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Star Citizen | Santokyai Concept Sale New Aopoa Xi’An Fighter

Welcome to some more Star Citizen with a Ship Buyer’s Guide

The Aopoa Santokyai is the newest Concept ship from the Xi’An to human converted manufacturer. It is the human civilian version of a military ship used by the Xi’An

Harnessing the power of next-generation Xi’an flight systems, upgraded dual-vector thrusters, and a daunting weapons package, Aopoa has crafted a fighter that retains the nimble dexterity and tight handling the brand is known for. All with the added ability to pack a serious wallop when the situation calls for it. Welcome to the future of spaceflight, courtesy of the Xi’an Empire and Aopoa.

Vital Stats

  • A Single Pilot Ship
  • 24m Long / 23m Wide / 10m High which makes it a bit larger than the Hornet which is 22.5×21.5 BUT significantly taller as the Hornet is 6.5m.
  • The Ship is on Concept Sale from $195 Warbond and $220 Credit/Upgrade
  • The Ship boasts 4 Size 3 Hardpoints for Guns, coming with some Xi’An Laser Repeaters, this could be seen as comparable to the Sabres gun set up potentially a little weaker.
  • But Coming with Yeng’tu S3 Laser Repeater Xi’an technology to provide a higher rate of fire than other laser repeaters of comparable size, this comes at the cost of higher heat generation. These will be able to be put on other ships too.
  • It also have 4 Size 3 Missile hardpoints coming with a total of 8 S2 missiles by default.
  • It’s much heavier than the Xi’An Scout but still is an Agile & fast ship as it’s Xi’An Design.
  • It should be a bit slower than a light fighter like the Gladius in SCM though, faster than a Hornet or Avenger though.
  • It’s equipped with Small systems for everything except for shields where it has a single medium generator. It has a pair of coolers, a pair of power plants, quad fuel intakes, 4 main Xi’An Thrusters.
  • The Ship does not have any form of cargo, storage or living space, it is designed for fighting.

Due to it’s height the Ship might have issues in certain ships hangars not fitting, which makes sense really as it’s an adapted alien design. It will fit in larger OR open hangars / pads like on the Kraken for example.

The Khartu-al is a light fighter, scout or skirmisher, the San’tok.yāi is a medium fighter and direct combatant. The comparison between a Khartu-al and a San’tok.yāi is similar to the comparison between a Gladius and a Hornet – one emphasizing firepower and the other speed and agility. Particularly due to its lower mass and lighter weapons complement, the Khartu-al is faster, accelerates more quickly, and is even more responsive than the San’tok.yāi. However, the San’tok.yāi carries considerably more weaponry. That said, the Khartu-al and San’tok.yāi are both Xi’an designs through and through, set apart from other fighters by the exceptional maneuverability afforded to them by their distinctive maneuvering rigs. In the hands of a capable pilot well-versed in the ship’s capabilities, the San’tok.yāi is a difficult target.

The is in the same medium fighter class that the Super Hornet and Sabre, so it is designed to be competitive with them, it is less resilient to damage than either of those two ships, and its weapons loadout is lighter than these two specific contemporaries, but not by much. It’s the Xi’an thruster design and arrangement, of course, that make it superior to either of those two fighters in terms of lateral acceleration and strafe-focused flight, while its Xi’an-designed weapons are designed to capitalize on relatively brief windows of target vulnerability.

Speed & Maneuvering
In terms of maneuverability, the San’tok.yāi is one of the best-handling ships of its size and weight class – in this case, the comparison is between other medium fighters, such as the Hornet or Sabre.

The design of Xi’an fighter craft revolves around their unique thruster configuration, which relies on highly articulated main thrusters. When compared with the typically human thruster setup, which relies on one or more main fixed thrusters with yaw, pitch, and roll delivered through additional small maneuvering thrusters, the Xi’an approach provides superior strafe-movement capabilities and lateral acceleration. The ability to deliver main engine performance on multiple axes also affords some other benefits. For example, many ships have finite VTOL endurance or exert heavy wear on their maneuvering thrusters while engaged in VTOL. Xi’an fighters, like the San’tok.yāi, barely notice such activity, it being nearly as natural to them as forward flight.

Here is a link to the ships Q&A