Questions regarding M7 Cerberus and Factories.

[IDDQD]

I just bought my first M7 Cerberus frigate and I'm looking for suggestions on a loadout. I've read that it makes an excellent anti-fighter ship when loaded with flak artillery or cluster flak arrays but I'd like to know how well it stands against other frigates and corvettes, namely the pirate carrack and Kha'ak corvette. They take a bit of work to destroy with my Nova Raider or Heavy Centaur so I've decided to bring something bigger to the party. I'm also starting to see Pirate Carracks in core systems now, so there's that.

Also, I just purchased my first Silicon Ore Mine (L). There weren't many Silicon Mines in Argon space and I managed to find a 64 yield asteroid in Ore Belt. I need a bit of help in making sure I have the correct configuration settings.

Product Selling Price Setting - I assume this is where you set the price for your wares.

Primary Resource Buying Price Limit - I'm guessing this is the price at which NPC traders sell their wares to my station for and has nothing to do with my freighter going out and buying resources for the station?

Both Product Selling and Resource Buying both have a third attribute, "Jumps". What is this for? Is this the maximum range at which NPCs will travel to buy my wares or is this the maximum range that my freighter will travel to buy resources and sell wares? I noticed the number of jumps will increase or decrease depending on how I set my selling and buying prices.

The third setting, Advanced Paramters, also has a setting for maximum jumps. My previous question applies to this one as well.

At the moment I have one freighter that is supplying the mine with energy cells using the "buy wares at best price" command. The freighter's jump setting is also set to 0 so does that mean he will only purchase energy cells in it's sector?

[Patastrophic]

For your Cerberus loadout, I was kind of in the same boat last I played. I posted a topic on the hub and someone said "CIGs". You have a few options and all work pretty differently in the main battery, so if you experiment with it let me know what you find out. I was getting frustrated trying to source weapons for it, though... will have to get back to it sometime soon rather than just live vicariously through you folks who are actively playing. :P

As for your station, the sell price for your end product is the price ALL ships will pay when buying from that station. This includes automated traders that are not assigned to this station. I can't remember whether this affects freighters you have set up to "sell wares at best price", but I don't think it does.

The buy price is the price the station itself will buy goods from NPCs at. This doesn't affect your freighters because the trade command software determines the buying behavior (i.e. buy ware at best price will continue to buy the wares until you stop it, but it will always be at the lowest price).

I don't remember what the "jump" attribute next to buy and sell prices does, sorry. I'm sure there are threads on the egosoft forum explaining it. I'll probably look it up a little later (I'm curious).

The maximum jumps parameter determines how far traders assigned to that station will travel to buy resources or sell products using "buy/sell ware for best price".

The freighter's jump setting determines the threshold at which the AI will choose the jump drive over the gate if it has the energy cells. For example, setting it to "0" will mean it will always favor the jump drive.

[Benjoseph]

Jumps = how "far it will jump" when buying / selling etc, if the trader does NOT have a jump drive it will just make a run.... remember jump cpable cargo ship will need ecells and the software to make it able to jump.

[IDDQD]

Some of the pirate corvettes / frigates I've seen have a weapon that pretty much destroys my ship in half a volley. I'm not sure what it is but it fires a blue energy projectile.. is that the photon pulse cannon? They work very well when melting my ship so I thought I'd check.


Yes, the freighter that is supposed to supply my Silicon Mine with Ecells does have a jump drive but I have it turned off. It's configured to No/0/0. The mine is between two large SPPs so there's really no need for a jump drive, I just haven't gotten a chance to remove it. I do have a problem with the freighter though. I have it set to "buy wares at best price" for ecells but it just sits there at the Silicon Mine's dock doing nothing. The only way I've been able to get ecells to the Mine is by buying it from NPC ships. If I'm going to have NPC freighters come to my Mine to buy and sell then I don't really need a freighter then do I?

Edit:

Just to make sure. The money in my Silicon Mine's "holdings" is the money it's earned? And that money will be spent whenever a freighter docks to sell Ecells? It also looks like the Silicon Mine's money supply never goes above 150,000credits. I'm assuming that's because I set everything over 150,000 to go to my bank.

[Patastrophic]

Any ships that use that station as its home will also use those credits as spending money. Not sure why the "buy ware at best price" isn't working properly though. Mine can't wait to spend all my station's money. :P

[IDDQD]

Is the Incendiary Bomb Launcher an AOE weapon? There's quite a bit of friendly fire going on around ships using IBRs and Cluster Flaks and I really don't want to agro a whole sector. :| I'm deciding between the IBR and Ion Shard Railgun.

[IDDQD]

I managed to scrounge up enough Flak Arrays for the turrets on the Cerberus. The Cluster Flaks look a bit better but the friendly fire is a killer. Besides, the Flak Arrays have a higher velocity and range so I can engage targets further out.

I just need to decide what to do with the main battery. Everyone says IBLs are the best but also the hardest to get. My standing with the Yaki isn't good enough to buy from their two IBL factories but I did manage to get a pirate IBL factory hacked, just in case I decide to go that route.

CIGs are another option but they appear to be just as hard to get. The Ion Shard Railguns are a bit easier to get but Iv'e heard mixed reviews on them. Are there any other options that I may be missing?

[Troll]

The easiest way to get IBLs would be to capture capital ships, the easiest target being the Yaki Ryu (the TL, if that name is not the proper one) or some Carracks.

Otherwise, you'll only be able to get IBLs by destroying Pirate and Yaki capships. Most races also use them if you don't mind going to war with any.

ISRs are worthy for a capship not main gun, but they can be used temporarily until you get better.

[IDDQD]

Yeah, I'm still looking for IBLs. My Cerberus is running x8 HEPTs in the main battery and x10 FAAs in the turrets. The problem with the Cerberus, which I didn't realize before, is that it can only mount 4 IBLs and those four can only occupy the left and right turrets. IBLs aside, the Cerberus can't even mount ISRs as a main weapon or turret. So yeah, I'm a loss now.

The Cerberus can only mount IRE, HEPT, CIG, PRG, ID, IPG, CFA, and EBC in the main battery. One thing I've noticed is that my Cerberus, while under AI command, rarely uses the main battery. It'll begin a fight with an opening salvo then the rest of the fight is done with broadside turrets. The HEPTs kinda feel useless on it.

I think I'll replace the four IBL compatible turrets with IBLs, because those turrets can face forward I think, and replace the main battery with either CFA or IPG. The setup I have now doesn't work very well against shields so I'm leaning more towards IPG. I'd like to avoid the friendly fire spam that is CFA.

I did find a station hack mission and was lucky enough to have a pirate IBL forge in the vicinity but I haven't seen it produce any IBLs yet. I've yet to see any IBLs drop as salvage though and I haven't tried capping any capships yet. Besides a M7M, I also need CLS equipped pods and 5 marines? What ranking do those marines need?

[Troll]

IPGs are interesting for takign down shields, but are quite energy consuming. I'd take those if you don't have that problem.

Maybe your problem with the AI not using the main guns is simply due to target movement superior to his own added to the lack of range ?

Before starting ship capping it is often better to hire marines with high level in specific skills, then train them to max level in that skill, that way you can start without too much trouble.
To start capping you at least need a TP / M6 with CLS and maximum marines (5 for those two, 20 for capships and 30 for a special OTAS M7M). I forgot which software is used to initiate the command.

If you have the money, get a M7M, 20 trained marines each with at least an average level in fight skills and a good amount of boarding pod. You'll want to get many of both missile types of your M7M if you plan to only do boarding operations with it so that you can bring down shields for boarding.

Use a scanner to find out what awaits your marine within the target. If there is an internal security soft (or whatever it is called) you might want to change target as it will up the difficulty in boarding.

[IDDQD]

I only bring the Cerberus out when going up against other M7s and higher. If I pilot it myself I can always keep the main guns on target but the AI can't, or won't. I have the same problem with my corvette too. Even against a M7 frigate it rarely uses the main battery.

I do agree though, HEPTs lack range, especially on a frigate but the Cerberus can only mount fighter and corvette class weapons in the front with the exception of the CFA. :/

M7M was going to be my next purchase. Since the Argon doesn't have a M7M that is readily available I was going to use the OTAS Aquilo. What is a good tactic for boarding? My first thought was to have an IPG equipped Cerberus start the fight and have the M7M get in close and launch the boarding pods to reduce the chance of them getting shot down. I know Ion weapons have a chance to destroy some internal security along with equipment but I'm not sure what else to do. :|

[Troll]

Bring the shields to under 6% with anythign available, try to confuse / disable his anti missile guns and launch pods from a blindspot while still keepign shields under 6% until you hear your marines have breached the hull.

Long ago I used to do it with only my Kraker, using heavy missiles to take down most of the shield and flails to keep it low, then while havign the target follow behind me, launch pods.
I do not remember if the AI main gun behavior has changed, but if it hasn't you your pods will most likely be safe.
When I was really into boarding, I used to find doing it alone with my M7M much easier than doing it from another ships.

In case you only want the hull and not the cargo, frying everything with ID is indeed the preferred solution as it renders harmless your target while keeping intact the hull.

[IDDQD]

Originally posted by Troll:

In case you only want the hull and not the cargo, frying everything with ID is indeed the preferred solution as it renders harmless your target while keeping intact the hull.

I imagine captured corvettes, frigates, and beyond can sell for a nice bit of cash but I'd like some IBLs eventually. :p

[Troll]

In that case, train a lot of troops with enough replacements, get some training on TLs and prepare for war

You might want to automate a trader to buy boarding pods if your really get into it.
My first steap as a professional boarder was that and a large missile production empire to never get low on explosions.

[IDDQD]

Oh haha.. So that IBL forge that I hacked also had a mission offering to hack ANOTHER station so I hacked the PBG forge right next to it... >:)

Thanks for the help on boarding. I think I'll practice on Ospreys first.

[Troll]

M6 are actually potentially harder to train on as they are smaller and have more defences than TLs.

Good job on the forges, now you just need to keep them supplied.