A Guide to Freighter Outfitting

Thu Nov 13, 2003 9:48 pm by T-hawk

Here's a guide to "Freighter Outfitting For Dummies"...

The first thing you need to understand is that all the freighters have far more hardpoint capacity than powerplant capacity. To shoot down enemies quickly, the premise you must place above all is energy efficiency . The most energy-efficient way to kill a ship is to remove its shields with shield-buster guns, then kill it with missiles. You can load up a freighter with 8 regular guns, and kill a ship or two with it - and then you'll be shooting two guns while your depleted powerplant struggles to squeeze out a trickle of energy.

If you're loading a freighter for combat against shielded enemy ships, one must always start with the shieldbusters. There aren't a whole lot of shield-buster guns in the game, so you want to start your choices with this. One isn't enough; you want two in a matched pair, and you want to use shieldbuster turrets if possible to keep the gun slots available for missiles.

Freighters of class-4 and below should use Adv.Stunpulse guns or Stunpulse turrets. A class-5 Crusader can use either those or Corsair Borroco guns. Class-6 freighters should use two Debilitator turrets, and the Humpback can use either those or the class-7 Debilitator gun or Corsair Rapier.

Next, load your ship with missile launchers. Don't bother with the stalker-type missiles; they don't do enough damage. Get a Slingshot for class-4 and under, a Catapult for class 5 and 6, and the Humpback can use either a Lancer or cash-efficient Catapult. I recommend taking two missile launchers. If you expect short fights and don't mind spending extra cash (generally true during the SP campaign), take two of the highest class; if you think you might run out of ammo or want to be cheaper, take one of the next class lower.

You should have about four hardpoints left now. This is fine, because the freighter ships' powerplants are only really capable of sustaining three or four guns of the ship's maximum weapons class. These guns will be determined by two criteria: matching the projectile speeds to your shieldbusters, and energy efficiency (damage per energy used.) Matching the projectile speed is critical because if you don't, the crosshair won't be accurate and your shots won't hit. Matching the range and refire rates aren't necessary.

So, following these rules, let's outfit a Dromedary. We start with two class-6 Debilitator turrets (make sure to put them in slots that can fire forward), and add two class-5 Catapult missiles. This leaves us one class-6 gun slot, two class-5 turret slots, and one class-6 turret slot. The Debilitators are 700 m/s projectile velocity, so everything else should match that. The most energy-efficient class-6 700 m/s gun is the LWB Adv.Devastator. The most energy-efficient class-5 700 m/s turret is the Corsair Angelito Mk I, and the appropriate class-6 turret is the GMG Sunblast.

Of course, if you don't want to go mucking around with the LWB during the campaign, you can use easier-to-get equipment like an Outcast Dragoon gun instead.

There you go - a perfect Dromedary. Of course, you need to get the hang of its fighting style as well. Fly at a target ship head-on, your shieldbusters will take off the shields, you'll launch a pair of Catapults, and clean up as necessary with the rest of the guns. With practice, you should be able to take out AI ships of up to class-8 (basically anything you'll meet in the campaign) in one head-on pass. Then fire the thruster, kill the engine, drift out of danger while turning around and lining up another target and replenishing the powerplant, and repeat.

Also, the rules change in the SP campaign for the missions where you'll be shooting at only unshielded targets, which is all of mission 12 and 13. The only rule here is energy efficiency, energy efficiency, energy efficiency. Of course, you should keep the two missiles, and add mines for whacking large stationary targets. Other than that, you just want the most energy-efficient turrets available. (The Order Reaper turret is excellent, although you have to either acquire 650 m/s guns ahead of time or live with a speed mismatch between your guns and the turret.)

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Thu Nov 13, 2003 10:14 pm by Gambit

An excellent informative post, although sometimes two missile launchers arent my thing. Kudos man, all hail T-Hawk! *bows*

Thu Nov 13, 2003 10:18 pm by T-hawk

Use only one missile at your own risk.

Trust me: you'll get kills faster and more reliably with a second missile launcher than you will with a fifth gun that your powerplant can't support anyway.

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Thu Nov 13, 2003 11:44 pm by Heltak

Outfit a Drone >_>

-~-~-~-~
There is no Silicon Heaven! But where do all the calculators go ?

You could no more evade my wrath... than you could your own shadow!

Fri Nov 14, 2003 1:19 am by Gambit

But . . . . the Mule has that rustic charm, in a Millenium Falcon / Pirate sort of way. Sure, it's a piece of junk, cobbled together, with mismatching equipment, and looks ungainly . . . . but it's MY piece of junk, and I'm fond of it.

Fri Nov 14, 2003 1:24 am by NukeIt

Better to equip two different types of launcher, IMHO...then you still get two missiles per shot, but twice as many shots- which can be very, very helpful when the number of enemies starts climbing in later missions. May do a bit less damage to have one lower-class missile and one higher, but it's better than running out of ammo mid-fight.

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"Although I do not consider myself a member of the Bounty Hunters' Guild, I find that their goals and mine often follow the same path. I will aid them when I can...if they give me a percentage of the salvage from whatever they frag along the way. But god help them if someone puts a bounty on THEIR heads, for I don't care who I hunt for, as long as their live capture(or untimely death) can get me enough credits to buy a decent sized mug of my favorite drink."- A Freelance Bounty Hunter.
----------------------------------------
Anub- damn, what IS the plural for that? Anubii? Anubises? Anubice?

Fri Nov 14, 2003 10:16 am by freighter fighter

meh, just mod the rhino to have 2 torp slots, besides it looks like a mini-battleship anyway

Men are from mars, women from somewhere else

Fri Nov 14, 2003 11:30 am by Gambit

Well, after trying the dual missile set up, I'd say its got to be one of the most powerful combos I've seen. Granted I'm only doing this in SP, and just entered Bretonia, so only have a Clydesdale, but it does kick ass. I also tried the lesser missile combined with the higher one, but I didn't find it cost / damage effective. I also tried an EMP missiles, but again, not worth it IMHO. Wow, a new appreciation for freighters as more than money making machines AND a new found respect for missiles . . . . I don't know whether to be glad or appalled.

Fri Nov 14, 2003 5:07 pm by Gambit

And another thing, are there any Adv. Scorpions on wrecks? The only way I know of getting them is being too close for comfort with Xenos . . . just wanting them for my Mule.

Sun Nov 16, 2003 9:19 pm by Frobozz

Use only one missile at your own risk. Trust me: you'll get kills faster and more reliably with a second missile launcher than you will with a fifth gun that your powerplant can't support anyway.

I have run extensive experiments on my LAN server with two missile launchers.

Results: Not Good News

What I have observed is what I call missile-missile interference.
Yes, shooting two Catapults at a stationary target gets good results.
However, if that target is moving, ONE missile will likely hit first.
What then happens is that if the 2nd missile is within the blast radius,
it gets destroyed BEFORE hitting target. I tried to fix this problem by
using one Homing (@99m/s)and one non-Homing (@90m/s)to get a 9m/s difference.

At long ranges the problem was fixed, but made it even worse at short ranges!

End result seems to indicate only fire ONE missile at time. Therefore that
one should be the largest non-homimg the ship will carry. A second missile
launcher that has a different function (like EMP) can be mounted too tho.

I have even seen (unconfirmed)the two missiles run into each other and
mutually destroy each other! I assume that the ship hardpoints have a
factor here, and two launchers on the same wing would exibit this more
than launchers at maximum separation from each other. Could not reproduce.

What does all this mean here? A missile boat freighter may have hidden
problems. There is another possible solution to the Freighter power use:

Weapon Group Switching.

Consider this Drom loadout:

3 Borroco Pulse Guns (Class 5)

2 Angelito Turret Mk I (Class 5, one shoots rear only)
3 Pyros Turret Type 2 (Class 6)

Driller OR Cutter mine
Adv. CM, etc. etc.

I start shooting the 3 fixed Borrocos. These hit shields with about the
D.P.S. of three Nomad Energy Blasters, when hitting Molecular shields.
(MORE against Positron, less against Graviton)

When shields are down, I switch weapon group to the turrets.
Now I have four guns which are VERY powerful for their class,
while still being fairly efficient. Normal Turrets have more variety
than Pulse turrets, which are fairly limited with only classes 2,6, & 8.
So usually (but not always), the shield busters are the fixed hardpoints.
More choices are in fixed pulse guns, with classes 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, and 9.

Notice that I fire 3 of the 8 guns THEN 4 of the 8 guns. Never all 8.
This lets me max out the hardpoints, and NOT drain the power plant unduely.

This will not work on Humpback, it's got half the manuverability of other
freighters! There I stick a Neutralizer missile and a Debilitator up front,
and Borroco turret on back to also maximum the damage from the minedropper.
(It's the strategy I also use on fighters with rear fire only turrets.)
I have yet to fly a humpy on MP or any situation with AI shields that regen.

Of course, YMMV.

"Got anything for me?" - Trent, A.K.A. 'Mr. Eloquent'

Mon Nov 17, 2003 10:17 pm by T-hawk

Interesting points, Frobozz . I have occasionally seen a double missile attack deal far less damage than it should. This possibility never occurred to me, but one or both missiles detonating prematurely would certainly explain it.

The homing missile explanation makes sense. At long distances, the speed takes the slower missile out of the faster one's blast radius by the time they reach their target. But if you're 500m away from the target (and thrusting at 200 m/s which you should be for missile launches), the time difference between the missiles arriving will be under 2 seconds, so the missiles will be no more than 18m apart, and the slow missile will be within the blast radius of the fast one.

One work around the whole issue by firing the missiles individually with the keys for each weapon hardpoint (like 1 and 2) with a momentary delay between. If you're thrusting at 200, the slow missiles will be traveling at 280, so a 1/5 second delay between missile launches is sufficient to ensure that one isn't within the blast range of the other.

I've found EMP missiles to be pretty useless. The reason is that missiles have a slow speed and lag behind your gun shots. Against an incoming target, you can launch a standard missile, then pulse its shields down *while* the missile is en route. OTOH, if you fire an EMP missile, your guns are useless against the target for the next several seconds until the EMP missile reaches it and takes off the shields.

EMP missiles might be more useful if one had to dogfight more and couldn't keep pulse guns aimed on the target. However, the FL engine-kill physics work out so that it's much more effective to drift away from combat while turning around (especially in a slow freighter), then start another head-on run with a pulse/missile combo to kill the target.

The general advantage of missiles over guns is their ability to complete kills in one head-on pass, which is very important for slow-turning freighters. A Catapult missile packs 1200-2000+ damage into one instant; to deliver the same amount of damage with those Pyros turrets requires keeping them trained on the same target for a couple seconds. Against lower-level ships, this works; but against higher-level targets, they can't complete a kill in one pass and now you have to wait for your freighter to turn around.

BTW, how exactly do you use those weapon groups? Don't you have to reassign them every time you launch?

Gambit - I posted this in the other thread, but go to Colorado and shoot down Xeno Startrackers and you can get Adv.Scorpions. (In the campaign, you might want to reload an older savegame to do that instead of flying back through hostile Liberty space.) A Mule can do this just fine - I've done it in a Rhino.

Heltak - The Drone is class-6 and very similar to the Dromedary. Get Debilitator turrets, a Catapult and a second or Slingshot, and fill in the remaining slots with 700 m/s guns and turrets (or use the weapon groups.)

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Tue Nov 18, 2003 7:02 pm by Frobozz

@T-Hawk

EMP Missiles: The only place I've ever gotten them to work is on a Humpback.
When targets are 1000m away and coming straight at me I fire, and they run
into them and arrive sans shields, they can't countermeasure them. My best use:

I'm busy fighting a group of baddies in turret mode, and I see a second group pop
up on radar. I switch from the local problem and fire off a couple EMP at the
approaching problems, then get back to work. The fire and forget is nice!

Weapon Groups: I assigned two keys to weapon groups in setup. To set up the group,
just activate the desired guns and hit the key. Saved. When loading the character
or launching from a base, the feature is a bit buggy. It sometimes only remembers
the group you docked with. So sometime soon I re-configure the other group, either
while docking with a tradelane or in the tradelane. Minor inconvenience I put up with.

"Got anything for me?" - Trent, A.K.A. 'Mr. Eloquent'

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