How do you use the Aran?

General discussion about X³: Farnham's Legacy.

Moderators: Moderators for English X Forum, Moderators for the X3:FL Forums

Post Reply
Hwitvlf
Posts: 484
Joined: Tue, 13. Apr 21, 21:36

How do you use the Aran?

Post by Hwitvlf » Fri, 23. Sep 22, 10:28

Just spent ~2days reverse engineering the Aran and building one. Wondering if anyone has a brilliant ideas on how best make use of it.

Usually I use it for gathering all the bailed ships in a sector or for retrieving a captured capital, but haven't found anything wonderful to do with it.

User avatar
gunman127
Posts: 1523
Joined: Thu, 29. Dec 05, 20:38
x4

Re: How do you use the Aran?

Post by gunman127 » Fri, 23. Sep 22, 10:54

It can be useful if you have a player owner Equipment dock and you want more than the usual maximum of stock

For example, Equipment docks can only hold a tiny number of 2GJ shields and big cap ship guns, so you can dock an Aran there and store as many as you need in the ship instead!

Jimmy C
Posts: 1131
Joined: Tue, 17. Jul 12, 02:50
x3tc

Re: How do you use the Aran?

Post by Jimmy C » Fri, 23. Sep 22, 13:22

You can use it to deploy a large M6 or M8 strike force.

Hwitvlf
Posts: 484
Joined: Tue, 13. Apr 21, 21:36

Re: How do you use the Aran?

Post by Hwitvlf » Sat, 24. Sep 22, 09:31

When I'm building factories for a new complex, I usually run out of space at the HQ; now that you mention it gunman, the Aran could help free up HQ space for more factories - transfer 120k worth of building materials into Aran, then add them back as needed for the next factory.

You (JimmyC) reminded me of one of the most important roles of the Aran - Valhalla taxi. Between Aran and Valhalla, you could bring quite a fleet of M6 ships to bear. Especially good for sturdy M6 models which have too small a cargo bay to carry e-cells for a round trip jump- yes Heavy Centaur Prototype, I'm looking at you!

I can actually try both these ideas at the same time - so cool, thanks guys :)

Jimmy C
Posts: 1131
Joined: Tue, 17. Jul 12, 02:50
x3tc

Re: How do you use the Aran?

Post by Jimmy C » Sat, 1. Oct 22, 20:43

One more use for the Aran. You can use it as the centerpiece of a mass capture operation of medium-class ships. For example, in the Yaki sectors, captured M6 and TMs will be quickly replaced. You can keep capturing and sending them to the Aran. Once filled, you can take them all to one destination with just 20 Ecells per Gate.

Sovereign01
Posts: 2128
Joined: Wed, 25. May 05, 14:38
x4

Re: How do you use the Aran?

Post by Sovereign01 » Fri, 7. Oct 22, 01:14

Hwitvlf wrote:
Sat, 24. Sep 22, 09:31
When I'm building factories for a new complex, I usually run out of space at the HQ; now that you mention it gunman, the Aran could help free up HQ space for more factories - transfer 120k worth of building materials into Aran, then add them back as needed for the next factory.

You (JimmyC) reminded me of one of the most important roles of the Aran - Valhalla taxi. Between Aran and Valhalla, you could bring quite a fleet of M6 ships to bear. Especially good for sturdy M6 models which have too small a cargo bay to carry e-cells for a round trip jump- yes Heavy Centaur Prototype, I'm looking at you!

I can actually try both these ideas at the same time - so cool, thanks guys :)
The two would be able to haul dozens of M6s so it has to be one that you can buy which immediately rules out a lot of strong candidates, however it does leave one interesting choice- the Strong Arms Enhanced Heavy Dragon, that thing uniquely can mount Phased Array Laser, Plasma Beam and Tri-Beam cannons in its turret.

The Goner Truelight Seeker also qualifies, mounting them in its main battery but its cargo bay is even smaller and its laser generator sucks. You could probably load that up with Gauss Cannons, Matter/Anti-Matter Launchers, Energy Bolt Chainguns and Mass Drivers. Supplying 4 types of ammo might prove to be a headache but the massive cargo bays of the Aran and Valhalla would help with that.

Hwitvlf
Posts: 484
Joined: Tue, 13. Apr 21, 21:36

Re: How do you use the Aran?

Post by Hwitvlf » Sun, 9. Oct 22, 17:13

I like the thought of a fleet of PBC wielding Enhanced Heavy Dragons. It's a shame that there aren't floating cargo bay tunings in the game. It could make ships like the Enhanced Dragon and Tyre more viable for regular use. If I had designed x3 from the ground up, I probably would have made the jump drive charge by draining weapons/shields rather than using e-cells. The way it's set up now, cargobay size is almost more important than shields/weapons. No one wants to keep having to refuel after a couple jumps.

v_make
Posts: 59
Joined: Mon, 10. Sep 18, 07:12
xr

Re: How do you use the Aran?

Post by v_make » Tue, 11. Oct 22, 08:27

I use Aran as the carrier of Valhalla. It's easier to carrier jump than to deploy a beacon and then recycle it. Usually, it's a newly captured Valhalla just outfitted in my HQ ready to be deployed to a Xenon Gate.
Aran can be useful on very special occasions like when you boarded a capital but can not jump it out fast enough before it gets destroyed by enemies. Use a docking computer to instant dock the capital into Aran. 12G shield can sustain a lot of damage before jumping out of the sector.
Aran can be an extremely powerful drone carrier (just regular fighting drones, not the newly added FL ones) due to its enormous cargo size. But I have not tried this.
I also use Aran to move wares to kick-start a newly constructed complex.
I would not recommend using Aran as an eternal warehouse. Just use an infinite internal docking station for TS. 4 Owl miner XLs would have more capacity than 1 Aran and is much easier to acquire and move around.
Regards.
Mark

Sovereign01
Posts: 2128
Joined: Wed, 25. May 05, 14:38
x4

Re: How do you use the Aran?

Post by Sovereign01 » Wed, 12. Oct 22, 00:50

I'd made the connection of using an EQD with infinite docking to house as many non-capital ships as possible without a carrier, and how much the Owl Miner XL could haul but did I realise that combining the two meant storing an effectively unlimited quantity of anything and everything? Not a chance! :lol: Especially when I have an Ozias full of Owls busy clearing the rocks from Seizewell Alpha. They've been taking so long to do it that I sent my other two Ozias (one with Mistrals the other with Geochen miners) to accelerate the process.

Hwitvlf
Posts: 484
Joined: Tue, 13. Apr 21, 21:36

Re: How do you use the Aran?

Post by Hwitvlf » Wed, 12. Oct 22, 22:06

v_make wrote:
Tue, 11. Oct 22, 08:27
Aran can be an extremely powerful drone carrier (just regular fighting drones, not the newly added FL ones) due to its enormous cargo size. But I have not tried this.
I think I'll build a Keris factory and try this. Now that Drone Command Software can recover deployed drones, I could picture it working very well against M1 fleets during protect-station missions.

Am I the only one who dreams of building 30 Arans, docking them in a chain, and telling them to fly through a warp gate just to see what happens? :doh:

Sovereign01
Posts: 2128
Joined: Wed, 25. May 05, 14:38
x4

Re: How do you use the Aran?

Post by Sovereign01 » Thu, 13. Oct 22, 03:52

Hwitvlf wrote:
Wed, 12. Oct 22, 22:06
v_make wrote:
Tue, 11. Oct 22, 08:27
Aran can be an extremely powerful drone carrier (just regular fighting drones, not the newly added FL ones) due to its enormous cargo size. But I have not tried this.
I think I'll build a Keris factory and try this. Now that Drone Command Software can recover deployed drones, I could picture it working very well against M1 fleets during protect-station missions.

Am I the only one who dreams of building 30 Arans, docking them in a chain, and telling them to fly through a warp gate just to see what happens? :doh:
Nope, there was a picture years back where someone had docked ten Arans side by side. As for what would happen, if you were IS as it was coming in, it would collide with the gate and be destroyed :lol:

Post Reply

Return to “X³: Farnham's Legacy”