Buzzard-T4-L20-SV

The Buzzard is a T4 L20 combat SV, the latest ship in the 'Aves' line. Intended to be used as a long-range strike fighter for clearing bases, here is a rough summary of its features:

- Fairly compact and space-efficient design considering its weapon set and survival features. - Warp engine and shield, plenty of thrust, and good handling characteristics for combat. - Cockpit is armored and the hull is clad in hardened steel. Beneath, a container extension interior surrounds all critical equipment. - Weapons are 6 gatling guns, 4 homing launchers, 4 pulse lasers, and 4 rail guns. - 20k regular storage, 4k ammo storage, and an admin panel with a constructor, armor locker, o2 station, and fridge. - Combat-calibrated flight computer.

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Story time!

Bit of a weird one to build this. I started out with a very different aesthetic in mind, and I think it's something I might have to return to at some point, but as I added the functionality I wanted the form sort of took over.

The goal was to design a really tough gunship that had the kind of flight characteristics I prefer when taking on POIs etc. Something I've begun to realise about the new flight model is that it sort of forces you to make choices about the kind of performance you want. My priority with the buzzard was to be able to comfortably circle a given position and put down accurate fire - in other words, keep the ship moving around the target whilst being able to point the nose at the things you want to shoot. I also wanted plenty of forward, reverse, and upward acceleration, so you can close in quickly and pull distance in a hurry. In general, the emphasis was on being able to pilot the ship intuitively from the cockpit view, and I think it does that pretty well.

I also wanted to make sure munitions land where you point them, so I kept the gatling guns and lasers front and centre, and the rails and missiles out from the hull to avoid 'strafing block' (where on one side the guns don't fire because the hull effectively blocks the path of the round). Finally, I wanted it to have plenty of room for loot and supplies, along with your bog standard equipment set.

How do I feel about it? Sort of conflicted. On the one hand, it does absolutely everything I wanted it to in terms of performance and function. In particular, it handles really well. You can turn on a dime but it doesn't feel twitchy, and rolling is nice and gradual so you can keep the ship level while circling. It's about as tough as an SV can be, has plenty of firepower and utility, and whilst not exactly petite, it's pretty compact. The paint job is also a simple 2-tone job, so per the pics you can easily select large and make it any other colour you want.

I guess my only reservation is really just that it doesn't look anything like what I had in mind, which was kind of a Mad Max cyberghetto hover-copter type thing. But in retrospect, I'm not sure a really beefy combat SV can look like that - might need to use the skeletal look on something a bit different.

Anyway, enjoy, and as always let me know if I've goofed something.