm 🤔

[@Farrister]

Haha yup

[@lunamaria1048]

My only real criticism of your tours is that you don't pan around slowly, like a good camera man trying to show the ship, (as many other SC KZbinrs do during tour vids). You zip and dart the view around too fast, making it hard to see a lot detail on one thing, before you are zipping the view to the next thing, for a grad of a second, as if you are in a mission, in a rush. You mentioned the beds as you were passing through a door and leaving that area, not even letting us see the beds in view lol.. They are just beds, but in a tour, I want to see

[@Farrister]

Thanks for your feedback and suggestion for improvement! This was one of my early reviews, and I've had that feedback and tried to act upon it in more recent videos. I actually re-visited the Caterpillar this week, hopefully you find the new video accounts for what you have said!

[@momopirou3107]

im sorta desapointed by the guns. a ship like this shouldnt have so many guns, its a space truck. id like to see civilian tasks oriented ships with no armament or very minimal one. so they would need an escort of some sort for safety. more specialized ships help immersion IMO

[@Farrister]

Maybe - it's quite hard to get the guns on target, and so the best defences the ship has are the manned turrets, which feels fairly specialised, especially when compared to some of the heavy fighters

[@momopirou3107]

@@Farrister but why does a civilian cargo ship have gun/turrets at all? id love to see pure civilian spacecrafts, to perform pure civillian tasks. again, im new, but does the mining ships (prospector and mole) have any armament at all? if not, id like to see ships like caterpillar to follow the same pattern. but then again thats just my opinion :)

[@Farrister]

@@momopirou3107 it's a fair opinion! During WW2, some convoys would have some armament to defend themselves, I kinda see it a bit like that

[@sneakycactus8815]

you misunderstand. its not a cargo ship. its a multi role ship that can currently only do cargo. its slated to be capable of everything. including combat support. thats why its so heavily armed. also, civilian cargo ships in real life are armed because of piracy.

[@momopirou3107]

@@sneakycactus8815 well civilian cargo ship IRL have (in certain areas) armed personnel on board, with some machineguns, snipers and stuff, but they dont have dedicated large gun turrets or other built-in armaments like military destroyers or other types of military vessels.

[@NORKIE]

Why is the top walkway off to the side? And you're saying the lower is blocked when full? Who designed this ship? An upside down womabat on meth?

[@Farrister]

Haha I think it's just for the asymmetry, and yeah it was completely blocked :(

[@jh5kl]

no one in his right mind says a 295 dollar game asset is reasonable

[@Farrister]

Well I think that depends if it's for one player, or spread amongst a group?

[@philconey11]

That's chump change in the flight sim/space sim community, my guy.