How To Protect Galaxy Traders?

[Legionnaire]

I'm looking for some help here, 215 hours real time in, and it appears as if the enemies have just started building ships again. Pirates in particular have gone from barely seen, to destroyinging my Galaxy Traders in approximately 20 seconds from me getting the distress call. The Traders are using Maxxed out Mercury Vanguards with Bolt turrets, and Teladi Mark 2 shields. I've tried giving them 2 fighter Escorts each, Quasar and Perseus, with a mix of weapons and tracking missiles, But the Escorts don't stay with the ships they are supposed to be escorting, they either go ahead and dock wherever the trader is heading to or they stay docked in a location until the trader is attacked.I've tried giving the Trader Laser Towers to drop. They are set to Escape but nothing seems to help. Every cause of Galaxy Trader death has been a Raider Minotaur.

Any help is most Appreciated.

Thankyou

Legionnaire

[Vandragorax]

Missiles are massively overpowered right now, so I'm not surprised it's the Minotaur that beats them every time.... probably due to missiles.

The only thing I can suggest really is upgrading your galaxy traders to L class ships, give them their own missiles and a lot more turrets. It might help against the M raiders as you just need more firepower than them to kill them before they kill you.

[ApoxNM]

Missiles are massively overpowered right now, so I'm not surprised it's the Minotaur that beats them every time.... probably due to missiles.

The only thing I can suggest really is upgrading your galaxy traders to L class ships, give them their own missiles and a lot more turrets. It might help against the M raiders as you just need more firepower than them to kill them before they kill you.

But then we have the issue that masked pirates will trigger the police forces to attack you if you kill them, resulting in rep loss.

[radcapricorn]

About 285 hours after release you have 215 hours in? Health, man, health!

[pref]

Starting a cheap autotrader costs like 300k - way below the amount needed to defend them.
Its just cheaper and much less of a hassle to replace them.
Big fighters could defend themselves, but their cargo will never be used so i don't see a reason spending cash on them.

[bl3ek]

About 285 hours after release you have 215 hours in? Health, man, health!

I was just thinking that? I feel like I've played A LOT of X4 and I'm only at 66 hours.

Anyway, OP - have you tried putting tracking missiles on your freighters?

[Legionnaire]

About 285 hours after release you have 215 hours in? Health, man, health!

About 285 hours after release you have 215 hours in? Health, man, health!

I was just thinking that? I feel like I've played A LOT of X4 and I'm only at 66 hours.

Anyway, OP - have you tried putting tracking missiles on your freighters?

Don't Worry, I'm Disabled, and Spend a lot of time dozing in front of the PC, and I have left it running, whilst i have slept most nights.

Legionnaire

[radcapricorn]

Oh, so you were leaving the game running. I guess I just read "real time" literally, which made the numbers a tad too scary.

[bl3ek]

About 285 hours after release you have 215 hours in? Health, man, health!

About 285 hours after release you have 215 hours in? Health, man, health!

I was just thinking that? I feel like I've played A LOT of X4 and I'm only at 66 hours.

Anyway, OP - have you tried putting tracking missiles on your freighters?

Don't Worry, I'm Disabled, and Spend a lot of time dozing in front of the PC, and I have left it running, whilst i have slept most nights.

Legionnaire

X4 (and 3) is certainly one of those games that can literally consume time, and before you know it, it's midnight... or breakfast!

[Lionick]

I believe using SETA also speeds up actual total game time which is displayed on the saves? I think it did in X3? Not sure though

[Legionnaire]

I'm still missing a Flux Capacitor for the SETA drive, however, I havent seen any Deloreans to get one from.....

Legionnaire

[cole2839]

Set them to run away on pirate harassment and give them escort fighters. Or go kill the pirates.

[Ezarkal]

Best way I found so far is to keep patrol squad in systems, along the major trade routes. (Like, keep a squad between the highway and the gate in black hole sun V)

It works so far, but I haven't tried v1.32 yet, so I don't know how well it will hold with the increased pirate activity.

I understand it will be hard to set up, though. So far I have 5-6 traders only, so I can move my squads in the areas where the traders operate. It's still viable. When sitting at the top of a full empire, I understand this is not an option, unless you're willing to spend all your time on the map playing RTS-style.

I'm waiting for a fix to the escort behavior before I really scale-up.

[ApoxNM]

Best way I found so far is to keep patrol squad in systems, along the major trade routes. (Like, keep a squad between the highway and the gate in black hole sun V)

It works so far, but I haven't tried v1.32 yet, so I don't know how well it will hold with the increased pirate activity.

I understand it will be hard to set up, though. So far I have 5-6 traders only, so I can move my squads in the areas where the traders operate. It's still viable. When sitting at the top of a full empire, I understand this is not an option, unless you're willing to spend all your time on the map playing RTS-style.

I'm waiting for a fix to the escort behavior before I really scale-up.

Simply it won't work, because with 1.32 if you attack any ship within an owned sector you will alarm the security forces. Also if the pirates are pretending to be arg, tel, etc. and you do not scan them, it's considered an attck by the security forces, they will turn hostile and start attacking your stations and ships. This will be a major problem over all. Even if escorts were working, if your escort kills the pirate it will trigger the factions to turn hostile.

Only options is to flee I guess.

[Legionnaire]

However the Raider Minotaur is killing maxxed out Mercury's within 30 secs, you get one warning from the trader they were asked to drop cargo, and often whilts looking for the trader in your property list (approx 30 ships) its destroyed. Fleeing doesnt work. IS there a way to sert turrets of ships you are not in, to concentrate on missiles over anything else?

Legionnaire

[KextV8]

Try setting them to comply. I haven't lost a single trader yet that way.

That or start using tougher traders. I have a few capped Minotaur Raiders that I use as traders since they have good cargo space and speed.

I don't agree with use L traders. They are too slow due to gate pathing for my tastes. I prefer to use M or S traders instead. Less profit per trip, but many many more trips in the same time.

[Socratatus]

I`m starting to get my trade ships attacked ever since 1.32. I and my other fighter ship has been playing `rescue` the stranded freighters, shooting from system to system to knock out pirates. It`s pretty fun actually.

However, one of my freighters was heavily damaged and I retired it to base to fix it and I realise I will have to create more protection as I can`t be everywhere!

[Bellatormonk]

I assign my Freighter/Miner to Escape on Attack as usual. However instead of assigning Fighters to "Protect", since the Freighter/Miner act like a Carrier and issue Recall/Dock commands every other minute, I assign a single Frigate with nothing but Beams. The provides the firepower for the AI Pilot to distract and usually win against these lone wolf reds and the F/M to Escape while the Frigate engages.

Also the Frigate is to big for the F/M to issue a Recall/Dock command and it ends up doing it job by staying with the F/M and the F/M does not stop for Sub Dock procedures non-stop.

[ApoxNM]

I assign my Freighter/Miner to Escape on Attack as usual. However instead of assigning Fighters to "Protect", since the Freighter/Miner act like a Carrier and issue Recall/Dock commands every other minute, I assign a single Frigate with nothing but Beams. The provides the firepower for the AI Pilot to distract and usually win against these lone wolf reds and the F/M to Escape while the Frigate engages.

Also the Frigate is to big for the F/M to issue a Recall/Dock command and it ends up doing it job by staying with the F/M and the F/M does not stop for Sub Dock procedures non-stop.

A frigate for each trader???

[Bellatormonk]

I assign my Freighter/Miner to Escape on Attack as usual. However instead of assigning Fighters to "Protect", since the Freighter/Miner act like a Carrier and issue Recall/Dock commands every other minute, I assign a single Frigate with nothing but Beams. The provides the firepower for the AI Pilot to distract and usually win against these lone wolf reds and the F/M to Escape while the Frigate engages.

Also the Frigate is to big for the F/M to issue a Recall/Dock command and it ends up doing it job by staying with the F/M and the F/M does not stop for Sub Dock procedures non-stop.

A frigate for each trader???

Considering I have Freighters/Miners that cost $10-15 million and carry up to $500k+ in materials per run, combined with Fighter Sub commands being broken..yes. I don't provide protection or M class F/Ms...they are fast enough to escape 90% of the time.