Quo Vadis - MARS vs Standard Turret Commands.

[Garik_Loran]

Hey Guys,

I've been using MARS extensively in X3AP but now in X3FL I've become a bit more careful since I basically board everything I come across. Being friendly with Argon and Boron this means its all about boarding Yaki / Pirate / Split / Paranid M6,M7,M2 and M1, did get some Xenon M6 as well but avoided Xenon M7 + so far.

I just do all of this with an overtuned Akurei with about 335 Speed, which is really enjoyable and in most cases very easy.

However, the more the Fight Rank rises, the more Adds / M3-5 seem to spawn. This is usually not a problem in most cases, but Boarding an M7M feels very uncomfortable even with the decent speed of 335 (with turn 5,5 I dont want to go beyond because then undocking will result in constant collision with the station... )

Usually you can just get Aggro and lure the capitals away, in the best case you can collect 4 ships at a time, fist M6, then M7, and then M1 and M2. Usually Standard Turret commands work fine since I don't want to damage the enemies that I want to board.

But as soon as you encounter an M7M, it will spam Flails, I first thought the Akurei to be quite well equipped with Flak array and PSG. But I feel missile defense commands really sucks against Flail barrages, with only 3 GJ shields you will get smoked pretty quick. I thought that MARS would do a better job (which it does with drones), but with a lot of fighters (especially Yaki), it is very tough. I feel that MARS is doing a much better job against fighters, but missile defense doesn't work well against M7M.... thats basically the most important thing. I feel it worked a lot better in X3AP....Overtuning even more would help against the flails, but I'm afraid it will ruin Autopilot totally at some point even when undocking. I managed to board some M7M by exposing top or belly with PSG on rocket defense. it seemed to work better than MARS.

But in general I think MARS should work better when cycling between Flak, PSG and even PBE... but somehow I feel it doesn't... What is your experience so far?

I could go in the hard way head to head but then all the adds would try to smoke the boarded M7M before I can transfer Jump drive... I managed some times but it just doesn't feel so good with a lot of losses to rockets / massive Yaki M3 PBG fire.

I guess thats a point where a boarding M7M would come in handy, when you just can flail every singe figher so fast.

But then again, its about optimising turret commands. How is your approach?

[beast_regards]

Hey Guys,

I've been using MARS extensively in X3AP but now in X3FL I've become a bit more careful since I basically board everything I come across. Being friendly with Argon and Boron this means its all about boarding Yaki / Pirate / Split / Paranid M6,M7,M2 and M1, did get some Xenon M6 as well but avoided Xenon M7 + so far.

I just do all of this with an overtuned Akurei with about 335 Speed, which is really enjoyable and in most cases very easy.

However, the more the Fight Rank rises, the more Adds / M3-5 seem to spawn. This is usually not a problem in most cases, but Boarding an M7M feels very uncomfortable even with the decent speed of 335 (with turn 5,5 I dont want to go beyond because then undocking will result in constant collision with the station... )

Usually you can just get Aggro and lure the capitals away, in the best case you can collect 4 ships at a time, fist M6, then M7, and then M1 and M2. Usually Standard Turret commands work fine since I don't want to damage the enemies that I want to board.

But as soon as you encounter an M7M, it will spam Flails, I first thought the Akurei to be quite well equipped with Flak array and PSG. But I feel missile defense commands really sucks against Flail barrages, with only 3 GJ shields you will get smoked pretty quick. I thought that MARS would do a better job (which it does with drones), but with a lot of fighters (especially Yaki), it is very tough. I feel that MARS is doing a much better job against fighters, but missile defense doesn't work well against M7M.... thats basically the most important thing. I feel it worked a lot better in X3AP....Overtuning even more would help against the flails, but I'm afraid it will ruin Autopilot totally at some point even when undocking. I managed to board some M7M by exposing top or belly with PSG on rocket defense. it seemed to work better than MARS.

But in general I think MARS should work better when cycling between Flak, PSG and even PBE... but somehow I feel it doesn't... What is your experience so far?

I could go in the hard way head to head but then all the adds would try to smoke the boarded M7M before I can transfer Jump drive... I managed some times but it just doesn't feel so good with a lot of losses to rockets / massive Yaki M3 PBG fire.

I guess thats a point where a boarding M7M would come in handy, when you just can flail every singe figher so fast.

But then again, its about optimising turret commands. How is your approach?

I never got a M7M in X3FL.

Instead, I brought Carrack and subsequently Brigantine, which both could fire Boarding Pods and mount PBC broadside.

From my experience, you could shoot down missiles with PBC either manually or on auto, as they don't eat too much energy even on something with poor generator like Carrack. PBC tend to strip shield quite effectivelly and you could regulate how much you damage, which works better than timing Flails to seconds, but you tend to be 5km away from the target and something with a lot of firepower will blast you.

Boarding is different thing as enemies tends to swarm you when you rank up, especially Xenon are on rampage.

Yaki also swarm you in their their sector. Akurei is rarely alone, and if it is, reinforcements arrive very, very quickly.

Other faction tends to have M8's around, and they absolutely spam you with missiles, and they will either destroy you or destroy what you captured (likely the later, as you couldn't defend yourself and the target you want to board). Many ships tends to spam Wasps or Typhoons, so it doesn't quite matter enemies doesn't have M7M. Rapid response do have M7Ms though, and you will trigger them quite easily if you wander into hostile faction territory....

[ksnk]

Caraсk or Akurei is absolutelly leader with anti-rocket defence while making abordaje. Put PBC at both board and tell one "shoot my target" and another "rockets only". All the rest turrets "fire at interceptors". So keep distance 5-6 km and if you like to control target shield - turn to side with "shoot my target", then seen target is ready to capture - turn to other side send wasp and marines. If found rocket swarm - turn your anti rocket side to swarm. To kill some annoying fighter while your marines dealing with target - select and destroy him one by one. Or send him wasp or two and let him close to you himself.
Yes, my opinion too, you can't take Akurei without ship with abordaje pods, so my first ship constantly was Carrack purchased from pirates shipyard. It cost 30kk only.
Soon I am try to capture with pure marines one m7m from duke. They are almost defenseless and at start of game duke not your enemy, so it's looks possible.
Another possibility - finish an Earth mission and got your first ship with abordaje pods, but where to get a money to start this mission?

[Garik_Loran]

Thanks guys for your response.

Boarding isn't the problem, usually you can lure targets away. for example if there is a brigantine with 3 M6, you shoot the fastest one and head away. The turrets will deal with the fighters and soon the fastest M6 is alone. You can board it, send it away and continue until only the M1/M2 ist left. That actually works great with me, not much trouble there since they will be so far away from anything that reinforcements will take some time. Works with Pteranodons as well, the faster the M6, the easier it gets since they all will follow but the distance grows.

Anyway, once I wanted to board for example a Yaki Senshi, it will spam flails and the turrets, both PBC on sides and Flak or PSG on top/bottom don't seem to work well on so many flails even with a speed of 335. In X3AP this felt a lot easier even without tuning.

I can board the M7M easily but then the shields wont hold up against so many fighters and the flails. M7M alone, no prob, but 20 fighters and spammed flails are tough. The fighters will kill the captured M7M basically instantly. Focussing the fighters first, the flails will kill my shields too fast.

I'm about to tune a brigantine with 32 PBC for that case, but i actually hoped that the M7 would suffice. It usually does very easy, but not agains an M7M with heavy fighter escorts. I boarded some paranid M7M with ease, but especially the yaki are tough with the fighter being very fast and equipped with PBG which are hard on your shields. Together with that flail spam it ist hard to both capture and keep alive your captured M7M. Once I tried massive evasion but due to not getting distance fast enough there were more than 50 fighters in the end and even a separat Akurei to cross my path. That was too much to handle.

That is why I referred to the MARS turret script, in X3Ap it worked exceptionally well but here I struggle agains M7M due to rocket defense...
Its not impossible and I boarded some Paranid Ares this way but havent managed to get a Senshi so far. Maybe I need to get lucky to catch one in the outer rims. ..

[Garik_Loran]

Took some time to get a feeling, but I got the hang of it. When it comes to M7M spamming flails, to me it seems that not MARS, just regular missile defense command works best with PSG.

Pick up fighters with rockets and PBC on side turrets and once the hundreds of flails are on the way, keep rather steady and trust on the PSG. I was evading to much at 330 Speed, I got the feeling that this causes too many misses. Even when it feels horrible letting the rockets come so close, the 2 PSG work quite ok then.

Eventually the M7M will run out of flails, then it is very easy, the hammers are way easier to defend, flak artillery handles them well but struggles against the flails.