[TC/AP] Wings

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AshToDust
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[TC/AP] Wings

Post by AshToDust » Fri, 27. Jan 12, 13:21

How do you manage wings? Is there any tutorial about the usefulness of wings configuration? how many ships? All of same class? same type? how many leaders? formation?

All thoose question about what we can do about wings with few information in-game :)

Actually I m using different type of wings myself :

- tactical wings with x5 M4 or x5 M3 (always the same ship in same wing, no mix). I can have some of this wings patroling my controled space to take care of police action.
- light bomber wings with 3x M3 (using M3 with less than 150ms speed in that role, heavily equiped with silkworm/banshee and 90% missile probability). Thoose wings are usualy docked at some controled sector's stations where I m used to see more punchy pirates. I m remotely lunching them once I m sure one tactical wing is gonna be on target or taking care of fighter to minimize interception chance.
- long range and deep space wings with 3 M6. It s my only wing configuration with jumpdrive. I m usualy using them to patrol pirate sector or paranid/split border sector. If the spot a juicy prey, I m jumping in with my own M7 (griffon) to attempt bording. If the prey is not that juicy, I let them take care of it.


I like that kind of management but I m doubtful about the efficiency of it :
- As I m seing it IS or OOS, wings don t keep cohesion. ships will follow the same path but will disperse themself on 10 to 20 km and usualy, the lead ship is way in front of the others. I m often loosing him before the main force kick in. Pirates group seams to have more cohesion oO
- Against all odds and meeting the obvious wall ^^ they just don t know when they have to keep low profile... meeting a pirate M1 in a sector with no alies? so what? tayoooooo!.... how to lose a wing in 30 seconds :D When it s just a "no way" situation they should escape to nearest station as traders are doing (at least, the MK3 traders).


I try to keep wings cohesion but I dunno if it would not be more efficient to mix them up, regrouping one tactical wing and one light bomber wing all together.

How are you using wings?

Catra
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Post by Catra » Fri, 27. Jan 12, 14:39

i use wings so i can get my supply software to work when im outfitting a carrier battlegroup.

after that its dispersed.
Just saying it forward: I give everyone 2 posts to make good, in context posts(proper english, as always, is optional). After that I'm ignoring what you have to say in that thread that's directed to what we previously were talking about.

AshToDust
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Post by AshToDust » Fri, 27. Jan 12, 15:53

Can you elaborate? Do you mean wings can make logistic and refiting easier?

Catra
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Post by Catra » Fri, 27. Jan 12, 15:55

Just saying it forward: I give everyone 2 posts to make good, in context posts(proper english, as always, is optional). After that I'm ignoring what you have to say in that thread that's directed to what we previously were talking about.

A5PECT
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Post by A5PECT » Fri, 27. Jan 12, 16:16

- tactical wings with x5 M4 or x5 M3 (always the same ship in same wing, no mix). I can have some of this wings patroling my controled space to take care of police action.
You shouldn't set up wings for automated OOS patrols. Just order your ships to protect a lead ship (usually a slower, more heavily shielded one) and issue a patrol/defend command to it.

Save wings for forces you usually use in-sector or issue new orders to often.
- light bomber wings with 3x M3 (using M3 with less than 150ms speed in that role, heavily equiped with silkworm/banshee and 90% missile probability). Thoose wings are usualy docked at some controled sector's stations where I m used to see more punchy pirates. I m remotely lunching them once I m sure one tactical wing is gonna be on target or taking care of fighter to minimize interception chance.
If you want to deal with the more dangerous pirate groups then a frigate with a fighter/corvette escort should be able to take care of most medium-sized pirate squadrons (e.g. Caravels with fighter escorts) with no losses. Smaller pirate groups can be put down by a corvette with a small fighter escort.

Also, don't give your OOS patrol ships missiles. Just don't.
- long range and deep space wings with 3 M6. It s my only wing configuration with jumpdrive. I m usualy using them to patrol pirate sector or paranid/split border sector. If the spot a juicy prey, I m jumping in with my own M7 (griffon) to attempt bording. If the prey is not that juicy, I let them take care of it.
This sounds fine.
- As I m seing it IS or OOS, wings don t keep cohesion. ships will follow the same path but will disperse themself on 10 to 20 km and usualy, the lead ship is way in front of the others. I m often loosing him before the main force kick in. Pirates group seams to have more cohesion oO
This is why it's important to have the patrol ships follow a leader that is slower than them. This has the added benefit of controlling which one of your ships draws most of the fire during combat, as the lead ship typically engages enemies slightly before the rest of the group.
- Against all odds and meeting the obvious wall ^^ they just don t know when they have to keep low profile... meeting a pirate M1 in a sector with no alies? so what? tayoooooo!.... how to lose a wing in 30 seconds Very Happy When it s just a "no way" situation they should escape to nearest station as traders are doing (at least, the MK3 traders).

Player-owned AI ships have little understanding of self-preservation. There isn't much you can do about it through the AI itself. If you're expecting M1s to show up, then use an M2 as defense.

You can also set up a SEWN network (bonus pack for AP, 3rd party script for TC) to tell you when something big is about to outgun one of your patrols.
Admitting you have a problem is the first step in figuring out how to make it worse.

Silverblade The Enchanter
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Post by Silverblade The Enchanter » Fri, 27. Jan 12, 16:43

I just use M7s as patrol craft, because even most M6s can get trashed in OOS combat by a pirate with those damn "flamethrowers" the pirate ships often use, jeesh :P
you will find the "wing" of M6s often gets "strung out" so the lead M6 gets hit by all the pirates, which often gets it hammered.
(my fave M6 is the Skiron but may change to the terran's)

I keep M6s now only for personal use or guarding a bunch guarding a ocmplex mixed with laser towers.
Or Springblossoms as traders

Griffin or Cerberus armed with concussion impluse generators up front, rest flak or cluster flak, will clear out any pirates in a patrol route, no problem and is much cheaper in long term because losing a valuable m3 sucks, moslty due to time it takes to equip a fighter

keep 1 or 2 falcon haulers on board your M7 to buy it gear, but NOT for fighting, unless severe need, since they could get scragged
bunch of fighter drones will be much safer/cheaper to use for severe threats

IMHO, eclipses and falcon haulers, maybe ventis or a few others are the only carrier shisp worth a damn, because anything less than about 125mj shield on a fighter gets slaughered too often

SPitfyres make great scouts/satellite layers, more useful in long run than kestrels, though, due to resiience/combat ability

AshToDust
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Post by AshToDust » Fri, 27. Jan 12, 16:46

Nice! thx for the tips!

Gonna change my setup by refiting light bomber as heavy fighter with large mosquito stock ^^ and add 4 of my "tactical" fighter to each of them with "protect ship" order. sound nice as it would give a real feeling of wing leader (even if they re not "X3-Wing" anymore... nor X-Wing ^^)


Can t really outgun my patrol either as I m trying my skill on a script to add some ship upkeep cost... ship need to be used if I don t want them to be bad investment ^^

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