How can I protect my Elephant (TC)

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Trevelvis
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How can I protect my Elephant (TC)

Post by Trevelvis » Thu, 19. Oct 17, 11:45

I just bought my first TL , an Elephant but I am confused with all the available weapons in TC so I am confused to whats best to use on it. I mainly am using as my personal TL because of speed but need to attack ships that come after me. Thanks

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Post by RAVEN.myst » Thu, 19. Oct 17, 12:39

Since TLs aren't combat ships, their weapon options tend to be quite limited - which is a good thing if your head is spinning :D I like to put FAAs whenever possible, but I'm pretty sure the Elephant can't mount those, so more conventional weapons will do: HEPTs are pretty good, and CIGs aren't bad, though not my first choice (they have decent hitting power, but don't land shots on small targets very reliably); being a Split ship, it may be able to pack ISRs in some of its turrets - if so, then I would highly recommend those, as they have good shot speed, great rate of fire, and decent range and damage.

Additionally, I would carry fighter drones on board, swarm enemies when necessary. Being a TL, the Elephant has some docking bays, and as long as you keep at least one of them free, drones may return to you once all threats are removed. Also, carrying some fighters is a good idea. I'm guessing that maybe you just invested all or most of your capital into this ship (TLs are a wise early investment, they can make you good money), so you may not have a bunch of fighters, but I strongly suggest you keep one nicely outfitted one that you are comfortable flying - that way, when the proverbial hits the ventilation appliance, you can jump into it and support your Elephant, since actually piloting a TL in combat is really dull - it's better to let it do its thing with its turrets, and help it from outside.

Glossary (in case you need it)
HEPT: High Energy Plasma Thrower
CIG: Concussion Impulse Generator
ISR: Ion Shard Railgun
FAA: Flak Artillery Array

Good hunting! :)
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Post by pjknibbs » Thu, 19. Oct 17, 12:45

I'd use Energy Bolt Chainguns if you can find them--they need ammo, but do good damage and use very little energy, which is good given the poor weapons generator on a TL. However, you really shouldn't be allowing the thing anywhere near a fight if you can help it--TLs are enormous targets and don't have the shielding to hold off a determined enemy attack for long.

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Post by RAVEN.myst » Thu, 19. Oct 17, 13:24

pjknibbs wrote:I'd use Energy Bolt Chainguns if you can find them
Ah yes, I somehow forgot this - very good choice (high shot speed, very high rate of fire, good range, decent damage); uses ammo which takes up cargo space - something a TL has in spades.
pjknibbs wrote: However, you really shouldn't be allowing the thing anywhere near a fight if you can help it--TLs are enormous targets and don't have the shielding to hold off a determined enemy attack for long.
And definitely this ^^^ Ultimately, a TL's best defence is avoidance, unless against small enemy forces (say, a few fighters, or a corvette at most - but you had better be helping from inside a fighter of your own! :) )
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Post by Timsup2nothin » Thu, 19. Oct 17, 14:20

The best defense for an Elephant is found in the numerous docking bays. If you are dealing with opposition that can't be managed by firing a dozen Mambas at them you need a real capital ship.
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the El

Post by Bill Huntington » Thu, 19. Oct 17, 20:36

I use my El in all kinds of operations. An occasional missile gets fired my way. I fill six slots with 6 PACs and 2 with PBEs. These weapons can also handle the pesky M5 that shows up from time to time. The 5 x200 shields can take some damage too. Getting out of there with shield damage just takes some time to recharge and correct. If the El is not going in harm's way, I'll just carry one 200 shield.

I consider the El a milestone in my games. It makes rep gain much faster with every race. It can make money too, but you can lose money when at first with low rep for a race. With higher rep, you make good money with Station Build missions. Building Stations for the pirate's helps with rep and with $.

It isn't the best choice for serious mega-station building. I just use the El to hold CCK for that. By then you can afford a big TL which can hold many more stations. But the El is the best starter TL for many reasons.
Bill in S.F., enjoying the game

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Post by RainerPrem » Fri, 20. Oct 17, 05:35

Hi,

over time I collect enough Elephants to have one for each race's station build missions.

For my own station building I use my collection of Mammoths and Atmospheric Lifters.

I never used a TL as personal ship - they are much too slow and immobile. My personal ship of choice is the fastest M6 which I can lay hand on.

cu
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Post by Triaxx2 » Fri, 20. Oct 17, 08:42

TL's area actually pretty combat versatile if you think outside the box. They have an absolutely cavernous cargo hold. If you have enemies in pursuit, it's got all manner of things it can spew out to defend itself.

A wing of fighters is something not to be sniffed at and should be counted as part of it's armament. Spit a dozen Falcon Haulers out into space and you've got a lot of firepower protecting you. That's another 96 guns hanging around defending you, each with 200Mj of shielding.

Fighter drones, of three different flavors.

Spew out Laser Towers in their faces. They're not very good but sheer weight of numbers should eventually win.

You can lay mines on the run, (do they explode when shot even if not armed?), and leave serious dents in any ships chasing you.

Finally, you have essentially infinite missile capacity. Wasps for Fighters, Thunderbolts for heavier fighters, and if you find there is a station or angry capital in the way, face it down and spray Tornadoes at it until it goes away.
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Re: How can I protect my Elephant (TC)

Post by Viperswhip » Sat, 21. Oct 17, 00:57

Trevelvis wrote:I just bought my first TL , an Elephant but I am confused with all the available weapons in TC so I am confused to whats best to use on it. I mainly am using as my personal TL because of speed but need to attack ships that come after me. Thanks
Type Elephant Combat X3 Youtube into Google. I did that, I do that when I fly my Elephant.

Basically late game I have Elephants with BPPCs every few sectors as mobile dumps for goods, they easily defends the sectors from random pirates, then I have my personal Elephant kitted out with basically jump fuel, missiles and drones. I don't fly it all the time, I mean I do have my Spring Blossom docked in there for when I really want to speed around.

But nothing gets close, my turrets blow fighters and missiles out of the sky, and I am faster than anything that can hurt me, Drones also attract missile fire, I picked up all the Pandora crates with this Elephant.

So, an Elephant can pretty easily clear a Xenon zone if you start at range.

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Re: How can I protect my Elephant (TC)

Post by jlehtone » Sat, 21. Oct 17, 17:21

Viperswhip wrote:Type Elephant Combat X3 Youtube into Google. I did that, I do that when I fly my Elephant.

Basically late game I have Elephants with BPPCs every few sectors as mobile dumps for goods, they easily defends the sectors from random pirates, then I have my personal Elephant kitted out with basically jump fuel, missiles and drones. I don't fly it all the time, I mean I do have my Spring Blossom docked in there for when I really want to speed around.
:gruebel: Interesting mixture.

There are no betaPPC in X3TC/AP and Elephant in those games does not mount PPC.

There are no Aldrin and Spring Blossom in X3R, where there are bPPC and Elephant mounting them.


Google finds "stuff", but does it apply to current game?
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Re: How can I protect my Elephant (TC)

Post by zooze » Sun, 22. Oct 17, 09:38

jlehtone wrote:
Viperswhip wrote:Type Elephant Combat X3 Youtube into Google. I did that, I do that when I fly my Elephant.

Basically late game I have Elephants with BPPCs every few sectors as mobile dumps for goods, they easily defends the sectors from random pirates, then I have my personal Elephant kitted out with basically jump fuel, missiles and drones. I don't fly it all the time, I mean I do have my Spring Blossom docked in there for when I really want to speed around.
:gruebel: Interesting mixture.

There are no betaPPC in X3TC/AP and Elephant in those games does not mount PPC.

There are no Aldrin and Spring Blossom in X3R, where there are bPPC and Elephant mounting them.

Google finds "stuff", but does it apply to current game?
Also note elephants can only dock m3 or lower. A springblossom is an m6 😅

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Post by Honved » Mon, 23. Oct 17, 16:58

An elephant can carry HOW MANY thousand fighter drones? If you want to make something go away, that's one answer. (Chasing down the surviving drones afterwards might be a painful chore, though.)

For defense, I'll generally put PACs in most of the turrets, and something with a higher bullet speed in the rear, which is about all that the weapons generators are able to continuously fire.

Note that an Elephant is close to perfect for placing STATIONS. If you're building COMPLEXES, it's a bit too small for the job (like a spoon when the job calls for a shovel).

In the early to mid game, it's an excellent tool for following the player ship and doing Station Building missions along the way, as well as buying and selling in bulk (with a Teleporter and/or Cargo Drones), while carrying resupplies of missiles, ammo, and other items for your growing fleet. You just don't want to get it in the way of combat, if you can avoid it.

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Post by Triaxx2 » Mon, 23. Oct 17, 21:08

As long as there's a free docking port, drones can auto-return to the Elephant, so that's less of an issue. And the Elephant is fast enough to close distance before they run too low on power. The only question is do you have enough computer to survive that many drones launching. I've killed Osaka's with drones launched from a Mammoth, but the computer barely survived that attempt.

I like the PRG as it's tail gun. The projectile is large enough that it does a good job knocking down most missiles, and those fast enough to get through tend to be weak enough they can't kill it.

Carry stations in other ships and fill the Elephant with Complex Construction Kits. It can then jump away for more if necessary while your other ships continue laying stations.

Because it's fast, I use it as a fleet refueler with CLS grabbing fuel from an Albatross sitting as a Gas Station and then the Elephant runs around keeping my capitals and other TL's fueled up.
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Post by Viperswhip » Thu, 9. Nov 17, 01:06

I swear I don't drink

I meant Spitfyre's

and HEPTs for OOS

In Sector, missile boat with drones en masse

Sorry

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Post by jlehtone » Thu, 9. Nov 17, 16:58

:x3: Too many names to keep track of.


In the end it comes down to the fact that neither the name of your ship nor that of the ship in front of you matters. What matters is that only one of the ships blows up and you are not in that ship. :xenon:
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Post by RAVEN.myst » Thu, 9. Nov 17, 17:07

Here's a completely different take on protecting the Elephant:

Firstly, elephants have really thick hides (it takes a special calibre of rifle to get through, for instance), so they don't really require any barding - that would only weigh them down and/or make them uncomfortably hot. Now, having forgone the weight of the armour, the owner is in a position to mount a houdah atop the elephant, and man it with a couple of spearmen/archers. It is not uncommon to have some tapestries hanging from the sides, and these DO in fact serve to enhance the hapless pachyderm's dermal toughness... Elephants do have a weak point that could could be exploited, though: their limbs can be attacked with axes should aggressors get past the arrows and the spears, so maybe some light armour around there is indicated. There you go, elephant adequately protected from some distance, and right down to close range. :)

/end_frivolity :D


PS: Oh, and keep the poor creature the hell away from T.A. Edison!
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Post by Timsup2nothin » Thu, 9. Nov 17, 19:04

Do not let the elephant run loose, as it will be vaporized on sight.
Trapper Tim's Guide to CLS 2

On Her Majesty's Secret Service-Dead is Dead, and he is DEAD

Not a DiD, so I guess it's a DiDn't, the story of my first try at AP
Part One, in progress

HEY! AP!! That's new!!!

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Post by RAVEN.myst » Thu, 9. Nov 17, 19:42

Timsup2nothin wrote:Do not let the elephant run loose, as it will be vaporized on sight.
:D
Indeed! I'll bring in Edison, with his direct current electricity...
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Post by jlehtone » Fri, 10. Nov 17, 23:27

I don't have an elephant, just domesticated mammoths. I do follow Sun Tzu's idea of keeping the herd where no-one is willing to attack. That naturally rules out more creative uses of the vessels.
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