My wingmen die constantly costing me millions

[Zappa Phan]

I started playing a few days ago X3TC a few days ago, I had played X3R for about 2 weeks maybe a year ago but anyway... I don't think i know how to use my wing men right but most of the time it seems like i can survive no problem but they die in the fray. The current makeup of my battlegroup looks like this:


1 Eclipse (my ship)
2 Nova raider*
1 Elite*

(* fully upgraded turning/speed, ordered from the ship yard as a "L" type)

Do I need more small ships to act as cannon fodder? It just seems like every fight i try doing with them, they die pretty fast.Usually i use them in protect me mode, unless I'm fighting a single large target then I'll switch to attack my target mode. Any advice would be appreciated, thx!

[gandy|UKCS|]

what weapons are you using as they could be running out of laser energy, also do you have fight command software mk1 and 2 installed on them ??

[MegaJohnny]

It's not your fault. Wingmen are AI controlled, and with it incredibly stupid and have no self-preservation. The only way to make an AI ship survive is to give it lots of shields, which unfortunately ships like you have just don't have.

If I were you, I'd just sell them and wait to buy a Centaur, or a second Eclipse if you like. Or buy some UTs or something.

[insolent1]

Try fighter drones, especially the mark II version which you can produce yourself.
Or you could try giving your wingmen some missiles and increase their missile fire probability, you have to be careful about the missiles you choose.
Or get a decent m6/m7 so you don't need wingmen

[delray]

It's not them who should protect you. It's YOU who should protect THEM.

Send them into combat, preferably against the toughest of your enemies and watch. You will see what's hurting them, which PBE-armed son of a lar is dealing them most damage and you intervene and take him out fast so they can continue pounding at the rest of your opponents.

[moggy2]

I find wingmen survive much better if they have their own wingman. I've been using 2 suzanowa with a suzanowa raider each for wingmen. They've been doing well for a while now, where as my wing of 2 Suzanowa and 2 perseus raiders got themselves toasted in thier first major firefight.

[BDStyle]

Well there are a few things that come to mind.

1) Even though you have more ships its still wise to pick your fights. The ships you are flying are still quickly going to get killed by well equipped foes. PBG fire comes to mind.

2) AI do not dodge weapons fire ever. They move to attack or move to get somewhere or they move to change position or avoid collisions but they do not move to avoid weapon fire. This as you can imagine means they will take many hits. The Elite will die to a few well placed HEPT shots for example where you would dodge them with ease. In fact in that wing you would do better piloting that ship yourself

3) Setting the command to 'protect me' seems to mean they will not react to weapons fire on there own ships only yours. Furthermore they will only react once you have been hit.... so if you dodge it they don't get bothered. It pains me to watch a wing using those orders get ripped apart because the lead ship didn't come under fire or did but since they only react when the ship is getting hit its to late.

I'm afraid I can't really advise to improve the situation as I still haven't found a solution to your problem. The only possible advice would be save the creds and buy a bigger ship.

[thiosk]

The CODEA carrier script seems to target several of the issues with AI controlled fighter craft, I was wondering how inserting a "pilot" into a ship via that script improves viability?