Locking down Avarice (was "Advise on locking down Avarice")

[bravoman]

As the topic suggests, I'm planning a lockdown of Avarice, preventing any Pirate traffic from flowing through.

I tried setting a BPPC equipped Elephant + a BHEPT/AHEPT equipped Nemesis patrolling the space between Montalaar and Ianamus Zura(sp?) and for the most part they are excellent at the odd group that flies through.

My problem is this: I tend to blow up a lot of pirates in pirate alley itself and when they respawn from the Teladi shipyard my patrol gets overwhelmed.

I recently changed my patrol to the ff. setup:
1 x BPPC Elephant
1 x AHEPT/BHEPT equipped Nemesis
1 x Pirate Falcon (AHEPTs)
1 x Pirate Falcon Vanguard (AHEPTs)
2 x Busters (BPACs)


I was also planning on setting about 50 laser towers each outside the Montalaar / New Income gates (not in Avarice as I like my FPS ) once I can get enough towers.

I read that a patrol of 3 M6s (ideally the Hydra or Centaur, apparently) paired with 5 M3s each is more ideal for dealing with "hot" sectors. Unfortunately my cash was severely depleted with my recent bout of avarice (pun intended) so the above is what I can afford at the moment.

Another question would be if I have the 3M6 patrol setup above, how would that work?

M6(1) -> protects M6(2) -> protects M6(3) with each squad of 5 M3s protecting 1 M6?

Thanks.

[Kor'ah]

For now stop killing pirates in pirate ally. Have the Elephant and Nemesis camp the Teladi shipyard killing everything that spawns there. Then get ready to go on a wild M6 & M7 buying spree. You need alot of firepower to deal with cleaning out pirate alley often.


Montalaar - Very little hostile action will come from there. The odd pirate and Xenon M4/M5 and that's it.

New income - Destroy the pirate base. Setup 3 Boron Hydras with all HEPT loadouts. First patrolling between w-e Gates. Second patroling between s-e Gates. Third patroling between s-w Gates. Very few pirates will make it through that. Hydras work best as they are fast and have 3x 125MJ sheilds.

If you go back to killing everything in pirate alley form these ships up in one pack and patrol in Ianamus Zura between the west gate and the shipyard. A better option would be have a single M7 do the same thing and keep the New Income patrols inplace.

Avarice - Single Centur with 2-4 M3 fighters supporting it. Later on upgrade that to a hyperion with 4-8 M3+ fighters. Pirates seem to want to pass through avarice or attack a station there. Very rare for pirates to just hang around attacking shipping in the system.

If you get Yaki spawned into the system don't attack them. They seem to attack everything but your ships and it comes in handy. That means other pirates are on the menu for them. Have a TS on hand to collect the loot from poped freetraders.

[zazie]

Sweet memories - that was the setup in my first X3-game (vanilla).
But: as long as there are pirate stations in New Income and LooManckstrats you will not be able to stop all pirates ! The constant flow of pirates from Ianamus Zura AND the irregular spawns in New Income plus the lurking pirates from LooM. will outrun your patrols. New Income itself is too big. And if one patrol is chasing a silly Harrier, other patrols will follow them sooner or later. The new pirate swarm-spawn will then pass by in their back ....

What I did - and had success:
Strong ships in Ianamus Zura (Attack all e.)
M6 patrol (Hydra plus 4 M3)New Income&Ianamus Zura
M6 patrol (dito) New Income
M6 patrol (dito) Ceo's Doubt to MooKye's Revenge
LTs at east gate of Avarice (up to 160 !!)
M6 patrol (Centaur plus 4 M3) patrolling a narrow area about 8 kms from east gate in Avarice
Single Pirate Nova Raider (attack all e.) set in the middle of Avarice
Single Pirate Nova Raider (protect ...) set to protect Teladi trading station

What an overkill, what a waste of ressources!!

Cheaper: just let the pirates fly through Avarice. Only a small minority will attack your stations, most of them just leave the sector again. For those attacking you can place a fully equipped M6-patrol above the ecliptic (~15-20km). If pirates attack one of your stations you can give them a very comprehensive answer

PS: just reading Kor'ah: almost same setup

[Moonsinger]

What i did in an earlier game to block Avarice and the Pirate alley, was to dispatch 3 permanent sector patrols to New Income. Consisting of 3 corvettes and fighter support each. Also, if i was actually fighting in the alley i put a Hyperion with corvette and fighter escort on patrol in the sector south of New Income to bring up anyone who got thru the blockade. As far as Avarice goes, couple of Lasertower and 1 or 2 corvettes with fighter support usually took care of the problem.
What i would like to see, are mines with an actual IFF characteristic.

[bravoman]

Wow. Takes a lot of resources as long as that base is there! So you mean that the reason I get so much respawn traffic is because the pirates fly from Ianamus Zura to the bases in New Income and the Alley? Only reason I keep the base(s) there is so I don't have to worry about where it respawns. (maybe I'll get lucky and it'll respawn in some Xenon sector ).

Hydras...hmm...will do. Only reason I never considered buying them is they look like something that was run over by an M1.

Haven't RE'd the Hyperion for RP purposes (she's a one-of-a-kind ship and all that). Guess I need to revisit that idea.

I should really blow up that teladi shipyard What do they have there? A pirate academy? Speaking of pirates, it looks like Seizewell is overrun. I see about 20 pirates attacking various stations.

Guess I'm off to earn some credits and rep

Thanks for all the tips, mates!

[Nanook]

.....
I should really blow up that teladi shipyard

Only if you want to make the Teladi mad at you for no reason. Shipyards respawn, in the same sector.

What do they have there? A pirate academy? Speaking of pirates, it looks like Seizewell is overrun. I see about 20 pirates attacking various stations.....

Teladi are profit opportunists. They will deal with anyone, including pirates. So you'll find pirate ships being produced at all Teladi shipyards. Just stick a large patrol in Teladi shipyard sectors to get rid of the pirate spawn. You won't get any rep gain from the Teladi, but at least those pirates will be contained. Pirate base spawns are another matter. Your best bet there is to keep blowing up the bases until they all respawn in sectors acceptable to you, and where you can presumably contain them. Of course, such a policy will result in a very boring universe.

[bravoman]

Your best bet there is to keep blowing up the bases until they all respawn in sectors acceptable to you, and where you can presumably contain them. Of course, such a policy will result in a very boring universe.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to contain them completely. Just keep them out of Avarice when I clean out pirate alley now and then. The rest of the races can deal with the aftermath of my little...err...shopping trips in Pirate Alley.

[Stupac]

Did you buy Avarice btw?

[bravoman]

Why yes...yes I did

Looking back, I should have let it expire. Then I could get my upgrades at the Teladi dock instead

Still, there's something to be said about owning a system. Might try the sector takeover scripts next time.

[bravoman]

An update on locking down Avarice:

So far so good. No one is getting in Avarice now

The current setup:

Sector Patrol:
1 Centaur Protected by 1 Centaur + 3 Ls and 3 Nova Raiders. Works well both IS and OOS.

Gate defense (for when I'm IS):
8 Laser towers in a circular form 6km away from each gate guarded by 1 Pirate nova. - Wipes out any small pirate spawns that decide to fly through. Nothing more beautiful than seeing 8 death rays tear into a little Harrier.

New Income:
1 Hydra proteced by 3 Nova Raiders for each gate in the system. So far seems to be able to handle up to 15 fighters with no issue. Shields on one of the fighters drop down to 20% from time to time which is wierd (I thought the M6 would take the brunt?)

LoH:
1 BPPC Elephant protected by 2 APPC Dragons guarding the trade route (I have a complex in Adlana Hill)
- Works well against pirate spawns. Got 'pwned' badly by a P patrol May have to add a wing of 10 M4s or 6 M3s.

I am curious as to how to assign the fighters though. Do I set the fighters to defend the TL or the M6s?

[Nothingbetter2do]

is it possible to tow a pirate base away through a gate? if it is then tow all the pirate bases into an area near a xenon or ka'aak sector....might as well get em to fight each other rather than them attacking your ships n stations

[Matt Armada]

You can only tow your own stations, and NOT through a gate, or i would of done what you said MONTHS ago my friend

[Nothingbetter2do]

ah ok pity even if i couldnt tow a pirate base through a gate i'd tow so far off the map noone would find it lol

[Nanook]

...
New Income:
1 Hydra proteced by 3 Nova Raiders for each gate in the system. So far seems to be able to handle up to 15 fighters with no issue. Shields on one of the fighters drop down to 20% from time to time which is wierd (I thought the M6 would take the brunt?)...

Pirate patrols operate essentially the same as yours. That is, they have a leader and several ships assigned to protect it. So if one of your fighters attacks the leader, the pirate wingmen will attack your fighter. You might consider assigning a third layer to your patrol. Have another fighter assigned to protect each of your fighters that are protecting the leader. So in your case, assign 3 M3+'s to protect the Hydra, and have your Nova Raiders each protect an M3+.

[Fresshness]

2 words:


lasertower googolplex

or

Skewes lasertower

[bravoman]

2 words:


lasertower googolplex

or

Skewes lasertower

If it wouldn't kill my framerate and simply make the sector map unappealing to look at, it would be interesting to try. As is, I spend a lot of time managing my empire from Avarice with the occassional excursion outside. I like the (RP) idea of keeping nasties outside my borders.

Still, my current setup will probably fail once I start adding M1/M2s into the mix

[zazie]

@ Fresshness: great links !

they have practival value for X3: just set 9*9 wingmen to 9 M6 , protected each by 9 wingmen protected each by ...

Don't let profanity like "framerate" destroy the beauty of such a design

[bravoman]

Don't get me wrong. I fully plan to use it to wipe out and hold the Xenon sectors Just not in Avarice where I spend a lot of my time.

Edit: Reloaded my game and added a wing of 10 M4s to the patrol group.

5 M4s per M6
2 M6s protecting Elephant.

Result:
1 M4 destroyed.
2 M4s down to 10% hull.

Elephant still alive so it's a win situation for me

Still means I need to replace my fighter wings with M3s.