EDIT: Talking with my fellow Evocati I was notified that we NOT given the MKII as a being a part of ETF. Instead this was given to me initially by CIG due to me being a content creator. I was not notified of this from CIG. Regardless, as mentioned in the video, I purchased the ship with my own money anyway because I want to be honest in my critique and have skin in the game just as much as any of you, and will continue to due so where possible with future reviews and impressions. Just some extra transparency and context. Some time ago, Chris floated the idea that they may look into the idea of having older ships be surpassed by new versions of those ships and the older ones would be more for collectors. This may well be the start of that idea coming to fruition. Even so, I'm still salty about them not even getting the old model to gold standard before the new one. I really hope they do actually work to finishing those ships by bringing them up to standard rather than them languishing behind everything else over time. Looking at you Gladiator, my love who is unloved by CIG ;_; Any way, rant over. Let me know your thoughts, both on the Hornet MK2 and how CIG rolled things out, as I am curious about your opinions on the whole thing. Also, big shout out to nikkkis90 for being our first channel member! Remember folks, if you want to support the channel and want to help me make videos like this one, consider joining and becoming a member today! kzfaq.info/love/eSMtWcJwjm6Dj4GrWFngqAjoin See you all in the next one! o7

my prediction is a prisoner transport box on grid is gonna be 2 scu

It seems weird that CIG would add to its Gold Standard Backlog rather than chip away at it. I have an alternate theory: this year's Invictus was planned several years ago, but the ship team fell behind, especially when the BMM guys bolted/poached.

Really appreciate your candid constructive feedback on the ship. I hope someone from CIG hears your feedback and at least considers it.

As a backer for almost a decade I feel their slap together ships and corner cutting are an insult to those who pledge. Yes they need to make money like you mentioned, but not selling a decent quality ship day one gets under my skin and I have stop investing in this game.

That's absolutely incredible that there is a truck release INSIDE the cargo trunk. It's as if CIG knew what we'd do with it. I do get the rant though, because you'd expect new stuff to be gold standard. The Mk II seems like it's not specifically new, just the fact that we get it is and for a marketing event to make it worse. I don't see the 2 MFD's as a deal breaker though. Four feels optimal most of the time, but the UI footage we've seen shows very clear target and self status UI's in the corners. So whenever we get that the two MFD's in there will be free of that. On the plus side, while I haven't seen a schedule for the gold standard passes, this should be a priority one for Sq 42.

If only you could stash a prisoner in that 2 SCU space where you could load them up in a dropdown seat like the Anvil Hurricane. Then the lore could say something like, "In addressing the growing need for improvements in civilian law enforcement, Anvil answered the call by first drawing from lessons learned with the Hawk, and then taking inspiration from their best-selling Hurricane and incorporated its secondary-seating technology for the purposes of criminal transport."

they should make a version of the hornet that replaces the turret with a hot tub.

The cargo trunk is useable if you know how. You can open it by clicking the "open exterior" button in the cockpit (or hitting the keybind if you've set one) and then place or remove cargo in it with a tractor tool. Of course, the button will also close it again. It's a bit cumbersome, but workable.

thanks for the honest review was thinking about getting this as an upgrade but ill hold off for now

you can actually get in the cockpit of the ship with a second person where the pilot opens the canopy and you can just float in and it has gravity and actually a lot of moveable area

The cut corners are purely for CIG to sell the ship ASAP. Seems to be a monthly thing now

That flimsy gun hardpoints and their location relative to the gun look hilarious. It's like a single tiny screw holding a 1 meter gun far off it's optical center...

that button to open the cargo doors from the INSIDE is a nice touch that you wouldn't normally expect. it really gives you the impression that the devs do actually pay attention to detail and they know that players were going to play around with that little cargo pod. 7:20 is comically cursed as well)

Missile compartments make sense in a world where tractor beams can yoink missiles off parked ships

My guess is, CIG needs money, so it pulled an old, never used variant out of storage, got it up to minimum functional levels, and is selling it as 'new'.

The 2 MFD is the biggest problem for me. I'm glad the put the Visor HUDS back in, but for some reason the F7C is one of the ship that doesn't have it working. Edit: CIG have since marked it as a known issue

Really like this deep dive and I agree the lack of gold pass annoyed me also. We should be keeping up a standard as the project moves forward not taking a step back just for a money grab. I will say Iiked the event for the military upgrade, it gives us a reason or purpose to play. Still not sure if I’ll keep the mk2 or f8 but I’ll judge that when the military upgrade is out. I’ve always loved the F7 so happy to see it get a new upgrade and will probably favour the mk2

Great video, very detailed analysis. I learned a lot about the ship that I had initially missed. I understand your negative feedback, but I would also note that no one is buying the F7C MK2 to keep it. Everyone is buying it to upgrade it to the F7A Mk2. I'm not saying you are wrong but I think CIG expects ppl to upgrade. The entire point of the Overdrive event is to upgrade the ship so I guess CIG thought "why should we waste money fixing a ship that no one is going to keep anyway?". And all of this is going to happen in the next 2 months, it could potentially have taken them longer to get this ship to gold standard. Basically they are selling a token which instantly gets added to player's accounts without the need to run around digging through loot boxes.

As a backer from kickstarter days (2012), this is reasons why I've stopped buying as many ships. from my recollection there is still stuff half done or not finished from the early days because they are not making money on it. good vod tho on the current state of things, good to see honest views and not views masked by money and free ships

Honestly... I'm amazed you reviewed the sounds. I mean... of course you did, but also - Amazing!

I needed* a smaller fighter, as my main is a warden, so this fits perfect for me. Ship is crazy in atmosphere though, absolutely miserable but it tanks well enough for when the nose runs from me

In the past at least it was possible to take off the chin and top turret of the F7A mk2 that the first arlingon gang member flew from the first miles mission, been told it might have been disabled, but if it still works you get 4x S3 guns using those. + 2 wing mounts. I tried to do it the other day but didn't realize on the dark side of hurston we were over the ocean, soft dead mk2 hit the drink...

I haven't flown (or owned) a F7 mkI in so long, I forgot how much utility the cockpit had with the 6 mfds, granted it took away quiet a bit of visibility. Also one thing to note is that you can actually earn the f7a mkII military upgrade by completing these overdrive missions they drop until invictus and since you need to own the f7c mkII on the pledge store to apply it this whole thing is effectively an F7A MKII military version sale, just being obscured so they can still claim that they "won't sell the f7a".

They look great. If we can buy them in game someday, I'll pick it up.

appreciate the review, was thinking about popping back in to SC to give it a try but it sounds like a lot of the issues ive had with it over time are just getting worse. Not to mention you showing dogfights with NPCs STILL lag jumping back and forth mid fight just like they were almost a year ago now. I'll tune back in when there's concrete evidence it's worth it.

Unfortunately, This ship, like the F8C is simply an old, existing model that they tweaked a few performance numbers on and pushed out. These are not new ships. On the contrary; they are old ships from a previous era of the game. They were rushed out and suffered the indignity of not having the gold pass before release. I personally think the Devs weren't given the opportunity to gold pass these ships, before being ordered to release them. I feel that all they had time to do was to adjust the stats a bit. Definitely a missed opportunity here. As always, great video! Keep up the great work!

Hey, I've been enjoying your videos for quite a while, appreciate the professionalism and effort you put into them and the expertise on the subject matter. Ok, now about this Hornet Mk II. That was a pretty heart felt 10 minute rant there, basically half of the video. All of it completely true, I expect. They admitted that the Lightning came out in the spec it has because it was sitting on the shelf for years and then last year they decided they needed to make a lot of money in the third and fourth quarters, and rushed it out the door. And yes, this ship feels very similar to that. But you know, they gotta pay for that swank office building in Manchester and the hundreds of staff somehow. They've built an infrastructure that has a lot of future potential, but right now it's like the Titanic with passengers on board but no way to get out of the harbor. They're still using words like "pledge" and "support" and "reward", and excluding the words "pay" or "spend" or "product". The jury is still out, on whether they will make it out of dock at all, and whether they'll hit the iceberg or not. Only time will tell.

Thank you for your honest review. I'm currently having a go at the overdrive initiative for the F7C MK2 to A mk2 conversion, although I do not own a F7C MK2 yet... I'm also not really into combat myself tbh and thus far I probably will stay away from it and spend my hard earned cash on something else in Star Citizen (I actually spent enough already anyways) 😅 So again, thank you for helping me to decide and looking forward to your new landing/take-off season soon!

To edit the missile you need to empty the whole rack first

Fr tho, especially when every ship that has any form of significance is atleast $100, they should handle it with more care. If they’re going to do it, do it right or don’t do it at all.

i want miltary versions of all the ships now or mk 2 variants like the mk 2 wildfire or a gladiator military version, perhaps something with wings that fold up so they can fit in tighter spots. but cool video.

I’m a small at times casual backer. I believe I’m currently a Grand Admiral. I like the new Hornet design. I purchased Hornet Mark2 via upgrade from the LTI Cutter Rambler. I feel that CIG dropped the ball by not giving Mark 2 it’s own special equipment housing on day one. In my opinion the Mark2 should be backward-compatible with the Mark 1, weapons/equipment within limits of ship sizing. And yes the Gold standard at this point should be factored in all new ships at this point.

I doubt they're going to remove the Mk1 modules without replacing them with newer Mk2 versions. The Mk1 modules look out of place primarily because they sit so high on the model, which seems to be the case because they use the old Y-axis values meant for the Mk1 Hornet even though the Mk2 is slimmer. Should be easy to fix.

Great review, Really hope you find a second to answer this question 🙏. For someone that does mostly solo pve, but is wanting to do pvp (player bounties) currently flying a scorpius with fixed size 3s. I was thinking of melting the scorpius for the hornet. They both check the style box for me. Hornet: better guns (as a solo player) more maneuverable( mabey? ) cargo box for looting bounties. Scorpius: more missiles, gold standard, more hull hp , 2 shield faces, and its the x wing of SC😅. I know I can melt the scorpius and buy it back in game and have extra store credits after getting a hornet . Which would you own ?

I also love the larger fuel tanks. With an Atlas drive I was able to get all over Stanton.

Great impressions vid, thanks. I share the frustration I have an Ares Inferno, not the fabled gunship I hoped for, maybe later when armor counts. Why does this monster fighter have zero box storage/bunk ability? I traded out my Vulture right before it turned useful, so I am skittish about upgrading to a Hornet or such.

What if you used the little cargo thing to “smuggle” people, like an infiltration sort of thing

Noting CIG has the Overdrive initiative to upgrade the F7C to the F7A for completing all 6, I do wish that the cargo on the F7C was accessible. I feel that it would have been a great way to have gone into Phase 5 supply drop flying the F7C and storing the three small boxes on it.

It’s not a Gold standard like the F8 because they are both very very old ship, dating back to when the “new” vehicle pipeline was released, F7 mk2 development can date back to 2017

Two versions of the same vehicle not having some part interchangeability wouldn't really make sense so i feel like it is intentional that you can use mk1 turrets on the mk2 and if it isn't intentional they should make the f7a turrets available or add mk2 versions of the mk1 turrets

Lol being able to hide in the cargo hold is hilarious

How did you get the turret in the cargo slot? I bought a VariPuck S5 to mount a third AD4B (two ad4b's on wings and a repeater in the nose). The S5 should go right in but it never shows up on my screen.

2 MFDs and no CVI? that's really bizzare, and not enough.

How is Yogi supposed to balance shit when they keep power creep on the weapons classes on ships supposedly in the same class?

I like this ship. My biggest gripe is with the wings. They should be moveable independent of landing gear state. The weapons on the wings still have good arcs with the wings in so why do I need the landing gear down to have them in? The only time the wings should be out is low speed flight in atmosphere where we need the (incoming) control surfaces.

So, what is your final score? Is it 10/10 or less? And will you be marking it across various factors/roles? Is it cinematic? I hope my riff on your landings scorings gave you a smile

this ship is 8 years old at this point and was only just released. it was created and then not really touched since them, it seems. I still enjoy the ship, regardless. atmospheric maneuvering requires SCM speeds and straight pitching. no strafing, no pitch + yaw. it has different tuning from any other ship. in 3.23 this will be for taking on fighters in MM, F8C will be a larger ship hitter.

100% agree, especially on the negatives. Love the newer design tho 🤙🏻

I have a qustion , what are you using for controls stick and trottle or two sticks?

It's pretty nasty if you have an extra 173 turret laying around to toss the 3s up top

I for one can't believe they have ALL THOSE ARTISTS/MARKETING EXPERTS hired and they're just selling another hornet... Like we don't have 3 already.

I'm pretty sure they locked the missile rack because they dont want it to be able to carry bigger missiles that the F7A has :D

Wouldnt it be great if they had a group of players that could test these ships out in advance under NDA so that the bugs could be removed before th elaunch of the ship.......

I brought the ship and havent flown it yet, and you know what...i don't want to, i'll melt it and wait for Invictus, it'll need to it sorted by then. The reason CIG has adopted this sloppy attitude towards its lifesblood, and that, after all is what we are, is, because we are invested, and in many cases, heavily invested, which makes us very unlikely to walk away, no matter what shinanigans they pull. Its a shame, can only imagine the financial fun and games they will pull with SQ42. Nice personal overview, kudos.

at 3:55 we can see difference with position of maneuverable jets I used to play star citizen long time ago when developers were excited and highly rising fly model where each ships fly unique because it is defined by where those jets are placed, but with new mastermodes what I've heard they want to make each ship to fit certain category and specifics ... so does it even matter anymore or will the ships handle and fly the same way I mean when you will fly Hornet F7C, F7MSuper, F8 and F7-MK2 will they behive same and difference is in bigger gun loadouts, I have to say I'm confused a lot with this ship sales which are not even in gold standard

All of the Negatives mentioned i agree with! The mk. II really should have the better turrets, made for it & and all of the oversights are just....

Magine a ship not being gold standard in 2024 🙃 Solid review 👌

I saw the tuning forks on the Mk 2 and I threw up a little right as the video started. They are great weapons, but they need a make over. Great advice at the end if you already own an F8C to avoid the Mk2 for now... But you know... targets are set on the F7A, Overdrive completion for that sweet CCU upgrade.

Anyone know if there's going to be an f7C-M mk2?

"quick refresh" *20 min video*. dam the long form is going to be interesting 🤔

The reason it's half-assed is because this is basically the F7A which has been done for years, and they pulled an F8 on us. The F7A was supposed to unobtainium for most people, and only like 2 people actually own one. Instead they thought, "Hey, let's do another cash grab and pretend this is a civilian version and hide the military variant behind these buggy grind-fests that are impossible to do alone"

Your not banking deep enough in atmo, Ollie43 did a very good job of showing/explaining the amount of banking you need to do to make the ship happy. Once you get there it flies well enough just at a crazy angle.

Great video, thankd got the review! This is a weirdly confusing ship. The "Mk II" makes me scared that they may try selling more MkII models of ships instead of updating existing ships to gold standard. So I agree, don't buy and don't support the lazy unpolished ship.

putting the MKI turrets on the MKII is probably planned, I get that people may not like the look but in the real world, when a military launches a updated platform older hardware is more often than not compatable due to availability, or the fact that there's thousands of both models that will be in service.

You can not put the F7A turrets on. I tried. They fixed it so you can no longer mount the F7A turrets anymore on any hornet. :( If you already have one equipped they will stay there until the next wipe but you can not take the turrets off and put them on another hornet.

They released the f8 and mk.2 from sq.42, They were already finished but also why the final pass hasn't been done yet.

The super hornet has been so outclassed 😢

I was very disappointed this is not a gold pass ship: no weapon rack or proper storage like the Gladius or components accessible, it’s just the stock mk 1 with a new body and bigger weapon hard points. Nice looking but feels like a cash grab if I’m honest.

Not defending CIG here but pretty sure the mk2 and F8C were "released" in not gold standard state because they're not actually new ships, both have been in SC for a while but not usable by players, all CIG really did was let players use some older ships, ideally they should have given both a gold pass before selling them. Storage on the entry menu is called "magic storage" by the community I think.

Not all ships need living quarters, especially not fighterjets

If only they spent some time on sound like Elite Dangerous. Most of the ships sound like they were made with a trash can of some sort.

i'm going to give the benefit of the doubt to CR and CIG... MK2 could be a Wing Commander 4 stealth ship style thing in SQ42. although, i really figured the F8 would be that ship. regardless, it probably should have released at least close to a gold standard, i'm not sure what that is about. however, if it's not a WC4 type thing, then hopefully "MK2" ships don't become a trend.

Those aren't intakes btw, those are retro-thrusters.

If you tractor beam a box over the top of the ship, the grid will grab it from you.

"Currently right now"

I expect strafing at speed in any atmosphere will be a thing of the past, no player ship or npc ship should be able to strafe at speed in atmo.

it looks nice but MM kills my interrest in combat at the moment

If you're not sure, you can get a £5 Sabre-MkII CCU for later

Nice looking ship, but this ship was rushed out...

I could not agree more with you about CIG not following through with the hole Gold Standard thing on new ships what a let down But i have long said what Cig say they will give us and what they actually deliver is always two different things It will always be this way They could give two hoots about how much money or how little each backer invested in there ship packages once you click on complete transaction they have your money and thats all they care about sorry to be the barer of bad news but after playing for ten years i have learnd to just enjoy the game for what it is and how it is

So will the MK 2's civillian version have a addable ball turret that isn't the MK 1's? It looks.. really bad, and I'm hoping we'll be able to get a ball turret designed specifically for the MK 2

I wish they would stop putting turrets on top of the fighters. They look so goofy. Even the nose guns look so goofy and to be real about it, those mounts would seriously throw off the aerodynamics of the platform.

Was that not the F7C instead of the F7A mk1 your were comparing the mk2 to?

i assume that updating the old hornet was discussed and instead marketing suggested selling it as a new ship . to add insult to injury they have us run this really cool chain mission for a "free" upgrade to the F7A but the condition is to buy the new MK2 .,. Yes this company runs like a mobile game

The hair and makeup system took priority for CIG which is why we get ships like these.

Using F7A as bait, the unfinished product F7C is sold to Grab money quickly. CIG can't wait now, ever think about why?

They will redo the Mark 1...ll

Let's be real here. Whoever bought this bought it for the A version upgrade. I will pass on this. Knowing CIG we don't have to wait too long for a new F8 upgrade IMHO.

I suspect it's not Gold Standard because it's likely really just a copy and edit of the Mk I. Don't get me wrong, I like that it was added as it addresses my one gripe with the Hornet (its goofy appearance) but let's be honest about what it is.

That is ONE SEXY LOOKING SHIP. !! 😍

Sz 4s? On a medium fighter? What the hell?

i must say i do enjoy the sound of the ship the boosters sound good

Isn't it actually Mark III? We had a rework a long time ago too

Feels like the marketing team rushed the devs. and the devs had no choice but comply and throw it out

the weapons look to big for the ship, I don't like the astetics that way.

People should stop buying ships like this, its the only way cig learns.

Well, seems like the girls n guys who worked on the mk2 just left cig or swapped to another task during the work ... as we know ship sales are scheduled for at least 1y in advance. In the end guys, its an ingame non-exclusive ship, everyone will fly it eventually, don't fall for FOMO and if you like to spend money for SC, buy a starter ship and gift it to a friend ...

I wasn't aware maelstrom was for vehicles. I thought it was only for static structures. Anyone have evidence?

Nah...aside of loving the hornets, I will stick with my Ares Inferno.