Xenon J, best overall capital?

[Hwitvlf]

Looking at the stats on various M2 and came to the conclusion that the Xenon J may actually be better for overall OOS patrol duty. It's not the most powerful, but can equip 24 PPCs and is quite fast. The kicker is that Xenon ships have always been much cheaper so its production/repair time at the HQ is a fraction of other capitals. Its weapon generator is abysmal, but it can still hold its own in a brief fight in-system. Has anyone ever tried using fleets of Js for patrols?

On a similar note, the Dolphin freighter isn't great, but can be a fun early-game playership. Because acceleration decides how quickly a ship slows down, a Dolphin whose acceleration has never been upgraded will speed along at 300+ kph using occasion taps on the Turbo Boost. After a boost, it will drift about 8km before slowing to 300kph. Add a docking computer so you can actually stop at a station, and it's a fun way to get speed for those annoying delivery missions... you know, those "I'll give you 12,000,000 credits if you fetch 5 entertainment chips from a station 15 sectors away in 32 seconds" missions

[Midnightknight]

O remember i never really was a big fan of Xenon capitals in TC/AP cause of their nonexistent laser regen IS (except the I), and with M1 even more than M2.

Yes OOS it's pretty strong like most of the Xenon ships, but to my memory it turn completely useless if you jump IS to help it and even a handicap cause of it's really big frame for the low damage output it can give.
If you know you won't go help it IS, or won't put it in a fleet, yeah might be a good choice, but for the rest to my opinion it's really meh ...

I needed something strong to keep Xenon invasions in Scale Plate Green and since FL offers a lot of pandora my Odysseus do the job pretty well with full PPC and 8 Tribeam. It was only bullied once at first till i could find enough PPC, but now that it's almost fully outfitted (Still missing 3 tribeam ...) it slams everything around, and it's 80 m/s speed allow it to catch much smaller ships.

[Hwitvlf]

I got my first J built today. It takes about 2 hours to reverse engineer, and 4 to build - roughly the same as an M7.

I equipped it with 24 PPCs and the rest FAA and sent it against a Zeus (M1) first, then an Odysseus (M2) in OOS combat. It handily defeated the Zeus and had about 80% hull remaining. The Odysseus defeated the J, but only had 9% hull remaining.

As expected, the J is worthless for In-System combat. It got off about two volleys of FAA and a 3 PPC balls before it ran out of juice. It might fare better with ammo based MAMLs, but would probably still be inferior to an M7 with IBLs etc.

Considering you can make about 3 Js in the same time it takes to make an M2, it seems a viable option to have them patrolling in pairs of two. Of course, most people probably just buy their M2s instead of building them at the HQ, but I still think the J is a decent ship to produce if your HQ isn't busy doing something else.