Terran VS Argon Which Race Has better Ships/ Station builds

[T600_Mod]

What do you prefer And Why. Argon Builds Or Terran.

[Comander-07]

Originally posted by Caedes91:

Even though Terrans have the best destroyers, they are saddled with the worst turrets. All L-turrets are weak in damage. No exceptions and the range is barely on par with Xenon Graviton turrets. If you fight the AI, your Terran ships are always going to die. Though their Main batteries are slightly better than other races in terms of DPS, but unfortunately the same range of Argon Plasma. That is if the AI even manages to point them towards the target. Even if they do, they mostly miss the targets, which are of course not standing still.

M-turrets are just copy-paste, but something like Flak or plasma is entirely missing.
Only standard missiles and no torpedoes. Ironic, because they had anti capital weapons like point sigularity guns, that shot miniature black holes and strong unique missiles back in X3. Now the even lose to primitive Split both in terms of missile- and weapon arsenal.

Their fighters are also bad across the board, the only exception is the Katana corvette, which was only added in a patch around the DLC. The forward s- and m-size weapons are good.

The civilian ships of all sizes are considered the worst overall. They have no niche and are to be entirely avoided, unless you are a hardcore Terran roleplayer.

Terran's economy is easier, because you don't have to deal with complex production chains.

TLDR: What made them strong in the past game, is completely missing in this game. Therefore resulting in the worst race, only ahead of maybe the Teladi. But if you consider cost-effectiveness too, then yes, they are even worse than Teladi too.

yeah the lore is odd here. Terrans are supposed to be technologically far ahead of everyone else yet they mostly have copy pasted commonwealth weapons. I think the weapons in X4 are pretty boring overall. Atleast Terrans have the asgard and Syn.
All turrets suck compared to xenon anyway.

[Captain Canard]

Originally posted by T600_Mod:

What do you prefer And Why. Argon Builds Or Terran.

I love many of the Terran ships, but not all. I also love Terran sectors (home sweet home). However, I really do NOT like the Terran's over-simplified supply chain, nor do I like playing as a Terran at war with other races, because the Terrans are OP, especially in the hands of the player. This makes the game stupid-easy (and thus boring) for me.

So these days I usually play as Argon / Antigone, with Terrans as my enemy, as they provide a nice challenge and something different than Xenon to shoot at. I ally with the Pioneers, which gives me access to most of the Terran ships I'm interested in.

[Bozz 💀]

The Terran simplified economy is not very interesting, I rarely build any terran stations even though I like the designs, I also like to keep them ennemy because you can fight them without crippling them, they can afford to lose entire fleets and rebuild them fast.

[Comander-07]

Originally posted by Captain Canard:

Originally posted by T600_Mod:

What do you prefer And Why. Argon Builds Or Terran.

I love many of the Terran ships, but not all. I also love Terran sectors (home sweet home). However, I really do NOT like the Terran's over-simplified supply chain, nor do I like playing as a Terran at war with other races, because the Terrans are OP, especially in the hands of the player. This makes the game stupid-easy (and thus boring) for me.

So these days I usually play as Argon / Antigone, with Terrans as my enemy, as they provide a nice challenge and something different than Xenon to shoot at. I ally with the Pioneers, which gives me access to most of the Terran ships I'm interested in.

yeah the simple economy also works against you as a player, less trade opportunities

[Doom]

Originally posted by Captain Canard:

I love many of the Terran ships, but not all. I also love Terran sectors (home sweet home). However, I really do NOT like the Terran's over-simplified supply chain, nor do I like playing as a Terran at war with other races, because the Terrans are OP, especially in the hands of the player. This makes the game stupid-easy (and thus boring) for me.

So these days I usually play as Argon / Antigone, with Terrans as my enemy, as they provide a nice challenge and something different than Xenon to shoot at. I ally with the Pioneers, which gives me access to most of the Terran ships I'm interested in.

Due to fairly broken faction reputation system becoming everybody's friend doesn't take long. Regardless of origin.

[T600_Mod]

Agreed Doom, When I am Playing with mods it takes 5 missions to max reputation from -15

[Captain Canard]

Originally posted by Doom:

Due to fairly broken faction reputation system becoming everybody's friend doesn't take long. Regardless of origin.

But that's not how I play. Holding hands around the campfire is boring, so I create custom games where lots of wars are taking place (Terrans vs Argon & Antigone, for example) and then I join a side, usually Argon, in glorious battle!

[Konril]

Here is my opinion, broken down into categories:

Scouts: I consider the Boron Irukanji and Alliance of the Word (or Godrealm of the Paranid) Pegasus Vanguard to be the best scouts you can get, in most cases by a large margin. Mind you, I only use those scouts early game for quick exploration, and eventually those few scouts are sent to follow my main battle-group on a mission to collect drops on demand (so I don't have to myself). As for Terran vs. Argon, the Seagaris Rapier isn't that far behind the Pegasus in performance, so when staring Project Genesis, that Rapier is a keeper at least until I pick up that one Moreya. The Argons, well, just don't have anything all that fast, unless you want to count the Nodan Vanguard from the Alliance of the Word as "Argon."

Verdict: Terran

Small Fighters: The Seagaris Takoba is as fast as a scout, and has 2 shield generators on top of it. So early game, if I'm playing Seagaris or Terran a Takoba becomes my main ship as soon as I can scrounge up enough cash and Seagaris reputation to purchase it. Heavy fighters give the choice of 2 weapons 4 shields from the Seagaris, or 4 weapons 2 shields from the Terran Protectorate. Although the Terran Protectorate ships are slow, they are otherwise well balance for fleet engagements.

There are three points to the Argon side, however. First, the Argons have a better selection of weaponry, including Plasma Cannons and Ion Projectors. So that's point 1. The Argon Eclipse Vanguard is actually slightly faster (and cheaper to build) than the Terran Gladius and has the same 4 weapon 2 shield setup. So that's point 2. The Antigone Pulsar is a glass cannon, but with 6 hardpoints, it becomes brutally efficient with low-heat weapons, like missile launchers. Even beam and pulse lasers can become something spectacular due to low-heat. 6 Teladi Muon chargers on a Pulsar is truly fearsome, if you're willing to befriend the Teladi company for them. So that's point 3.

Verdict: A tie perhaps?

Medium combat craft: In all honesty I don't use a lot of medium craft, simply because they are expensive. But I do have some opinions. The frigates offer similar performance, but the Argon side is cheaper better shielded, more weapon options, and the best in-slot turrets, so it gets 1 point for the Argon. The Minotaur (and we are talking Vanguard or Sentinel, not just the Raider) is the worst of the gunboats. Even the Teladi do it better. So the Jian gets one point for the Terrans, but only really worth it if you're somehow able to acquire an Argon Flak blueprint. Pulse turrets aren't quite strong enough even with 2 extra turrets available. Even so, that is 1 point Terran. The Argons just don't do corvettes. In contrast, the Terran Katana is super fast, and ideal as a personal taxi where the pilot drives while you sit in the naviagtion chair to use SETA if you want to.

Verdict: I think the Katana alone gives this match the the Terrans.

Auxiliary ships (or Resuppliers): In all honesty the performance of the various resuppliers is too evenly matched between faction except in speed. Anything but a Paranid Atlas just feels like you're gimping your travel speed for no reason. To make matters worse, the Argon Nomad has a serious shortage of small landing pads, and the Terran Honshuu has a serious shortage of shield, even though it has extra turrets.

Verdict: Match goes to the Terran this time because of the landing pad shortage in the Argon version. But seriously, I would be all too happy to befriend one of the Paranid factions to get my first resupplier.

Destroyers: The Terran destroyers have an edge on firepower. But their slow speed makes it hard for them to stay out of trouble, unless the target just isn't moving. The Argon Behemoth E is generally considered the best balanced destroyer due to it having the good DPS main guns, being fast enough to stay out of a Xenon destroyer's range, having Argon turrets available, and well shielded. However, the Asgard is a game changer just due to extreme firepower. There are people out there that are big fans of the Teladi Phoenix E.

Verdict: End-game goes to the Terran Asgard. However the Argon destroyers are better anytime before then.

Carriers: The Argon Colossus Vanguard is faster to move around. The Tokyo has the edge in deploying and retrieving fighters quickly thanks to the 18 small landing pads.

Verdict: A tie? I can't really decide between them.

Couriers (small traders): The Argon Courier I consider the best in class due to its combination of speed and cargo capacity. It is also available cheaply from the Alliance of the Word shipyard. The Frog's cargo capacity is impressive. But it is too slow to be all that useful.

Verdict: Argons.

Transporters (medium): Paranid Demeter and Hermes vanguards are available at a cheap price from the Alliance of the Word, and are otherwise very good. So I would be looking to buy there when just getting the economy started. But otherwise the Terran Baldric is just slightly better than the Argon offerings thanks to the size of its cargo hold.

Verdict: Terran barely.

Medium Miners: For mineral miners 1st Antigone Drill Sentinel, 2nd Terran Bolo, 3rd Argon Drill Vanguard. For gas miners 1st is Terran Bolo, 2nd and third are the Sunder Sentinel and Vanguard. But to be honest, the performances across the board are so similar that there is no reason to look outside the faction for better miners. Except cost saving of course thanks to the Terran markup.

Verdict: Tie.

Freighters (large traders): Personally I don't use these, at all. They have better travel speed than the medium traders, but their price tag compared to the mediums just make them a bad deal overall. But according to QSNA's efficiency tables (https://www.qsna.eu/x4/efficiency) Teladi Heron E is #1, followed by the Antigone Shuyaku Sentinel at #2, Terran Okinawa is #17.

Verdict: Argon, by a large margin.

Honestly, the shields of a large craft make them practically immune to most pirate attacks, while the turrets and defense drones finish the fools. But the one fly in that ointment is the Scale Plate Phoenix. The freighter doesn't have a chance in a conventional battle against a destroyer. Complying might be your best option if you notice it. Otherwise sending out a maximum strength high-risk boarding ASAP may be the only way to turn the tables if you don't have a destroyer or an anti-destroyer fleet nearby. In contrast, transporters and couriers have a really good chance of escaping from all pirates with all their cargo by deploying a laser tower and fleeing, which can be done automatically with the right global order.

Large miners: The extra expense of large miners is justified by being immune to Kha'ak raids thanks to superior shields. The one miner that has a large advantage over the others in this regard is the Teladi Crane (your choice of flavor) with 3 shield generators. Argon flak turrets are useful for stopping the raid, but if they can't get through your shield anyway, the Terran bolt turret will work. Since this is likely to happen all out-of-sector, accuracy is hardly an issue. The Argon Magnetar is in second place with 2 shield generators, which seems to be just enough. Everything else (except the Boron) gets only 1 shield generator, so feels just a little too flimsy for me to be comfortable using them.

Verdict: Argon.

I should say, you want your drone capacity to be mining, so carrying defense drones is a bad idea. Combat turrets are just fine, as the drones do most of the actual mining. However, you'll have a few turret slots that will only accept mining turrets on the mineral miners.

Builder: To be honest, there is very little difference between the various faction's builders except travel speed. The best one is the Heracles Vanguard, available from the Alliance of the Word. It's the only ship the Alliance shipyard will build so you are very unlikely to run into a markup due to low building supply. The Argon Mammoth is just slightly slower, but better at turning around. The Terran Kyushu is just plain slow without any benefits to offset the disadvantage.

Verdict: Argon

Defense structures for stations: The large Terran pulse and bolt turrets have a better DPS than the Argon pulse turret. But unfortunately, the turrets you want to use are the flak and plasma turrets. The Argon defense disc has a highest capacity for turrets in a more compact package that allows half the turrets to be within the firing arc from any direction.
To be fair, the Terrans also have the advantage of being able to keep half their turrets within firing arcs from any direction and are also sturdier. But you'll need to build more modules as they don't have the turret capacity of the Argon discs.

Verdict: The Argon have a clear advantage not only over the Terrans, but over everyone else in this category. Albeit for different reasons.

I will have to admit, the Terrans can make some beautiful defense stations.

Terran vs closed loop economy: The Terran economy simplifies the production process a lot. But a side effect the Terrans require at least twice the raw resources to make their stuff. Even so, that can work to your advantage as the Terrans have twice the demand for your mined resources than any other single faction. So while they cost more, you can also make more money off of them with mining and production. The Terran will get you into your own self-sufficient wharf and shipyard faster than anyone else can, unless you spread out your mining and trading network across multiple factions. But you'll only be producing Terran this way. Outsider's tech requires the outsider's economy chain.

Closed loop isn't used natively by any other factions except the Riptide Rakers and Vigor Syndicate. But since Argon, Paranid, Teladi, and Split ship chassis are made out of energy cells and hull parts, you can build all of them with closed loop as long as you put Argon engines, shields, and Argon friendly weapons and turrets in them. Except destroyers. For some reason, even the Behemoth's main guns lack a closed loop option. So in order to properly build your own destroyers, your self sufficient supply chain is going to need a couple of production modules for advanced electronics and weapon components.

Personally I want to add Antimatter Converters and Engine Parts to my own self sufficient economy so I can take advantage of the Split combat engines. They are just that good.

Verdict: With Tides of Avarice, Argon. Otherwise Terran. But it was a difficult choice.

Overall verdict: I'm happier being Argon. Although I did have a good time being a Seagaris Pioneer for a while.

[T600_Mod]

No one mentioned Argon Frigates (medium) Have defence and repair drones...