Sheild/weapons Generator questions

[Nickvr628]

So I am trying to calculate the recharge rate for systems aboard my first big shiip, the SPilt Elephant. If you have been following some of my other posts you will know that I intend to use it as a mini-carrier. My plan is this:

Left/Right: Flak Artilery Array
Front: CIG
Back: Something else...

Is the weapons generator recharge rate per second, minute, or what?!? If it is per second that is great. If it is per minute, not so much. Feel free to coment on what should go in the back turret. I plan to have all turrets on missile defence so they prioritize the missiles before the fighters or the stray corvette.

P.S. I plan on using Solanos do to limited budget and good stats for my fighter wing.

[Nanook]

When it comes to using the Elephant as a carrier, it's shields are paper thin. You don't want to get it near the action if you can help it. The way to use it as a carrier, if you must, is to launch your fighters from a good distance from the enemy and have the Elephant's guns serve as last ditch protection. So you really don't need to worry about weapons and shield energy, since by the time they run out, your Elephant is probably only good for its ivory.

[StarSword]

Which game are you playing, first off? Because I'm answering from a TC perspective.

If you want a light carrier you can also brawl with you're really better off going M7. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages. Panther's got the biggest bay by far (32 berths) and in TC is as tough in combat as a Tiger, but getting it fully loaded can be expensive. Shrike, Deimos, and Cerberus only have six fighter berths. The Deimos has good stats but it's a big target and can only carry corvette guns in its spinal mounts. Cerberus is great for clearing away fighter swarms but its anticapital armament is lacking. Shrike is freaking terrifying (spinal IBLs, flank Gauss cannons), but it's really slow. Griffon has a bigger bay than Cerb and is a smaller target, but you have to complete a plot to get it and, again, it lacks anticapital armament. The others don't have hangars.

[ajax34i]

Elephant is a TL ship. Its weapon recharge rate is crap.

Grab a Split Iguana, try to put 5 PACs in it, see how that works out. Same basic idea, non-combat ship with lots of weapon slots but crap reactor.

[Nickvr628]

I am not going into my reasons for getting the ellehant except for the fact that I DO need a TL anyway, and this one has some kick to it. Nanook, as you probably know cariers are all about force projection, most m1s are undergunned and sometimes undersheilded but the fighters do most of the damage. Have you seen what 12 MD equiped solanos can do in a battle?
Now lets answer the recharge rate questions. I want NO MORE coments about ship choices, how i will most likely get powned, or otherwise. Thank you!

[StarSword]

^That's fair enough.

I know for a fact somebody on the board developed an Excel spreadsheet for that but I can't remember who it was or where they stuck it.

[Imgran]

Elephant is a TL ship. Its weapon recharge rate is crap.

Grab a Split Iguana, try to put 5 PACs in it, see how that works out. Same basic idea, non-combat ship with lots of weapon slots but crap reactor.

Oh lord, tell me about it. When I bought the thing I thought I'd lucked into a solid all-rounder. Its laser battery is worth a good 2.5 seconds of sustained fire with 4 PAC's and it takes a full second for it to recharge enough to fire once from the turret after that. It can't stand up to anything it can catch. Worse, its missile selection is mediocre even for a TP

And for all of that, it could have been saved by being allowed to equip EITHER the Mass Driver OR the Energy Bolt Chaingun, both of which the Split had access to.

That would have been nice, wouldn't it?

I consider the Iguana a practical joke on the player. For anything other than its primary purpose (for which the Iguana is very, very good), the thing is a pure mirage. It looks like it should be useful in a fight but has some very crippling limitations.

[StarSword]

Whereas in X2 it could obliterate an Odysseus by ramming (or so I've heard; haven't had the inclination to check). Go figure.

[bizbag]

There's always Energy Bolt Chainguns, I guess. Plenty of cargo for the ammo, too. Plus, since you'll be supplying EBC ammo, you can load your fighters with the weapon, too; most M3s can make great use of them

[Imgran]

You know, that would probably explain it. It's not like the devs want you to be able to go into an entirely new game with familiar names and know exactly what to do and where to go. Where's the fun in that?

[bizbag]

You know, that would probably explain it. It's not like the devs want you to be able to go into an entirely new game with familiar names and know exactly what to do and where to go. Where's the fun in that?

Considering how much of the universe does stay fairly consistent in the series (I went straight from XBTF years ago to X3TC and remembered the original universe map and the ship classes, etc.), I don't think that's it. I think it's more about changing it so that a ship doesn't outperform an entire other class in their intended role.

For example, the Tokyo's laser generator was nerfed because it could fire indefinitely; something you have to be a Destroyer to do. Another example, the Panther's laser power took a hit because it was essentially a Tiger with 32 fighter slots.

The Elephant's a TL; it's not an M7C or an M1, so it shouldn't match the performance of one. That's not to say there's not room for variety in ship designs - that's why we *have* classes like the M7 carriers. If it wasn't for the reboot of Rebirth, I imagine the next X iteration would have had separate M7 anti-fighter flak ships like the Cerberus and M7 anti-capital ships like the Tiger.

[X-Tie]

There's always Energy Bolt Chainguns, I guess. Plenty of cargo for the ammo, too. Plus, since you'll be supplying EBC ammo, you can load your fighters with the weapon, too; most M3s can make great use of them

You know, the only issue with EBCs on a TL or other big capital ships is range - so although it will not deplete weapon energy, it's hard for the AI to hit incoming hit-and-run fighters.

What I would do with my Elephant is fly out from it with an M3 and possibly 2 wingmen, and take care of the bogeys myself, with the Elephant acting as a support vessel. In the early days, I still used it to also snipe capital ships in X3:R and TC by fitting it with IBLs (and that Khaak destroyer thought it could attack my factory, huh? We'll see about that!), haven't bothered to do so in AP yet, took long enough to take a cap ship down in TC so with increased hulls it will be even longer now.