Best Pirate/Yaki M7 as Player Ship

[Garik_Loran]

Hey Guys,

I hope that still some of you play this wondefull game

After way more than 1.000 hours in X3TC, X3AP I decided to give FL a try and quickly found out that the reputation system ist way more forgiving when it comes to boarding or bailing than X3AP.

Hyperion was my favourite, however, I realy enjoyed boarding but hated the sluggish Cobra, this one-trick-pony style is not my game. And commanding more vessels in battles stresses me

Now I found out that in FL 2 M6 and 3 M7 plus 1 M2 can carry boarding pods, which is amazing.

I'm afraid I will fall for the Maru, but hell, this chunk of metal is ugly. The Acinonyx is sexy, but lacks Cargo space for long trips and ongoing missions. M2 is no option for being too sluggish.

With Pandora boxes being easier to akquire I read that especially the carrack handles like a M6 and is a hell lot of fun. However, there are more options, and I'd love to hear your opinion. I did not akquire any of them yet but once I do, I would start collecting Pandora boxes fast, hopefully without regretting my decision. This is how I feel about them regarding statistics. I will of course try them when I get them but love to hear your opinion.

Pirate Carrack:
+ OK frontal layout with CIG and ID for frying anti-boarding equipment (PBG is something I will miss)
+ fast and best manouverability
+ 4 PBC on each side, best broad side for circling
+ smallest profile, best evasion
+ good rockets
+ best tuning results
- no hangars
- rather low cargo space
- only 2 GJ of shields

Yaki Akurei:
+ OK frontal layout like Carrack
+ 2 PBC on each side
+ PSG in the other turrets
+ 3 Hangars (2250 or 1950 extra space with enhances Kea or Blastclaw Prototyp)
+ 3 GJ Shields
+ good rockets
/ reasonable mobility
- only 2 guns on side turrets
- worst laser generator

Yaki Kariudo:
+ XXL Cargo
+ 10 Hangars for more and fighter Wings
+ 3 GJ Shields
+ PBC / PSG all around, defense monster?
- worst mobility
- less good anti capital rockets
- bad frontal gun layout and no ID

I want to solo them and focus on boarding, and I feel that it will be either carrack or akurei. The biggest downside of the
carrack is the missing hangars in my opinion. With the akurei 3 hangars would suffice for backup e-cells/rockets and the ability for easy return/buy ship missions/ jump drive transfer.
However it doesnt pack a broadside as the carrack, has PSG though, which would be nice for clearing Xenon sectors. However MARS may ruin my day with friendly fire, we'll see... The kariudo is a bit exotic but the bad frontal layout is something I don't like when flying myself.

I'd love to hear about your experience, maybe I am missing something just looking at the statisics and mostly relying on X3AP experience.

Thanks & best regards

[ksnk]

Carrack a bit cheaper to purchase at start of the game. You need about $30kk and good relation with pirates (4 stars). At start of the game you have some stars. One more - better speed - 137 against 130 of Akurei.
But hangars is a point! So i think the best possible line is to buy Carrack. Then capture Kariudo just to repair ships and next Akurei And only next upgrade this Akurei with forsage.

[Garik_Loran]

Thanks for your reply

Unfletunately I'm beyond that point, I tried all 4 Scenarios but found it very annoying siding with either Yaki or Pirats, since the dynamic relations are really a pain to keep up with this constellation.

Well, I got lucky and just as I got the Xenon Hub, a Hyperion went in and I just boarded it with the crappy marines from the single military outpost available at that point. With that I stumbled over a Acinonyx and boarded it too after man fails with that bloddy spacewalk and the ship keeping spamming those hammer torpedos. And again I couldn`t hold myself back when I came across a new ship to reverse engineer

All that lead basically to everyone hating me so hard, fixing this made the argons and borons angry again so in the end I ended up doing anti pirate and anti yaki missions and now only they hate me hard, now only boarding is the option but I'm fine with that. But with the boarding I guess I do the steps you recommended unless I stumble upon one by accident.

[ksnk]

If you already have a ship with boarding pods it's better to capture Carrack or Akurei and keep fighting Pirates and/or Yaky as usual. Only reason to buy Carracs is start of the game and you have nothing except small amount of money. Carrack just a bit cheaper than buying Akurei or demanding Acinonyx from Splits. If you have luck and good marines to just capture them - it even more better

[beast_regards]

I just checked and it is in fact possible to buy Carrack without complexly ruining relations with other factions.

If you ignore the fact you would always be hostile to either Argon+Boron or to Split+Paranid, getting reputation with pirates high enough (I think the rank is called Boarding Leader, thematically appropriate for what we want to do) won't damage any other factions too much.

I brought Carrack while being at high reputation with the Argon and Boron (Protector of the Federation and King's Protectorate respectively) while remaining friendly with almost everyone else (OTAS, Terracorp etc.) only true loss was becoming enemy to Atreus.

Teladi (NMNC) are neutral (and trade with pirates either way) ...

Strong Arms are hostile too, but they are tied to the Split so don't count, it's not possible to be friendly with them unless you are Split alligned.

Going for Yaki in order to buy Akurei would make you enemy of all corporations (not just two) and all other factions, since everyone hates Yaki and Yaki hates everybody in return. Yaki alignment would also turn you hostile to Teladi as only neutral faction.

This makes Carrack best choice of the three, but not the best boarding ship accessible to me: As it stands, I have enough reputation to buy M7M from not only Pirates, but also from Teladi, OTAS, Argon and Boron.

[ksnk]

Yes your reputation been ruined if you planned to buy Carrack, but not too much. For me it's acceptable cost for having good boarding ship from beginning.

[Garik_Loran]

Thanks guys.

My rep is pretty much ruined with both yaki and pirates, Argon, Boron is fine and Split is actually ok, regained some after stealing their Acinonyx, which was reverse engineered right away.

Getting those M6 works ok, got a mobile pirate station as well, but for one of these M7 the marines will still need some training. I'm quite excited how a frigate with pods will handle...

[beast_regards]

Thanks guys.

My rep is pretty much ruined with both yaki and pirates, Argon, Boron is fine and Split is actually ok, regained some after stealing their Acinonyx, which was reverse engineered right away.

Getting those M6 works ok, got a mobile pirate station as well, but for one of these M7 the marines will still need some training. I'm quite excited how a frigate with pods will handle...

Carrack actually handles different than the other M7M you may want to use for capturing as it can't use Flail missiles to take down shields.

I use Carrack, and I am entirely helpless against Xenon K or Q. I can perhaps try to destroy Q with Shrike before Q vaporises me, but Carrack has no chance. You will have similar experience with Acinonyx as it is M6. You need something that brings down shields fast, and from range.

If you want to use M7 to capture anything pick one that could use Flail Barrage. Buy Cobra from Split if you have reputation for it, it used to be suggested ship back in AP when you could be friendly with everyone (Cobra is fastest).

Btw I tried to use Carrack against Athena and force it to bail (they are everywhere courtesy of the Duke) and Carrack actually has too much firepower for bailing tactics. Acinonyx works better for this, but it doesn't need marines.

I originally wanted Carrack to go after Ryu. There are far too many Ryu in my gameplay, they hang around Hub, they bother my HQ in Freedom's Reach, and my plan was to cap them and them reprocess them for components I couldn't get anywhere, but ... then Xenon attacked.

[Garik_Loran]

Thanks guys.

My rep is pretty much ruined with both yaki and pirates, Argon, Boron is fine and Split is actually ok, regained some after stealing their Acinonyx, which was reverse engineered right away.

Getting those M6 works ok, got a mobile pirate station as well, but for one of these M7 the marines will still need some training. I'm quite excited how a frigate with pods will handle...

Carrack actually handles different than the other M7M you may want to use for capturing as it can't use Flail missiles to take down shields.

I use Carrack, and I am entirely helpless against Xenon K or Q. I can perhaps try to destroy Q with Shrike before Q vaporises me, but Carrack has no chance. You will have similar experience with Acinonyx as it is M6. You need something that brings down shields fast, and from range.

If you want to use M7 to capture anything pick one that could use Flail Barrage. Buy Cobra from Split if you have reputation for it, it used to be suggested ship back in AP when you could be friendly with everyone (Cobra is fastest).

Btw I tried to use Carrack against Athena and force it to bail (they are everywhere courtesy of the Duke) and Carrack actually has too much firepower for bailing tactics. Acinonyx works better for this, but it doesn't need marines.

I originally wanted Carrack to go after Ryu. There are far too many Ryu in my gameplay, they hang around Hub, they bother my HQ in Freedom's Reach, and my plan was to cap them and them reprocess them for components I couldn't get anywhere, but ... then Xenon attacked.

I see your point, thats what I'm a bit afraid of. I thought getting in close is an advantage and then turbo out and keep spamming wasps as mini flails and Drones to keep the shields down and just hang back.

I played the Cobra in X3AP a lot, it usually worked well but I didn't really enjoy it, especially against Kyoto or Tokyo I fired either too few or too many missiles so in many cases it was an overkill, but that was certainly a user issue. But the main downside is the cobra being so sluggish, I usually don't like changing ships.

With the Hyperion I often go in fast and burn with 8 BPG, had no Problems with Q so far, but then again now in FL I didnt cone across one with beam weapons so far, the regular fire is quite easy to avoide with the skinny profile of the Hyperion. It may be different if you're doing this with a fat cigar with only 6 PBG or even 4 when 2 ID are equiped to fry the equiptment, I feel its not gonna work that good and is probably not the right tactic. I think I won't collect any tunings until I got at least Carrack, Akurei and Maru to feel what fits the best.

Until then I will rely on my M6 and try to board them with that.
At least I wanna try without an M7M.

The Acinoyx lacks ID, that sucks when there are security measures on board. With the Hyp I can jump in the attached M3 with 8 ID and fry every boarding security within seconds and dock back within a few seconds, but then again, there comes the annoying spacewalk...

[beast_regards]

I see your point, thats what I'm a bit afraid of. I thought getting in close is an advantage and then turbo out and keep spamming wasps as mini flails and Drones to keep the shields down and just hang back.

I played the Cobra in X3AP a lot, it usually worked well but I didn't really enjoy it, especially against Kyoto or Tokyo I fired either too few or too many missiles so in many cases it was an overkill, but that was certainly a user issue. But the main downside is the cobra being so sluggish, I usually don't like changing ships.

With the Hyperion I often go in fast and burn with 8 BPG, had no Problems with Q so far, but then again now in FL I didnt cone across one with beam weapons so far, the regular fire is quite easy to avoide with the skinny profile of the Hyperion. It may be different if you're doing this with a fat cigar with only 6 PBG or even 4 when 2 ID are equiped to fry the equiptment, I feel its not gonna work that good and is probably not the right tactic. I think I won't collect any tunings until I got at least Carrack, Akurei and Maru to feel what fits the best.

Until then I will rely on my M6 and try to board them with that.
At least I wanna try without an M7M.

The Acinoyx lacks ID, that sucks when there are security measures on board. With the Hyp I can jump in the attached M3 with 8 ID and fry every boarding security within seconds and dock back within a few seconds, but then again, there comes the annoying spacewalk...

You kinda do "zip around" in Carrack, it is fastest M7 you could get. Well, second fastest, but not by the large margin. I think turning are infinite, but random, and so far I was buffing my Angel as it was main quest ship so far.

Except, in Carrack you are faster than other ship in the class, yet aren't fast enough to avoid fire, and you almost either have too much firepower or too little, assuming you do 8 PBC as I do. As I posted in the other thread, I have massive problem with Xenon K popping out everywhere as there is nothing I could reliably do to destroy it. Carrack could sustain the PBC's, poor laser capacity comes up when you try to use your nose guns. I fit the Carrack's nose with 2 CIG and 6 EBC, because trying full CIG would shut the ship is seconds.

The Terran plot is locked behind a lot of resources, and I wasn't partially keen to board the Terran ships back in AP, they felt harder than Xenon.

PBC (and all weapons for what matters) are hard to come by. I got mine from Black Market, and ...

12 lasers in total, that's one outfitted Carrack and one Marauder, and two left spare, that's all what I found in the entire game so far (150 hours according to Steam), and I am spending all my time with Black Market.

[ksnk]

12 lasers in total, that's one outfitted Carrack and one Marauder, and two left spare, that's all what I found in the entire game so far (150 hours according to Steam), and I am spending all my time with Black Market.

There is some solutions. One is just buy or steal from Strong Arm headquarter PLP factory. Next you need to spent some game hours to upgrade it to acceptable producing speed. Or you just can use black market. )) It's easy. Just save your game. Next send your transport on every pirate base you can remember. Check black market on every base. If you found no PLP - reload game and try again. If you visitштп system more than 15-20 game minutes ago - all missions and items randomly regenerating, so next run - new items to buy.
For my opinion there is no reason to arm all board with PLP. so you need 4 only at right(for me) board. All rest to destroy interceptors or torpedoes. To keep a shields of a ship - keep distance about 6k from target, "attack my target" and turn left or right to allow your PLP firing or not. It's just abordaje ship, not killer. And some speed upgrade can help you too much. My Carrack have about 290 speed and proper rotate upgrades.

[beast_regards]

12 lasers in total, that's one outfitted Carrack and one Marauder, and two left spare, that's all what I found in the entire game so far (150 hours according to Steam), and I am spending all my time with Black Market.

There is some solutions. One is just buy or steal from Strong Arm headquarter PLP factory. Next you need to spent some game hours to upgrade it to acceptable producing speed. Or you just can use black market. )) It's easy. Just save your game. Next send your transport on every pirate base you can remember. Check black market on every base. If you found no PLP - reload game and try again. If you visitштп system more than 15-20 game minutes ago - all missions and items randomly regenerating, so next run - new items to buy.

I usually roam around Pirate Bases and Anarchy Ports as I usually sell things on the black market to make money, and occasionally exchange space fuel/weed/firearms for weapons/

It seems that Phased Array Laser Cannon is all the rage among the pirates now ... unfortunately, this is different kind of laser than PBC.

I don't think it's compatible with Carrack, at least it's not listed anywhere.

[Garik_Loran]

I got 18 PBC so far from the Black Market of the 4 pirat bases I'm still friendly with. Guess I got lucky, since I was only looking for about 20 ingame hours. Bought all the other laser cannons as well just in case I may need them. But I feel for you for only finding so few

Now I'm gonna place some capped priat or duke TS in every Trading Station just to check the black market. Having cargobbay shielding on all major battleships may be useful later.

[BrigandPhantos77]

I just checked and it is in fact possible to buy Carrack without complexly ruining relations with other factions.

If you ignore the fact you would always be hostile to either Argon+Boron or to Split+Paranid, getting reputation with pirates high enough (I think the rank is called Boarding Leader, thematically appropriate for what we want to do) won't damage any other factions too much.

I brought Carrack while being at high reputation with the Argon and Boron (Protector of the Federation and King's Protectorate respectively) while remaining friendly with almost everyone else (OTAS, Terracorp etc.) only true loss was becoming enemy to Atreus.

Teladi (NMNC) are neutral (and trade with pirates either way) ...

Strong Arms are hostile too, but they are tied to the Split so don't count, it's not possible to be friendly with them unless you are Split alligned.

Going for Yaki in order to buy Akurei would make you enemy of all corporations (not just two) and all other factions, since everyone hates Yaki and Yaki hates everybody in return. Yaki alignment would also turn you hostile to Teladi as only neutral faction.

This makes Carrack best choice of the three, but not the best boarding ship accessible to me: As it stands, I have enough reputation to buy M7M from not only Pirates, but also from Teladi, OTAS, Argon and Boron.

Just a suggestion, get a feel for boarding in FL. It's a lot easier than previous. And getting all those ships through boarding isn't difficult.

Practice combat on Pirate TLs, capture all 4 standard commonwealth M7M from Duke's sector (just use patience), and any pirate or yaki become reachable without the need to ruin rep with commonwealth factions or corporations.

[beast_regards]

Just a suggestion, get a feel for boarding in FL. It's a lot easier than previous. And getting all those ships through boarding isn't difficult.

Practice combat on Pirate TLs, capture all 4 standard commonwealth M7M from Duke's sector (just use patience), and any pirate or yaki become reachable without the need to ruin rep with commonwealth factions or corporations.

I already have Carrack and my reputation with Commonwealth races dropped sharply, and corporations all practically hate me. My rep with Pirates is high enough I have access to all their ships, including Brigantine and Galleon, and finally have the money, so this is going to be my first M2.

[Garik_Loran]

I managed to get the Akurei now by Spacewalk from Hyperion with Backup Marines stored in the docked Blastclaw. That was really a pain because it kept shooting my marines with that PBE. Had to jump in my Amun with 8 ID severeal times until enough weaponry was destroyed.

I already like the Akurei even without Tunings, I went straight for the Brigantine and a Galleon, worked just fine, circling from about 6 km amd let the PBC do their work. Then a quick pass with Turbo boost and the Marines will insta-dock.

I like to have the addition jump drives and cargo space as well as additional 15 Marines from the 3 docked Blastclaws. I feel I'll stick to the Akurei for that reason but I will get a Carrack to for testing.

But I can see why many favour the Carrack, 4 PBC on each side make it quicker especially when you just want to destroy something. I didn't see one so far, but I wasn't exactly looking and went straight for the M2 and M1 to test the boarding.

[ksnk]

Testing Akurei and found him greatest abordage ship. Together with 2-3 "blastclaws prototype" he can handle up to 35 marines.I am still using 2 of them for cleaning a field, but 35 marines can capture big xenon ship without other ships. As carrier he has no problem to send captured ship back to base. 2 additional ship can collect all dropped items around battlefield. Only thing I am regret a bit - i am spent all speed upgrades. so 130 is a bit slow, my current Carrac has 206... But next time I am start a new game he were my battle ship .
So I am changing my vote to Akurei.

[Garik_Loran]

It really is a powerhouse. You can clear LooManckstrats Legacy and just collect Galeon, Brigantine and 1-2 TL in one run, depending on the way you want to go home, with or without your own jumpdrive.

Or farm annoying Paranids in Xenon Hub, they sent an Odysseus, Agamenon and an Ariadne and it felt quite easy to cap them in one run even with all 3 roaming around.

It feels so easy compared to the M7M with your rocket timing, and you don't need a single rocket. For M6 you can just shoot 2 pods manually and keep shields down with IPG without risking overkill, with the M2 you can just make a quick Turbo pass and all Marines dock reliably, then you can just kite at the 6m range and keep the shields low.

With the Tunings I am now by 300 speed and 5,4 steer, it feels just great. With that speed its far easier to avoid being hit, I guess there are still some tunings to collect.

I suppose you can do it with brigantine as well, more firepower and more shields, but no docking ports amd significantly slower.

Xenon are yet to board, I'm just afraid I fire up my Fight rank too fast when engaging them and killing too many M3-M6...

[beast_regards]

Testing Akurei and found him greatest abordage ship. Together with 2-3 "blastclaws prototype" he can handle up to 35 marines.I am still using 2 of them for cleaning a field, but 35 marines can capture big xenon ship without other ships. As carrier he has no problem to send captured ship back to base. 2 additional ship can collect all dropped items around battlefield. Only thing I am regret a bit - i am spent all speed upgrades. so 130 is a bit slow, my current Carrac has 206... But next time I am start a new game he were my battle ship .
So I am changing my vote to Akurei.

I am curious, could Akurei win OOS against Heavy Centaur Prototype?

Carrack can't. I tried it, went after the Heavy Centaur that was attacking my complex, and got wasted OOS...

Loaded game and went in piloting the same Carrack. Destroying the Centaur was easy. Boarding it was easy-ish, lost a marine, but I had newbies onboard.

[ksnk]

I am curious, could Akurei win OOS against Heavy Centaur Prototype?

He can win every ship in universe 1:1. The key is PBC on both boards (at least 2 in one) and speed more than target. So you need to spent some speed upgrades to grow his speed to 200 or so and grow his rotation to comfortly value. All the rest is easy - just make PBC "fire at my target", fly close to make him angry and next continue to run for about 6k distance with same speed while your PBC do his job. If a target will shoot with long range weapon - press by circle W, W+A, A, A+S, S, S+D, D, D+W ... all about 5 seconds, so you ship avoid enemy fire while fiered. Press F2 and look whats happen around. Yes 4 PBC is twice effective, but it's differ a time only.
Only troubles - big amount of ships or tons of fighters. So the speed is a key to survive anyway .
One more key - it's a abordaje ship, so to clear sectors the big ships is a bit better. But it can be used almost for any purpose.