Your favirote ship and why?

[Ed Kolis]

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen: What's really deadly of course is putting maneuvering thrusters on an Abbidon ship so it can whirl around and use all its weapons quickly in any direction. [/QB]

Ahh, the Pkunk Flaming Blossom of Death

[Manta_Ky]

I traded up for a Terran Carrier recently. I think I am in love. She has all the electronics mounted with 6 fighter bays. Her forward biased hardpoints allow you to pour out an almost constant stream of death. Plus the fighters are fun. The pilots are stupid and the crash alot. But they are good at drawing fire away from you. And I have nothing else to spend all my money on, so loosing them is no biggy.

Has anybody else use fighters? What have you learned about them?

[LesserHellspawn]

My absolute fav is the Xiati battleship MK III as well.

You simply can't touch 7 heavy and 5 light weapon slots with exceptionally large firing arcs. This ship can deliver 100 % firepower forward, with just a slight change of course on approach. Similarly it can fire 6 heavy and 4 light weapons rear, again with only a slight course change. That's enough to overwhelm any enemy PD. And even the broadsides deliver 3 heavy and 2 light weapon loads, when flying in parallel.

The downside is the low hull space. Armor and shields of my ship are paper thin. For that reason I use plasma missiles (small, only 40kt, 180 range) and anti proton beams (with 30kt not exactly small, but 120 range). With that armament I win most battles unscratched. Most AI ships use 140 range torpedoes/missiles and 100 range beams only, so they never ever hit me. Unless they're cruisers and faster than I am. But then they have insufficient defenses to hold against my firepower for long.

I tried out an Abbidon battleship MK III in campaign 2 and got seriously beaten up by the Xiati ships I was up against. A Xiati battleship outguns an Abbidon ship roughly 2:1 in every direction. Attack from behind ? No good. 2 heavy/2 light vs. 6 heavy/4 light. Let them chase and use rear guns ? Not good. 2 heavy/2 light vs. 7 heavy/5 light. broadside to broadside ? 1 heavy/1 light vs. 3 heavy/2 light, ugh. Best would be approaching the broadside of the Xiati head on. But even there the Xiati ship has one heavy weapon more. And if it turns, you face the rear or front batteries again.

[ November 11, 2003, 10:03: Message edited by: LesserHellspawn ]

[Manta_Ky]

You all keep saying the Xiati battleship is good. So I tried it but I don't like it. By the time you load her up with weapons, there is no room for any thing else. Maybe the 1400kt of the Terran Carrier has me spoiled.

Toxic injectors, I just can't use them. They make me feel dirty on the inside...

[LesserHellspawn]

Originally posted by Manta_Ky:
You all keep saying the Xiati battleship is good. So I tried it but I don't like it. By the time you load her up with weapons, there is no room for any thing else. Maybe the 1400kt of the Terran Carrier has me spoiled.

Yes, it has spoiled you

It's true, my setup uses 430 kt of the 1070 kt available for weapons. 200 kt go for the necessary power reactors, another 80 kt for 4 PD guns. That's why I only have 5 kt armor and 20 kt shields (100 kt total). But the setup still totally rocks. I've done all of campaigns 2 and 3 with that ship. And I guarantee that I'd rip your precious carrier to shreds if this game was multiplayer.

[Manta_Ky]

Originally posted by LesserHellspawn:
And I guarantee that I'd rip your precious carrier to shreds if this game was multiplayer.

Probably. But I wouldn't be using my carrier "as is" for mulitplayer. ;-)

[LesserHellspawn]

I'd try my ship. If it wouldn't work, I'd probably use an Abbidon battleship MK III with Sithrak weapons. Their firepower should balance the small firing arcs out. Useless for the campaigns though, since those weapons become available so late.

[Wardad]

I just finished the campaign using the Abbidon BB III.

DAMN YOU AARON!!! I AM ADDICTED!!!

rant off...

I was taking serious damage when I first encountered the shield and armor skipping Null Space torpedoes. The weapons were damaged first, probably because they are the closest componant to the outside of the hull. It is really inconvient to lose your weapons. I had to use a of hull patches until I loaded up with Sithrak weapons and toxic torpedos. The extra electronics payload capacity caused the Sithrak to miss about more than 50% of the time.

Just how do you keep the Xiati BB hull flying with light shields and light armor and low electronics?

[LesserHellspawn]

Actually I have a good load of electronics. The only parts I don't have are multiplex tracking and long range scanners. I have combat sensors, master computer, ECM and scanner jammer. But mainly it is because I simply stay out of range. As you can read below, I utilize range 180 plasma missiles. The Sithrak don't have that range. And my 4 PD do a quite good job, especially if I'm running from the enemy torpedoes. *If* I take an occasional hit, it goes right through of course, although it's not too bad with most components at level 20 and the rest at 19. And I've usually taken out the Sithrak cruiser weapons by the time they get in range for their weapons.

[ November 11, 2003, 23:14: Message edited by: LesserHellspawn ]

[brainman.9Hells]

Originally posted by Wardad:
Just how do you keep the Xiati BB hull flying with light shields and light armor and low electronics?

I employ all electronics. Neural net, computer core, ecm & combat sensors, long range scanners, multiplex tracking, scanner jammer.

I stay at range > 100, which means it's a torpedoe battle... with the Xiati's 7 heavy mounts, I can easily overwhelm the enemy before he does... and I employ 4 PD's

Against Sithrak null-space projector I've found essential
- latest tech repair bay
- some character atributes in hull repair
- repair bay with to repair priority

Also I
- place my PD guns evenly spread through the ship
- my eletronics go in the outer positions... I can live without them
- my cargo holds go in the center of the ship, cause if you lose the cargo hold you'll probably lose all speed.
- My energy core used to be 1 50kt + 1 25kt. Best against sithrak would be 3 25kt spread around the ship

Ah, btw, I forgot in the other post, my xiati batttleship 3 goes with 30kt regular shields and 10kt organic armor everywhere.

What usually happens to me with this setup is that my ship is tollerant to 1 or 2 null-space hits ... and thats pretty good...

regards
brainman