X4 Foundations: The pinacle of carrier gameplay in X4

Hello everybody,
Like the title says...
I think Egosoft did it, achieve the final form of carrier gameplay in X4 Foundations.
All that was required from me to deal with hostile forces, as a carrier commander, was to give two clicks, and then my forces selected targets on their own and destroy them. So, with all our complains about the AI in X4...I give you...AI working in X4. :D
Now, for the next challenge for the devs, about that "little" problem with the way the AI deal with station demolition...:P
About me:
I like to share my X4 Foundations experiences, some because they are really amazing, some because they are really anoying.
Like the video? Why not buy me a coffee?
www.buymeacoffee.com/Ragnos28

[@3komma141592653]

Fighting with a carrier fleet and a bunch of fighters is so much more satisfying than with destroyers who struggle with pathing and keep distance to stations.

[@tylerstewart3181]

bomb launchers/torps make short work of everything too

[@natsukirei2016]

watching those ships undock is insane

[@dusk1947]

I love this ship. Having started during the Terran DLC, it was the first XL ship I set as a goal in this game. And it's been a mainstay in just about every fleet I've played since. It's powerful on its own, it's incredible at the center of a fleet, and it has only gotten better with the recent changes to carrier position defense.

[@ragnos28]

Its only weakness was torpedoes doing no dmg in low attention, but when that was solved in 6.0, the Raptor + Chimeras become "fire an forget" gate keeper. 😁

[@xMendonzAx]

@@ragnos28 Hey, if you dont mind, could you do a short showing this? Also, I'm trying to make a carrier-only gameplay, I wanted to test the potential of the Guppy, but I don't see how to make it work without some medium ships to support it, do you have any tips?

[@ragnos28]

@@xMendonzAx A short seem like a good idea, so I soon as I learn how to make one...🤓 The Guppy did not achieve much for me.... What a carrier does not have in comparison with a destroyer, is anti capital capability (not that the Ray has much of that). A carrier get anti capital capability by using its stored S bombers. Boron don't have good S bombers, the Baracuda is stupid slow, so that's out, you can put a torp launcher on a Mako, but it would look stupid, imo, and let it with just a weapon slot to defend against enemy interceptors, and if youy put two torp launchers, will be totally helpless. The Iro-whats its name, I've hear being use as a make shift torp bomber because of its speed, but even occupying the landing pads, the Guppy can't deploy many, also a problem since the boron don't have mk2 torp launchers. In the end, my anti capital solution for my boron fleet is a wing of 20 Hydras with 2 torp launcher + 2 ion blaster (or what's is called), so you can use something similar in tandem with the Guppy, and have Makos on intercept, and Hydras on bombard or defend. 🤔

[@MrGhosthacked]

Absolutely beautiful!

[@ClaudioSampaioPatola]

Mine is still being constructed... More than 3 hours to fabricate this monster

[@ragnos28]

Well, more time to finish your infrastructure to build Chimeras. 😁

[@DaemonJax]

lol at 3:18 friendly fire

[@ragnos28]

Luckily, all it did was to spin the fighter around and have the pilot say...yeah, really funny guys 🤨😋

[@Neogeta85]

Hey, I'm assuming that you put heavy missiles on the interceptors and heavy torpedoes on the bombers?

[@ragnos28]

Yeah, heavy all the way. 💪 Missiles don't get used that much, but I still leave them. 😋

[@musclesvf]

I just boarded my 2nd raptor. Have enough money now I bought another cuz why not. Running Moreyas for intercept and chimera for bombardment. So cool to watch.

[@guyg6955]

What are your different ship loadouts? From carrier turrets loadout to your different Torpedo/Fighter loadout? Thanks

[@ragnos28]

0:15 for carrier turrets, 6:04 for Chimera on intercept, and Chimera on bombard has the same, except for 1 torp launcher.

[@Johnson09641]

nice! all we need now is capable destruction of stations without my ships just floating underneath them waiting to be killed..

[@KatanaNLD]

hmm, intresting, i wonder how that works in multi carrier battlegroups i kinda let all carrier fighting go OOS since i get anoyed that they get stuck in anything and everything.

[@ragnos28]

Well, basically you need bombers and interceptors, so either you have both types on the same carrier, or have different cariers, with specific roles.🤔 And while, fighters getting stuck still happen, the frequency is less and less in 6.0 from what I've seen, and there is always the option to port away (I get how that can be annoying if the teleport is not researched, but if you reach a point in game were you have carriers, that research is usually completed).

[@Matrix2Strata017]

I'd like to mention carrier combat performs best IS instead of OOS, this is mainly due to how OOS combat is evaluated, which can lead to heavy losses to S class. This is more apparent when fighting Xenon stations and I with graviton turrets, which can wipe swarms of S. Played in IS, S class has higher survival % since they can actually dodge graviton insta-kills. Multi-carrier battlegroups work amazing, I have 4 groups of two and they are best used as pairs simply because of the AI handles group attacking, which is attack from a circle. This causes problems when navigating Xenon stations that are bunched really close together and draw aggro you don't want. In short, large carrier formations are just overkill and its best to play them IS, otherwise, just drop Asgards OOS everything.

[@Miszkaaaaa]

What is your current Chimera loadout? I use a condor with 48 eclipses as a gate stopper

[@ragnos28]

6:04 for Chimera on intercept, and Chimera on bombard has the same, except for 1 torp launcher.

[@Miszkaaaaa]

@@ragnos28 How do you resupply the missles?

[@ragnos28]

@@Miszkaaaaa one click resupply at my EQ: kzbin.info/www/bejne/d5CYlnSHrc58oLc

[@KalisaFox]

welp, looks like its time for me to trick out my first carrier in vanilla.

[@madrooky1398]

I find this ship useless in many aspects. It has too many M hangars to be ever able to funnel through the provided docks, and even it can launch many fighters at once, they still take ages to get out of the ship and then the AI just throws anything at the smallest enemy so fighters spend much more time in takeoff/landing loop than anything else. So you have to micromanage it or the thing is totally ineffective. Then it is incredibly slow and actually super vulnerable with only one main engine. I have tried to use this ship many times over the years and i just can't find a reason to actually use it. The Argon carrier is so much better AS A CARRIER simply because it does everything mentioned above so much better and it is simply superior handling the max load of fighters/corvettes it can hold, plus it has 4 M docks and in addition to the S dock separate fihter ramps, so off loading fighters is super fast and actually works. The only thing about the Raptor is it looks menacing, but is actually pretty troubled in its actual role. And on the last try i had with the Raptor in 6.0, the new physics made fighters crash/glitch into the Raptor and get damaged or even destoyed and i regret having tried it once more.... It simply is only a good ship in theory.

[@ragnos28]

Well, to each its own...and is not like I get a procentage everytime a Raptor is being made. 😛 That being said, imo, the value of a carrier come from the fighter capacity. A Raptor can deploy 100 fighters (w/o ocupying the landing pads, because then the number rise to 120) and an has the best AA defence in the game with 93 flak turrets, no other ship in X4 can provide something similar. Next in line, the Shark, have insta launch of fighters, insta travel drive, and 64 nominal fighter capacity, but the boron have no good S bomber (imo), and using only boron tech, mean no flak, so the Raptor still wins.🧐 The isue of "AI just throws anything at the smallest enemy so fighters spend much more time in takeoff/landing loop than anything else", can be hadled by selecting dock status for the fighters. 40 interceptors, status docked, you want to help a trader that is being harassed by 5 xenon M....solution?...select 15 interceptors, give command atack targets in range/atack multiple fighters....only 15 fighters will be launched, they will destroy their targets, then return to the carrier w/o any input from you, 15 fighters don't take that long to land. 🤓 The Raptor being slow and vulnerable with only one engine...I don't give a crap 😉is a carrier, once it enters a hostile sector, it does not have to move, it launches 100 Chimeras that move at 503 m/s and kill every single ship in that sector, w/o me having to leave the proximity of the gate. Colossus, is a great carrier...but with 40 fighters, I would need another one to come close to the capacity of a Raptor. And you might say, ok, just bring two...but have you ever tried to keep 2 XL ships in close proximity to another while using travel drive and crossing multiple sectors? One of the aspects that I enjoy about the Raptor, is that once the 100 fighters are landed, I only need to worry about a single ship, while crossing 4-5 core xenon sectors, and for me, that is invaluable.🤓 I've taken the Raptor in one of the hardest combat scenario I have encoutered in X4: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z5XWZ3-XrJp5e9U, and win the scenario w/o problems. Meanwhile, with the Colossus, in a minor skirmish, in compariosn: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aYO3mJJ_odlkr7s. Somehow, I don't think I would win the combat scenario the Raptor was involved in, with an Colossus. 🤔 Theory...meet practice. 😁 For comparison, my argon fleet composition: 1 Colossus + 40 torpedo Eclipse (2 bolt + 2 torp launchers) 1 Colossus + 40 interceptor Eclipse (2 bolt + 2 ion blasters) 10 Behemoth 1 aux ship + 20 Minotaur on intercept + 20 torpedo Cerberus on bombard The equivalent split fleet composition: 1 Raptor + 60 torpedo Chimera (4 neutron gatling + 1 torp launchers, that mean that they can act like interceptors if need be) + 40 interceptor Chimera (4 gatling + 1 smart missile launcher) And like I said before, when all fighters are landed, I must watch just one ship, kill everything around me (hell, if the targets are not L/XL, I don't even need to launch fighters), activate travel drive, an I'm out from an pacified hostile sector. As for the isue with the new physics having fighters glitch, sorry to tell you, but it affects all carriers ☹including Colossus, Zeus and so on. To circumvent this, I keep the fighters from all my carriers, under docked status, and only select launched when the carrier is in full stop. I even have an issue with the Shark, when the carrier would not stop because some stuck fighter would somehow move the masive carrier, at travel drive speed....🤤

[@radamvice]

how do you go about managing the torps and smart missiles on those fighters? just manually send the carrier back on occasion for refills or have an aux ship nearby? I notice you said you like moving just the one ship solo. do you also use it to remove stations?@@ragnos28

[@Raso719]

I forget how many medium ships the Raptor can hold, but how do you recommended using the Medium ships carried? I like to have Corvettes lead anti-fighter strike teams but i was thinking of exploring using Gunboats for fighter screenings (which seems overkill with the turrets count) or Frigates outfitted as super heavy torpedo bombers with cluster missiles and plasma turrets to strike specific targets or something... But they all seem overkill in light of a swarm of 30 fighters of torpedo bombers.

[@ragnos28]

The Raptor can hold 30 M ships, but I never asign M ships to carriers because it takes forever for them to launch and land, and if asign to a carrier they will try to land on it. At best, I use frigates as adittional turrets, for carriers that have 4 M landing pads (the Raptor just have one). When I use M ships in my fleets, I asign them to an aux ship, because that way, they will not try to land on them.

[@Matrix2Strata017]

I'd like to mention that M class are actually designed more as bombers, not as gunfighters. Their enlarged missile capacity allows for this, as well as their shortcoming of having fewer gun mounts than S class. However, their main gun mounts are made up for as turrets, which sadly don't have the best tracking or damage. They can carry combat drones for extra firepower which makes up for less main gun mounts. Think of them as WW2 bombers, like a B-17. Corvettes are an exception though, they are focused more as a heavy gunfighter, less as a bomber, and more a boom and zoom fighter. They can be easily beat by sheer masses of S class. You should consider the Zeus carriers for M combat teams since it has 4 M pads. This makes docking/launching easier and faster compared to Raptor(1) or Monitor (2). Also, Raptor can fail to launch M, as in M can get bugged, locked, and never launch. Zeus can get around this with 4 M pads.