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As we all know the Osprey is a whole different set of hardware than what it was in X2. Of all the M6 discussed on the board the Osprey is perhaps the least loved of them all in addition to the Hydra (?)
Well i tried to put the Osprey into real good usage so i bought one and made it my Personal ship and retired my Centaur to Sector Patrol
First of all the reason why i wanted to get Osprey was because it could house Beta PSG:s front and it had more firepower than the Paranid Nemesis in form of turrets. Im an old Centaur pilot so i love turrets
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- PSG combat: The main problem with PSG is the collateral damage. In this i had a theory that i wanted to test out more in combat: Can the PSG:s be properly used in close combat without collateral damage. I found out that the timing of the PSG firing is important so i made 2 rules for firing the PSG:
1) i use it to strike first at targets. I always make a quick visual check for blue/green icons in my field of vision, if none i fire of the PSG.
2) If already engaged and there are friendlies nearby, Then i only fire my PSG when my enemy pass me and i turn around for it+check quickly wether anything is in my field of vision. Then i fire the PSG but never keep firing for longer than 5 seconds because at this time if there are M5 ships they are bolting past you right now and straight into your PSG wave = collateral damage.
How did it work: Great but not great... not once did i shoot on neutral/friendly targets with this 'rule set' but as soon as i got trigger happy and kept firing in case 2) for more than a short period of time then somebody always entered the wave area. Theese rules dont really work on XI missions though or other big engagements where everything is a big mess anyway.
But then comes the real nut to bite: You see in the Centaur its the Mass Driver that you use primarily to slow down/destroy M4/M5 targets so i figured out that 3-4 BetaPSG front should tackle enemies well especially if you get a case 1 scenario where you fire first. I though i could bag all the harriers surrounding a Pirate Nova but alas, the Beta PSG is not powerfull enough to tackle M5 ships. It may bring quick destuction to weaker M5 ships that are surprised or drain shields of bigger ones but once in close combat all advantages are lost and you really start to hope you got a Mass Driver onboard instead of those PSG:s.
- Speed: Osprey is 84. Centaur is 101. Here i also theoretized that lack of speed doesnt really matter in close combat that much as long as you keep strafing properly. I was wrong, despite that the speed difference is not that big it does matter in how much Alpha/Beta HEPT fire your ship receives and it seems to me that the Centaur is able to avoid perhaps 1/5 more HEPT fire than the Osprey.
- Shields: One extra 1x125mj shield is what the Osprey carries in comparison to the Centaur. This shield is usually lost very quickly but it does keep the ship alive. But usually the shield levels are pretty depleted after battles. Not good, not good at all. I found out that simple Falcon ships with their heavy HEPT loadouts could really surprise the Osprey and boy, there are plenty of Falcons out there.
- Turret facing: I though the 'blind spot' under the Osprey is not that of a problem, actually it is even in the hands of a human pilot. Centaur turrets are capable of firing into all directions but it takes a lot of time for the Osprey turrets to rotate towards the enemy if the enemy is in the blind spot area flying on-off into the blind spot while you maneuver/rotate the Osprey, this causes long pauses when turrets on both left and right just rotate themselves and no firing takes place.
Wow, that became long. There's more to it but perhaps this is enough.
...i tihnk it was the sentinal... the one in the unknown sector west of that xenon sector o.O
So i guess i still dont quite understand what the X3 Osprey could be used for so i guess it goes to OOS patrol in sectors where it's probable to catch up with Pirate Novas trying to trodd through a sector. M5 intercepting is not for Osprey.