can my new ship pick up missiles?

[Gracie]

hello, back again.. did look in stickies first.

I have now got a Pericles Vanguard, which is better shielded and faster than the dear old Buster, but it can only handle small containers. Will I still be able to pick up containers holding missiles with it? I hope so as hoovering up space goodies is a useful source of revenue. I should think it would be so, but thought it best to check

[Jacket01]

I guess that your ship can not pick up mid size missles if your ship has small size cargo.
Maybe you can buy another ship with mid or large cargo to pick up different missiles ?

[Gracie]

um, guess I had better stick with Buster then

... which means, I need to find a fast, decently shielded craft that can pick up M-size... hmmm..

[ConCorDian]

it will only pick up S sized wares... so some of your missiles such as mossies, silkworms etc yeh you can, but M/L sized you wont.

[Gracie]

thanks both, you have decided for me - I shall flog this one and save up the pennies for something bigger

[Jacket01]

um, guess I had better stick with Buster then

... which means, I need to find a fast, decently shielded craft that can pick up M-size... hmmm..

If you play the X3 Reunion, Discoverer Hauler have M-size cargo.
They are M5, so they are not very expensive.

You can fly your M4 and ask your M5 to pick up missile, or you can buy a Mercury....

[Gracie]

I have a Dolphin ( I am in X3TC), but she is in Queens Retribution and would take too long to get where ever the goodies are, so I use her for regular trade in 'safe' systems and go off in the Buster to snoop around new and possibly dangerous sectors to see what I can find... yay, love it

[zazie]

As you are in X3TC i strongly advise you to explore further into Universe. There are regions where the shipyard is only one system away from a station that sells JumpDrives.

Ask again if you want a Spoiler.

[Nanook]

Try a Boron Mako. It has one of the largest M4 cargo bays at 208, and moves much faster than the Buster. It's what I'm currently using in that role and it works quite well.

[Triaxx2]

Pike has an identical hold and sacrifices a bit of speed for more shielding, useful if you're picking up under combat conditions, or just expect being shot at in general.

[Honved]

In TC, you can use either any of the Discoverers, or a Fujin, to collect up to M-sized wares remotely after a fight. No need for an M4.

The Fujin makes a good non-player "gofer" - "go fer this, go fer that", with the addition Special Command Software. It's got M size cargo space, and a lot more of it than the "Disco". Thanks to its pathetic weapons power generator, I wouldn't want to fight in the little deathtrap, though.

Tell it to "Pick up Wares in Sector" to scoop up everything, or just "Pick up Ware" to target specific high-value items in order to prevent it from filling its hold with E-cells or other cheap goods while there's a fortune in missles lying around.

As for a personal ship, I'd keep looking for a "used" (repairable) decent M4 or an M3 for sale as you enter a sector, since the price of a ship in just over 50% condition can be pennies on the dollar (I've gotten M3 ships with 51-52% hull for around 100K credits). A few minutes with your spacesuit Repair Laser can save you a million credits or so. The step up from an M5 to an M3 is game-changing, although I still pilot the occasional M5 on high-speed missions: "Hold on tight, we'll make it to your precious meeting in approximately......27 seconds."

[Gracie]

Try a Boron Mako. It has one of the largest M4 cargo bays at 208, and moves much faster than the Buster. It's what I'm currently using in that role and it works quite well.

zazie, I have a jumpdrive in the Buster - useful if I want to get back and shepherd the Dolphin

Nanook - right... Boron Mako, sounds like the biz. Noted

wow, all this good advice! Thanks all, will scribble your tips down in me little notebook

[Nanook]

In TC, you can use either any of the Discoverers, or a Fujin, to collect up to M-sized wares remotely after a fight. No need for an M4....

Unless you don't want to leave a bunch of loot behind. A Disco only carries about a quarter of what a Mako can, a Fujin about a third. So, no, you don't need an M4, but an M4, and the Mako, in particular, with it's best-in-class cargo bay of 208, is a lot more efficient at collecting loot.

So, you've just knocked off that Split High Tech Transporter and it left 50 crystals floating in space. Your best Disco, the Hauler, can pick up 16 of them. Your Fujin can manage 21 at best. The Mako can pick them all up with room to spare. 16 crystals at average price brings in 26,944 credits. 21 gives you 35,364 cr. All 50 ups that to 84,200. Now tell me which one you'd rather use.

[zazie]

It's a little bit off-topic but Mako's are fabulous ships to train CAG- or Logistics-Pilots:
Usually I put four of them as Energy Traders for a small fab somewhere close to my favourite shipyard for freighters. If necessary I make one of those expierienced Mako-pilots change into the cockpit of a newly bought freighter - and voilà - there he goes as fully functional CAG-pilot.

@ Gracie: my point was rather to put JD into your freighters ....

[Gracie]

zazie, I can be a bit dim at times, sorry.

[Honved]

So, you've just knocked off that Split High Tech Transporter and it left 50 crystals floating in space. Your best Disco, the Hauler, can pick up 16 of them. Your Fujin can manage 21 at best. The Mako can pick them all up with room to spare. 16 crystals at average price brings in 26,944 credits. 21 gives you 35,364 cr. All 50 ups that to 84,200. Now tell me which one you'd rather use.

True, but in the case where you've got 10-20 missles scattered across the sector after a major combat, the Fujin or Disco will snag them before they expire, and for a fraction of the cost of the Mako. A mere handful typical dropped missles will probably top the cost of those 50 crystals anyway. It's nicer to be able to pick up EVERYTHING, like the 400+ units of Soya Husk that won't fit in the Mako either, but that's what TS's are for. The other advantage of the Fujin over the Mako is that it's comparatively expendable, if you try to snatch a couple of high-value missles out from under the nose of some hostile M6, and fail.

Not that the Mako is a bad option, but the Fujin is a very viable alternative, and what I consider a fair tradeoff of speed and low price versus capacity.

[Nanook]

So, you've just knocked off that Split High Tech Transporter and it left 50 crystals floating in space. Your best Disco, the Hauler, can pick up 16 of them. Your Fujin can manage 21 at best. The Mako can pick them all up with room to spare. 16 crystals at average price brings in 26,944 credits. 21 gives you 35,364 cr. All 50 ups that to 84,200. Now tell me which one you'd rather use.

True, but in the case where you've got 10-20 missles scattered across the sector after a major combat, the Fujin or Disco will snag them before they expire...

Unless it's an extremely large sector, those missiles shouldn't expire before the Mako can get to them. In fact, I often use a Split Caiman for the purpose, just because I often get L and XL class cargo, too. And at 124 m/s, the Caiman is just slightly more than half as fast as the Mako. And don't forget, the Mako has enough space to carry energy cells for a jumpdrive, too, so it can get in and out of the sector faster than your M5's. So, sorry, but a Disco or Fujin simply doesn't have enough cargo space to justify using them beyond the very early game when you can't afford better.

[ConCorDian]

im with Nanook, unless your trying to cover multiple combat areas in opposite corners of Aldrin the faster transporters are generally fast enough... most of my pickups are done via a Chokaro TM... because if im in a combat area there is the possibility of me bailing a ship as well.. the Chokaro can collect the goods as well as the bailed ship and extract them all

[Triaxx2]

The only better option is to go modified and take advantage of the MARS system.

[Coreblimey]

Well there you are Gracie, 2 full pages of answers! Bet you weren't expecting that kind of response from such a simple question!
Simple answer, small ware missiles only in that ship, answered in the first reply by Jacket01.