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.

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

Your build damage model

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

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.

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

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?

My fitting suits my play style. What I was trying to do was use you fitting to see how you play. I stay and fight, so your fitting would fail for how I play. However it may be great for your play style. There is no "best" fitting. It depends on how you play. Do you hunt tanks, fight swarmers for your teams tanks. act as an AV distraction for your ground vehicles... all these and more effect the fitting.

EDIT - see your last post. You are a harasser not a force multiplier. In which case your build works but still to me is too risky. Catch a shot when those hardeners are off and you are down.

I have an incubus.
1x militia sheild recharger
1x militia shield resistance amp
1x militia armor repair unit
2x voltic armor plating
1x militia 60mm reinforced steel plates
1x advanced missile launcher
2x militia blasters

and i survive just fine. if there isn't a lot of av.

I shoot down more dropships than other tanks with my railgun madrugar, I mean, two hits and free WP. Funniest thing are ADS pilots who try to kill me, they do literally no damage (wtf?).

Prometheus
2x Fragmented or Cycled Missile Launchers (still determining which guns random blueberries find easiest to kill with)
2x N-Type Vehicular Hardeners ( occasionally swap out one hardener for a remote armour repairer if I see an armour tank)
1x 60mm Reinforced Polycrystalline Plates
1x Light IG-L Polarizes Armour Regenerator
1x Shield Extender I
1x Shield Regenerator I

This is my latest load out and I love it in terms of tanking the first few hits of AV. Recently, however, I've joined a string of games where the other team wields Ishukone Assault Forge Guns. Wasn't so proud of my tanking abilities after that. Given, I have sacrificed an afterburner for a bit of extra tank. Yes, perhaps that afterburner will get me away from hit 2. But when the second forge gun round takes me out, and its already charging as the first shot hits me, will I really get away? I'm still testing to see if my shield modules (plus the steel plate, as I can only run the nano fibre plates if I have the afterburner) improve my survivability more than the AB.

What I find extremely frustrating about playing solo as a LogiDS pilot, though, still is communicating with randoms. Spawning in my dropship is all well and good, but getting people out can sometimes be a frustration. When a gunner gets a kill with my turrets, for example, they seem to ignore everything that's happening to my ship simply in the hope of getting another kill. Fife timely, I've removed one or two players from the team, and I hate the thought of that, so I try spend more time finding kills to compensate, and end up dying more.

I definitely survive longer when there's a tank on the field. AV is split between us and occasionally I try to brave the horrid RAR and ST mechanics and try support the tank. Still very hard. If they move its extremely painful to compensate without crashing or losing connection with my module. Hell, simply establishing a connection is annoyingly difficult.

But with the way dropships engines automatically align with the horizontal axis of my dropship, I find its much easier to pick up speed even in my armour dropship simply through a shallow dive, and this saves me from most AV. Generally, its only when three or more people have advanced AV in a game (which is frighteningly often) or one chap with a prototype forge gun that takes me down.

If I don't recall or hide my dropship, generally I lose it every game I bring it out, as there's always seemed to be some guy with high end AV lately. May be poor decisions when choosing routes to fly, may be because I decide to linger in one spot for too long. All I know is I wish we had inbuilt afterburners. That, and a WP system, and I'd be content.