A Big thankyou! to all you guys who made FL possible

[Chull]

I'd like to say, now that I have got to the pinnacle of boarding OPS ships, that whoever made the tweaks to the ships for the pirates and Yakis, welldone! They are actually worth using, fun and good at their role now.

I wanted to do boarding OPS of course, but I played a lot of TC back in the day and did not fancy going the M7M routed having done that to death already, so I looked into doing boarding OPs with lasers at close range this time. I'm flying all these ships personally and on their own, no other ships were brought in for any of the boarding operations I've done so far.

The route I went ship wise turned out to be absolutely perfect and an enjoyable journey, went like this:

1. Split ACronix prototype or whatever it's called, an M6 with boarding pods, awesome spinny barrels too. Mine is called Archy.
2. Marauder, M6 with boarding pods, lots more cargo space now, can use Ion disruptors to strip nasty ship equipment off targets and has one beam weapon in either side to ista-kill incoming missiles or whittle down a nuisance capitol ship coming to spoil the fun. This is called Jolly Rodger.
3. Yaki Frigate, the Aquri or something, 20 marines now on tap, 2 beam weapons on either side, IDs to strip, lots more cargo and can dock 3 fighters, awesome! Named it Hijack McCrack
4. Pirate Carrack, all of the previous things, apart from it can't carry fighter craft now, but I found out about jumpdrive installation kits at this point so not a problem. Also, can you say FOUR beam weapons on either side? hell yeah! Named it Crackers
5th and final step, we get to the big boy of boarding OPs, the pirate destroyer Brigantine, 25 Marines available now, more shields, 32, I repeat, THIRTY TWO beam weapons, 4 Gauss cannons and 6 phased repeater guns of joy! I called this beauty Rave Lasers, as that's what happens when enemy ships get within 6.5km of it.

Following this line of progression of close range, boarding pod equipped ships has been the most fun and rewarding passage in the game so far. Once I saw the M6 with beam weapons, even only 1 per side, and progressed from there, it was if it had been designed that way, each ship really was a step up from the last one.

So thanks Egosoft for the X games and thanks to the modders and community people who made FL possible. A really good job, done well.

I'm off to show the Terrans how we used to rave in the early 1990s now....

[Novvak]

Aren't the beam weapons causing any problems for you? I tried using PALC and Plasma Beam Cannons on an advanced heavy dragon.
PALC had a bugged animation and each shot covered almost entire screen with light, and PBC seems to cause crash to desktop for me.

[Artificial]

Use argon lasers, they have small thin animation of beam. Also, they have the best dps between other types of beam lasers.

[Deianeira]

Aren't the beam weapons causing any problems for you? I tried using PALC and Plasma Beam Cannons on an advanced heavy dragon.
PALC had a bugged animation and each shot covered almost entire screen with light, and PBC seems to cause crash to desktop for me.

Plasma Beam Cannons are the only usable ones. The others completely tank your FPS by continuously firing, obscure your vision whith their huge bright white lights and do shit damage in comparison. This makes the Enhanced Heavy Dragon the best player M6 and the Brigantine the best player M2 in the game whenever combat is involved. The crashing issue must be on your end, my condolences

[Artificial]

This makes the Enhanced Heavy Dragon the best player M6 and the Brigantine the best player M2 in the game whenever combat is involved

You should try Xenon I and new terran's Hyperion

[Hwitvlf]

I really like the changes to the pirate ships too. They're finally useful for actually being a pirate. The Carrack seems to be the best ship I've found for boarding capitals. It can bring all 8 Plasma Beam Cannons to bear on a target straight ahead to strip shields quick, and it's maneuverable enough to avoid incoming fire most of the time.
There really are a massive number of good changes in FL. I keep finding new useful features as I dig around in the new menus.

Novvak, I've used the Plasma beam Cannons on multiple ships without crashing.

[Novvak]

Thanks guys, maybe I will do some more testing for PBCs, after all I own the factory blueprint so it would be a shame if it went to waste

[Deianeira]

This makes the Enhanced Heavy Dragon the best player M6 and the Brigantine the best player M2 in the game whenever combat is involved

You should try Xenon I and new terran's Hyperion

You mean finish the game or train 40 marines to max for a downgrade?

[Chull]

Aren't the beam weapons causing any problems for you? I tried using PALC and Plasma Beam Cannons on an advanced heavy dragon.
PALC had a bugged animation and each shot covered almost entire screen with light, and PBC seems to cause crash to desktop for me.

Yes, which is a shame, only the Plasma Beam Cannons are good to use. You can use the others, but it's not worth the blinding light and game lag.

[Chull]

This makes the Enhanced Heavy Dragon the best player M6 and the Brigantine the best player M2 in the game whenever combat is involved

You should try Xenon I and new terran's Hyperion

The I might be better if it used only argon beam weapons, I've not look if it can out gun a brigantine player flown ship yet. And I tried the enhanced dragon, and the terran hyperion and prefered to fly the Goner M6 myself, 6 main weapon beams not on a turret is more fun when driving a little M6 I find.

[Deianeira]

This makes the Enhanced Heavy Dragon the best player M6 and the Brigantine the best player M2 in the game whenever combat is involved

You should try Xenon I and new terran's Hyperion

The I might be better if it used only argon beam weapons, I've not look if it can out gun a brigantine player flown ship yet. And I tried the enhanced dragon, and the terran hyperion and prefered to fly the Goner M6 myself, 6 main weapon beams not on a turret is more fun when driving a little M6 I find.

Fair enough. But I do like efficient combat with SETA x10, i.e. flying circles around the enemy while the turrets do the rest

[Chull]

You should try Xenon I and new terran's Hyperion

The I might be better if it used only argon beam weapons, I've not look if it can out gun a brigantine player flown ship yet. And I tried the enhanced dragon, and the terran hyperion and prefered to fly the Goner M6 myself, 6 main weapon beams not on a turret is more fun when driving a little M6 I find.

Fair enough. But I do like efficient combat with SETA x10, i.e. flying circles around the enemy while the turrets do the rest

Aha! in that case you will love the brigantine with a full set of plasma beam cannons, as that is the exact playstyle you describe; cruise around your target, if it's a capital at just over 6km distance as you slice them to pieces in less than 10 secs (I'm guessing) or if it's a bunch of fighters, just plow into the middle of them and enjoy the light show.