I need a bit of guidance about Ships, Equipment and Personnel

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Brinnie
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I need a bit of guidance about Ships, Equipment and Personnel

Post by Brinnie » Tue, 28. Nov 17, 09:55

Hello all.

Can anybody advise me on where to get the following information:


- Weapons . The main guns and the missiles a description of what type is more effective for specific situations.

- Drones. The same as the above.

- Ships. A guide about the best models for Trade and Fighting.
A guide on how to best set them up with equipment and personnel.



I have looked around on the web, perhaps not well enough, and I have not found a place with the info I am looking for.

Thanks

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Post by RAVEN.myst » Tue, 28. Nov 17, 11:22

Since I don't know where such guides might be, I'll give a few pointers drawn from my own experience (keep in mind that these are coloured by opinion/subjectivity.) Also, in case you're unaware, there is an in-game encyclopaedia that you can refer to, though while it gives specific numbers, it doesn't advise on usage scenarios.

Weapons: This is perhaps the most subject to personal preference - it's really about how you prefer to fight. As I prefer to command ships to fight on my behalf rather than to dogfight myself, my views here are pretty restricted. I favour high rate-of-fire weapons against small targets (the Particle Repeater Mk.3 is my default weapon), but the Inertial Hammer can be very effective. Plasma weapons are alright for taking out surface elements on capital ships (as it the aforementioned Inertial Hammer, with the added bonus that its damage continues onto the shields/hull), as well as for just wearing away a capital ship's shields or hull. If you prefer a sniper style, then the Railgun is for you (assuming you're playing with the Home of Light expansion.)

Missiles: These have been balanced in a perhaps somewhat odd manner - you'll find few situations where a missile that does enough damage to "one-shot" an enemy (fighter) is also fast and nimble enough to chase it down, with the exception of Starflashes vs Interceptor Drones. Against fighters, I typically use Sunstalkers and Astrobees, while Hellbusters and Tristars are excellent for taking out surface elements on capital ships (the latter wipe out entire clusters, if you fire them at the centre-most element.) I don't use Novadrones myself (but my Balors certainly do! :D ), but if I were to, they would be mainly for taking out surface elements on weapons platforms.

Drones: Sadly, drones' usefulness is very limited. Drones carried on my Albino Skank are generally a hacking drone (Trojan) and a scanning drone (Beholder), 4 shield support drones, and perhaps a couple of Intrepids or Interceptor IIs (the latter are really the only ones that can keep up with me, as I favour supercharged engines - but I VERY seldom use the combat drones. Some players use Traitor Drones to attach demolition charges to unsuspecting targets, but I have no experience with these, so I can't comment.

As far as drones operated by capital ships, unfortunately there are a couple of factors that make them less than amazing: firstly, the player has little to no control over their deployment and targeting; secondly, although ships can carry them in large numbers, they only launch a few at a time, which means you can't really overpower your enemies with a sizable swarm of drones, instead wearing away, but taking heavy attrition to your drones at the same time; lastly, drone casualties (largely due to the first two points) tend to be unacceptable, which combined with the ball-aches involved in replacing them makes them somewhat impractical - but... Drones used on your capital ships when you're not around work considerably better, as they add strength to your ship in an abstract manner, and are then not subject to attrition due to individual stupidity and what-not. So it's still a good idea to fit them when you can comfortably afford to do so. For purely role-playing and aesthetic reasons, I tend to fit a mix of Interceptors, Intrepids, and Overruns, so that at least notionally my ships are equipped to deal with all enemy types. NOTE: Assault Drones (I think that's what they're called) don't work as described - in fact, as near as I can tell, they don't work at all.

SHIPS:
Firstly, "how to best set them up with equipment" - well, unfortunately there's nothing to say here because ships only have one possible load-out each: you don't get "either-or" choices to make, other than whether to fit a shield or weapon, or not - the correct answer is almost always "yes, fit i" (exceptions would be very specific, rare, and specialised.) Ditto personnel: you NEED your ships to have captains, and you very much want them to have engineers; some players don't hire a defense officer on some ships to "prevent them from getting into trouble", but I find it's better to install a defense officer and simply make sure he/she is carrying out the appropriate stance order.

Trade ships:
Firstly, it's quite easy to underestimate the value of M-sized (sub-capital) freighters - don't. Certainly for servicing your stations, these are superior in a number of ways (many of them subtle.) They are cheap, require only one crew (pilot) and a cheap one at that, and they dock/undock and load/unload far faster than capital traders. Also, and especially for stations that use/produce numerous wares, it's better to have, say, 3 M-sized containerships than one capital-sized one: the small ones can split up and each be buying or selling a different ware at the same time, instead of the large one having to deal with them one at a time, and often getting hung up on one "important" ware and neglecting the others (not to mention travelling around with only a fraction of its hold filled - what a waste!)

However, you WILL want capital-sized freighters at some point, and for certain tasks. For instance, when carrying large cargoes, especially over long distances (inter-sector, or inter-system), you'll want the benefits of a large hold, thick shields, defensive weapons, and the jumpdrive. And even stations can benefit from having some capital-sized freighters in addition to their smaller brethren. The smaller freighters, if crewed by skilled pilots, have surprising self-preservation, but capital freighters tend to be better, because they can boost away from trouble for longer distances, or jump away altogether, while their thick shields buy them the time to do so.

Combat ships:
Here we're back to highly subjective territory. Some players like smaller and faster ships in numbers, some players like heavily armed behemoths, yet others (me included) like to mix it up heavily. A ship I'm (perhaps inordinately) fond of is the Stromvok, at least in the early to mid game (later on, I still use them - affording them becomes trivial, in any case), and I'm a fan of the Taranis. Personally, I don't generally go heavier than Olmekrons for bringing heavy firepower, as I simply don't have the patience to wait for something like an Arawn or a Fulmekron to lumber its way to the destination, not to mention the havoc it can cause to ships trying to escort it, getting in their way constantly - but that's just me. I like ships that use Plasma Jet weapons, hence my fondness of Taranis and Ollie, and ships that are quick, hence I also favour Stromvoks, Light Suls, and Balors (this last is also an excellent choice for personal runabout ship, as it's quick and nimble, for players like me who prefer to get chauffeured around instead of personally flying to every destination.)


If you get more respondents, it's likely (nay, certain!) that you'll get differing and even conflicting advice - so much in the game is subjective rather than objective (which is good - if there were too many clear "best options", what would be the point, right?)

Happy hunting! :)

PS: There's MUCH I haven't covered - more than I have, in fact. Just so you know...
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Post by Brinnie » Tue, 28. Nov 17, 13:00

First of all thank you for having taking the time to post this guide just for me.


You have done much to give me the directions I was looking for, although I was hoping for something different, that is not down to you but entirely to do with the game's mechanics, you have addressed all my questions.
I mean, used to previous X games I was expecting a greater degree of complexity with the choices to be made with regards to weapons, drones, equipment, personnel, etc..

It's not a complaint, just a thought. Now I can focus on other aspects of the game (I am sure there will be plenty of other things to do as in all other X games) and not waste time on trying to figure out how to do things that are best left alone.

With regards to trade ships what would be the best orders for evading attackers? Defense officer orders to attack or defend?
I presume Defend.


Cheers

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Post by euclid » Tue, 28. Nov 17, 14:06

Brinnie wrote: .......With regards to trade ships what would be the best orders for evading attackers? Defense officer orders to attack or defend?
I presume Defend.....
Hi Brinnie, and yes, "defend" is the safer option. On "attack" the ship will attempt to shot at any enemy which bares the risk of a stray shot hitting friendlies. And that can open a can or worms.

Cheers Euclid
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Post by RAVEN.myst » Tue, 28. Nov 17, 15:03

Brinnie wrote:First of all thank you for having taking the time to post
You're most welcome :) Though this doesn't qualify as a "guide", but rather just some thoughts/opinions. ;)
Brinnie wrote:I mean, used to previous X games I was expecting a greater degree of complexity with the choices to be made
I relish the depth, breadth, and overall complexity of the earlier titles - which is why the vast majority of my "X-time" is spent there (mostly X3AP, but also some in X2 and X3TC, when the mood takes me - these three constitute not only my three favourite X games, but in fact three of my all-time favourite games, period) - regrettable for Rebirth *shrug* but it simply doesn't quite scratch the same itch for me :D

And I concur: "defend" will retaliate vs attackers who specifically attacked the ship very recently; "attack" will actively engage any ships that are officially designated as "hostile" (red) even if they don't start anything - this means that other trade-ships that are on 'defend' and would have gone on about their normal business will now retaliate. Also, there is a range of "hostile" relations within which the other faction will attack your combat ships, but will ignore your civilian ships - however, if your trade/mining/construction ship opens fire first, then those other ships WILL strike back, to the death (someone's...)
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Post by Brinnie » Tue, 28. Nov 17, 15:20

RAVEN.myst wrote: You're most welcome :) Though this doesn't qualify as a "guide", but rather just some thoughts/opinions. ;)


Well nevertheless you gave me guidance so I'll settle for calling it a mini-guide :)



and thank you too Euclid.

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Post by Brinnie » Wed, 6. Dec 17, 12:17

A couple of other questions, kind of on topic.




- Weapon mods. I am getting quite a few, most of them are no use to me. Is there a way to sell them, recycle them, basically get rid of them either than installing and then removing them?




- Ships assigned to my station. How do I tell them to refuel? Preferably a setting that tells them to do it automatically.




- When trading taking jobs at the bulletin, like a request for any type of goods. Is there a speedier way of doing it? At the moment this is what I do:

- Take the job > go to trade offer menu and buy the item keeping the quantity in mind. Can the following part be achieved more efficiently?
- Go to the bulletin board active mission > find the mission > show on the map > make a not of sector and station.
- Go to trade offer menu again > select trader that bought the goods > find the goods on the list > go through each entry to find the station that commissioned the job...

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Post by RainerPrem » Wed, 6. Dec 17, 12:47

Brinnie wrote:A couple of other questions, kind of on topic.

...
Hi,

- Weapon mods. IMHO the worst feature of the game. You can waste a lot of time crafting mods which then appear to be for weapons you don't have. I refrain from crafting them in the meantime. From time to time I check with a mechanic if I have found a new and better one for the weapons I have, but that's all.

- Refuel Ships assigned to my station. Go to Ship->Details->Captain-> Automatic Refuel-> Change.

- Trade missions. In case I need anything noted I use the screenshot feature. Fortunately I have three monitors, so I can display the newest screenshot on another one. IMHO taking trade missions make a lot of money, but is not worth the effort. There are better ones.

cu
Rainer

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Post by RAVEN.myst » Wed, 6. Dec 17, 13:31

Regarding weapon mods: you can dismantle them (I forget the exact term used, it might be some other word - in the mods part of the inventory screen, it's one of the numbered options at the bottom, near the bottom right if I recall correctly), and this results in a mod part, which can then be used in the crafting of another weapon mod (requires metal alloys and other ingredients, for the higher-grade ones.) I'm with RainerPrem on this one - the weapon mod "system" is... less than great *cough*
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Post by Brinnie » Wed, 6. Dec 17, 13:52

Yes most of the mods are a waste of space but I did get a couple of interesting ones which kept me interested in the feature, in particular one that increased cooldown by 25+% on my particle repeater.
Another one with potential was on the same gun, it increasead fire rate by over 200% as well as cool rate (by not enough), useless in my hands as it got hot too soon but used by a better gunner could have been devastating.

I think the many mods I have accumulated have been, for the most part, dropped by shot down enemies, so I can't say I have bothered with crafting. I would like to get rid of the mods that I don't need which is most of them.

@RAVEN.myst: Are you sure about the dismantle part? I thought it dismantled the mod installed and not the redundant ones, which would defeat the purpose.
I'll give it a try. Thanks


RainerPrem wrote: - Trade missions. In case I need anything noted I use the screenshot feature. Fortunately I have three monitors, so I can display the newest screenshot on another one. IMHO taking trade missions make a lot of money, but is not worth the effort. There are better ones.
... ah! The MkIII monitor upgrade, good idea but I do not have the cabin space for it :)

BTW, my station traders thank you for your assistance with refueling .

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Post by Brinnie » Wed, 6. Dec 17, 16:11

RAVEN.myst wrote:Regarding weapon mods: you can dismantle them (I forget the exact term used, it might be some other word - in the mods part of the inventory screen, it's one of the numbered options at the bottom, near the bottom right if I recall correctly), and this results in a mod part, which can then be used in the crafting of another weapon mod (requires metal alloys and other ingredients, for the higher-grade ones.) I'm with RainerPrem on this one - the weapon mod "system" is... less than great *cough*


I confirm what I said earlier. The "Remove" option does not dispose of the selected Mod but uninstalls and recycle the currently equipped one.

Which, unless I am mistaken, means that when one finds a mod to keep all the surplus mods cannot be removed without scrapping the better one.

Furthermore in order to scrap any mods it needs to be installed first at a considerable cost.

If that is the case, it is not a practice that makes a lot of financial sense if any at all.

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Post by RAVEN.myst » Wed, 6. Dec 17, 16:23

No, I wasn't referring to the 'remove' option, there's a separate one that I use en masse to boil down the tons of unused ones. You don't do it at the mechanic, you do it in your inventory (go to inventory, then press '2' for mods, and take it from there.)

EDIT: Went to find the specifics, since my memory wasn't *quite* up to the task, and it's as follows: as above (go Inventory, hit 2 for Weapon Mods), and then the "take it from there" is called 'Dismantle' and appears at the bottom-right, hotkeyed to 4. In this screen, all the mods you have are listed in a tree, grouped per weapon type and sorted by quality level.

Dismantling in this fashion, as it's done without needing installation, costs nothing.
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Post by Brinnie » Wed, 6. Dec 17, 20:24

Thanks Raven.

Dismantle did the job.

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Post by RAVEN.myst » Thu, 7. Dec 17, 02:26

:) :thumb_up:
Brinnie wrote:Dismantle did the job.
Many, many, many times, I'm guessing :D Those mods do so pile up over time...
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Post by Brinnie » Fri, 8. Dec 17, 15:16

Thanks to the info you guys provided me with I have managed to get enough money to spend on some capital ships and I would like to put together a few small fleets.

- A personal squad comprising a couple of fast L fight ships to follow me around for some extra muscle when I bite off more than I can chew. Set up so that one is protecting me with one or two other ship watching its Rs, so that I could control the whole squad by commanding the one follows me.

- A fleet made up of at least 1 heavy destroyer with an entourage to protect it. I don't really have any need for this, at the present time, other than to satisfy my megalomania.

- A trader mini-fleet, made up of a Lyramekron and something heavy to protect it. The idea is to use this set up for all my traders as to reduce, if not eliminate, the chance of them been destroyed while stopped in space for a cup of coffee or something.


This is where you guys come in. First of all, are my plans doable or more trouble than they are worth?

What ships do you advise for these set ups? I understand that only L/XL ships are to be considered.

Do I have to baby sit them for things like refuel and rearm or can I set them up to be self sufficient?

Can I do a support fleet to autonomously rearm/refuel my fleets if needed?

and are there safe mods that you would recommend for fleet management/support, for example something to use a carrier to dock small ships even if not for fighting but for transport of captured crafts?

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Post by RAVEN.myst » Fri, 8. Dec 17, 16:28

Brinnie wrote:- A personal squad comprising a couple of fast L fight ships to follow me around for some extra muscle when I bite off more than I can chew. Set up so that one is protecting me with one or two other ship watching its Rs, so that I could control the whole squad by commanding the one follows me.
In theory fine - in practice doesn't always have the desired effect. However, if you are content to be patient/tactical when doing then biting, by preemptively wrapping yourself in your squad, it may live up to its intention.
Brinnie wrote: I don't really have any need for this, at the present time, other than to satisfy my megalomania.
A fine reason on its own :D Keep in mind that such fleets tend to be VERY (read: "extremely") cumbersome - the ships end up spending more time veering to avoid colliding than actually going where you tell them, unless you are out-of-zone with them, which means you (disappointingly) don't get to watch them in action. Not that it can't be fun. And there is a particular engagement where you will, in fact, NEED such a battle group.
Brinnie wrote:- A trader mini-fleet, made up of a Lyramekron and something heavy to protect it. The idea is to use this set up for all my traders as to reduce, if not eliminate, the chance of them been destroyed while stopped in space for a cup of coffee or something.

Personally, I don't like to trade manually - I prefer to set up factories and have them do their thing, and set up warehouses for system-wide auto-trading. However, I have enough experience with it to say this much: pairing combat vessels with trade vessels (to act as escorts) sounds like a great idea, and even works sometimes, but you need to keep something in mind when it comes to combat: different enemies treat combatant and non-combatant vessels differently. So, you could have a freighter that can move freely and unmolested through a region, but as soon as you give it an escort that ends up drawing heat. However, this really only applies to "legitimate" factions - pirate factions, on the other hand, don't care, so there the escorts are theoretically a good idea - if only the group actually moved together - which it won't. Sadly.

Brinnie wrote:. First of all, are my plans doable or more trouble than they are worth?
Only you can really answer that :) After all, if setting up these things is fun for you, maybe it doesn't matter how effective it works out to be... Alternatively, however, if the end result is your priority, then the effectiveness is significant.
Brinnie wrote: understand that only L/XL ships are to be considered.
Why? The more I've played this game, the more I've leaned on M sized vessels, along with some fighters (S), though admittedly the latter are still quite tricky to put to proper work, given how they can't jump and also can't be taken along on carriers. But M-sized freighters form by far the bulk of my trading operations.
Brinnie wrote:Do I have to baby sit them for things like refuel and rearm or can I set them up to be self sufficient?
Mostly, you can set automatic behaviour. Mostly ;)
Brinnie wrote:Can I do a support fleet to autonomously rearm/refuel my fleets if needed?
I've never tried, in part because I can't think how I'd do it (certain tools that were present in the previous Xs, such as CLS and Supply Command Software, are conspicuous in their absence in Rebirth.)
Brinnie wrote:and are there safe mods that you would recommend for fleet management/support, for example something to use a carrier to dock small ships even if not for fighting but for transport of captured crafts?
I'm afraid this one I can't even attempt to answer - I'm a pure vanillaist :D But I suspect there must be *something* out there to suit your needs in this regard...

Happy hunting :)
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Post by Brinnie » Fri, 8. Dec 17, 17:07

Thanks Raven some fine answers for me, in particular:


"... After all, if setting up these things is fun for you, maybe it doesn't matter how effective it works out to be... " :)



With regards to S and M ships, I thought they are not practical to use due to their lack of jump engines and perhaps more so to the fact that they cannot auto-repair. I could not be bothered to do the maintenance on them myself. Now if I could just assign small and medium crafts to capitals ships or stations and have their engineers to take care of all repairs it would be a different thing.

Anyhow I'll get busy and see what happens.

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Post by RAVEN.myst » Fri, 8. Dec 17, 18:46

Brinnie wrote:With regards to S and M ships, I thought they are not practical to use due to their lack of jump engines and perhaps more so to the fact that they cannot auto-repair.
I completely agree - I don't see why a station manager or defense officer, for instance, can't oversee the maintenance of ships assigned to him/her; made worse by the rigmarole involved in issuing orders to assigned ships: detach by adding to own squad - order the repair - wait for ship to get there and repair to be carried out - keep an eye/ear open for the repair, in order to then reassign the ship back to its task (inevitably the ship ends up sitting idle for quite some time before remembered!) I'd happily have repair costs be automatically charged to the appropriate overseer's budget.

Freighters, although they suffer from all of the above, tend to be rather less maintenance for the most part. They avoid combat as much as possible, so it's only when their shields have been depleted before they could GTFO that they take any damage (by contrast, fighters' job is to... well... fight! :D ) Also, fighters would, as you've mentioned, be SO useful if they could be operated from *carriers* (this thinking could happily be extended to a freighter or two, homebased to a capital ship in order to continuously and semi-autonomously resupply it with fuel, ammo, drones, repair materials...
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Post by Brinnie » Fri, 8. Dec 17, 19:46

Raven I suppose the solution might lie in the mods section, although I have not checked yet as for the most part I like to experience the game without mods, or as near to that as possible, before delving into them.

I have been spoiled with the previous X games, so many interesting scripts that took advantage of the open architecture of the game (clearly not so by coincidence but by merit of the game makers) that I remember I enjoyed to spend time just checking them out .
Fascinated by the ingenuity of the authors who extended the game's, already vast, scope by adding features at times needed and at other times welcomed.
There were some scripts that expanded fleet control, management and support to the point of giving the user the option to play the game as if it belonged to a different genre.

However, from first impression I have not found half as much stuff as what I did for the X3 series, but I will look harder. In the mean I am enjoying Rebirth and that is the main thing.

The other thing is

the community is as cool as ever. :thumb_up:

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