Since when were PBE's this damnably common?!

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argon_emperor
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Since when were PBE's this damnably common?!

Post by argon_emperor » Wed, 5. Nov 08, 10:58

I've been playing TC for a little while now (not too long, RL and all that), and I'd swear that every 2nd Xenon ship I come across has bloody PBE's equipped! This is starting to get annoying, I mean, when were PBE's EVER this frequent? And even the M's seem to have them (and I'd swear the N's as well).

The ships which can outrun the ships equipped with them can only take a few hits before it's bye-bye shields, and the ships that can take a bit of a beating can't really outrun them. Has anyone else had this minor annoyance? It's making the patrol missions really, really difficult, especially when about 4 P patrols jump into the sector when I start the mission. And yes, I'm flying an M3 (Terran Scimitar, sweet ship that it is).

P.S. The repair laser on the space suit is absolutely awesome! Thank you Egosoft for putting these in, even though they repair slowly, I never complain about free! And does anyone know where you can buy them?

P.P.S And who would've thought that they would make the M8's cappable?! I have 2 Hades from protection missions, because the pilot chickened out and bailed. Muwhahahaha....

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Sandalpocalypse
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Post by Sandalpocalypse » Wed, 5. Nov 08, 11:55

Yeah, they've certainly kicked up the challenge on Xenon with this..heh. Most Ls and Ms will mount PBEs; Ns can only go up to PACs.
Irrational factors are clearly at work.

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Post by pjknibbs » Wed, 5. Nov 08, 13:10

Not really a spoiler, this, so I'll move it. However, yes, Xenon ships are often equipped with PBEs--this is a GOOD thing; it makes them at least as dangerous now as the Kha'ak, whereas they'd been relegated to second-tier villain status in X3R.

jlehtone
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Post by jlehtone » Wed, 5. Nov 08, 13:39

Definitely a GOOD thing, they are cannon-fodder in X3R (even for a M6 pilot).

IIRC, I've once noticed a X3R L with PBE. A jolly good experience (read: forced reload). But X3R 2.0 added a BBS mission, which does present opponents with MD. PBE takes a bit longer to slow you down, and they still do drain energy in X3TC, do they not?


I'd like to think that I got all the PBE sold (in best possible Teladi fashion) that my X3R empire is mass-producing. And not only that, the X3R fighter wing of mine is made of Xenon L, armed with PBE, and filled to brim with missiles. And you probably have heard all about personal X3R LX armament choices? PBE and missile spamming has thus been used against Xenon several times, with their own ships no less, and Xenon are known to adopt the technology of their adversaries. :twisted:

The more I think about it, the more I feel a need to start X3TC as Goner Witness, in order to get a real fighting chance against these new threats. :roll:
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BugMeister
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Post by BugMeister » Wed, 5. Nov 08, 15:13

..in answer to your second question
- I don't think the Repair Laser is a ware that you can buy..
- the whole universe is running in BETA mode - we're working on it.. beep..!! :D :thumb_up:

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Re: Since when were PBE's this damnably common?!

Post by phoenix-it » Wed, 5. Nov 08, 17:41

argon_emperor wrote:I've been playing TC for a little while now (not too long, RL and all that), and I'd swear that every 2nd Xenon ship I come across has bloody PBE's equipped! This is starting to get annoying, I mean, when were PBE's EVER this frequent? And even the M's seem to have them (and I'd swear the N's as well).

The ships which can outrun the ships equipped with them can only take a few hits before it's bye-bye shields, and the ships that can take a bit of a beating can't really outrun them. Has anyone else had this minor annoyance? It's making the patrol missions really, really difficult, especially when about 4 P patrols jump into the sector when I start the mission. And yes, I'm flying an M3 (Terran Scimitar, sweet ship that it is).

P.S. The repair laser on the space suit is absolutely awesome! Thank you Egosoft for putting these in, even though they repair slowly, I never complain about free! And does anyone know where you can buy them?

P.P.S And who would've thought that they would make the M8's cappable?! I have 2 Hades from protection missions, because the pilot chickened out and bailed. Muwhahahaha....
I thought it was a little crazy at first myself, but now I've had time to reconsider...

First, you can range those guns easily if you get a fast ship. If you want to play the ace you need that kind of a ship.

Two, if you're going after several M3's in a similar ship you'll need several M3's to prevent them from focus-firing you. That's what wingmen are for: to keep his wingmen busy so aren't the only thing for the group to shoot at.

Three, try a bigger ship that's capable of absorbing the hits and delivering superior firepower.

If you don't want to play hit-and-run with a light agile dog fighter you either need support or you need a tank.

Those M8's are only useful for 1 thing... they're very good for that and pretty much a sitting duck for anything else really. Load one up with tomahawks and find a Q. Then strafe while you unload about 12-15 missiles from a range of 30 km and sit back and watch the show.

argon_emperor
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Post by argon_emperor » Thu, 6. Nov 08, 02:11

Who needs to use the M8 for the Q? I just use my Scimitar and get in real close, 4xEMP takes quite a while to drain your energy, and you can easily kill a Q in it.

But I see the point of wingmen, I just never used them in X3:R because they hurt me far more often than my enemies did, so I just learned to dogfight on my own. Needless to say, I'm back to being a complete newb when it comes to combat in TC, but I am learning. Slowly. But I'm not sure how effective having wingmen would be (unless you have about 10 or more) for the Patrol missions where you end up with 4 P squads coming at you at the same time. That's about 25 odd ships, probably with at least half of them mounting PBE's. Somehow seems unfair that I'm not the only guy out there with PBE's anymore. Except that my ship can't use them. Who cares, EMP's are much better once the shield is gone.

But it is nice to know that I don't have a bug at least, and that other people are encountering the same thing. I'll just have to learn to fight better so I can take them out. And probably get Poltergeist missile production in Terran sectors moving so I can missile spam the small ships before they can take me out. I haven't yet noticed that the Terran economy is working very well, they are always having shortages of something, I just haven't found a Terran shipyard that will sell me stations yet so I can lend a helping hand to them.

And can anyone confirm about the repair lasers? Are they really not sold anywhere? Because that's a major bummer if they aren't...

And for those two M8's I've got, I'm actually using them for eCell trading runs, slow but steady profit, and they're well protected at least.

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Post by Random_Guy » Thu, 6. Nov 08, 03:44

What are you guys talking about? Some? Most? I have yet to see an M or L in a TC XI mission that didn't have PBE's on it. I've actually been specifically looking for one to no avail. At least in XI missions, they all have PBE's.

My issue isn't so much with the gun itself, it's that they only use the one gun. If they mixed it up with PAC's for M's and PRG's and HEPT's for L's I wouldn't mind so much. It's just that every single M and L is loaded with PBE's.

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Sandalpocalypse
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Post by Sandalpocalypse » Thu, 6. Nov 08, 04:06

The xenon are big on standardization :lol:
Irrational factors are clearly at work.

phoenix-it
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Post by phoenix-it » Thu, 6. Nov 08, 05:48

argon_emperor wrote:Who needs to use the M8 for the Q? I just use my Scimitar and get in real close, 4xEMP takes quite a while to drain your energy, and you can easily kill a Q in it.
Well yes, but since I consider the Terran ships to be even more overpowered than the M3+ in Reunion, I haven't been flying them.

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Sandalpocalypse
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Post by Sandalpocalypse » Thu, 6. Nov 08, 05:51

it takes a long time in a scimitar...it doesnt in a bomber :)
Irrational factors are clearly at work.

phoenix-it
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Post by phoenix-it » Thu, 6. Nov 08, 05:59

Sandalpocalypse wrote:it takes a long time in a scimitar...it doesnt in a bomber :)
I didn't think about it that way... You're absolutely right!

Yossarian22
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Post by Yossarian22 » Thu, 6. Nov 08, 06:46

Yeah, in my Scim or Vidar I don't fear the big ships, I fear the Ms, Ls, and Ns.
They're the ones that do all the real damage to me.

Does anyone know what gun it is that shoots a bright yellow beam? I saw awesome combat while I was wiping up some Qs in Xenon 476; guys from Black Hole Sun came in with Centaurs and Novas and started helping me and this one Centaur fired this beam weapon at a Xenon ship, it was bright and yellow (or maybe vice versa?) but it was a direct beam weapon, like a phaser or something. It's not a point singularity projector (interesting weapon by the way, sold 'em though) could it possibly be that Ion weapon?

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Predator02
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Post by Predator02 » Thu, 6. Nov 08, 08:14

Sounds like the ion gun since only khaak should be running around with kyon beams.

Anyways, I do enjoy the new and improved difficult Xenon. In X3R, I kept wondering how they could possibly be the threat everyone was worried about in the fluff. In TC, I can see why. They're unfeeling robotic ships and they're coming to murder you.

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