Drake Corsair Ship Buyer’s Guide
Welcome to some more star citizen with a Drake Corsair Ship Buyers Guide.
This will go through the Concept Sale, Vital Stats, intentions of the ship as well as the Q&A Answers. This is all we currently know about the ship merged into a single video.
Drake Corsair Concept Sale
The Drake Corsair focuses on Exploration but with lots of guns, it’s Drakes Answer to the Constellation Aquila, however the Aquila is a variant ship and the Corsair is a dedicated hull built with Exploration in mind.
The Drake Corsair is available from $195 warbond or $215 using store credit.
Warbond purchases comes with LTI and an early Name Reservation for the Ship.
Ship names must be unique to that Hull, so only 1 Corsair can be called the Enterprise.
The Corsair will be available in the pledge store until April 22, 2019.
The Corsair is a 3 winged asymmetrical ship, 2 on the port side and 1 on the starboard.
It’s wings fold 180 degrees upwards when landed.
The Corsair can fit in medium sized hangars with it’s wings up like at rest stops (the Retaliator & Constellation can too).
LENGTH 55 M
WIDTH 27 M – 56m with it’s wings expanded
HEIGHT 31 M – 11m without it’s wings
CARGO CAPACITY 72 SCU (7200 Units)
This is enough cargo capacity to carry upto a Ursa Rover sized vehicle (no vehicle is included with the ship as standard though)
Having an Ursa Rover is planned to take up all the secure cargo space in the Corsair, you’ll still be able to put unsecure cargo around if you want to OR take a smaller vehicle and cargo. There is a large ramp at the rear that allows access for the vehicle / cargo.
Excluding it’s wings the Corsair is similar in size to a Constellation.
However with it’s wings open it is a beast of a ship.
The Cockpit has the Pilot / Co-Pilot above and below each other giving a large range of visibility between them.
The main pilot can move around even if the co-pilot chair is in use, a hatch covers the hole where the co-pilot sinks to.
Both seats have full control inputs available so either can control the ship.
2x S4 (S3 gimbal weapon) wing (left side)
4x S5 (S4 gimbal weapon) front
2x turrets with S2 guns (side coverage)
1x remote turret with S2 guns (rear coverage)
4x S4 Missile Rack (right wing), 2x S3 on each that’s 8 S3 Missiles total.
The pilot controls the 4 x S5 (S4 gimballed) front AND 2 x S4 (S3 gimballed) right wing guns by default, although in the future (like other ships), their control will be able to be delegated to another station.
The Ship has Medium Components for everything (other than computers that it has a small & medium slot), Components are for the most part accessible from the centre of the ship in a dedicated room.
It has 2x Fuel Tanks, Quantum Fuel Tanks & Power Plant and a single component for everything else.
It is said to have state-of-the-art scanning suites.
The Corsair can equip Civilian and Industrial Type Components.
When compared to the Aquila the Corsair has a lot more weaponry, an additional small computer & an additional Quantum Fuel Tank. BUT the Aquila has more cargo space, room for a snub fighter & most likely better armor.
The Corsair has a shared kitchen, washroom, and storage for every crew person’s weapons and clothing as well as a bedroom for each member & a captains quarters.
Each crew member can store one set of armor (excluding what they’re wearing), two primary weapons, and one sidearm.
The Ship has stations / consoles for Pilot, Co-Pilot, 2 (Manned) Side Turrets & an engineering station towards the rear of the ship
Q&A Drake Corsair
Drake Ships are relatively less armored compared to Aegis & Anvil.
The Corsair is not paper thin defense is more than enough for it’s intended role it’s given more weapons to help offset this.
Compared to other Exploration Ships the Corsair is catered towards a more offensive style of gameplay. It also has a different set of roles for a crew of four compared to the Constellation.
The Corsair does have fuel intakes BUT no onboard refinery, nor is it capable of equipping one.
There is a front lift on the ship & it can take at least 4 characters at a time.
The ship will have a variety of lighting when it’s released & they plan to roll out external under lighting for ships in the future.
Lore
There was some Lore & flavor text that gives a bit more information about the ship too.
That spirit thrives in the Corsair, Drake’s steadfast new explorer.
Drake engineers and designers have built an expedition focused ship
You never know what threats may lie beyond the next quantum jump. With an abundance of versatile weapon mounts, port and starboard manned turrets, and enough missiles to make even the hardiest pirate think twice, the Corsair is more than capable of holding its own.
The Corsair is built for the unknown and excels at reconnaissance, extraction, and delivery in the furthest and least predictable reaches of space. Thanks to a large hold capable of stowing a small vehicle or massive amount of cargo and specially designed asymmetric convertible wings, the Corsair adapts gracefully to unfamiliar atmospheres, combat situations, and hot landing zones.
Are you among those that only feel truly at home navigating the stars? For whom being planet-locked is a fate worse than death? Do you hear the songs of far-off galaxies, calling through the steely silence of space, pulling you ever-forward to systems uncharted and frontiers untamed? Do you seek to embody the very spirit of adventure – the bold, indomitable will of Humankind, dauntless in its relentless pursuit of fortune, expansion, and knowledge? If you do, the Corsair is your ship.
Thoughts
I really like the Corsair and prefer it to all the other explorers I’ve seen other than the Carrack. In game it’s likely that the Corsair / Aquila will be the Explorers ship of choice before moving to the Carrack too.
One of the things about the Corsair, Aquila and Carrack is that they are long range and relatively multi-role suitable for a wide range of mission with a group.
So I do expect these to be pretty popular in the verse for a huge range of stuff.
Exploration & Expedition also covers lots of potential gameplay, from finding Asteroid Fields to Surveying Areas for Bases to Discovering Flora to scanning down interesting POI to just flying off to see what you can find on the edge of a system.