best Ship as "baby" Carrier?

[CaptainRansom]

Hey@ll


I own atm a small "Ressource" Station ( only a Hangar and some Ressource Containers ) + 4 Mining Ships, 3 Transports and 4 S Fighters

Now i need something like a "Baby" Carrier.

So a mobile Station - where my Fighters can resupply/repair.
Because my Station is really often not close enough to my Mining Ships ( and Pirates/Xenon or how they are called - attack them often ) - and then my S Fighters need like Years to fly to them :/.

So which Ship ( and Class ) will be the best as "Baby" Carrier?
( large Carriers are way to expensive + to slow for me ).

btw: i play atm in Argon Sector.

[Wraith]

Don't think there is a "baby" Carrier.

Only the super big carrier/Aux can resupply/repair but you could take a M size Cerberus which can hold two fighters.
1 in it internal storage and 1 on the docking pad.

What you could do however is get an AUX ship.
I stole HOP one and used it as a mobile resupply base.
I just set the global resupply setting to high and keep it in the sector I want it to operate in and the other ships will head to it on their own.

[zpc]

A L miner or freighter with S docking ports is a fast and cheap way to get a mobile command post. I often use a PAR Selene or - preferably - a Split Wyvern. The latter has an excellent gun placement and two docking ports. The Selene has more guns (including a L turret) but only one docking port. There is also the Split Buffalo - even more turrets and it is faster.

Selene: https://roguey.co.uk/x4/ships/ship_par_l_trans_container_02_a_macro/
Buffalo: https://roguey.co.uk/x4/ships/ship_spl_l_trans_container_01_a_macro/
Wyvern: https://roguey.co.uk/x4/ships/ship_spl_l_miner_solid_01_a_macro/

I mostly use the Wyvern as it is the fastest ship - and it can act as flak frigate. (even in fleets!)

[Dakier]

The L miners make great "baby carrier ships"

[Lapo]

While a lot of ships can dock and carry small ships, you don't have a lot of options when it comes to ships that can repair a small fighter. Carriers and Auxiliary ships, that's all. They can also build the missiles/consumables if you have the blueprints and they have the materials in the hold. The Paranid Atlas Vanguard is my favorite "mobile base" since it can repair/restock ships of any size and has a reasonable fast travel speed. And since it can carry over 240 crew it can also be used as a one ship boarding "fleet" so it will pay itself with just a single pirate destroyer boarding operation.

[zpc]

The "problem" with Auxiliary ships is that they are XL ships and as such are more expensive. The moment you have access to that kind of money, you could easily afford a real carrier as well (and gain a lot more staying power that way)

L miners and freighters are way cheaper and personally I'd never waste my first 20 million credits for getting a "baby carrier" and get "the real one" instead :)

[Lapo]

Huh, I always found it harder to get the 20 reputation needed for a carrier than to get 20 millions. Auxiliary ships can be purchased and armed with just 10 reputation and are far more useful in other roles so I always go for them first.
The secret to a good early income is to set up at least 1 medium nividium autominer in every sector with a trade station (except the Paranid, they don't trade nividium). The cash needed for that mobile base will just roll into your account while you do something else.

[zpc]

Depends on playstyle I guess - I don't trade n' stuff - just roam the sectors and do a lot of fighting / missions. 20 reputation comes "with the job" so to speak :D

For serious money I'm switching to build missions - that's the moment when I start building my fleets (and buy carriers)

[Johnsonn]

Auxiliary and carriers are entirely different classes. They don´t compete in the slightest.

Useful "mini-carriers" are:
Selene / Buffalo :
+ reliable, fast-(ish), L turret, container storage
- squishy, only 1 S dock

Wyvern / Chtonios :
+ actually very fast, 2 S docks, cheapest L ships
- squishy, only mining turrets for L hardpoints, bulk storage

Behemoths:
+ actual combat ship, very durable, 4 S docks, fast enough, Argon production
- expensive, small storage

Oddyseus:
+ actual combat ship, durable enough, 2 S docks, 1 M dock, fast enough
- expensive, small storage

Any Auxiliary:
+ actually great docking space, most durable, can repair all ships (even L ones), great cargo
volume, automated repairs and resupply, can carry up to 100 drones
- slow af, sluggish, bad turreted defense, price varies between destroyer - almost carrier levels

[Wenzilber]

I'm not sure if there's a "baby carrier" in vanilla.

I thought that the Frigates are the "baby carriers", they carry 2 fighters (1 docked inside the ship, 1 docked on the Docking Bay) along with several drones and turrets

Any Destroyer is essentially the L class version of the Frigates where you also have 2 weapons, several turrets, 44 Fighters/Bombers (40 docked inside the ship + 4 on Docking Bay. The Oddy is the only one with the M dock)

In Vanilla, the Aux ships are the true carriers (in terms of being a city in a ship) ... but they're not "baby" by any means. They're essentially mobile space stations that can create Buy Orders to resupply their cargo for repairing or re-arming your battle fleets.

The actual "Carriers" in the game are more like the "tank" that can scramble large amount of ships in shortest time. They just have to manually resupply their cargo from time to time unlike an Aux ship that can manage a squadron of trading ships for resupply missions like a space station would.

There might be a "mini-carrier" though as a mod.