(Last updated for game version v2.50)
Greetings!
I've always been wondering what freighters are the best freighters to use in general situations, but I don't seem to find any text online talking about this. So here I am, presenting my findings to all. Hopefully some of us can get inspired by this.
(Skip to results below if you are not interested in the steps.)
Special Notes
As I am not paying too much attention to here and so won't be updating this anytime soon, I want to point y'all to this resource that got posted below, which is quite similar to what I was originally trying to do, but with something extra (e.g. extra perspective of analysis, data from X4 3.0 Vendetta, etc.)
Introductionsentenced-1989 wrote: ↑Wed, 11. Nov 20, 01:45Regarding something similar to this, with Split ships as well you can check here: https://quantum-anomaly.herokuapp.com/x4/efficiency/Aquitaine wrote: ↑Sun, 24. May 20, 04:35 Sorry to necro this thread but I wonder whether:
- This information could be updated with Split ships, and - more importantly -
- Somebody could make a mod with some of these summaries for the encyclopedia, since despite X4 having been out for some time and already released DLC, the number of 'No information available' entries is astounding?
Regarding the number of 'No information available' entries, yea, game is full of them. Mostly only Argon ships get them, everything else not so much.
You have some wares to transport from station A to station B. However, there are a lot to transport, and you want to minimize the time required to transport all of them.
"Just do more ships!" You said. "More ships can reduce overall time!" But some ships can reduce overall time more effectively than others. At least you should feel like this, seeing the many seeming "similar" choices for ships.
You remember the age-old myth:
- Use ships that are faster: faster ships take less time to travel, so should reduce overall time
- Use ships that have larger cargo size: such ships take less trips, so should reduce overall time
So let's unravel the mystery and bring an end to this struggle.
Definitions
Let's define some terms to be used in the text.
To prevent the possible terror of 4-dimensional units, I define a new unit Volume (symbol "V"). 1 Volume is equivalent to 1 meter cube of cargo space,
i.e., 1 V = 1 m^3 cargo.
I define a new concept delivery rate (DR), to describe the effectiveness of a ship in cargo delivery. Higher DR means stronger effectiveness in cargo delivery. DR should have the following properties:
- When travel speed increases, DR should increase.
- When size of cargo hold increases, DR should increase.
- 1 ship with speed 1 and cargo hold 2 V should be just as effective as 1 ship with speed 2 and cargo hold 1 V. (When former ship completes 1 round-trip, latter ship will have completed 2 round-trips, but both ships have delivered the same amount of stuff)
DR = u * v, where u is the max travel speed of the ship, and v is the max cargo hold of the ship
Since speed and cargo size are counted in the thoudands, we can expect the value of DR to rest in the millions.
Finding 1: Sentinel Variants Are Always Better
It was by surprise that I discovered this finding.
The following relationship between Vanguard and Sentinel variants can be easily verified:
- The max cargo hold of the Sentinel Variant is exactly 1.2 times of the Vanguard Variant.
- The mass of the Sentinel Variant is roughly 1.2 times of the Vanguard Variant. (I say roughly, because the game could only display mass up to the nearest ton; decimal values are discarded.)
Let u be the max travel speed of the Vanguard Variant, and v be the max cargo hold of the Vanguard Variant. Then the DR of the Vanguard Variant is u * v.
But how about the Sentinel Variant?
Intuitive understanding of physics dictates that when the mass of the object increases by a factor of 1.2, then the speed at which this object may travel should decrease by a factor of 1.2; i.e., the speed decreases to (1.2)^-1 times of the original, which is 0.83 times. However, since we are talking about the "travel speed" of ships, and because of the underlying math surrounding drag and max speed, it was found that the max speed of Sentinel Variants are about 0.86 times of the Vanguard Variants.
Hence, we have DR of Sentinel Variant = (0.86 * u) * (1.2 * v) = 1.032 * (u * v).
This shows that, no matter the chassis, Sentinel Variants are always better than Vanguard Variants in terms of delivery rate.
From this point onwards, I will be using data from the Sentinel Variant to present my findings.
Finding 2: Delivery Rate of Ships of Different Categories
Before we continue, let's be clear: the game uses PAR Combat Engine Mk3 // PAR All-round Engine for calculating the max travel speed of ships. I guess this means the game determines that PAR engines are best.
Having standardized to the PAR engines, I calculated the DR of all the Sentinel Variants, grouped together by their roles.
Data source is the awesome Roguey website. (https://roguey.co.uk/x4/ships/) As to the S Miners, which the Roguey website did not include, data is copied from the v2.5 in-game encyclopedia.
S Freighters
- ARG Callisto: 2804607.6
- ARG Courier: 7479595.2
- TEL Guillemot: 3983961.6
- TEL Magpie: 6637699.2
- PAR Tethys: 6346860
Note: As of writing, in v2.5, S gas miners do not exist, so S miners are implicitly mineral miners.
Also note: there is not any Vanguard/Sentinel distinction in this category.
- ARG Courier (Mineral): 5536700
- TEL Magpie (Mineral): 5047000
- PAR Tethys (Mineral): 4756500
- ARG Ides: 12800520
- ARG Mercury: 12996672
- TEL Tern: 10437216
- TEL Vulture: 10548432
- PAR Demeter: 16116000
- PAR Hermes: 15816528
- ARG Drill: 6634404
- TEL Manorina (Mineral): 6155400
- PAR Plutus (Mineral): 7209540
- ARG Sunder: 6725472
- TEL Manorina (Gas): 6647832
- PAR Plutus (Gas): 7690176
There are quite some choices here in the ARG side.
- ARG Incarcatura: 70783200
- ARG Mokosi: 68527800
- ARG Shuyaku: 135571200
- ARG Sonra: 127422720
- ARG Veles: 71340480
- TEL Heron: 76230240
- TEL Pelican: 78523680
- PAR Helios: 89003880
- PAR Selene: 85971960
- ARG Magnetar (Mineral): 47323080
- TEL Crane (Mineral): 53458560
- PAR Chthonios (Mineral): 62603520
- ARG Magnetar (Gas): 47159280
- TEL Crane (Gas): 49003680
- PAR Chthonios (Gas): 62603520
- S Freighters: ARG Courier
- S Miners: ARG Courier (Mineral)
- M Freighters: PAR Demeter
- M Solid Miners: PAR Plutus (Mineral)
- M Liquid Miners: PAR Plutus (Gas)
- L Freighters: ARG Shuyaku
- L Solid Miners: PAR Chthonios (Mineral)
- L Liquid Miners: PAR Chthonios (Gas)
Conclusion
I now have a new understanding on why HOP seems to squash the Argons every time when I play. You can see easily that M Freighters are the most common type of freighters used by NPC. Since Paranid M freighters are superior, and HOP can build the even more superior Sentinel Variants, they are capable of distributing wares more effectively than the Argons. Over time, this results in a higher rate of HOP shipbuilding than Argon shipbuilding. And combined with HOP's small territory and the good highway networks that they have, HOP becomes a very challenging opponent to fight against.
"Know yourself and your enemy, so that all battles can be won". This should provide some insight as to how to defeat the HOP, from a logistics perspective.
Of course, actually choosing what ships to use depend on other factors, such as range and cargo size. You will face problems if you only use L Freighters to do all kinds of tasks: L ships are bulky and not maneuverable when travelling, and it will be extremely inefficient to use L Freighters to deliver, let's say, only 100 energy cells. And, if you are trying to do trading in dangerous sectors, perhaps you should just straight up use the TEL ships; they have stronger hulls and perhaps more weaponry than your other ARG and PAR options.
But still, this guide should point you to the right direction once you have decided what types of ships to use in your trading fleets.