https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/ripdxt/fastforecast_17_december_cutlass_steelion_gets/ Good afternoon citizens, your Fastforecast is proud to come to you today from McGrath Weather station here on Clio. We have some interesting news for you, good news if you're a Drake fanboy/girl and not so good if you're the owner of a Crusader Industries Aries Ion. First, the good news. Drake Interplanetary is proud to announce the coming release of their newest dropship, the Cutlass Steel. The latest in the growing field of dropships, the Steel adds to the Cutlass Black frame, a known winner among pirates and other low overhead travelers, and throws on a size 2 remote turret, 5 ballistic door guns (2 on each door and one on the rear ramp) and even more missiles. Now whether sticking more missiles and ordinance on a ship well known for suddenly catching fire due to electrical issues is a good idea, time will tell. What's interesting is that the Steel will have seating for 18. That's right, there will be 18 jump seats on the Cutlass Steel . Our question is "Will the seats be bolted TO the ship or will they be zip tied?" Who knows? It's a Drake. With a field loaded with names like Anvil Valkyrie and Aegis Hoplite and the Prowler, if you can't afford to get into the market and want to make war, sure. tape some seats into the cargo hold of a Black and call it "Steel." Why not? Onto the bad news. Crusader Industries Aries Ion owners woke to find themselves with a firmware update that they weren't expecting. Upon powering up their ships, they were happy to note that their capacitors were holding considerably more shots than normal and they could fire faster. Great deal, brilliant. However when engaged in combat, pilots were noting that their targets were not going down and reached out to us. Utilizing data drawn directly from the Ion's onboard computers, we noticed that the main gun, the size 7 energy cannon, is now doing half of the alpha strike damage it was previous, or roughly on par with a size 5. As you cannot switch out this weapon for anything out, you're essentially flying a large ship with a REALLY big size 5 cannon strapped to it. With this data in hand, we went to Crusader Industries on Crusader itself and demanded answers. Crusader claims the update was a necessity due to the damage the power output was causing on the weapon system and the ship electrical system. Each shot was causing feedback damage and causing microfractures in the focus crystal inside the weapon itself. The reduction in power allows the weapon to maintain it's integrity and fire faster, longer with a 'slight' drop off on range. We pointed out that the 'slight' drop off was significant as the power behind the shots was noticeably reduced but were told that it would increase the "quality of life" for the consumer and most "would not be able to tell the difference in the long run." What do you think citizens? Can you tell with your Ion's main gun? Happy with the outcome? Go let Crusader Industries know one way or the other over on Spectrum. No report would be complete without letting you know what pirates are up to in your Stanton. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDM9__Ino94 Pirate JonSud and crew, using their stealth tactic of approaching miners with shields down almost a kilometer from a miner and approached on foot. With the miner distracted by disruptor rounds hammering the miner's Cutlass Black (Painted a brilliant white to..blend in with the brown environment?) Pirate Sud made his move, only to watch the Black vaporize and the Roc be thrown away from him leading to a chase across the desert in search of his loot. With the miner still inside the Roc and suffering from a minor concussion, the pirates continued to rain disruption rounds on the Roc, now stranded, to keep him in place while the ground team could approach with weapons such as the rail gun. During a lull in combat, the miner engages in a hot restart of his Roc and attempts to flee, knocking the pirate away from his vehicle which causes the two Sentinels to reengage almost immediately. The pirates, identified as Chaos Squad, back the miner into a corner while the ground crew quickly move up to strip the Roc of it's cargo while the ships hammer it's electronics with EM pulses, keeping it shut down. Seeing his cargo being looted and fearing losing all of it, the miner engaged in his last ditch effort. Taking everyone with him. With the attacking ships close by and the ground crew in close proximity, the Roc detonated in spectacular fashion, showering the area in Hadonite, killing two pirates as well as himself. For 40,150 aUEC of Hadonite stolen, it cost one miner his life and 2 pirates theirs. We're not sure if it's an even exchange. That brings us to a close citizens. We would like to remind you of our Christmas giveaway however. Christmas Giveaway To Enter: Starting December 1st we're going to be taking names from any new or newish player that is you or someone you know that is just starting out. We are going to hand them the UEC to buy a Cutty Black to get them started making money in the game. We are going to do this with at least 1 and hopefully more winners so all these people have to do is post their in game name on our post starting December 1st. We'll keep a list and on the 23rd of December, we'll pick someone and dump cash into their MO trader and screen shot it and post it up here. Open and transparent as we always are. That said ladies and gentlemen, you hear us talk about our donors in game and on here. That's where you come in. We are asking for help funding this. No cash, it's all UEC. If you have UEC to donate, send it to FASTFORECAST in the game and screenshot it and drop it in our inbox so we can give credit. If you're an organization, do the same with your org logo and we'll add it to the list all throughout December. IT's a good way to start out. Organizations we have a special ask. We're going to be handing a new player a Cutlass Black. We are going to need an org or more (hopefully more if we can raise funds to give out more ships) to step up and take these players under their wings. Train them to be productive members of the community and enjoy the game so they'll stay and make this their home. Pirates, traders, mining organizations. We're putting the call out to all of you. We thank you for your generosity, your knowledge and time. How does it work? We're going to hand at least one new player 1.3 million UEC and a willing organization to take them under their wing to teach them how to take the Black and make money. How to equip the Black according to what they want to accomplish. If they're wanting to trade, the extra money can go for cargo. If they want to bounty hunt, military gear will come in handy. We're putting it in the player's hands and their new organization to train them to use it.