A good TP ship for fast, aggressive spacewalk boarding? X3AP

[Nehlis]

This is for bigship boarding, spacewalk style.
I'm planning on using a Guppy as a micro-carrier to hop in a force of ten PHQ built N's (hilariously cheap and expendable) and about 40 or more combat Mk2 drones to weaken and distract the target.
From then on its a matter of getting a TP up close with approximately 21 marines to cut in and take over the ship. I'm having some trouble deciding on a good candidate.

Currently my choice is split between:
Phantom - 180 speed is pretty strong, with above average shielding at 125kj.
Ocelot - Fastest at 206, but super fragile with only 75kj shields.
Geochen - Sluggish at 148, but super tanky, with almost twice as many shields as any other TP at 200kj.

I'm not using Terran ships, since I've pissed them off pretty well (practice boarding incidents).
I'm not using M7M ships for this run, as a self-imposed challenge.

Any tips on whether I should prioritize shields, speed, or keep a good balanced?

[DrBullwinkle]

You are on the right track. Any TP is good enough, although extra shielding is always nice during a boarding op. Phantom, Mani, Scabbard, and Goechen are all good candidates.

TP's have tiny laser recharge rates; smaller than many M5's. Geochen has best shields and can mount ammo-based Energy Bolt Chainguns, so it has much greater firepower than any other TP. Of course, you should not really be shooting at anything other than incoming missiles with a TP, but it is something to consider.

Any TP faster than 131 m/s is fast enough to catch any capital ship in the game.

If you plan to use your TP for taxi missions in addition to boarding, then Phantom's speed is an asset there.

If I were going to *buy* a TP just for boarding, then it would be a Goetchen or Mani. Or Phantom for multi-purpose use.

However, I use whatever I can steal. Scabbards are often convenient for that.

[Lone Jedi]

Most players never take shield reactors into consideration. For instance, a ship with 200mj shielding obviously seems better than one with 100mj, but the former may take 15 minutes to recharge all the shields while the latter would only take 2 minutes. So which one is better? It depends on how you use it and your ability to avoid incoming fire.

[DrBullwinkle]

Good point, although all of the TP's have weak shield generators. The variation between them is not huge, so larger shields are still slightly superior.

Scabbard has slightly above-average shield generator (Geochen slightly below-average). Perhaps yet another reason to steal a Scabbard.

[Araknis]

What do you mean big ship?
If you mean anything larger than m6 you can probably forget it as your marines need the bonus from the boarding pods even if they are maxed.
You ll just hear them say the hull is too thick all the time and abort.

[DrBullwinkle]

Too-thick hulls (for spacewalk) are common on Terran/ATF ships and some TL's. Also ships with Hull Polarization Device.

Otherwise, most capital ships can be boarded by spacewalk.

I especially recommend spacewalk boarding an M7M. They are easy targets (after you get them to exhaust their missile supply). Once captured, then you can graduate to pod boarding.

[Nehlis]

Bigship as in capital ships, M7 and larger.
Do ATF ships really automatically require boarding pods even with maxed stats?
Hull Polarization I usually can destroy easily once isolated, so its not much of an issue, but do we have a known list of ships without HPD that absolutely require pods?

[DrBullwinkle]

You will figure it out when you try a couple of times with well-trained mechanics.

Terran and ATF ships have thicker hulls than other races. That does not always mean that they cannot be boarded via spacewalk. However, it does increase the probability of failure.

[hisazul]

Well my suggestion would be Mani... but since that's a no go, go with Phantom. Don't put too much emphasis on speed, you have boosters use them(best thing there is for evasive combat, no need for blind spots). Just configure boosters to use weapon energy first(personally I have that as first always) then shields to about 50% to be safe(not recommended for space walking ops I'd leave shields out just for this) and then e-cells. Take the more durable ones hence Mani, Phantom and Scabbard with Geocent. Problem with the later two is that they both have flaws. Geoncent's shield recharge... is 2/3 of the other ships... the little bonus in shield capacity is not worth it. Scabbards hull is... broken. Sad part is that scabbard comes with good steering good shields best acceleration bar nothing and excellent steering(terran tho so not for you anyway).

Phantom and Mani are the two most rounded, they have next best acceleration and steering while maintaining highest shielding and they have turrets so their laser capacity is large enough to accommodate feeding boosters with laser energy. Phantoms laser recharge however is lacking compared to the rest. Except for Mani other ships that have decent recharge are either made out of paper or way too slow. Scabbard has exceptional recharges but meh... still would take Mani over it. But for you Phantom is my recommendation.

If... and when you get good at this business try Ocelot. That one got best recharges both shield and weapon but hulls are made out of paper and lacking in shielding. But it can actually feed boosters. Also highest steering and second highest acceleration past scabbard(those two with their terrible hulls really compete a lot).

I tried Angel as well... if I remember right paper stats are a bit off its real pitch/yaw is less then what "steering" suggests. It's not as bad as achinonix which can't even shoot main guns when piloted by AI, it's bulky... BUT it has cargo capacity to carry extra goodies, be it e-cells for booster or missiles or some mines or what ever. It has double the capacity of average tp. Some don't have even a 3rd of it. Actually cargo is important you actually want enough space to fit your marines in there.

With cap ships it's a fair tactic to fart out some mines to insta drop their shields then toss some drones to keep them down. Now, besides angel... you won't really have space for e-cells and mines and drones and marines but it's still an option. Sadly the option is a one shot... if anything goes wrong you used up your drones and mines. No docking ports so drones are lost.

[ancienthighway]

Drones don't have to be lost. All it takes is a ship with an open docking bay in sector, and drones can be commanded to follow it, recovering the drones. With the right ship, it could even provide assistance with turret distraction and shield attacks.

[Nehlis]

I am using a guppy, so I could probably get the drones back, but for the most part they're completely disposable, since I have a couple of factories pumping about 40 out every so often, and I've got about 70 in reserve.

[Nanook]

...
I'm not using Terran ships, since I've pissed them off pretty well (practice boarding incidents)....

You don't have to 'buy' them, you know. Stealing scabbards can be good fun.