Back when I still flew my incubus (got too expensive) I lost it every other battle

When I used the Assault DS, most of my losses were due to RDV collisions, not AV.

I remember how happy I was when a corpmate and I took out a Bolas together in our Assault DSes, only to later, be struck down by another RDV.

150k ISK per match isn't enough, for fielding such expensive equipment we should get higher rewards, especially since our DSes can be struck down by drunk RDVs.

Curious though, what do you do when you get hit? With no shield booster I assume you have to stay out of the fight for a long time.

I honestly don't know how dropship pilots afford their hobby. All it takes is a single forgegunner or guy with a swarm launcher. Hell, I use a militia swarm launcher with damage mods and have am always delighted to see a drop ship...it's an almost guaranteed kill.

I don't use damage mods on my militia grade launcher and still downing them... I will never forgive CCP Blam from taking away the one joy I had most in the game in times past.

Back when I still flew my incubus (got too expensive) I lost it every other battle

Here. Ill model your build against a 3 hit damage flow.

Your build damage model

Hmm.... Not that great. Keep trying.

The python fit I've settled on as having the best overall survivability is as follows

High slots
1x aziotropic extender
1x light clarity ward booster
1x afterburner
1x ward shield amp

Low lots
2x local PG extenders

Turrets
1x XT Accelerated missiles
2x ST fragmented missiles

I normally see jovians as a must have but I was getting alpha'd too much with them (did I use the term right?) the extra PG I Ferrell the second PG expansion allows me to fit the shield booster or a second extender. I put the booster on instead of another extender because the extender is much more useful in a dogfight. And for turrets I made the side turrets standard for 2 reasons, maximum PG, and less cost, the turrets rarely see use so I don't see the point of losing more ISK than I absolutely have to.

What I really want is the old engineering skill back so I can dump the 2nd expansion and fit a Jovian, I love those things.

After being a pilot for a long time, i have finally out-fitted my DS with a proto fitting that i believe to be the best that dropships can get right now (it's still fragile as hell), and i am really interested in finding out whos fits allow them to survive really hostile situations, such as railgun redline snipers, proto-forge gun or swarm attacks, etc. And still escape with their dropship in-tact and not destroyed, and if so, how many matches do they go without losing 1 dropship? As pilots, not too many risk their DS every match but i have been doing just that in an attempt to turn out a very small profit, and often i find myself being able to either "float" on a certain amount (making however much i lose in ds destruction) or sometimes even going below profit by losing 1 dropship every 5 matches (the amount i need to win to make back 1 ADS python is about 8 matches). So pilots; can any of you confidently report that you can, with your fitting, make enough to start a profit going? Or is there only struggle in this attempt? And if successful, what are your fittings? I'll post mine here as well.

Python:

High Modules- 2 Ward Shield Amplifiers (Shield resist becomes 30%), 1 Azeotropic Ward Shield Extender, and 1 Basic Afterburner

Low Modules - 1 Jovian Fusion Powerplant (Torque bonus of 17.6%), Light Payload Control System (Missle damage increase 10%)

Turrets - 2 XT-Fragmented Missle Launchers (sides), 1 XT - Accelerated Missle Launcher (Front, Pilot controlled turret)

Explained: This assault fit allows for versitile reactions against infantry units or shield tanks on the battlefield, it's advantage is the range from the main XT-Accelerated turret and the damage is also the best that missle turrets can produce, this coupled with the light payload control system II (10% missle damage increase) makes them even more deadly, and once you get good at leading shots you can really reap the kills in with this, and if hit by a forge gun or proto swarms, the Basic Afterburner makes you able to really get out of a sitation quick, especially when coupled with 1 Jovian Fusion Powerplant which gives the best torque bonus a module can provide.

Survivability Average: 1 loss for every 5 or 6 matches. (Around 150-180K ISK per match) (This is also dis-crediting RDV collisions which sometimes take even more from me)

Mine dosen't have any mobility modules. :P
Python

High Powered
3 Azeotropic Shield Extenders
1 Shield Booster

Low Powered:
1 LP Control System
1 Local Powergrid Expansion Unit

Turrets:
3 XT Fragmented Missile Launchers

The benefit to this is that I can shrug off a few swarms. The downside is if anyone brings in a fancy forge gun that can two shot me, I can't get away as easily (about a 40% survival rate, if I had to guess)

this setup is pretty close to how my python is setup.

Pyton

high modules- 2 Azeotropic shield extenders 1 ward shield amplifier 1 basic afterburner.

low modules- 1 local powergrid expansion unit 1 jovian fusion powerplant.

turrets- 2 AT cycled missile launchers (sides) 1 AT accelerated missile launcher.

+ any suit with a adv rep tool just in case.

survives proto AV incredibly well as long as i pull out when i need to as for RDV's i have trained myself to pay
VERY close attention to my surroundings to hear the RDV coming and sometimes see its light.

this setup could be better but ive began to spec into my infantry to pay for my dropships when they happen to die.
and i don't call them in every game only when i feel its needed but i would say 3-5 games.

i don't always lose dropships but when i do it takes very concentrated AV and pilot error to do so.

The stats on that are horribly off... i have 1,860 shield yet 30% resistance from my 2 shield resist modules. And don't post these charts that don't really account for what the actual module usage is, i would much prefer a fitting load-out and why you chose to fit it with those modules, and your survivability from doing so. And believe me, i have tried a ton of fits, including different proto turret modules as well, and if you're so confident in your fit, i would be glad to hear what it is exactly.

And don't post these charts that don't really account for what the actual module usage is, i would much prefer a fitting load-out and why you chose to fit it with those modules, and your survivability from doing so. And believe me, i have tried a ton of fits, including different proto turret modules as well.

Wow haha pretty crazy how we both nearly came to the same fitting, honestly your defense is pretty nice, might be a considerable alternative to mine if i don't really care about my dmg mod.. thanks for this fit, although im guessing you can't put XT's on it? Or can you?

I gave you 2 extenders. I'll model it for 1. but its not looking too strong against a 3rd hit. In many real world cases 3 hits will take you down. By the way I model :

Weapon damage against shield adjusted for weapon type
Innate shield resistance
Innate armour resistance
Pass through damage model here
which takes account of shield and armour regen based on seconds passed between each hit.
I account fo all skill based skill bonuses
Module stacking penalty
Weapon % bonus against each layer based on pass through

It's a good model.

Your build does not stack up well unless you manage to catch every hit with you hardeners. Which you can't. You are too vulnerable unless taking expected damage all the time. Fine for game start uplink dropping... but otherwise. too risky.

Look at the model. Thats around a 50% 2nd hit survival rate. And I gave you the best case here. Catching all hits with both hardeners OP Survival Rate

Ehrm, i think running with an armor resistance module on a Caldari Python (Shield Tank) is a mistake, no matter what charts you write up on that website

0% is still an account of a armour resistance. What are you on about? ANy model staill has to account for 0% so its always counted.....

0% is still an account of a armour resistance. What are you on about? ANy model staill has to account for 0% so its always counted.....

Why have a phyton? You are playing as a logi.. in then out asap. Pythons have to fight. Getting away from hit 2 means stopping all usefulness as an ADS. Yes you live.. but why?