Fer-de-Lance: Difference between revisions

| jumprange          = 7.04

| fuelcapacity        = 8

| maxtopspeed        = 302

}}

{{quote|The Fer-de-Lance is another classic design that has now been in production for two centuries. The ship became famous for its popularity with top business executives and wealthy bounty hunters, being a fast, well armed vessel, with luxurious accommodation and high quality components fitted as standard. Early models were built by Zorgon Peterson, but more recently, limited numbers have been upgraded by Saud Kruger in a rare collaboration, resulting in even more lavish creations, without spoiling the original design and specification requirements.|In-Game Description}}

The '''Fer-de-Lance''', commonly abbreviated as '''FDL''', is a [[Ships|ship]] manufactured by [[Zorgon Peterson]]. It is a heavy combat ship, featuring a hull that is more resistant to smaller [[weapons]] than other ships of its class.<ref>[https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=120789&p=1873136&viewfull=1#post1873136 Sandro Sammarco in the Official Forums]</ref> It is one of two medium ships capable of mounting Class 4 weaponry, the other being the [[Mamba]]. Although fast, manoeuvrable, well armed, and well shielded, the Fer-de-Lance suffers from a few notable drawbacks: poor jump range, a small fuel tank, and a limited number of internal compartments for its size.

The pilot's seat of the Fer-de-Lance is to the right of the centre of the ship, having the co-pilot's to the left and slightly further back. The canopy glass offers a phenomenal field of view; having more than 90 degrees vertically, and more than 180 degrees horizontally.

The Fer-de-Lance is outstanding in its role as a combat vessel. Its damage output is among the highest of all medium sized ships thanks to its high number of hardpoints including one class 4, which have excellent convergence when firing allowing the use of fixed mounts on all of them. Among medium sized ships, only the [[Federal Gunship]], [[Python]] and [[Krait MkII]] can compete with the Fer-de-Lance in terms of firepower, although the FDL is the most manoeuvrable of the 4, meaning in practice it is usually more capable of dishing out damage than the rest. (Note that the above does not take [[Ship-Launched Fighters]] into consideration, a capability that the Federal Gunship and Krait MkII possess.)

This is not to say the Fer-de-Lance is the most manoeuvrable medium sized ship; the [[Alliance Chieftain]] as well as the [[Federal Assault Ship]] both exceed it in that regard, although they are much less formidable than the Fer-de-Lance when it comes to firepower.

The Fer-de-Lance is also at the top of medium sized ships when it comes to defense. Its base shield is by far the highest of all medium sized ships, and it has 6 utility mounts compared to the average 4 on most medium sized ships, allowing it to install more [[Shield Booster|Shield Boosters]] for even more protection (since shield boosters increase shield by percentages, they are also more effective on the Fer-de-Lance than on ships with lesser shields). The result is that Fer-de-Lance builds can exceed 1000MJ of shield even without engineering, but with engineering it can reach over 2000MJ. Although the Fer-de-Lance's armor is not quite as durable as the Federal ships, the Alliance ships or the Python, it is by no means bad.

The Fer-de-Lance's sole downside in combat is its low mass lock factor of 12, meaning it will not be able to mass lock any medium sized combat ship aside from itself, or any large sized ship save for the [[Imperial Clipper]]. This means several medium sized ships as well as most large sized ships can easily flee from a Fer-de-Lance, making it worse at pirating than the Python; especially due to its tiny cargo bay.  

The Fer-de-Lance also functions brilliantly as an Anti-[[Thargoid]] ship, having huge damage output and it can easily deal with Scouts, and has no trouble equipping as much AX weaponry as possible. In the right hands, the Fer-de-Lance is one of the few ships capable of soloing a [[Thargoid Interceptor]]. In addition, it is widely agreed in the PvP community that the Fer-de-Lance is the single best PvP ship in the entire game, even more so than the much more expensive [[Anaconda]], [[Federal Corvette]] and [[Imperial Cutter]] , due to the Fer-de-Lance's superior manoeuvrability.

The Fer-de-Lance is specialized in its role as a fighter and is virtually unusable in any other role. Its jump range falls just short of 21lys without engineering, the 4th lowest in the game, making it one of the worst vessels for exploration. It can't effectively chase targets across the bubble or hunt down bounties, and will have serious trouble jumping away to the nearest [[Interstellar Factors|Interstellar Factor]] to clear its own bounties. It has a cargo capacity of 70t max, which is extremely poor for its price and size, making pirating, trading and mining very unviable.

The Fer-de-Lance is essentially a bigger [[Vulture]]; unbeaten in combat potential for its size but is terrible in every other role. The ship therefore is perfect for Bounty Hunters and can rack up profits in Resource Sites extremely fast. It makes a very poor [[Pirate]] when compared to other similar ships however due to its terrible cargo space and low Mass Lock and the fact that the extreme firepower is often overkill in the role. For Thargoid fighting, it's a perfect ship, and can easily outperform the [[Alliance Chieftain]] and [[Type-10 Defender|Type-10]] in this role.

The weapon [[hardpoints]] are located as follows: two top mounted class 2 hardpoints on the nose, about a quarter of the way back from the tip, two side mounted class 2 hardpoints, at about the ship's midpoint, and a single bottom mounted class 4 hardpoint in the centre of the ship's frame. Four out of six utility mounts are located around the huge hardpoint on the bottom, with the other two being behind the cockpit, next to the fins on top of the vessel.

The Fer-De-Lance has different heat radiator animations for general heat dissipation and [[Frame Shift Drive]] charge up for hyperspace. While both feature the animation of the same yellow/orange lighted radiators, the Frame Shift Drive charging animation also features blue lighted radiators and two blue beams. The blue beams are projected from slightly behind the cockpit and are visible from the cockpit from the side windows on both sides.

| [[Planetary Approach Suite]] (H) || I || 1 || 1

*''(H) = Requires [[Elite Dangerous: Horizons]], reserved solely for [[Planetary Approach Suite]]''

* In the original Elite it was faster than the [[Cobra]] (but not playable).

* Added to game in version 1.2.

* Some weapons on the huge hardpoint clip into the bottom of the hangar when viewed in Outfitting.

* The radiators on the outside of the engine pods glow blue while FSD is charging.

* Prior to 1.5/2.0 the ship utilized a class 5 powerplant, resulting in major power issues.

* The Fer-de-Lance length (73.6 m) is similar to a Boeing 747-300 (70.66 m).<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nDYYYqrhp4 Elite ship scale 3.0]</ref>

* Fer-de-Lance is French for "spearhead" (or more literally, "iron of the lance" or "tip of the spear") but also maintains the snake-themed naming common to Independent ships, as it can refer to various members of the [[wikipedia:Bothrops|Bothrops genus]] of snakes, also sometimes called lanceheads.

fer_de_lance_amend_Comp.jpg|Concept art from newsletter 57

Fer-de-Lance-ship-top-view.png|Fer-de-Lance top side view

fdl2.jpg |View of Fer-de-Lance showing medium hardpoints

Fer-De-Lance-rear-side-docked.png|Fer-de-Lance rear side close up

Fer-De-Lance-Launches-From-Planet.png|Fer-de-Lance launches from a planet

2015-04-08_00001.jpg|A Huge Gimballed Cannon mounted on the Fer-de-Lance

fer-de-lance_panorama.jpg|Cockpit by CMDR Klepto

File:ShadowWolf-Kell-EliteDangerous32.exe_DX11_20151106_224349.jpg |A Fer-De-Lance preparing for a hyperspace jump.  Note the blue light beams and blue lit hull sections that only appear while the frameshift drive is charging.

bp-fer-de-lance.png|Zorgon Peterson Fer-De-Lance Blueprint

Fer-de-Lance-Cockpit.png|Fer-de-Lance cockpit

Fer-De-Lance-in-Witch-space.png|Fer-de-Lance in Witch-space

Elite-Dangerous-Walking-in-Station.png|Zorgon Peterson, Fer-de-Lance ad in a station art

Black-Fer-de-Lance-Ship-Top.png|Black Fer-de-Lance top