How effective are flak artillery?

[DEL 707]

I'm thinking of buying another TL to help me with my capping runs and station setup, I've always faniced a boron ship, so I'm looking at the Orca.

How effective are those flak artillery arrays against fighters for in sector combat, I don't plan on giving it a fighter defence like my Elephant.[/code]

[apricotslice]

They can be pretty lethal, but the range is very short.

So if the enemy stays at long range, say hept range, then your in serious trouble. If they close to point blank range, then they are.

[apogee]

I cant say how well it would work with the number of turrets on a orca (** see below), but on an m2 (python), attacking fighters dont last very long in sector.

Just remember that the rear turret on an orca is bugged and does not work!

So if the enemy stays at long range, say hept range, then your in serious trouble. If they close to point blank range, then they are.

Dont forget that ai fighters always seem to dive in at their target, each time they do this they always seem to come into range, though on an orca it all depends on the coverage of the turrets!

[Shadow_180]

Because of the size of the Orca I found that most enemies turned to avoid coliding with it before they were even in range of the AFLAKs.
The only way I could ever hit anything with FLAKs in my Orca was by strafing towards them, which was both annoying and difficult.

A good TL to help with capping runs would be the Elephant for its large hangar bay and speed, it'd also make a good OOS defence ship for when you're not using it.

[XanII]

Alpha Flaks are hard to find. and even harder to buy if you dont have the reputation with the paranid. Dukes domain has got a couple of flak forges.

Orca is vulnerable to HEPT fire. Flaks will not keep it alive against pirate M3:s due to short range. it needs protective fighters if you intend to take it into a hot area.

[jlehtone]

Dont forget that ai fighters always seem to dive in at their target, each time they do this they always seem to come into range, though on an orca it all depends on the coverage of the turrets!

And one can always hit the brakes and strafe towards the fighters. Most of them err into range.

Even if the turrets in Orca would work, you have only two AFAA per turret. Raptor (4 AFAA in turret) requires several hits to kill M3. Python (8 AFAA) still needs some. Xenon K (8 BFAA) kills in two. Fly that through the Pirate alley, and all you hear is continuous "aaarrrrgggghhhh".

But when I say "several" about 4 AFAA, that is still quite quick. Targets tend to die, rather than be hit and then run away.

FAA tracks fast. In no time after killing one target, it will already start on another. And they rarely miss. There is a bug in game load that may render them powerless.

I was convinced about FAA the moment I tried Albatross (2 BFAA). Very effective. So I would expect 2 AFAA to be too. But they drain the laser energy in TL pretty quickly.


IMO, FAA is superb anti-fighter weapon. But still I would prefer to keep Orca out of fight altogether.

[apricotslice]

I find them a contradiction in terms.

The whole idea of flak is to keep the enemy out of range of hitting you, yet these are close range guns. Very strange. I beleive they should have a range of 5km.

[XanII]

i agree. mount some hardware and fighters on it to increase its survivability. but dont use it for fighting unless oddsa are in your favor. The Orca loses its shields in no time and although the hull is strong it costs a lot to fix it.

[jlehtone]

I find them a contradiction in terms.

I see them more like Pom-Pom than 88.

[szuur]

i like the idee of 5 Km but they schould do significant less dmg else they would own the place, a bigger splash and lower turning rate would help to.


got a split python with 8 forward Gppc 4 Gppc on top and the rest B falk where possible

That ships owns.. i can take out factory's other m2's and fighters without any support.

only took 3 hour to clear every northern Boron sector
from kingdom end till Atreas clouds.... just killed the big schips and the factory's ignored the fighters they died by flaks before giving hardly and dmg, yes i counted M6 schips also to that selection.

[XanII]

Why is everybody killing the poor borons. go kill some paranid man.

[apricotslice]

Why is everybody killing the poor borons. go kill some paranid man.

The legacy of Mi Ton is hard to shake off

[Alfred Bester]

Alpha Flaks are hard to find. and even harder to buy if you dont have the reputation with the paranid. Dukes domain has got a couple of flak forges.

There is a Boron Alpha Flak installation in Ocean of Fortune, waaay near the border of known space

[devils-advocate]

^ remember factory creation by the god engine is random and frequently unique.

[XanII]

Not in my current X3 game. i have been trying to locate theese forges and some other specific factory up there near the xenon sectors. They are not there. seems to me that the Khaak/Xenon were rampaging around in the area pretty badly in the beginng of my current game.

The only AFLAK forges i have found are in dukes domain.

[jlehtone]

I agree on not pestering the poor relatives of Mi-Ton: Dolphin has not turret, Barracuda has no turret, and the Capital ships have broken turrets in addition to being very difficult to miss. Weakest opponent, and cheapest SPP loop components.

But do not chase the three-eyes either. They ain't much harder. Pick on someone of your size. Clear the Kha'ak sectors.

NPC Forges come and go. Some Split docks stock AFAA too. Personally, I find the Ocean of Fantasy to be in central part of the Universe. Very near my regular FAA supplier, the Terraformer's Road Show.

And it seems that Borons sell FAA Forges. Even cheap ones. I hope thy do, because I'm about to build my very first complex. Reading this damn forum has just made me grow a chilling fear that it ain't be simplex

[Alfred Bester]

What fun is simplexity anyway?

[jlehtone]

Beauty of it.

[DeBernd]

Flaks are the only serious Cap-ship anti Fighter weapon!
Everytging else (except Gamme PSG) just doesn't hit.
I Have about 30 Flak forges in Complexes now and it's the only weapon besides Gamma PPC i use for cap ships!
As it drains a lot of energy, there is no sense giving it to the orca or Albatross. Those ships work best with PBE, then they at least remove the shilds. Of corse, that is in sector out of sector mount APPC or BPPC.

[Little]

hmm. after many hours of combat with a simple m2 It honestly does not apper as if flak artillery can be considered a lethal defensive weapon. It could be but it isn't. Why? i have noticed the ai behavior distincitvely change once the Flaks are mounted. They change their attack runs and stay out of range, whilst bombarding with bhept's. its absoultely infuriating. Occasionally one does slip into range and is quickly disposed of, but when there are 15 of the buggers....

Fighter. Escort.