Flail/Hammer Missile complex location advice needed

[mrbadger]

I've just finished building a flail/hammer complex in Freedoms Reach, with six of each missile fab.

I want to build another somewhere so I can stockpile flails and hammers, rather than just keep my one M7M supplied, which is all I can manage at present. I could extend the one I have, but I don't want too many really big complexes in game.

This new one I want to build will also have 6 each of hammer/flail fabs. Any suggestions for a location? I'd prefer off the beaten track if possible.

[Deadbeat_Spinn]

The US west of Mists of Elysium, the US's west/south of Unholy Decent, or the south of Menelaus' Oasis. All of the US's execpt the last have had major complexes built in them in my current game. Other than the occasional scout and a few Pirate scouts (due to the Pirate base in the first US west of Unholy Decent) the sectors are rather quiet, for now anyways.

[jannix]

I like colonizing Mines of Fortune. The sector has enough ore and silicon to support a closed loop of upto 120 Flail fabs. (which is overkill anyway) I currently mine enough roids to support that but has only dropped in 60 end product fabs. I'm keeping the next 60 slots in my closed loop complex open for after finishing Aldrin missions. So I recommend MoF. Antigone memorial is also a good (but rather traditional) choice.

[mrbadger]

I like colonizing Mines of Fortune. The sector has enough ore and silicon to support a closed loop of upto 120 Flail fabs. (which is overkill anyway) I currently mine enough roids to support that but has only dropped in 60 end product fabs. I'm keeping the next 60 slots in my closed loop complex open for after finishing Aldrin missions. So I recommend MoF. Antigone memorial is also a good (but rather traditional) choice.

SIXTY!?!? Good greif! I've got six flail fabs, and I thought that was a lot!

Thanks for the sector advice, very useful.

[Neil Depledge]

I usually use one of the big ore roids in Antegone's Memorial for a 'joint' missile complex as it takes 7 T'hawks, 5 Flail, 3 Hammer and 2 Firestorm quite comfortably. Actually, an L/90 droid takes 17 of ANY type of factory that requires Ore......... and there are 2 of them ..... enjoy, Neil

[Psirus]

I have a 7 hammer, 8 flail complex; but as I generally don't use the missle boats much it produces a large stockpile for me.

P.S. I used the US south of M.O. for this. I also included 2 drone fabs and 1 advanced drone fab for spacewalk boarding purposes, and the complex still has room for 18 L sized fabs (90x production capacity) and would still be self sufficient

[mrbadger]

I usually use one of the big ore roids in Antegone's Memorial for a 'joint' missile complex as it takes 7 T'hawks, 5 Flail, 3 Hammer and 2 Firestorm quite comfortably. Actually, an L/90 droid takes 17 of ANY type of factory that requires Ore......... and there are 2 of them ..... enjoy, Neil

This evening I'll send an explorer to that sector to find these asteroids of which you speak. Ta.

[jannix]

SIXTY!?!? Good greif! I've got six flail fabs, and I thought that was a lot!

Thanks for the sector advice, very useful.

In that particular complex, I have 15 flails, 20 hammers and 25 tomahawk factories = 60 end-product fabs. I have another complex in Antigone Memorial with another 15 flail factories, and 15 hammers.

I've noticed that this much is sufficient for constant personal use. The flails and hammers still dont' get time to accumulate though since I use them up. If I was doing things differently, I could have gotten by with maybe 5 fewer tomahawk factories (those do tend to accumulate due to fast cycle time and 3 missiles produced per cycle)

[mrbadger]

My M7M happy time is infrequent, perhaps once a week. That means I can build up quite a stock.

I'm also vary of really large complexes now, because I had one with round 300 stations in it, and the game started to act oddly, with severe slowdowns no matter where I was. I destroyed it, and that problems gone.

[Nanook]

I assume your Freedom Reach's complex is self-contained? If built in the right area, you don't need to do that, and can thus have a lot more missile fabs before running into framerate issues.

I have a moderately sized flail/hammer missile complex in Argon Prime, for instance (6 of each). No resource factories in it, just the missile fabs. I currently use 3 Buy for Best traders on autojump to supply it with all the needed resources and it's always fully stocked. Nor have I lost a single freighter yet. And it has the added benefit of protection by the Argon fleet stationed there.

[Gorium]

MrBadger... get the Complex Cleaner Script by Gazz. That 200+ station complex would probably reduce to about 20-30 max, and result in minimal lag or fps drops.

It works wonder.

Regarding flails/hammer, I prefer to have a 2:1 flail:hammer ratio. They have a better payload for the cargo space, and are actually more versatile. A flail barrage as roughly he same power as a single heavy hammer torpedo, for 4 less cargo space. For the same cargo space, you deal approx 400k damage with the flail compared to the hammers. Plus, they are good turret "disturbers".

[mrbadger]

I assume your Freedom Reach's complex is self-contained? If built in the right area, you don't need to do that, and can thus have a lot more missile fabs before running into framerate issues.

I have a moderately sized flail/hammer missile complex in Argon Prime, for instance (6 of each). No resource factories in it, just the missile fabs. I currently use 3 Buy for Best traders on autojump to supply it with all the needed resources and it's always fully stocked. Nor have I lost a single freighter yet. And it has the added benefit of protection by the Argon fleet stationed there.

I didn't think trade ships would be able to supply that many missile fabs in a complex. I'll have a go in Argon Prime then, I can easily afford it. Plus I have three silicon mines left in Ore belt from my massive complex, so they can sell cheap ore for it.

[jannix]

MrBadger... get the Complex Cleaner Script by Gazz. That 200+ station complex would probably reduce to about 20-30 max, and result in minimal lag or fps drops.
.

Can't agree more about the Complex Cleaner Mod. Its the only mod I use, after playing only vanilla all this time. What I love about it is how clean the final massive stations will end up looking. Its also significantly less tedious to build massive complexes. There's definitely no going back for me.