Split Boa

[Big Papa]

Boa with Split Mk4 Combat engines is best auto trader.
Prove me wrong.

[Geek]

Travel speed is everything for trade ships, in my experience.
You will get *much* better results with TER travel engines than SPL combat ones.

[Z-Bane]

Ter are the worst machines. Use Split MK-4 for short distances and ARG or PAR engines for long distances. M ships are rather useless in the ultra-lategame. If you want to go fast, then the buffalo. For a lot of cargo ARG Shuyaku. For balanced trading, the PAR Helios.

[Geek]

TER engines have massive acceleration, they can beat even ARG engines in 99% of the cases.

[Big Papa]

Only thing is the massive speed without travel. 400+m/s. and very little 'spool up' to travel, very good boost up to around 2200m/s when it does travel. I don't think pirates will catch that thing. but even if they do, it has two turrets with Argon flac. I was going for Demeter or Hermes for speed, speed as a means of defense in this situation. but Boa is way faster.

[Z-Bane]

Originally posted by Big Papa:

Only thing is the massive speed without travel. 400+m/s. and very little 'spool up' to travel, very good boost up to around 2200m/s when it does travel. I don't think pirates will catch that thing. but even if they do, it has two turrets with Argon flac. I was going for Demeter or Hermes for speed, speed as a means of defense in this situation. but Boa is way faster.

The only malus of the Boa is the cargo hold. Otherwise the nimblest M dealer. The strongest M trader is the MIN Komoran (2 turrets and 1 main gun).

[Daddy Shark]

TER engines are pretty much the best at everything except dogfighting. In that case you want the SPL Mk.4. Anything other than a fighter should be fielding TER engines.

[Big Papa]

People calculated the haul rate of M traders before, Demeter Sentinel seems close to the top in the older comparisons. but did they also calculate the Boa with these fast engines, using highways, ect? I guess we would need to calculate an average haul first. no?

[Geek]

They are probably old topics, before the DLCs. Demeters have a fraction of the Boa travel speed, because they have only 1 engine.

[Big Papa]

very expensive ship. ROI time will be huge.

[Z-Bane]

TER engines only have the instant travel mode at M dealers. But the speeds are subterranean. I wouldn't put them anywhere on L ships (There is also a travel countdown). Split MK-4 I always prefer the TER for the simple reason that the forward thrust alone is a strong reason. The comparison of the TER and Split drives is clear. With L it is a matter of distance and there ARG are very balanced.

[Big Papa]

I could be wrong, but it seems like the Terran L travel engines are functionally the same as S/M Split combat mk4. You get instant speed and acceleration with little less top speed in travel. Which apparently is very useful for crossing a sector quickly.

https://youtu.be/6LfH3aZukwo

[Big Papa]

There are several reasons to run auto traders early in the game. It builds rep with other factions, to buy stuff like blueprints, makes you money with little management if it works right, ect. You can always repurpose those assets if changing strategy later in the game. You have two strategies to consider when running autotraders when it comes to pirates, fight or flight. If you can outrun the pirates, fine, it will also add to your 'production' because you are trading faster. but I don't think fighting the pirates with trade ships is a sound strategy in the first place.

[Daddy Shark]

Originally posted by RedMonkeyButt:

I like how people obsess over nonsense like this. Sure those ships will get faster to wherever they are going but why does it matter? For more credits? Just pick up one Programmable Field Array and you will have made more money than the difference in those engines ever will.

I mean if you want all your stations running with a ~30% handicap, sure. Who cares?

[mystery]

I tend to use the Terran engines on my traders, not for the speed or something, but for the fast acceleration to boost speed, helps them outrun pirates & Xenon. (Note, I do have Xenon sectors blacklisted for civilian ships)
Only lost one autotrader so far & that was because the bastard insisted on trading with a station under attack by a xenon capital fleet. The mad lad even made it to dock, but got killed on undocking.

[Daddy Shark]

Originally posted by RedMonkeyButt:

Originally posted by Daddy Shark:

I mean if you want all your stations running with a ~30% handicap, sure. Who cares?

Let me know when you are able to back up your claim of ~30%. Until than its all nonsense.

One of the regulars - i want to say blackphoenixxx - has done quite a bit of research already. Your choice of mining/trading ships and engines has a profound impact on how the stations operate.

So yes, it does matter.