Hyperion Vanguard (TC) - what's all the Hype about?

Darkwolf_187 · Post by **Darkwolf_187** » Mon, 13. Sep 10, 02:34

So, I finally go around to doing my first successful boarding. Brief report follows;

Using a Heavy Centaur Prototype, I found a Hyperion Vanguard cruising around Duke's Domain on his own. First I tried frying his weapons off with ID's, but that didn't work so well, so I reloaded. Then I tried spacewalking marines in, but that failed horribly.

So I jumped in my Ares. Engaging the HV with my HCP, I stripped off its shields with the front CIG's, then toggled the turret PRG's to keep the shields down. Told the Ares to send Marines inbound. Handling the boarding GUI while trying to dodge fire isn't easy

Once the marines were most of the way through the hull, I jumped to the east gate with my HCP and waited. A couple of reloads later, and the HV is mine!

So this brings me to the clincher. Just what is this thing good for, besides looking cool? Here's a few of the scenarios I've been thinking about, is there anything I'm missing?

Sector Trader - It's got huge cargo, and is reasonably quick. But honestly, a Springblossom has better speed to cargo ratio.

Drone Carrier - Definitely possible, since it's the only M6 with a hangar, and it can carry a hell of a lot of drones. But, in-sector drone docking is crap - most of the time the drones tend to kamikaze themselves back into the Hype and die.

Fighter Suppression - It's pretty good for this, I must be honest. With front-mounted PBG's, it obliterates any M3 or smaller that gets in front of it. But it's gotta catch them first.

There's a few things it's bad at compared to, say, the Springblossom or HCP;

Missions involving M7's - The Hype lacks the weapon capacitor to make decent time on an M7, and PBG's are useless on something big like that in my game (I lag to hell using 8 PBG's on a Carrack). It's too slow to be able to get out of firing range quickly enough. A Springblossom with front PMAML's dominates here.

Boarding - The lack of ability to mount Ion-D's is definitely against it compared to a HCP.

So, I'm just in a bit of a conundrum. Just what is this thing good for in X3TC? If I have access to a Springblossom and a HCP, why would I want a Hype? Cruising around Argon Prime picking up chicks?

Am I missing something?

you_rebel_scum · Post by **you_rebel_scum** » Mon, 13. Sep 10, 03:03

wraith missiles

Darkwolf_187 · Post by **Darkwolf_187** » Mon, 13. Sep 10, 03:13

AHA! Holy crap, how did I miss that?

Time to go add a Wraith missile fab to my Terran equip complex

Twest09 · Post by **Twest09** » Mon, 13. Sep 10, 03:16

Yeah, you are missing a lot.

1) It's a missile ship that can fire Wraith missiles. Which is a swarm nuke. Nuff said. It can fire Firestorms and Hammerheads.

2) It's got great shielding and is a tough contender in a fight.

3) It can have 12 forward firing EBCs mounted which is quite powerful.

4) It can dock 2 M3s.... that is a serious addition of firepower if you use something like 2 Spitfyres.

5) It has a better shot group than the Springblossom which has a very spread out shot group, which adds to accuracy.

Triaxx2 · Post by **Triaxx2** » Mon, 13. Sep 10, 03:18

It does make an excellent missile boat, carrying Hammerhead's, Typhoon's and Wraith missiles.

Darkwolf_187 · Post by **Darkwolf_187** » Mon, 13. Sep 10, 03:47

EBC's, eh? I hadn't considered going heavy on those. What kind of weapon loadout would be suggested for general purpose roaming?

At the moment I'm carrying 4 PBG's and 4 CIG's front, 2+2 HEPT in the front turrets, and 2+2 PAC in the rear. Typhoons and Mosquitos onboard.

Swap the front guns to EBC's maybe? Leave the guns the way they are, and rely on Wraiths to take out big targets?

Carlo the Curious · Post by **Carlo the Curious** » Mon, 13. Sep 10, 05:11

Couple of recent threads:
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=285617
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=286237

Da-V-Man · Post by **Da-V-Man** » Mon, 13. Sep 10, 05:13

It's supposed to make a great player flagship because of it's versatility (Missles, dockable in most stations, large cargo space, etc), even moreso when you do the Poisoned Parranid mission that gives an overtuned one.

Darkwolf_187 · Post by **Darkwolf_187** » Mon, 13. Sep 10, 05:31

Thanks for the links, that answers my main questions.

Guess I'll give it another whirl, though it'll be tough getting used to not having a Springblossom's speed

RicoOcho · Post by **RicoOcho** » Mon, 13. Sep 10, 22:42

anyway to steal this thing with out rep loss?

Dareliisko · Post by **Dareliisko** » Mon, 13. Sep 10, 23:14

well, is there anyway to capture it without losing rep? if so there you go, but as far as ive seen its stayed in Paranid space for me (cant find it atm though)

Darkwolf_187 · Post by **Darkwolf_187** » Mon, 13. Sep 10, 23:51

Update:

So I went and took the advice given here. I swapped the weapons out for 8 x EBC forwards, 4 x HEPT turrets, 6 x PAC back. I dropped on 200 crates of EBC ammo.

I set up the two docked fighters as two identical Cutlass with 8 x EMPC, 50 Poltergeist on high fire rate. And I left a bunch of Poltergeist in the hold of the Hype so they can resupply themselves.

I then threw on 100 each of Wraith, Typhoon, Wasp, and 20 Firestorms.

By the gods, this thing owns now. I hadn't really used missiles heavily beyond just Spectres, but damn this thing does pretty damn good with its massive loadout of missiles.

It's still going to take a bit of getting used to, since it's so slow (compared to the Spring), but yeah, packing it full of Wraiths and other appropriate missiles turns it into a monster.

Thanks for the pointers, all.

Aro · Post by **Aro** » Tue, 14. Sep 10, 00:12

Don't even need two M3's docked, I like to have a Kestrel handy for speedy situations.
Also good to have some PBE's if you want to cap or strip shields on larger ships.

Poobah · Post by **Poobah** » Tue, 14. Sep 10, 01:14

You can get away with just the EBCs. You can kill basically every ship in the game with EBC and enough ammo, and the Hype has space for enough ammo to kill the universe.

Twest09 · Post by **Twest09** » Tue, 14. Sep 10, 01:25

Poobah wrote:You can get away with just the EBCs. You can kill basically every ship in the game with EBC and enough ammo, and the Hype has space for enough ammo to kill the universe.

I agree 100% with this statement. But I would also like to add that the Hyperion has a large amount of viable weapon loadouts. Including 8 PBG (Plasma Burst Generator) against fighter swarms like Khaak Clusters, 4 CIG 4 HEPT for heavy ships, full on HEPT for Capitals and multiple heavies... there really is no "correct" loadout, just a myriad of viable loadouts.

Also a cool little tip, Susanowa Raiders are mini Hyperions in design so having two of them docked is just cool looking

. You can also outfit them with 8 PBG each just for the heck of it and that is pure destruction. Another good thing about the double dock is that you can use fighters with good cargobays (kea or falcon hauler) to clean up battlefields of loot and then dock.

Kor'ah · Post by **Kor'ah** » Tue, 14. Sep 10, 02:14

Great ship if you are going for a pure combat game. Last game I had one that spamed Typhoons left, right and center. Pretty much unstopable, even if it did take a 250M credit missile complex to keep it supplied.

Current game I'm not even going to bother with the Hyperion. Much lower degree of combat happening this time around and I'm pulling in 75M - 100M per (game) hour in a Springblossem with trade missions.

So yeah, there is no ultimate ship for everything. What you think of the hyperion is most likely determined by your needs at the time and your playstyle. I find the Hyperion awsome as a missile spamming instrument of brute force.....Not so awsome when I need to get 100ish units a radioactive waste to some backwater station waaay over there in 4 minutes, or less.

Twest09 · Post by **Twest09** » Tue, 14. Sep 10, 03:28

Kor'ah wrote:Great ship if you are going for a pure combat game. Last game I had one that spamed Typhoons left, right and center. Pretty much unstopable, even if it did take a 250M credit missile complex to keep it supplied.

And that is one weakness of the Hyperion. It is such a powerful missile ship that it can be expensive but I got to the point where I don't use more missiles than I need and I have a mixed missile complex that pumps out every possible Commonwealth missile and another for Terran missiles. Aside from that initial investment those missiles are produced actually faster than I am currently using them and I am able to sell off a bunch of them to Terracorp and have made at least 5 times the cost of the complex back.

So yeah, there is no ultimate ship for everything. What you think of the hyperion is most likely determined by your needs at the time and your playstyle. I find the Hyperion awsome as a missile spamming instrument of brute force.....Not so awsome when I need to get 100ish units a radioactive waste to some backwater station waaay over there in 4 minutes, or less.

It's funny you would compare the SB to the HV when it comes to delivering goods missions because the HV is actually superior to the SB in that regard as well... I have an Overtuned Hype from a certain start and it goes 480m/s with a turbo booster and with a jumpdrive I can complete those missions in a HV just as well as a SB... while still carrying 100 Wraiths and 100 EBC ammo (not including what my docked ship storage can carry).

I just can't think of a single thing that the SB can do that the HV can't do. But I can think of things the HV can do that the SB can't. I still can't deny that the SB is an awesome ship but my favorite for any mission is the HV, literally there hasn't been anything I can't do from the cockpit of my HV.

Kor'ah · Post by **Kor'ah** » Tue, 14. Sep 10, 04:35

Twest09 wrote:I just can't think of a single thing that the SB can do that the HV can't do. But I can think of things the HV can do that the SB can't. I still can't deny that the SB is an awesome ship but my favorite for any mission is the HV, literally there hasn't been anything I can't do from the cockpit of my HV.

Goes both ways. There is no task a heavly overtuned Hyperion can do that a Springblossem can't. If there is one please let me know. After towing a silly number of asteroid mines all over the place, while powerbuilding six complexes non-stop, I'll need something to do that is less monotonous.

Twest09 · Post by **Twest09** » Tue, 14. Sep 10, 08:35

Kor'ah wrote:
Twest09 wrote:I just can't think of a single thing that the SB can do that the HV can't do. But I can think of things the HV can do that the SB can't. I still can't deny that the SB is an awesome ship but my favorite for any mission is the HV, literally there hasn't been anything I can't do from the cockpit of my HV.
Goes both ways. There is no task a heavly overtuned Hyperion can do that a Springblossem can't. If there is one please let me know. After towing a silly number of asteroid mines all over the place, while powerbuilding six complexes non-stop, I'll need something to do that is less monotonous.

HAHAHA. I feel ya man. I recently underwent a massive ore/silicon production complex in Ore Belt where I built a mine on every asteroid and towed each and everyone into 5 by 5 complexes to make supplying them easier. It was worth it because now I have an almost endless supply of Ore and Silicon but man it was the most tedious thing I have ever done. In less asteroid packed areas I have towed the asteroids into carefully and tightly packed balls where all the mine extension faced inward and had the hub on the outside of the "ball" but that would have been wayyyy to tedious to do in that sector so instead I went with a wall formation.

Anyway just to be a little bit of a smartass (jokingly of course)... the Hyperion can dock two fighters

That does stand for something though, since it is a mini M7 missile frigate that handles better and can mount lasers and dock two ships... (god when I think about it, it really is quite nice) you can set it up to stock missiles for the fighters and auto supply them... that drastically increases it's effectiveness as a missile boat.

I really am just constantly astounded by the effectiveness and versatility that the Hyperion possesses. Speaking just from an opinion standpoint now it is the most impressive ship in the game when you start to think about all the functions it can perform and the insane amount of effective weapon loadouts it can have equiped.

I still do admire the Springblossom, but from my point of view it is a "super fighter". It is fast, highly maneuverable, and is great at dogfights if you have a good "match speed" hotkey you can hit in the middle of a dogfight. And that's how I see it, a fighter that is too heavily shielded and armed to fit into the M3 class even though that is how it handles. Yes it can perform a wider variety of roles in the game than the standard fighter and that is also what sets it above and beyond most ships, the effectiveness of a ship at performing multiple roles. It's a good taxi, a good trader if you lightly arm it, and of course combat.

So in closing there is really no use in comparing the SB and HV, in some roles the other will be superior (although in combat they sit on equal ground but with different playstyles), and they are both completely overpowered. But one is an oversized fighter and the other is a mini super duper M7 that is faster than any M7 and is faster than any normal M6.

you_rebel_scum · Post by **you_rebel_scum** » Tue, 14. Sep 10, 15:26

i think with the hype that peps love it so much because u have to cap it as well, and it is a hard cap too, compared to all other m6's. The spring costs only 10 mill and can be bought way before u have enough good marines to cap a hype so it makes sense that the spring is used before the hype. Its just more satisfying flying a ship that uve capped, that is rare and also brings back memories of reunion, helps that it is so badass though as well

says that it would cost 40-50 million to buy it if u could and i would fork out for this