What do you think of the M7C class?

Board Index » X3: Albion Prelude » What do you think of the M7C class?

Boneguey (9)

Posted 12 years ago.

I have to admit that I tried out the Guppy last night as a supply vessel for my boarding operations, and it is awesome. Fast enough to keep up with my over tuned Cobra (which goes 122m/s), has enough shielding to not need to micromanage it around small ships that I would prefer to ignore, has 5000 cargo to allow me extra e-cells to jump out my prey after taking, plus extra missiles and boarding pods. It has room for 12 additional jump drives, and best of all can dock a TS, which means I have enough supplies to keep hunting until I run out of those 12 jump drives. It is completely awesome!

I will admit that I don't use it in direct combat, but I rely on it to allow me to continue to move further into Terran space while I take more of their capitals and jump them back to my space. The thing works far better than the Zephyrus for that.

EDIT: Just to illustrate the point, on my first foray I took two Kyoto's, an Osaka, a Springblossum, and 3 Atmospheric Lifters before running out of missiles. I have tweaked the supply so that I should last longer the next time out (more missiles and less e-cells). My new setup is as follows:
Ship    Cargo    e-Cell    B. Pod    Flail    Hammer
Cobra    7000    1500    20    300    175
Guppy    5000 2000    12    150    100
Drake    12850    6000    20    350    250

The Drake is docked in the Guppy. You can swap the Drake for a Sturgeon for more room, but I like the Drake because it is faster when I undock it to get more missiles.

dutzan

Skillguey (7)

Posted 12 years ago.

The Drake is docked in the Guppy. You can swap the Drake for a Sturgeon for more room, but I like the Drake because it is faster when I undock it to get more missiles.

- martimus

Do you have to undock it to get the stuff from it? To me it just seems risky to have transports vulnerable in a possibly hostile area while they dock. I also go rampaging deep into terran space but I just use one of my mistrals for resupply and just call it to my jump beacon, get what I need and jump it out in under 20 seconds. Same with my griffon if I need extra jumpdrives.

martimus

Boneguey (9)

Posted 12 years ago.

No. You dont need to undock it, as it will transfer to the Guppy the same way any docked ship will. However you need to undock it to refill it after an op.

I dont have any jump beacons, since I cant find any RRF ships that actually carry them. Also the Guppy is 1/3 the cost of a Griffon and has better cargo and manueverabilty. Really it is better for this role since it has zero need for defense except for missile defense. I dont like having combat ships with me when I am taking ships as they often attack ehen I dont want them to.

dutzan

Skillguey (7)

Posted 12 years ago.

Also the Guppy is 1/3 the cost of a Griffon and has better cargo and manueverabilty.
- martimus

No way does it have more maneuvrability. And yea, I had problems getting a beacon since they disabled rapid response fleets so I used a fix to reenable them.

Roguey

Trueguey (22)

Posted 12 years ago.

Oh... can the Guppy dock TS ships? I could see that making the M7C's more useful, or is it just the Guppy which can do that?

martimus

Boneguey (9)

Posted 12 years ago.

Oh... can the Guppy dock TS ships? I could see that making the M7C's more useful, or is it just the Guppy which can do that?
- Roguey

The Guppy and Arainde(sp?) can both dock TSes.

Kirlack

Specoguey (14)

Posted 12 years ago.

I love the look of the Ariadne. IMO, that's what the Aggy should have looked like. Still, even 800MJ of shields is sadly lacking for a ship of this class Cry

Such a shame...she's so pretty....

Madder than a Bastard on fathers day.
My DiDs: Peace(s) of Eight - Way of the Gun - Status: Online, A Xenon DiD

Triscopic

Fightguey (6)

Posted 12 years ago.

The Guppy and Arainde(sp?) can both dock TSes.
- martimus

Seems like we need a new field in the ships database - largest dockable ship. Any chance of that Roguey?

I agree with the general concensus here about shielding levels being shockingly low. None of the ships in the other M7 sub classes (i.e. M7 or M7M) have shielding anywhere near as low as this.

I still plan to get me a Panther. It's basically an M7C but with MUCH better shielding.

Roguey

Trueguey (22)

Posted 12 years ago.

Seems like we need a new field in the ships database - largest dockable ship. Any chance of that Roguey?
- Triscopic

The trouble with that is how its done in the game. The hanger size is declared in tships however thats all (ie. ship a can have 10 ships docked). Where and what the dock points are only found in scene file for each ship, some are hangers (which can house many) whilst some are docking points which hold up-to an certain type of ship.

I think the Tokyo has an mix of these too - having an hanger (for M3 and smaller) and hard docking points (for M6/TS?). So technically its max would be M6/TS but it wouldnt be able to dock like 20 of them.

martimus

Boneguey (9)

Posted 12 years ago.

Very true. I like the Guppy for my needs, because it has better cargo (up to 21,500 with a Sturgeon docked); but the Panther was what I was going to use until I saw how small it's cargo was. I am considering using an Atmospheric lifter as well, since it has a high top speed and plenty of room as well as 5 extra jump drives, but it accelerates so slow that it wouldn't work that well. I might try out a Elephant, as that could work alright as well, and is only slightly more expensive than a Guppy. But the Guppy works for now, but an Elephant might be better since I wouldn't have to micro manage the exchange of cargo from the TS to the Guppy.

EDIT: Looking at the stats, the Elephant might work out better, although it's manueverability down right sucks. They have the same shielding, and the Elephant actually has better guns and more docking ports. I can get all of my supplies from my HQ, so having a dockable TS isn't as important. The manueverability gives me pause though, as I need it to stay with me so I can transfer stuff quickly. I might give it a try.

I do wish the M7C's had twice the shielding they currently have. 2GJ would be nice on the Guppy, as would 1.6GJ on the Ariadne. Other than that, I like the class of ships.

Rassyu

Stickguey (8)

Posted 12 years ago.

EDIT: Looking at the stats, the Elephant might work out better, although its manueverability down right sucks. They have the same shielding, and the Elephant actually has better guns and more docking ports. I can get all of my supplies from my HQ, so having a dockable TS isnt as important. The manueverability gives me pause though, as I need it to stay with me so I can transfer stuff quickly. I might give it a try.
- martimus

i'm using an elephant as a mobile base right now,im saving up for an M7M so i can start taking ships and iwas planning on having the elephant follow me in this for supplies and such.its manuverability might be bad but its preaty fast in a strait line and you can transfer stuff from 5km,im preatty sure it will be better thanthe M7C you are using right now

martimus

Boneguey (9)

Posted 12 years ago.

The biggest reason I am considering making the change is that I have a CLS2 freighter (I think a Tern) that auto-restocks the Guppy, but it cannot autorestock the TS docked in it, since only one TS can dock at a time (I think, I should test this out). If I swap to the Elephant, than I wouldn't have to micromanage restocking a TS each time I go out, as the CLS would work fine with the Elephant. That said, the Guppy is already set up, and it works much better than the previous Zephyrus I was using. I even used one of the extra Zeus's I had once, which is why the poor manueverability gets to me. I like having the ship be able to stay next to me when I am moving around (I have boarded over 30 Zeus's from Duke's Haven, so I have had plenty sitting around. I have kept two for my own RRF to protect my assets when I am too busy to jump in myself.)

Rassyu

Stickguey (8)

Posted 12 years ago.

well the elephant is faster than a cobra it wont spin circles around it but it will catch up with you when you go in a strait line

Ripskar

Proguey (12)

Posted 12 years ago.

I think they require a bit more planning to use effectively than simply trying to rambo the universe, but they aren't bad ships.
The Maccana makes a nice little capping raider; jump in, force a fighter to bail and dock him before jumping out. Far more effective in combat than a TM.

Somewhere out there is a Cobra Mk III with my name on it.
It isn't mine, some rando actually wrote my name across the side of his ship...

Roguey

Trueguey (22)

Posted 12 years ago.

well.. I do think ego kind-of shot themselves in the foot, as there are already light carriers M7's in the game already (with much better shielding). Does the Griffon Hauler really only have 400Mj worth of shielding? Eek

(need to check in-game, that seems so wrong).

If so, you might as well paint a big bull eye on it - although at 26mil its not even cheap.

« 1 2 3 4 »

You need to log-in to post here.