Freighter Safety Questions

[grapedog]

If you stock your freighters/miners with Laser Towers, is there a way for them to use them when needed for defense/escape, and will/can they restock themselves?

Does equipping them with a better long range scanner help them to avoid getting into trouble in the first place. Can freighters take into account their surroundings? I think the answer to both of these is no, but it would be nice if I with a good scanner, they could avoid trouble... or take a long way around.

[Raptor34]

Well, I know the AI likes to poop LTs out according to what I see on my sats. So maybe its automatic? Or might be settings.
Don't think they'll restock though.

[jlehtone]

It seems that "Deploy towers" is called at least by the "We interrupt the regular programme for a Flee." routine. Automatic restock is unlikely. NPC fleet jobs might restock, but your ships have you ...

[aquatica]

I have had issues with these.
They don't deploy, however I don't know if pilot skill requirements are taken into consideration? I have just 3 start freighter captains max, so dunno. I've stocked them with LT's to no avail. When I get message about "we're taking serious damage!" I might have enough time to dump some LT's on whatever is coming at them (its usually Phoenix or Rattlesnake). That might be enough.

Also I would really, *really* want to have "IGNORE" as default action for piracy harassment. Why? Because when my transport is at Travel Mode, it can outrun anything.
When it starts to "FLEE", it will DROP OUT OF TRAVEL and then select random station (more often than not) forcing that transport to fly directly through the hostile pirate ship... And you know how that works

[GCU Grey Area]

Also I would really, *really* want to have "IGNORE" as default action for piracy harassment. Why? Because when my transport is at Travel Mode, it can outrun anything.
When it starts to "FLEE", it will DROP OUT OF TRAVEL and then select random station (more often than not) forcing that transport to fly directly through the hostile pirate ship... And you know how that works

Can recommend Terran engines for such circumstances, particularly if modded (I like a combination of Polisher chassis + Reaver engines for my freighters & miners). They still drop out of Travel mode when the Flee triggers, but they're damn fast at getting back up to speed after I cancel the Flee & let them either continue on their planned route, if the pirate's behind them, or give them an alternative destination if it's in front. Current game is a bit over a week old & have not had even a single case of a pirate getting close enough to one of my Okinawas to start shooting & prevent them re-engaging Travel mode. They try to follow but looks like my freighters are well out of scanner range before the pirates can get their non-Terran engines warmed up. They lose interest fairly soon after that.

[aquatica]

Also I would really, *really* want to have "IGNORE" as default action for piracy harassment. Why? Because when my transport is at Travel Mode, it can outrun anything.
When it starts to "FLEE", it will DROP OUT OF TRAVEL and then select random station (more often than not) forcing that transport to fly directly through the hostile pirate ship... And you know how that works

Car recommend Terran engines for such circumstances, particularly if modded (I like a combination of Polisher chassis + Reaver engines for my freighters & miners). They still drop out of Travel mode when the Flee triggers, but they're damn fast at getting back up to speed after I cancel the Flee & let them either continue on their planned route, if the pirate's behind them, or give them an alternative destination if it's in front. Current game is a bit over a week old & have not had even a single case of a pirate getting close enough to one of my Okinawas to start shooting & prevent them re-engaging Travel mode. They try to follow but looks like my freighters are well out of scanner range before the pirates can get their non-Terran engines warmed up. They lose interest fairly soon after that.

I'm using Boa's, with M transports warming up is not an issue (some have TER engines, others have SPL). With L's I haven't had much issues iirc, using Buffalos and Incarcaturas.

Sorry for saying "Freighters", I mean "Transports" as I mainly use M size for that. Miners are mostly L and they have no issues either.

[KextV8]

In my experience, laser towers are absolute trash out of sector anyway and won't help. If you aren't planning to go in sector yourself so they actually work well, don't bother with them.

[Malchar]

If you stock your freighters/miners with Laser Towers, is there a way for them to use them when needed for defense/escape, and will/can they restock themselves?

Automatic use of LT. In theory, AI automatically drop LT when the ship flee. At least it is true for military ships under AI control, whatever the ship is yours or factions ones. I cant be affirmative for civilian ships because I have not observed this bevahiour several time and even less systematically.

LT is suppose to be on the way of the aggressor runing after you and slow it enough for you can flee then use travel speed to definitivly escape. Damage are symbolic and destruction is not the goal. Goal is to slowdown opponent for you get enough time to escape.

For restocking, if a method exist I dont know it. Anyway restock how many LT ? the iniatil number to had set on the construction ? the number you have buy last time you refilled manually ? maximum capacity ? ...

Special case ; I observed torp-ships, once out of ammo, set itself automatically in flee behaviour and by the way dropped in the porcess its load of LT (IF it have some)
It is also probably true for ships that have only missile launchers for weapons.

[Midnitewolf]

I have had issues with these.
They don't deploy, however I don't know if pilot skill requirements are taken into consideration? I have just 3 start freighter captains max, so dunno. I've stocked them with LT's to no avail. When I get message about "we're taking serious damage!" I might have enough time to dump some LT's on whatever is coming at them (its usually Phoenix or Rattlesnake). That might be enough.

Also I would really, *really* want to have "IGNORE" as default action for piracy harassment. Why? Because when my transport is at Travel Mode, it can outrun anything.
When it starts to "FLEE", it will DROP OUT OF TRAVEL and then select random station (more often than not) forcing that transport to fly directly through the hostile pirate ship... And you know how that works

God how I hate that obscure "Star" system. Even at 4-5 stars, my captains often act as if they have been eating the magic mushrooms. I hate this system worth a passion. I just want my captains to do what I tell them to, not act all retarded because of "Reasons".

[Wraith_Magus]

To answer the OP, it's the "Flee" or "Escape" command. It absolutely works with miners, I see them drop LTs all the time. Likewise, an enemy ship will absolutely do this to you when they change their orders to "flee from battle", which often happens if you have hit S/M ships with ion shots enough to drag its hull down a lot, or to L/XL ships if you've destroyed its turrets and engines. (They'll start popping out LT mk 2s from the hangar bays constantly and spitting out LT mk 1s from the front of the ship. Mildly annoying for boarding pods, so you have to shoot those down.) How many they'll drop depends on how long they are harassed, but they seem to stop after like 6 unless they leave Flee command and then go back into it.

That said, laser towers are, as mentioned, absolute garbage in X4, and are only useful as bullet sponges. I dropped them en masse to make a "turret push" mission easier by distracting the swarms and swarms of defense drones and Ms that came after me. They're useful just to give the Xenon something else to shoot at as you boost behind them and let your shields recharge. You can see the results here. The P that flew into the cloud of LTs after I left the sector? Murdered all of them with complete impunity. Took no damage at all.

God how I hate that obscure "Star" system. Even at 4-5 stars, my captains often act as if they have been eating the magic mushrooms. I hate this system worth a passion. I just want my captains to do what I tell them to, not act all retarded because of "Reasons".

Don't worry, they act dumber when they get more stars. 1 star captains don't know how to boost. 3 star captains do, so they boost towards the enemy, then scream that their shields are down when they get there and take a hit. Constantly. I'm CONSTANTLY seeing larger, slower ships like my destroyers and frigates boosting their shields away before combat starts. I have to make sure they have low-star pilots to avoid the suicidal scripting of "highly trained" pilots.

[KextV8]

The P that flew into the cloud of LTs after I left the sector? Murdered all of them with complete impunity. Took no damage at all.

My experience was the same. I dropped an entire cargo load(100) of LTs to do the Terran/Yaki quest without having to go get a bigger ship. In sector they were vaporizing everything that came in range of them. As soon as I left sector, a couple Xenon Ms(Not the P, the Small Fighter M) went through and killed them all. I'm not convinced they even fire out of sector at all.

[Wraith_Magus]

My experience was the same. I dropped an entire cargo load(100) of LTs to do the Terran/Yaki quest without having to go get a bigger ship. In sector they were vaporizing everything that came in range of them. As soon as I left sector, a couple Xenon Ms(Not the P, the Small Fighter M) went through and killed them all. I'm not convinced they even fire out of sector at all.

When watching them on the map, they only turn when in-sector. (It's kind of neat that they actually rotate the icon.) They do nothing while out-of-sector and being watched. Oddly, I get the sense that they do work when out-of-sector and not watched, however. I've seen them slowly get whittled down, but clumps of them will have individuals survive what must have been battles that took out the others, so unless the Kha'ak decided to only blow up three and ignore the rest, they must have been winning some battles when I wasn't looking... I think.