Best Carrier Discussion

[mar3usmc]

Now with the Borons in the game, out of all the available Carriers, which do you feel is the best overall, or, if you like, for a specific purpose?

[mar3usmc]

Personally, I am divided between the Shark and Raptor. I feel they both have their own functions.

The Shark is far more survivable, faster travel speed, and can dock 4 M Class ships at a time (Which can also use their turrets while docked. :/ ), and has almost 2x the container storage.

The Raptor on the hand can dock almost double the S/M class ships, and, my god, does it have a significant amount of turrets. The biggest drawback of feel is the slow travel drive (relatively), and the really poor shielding.

Can a carrier, being able to repair other ships, also fully repair itself, or does that require a support ship too?

[DrKartoffelsalat]

I think they all kinda have their place, and i can't even say that i think there is a singular best carrier, since i think they all fulfill different roles.

Shark is tanky AF, can hold a decent amount and is pretty fast. Great as an overall rounded carrier.

Raptor is your S ship monster carrier that can also rip anything to shreds that comes to close, but will die much quicker if something can survive for like 20 seconds.

Tokyo is another decent one, especially since it probably still deploys the fastest (shorter launch tunnel then Raptor).

Zeus E is your gotta-go-quick option, where you will definitely need the M sized launch pads, because you are limited in S ships, but it's great when you have a flashpoint somewhere and you gotta get there quick.

I personally still really like the Colossus. While only able to launch 8 S and 4 M at a time, those are ready for action so incredibly fast. And it's so cheap, while being well rounded between protection, speed and defense capability. Honestly, if you want to get into carrier gameplay early, this is great and can still go later-game.

And the Guppy has become probably my favorite recently. Talk about a fast response group. Please Egosoft, more L size carrier options with the same-ish ideas as this.

The Condor kinda sucks tho. I guess it's tanky, but that can't quite make up for the pitiful launch capability in terms of fighter. Personally, i wish this one was buffed a bit by adding a higher drone capacity, because that would make it an interesting option and fit with the Teledi lore.

-> and yes, all carriers can repair S and M size ships.

[Wraith]

Oh boy here we go Carrier analysis time!
Personal Favorites:

Tokyo - Good amount of turrets and very good firing angles as well as good launch speed and docking speed with no launch pod.

Colossus - Extremely good launch speed (launch pod) - slow docking speed, good firing angles and amazing M docks position for additional firepower.

Guppy - Great task force carrier for in and out operation that doesn't require to much fighters

Situational Carrier:

Raptor - ALL the FIREPOWER! but very bad carrier because even though it can hold the most fighters they take way to long to launch and anyone using missile can get free hits in.
I once lose 5 fighters just waiting for them to launch.

Shark - Very durable, lacks good firing angles because of how massive it is and how far spread out it turrets are, good launch speed and docking speed.
M docks are badly position as your M ship can hurt the carrier

Never touched carrier:
Zeus, Condor (they just aren't for me)

[Humble]

Did you guy set 25 for fighter and 25 for bomber? most carrier had limited 50 S dock.

[Wraith]

Originally posted by Humble:

Did you guy set 25 for fighter and 25 for bomber? most carrier had limited 50 S dock.

um no.
The amount of ship per carrier is dependent on the dock slot.
it 50 Internal storage not 50 total.

A Tokyo can hold 68 fighter for example 18 on the dock and 50 inside of it.

You also don't need 25 bombers.
10 or less are good because well they are using Torpedo/Missiles and there no need to overkill the target lol.

Only time 25 bomber make sense is when your going against a Kha'ak station which have an ungodly amount of HP

[W I L L]

Raptor is the best carrier.

[SinisterSlay]

I really like Boron stuff. I swear the AI handles them better.
I like having a Raptor for the awe factor. But it really sucks when one is sunk and you lose all those ships. And it doesn't take much. One dumb pilot flying too close to a station and good bye all those ships.

What I often do is park the raptor a sector away from the fighting. Then if there is a fight, I manually select all the fighters and give them manual attack orders. They then leave the raptor fast, go do their thing, then fly back and resupply themselves.

[mazrados]

For me all carriers except mentioned above Raptor, have too low capacity of fighters and are too tanky. The role of carrier is to carry fighters. Period.

It should be as fast as possible and have as many hangars as possible.

[¥aeko]

Shark because tanky and has the newer undock mechanism that causes way less problems than the raptor for example.

Raptor for swag and looks, and all the pew pew.