TL Base Ship

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Kowalskibravo
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TL Base Ship

Post by Kowalskibravo » Tue, 24. Jul 12, 02:25

After flying about for hours in my venerable nova raider, buying a corvette and a TM i need a base ship with more capacity and power. I know the Split Elephant is excellent for this and it looks cool to boot, but is there any other effective options for the light support/heavy transport role? thanks all
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Post by Coreblimey » Tue, 24. Jul 12, 02:43

It all depends on what you want from your TL. If it's cargo space to carry weapons & shields then the Elephant isn't a bad choice. If it's power then forget TL altogether. They have less laser energy than a lot of fighters.
If cargo space isn't the most important factor then I would reccomend the Split Panther Raider M7. Although it can equip capital class weapons & has a hanger for 30 fighters, the cargo space is only 4000+ XL.
For me, that would be my personal choice, but it does cost twice the price of an Elephant. :)
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Kowalskibravo
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Post by Kowalskibravo » Tue, 24. Jul 12, 02:53

I want "cheap power", if you will :P The price of the Elephant and Hercules (i just narrowed it down to those two TLs) appeal me. (the panther is too much, but it is a fantastic warship) i want to have some extra support in a fire-fight with decent docking facilities for fighters and the cargo to support them.
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Post by Baratheon79 » Tue, 24. Jul 12, 03:27

The elephant is a good choice, but I personally went with the Yaki Ryu when I was at that point (though that's partly because my current game is more pirate oriented). If I recall correctly, it's slightly more expensive than the Elephant, with a bit more cargo space and a slightly smaller hangar (12 fighters in TC; no idea if that's changed in AP).

I still have that old ship, acting as a tender for my main battle group - led by my current flagship, a Galleon (running CODEA - playing with a few mods).

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Post by werewolves? » Tue, 24. Jul 12, 06:15

Baratheon79 wrote:The elephant is a good choice, but I personally went with the Yaki Ryu when I was at that point (though that's partly because my current game is more pirate oriented). If I recall correctly, it's slightly more expensive than the Elephant, with a bit more cargo space and a slightly smaller hangar (12 fighters in TC; no idea if that's changed in AP).

I still have that old ship, acting as a tender for my main battle group - led by my current flagship, a Galleon (running CODEA - playing with a few mods).
I also went with the Ryu - in AP at least you can mount PBC on the side which makes it pretty devastating to fighters, the 4 IBL's help out in a scrap as well.

If the OP is playing X3AP they could also consider one of the M7C's - the Ariadne can dock 24 fighters and a TS/TP - so essentially you can have with the right TS around 20,000 units of cargo capacity - you lose a bit of firepower and you don't have the option of station missions. They do have corvette level shielding (like the TL's ) so they can easily take a bit of damage in a standup fight - even against fighters.

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Post by Morkonan » Tue, 24. Jul 12, 08:08

Kowalskibravo wrote:I want "cheap power", if you will :P The price of the Elephant and Hercules (i just narrowed it down to those two TLs) appeal me. (the panther is too much, but it is a fantastic warship) i want to have some extra support in a fire-fight with decent docking facilities for fighters and the cargo to support them.
Th Elephant is the obvious choice. Don't forget, it's fast. Very fast for a ship its size. Top speed on the Elephant is 132, while the Herc only chugs along at 96. Plus, the Elephant has twice the acceleration of the Herc.

If you're going to be piloting it, you definitely want the Elephant.

And, if you'll be asking the ship to help in combat, once in awhile, that means you'll be fighting In Sector with the ship and the Elephant has a much better profile than the Herc, which is "fat" from every cardinal direction, making it a nice target. If the Elephant turns anything but broadside, it's wafer thin... It won't be soaking up a lot of stray hits, like the Herc.

The Elephant has twice the laser energy and recharge rate of the Herc and even though it has 200mj less on shields, you shouldn't worry. If you're worried about it losing 5x200mj worth of shielding during a firefight, you should be thinking about buying an M7 instead of making the TL fight like one.

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Post by Solomon Short » Tue, 24. Jul 12, 09:01

I like the Elephant as my early base ship & light carrier, it's extremely subpar as a TL, but it's still usable, & it's good for storing excess fighters until you have your argon or teladi Trading Station (yes, I actually usually buy one of these even before I get an M7 or M7M).

Also, with 37k cargo space, it's viable to carry around a few hundred drones for when you have to lay the smack down on something above your weight class.

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Post by pjknibbs » Tue, 24. Jul 12, 10:16

Morkonan wrote: If you're going to be piloting it, you definitely want the Elephant.
But the Herc looks much cooler than the Elephant does! :)

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Post by Triaxx2 » Tue, 24. Jul 12, 17:05

Hmm... for a first TL... The obvious choice is the Elephant. Fast, large fighter hangar, small cargo hold. It's also cheap.

The Ryu is a little slower, a slightly smaller hangar, a little less shielded, and more expensive. It looks awesome, mounts IBL's in three of four slots, plus 4 mounts forward.

The Orca is rather a surprising choice. It's the third fastest of the buyable TL's, holds nearly as much cargo as the Mammoth, and looks cool.

My other option is rather strange it might seem, but there's reasoning behind it.

The Albatross is deceptively useful early on. It's a little more expensive, a lot slower, but what it lacks in speed and cargo, it more than makes up for in defensive capabilities. 8xFAA mounts, 1.2gj shields. True it's got a small weapon generator, but since it A) shouldn't be in heavy combat to start with, then B) it's only going to get attacked by fighters and missiles, which FAA is exceptional at swatting out of the sky.
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Post by ajax34i » Tue, 24. Jul 12, 17:32

Don't expect to be able to hunt capital ships in your TL; it does NOT have the weapons energy for it. In my opinion, best you can do is fit fast-firing M3 weapons (PBE, PRG) and set the turrets for missile defense. There probably isn't enough weapons energy even for FAA's.

You'll have to rely on the docked fighters to do your defense / attack for you, so you want a ship with a large dock bay.

You CAN shoot missiles, though, and it looks like the Elephant can install a good selection (Firestorm for heavy damage, Hornet for medium, Wasps, Thunderbolts, Tempests), so for combat support it's nice.

My choices usually are Elephant (for all of the above) or Orca. Orca doesn't have the missile choices that the Elephant has, but when off-duty, the Orca has enough cargo space to carry 2 stations + complex kit, which simplifies build missions (and building small complexes) A LOT. The Elephant shines in combat, but when you graduate to bigger ships it'll kinda suck for station-building (of course, you can sell it, so no biggie).

All in all, my advice would be to get an Elephant now and possibly switch to an Orca later, once you graduate to M7's and M2's for the combat roles.

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Post by Kowalskibravo » Tue, 24. Jul 12, 23:17

Well thanks all for the replies! I think im gonna get the Elephant due to its early-game combat prowess (still, the Herc looks way cooler :P ) thanks again!
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Post by Honved » Wed, 25. Jul 12, 17:24

I used an Elephant in my two previous games, but decided to save up until I could afford an Argon Mammoth in the current one. Big mistake: the additional cargo capacity isn't all that useful at this early stage of the game (especially after spending the additional 11 Million credits), its fighter capacity is far lower, and it's a dog as far as speed and maneuver go. I'm really tempted to take the financial beating and just sell it in favor of an Elephant.

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Post by cjm3fl » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 08:54

The Elephant is a great first TL in my opinion. The "Jerusalem" was my first TL and remains my personal resupply/escort ship.
Her sisters, the "Aztlan" and the newly acquired "Babylon" are presently stocking missiles and weapons (respectively) from my Complexes.

Cost, speed, and hanger capacity attracted me at first...but DAMN, they are sexy looking ships. Each carry a good defensive weapon's load-out and a nice variety of missiles to be helpful in a skirmish.

With a speed of 132 m/s , the "Jerusalem" is quite capably of keeping up with my personal ship, a Tiger, and my anti-fighter escort, a Griffon.

Being able to launch the 14 M3+ Cutlass fighters....priceless. :wink:
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Post by werewolves? » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 09:53

Great names for your ships, I must admit I'm running a bit low for inspiration for ship names so I might have to "borrow" those ones. :p

The best thing about the big Split ships is how they look when they get the black paint job.

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Post by Playbahnosh » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 12:57

werewolves? wrote:Great names for your ships, I must admit I'm running a bit low for inspiration for ship names so I might have to "borrow" those ones. :p

The best thing about the big Split ships is how they look when they get the black paint job.
I feel your pain :) For naming, I found that finding a certain theme for different games is the best way. My last game was themed "stellar phenomena", with ship names like Pulsar (M2), Nebula (M1), Sirius (M6), etc... A game before it was famous scientists/explorers. Like my galaxy exploring Spitfyre was Magellan, my Nova Vanguard with all HEPTs was Curie (radioactivity, get it? get it??:D), and my station building TL was Eiffel...

The game I'm playing now has the theme "scientific terminology". My starting Katana is EEPROM, my exploring Rapier is Dijkstra and my TP is called FSB :D
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Post by cjm3fl » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 17:37

Thanks guys. Naming can be a real pain.
I was going to post my list in the "What's the name of your flagship?" thread, then realized last post was 2 years ago.
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Post by Ulan Dhor » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 19:27

Honved wrote:I used an Elephant in my two previous games, but decided to save up until I could afford an Argon Mammoth in the current one. Big mistake: the additional cargo capacity isn't all that useful at this early stage of the game (especially after spending the additional 11 Million credits), its fighter capacity is far lower, and it's a dog as far as speed and maneuver go.
I get most of these complaints, but maneuverability? The Mammoth has by far the best steering of all Commonwealth TL's (nearly 8 times that of a Ryu, more than 4 times that of an Elephant).

Regarding the question, I like an Elephant as first TL. It's like a flying homebase with the ability to do station missions. Even later, it's still useful for time-critical missions. Otherwise, I use Mammoths. Orcas look good and have good stats, but are a bit too big for my taste.

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Post by cjm3fl » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 21:17

Ulan Dhor wrote:Regarding the question, I like an Elephant as first TL. It's like a flying homebase with the ability to do station missions. Even later, it's still useful for time-critical missions. Otherwise, I use Mammoths.
I agree here. Besides the 3 Elephants I also have 10 Mammoths in my fleet, and just added a Mobile Mining Base/Ship--which has the same stats as the Mammoth, but uses different weapons and missiles.
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Post by Triaxx2 » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 21:34

That might be useful, except that for the speed of the Mammoth, the maneuverability is pretty pointless. It's still going to make an enormous turn at speed, and if it's standing still, turning doesn't help much.

Of course the Elephant is also going to make a huge turn, but it's only a comparison.
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Post by StarSword » Thu, 2. Aug 12, 22:53

Might as well throw in my two cents.

My first TL was the Elephant because it was cheapest. That's all. I never flew it (stayed with my TM and ordered the Elephant around remotely) and upgraded to an MMBS for the greater capacity as soon as I had the money.

As for ship names, I've got several different themes.
  • Fighters: Squadron name and number (e.g. Merlin 1, Viper 7)
  • Freighters: American cities (I've got a big map of the US on the wall behind my monitor)
  • TMs: Rivers, usually
  • Corvettes: US Navy destroyers (hey, I'm a Navy brat)
  • Frigates: Historical warships (stuff like Queen Anne's Revenge)
  • Destroyers: Japanese cities (it's a Terran character)
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