TL or M7M?

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Corindian
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TL or M7M?

Post by Corindian » Sun, 22. May 11, 21:43

That's my qquestion, really. I have about 50m, no factories, about 15 M3s (unequipped atm) and I was wondering whether to get a TL or an M7M

I know TLs are needed for factories but I also know that M7Ms are needed for big caps, so which should I go for?

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Post by Zloth » Sun, 22. May 11, 21:47

TLs are also good for build-a-factory missions, which are mighty profitable.

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Post by X2-Illuminatus » Sun, 22. May 11, 21:47

Depends, if you want to start boarding or building factories and complexes. Though, without some decent marines, whose training takes a bit time, boarding cap ships won't be possible.
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Post by Corindian » Sun, 22. May 11, 21:49

Well I have like 30 marines (10 being meatbags currently) so I don't think that's much of an issue :)

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Re: TL or M7M?

Post by Skism » Sun, 22. May 11, 21:50

Corindian wrote:That's my qquestion, really. I have about 50m, no factories, about 15 M3s (unequipped atm) and I was wondering whether to get a TL or an M7M

I know TLs are needed for factories but I also know that M7Ms are needed for big caps, so which should I go for?
#

Two words: Your Universe

(I know thats not very helpful so Ill explain: :lol: )

Ask yourself wheter you are a fighter or a trader/builder the answer should tell you which you want.

Edit: if you have 30 marines then an M7M seem the logical chocie - go steal a Tl - there are guides on how to do that
Last edited by Skism on Sun, 22. May 11, 21:52, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by Legionnaire » Sun, 22. May 11, 21:51

TL's will let you take missions building stations for npc's, If you have a jumpdrive equipped TL, with a stock of energy aboard, and have scouted out the shipyard locations, i would recommend that, as you will fairly quickly replace the money you spend on the TL(assuming you have a fairly good trade rank)

with just M3's and an M7 you might find find boarding operations difficult, you need good trained marines(which takes a long time to train up) access to boarding pods, which can be difficult to buy near start of game( main location seems to be military outpost 2 per outpost if you are lucky) you would need to equip the M3's with Ion Distuptors to keep shields distrupted if you cant find a good supply of flails, and the M3's arent likely to survive with using Ion D's thats what i tended to notice.

If you want to get into boarding to make money , then get 20+ marines just now and get them training, then stock up on other items while they are training.

Personally i would start marines training, then do some build missions with a TL.

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Post by MarvinTheMartian » Sun, 22. May 11, 22:55

I'm with Skism on this one.

If you have 30 marines then buy the M7M and steal a TL, then you can do build missions for much creditsss and rep repair ;)
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Hire the TL and order it to go to a nice quite location first!
Of course, hammers and flails are not cheap or easy to come by in large numbers so I'd stockpile a few of those first; 1 TL shouldn't need more than 4 Hammers (1.2GJ) and 50 or so flails (that allows for plenty of time to control shields). And don't forget the BPs :)
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Post by A5PECT » Sun, 22. May 11, 23:19

Hammers and flails might be overkill for a TL; you're liable to punch through the shields and hit the hull (and with those missiles we're talking a lot of collateral damage).

I'd say just use a good 15-20 drones with the "Shield Attack" command, and use the flails very sparingly just do distract the turrets while the boarding pods close.
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Post by Progress-M » Sun, 22. May 11, 23:22

I assume you have a personal fighter of some description?

If so, my suggestion would be to get an M7M and a few boarding pods and not worry about the flails/hammers.

The Plan:

1) Find a civilian TL (these are called Arenas, Casinos and Hospital Ships and they tend to float around core sectors)

2) Fly your M3 and once you've found a nice target ship with no internal defenses, jump your M7M to sector and have it follow the target ship (civilian ships have no weapons so you're safe to do this)

3)follow the TL until it's wandered to a nice distant spot and there's no sector patrols nearby (might be good to put your ship on follow and SETA a bit, as these babies tend to move slow)

4) Take out shields with the M3 and with the TL as target, command your M7M to launch marines from the piracy... menu. Please note you need 5 pods to fire all 20 marines, as the computer only launches 4 marines/pod.

5) keep the shields low until marines are in

6) profit (as a tip, it's a good idea to have a TM on follow too, this way you can xfer the M3's jumpdrive on the TL and jump everyone out right after the capture in case you get some unwanted attention)

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Post by Triaxx2 » Mon, 23. May 11, 00:56

Best plan is to pick out an M3 with the heaviest shields you can find. Eclipse, several of the regular Teladi Falcon variants. Careful, some of those aren't fast enough to catch some of the quicker TL's.

Use Hornet missiles to eliminate the shields on the TL, they do 200MJ of damage, and TL's use 200MJ shields. 5 is enough for most, though Albatross and Hercules have 1.2GJ of shields, and Ryu's only have 800MJ. So six and four respectively.

You can order the M7M to initiate piracy and it will wait to fire until you've zeroed the shields. Now, keep up a constant light stream of fire to keep the shields between 2-4%. The marines will make contact and should get in. Me I like at least 3-stars in everything but fighting. Any fighting rank will do if you've got 20 marines.

If you've got the firepower, temperament and tenacity, you can save yourself some cash and cap an M7M with marines from a TP, and then cap a TL with the M7M.
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Post by MarvinTheMartian » Mon, 23. May 11, 01:01

KloHunt3r wrote:Hammers and flails might be overkill for a TL; you're liable to punch through the shields and hit the hull (and with those missiles we're talking a lot of collateral damage).
That explains a lot ;)

Actually I tend to use 1 less hammer than required (after rounding down) and launch an extra flail every so often to fine tune the shields, but that's only because I use the Cobra on its own from about 25Km out. Coordinating more than one ship at a time is a bit beyond me, especially in the heat of battle!

Look at me, the expert after 5 boardings! :lol:

I came to boarding relatively late in the game but would start sooner if I started a new game, it's a lot of fun and if you want anything you just steal it :twisted:

EDIT:
Triaxx2 wrote:You can order the M7M to initiate piracy and it will wait to fire until you've zeroed the shields.
That I didn't know (don't think it's mentioned in the guides I've read), sounds like I have more experimenting to do.
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Post by Hubert99 » Mon, 23. May 11, 11:56

I use an M6 to get down the shields as Flails and Hammers are hard to get. (Did not invest into missile plex yet, I am doing the HUB plexes)

Heck, Im gonna try to board TL only using an M6 and 5 highly skilled marines. Just for fun.
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Post by Choublanc » Mon, 23. May 11, 12:22

Atmo lifters are also unarmed, and with 80K of cargo + 112 speed they are simply outstanding TL's. To cap them, I too use the method M3/M6 + M7M with piracy order. Drones or AI fighters in 'Attack shields' mode are too unreliable for my taste.

The Lifter's hull is thick though, so a bunch of marines well trained in Mechanical is required.
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And they respawn IMMEDIATELY after capture. You can cap 6-8 of them in a row without hurting too much the Terran rep, at the highest levels.

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Post by synctrance » Mon, 23. May 11, 12:40

Hubert99 wrote: Heck, Im gonna try to board TL only using an M6 and 5 highly skilled marines. Just for fun.
That's how i got my first ever TL (elephant) and Kraken, with just 5 guys. You dont really need M7M to start capping ships.

You cant be successful without TL, without M7M you can.

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Post by oobee » Tue, 31. May 11, 18:54

i have recently set up a complex hub producing hammer heavy torps and have an aquilo, are freight drones the best way to tranfer the torpedos?

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Post by A5PECT » Tue, 31. May 11, 19:20

I think it's better to just keep a TS or TP docked there and transfer the missiles using that.
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Post by VincentTH » Tue, 31. May 11, 19:36

oobee wrote:i have recently set up a complex hub producing hammer heavy torps and have an aquilo, are freight drones the best way to tranfer the torpedos?
Poor man approach: Have the sell price at maximum, and 2 TS'es on Best Sell order (one for Flail and one for Hammer for M7M). because of the price, the TS'es will not actually sell the missiles, but will load them into their cargo haul instead. Every now and then, manual transfer the missiles to the M7M at an equipment dock.

Lazy man approach: Send a TS to the Trading Station in Heron Nebulae, buy CLS2, and start CLS2 command. If you get rank Cargo Messenger or better, stop, otherwise, fire the pilot and restart. Once you get a pilot of rank Cargo Messenger, equip it with a Transporter Device and a jump drive, and add waypoints such that it will buy (Buy at minimum price up to xxxx) at your complex (prices at complex do not matter), and deliver the missiles (Unload up to yyy) to your M7/M7M. Make sure that you enable the Jump Drive option in the CLS2 menu. You can also automate resupply the Jump Energy (and boarding pod if you have the hub) the same way.

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Post by oobee » Tue, 31. May 11, 21:29

sorry i meant to stock aquilo. seems like frieght drones is the only way to do it unless you have your own EQ dock....

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Post by Master of the Blade » Tue, 31. May 11, 22:06

Cheap TS + transporter device on either the TS or Aquilo.

Load missiles onto TS -> Advanced -> freight beamer/whatever -> transfer missiles.

You can get transporter device at Terracorp HQ and, IIRC, the Saturn Research Station.
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Post by VincentTH » Tue, 31. May 11, 22:06

oobee wrote:sorry i meant to stock aquilo. seems like frieght drones is the only way to do it unless you have your own EQ dock....
What I wrote above applies to M7/M7M in general, nothing specific about M7M. It should work for the Aquilo too, just change the missile type. I just use an M7M example, because the M7M mssile boat needs a lot of missiles, so manual restocking is a pain.

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