Is This Really The Drake Cutlass Killer?! | Zeus Q & A | Star Citizen

The RSI Zeus Q & A is now out answering some of the biggest questions since it's release at CitCon. Check it out!
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[@wild_lee_coyote]

Fuel scoops. I always thought it would be interesting to load refined fuel into the cargo bay and have a fuel transfer unit (1 scu big) that allows you to refuel from the cargo. You could make it refuel slowly and the ship has to be stationary when they do it. But having a way to transfer fuel without having a fuel ship would be nice.

[@fmartingorb]

About the Zeus being more agile than the C1. It depends on the weight of the ship. If the CL has more cargo. It will def will be less manoeuvrable. Also Armour and materials will play a role when they implement Maelstrom.

[@dunravin]

I think the Sentinel was never meant to have the EMP, it was meant to have a dampener or snare iirc but that wasn''t a thing when the Vanguards came out. So they may not of messed up with that page but were thinking forward to when they implement whatever the Sent was supposed to have.

[@atrior7290]

Siphoning fuel is a thing the Vulcan's drones can do. The idea is that a fleet can take Vulcans with them to extand their range by refuelling on the wrecks they find or create.

[@MooneShadow]

The MSR is the red headed stepchild of the crusader line. Refrain from bringing it up. LOL. Bounty Hunter Variant has QED, EMP and extra turrets. More power.

[@Dytoractor]

Do you think the Zeus will stay smaller? The C1 was sold as smaller than the cutlass but ended up being "larger" than the Max. (ship overall size). The C1 has a cockpit/bed/kitchen (Cocbeditchn). While the Zeus's cockpit holds another person in a smaller space!? Then it also has several rooms inside! Not to mention the CL version can hold twice the SCU! I keep trying to imagine the C1's walls pushed out on either side. Its hard to believe CIG will be like, we came out with the Zeus which has an explorer version with crazy protection, A "fighter" version and a cargo version. Then make all three suck compared to the C1... Which is cheaper! But who knows!!!

[@AsuraDandy]

I went and melted my Max to get the Zeus CL. It just overall looks better, for a ship of similar size (the Zeus is actually only 8m longer than the Max, same size width and actually slightly smaller height wise). The biggest selling point for me was the spacious interior. It just overall looks like it has more room to walk around in than the Max, which has been my main complain about the ship. its advertised as a 4 man capable ship when only 2 people is really needed to fully utilize the ship. It seems like they've been making 3 man ships for this size the standard, so they might redesign the freelancers to be 3 man ships instead. But yeah, just got tired of waiting for any news about a freelancer redesign.

[@fuglong]

Great choice, yeah no way I'd keep a max when the Zeus is coming

[@Funkm4ster96]

I have both a C1 and CL and I'm excited to be able to fly both and decide what one I want to keep when they're both out. The CL seems like it could be the winner just because of the better spaced interior and cargo space. The Zeus line feels more like its own tier above the Cutty/freelancer but smaller than a Connie.

[@Pulciu]

What's the point of a bounty hunting ship that's not agile enough to keep up with its target?

[@niklasdahlgren7641]

Would that not depend on what ships are their targets? And how will it impact ships in general with master modes.

[@Starrshade]

Bounty hunting isn't always going to be ship to ship. While it could be more common the EMP and Dampner will help subdue targets instead of kill. Don't forget about Master Modes Speed changes coming in the future

[@Pulciu]

@@Starrshade there will still be some ships that are faster and others that are slower... I'm disappointed that a ship that's supposed to catch others is intended to be in the slower category... but then again, nobody uses the Hawk or Stalker right now when going for PvP Bounty Hunting so role specific ships that are useless is nothing new

[@niklasdahlgren7641]

@@PulciuThe hawk and stalker are not used because the gameplay is not there. Some ships are designed to CAPTURE not KILL targets. The game needs to be completed is all. No ship is useless when the gameplay is available. And bounty hunting will not be limited to PVP but most likely far more NPC hunting of criminals.

[@Pulciu]

@@niklasdahlgren7641 how can you capture someone if your ship is significantly weaker than theirs? You still need to defeat them in combat in order to capture them.

[@bobklk51]

Zeus will just be my cool looking daily runabout. Beats the hell out of Aurora. 😎

[@xm153088]

I have the A1 Spirit and have no plans on melting it. I really enjoy flying it and using it for bunkers and just goofing around. I also bought the Zeus MK II MR and CL. I'm up in the air about the MR, but the CL sounds like a keeper.

[@wrextheblind3787]

Hearing your thoughts on fuel, scooping and siphoning, gave me an idea of something similar to a scene from the movie stealth when the little arm or tube comes out and connects to the floating fuel barge. What if we had something similar to that for ships that are disabled or in a death state and if the ship happens to be on fire, you are timed when siphoning due to fuel being flammable unless there is some kind of space fuel that is it

[@Glathgrundel]

I just did a CCU from my LTI Mule to the ES … right between Citizen Con and the IAE … skilfully avoiding the ship discounts. No THAT is how you throw money away. 🤦🏼‍♂️

[@ryannator8299]

Will the Zeus mk2 mr be good in VHRT’s you reckon?

[@robopenguin5501]

I think it depends on how fast and maneuverable it is… the current weapons are not very good compared to other ships in its weight class

[@ozramblue117]

@@robopenguin5501yeah I agree. It all depends on agility as well as capacitor and boost strength. It just doesn’t have very good firepower. Even the MR doesn’t. The emp makes it so it needs to keep a distance from friendlies while proximity to foes while fighting. If it can’t dictate the distance in any fight it becomes a paperweight.

[@Shanex250]

@@robopenguin5501 It's not going to be as maneuverable or fast as the cutlass or the spirit. Just think of the ship as a smaller constellation or comparable to the freelancer max. You ain't going to be soloing vhrt's in any of these ships when the game's systems come online. A fully crewed Zeus might be possible but not solo.

[@niklasdahlgren7641]

@@robopenguin5501What weight class? Cutlass/freelancer? Wait for the future damage system. S4 guns will be better at punching through armour and DPS will only really be useful when taking down shields.

[@niklasdahlgren7641]

@@Shanex250 Let's not tie maneverablility and speed together. You can have weak main engines but powerful NAV's so it can be slower, but more maneuverable.

[@Elidrys]

I hope they add more shield and capacitor to Spirit

[@GimbleOnDew]

I'm looking at the cargo varient vs the Freelancer max. Mainly looking at largest cargo ship through the smallest jump point. Zeus just looks overpowered on paper overall. Got to wait for the 'gold pass' for the freelancer though.

[@JamestheKilljoy]

I'm tired of everyone saying these newer ships at twice the cost are competitors to the Cutlass. For how expensive these ships are, they BETTER be twice as good as the Cutlass. I'll happily keep my Cutlass and buy these things in game when needed

[@Arbiteroflife]

How are they gonna rework shields? They spent literally years creating very specific slots for the shield components… are some ships going to suddenly get more/less shield components? I feel like the ships are locked in at this point.

[@djstevecoxxgaming]

Looks like a ramming machine

[@ozramblue117]

What troubles me is that the full firepower is just not very good. The MR can aim a total of 2 size 4s and 2 size 3s with copilot and packs only 8 size 2 missiles. The rest pack only the size 4s. On most variants there are no angles from which the Zeus can combine its full firepower so at best it’s either the turret with bottom coverage and the 2 size 2s. Even if it’s tanky it will generally take much more damage than it can dish out. I don’t understand how they fail to see this design is reliant on speed and maneuverability to function. As for the Spirit, it was never supposed to be the competitor. It’s a shit design with only one way on and out and the C1 is on par with base freelancer not Zeus CL which is on par with Freelancer Max.

[@DomBogey94]

agreed, i would take speed.handling with firepower over shields for this ship anytime. it looks like its meant to be fast as all hell

[@Derzull2468]

"Smaller than the spirit" Not by much at all.

[@nurizza03]

“Prefer not getting hit” while c1 only has 1 s2 shield and a wayy bigger hitpoint…….

[@stargeezer8427]

Top speed (and SCM) and maneuverability (pitch, roll, and yaw percentages) are COMPLETELY ARBITRARY background numbers that they can goof with to make any ship, any size, any type, do whatever they want... They can make an Idris fly like a Arrow if they felt like it. These "potentially" ridiculous numbers also don't have any physical link to component sizes/types/ratings and are entirely "made up" according to CIG's idea of "balance" ie how they want one ship to behave compared to another/all others. They are also currently/apparently playing similar "games" with the weight/mass of pretty much everything in the game as well. Forget about what things look like or what might actually make sense.... Good thing it's a game, it's already chock full of blatant silly nonsense.

[@arnold790609]

"We'll be doing a big rebalance of item numbers on numerous existing ships, so expect other ships to see their numbers changed." That part right there is why I am not spending another dime on Star Citizen (Already multi-concierge). Pricing, weapons, shields and purpose of all ships change and if you think you got a deal and your ship is good, think again because something better will come out...and then get nerfed after its pulled from the pledge store. I get the game is in development but we have ZERO reassurance that what we are purchasing has any metric of value. If I had to give advice for backers pre-release (2035)..."Don't buy ships based on specs, buy it for their roles".

[@thumb-ugly7518]

I bought in at an Aurora. I couldn't even get through space without crashing, in every sense of the word. I'll wait till the release and build a PC then. Cheers.

[@Victini0510]

Lmao being several tiers of Concierge up and not spending anymore. CIG doesn't care, they've already milked more out of you than 50 accounts that will gladly buy new ships. What a ridiculous grandstanding moment.

[@arnold790609]

@@Victini0510 If I cared what CIG thought then why would I be talking about it here. My point of mentioning wasting all that money is to say don't do what I did. It's the opposite of grandstanding, I feel like an idiot and I'm warning others. Not sure how you read all that completely wrong.

[@Jangmo_SC]

What a senseless overreaction. Do us all a favor and stop spending… stuff like this is embarrassing. You failed at comprehending an alpha.

[@evobsm2328]

​@@arnold790609 the thing what i feel like is the best thing. Is: if you only want one ship and below 100$ wait for a sale and buy the nomad. It fullfills a ridiculous amount of roles for its pricepoint and is the one and only ship you need. If not then in general you buy your game package with a ship and then another one you think is cool or unique or you know you like. Spending more than 300 or 500$ on this game is probably a big mistake. Unless you ofcourse know what you are getting yourself into.

[@L2Xenta]

Dunno what to tell ya but the Zeus looks like a fooken fast ship.... Ok shape doesnt mater in space but, still. Why would anyone put sh1tty engines on that beauty. P.s. remove the bottom turret and give me an extra engine on my bounty hunter then... if its supposedly slower than a bomber, nobody wants a slow bounty hunting ship, and almost nobody needs a bottom turret controlled by a third player.

[@Ragecon87]

So many answers don’t seem like answers to the questions asked, someone was drunk while writing this…. They need to redo the answers

[@Knapz_]

MSR is coolest ship design imo but so useless i melted it so long ago

[@Sacred421]

C1 isn't fast, Only has 2 mfd's, pilot cannot operate trac beam, radar is about 30° off to the right for the pilot and NO... you cannot change the angle, only one access to the ship. Other than that, looks and sounds cool. 👎I already miss my cutty black.

[@vonrosphe3098]

C1 has higher top speed than Cutlass Black and Freelancer. And a much much higher accerleration. And the single entrance is ok for a ship this size. A second entrance would be nice but isn't necessary. And a larger Cargo Hold than the cutty. The C1 has better VTOL Engines and is more sturdy than the Cutty. The Cutty has more missiles and a turret. CIG should make the c1 much faster. But i find it's a nice alternative to the Cutty. And for the Zeus we must wait until it is flightready to really compare the ships.

[@honorabledodger]

Ofcourse it's a drake cutlass killer; it has a toilet doesn't it?

[@Taztorien]

that's not cutlass size, that's Connie, 400i and Corsair, the cutlass is equal to Freelancer, and Spirit.

[@AsuraDandy]

its not. The Zeus has similar dimensions to the Freelancer Max, with the Zeus only being 8m longer than the Max.

[@KaizikuM]

You're way off. Zeus is smaller than the spirit, it's in that range of the cutty

[@ViniciusConsorte]

this fomo eats us alive, 1 day to decide if i get or not an F8C.... now the Zeus, wich i got some CCUs to, just in case.

[@fuglong]

I'm a drake superfan. I pledged every single drake ship except the kraken.....all I can say is I really hope they go back and charge the cutty exterior now that they're so much better at making ships. I love drake but god fucking damn the Zeus mk 2 looks waaaaaay sexier, and faster/more aggressive than the cutty. I like the ugliness of the cutter and harold, but the cutty ships are just too boxy. It feels like playing with those big toddler lego blocks and then your friend runs by with a 5000 piece real lego spaceship that looks so much better. 🥲