[X3:AP] Carriers redundant?!

Sovereign108 · Post by **Sovereign108** » Tue, 24. Jan 12, 19:49

Is it worth the effort to kit out Carriers when going to war these days?

Personally, I have several factories churning out Fighter Drones MkII and deploying those to clean out everything (e.g. a Xenon sector). Its just so fun this way! Threshers with PPCs and some M6s & M7s can clean up the bigger M1s and M2s!

Catra · Post by **Catra** » Tue, 24. Jan 12, 20:04

something is always made redundant by something else in this game. =P

Gazz · Post by **Gazz** » Tue, 24. Jan 12, 20:15

Mk2 drones are insanely overpowered for their price and cargo volume but I don't think that's going to change.

About 50 of them equal the sustained firepower of an M2.
Do the math...

angry boron · Post by **angry boron** » Tue, 24. Jan 12, 20:23

Carriers are still viable. I guess in the min/max mindset you wouldn't want to spend money on one when cheap drones can do the same job, but if you want to have a well-rounded battlefleet, then a kitted-out carrier will do its job nicely.

I like using both.

TDKPS · Post by **TDKPS** » Tue, 24. Jan 12, 20:26

Still worth it. See this. Kinda expensive to maintain but fun to watch. Arm them with missiles to take down the biggies.

EDIT: Fixed signature

-TDKPS

Triaxx2 · Post by **Triaxx2** » Wed, 25. Jan 12, 01:52

Yes and no. See there's been a lot of discussion about carriers being useless in TC, and with the alterations of AP, it makes sense that it comes up again.

So here's my thought again. Yes, and no. I'm not sure about the alterations made to Mk2 drones between TC and AP, but in TC, Mk2's just lacked enough speed and energy to really be effective in sector wide combats, while fighters have both speed and a lack of energy requirements.

Second, Carriers are capable of rapidly deploying larger amounts of fighters than simply having carriers follow a destroyer or frigate. (I'm counting Panthers as Carriers rather than Frigates here.)

Only one ship can pass through a jump gate at a time. So one properly positioned ship could potentially insta-vape any fighter that comes through. However, with a carrier it can take more beating than it takes to destroy a fighter as it comes through the gate, then deploy groups of 10 fighters or more if you're using CODEA, because it's got multiple launch points.

Sovereign108 · Post by **Sovereign108** » Wed, 25. Jan 12, 10:23

OK, so it probably is worth it! Is it best to kit carriers with M4+ (as they are cheaper and more effective?) Or M3+?

M3+ costs goes up quite fast when you bulk order them!

Silverblade The Enchanter

I only use Eclipses, Falcon Haulers and Ventis in my M7 minicarriers, due to their survivability and the Venti while not as tough, it's speed is good as a pursuit craft vs M4/M5 etc

othewrwise, M3s are a waste ot time/effort for carriers because with less than 150 MJ shield, they get wiped out too often and it' snot the monetary cost it's the damn TIME/EFFORT of equipping them that sucks, so it's totlaly not worth it to have to re-do that all the time

however the Spitfyre can have used as a "scout" with more use/survivability than the Kestrel

Jumee · Post by **Jumee** » Wed, 25. Jan 12, 11:36

Sovereign108 wrote:OK, so it probably is worth it! Is it best to kit carriers with M4+ (as they are cheaper and more effective?) Or M3+?

M3+ costs goes up quite fast when you bulk order them!

ATF fenrir is an expensive but effective fighter

Lapo · Post by **Lapo** » Wed, 25. Jan 12, 11:39

I am using a Chokaro as my "combat carrier" with the cargo hold full of Mk2 drones, and some scout drones to monitor the swarm. Plus some freight drones to pickup the loot. It is unstoppable OOS, and the whole thing costs about 10,000,000 credits. Also, unlike the M7Ms missiles you can recover the drones and use them again.
In sector however, they leave a lot to be desired... the autopilot is as hamfisted as usual, and the docking bugs mean that half of the drones fail to return to the carrier before their energy runs out.

Sovereign108 · Post by **Sovereign108** » Wed, 25. Jan 12, 11:50

How do you recall fighter drones? I don't see that dock command in their command menus?

Lapo · Post by **Lapo** » Wed, 25. Jan 12, 11:51

Order them to follow a ship that has at least one hangar free. If the sector is free of enemies they will dock automatically.

Sovereign108 · Post by **Sovereign108** » Wed, 25. Jan 12, 11:54

1 hanger free? I thought that they just take freight space?

The griffon has 9 docking bays, does it have a dedicated extra drone bay? I think its mentioned somewhere...

Lapo · Post by **Lapo** » Wed, 25. Jan 12, 11:59

Once they dock they become cargo again, but they must be able to dock first, so you need one hanger free.

RefocusedLight · Post by **RefocusedLight** » Wed, 25. Jan 12, 12:08

I tend to see/RPexplain drone price vs efficiency as a nod towards the future, which we know is about drones and remote piloting. However i can 'distrust' them on RP grounds, two of my three major characters i envision as heavy-end cyborgs (one of them in my siggy) one of them doesn't trust anything she hasn't assembled herself - and the other...

...gods bless XRM and their PAR functionality (for the vanilla folks: game mechanics to bulk order/equip fighters for carriers). They of course end up with default i.e. lighter firepower but it's cheaper and more to the point not as much heartache to replace. Namely you don't have to reload after a battle you have barely stayed alive and ended up with about a half of your fighters gone - not even in the sense of a money issue, but rather the time to hunt down and install equipment.

Although now with AP bulk equip in combination with the coming PHQ i so can envision a materials/weapons/shields complex producing fighters of choice at a steady rate and not much pain.

Sovereign108 · Post by **Sovereign108** » Thu, 26. Jan 12, 18:00

This, unfortunately, works for me when I am Out of Sector! Isn't there a way round this?

Lapo wrote:Order them to follow a ship that has at least one hangar free. If the sector is free of enemies they will dock automatically.

Probe1 · Post by **Probe1** » Thu, 26. Jan 12, 19:07

RefocusedLight wrote:I tend to see/RPexplain drone price vs efficiency as a nod towards the future, which we know is about drones and remote piloting. However i can 'distrust' them on RP grounds, two of my three major characters i envision as heavy-end cyborgs (one of them in my siggy) one of them doesn't trust anything she hasn't assembled herself - and the other...

...gods bless XRM and their PAR functionality (for the vanilla folks: game mechanics to bulk order/equip fighters for carriers). They of course end up with default i.e. lighter firepower but it's cheaper and more to the point not as much heartache to replace. Namely you don't have to reload after a battle you have barely stayed alive and ended up with about a half of your fighters gone - not even in the sense of a money issue, but rather the time to hunt down and install equipment.

Although now with AP bulk equip in combination with the coming PHQ i so can envision a materials/weapons/shields complex producing fighters of choice at a steady rate and not much pain.

God I hope it's that way. I don't know about cargo extensions and all that but I just had this feeling the PHQ would be the new boss same as the old boss.

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

[X3:AP] Carriers redundant?!

[X3:AP] Carriers redundant?!