First of all, Thanks for yet again bringing good content analysis BCP!! always enjoy Ure critical vids relating to SC, and this is no exception my friend!! So far I have found like 8 golden tickets and given them away to SC friends, that did not have one, so they also could try out the F8C. Have to admit, it is a dream to fly and do bounty missions in! And Yeah I know it is going to get nerfed. Would I buy it? Well Yeah i would if it was cheaper, as I am just a pay check slave and have commitments other than playing a scifi space sim game, Yeah 300 Euros or 260 dollars are for me lotsa money, but my hope is, that I can get it cheaper when SQ42 releases, and if not then hopefully being able to buy it ingame instead. On that subject, I feel sorry for the guys, like U that have invested so much crazy money in the game and do not have the exclusivity to fly around in special made ships, now that everybody who has 260 dollars can get the ship. The only thing You guys got extra is perhaps som extra firepower and a freaking skin. Anyhow, taking on to much space in your comment section! Once again thanks for the vid and keep them coming Mate! Cheers!

Is it possible that rather than the F8 C lightning being overpowered it’s actually where heavy fighters should be, and we will see buffs to the other heavy fighters to bring them in line with it?

Currently in PTU it still has 2x S2 shields, it's a bug that is giving it shimmers. It still has s2 hardpoints, pipeline corrected their mistake.

The Ares still needs to come up, and the vanguard needs to come up also (4x3s instead of 4x2s). I don’t mind F8 being superiority but it being OP drives the sales then like the Ares they’ll nerf it too far. It’s a very hateful CIG pattern.

I saw this coming from so far away, which is why when all the content creators started hyping it, I never flinched. Didn't reinstall to participate because CIG does this OVER and OVER again

I have to point out, the F8 was only attributed (given) to the 10k and 15k concierge levels within the last couple of years. Before that it had been introduced as an event ship only (until SQ42). Otherwise great take, it's going to be frustrating to get the nerf bat again.

what is the site or sheet being used to see stats

Thank you for putting this into such perspective!

I hope that ship will not nerf to the death. I like really the handling of it. I will try this ship just for fun in racing the days when i have time

I tried to say this from the moment I tried the rental. I still melted for one but fully expect it to get a hard nerf bat. The speed is redonculous as well as its handling.

Just got done flying my f8 in the PTU and nothing has been done to it yet. What was said on leaks was 4 s1.

Whats the website you use to compare the two ships? Giving you a spider graph. Thanks!

On the one hand, the release of the F8C lightning in this fashion is going to upset some of the biggest SC backers. On the other hand, the players who bought the F8C expecting it's absurd performance was going to last are going to have to deal with CIG already making clear they're going to nerf the ship into the ground. I don't see a situation where *anyone* walks away happy here. Also for such a rare event, people were literally giving tickets way in Orison to anyone passing by.

Isn't the 4000 burst only attainable by using the glitched extra weapons?

Is your damage comparison based on the bugged ability to add more turrets to the ship than was intended giving it 10x guns instead of 8x guns?

Great review. What is that chart comparison thing? That's cool

Really hope people aren't comparing the bugged ten gun Lightning rather than the 8 its supposed to have.

The metrics dont account for the fact that turrets can shoot independently of the pilot and aim without needing nose on target. The ion does double the damage over time from twice as far away. Over 5 seconds burst the ion does 20k damage while it can have it power triangle fully on shields. Light fighters shit on the f8 too. It rolls well sure, but turn rate is only 10% better than a vanguard or an ion and we all know how those fights go. Other heavy fighters, every single one has much better missile loadouts. Sentinels have an emp too. I think this ship is designed to kill other heavy fighters, it sucks as a capital killer and good light fighters csn kill it like any other ship. It does need a shield nerf, an hp nerf and a top speed nerf. But for anything other than dog fighting medium and heavies id take any other ship

So where can we find these gold tickets? Do we need to use missions or can we find without missions?

Hello, where can I find the nerf information that you showed at 6:42

NGL I feel sort of OK with it being stronger than the other ships, lore wise, that's what it should be. It might be frustrating to fight against but I can say I've already taken out a few in my gladiator just by out flying them.

Glaive does over 4k dps in burst (4.172k). So the Corsair is not the only laser-based setup that can achieve that. If you're assuming an entire laser based setup, the F8C can't achieve 4k burst damage. Unsure where you got that number, but it would have to be with ballistics mixed in to achieve 4k burst damage, per Erkul (which is what you're showing). With ballistics, the Vanguard can achieve up to 4.8k pilot damage, plus has a significantly higher missile damage potential and has the option for a turret gunner and things like an EMP or Torps. The Hurricane (also with a mix of lasers and ballistics) can achieve 4.7k between the turret and pilot (only 2.7k for the pilot). I honestly didn't bother checking other ships you mentioned, because it was becoming rather clear that your numbers weren't really making sense. The Corsair, when optimized for max damage, has 12k damage. This whole video appears to throw cherry picked numbers in order to shit on the F8C in order to drive the narrative that it is OP. Also, the "exclusive" aspect of the ship is bs as well, because everyone who plays Sq42 is going to get it anyway. I think CIG did release this ship just for profit purposes, and they definitely didn't hold to previous promises on how the ship is going to be released... but this video is misleading and poorly done. I've really enjoyed your previous stuff and felt like you put out genuine content, but this just feels like you're mad about the ship releasing and decided to do a biased vid. Edit: Using two turrets (which is a bug, not an intended loadout) to artificially boost your dps numbers to make your garbage vid... I'm not sure what to say about that. You went all out, aside from just photoshopping numbers.

once armour and armour penetration become a thing the battery of light guns on the Lightning may be incapable of doing any damage to certain targets.

The F8's stock loadout does have ballistics which will skew those numbers when comparing to say a Hurricane with straight laser repeaters.

This event kinda screams of despiration to me, like they really needed some money and fast! I love how people can still be shocked by any shady thing that CIG does anymore!

Luckily I didn’t buy it for the power alone, this was a ship I really wanted because it was very similar to a ship from my days play SNES Gradius Victory Viper. I bought it because I just wanted to fly a Gradius like ship and now it’s here… I don’t really care too much if it’s nerfed, still gonna be a Lamborghini to me with its engine taken out Now in terms of nerfs and rebalancing… we are not going to see anything final until master modes/flight model/ combat models are finalized and we enter post alpha/Beta

I don’t think they meant for it to be THIS easy to get. I found two tickets in my first bunker last night (three tickets total with casually playing).

What website is the summary chart? Thanks!

I'd say this is a little misleading. CIG is going to fix the FG turret bug by 3.21 (issue council on spectrum), which maxes out at 3400 DPS at 1400 m/s also if you opt for cannons on a vanguard you can get 3767 DPS at 700 m/s with 800 -1000(Harbinger) DPS turret at 1400 m/s.

I also believe that it will get hit by the nerf bat, HARD. However, it is supposed to be the pinnacle of fighter development, so it should be very very good and not just part of the pack. Yet, CiG have seen their income drop because of the debacle of recent updates, and the practice of selling a ship and once sale is over, nerf slamming it. This was a deliberate act by CiG to generate income and now they thumb their nose at backers, yet again. Sadly, the more we continue to give them, fresh money the more they will take the piss. I melted ships that I can now buy in game to get this. I will NEVER give them another penny as long as they continue this crappy practice. You can only take the piss out of people for so long before even your most ardent supporters start to back off. This is why they are reaching out to China to generate income to make up their short fall. If the vast majority did not spend any more new money in their next sale and it flopped massively, they would have kittens. But...... people's wallets will fly open, they will spend, and then cry "why???" afterwards.

What’s the DPS before you added the extra guns?

The turret capacity on the hurricane & Scorp give it huge amounts of sustain over the f8

only reason this has 4k dps is because you are using the 2x turrets exploit otherwise most people are rolling the 8 repeater loadout which is 3400 burst still a bit Overpowered

If they nerf it, I will be furious. It’s supposed to be the premiere combat fighter. I would also consider the limited capacitor and missiles. The Ares and Warden are missile boats.

are those numbers with 10 guns? if so thats a bug thats goign to be fixed, what is it with 8? also all this vid says to me is buff the ion

Just noticed this, how did you manage to get to 10 guns? Is there anything I missed?

lets make a quick million dollars then basically scrap it once we get out money

Spot on take, holy shit. The F8 is definitely going to lose what made it special, both in terms of exclusivity and performance. It’s going to be just another fighter… in a game that already had a ton of fighters. I don’t see any winners except CIG’s income report.

Where did you got those charts?

The F8C was meant from the beginning for the 10K backer?

Tried to fight a bounty using a hornet in my f7c. A full burst of 3 panthers and 2 badgers brought him to half shields. A full burst from him ripped my wing off.

The Nerfs are either going to be 2 size one shield but keep the same maneuverability or have one size 2 shield and take a moderate hit to maneuverability. The vanguard was always weak. It's weaponry needs upgrade. The only good thing was it has interior with beds. The Ares should do more damage and when armor comes in the size 7 should penetrate better. I don't know how will they will balance it. I bought it because I love the look and wanted a fighter for pve.

You forgot one thing :P well its prob due to the fact that its not well known, but u can take the 2 s2 guns off the wings and place another f8's top turret in there with a tractor beam, gaining 4 s2 guns over 2 s3 ones. just food for thought :P

@BuzzCutPsycho You mention owning an idris. Is it only ship of that size that you own? If yes/no what is your thought process on what to get or not? Just found your comparison videos and they’re some of the best I’ve seen. I’d like to see more especially some the bigger ships. Great work

Good video! I agree ftmp! I love this ship and Im glad they released it while I still understand the frustration by many big backers. I view the F8 just like many of us SHOULD have seen Starfield - by MANAGING EXPECTATIONS! I didnt expect SF to be a NMS sim like exp (I did hope though) and as a result Im having fun in SF, with some exceptions, instead of feeling let down. Overall, Im so thankful for having some frickin content based in space kindve. I love the OP of the F8C and its fun but it has to get nerfed! I just hope they dont fuck that up like they did with the Ares! We all know that there must be balance, even though it sucks sometimes after feeling the beast mode.

Leaving all the controversy aside, this ship is a clear Meta ship that is not just miles ahead of the rest but was designed to be exactly that. Something that CIG repeatedly stated that they do not want, yet they continue to design stuff that is clearly going to be busted. A pinnacle starfighter is going to be a pinnacle starfighter ... Another great example for CIG not thinking their "designs" through is still the Ares Ion to me. A ship with an accurate long range canon designed to fight captial ships. Who would have thought that people would use the Ion to go and oneshot small ships. Apparently not CIG.

what was the loadout for f8c to get 4000 dps?

Tell me you're butthurt without telling me you're butthurt. You hang yourself up on the "best" loadout and how it produces 4000 DPS!!! and fail to mention the only loadout that does that, is a glitch with extra turrets bumping the ships weapon number up to 10. CIG have already said this will be fixed soon and is unintended. But instead of being genuine, you chose to be hide that and instead pretend nothing can even come close to the Lightning. It is a good fighter, as it should be, but it's not the best by a long shot. And the exclusivity thing is just childish. I wouldn't be mad if CIG started selling the Sabre Raven again, I'd be happy other people get to fly a cool ship.

Congratz...it's how a actual heavy fighter would be made.

as someone who is about to buy an F8C, and also owns a Vanguard, I expect the F8C to be nerfed - I don't want my Vanguard to be obsolete. (Granted, it's a hoplite so I can bring a bunch of friends). I'm guessing where the Vanguard still outmatches the pre-nerf F8C, is the ability to bring friends and perform incursions into planet-side locations as well as space ships. Quantum Fuel Capacity going down to zero? does that mean it won't have a quantum drive anymore, making it effectively a carrier-only fighter?

Its labeled as a superiority fighter so its not supposed to be nerfed id love for it to be difficult to obtain however maybe being max rep locked and you have to do a crazy hard mission with the 9 tails to steal one from uee in order to get it unlocked to be able buy. There are other ways to balance something without nerfing it yaknow however sc isnt really at the point of having missions like that i understand. Just a cool thought yaknow

I do not think its overpowered. A ship that can finally stand against gladius and arrows? Breaks the current meta? Its amazing. Its SUPPOSE to be good.

I do not want the F8C to be worthless. I want it to have a role. This will be a tough one to balance. Only time will tell. PTU has changes right now, an as of now AI F8Cs have been rebalanced. This was on Spectrum, and I quote: "PTU AI F8c have been changed from 2s2 shields to 4s1 , going 20k to 7k hp"

i bought the lightning recently as one the of the masses, knowing it would get nerfed. now, my hope is its still good, but myself and everyone in my playgroup who got one realized it was too good when we flew it the first time. it doesnt male the obvious pump and dump tactic less scummy for those who dont realize whats up (or even for those who do and delude themselves, of which i may end up being a part - time will tell).

Buzz Ive literally played against you in PS1, PS2 multiple times with Praetorian Guard...Maybe I should join you now in SC. Glad you are still around. New Sub.

Best video so far on the F8C, I’ll just stick to my avenger titan or upgrade to a Arrow for now. Not gonna fall for the FOMO Thank you 😀

It's a legendary ship and everyone deserves one if they want one. I'm 100,000 percent done with fomo and exclusivity because it brings the game down for all of us as a whole and that's not right. It should be one for all and all for one because could you imagine if only A1 got one and nobody else? He'd be basically cheating at that point and lapping us all up like dog water

I think we need a class action to see if there is even one internal communication stating they planned to launch it OP to get it sold and already knew they would have to nerf it immediately after the money grab.

I remember watching this before, it popped up on my feed a bit ago after watching some other vids of yours. Props to you for speaking up being an f8 owner. You didn't say anything that was opinion based just math and in game facts. Not all will state the specs and facts as they are publicly but laugh hysterically at how fast it deletes other ships or feels like god mode in discord etc lol I do wish the shield changes in the video were put in to place, even quad s1s if introduced early would have leveled things a bit. It was an issue before but in MM it is kind of a head scratcher how they plan to make Vanguards compete with hornets and others when it is also a heavy but ahead in every metric. That is a fairly high priority concern by alot of those opposed to MM due to it not following the rock paper scissors standard at all now being amped even more. With MM coming near this could be a topic to re-introduce because as some have said even the devs have no idea how they will balance it. Without the f8 being in the mix I think a lot of us with this in mind would be able to tolerate MM a bit more. if it retains it's specs, flight characteristics and dps with how MM is being tuned it will be more of a pain to deal with than it is now "removing the light fighter's maneuverability and skill being less of a force multiplier which you covered in your MM video"...taking away it's competitors agility, boosting projectile ranges to 4km+ and ballistic counts going up. I can't help but think how much of a monster this will be in even the hands of a fresh mkb user tapping strafe keys and drilling players at a distance. 15 % more damage on ballistic gatlings than the inferno with twice the projectile speeds. It couldn't kill all day but if on gatlings it can slam a Herc before running dry already. R.I.P to it's hindered light fighter competition with a fraction of it's hull hp and half the weapon count....R.I.P everything lol. Multiplied with a squad of f8s.

Keep it real. This thing was OP af.

Guys hear me out. We take away its QD. The people who are mad its better than every fighter can relax. The people that are afraid its gonna stop being more powerfull than every fighter can relax. AAND thematically it works, it makes it more like an air superiority fighter, it needs to be carried and mantained, the infrastructure arround it is more expensive than the thing itself, but when its on the air it dominates.

Some buddies of mine were in a discord call when the update dropped. One of our friends had the 10k invested and was so excited to have it in his hanger. I said jokingly, “ya know, CiG would be crazy not to release it to everyone they would make so much money” moments later we found out bout the golden and platinum tickets. Immediately we thought wow what a great idea I bet those tickets are gonna be insanely hard to find!! We were in w group of 8 guys in a discord call. It took us all 1 hour from the time of the release to finding our golden tickets for our one friend to realize. All he did was purchase a $10,000 dollar paint. I felt bad for him in terms of his sacrifice for exclusivity, and in the end realized. The marketing team for CiG should be running our country. They may be semi corrupt, but by god are they geniuses. Bummed I spent $260 for my extremely amazing ship to be nerfed not even a week after release. But even more bad for a friend who spend 10k on a paint. CiG beat us again.

They’ll do the balancing, just like what they did to Ares but I hope they do it right.

Flying the F8C is so much fun im happy that I own one and I fully expect it to get nerfed into the ground after they hit their sales figures just like the ion/Inferno and bring it more in line with small buffs.

It's basically a niche ship anyway and the reason it hasn't been balanced yet is because like the Glaive (which on spec is a fighter with two size 5's) it was designed specifically for SQ42 they just nerfed it down by one hardpoint size to create the C which you've now got.

Aries are supposed to be used in tandem to hit the bigger ships the lightning is a main fighter of the uee it should be strong AF

As i dont have a say in the argument of the lighting. I do say that heavy fighters arent all to be tanky or having a 2 shield or multiple shields. It has insane firepower, i believe that is also a classification of being a heavy fighter, even though its glass cannon-like. I think its fitting as in reality its a tiny ship in comparison and doesnt fit its profile. Sacrifices hp and defense for overwhelming firepower sounds perfect IMO balancing out.

You're not taking range into consideration. The f8c will have way less weapons range than anything else in its class. That and it's designed to take out medium and light fighters. Also the shield generators haven't been nerfed.

i hope that they also fix the repair cost my f8 was extremly brocken but still flyable 100k for repairs

It is definitely going to get over nerfed very soon. I just hope after the nerf it gets a buff soon after to hopefully put it more in line with the air superiority role it was meant to have as a heavy fighter.

I doubt theyll actually nerf it, since its the poster ship of SQ42 alongside the gladius. I bet it'll actually become the standard for ships going forward.

How did you get 10 Badgers?

Medium/size2 is meant to equal 4x small/size1. Sadly cig incorrectly converted old max size of 12size to 5size back in 2016 and never fixed it.

I don't really understand why everyone seems to neglect the Harbinger variant of the Vanguard and instead focusses on the Warden. When it comes to raw firepower the Harb offers the most at negligible loss in mobility. The torpedoes....more missiles and the turret is one size larger than all the other variants making it far more formidable. Im unsure what the "go-to" loadout is these days but you could easily run a fixed Deadbolt V on it for some insane dps alongside GVSRs (laser repeaters) for dealing with fighters more easily..... Or you could go all in on the laser cannon plan with MVSA's and a Lightstrike V.....All whilst rocking 2 panthers in the turret.

After leaving the hanger on this ship and flying it around for about 5 minutes my very first assessment was that the ship was going to get beaten to death with a nerf bat. This was before I even fired the guns. It handles WAY better than any heavy fighter should. I was getting Saber flashbacks just flying the thing. Saber was another ship that was seriously OP when released and quickly became META only to get beaten by the nerf bat into the saber we know today.

How did you manage to get 10 guns on your ship? I only have 8

Though I think your opinion will ultimately be correct (the lightning will be nerfed), it wont be the in the way you think. I also wonder why you posted inaccurate information in the video regarding the DPS of the Vanguard? You setup the Lightning for the best burst loadout with 4,000 pilot DPS ... but then either a) didn't change the loadout of the Vanguard to match or b) actively changed the vanguard loadout to be worse than stock......If you look at the Vanguard on Erkul, the most equivalent Vanguard (Warden) has a stock pilot burst DPS of 3,049 - not 2,400 as you claimed...... i dont know what you changed because these DPS values have been unchanged since like 3.18. if you take the Vanguard Warden, with 4 laser repeaters on the nose and change the size 5 hardpoint to something like an AD5B gatling, you get 4,127 BURST DPS (again, pilot only), which is superior to the lighting by a small margin (approx 5%) and also have significantly more sustain with your larger power reserves. The lightning will be nerfed in mobility and survivability primarily, bringing it more in line with a medium fighter and maybe a little on the damage side, but as it is already outclassed by other "Heavy" fighters from a DPS perspective.

Once i kit out my harbinger, the f8c falls way behind on dps. 4285dps, 2447 alpha. 16 rattlers, 3 stalkers.. and thats pilot dps alone. stick someone in the turret and 2xs3 help out even more... it also has an interior wich makes it even more multirole, so nah.. also when armor becomes a thing, the vanguard should have the ability to penetrate deeper than a f8c, cause of the s5 hardpoint. for a heavy superiority fighter, its where it needs to be imo

The Lightning is supposed to be the top of the heap. It's a hell of a force multiplier and still struggles against anything with an S3 shield and strong hull because its capacitors are terrible. It's in a very similar category in DPS to the Ion and Inferno. Why *should* the F8 be comparable to anything at all in its weight class?

I was heavily debating purchasing this ship. Still am honestly, but the things keeping me from throwing that money at the screen are 1.) How harsh will the nerf be, Ares level or worse? 2.) It being unlocked with SQ42 means $260WB is only for rights to the ship till release plus LTI. 3.) It feels like a last minute cash grab for a ship that was not supposed to be sold, but earned.

Granted I know that I only joined almost a year and a half ago and picked up Squadron 42 as a $20 upgrade to my starter package. That said, I initially misunderstood that Squadron 42 was going to give me access to the F8C Lightning. After I had a friend help me complete both Pirate Swarm and Vanduul Swarm, I realized the idea was that gave me access to Pirate and/or certain Vanduul ships. I knew I would want to get an F8C. This current event allowed me to do just that and I have no regrets. I agree and expect nerfing, but like the Ion, I am expecting 'adjustment(s)' as well. Always grateful for your insights and perspective @BuzzCut! * gives a sharp Zeon salute *

4 size 1 shield gens isn't just a simple nerf, cos 4 s1 shield gens will give it a massive shield recharge rate, which imo fits its role much better given how it flies rn. Also why did it come out? Because money of course, lol. It's a classic cig move like they did so many times already. I got mine with store creds and once sq42 comes out I'm gonna melt it and get the next op ship they offer.

With the predictions on the damage model, the F8 won't be able to damage Capital class shields with it's gun, unlike the ION. The lightning will probably be great at fighter, small, and medium craft.

Only thing i can think off regarding is overpowered status is the future physical damage model, new ammunition types and mechanics, master modes and control surfaces. Why? Well, let's take the case of the Ares Ion; yes, in A DPS based system the F8C comes on top but the thing is that weapon in the Ion is a size 7 laser cannon meant to pierce armor like a hot knife trough butter, i don't imagine the F8C doing much against the armor of corvette size ship or above, such as the Hammerhead, Perseus or the Idris class. A different use case for each ship as always. If it works in its intended role: good, problems arise when it starts to overthrow other ships in their roles. I didn't spec it to be so agile, for such a big fighter it doesn't seem right for it to be dancing with Arrows or Gladius. Fast, yes big engines compared to a Vanguard. Maneuverable in atmosphere... looks quite streamlined with wings and everything but it is a big ship, huge aerodynamic drag if that or something similar gets implemented. I don't know, as many things in this game it just seems incomplete.

Flying vanguard for years, able to fight solo even small fighters. Was fighting many F8s this week and if pilot is avarage or just bad its not that much problem. BUT once good pilot gets F8 than vanguard has no chance, i am not great pilot but not bad either and i had no chance, died in 10-12s in vanguard it was insane, lost many times over the years but never like that, never that fast and never it felt so hopeless. It has too much of everything and doesnt even has split shield...

As someone who isn't a combat pilot, NGL, I'm in full popcorn mode over here.

The discorse around the F8C in terms of power is EXACTLY the same as the discourse when the Ares came out. Video after video after video of why a size 7 weapon was too powerful (now we have a laser that doesn't fire in a straight line) and for the F8C why 8-10 guns are too powerful.

Can't compare pilot damage to pilot and turret dps. Dps means nothing if you miss your shots. Turrets have a very quick turn rate. I agree with you though, Ares ships who?? Something to keep in mind, in lore this is the ultimate fighter. I wouldn't bank on it being nerfed too too badly.

It was never supposed to be exclusive since everyone would get a chance to pass the SQ42 rep gate at the same time to unlock the ability to purchase it in-game. 10k and 15k backers got it as a gift so that they don't have to buy it in-game when the F8C becomes available. The only actual difference between CIG releasing the F8C now and past expectations is that we all got the F8C sooner and without having the pass the SQ42 rep gate, so we gotta pay real money for it. I really think there may have been a misunderstanding about the exclusivity - specifically, 10k backers don't have to buy it in-game, and 15k backers get an extra one with a a fancy paint, so only 15k backers get an exclusive paint. If anything, 10k backers got a net gain by getting a new exclusive paint. I think the bigger issue is CIG giving the same ship at 15k as what they already gave at 10k, but that's a topic for another video

The F8 is way less effective as you think. The DPS comparison is useless without comparing the capacitors pool-size / regen-rate. The burst/sustained difference is normalized by the regen-rate at the end.

why is this confusing? Isn't the F8C Lightning supposed to be the UEE superiority fighter? There's a reason we sell the Joint Strike Fighter to others but keep the F-22 to ourselves for example. As the premier military fighter it should always be better than other commercially sold fighters.

If they add more maneuvering resistance to all heavy fighters that would balance it better, with regards to the price and it getting nerf'd..... they nerf'd the Sabre and the Glaive which both cost more than the F8C. Chris always said the F8C would be available for sale if ( but not in game ) you completed a certain competence level in SQ42 ( It still will be ), also this is the C variant and not the M so what is the problem with getting it now, it's just a ship and we can only fly one ship at a time. I'd also like it to dual seat with a gunner.

Its not supposed to have 4K of DPS, you added 2 F8 turret to replace gimball wich shouldn't be possible and so DPS should be around 3400 DPS MAX on full laser, and its supposed to be "the best UEE fighter ship" so i'm not surprised that its better than others

On paper. With Turret Capacitors being much higher- can't imagine the F8 beating out a crewed hurricane or scorp.

Vanguard still my fav HF sad thats its a piece of poop poop rn. What nerfs/changes would you make to the Lighting?

My take is that CIG needed to do some fine tuning on the F8 model. Originally, the PU was the test bed for all of the game tech. CIG wanted to get metrics for this fighter and since people were already stealing it in game, then why not release it to the player base? Let them have their fun while CIG collects data. And the Concierge backers automatically got theirs. Some even got two. The thing about the event is that not everyone was willing to plunk down $260 to buy the ship outright, so there is still some exclusivity. If CIG made $1 million in sales, then roughly 4000 of these fighters were bought and there are like 3 million accounts for Star Citizen.

Go full ballistic on the warden and the dps runs off and leaves the F8C, you'd need to go full balistic on the F8C to match it, and even then you get the edge by something like 900 dps, which if they are running a turret gunner you then are negative 1150 dps. Combined with the fact the vanguard in lore is an ageing platform so a 4th gen fighter vs the F8c being new 5th gen the f8c should have the edge. Also, when was it ever exclusive, I've been around long enough to remember when it was announced as a completion reward for S42 if you completed it with an honorable discharge.

I salute you pvp nerds as we go through this age-long development process and I tip my hat to you because me knowing that all balancing will be up in the air up to and including after a retail launch, I purposefully avoid backing combat ships, lol. I have only backed some basic and job ships. I've seen people get burned by the nerf too many times to care about pvp, someone will always go full ADHD on the meta, min/max the shit out of something, CIG will change something, rinse repeat.

I think they could manage to nerf it just enough to balance it better, alternatively they could tweak other heavy fighters to close the gap that way, though that would likely require other ship classes to be tweaked. I think the lightning, as the "premier" heavy fighter, the most advanced and best heavy fighter in the universe, should still have an edge, it simply does not make sense in that light for it to be outmatched by any single heavy fighter. however, we must also consider that the model players have access to is the civilian version, not the military version, the military version being the stronger, faster, and more heavily armed of the two with military grade components. in that light, lore wise it would make sense for the civilian version to be more i line with other heavy fighters on the civilian market, though it still would have an edge, particularly in maneuverability. I'm sure there are options that can be pursued to balance it better, but still let it keep it's edge. I think reducing it to a single size two would be better than reducing it to 4 size ones, possibly adding two size ones onto that unless they replace that component spot with something else, which could actually be beneficial, maybe even let that component slot be modular, and let it be fitted with different things for whatever the player wants, it could be a signature masker for reducing detectability (slightly) it could be an EMP, it could be fitted with an internal weapon bay depending on where the physical component would be once they add those (if they have not already) you could also put in a scanner booster to increase the power or range of sensors, there are options for that. another possibility could be reducing number of hard points to further differentiate it from the military version, possibly reverting the size of one or two of the remaining ones to compensate a bit, they could also nerf it's engines, though that would likely lose it's edge in maneuverability which I don't think should be done. there ARE ways they can tweak this thing to make it more balanced, rather than nerfing it into stardust

Either nerfed or some other ships will be buffed. Same question rises with the new ZEUS series and other relatable ships. Ex: Zeus ES vs Freelancer DUR This makes me wonder how the F8A performs compared to this civilian version