First off: In case you weren’t aware, the latest Free Fly was cancelled due to all the bugs with the latest Star Citizen patch.. Which is no surprise. Still, if you do end up joining the game, it would help me out immensely if you used my referral code: STAR-SFCP-2TJ4 – thanks!
UPDATE! It looks like the free-fly is back on until May 27, so if you want to sign up, use this link or the code above and we’ll both get free stuff in-game if you end up buying a $40+ starter pack.
DISCLAIMER, WARNING, DISCLAIMER: Star Citizen is in alpha, and they have a habit of making changes to things (case in point: My baby, the F8C, has been nerfed hard), so this review’s relevance is subject to change.. Also, this is all my opinion.
Anyway.. If I had to describe the Origin M80, I’d probably say something like this: It’s as if an F35 (or F22 for my fellow older aviation nerds) and a Jaguar E-Type Coupe loved each other very much, very often, and made liberal use of high-powered marital aids.
It’s sleek, it’s fast, and it can do some goddamned damage.. Oh, and for all the folks complaining that only one pair of weapons slides into the body: I don’t care. If you don’t like it, remove those S4s and go without.
Anyway, with that out of the way, let’s talk about how this thing flies.
Flight characteristics of the Origin M80
The Origin M80 has 2 strengths within it’s heavy fighter class: Speed, and rotation.
That may sound weird, but it works.. As long as you’re someone who’s spent some time in realistic atmospheric flight sims and have a certain degree of muscle-memory on maneuvering.
First off: I’m not going to get into the numbers. Check out Erkul.games if you want every little stat detailed.
Anyway, overall the M80’s maneuverability is a little.. “Eh” on paper. It’s pitch is OK, but the yaw is awful. Rotation? Pretty good for a heavy fighter.. And speed?
Speed is fan-fucking-tastic.
While raw speed may not matter as much to you – especially in a dogfight – it actually works well here if you’re like me and fly with a flight stick (and throttle).. In fact, this flight strategy is the same one I use for the F8C, slightly adjusted for the poor yaw. Here’s how I fly:
When engaging a target, I am max speed, and boost in to get within radar pip range ASAP. I will use my thrusters to maneuver me up/down/left/right to keep myself from being a static target, but mostly I’m sticking to vertical thrusters rather than horizontal here. With the average pitch capability it’s not hard at all to stay on target.. And when you pass your target and engage into a dogfight loop? That’s where it gets interesting.
With the fast rotation it’s best to avoid relying on yaw, and instead rotate to utilize your pitch; Yaw is for subtle adjustments, much like in a real atmospheric airplane.
And, for most foes – especially a maneuverable target like a Gladius – you’ll also want to cut throttle.. And thrust vertically away from the foe while boosting and pitching up/down to get on target.
This allows you to maintain separation and movement, making you a harder target for your foe’s friends as well as getting you back on-target quicker. In fact, this technique works well for most ships in general.
There are some caveats here, though: The M80 has inertia, so you’ll need to practice to get a feel for how much power to give it in any axis of control, and try to think ahead as much as possible.
Additionally, the G-forces are going to be rough; Grab a flight suit (or better, a racing suit) if you really want to push things to the limit and fly in the.. danger zone. I will note with a racing suit I never blacked out, even pulling some insane high-G maneuvers (minus flying decoupled – not ready for that in this thing honestly).
With that out of the way, let’s talk about the loadout and general characteristics.
The M80: Yes, it has a bed, one cooler, and no toilet.
It also has 2 SCU of storage, which.. Fucking hell yes. Toilet gameplay isn’t in yet, so who cares there 😀 Anyway, the loadout for this thing is.. Interesting.
It’s got all civvy parts. This actually works pretty well, and if you’re shopping the market and not hunting down rare loot you can upgrade to A-class civvy parts (it comes with C) and still be pretty happy with it. You’ll be lit up like the sun, but still. Good enough.
The biggest gotcha that may surprise folks is the single cooler.
You’ve got plenty of power to play with stock; You can’t max everything, but you can get a lot out of it if you’re smart.. And stock? Be careful maxing the radar; Depending on what you cut from (like engines), you may end up causing some overheating, which is not a good time.
I suggest dropping 1 pip from radar and 1 pip from engines; this will keep you within the acceptable limits of the cooling while also still making you combat-viable without having to get clever managing power (which leads me to my second gotcha).
You’ve only got 2 MFD displays to work with. The view is fantastic, especially for a fighter where visibility is king, but you will be really limited as to what information you can keep on-hand. I prefer to run power on the left and ship/component health on the right, relying on my helmet display for my weapon, shields, and target status. You can also swap power to weapons after launch just so you can get a better picture of your ammo status.
Speaking of weapons, let’s talk about how this thing fights.
The combat capabilities of the Origin M80
The M80 gets a lot of “That’s OP!” reactions because it comes with 2 size 5s and 2 size 4s, putting the F8C to shame in the damage output (and penetration) department.
Stock you get CF laser repeaters, which work fine in the early game, but later on? You’ll want cannons. I suggest laser cannons in the size 5s, and ballistic in the size 4s (although you can go full ballistics for the extra damage pen). This will let you tangle with larger targets and be able to take them down.
The damage output – when you can stay on target – is solid, and the shield performance stock (2x 10k civvy shields in bubble format) is good too, which is important given you just don’t have that much in the hull/armor HP department (especially when compared to something like the F8C, which is a tank relatively speaking).
Still, I took this out in solo Pirate Swarm Arena Commander stock and plowed through 4 waves no problem until I had to stop because my hands hurt.
I didn’t lose a single life, and actually took a couple missiles because I forgot to bump up my countermeasure deployment count 😀 My AI teammates were red-shirted pretty damned early, so I was taking on the full waves solo on waves 3 and 4. My shields got dropped only once, and that was before I realized I really needed to adjust my power config due to overheating.
All in all, this thing fucking kills if you’re willing to fly it right, but I would hardly call it “OP”. It just has strengths and weaknesses like most ships.
Additional disclaimer: I didn’t test this in PvP because I am not a PvP person most of the time.
Let’s get to the summary, shall we?
The Origin M80: Is it worth it?
If you’re like me and fly with a HOTAS/HOSAS setup, and love dogfighting? Hell yes, Goose. This ship is made for folks who love atmospheric flight sims and high-G maneuvers.
Plus the bed and 2 SCU of storage? Oh yeah baby, I am absolutely into this.
Now, do I think it is worth $300 ($275 warbond)? If you’ve got money to burn, sure. Otherwise, this is a good CCU upgrade target (like what I did, melting an extra ship and upgrading from my F7C Hornet Ghost Mk II – I’ve been playing Star Citizen a long fucking time).
If you’d rather wait and buy it in-game, though, I definitely understand that.
Don’t forget! If you end up signing up for Star Citizen, use my code – STAR-SFCP-2TJ4 – we’ll both get some bonuses, especially if you sign up during Drake DefenseCon going on now.