Fractal Softworks Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

Pages: 1 [2]

Author Topic: Which freighter to use  (Read 31209 times)

senor

  • Lieutenant
  • **
  • Posts: 50
    • View Profile
Re: Which freighter to use
« Reply #15 on: February 09, 2015, 03:42:46 PM »

possibly because the chart is old, but a good metric for freighting stuff is speed x cargo and fuel efficiency.
Logged

Bob McBobbyton

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 19
    • View Profile
Re: Which freighter to use
« Reply #16 on: February 16, 2015, 07:03:28 PM »

I'd say that the apogee it the best choice. You have firepower, speed and carrying capacity. The problem is they are hard to find and are very expensive.
Logged
*warning lights* Arcturus Fleet Inbound *warning lights*

Aeson

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 502
    • View Profile
Re: Which freighter to use
« Reply #17 on: February 17, 2015, 12:53:28 PM »

I'd say that the Apogee is the best choice. You have firepower, speed and carrying capacity. The problem is they are hard to find and are very expensive.
It really depends on what you want to do. The Apogee is a burn-3 cruiser, which means that using one as your cargo-hauling solution limits your speed to whatever you're willing to make a burn-3 cruiser do when part of the reason you chose that particular cruiser is its cargo capacity, which means that any fleet which would otherwise have consisted of fighters, destroyers, frigates, or burn-4 cruisers will be slowed (assuming none of the ships are D variants with Degraded Engines). They also carry significantly less cargo per per point of logistics than dedicated freighters like the Buffalo or primarily-freighter compromises like the Mule, though in terms of cargo unit-lightyears per unit of fuel the Apogee is on par with the destroyer-scale dedicated freighters and superior to the frigate-scale freighters (the Venture is slightly superior to the destroyer-scale freighters by this metric).

There is also the question of risk. An Apogee may be a good compromise between pure-warship and pure-freighter, but using it as a warship puts your cargo capacity at risk, while leaving it in the reserves is inefficient by comparison with a group of dedicated freighters with equivalent logistical cost or cargo capacity.

For the logistical cost of an Apogee, a small trading fleet could have 5 Buffaloes for 1500 cargo and probably won't miss the Apogee's firepower unless that was going to be the only escort; other groupings with similar logistical costs are an Eagle and a Buffalo, 550 cargo to the Apogee's 450 and with roughly comparable firepower, or a Falcon and a pair of Buffaloes for 750 cargo and +1 burn speed unless you have something with Degraded Engines or already have a capital ship or burn-3 cruiser in the fleet (granted, Falcons are much weaker warships than Apogees, but that shouldn't really matter to a trade fleet). A small bounty or pirate fleet is more likely to take the compromised cargo capacity in exchange for the increased firepower offered by the Apogee, though larger fleets have enough room that you could easily decide to have a small group of dedicated freighters supporting heavy warships or carriers and come out roughly even with the Apogee route (e.g. Eagle + Buffalo, ~11.6 logistics for 550 cargo versus the Apogee's ~11.5 logistics for 450 cargo, or 2 Dominators + 1 Buffalo, ~22.1 logistics for 800 cargo versus 2 Apogees for ~23 logistics and 900 cargo; the latter alternative offers considerably greater firepower for very little loss in cargo capacity, while the former offers roughly comparable firepower with somewhat superior cargo capacity, though the former option's staying power might be a bit lacking).

Which choice is best depends on what you want to do and what compromises you're willing to make. If you want to run a small bounty hunting (or pirate) fleet where most or all of your ships are likely to see action in any significant engagement, then sure, I could see Apogees being one of the more suitable options. If you want to run a trading fleet where avoiding combat is your preferred route, then I would tend to think cargo capacity and speed would outweigh firepower, and there are lots of options for getting an escort heavy enough to deal with the pirates who can catch you and fast enough to avoid tangling with the pirates who can take you while keeping a higher cargo capacity and burn level than the Apogee would allow. If you want to run a big combat-oriented fleet, there are plenty of ways to stack freighters with combat ships so that you're getting about the same or better overall fleet cargo and firepower than just going with Apogees would, and sufficiently large fleets are large enough to not worry about having a few noncombat ships in the lineup; after all, they have plenty of other ships to do the fighting.
Logged

Schwartz

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1452
    • View Profile
Re: Which freighter to use
« Reply #18 on: February 17, 2015, 09:17:14 PM »

Tarsus is love, Tarsus is life. The Buffalo's not that much cheaper logistically and the Mule's trying too hard to be combat-able. Since Supplies and Fuel are the real currency here, I wouldn't squander so much Logistics on a capital ship, nor a destroyer that is only mediocre in that role. The only other option I'd even consider would be an Atlas with a Tug and maxed speed bonuses, but only if you're on a big trade mission. For the everyday opportunist, you're simply paying too much in Fuel costs, and a couple hundred cargo units will usually suffice.
Logged

Bob McBobbyton

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 19
    • View Profile
Re: Which freighter to use
« Reply #19 on: February 19, 2015, 01:29:39 PM »


loosing an Apogee is fairly hard to do if you have the right mods. Their shields are among the most efficient. You could go toe-to-toe with a Paragon and loose no hull, armour or even go to full flux.

Logged
*warning lights* Arcturus Fleet Inbound *warning lights*

Aeson

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 502
    • View Profile
Re: Which freighter to use
« Reply #20 on: February 19, 2015, 02:23:38 PM »

Losing an Apogee is fairly hard to do if you have the right mods. Their shields are among the most efficient. You could go toe-to-toe with a Paragon and lose no hull, armour or even go to full flux.
Your claim was that the Apogee was "the best choice." As you did not specify a scenario, this implies that you consider the Apogee to be the optimal choice under all conditions, which is simply untrue. It might be the best choice for a fleet which requires all of its logistical points to be reasonably combat-capable, which rules out e.g. Eagle + Buffalo/Tarsus. It is however clearly not the best choice for fleets which are simply trying to move the most goods for the least cost. For that purpose, Atlases, Buffaloes, and Tarsuses are clearly superior, even if you mix in a few escorts. It is also not clearly the best choice for combat-oriented fleets which do not require all their logistics points to be spent on reasonably combat-capable vessels, as if you don't need the points for combat power it isn't necessary to sacrifice cargo capacity for it, but that is the trade-off you're advocating by making the claim that the Apogee is the best choice without specifying the conditions under which it is the best choice.
Logged

Megas

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 12118
    • View Profile
Re: Which freighter to use
« Reply #21 on: February 19, 2015, 05:44:49 PM »

When I need to haul lots of stuff, I use as many Altas as my Logistics can support.  They are escorted by at least two Hyperion.  With over 25,000 capacity, I can buy all food at Taressus and ship it to a starving market.
Logged

Thaago

  • Global Moderator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 7174
  • Harpoon Affectionado
    • View Profile
Re: Which freighter to use
« Reply #22 on: February 19, 2015, 06:21:47 PM »

When playing as a trader (with occasional fighting) I found the pirate version of the Buffalo to be wonderful because of the shielded cargo holds. It really, really cuts down on tolls!

Then again, I've since learned that breaking free from a scan after its started is free, easy, and carries an absolutely minor rep hit.
Logged

Megas

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 12118
    • View Profile
Re: Which freighter to use
« Reply #23 on: February 19, 2015, 06:25:48 PM »

The best feature of pirate buffalo is the ballistic mount.  With only one mount, Vulcan is much better PD than any PD laser.
Logged

CopperCoyote

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 451
    • View Profile
Re: Which freighter to use
« Reply #24 on: February 20, 2015, 02:06:56 AM »

I love the Pirate buffalo! If i could manage to gather a trading fleet of nothing but those i would every time. I personally prefer the buffalo family over tarsus because of the much lower overhead. I rather enjoy the combat in this game, and run with a larger escort than is strictly needed because i pick fights while waiting for the planetary stock to replenish. This means i rarely get caught by anything that i can't kill, and nearly never need to flee.
Logged
Itches are scratched. Back-rubs are savored.
Pages: 1 [2]