[XTC] TL Ships

Aidyer · Post by **Aidyer** » Sat, 4. Feb 12, 17:45

Quick Question if you have an opinion already: What's the best TL ship to buy?

I've been comparing the TLs from the main five races. I ranked each aspect of the ships and added them up. The one with the lowest score shows the best average stats, but I'm still not sure which one to buy.
I have the rankings here:

Spoiler

Show

1st Place: Split Elephant - 14
2nd Place: Paranid Hercules - 18
3rd Place: Boron Orca - 19
4th Place: Teladi Albatross - 21
5th Place: Argon Colossus - 23

Note: Resulting numbers are the sums of the rankings from each aspect of the ships (Eg Elephant got 14 from 1st speed, 1st acceleration, equal 2nd for steering, 3rd for shielding, 1st for laser power, 5th for cargo bay and 1st for hangar. The sum is 1+1+2+3+1+5+1=14).

Is having a significantly smaller cargo bay going to make a huge difference to the ship bought? If not, I'll probably buy the Split Elephant (34k Units Cargo), or if it does matter I'll get the Boron Orca (50k Units Cargo). If anyone has any other suggestions as to why the others may be better (Or if it's even worth capturing the Goner Ozias

), then please tell me. I am prone to forgetting even the most obvious of aspects often.

Thank you for reading.

Sinxar · Post by **Sinxar** » Sat, 4. Feb 12, 17:50

I don't think the Ozias is cappable, could be wrong though.

It just depends on what your doing with it. If your in desperate need of a TL and have little cash, Elephant or Ryu.

Empire building, Mammoth, Atmospheric Lifter, Mobile Mining Base Ship.

Poor mans carrier, Elephant.

Unless your gonna be in combat with it, speed and hanger are really not much added value since your not going to be flying it personally.

Aidyer · Post by **Aidyer** » Sat, 4. Feb 12, 17:53

Yes, I looked into the Atmospheric Lifter, but I don't know where to get one. If I could, I may get that. Where can you buy/obtain one from?

By the way, I have 80M, so I'm not short on cash

EDIT: What do you mean by a poor mans carrier? Unable to carry troops or something?

Sinxar · Post by **Sinxar** » Sat, 4. Feb 12, 18:02

Aidyer wrote:Yes, I looked into the Atmospheric Lifter, but I don't know where to get one. If I could, I may get that. Where can you buy/obtain one from?

By the way, I have 80M, so I'm not short on cash

EDIT: What do you mean by a poor mans carrier? Unable to carry troops or something?

The Atmospheric Lifter is found in Terran sectors usually doing runs from the planet (apparently) to a supply base. They have no weapons so they are an easy capture.

The elephant is often used as a combat carrier instead of station building. Poor mans carrier because its super cheap but has less shields and weapons with the largest hanger bay.

here is a post on Roguey's site about the atmospheric lifter http://roguey.co.uk/blogs/roguey/blog-38.html

Aeshi · Post by **Aeshi** » Sat, 4. Feb 12, 18:02

You have to capture them from the Terrans, they're usually flying around near the planets. Just be careful as they have great difficulty moving through gates as they only barely fit.

Aidyer · Post by **Aidyer** » Sat, 4. Feb 12, 18:12

Oh, never done boarding before.

Do I have to buy an M7M ship and train mercenaries, fire boarding pods at the ships with low shields and hope I get lucky? If so, which M7M is the best to buy?

Sinxar · Post by **Sinxar** » Sat, 4. Feb 12, 18:19

Aidyer wrote:Oh, never done boarding before.

Do I have to buy an M7M ship and train mercenaries, fire boarding pods at the ships with low shields and hope I get lucky? If so, which M7M is the best to buy?

Its possible with multiple TPs of marines i hear. I like the Boron Kraken. The Split Cobra is the most popular though.

Boarding can be frustrating but its pretty rewarding. There are some guides in the sticky. If you want to actually see how its done, there is a video tutorial series that shows it.

Thread link: http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=297924
Parts 15a,b,c are about boarding.

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Sat, 4. Feb 12, 20:04

I'd say the Split Elephant is the best TL to buy for your first TL. It's cheap, fast and has a large hanger bay for accompanying defending fighters or utility craft.

After that, go for cargo space so you can carry more stations per load. The Elephant is quite capable of carrying multiple stations, depending on their size, but isn't as efficient a complex builder as TLs with larger caro holds. In mid to late games, you'll want TLs with larger cargo holds.

...Is having a significantly smaller cargo bay going to make a huge difference to the ship bought?..

No, not at first. Later, the lack of cargo space will mean more trips back and forth to the shipyard while you're building complexes. That might get to be aggravating, but its not a huge deal until you start building large complexes. By then, you'll easily have the cash to buy multiple TLs.

Burnt Pies · Post by **Burnt Pies** » Sat, 4. Feb 12, 21:53

I currently have an Elephant, an Orca and the Terran Mobile Mining Base, and the most useful seems to be the Orca; it's not that slow and it carries 2-3 stations plus Complex Construction kits fairly easily. The Elephant's a good buy for someone without too much cash, as it still does the job, but probably not quite as good later when you're building huge plexes, and the MMBS is essentially the Argon Colossus but with Terran guns, and it can pack the PSP into some of those turrets, making it a monster OOS (At least in TC. AP's better OOS combat calculations means it'll be worse vs fighters, better vs capitals. But if it meets an enemy capital, you're doing it wrong.)

Sterling Work · Post by **Sterling Work** » Sat, 4. Feb 12, 22:50

If you can use the transport cargo hold too (don't have a TL yet), then as long as you have enough for any one station, you ought to add 2000 per TS to capacity.

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Sat, 4. Feb 12, 22:53

Sterling Work wrote:If you can use the transport cargo hold too (don't have a TL yet), then as long as you have enough for any one station, you ought to add 2000 per TS to capacity.

??

Are you saying that a TS can carry ST cargo types? Not sure I understand your post.

Sinxar · Post by **Sinxar** » Sat, 4. Feb 12, 22:58

I think he is saying to use the cargohold of docked TS ships, which you cant do unfortunately.

empiro · Post by **empiro** » Sat, 4. Feb 12, 23:21

The Orca has the best value for the amount of storage. You might think that storage doesn't really matter as long as you can carry one station, but it really does if you're trying to build out a complex. Otherwise, you're stuck waiting for the TLs to reach shipyards. With 3 Orcas, you can carry enough so that you're always building something, which saves you lots of time if you're trying to build out 50 factories at once.

Catra · Post by **Catra** » Sat, 4. Feb 12, 23:31

value for storage is more of early game thing where its a consideration.

when you get into the complex building stage, it doesnt quite matter as much(if at all), so the 10k extra storage makes it much more convenient to build stuff.

Vim Razz · Post by **Vim Razz** » Sat, 4. Feb 12, 23:43

Morkonan wrote:
Sterling Work wrote:If you can use the transport cargo hold too (don't have a TL yet), then as long as you have enough for any one station, you ought to add 2000 per TS to capacity.
??

Are you saying that a TS can carry ST cargo types? Not sure I understand your post.

Sinxar wrote:I think he is saying to use the cargohold of docked TS ships, which you cant do unfortunately.

If I understand the context of his previous posts properly, he's mostly playing X2 which allows TL to dock TS class ships.

Very handy in X2. Not so applicable to X3.

@ the OP -- I find 1 or 2 fast TLs are handy to have for quick runs, but after that it's all about the cargo space. More stations per run = less trips when building complexes.

whiteraider · Post by **whiteraider** » Sun, 5. Feb 12, 00:49

I find 1 or 2 Elephants useful for 'build' missions, but find Mammoths more useful for complex building (not quite twice the ST freight saves a few runs).
(1 station + tube vs 2-3 plus tubes)

If money is very tight then an Elephant is a cheap carrier as well as a station hauler!

Sterling Work · Post by **Sterling Work** » Sun, 5. Feb 12, 02:17

Aye, I am playing X2, which is why I said 'if.

I take it carriers can't carry transports either.

Why are they called carriers again?

Sterling Work · Post by **Sterling Work** » Sun, 5. Feb 12, 02:21

Aye, I am playing X2, which is why I said 'if.

I take it carriers can't carry transports either.

Why are they called carriers again?

Sinxar · Post by **Sinxar** » Sun, 5. Feb 12, 02:38

Sterling Work wrote:Why are they called carriers again?

I like to think of it like this, does an aircraft carrier carry freight barges? No they carry fighters

Llama · Post by **Llama** » Sun, 5. Feb 12, 03:36

Transporter trade mod is your friend.