If you're supplying a remote outpost there might not be locals.
Crating up MPUV Cargos would be easy though.
opinion, will the M2 Hercules be worth buying? i bought the upgrade but haven't applied it yet
- Thread starter Thugari
- Start date
Crating up MPUV Cargos would be easy though.
Richard Bong
Space Marshal
The image with all the downward facing guns is the A2 not the M2. The M2 has two fixed Size 4 facing forward and mounted on top, a turret with two size 3 mounted rear facing and high and a turret with two size 3 mounted forward and low. I haven't seen an image that shows where the third turret with two size 3 guns is.The Crusader M2 Hercules (nickname: "Mama Bird")[1] is a military protean vehicle transport that supports strategic lift and landing operations (i.e. Sword of Hope).[2] It is the UEE's premier tactical starlifter. The ship's potent combination of capacity, maneuverability, and durability make it the obvious choice in large-scale transport, and a robust weapons package assures your cargo, and crew, gets to where they're going in one piece.
It seems it stacks up against the carrack quite well, but might... might just outperform the carrack in some places. The carrack comes stock with industrial components, and I'd assume the M2 will come stock with military grade components. I believe it will be more maneuverable / efficient in atmosphere allowing you more options for infil / exfil ops and giving you more leeway when it comes to deciding how you will approach certain missions. I personally think it looks way cooler than a carrack, and if im going head on into a fight and want to spit out some tonks, i have the option of unloading from the front or rear whereas i think the carrack only has a ramp at the front of the ship.
Look at how the guns are pretty much on the belly, allowing you much better coverage of the ground if you are coming in hot. I don't think the carracks weapon suite has the same capabilities.
I have an A2 currently, and an M2 in buyback. I'm hoping since I have the A2, I'll get the M2 or C2 as a loaner and be able to decide if i want to bring it out of buyback.
I mean come on look how cool the thing looks.
The Carrack's Bottom turret with two size 4 and pair of side turrets each with 2 size 4 should be better at clearing an LZ. (Plus the top turret with a good field of fire/)
I seriously doubt the Herc series will be faster than a Carrack. If the spec sheet is accurate (rather big if, I admit) the Herc is significantly slower than a Carrack. And while the Carrack is no longer as maneuverable as a Gladius, it is still quite nimble compared to everything else large size.
Now the A2 is a different matter, with a much different role, but I am having a difficult time seeing a practical advantage of an M2 over a Carrack, especially given the apparent range limitations of the Herc series. I mean load up cargo in the Ursa and Pices and you are looking at 464 vs. 468 in cargo capacity.
It might be different once we have it in game, but until them, my advice is, still, wait.
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After much deliberation and research, I purchased a C2 for 2 reasons:
1) So shiny and pretty!!
2)
View: https://youtu.be/LIzKZdHI4oc
1) So shiny and pretty!!
2)
One thing to note that most people gloss over, is when people compare the M2 to the C2 they tend to reiterate what has already been said about the C2. And for $120, the only difference between the two is:
C2:
2 Medium Coolers
Medium Armor
624 SCU
135 SCM Speed
Crew 2
M2:
1 Large Cooler
Heavy Armor
468 SCU
130 SCM Speed
3 Crew
1 more 2x3 Turret
That's not much of a difference because some of those are a downside. Plus the crew requirement is much higher when you consider: Pilot, Engineer, Scanner, Turret Operators (2 and 3 respectively). That's not even mentioning the crew required for the vehicles you may be transporting. The requirement listed would just fill the turrets on the respective ships!
Now the A2 is a massive upgrade from the M2, but it is $220. But imho, we're really only looking at the upgrade from a C2 to an A2 since the M2 is super niche, so that's actually $340 more than the C2. So what does the A2 add?
A2:
2 Large Coolers
Heavy Armor
234 SCU
130 SCM Speed
8 Crew (!!!)
1 more 2x3 Turret
2 extra 2x4 Turrets
2 more S5 nose guns
Bombs!
An extra Medium Computer
To me, the only reason you'd ever want an M2 over a C2 is because you need to deliver two combat vehicles into a hot landing zone. You need the extra armor and maybe turret. You expect to be taking fire. If you fill an M2 with cargo then you're doing it wrong. The M2 is used to bring reinforcements into a large scale operation or at least taking your single ship with crew out to do some small scale dangerous stuff.
The A2 on the other hand Can either be used for a large scale planetary battle by delivering a single vehicle and dropping bombs. The sheer number of turrets allow for it to provide covering fire for ground operations. And if you're taking out a small mission with just your solo ship, the bombs and turrets will make much shorter work than another Tonk with a S4 cannon.
I'm sure there are lots of situations people could think to use them, but to me the general use cases are:
C2: Daily driver. Just a bigger MSR.
M2: Bringing in vehicles or supplies to a contested zone during a large group/org operation
A2: Completing "solo" missions or supporting a larger battle with air bombardment. (By solo I mean just the single ship, not a single person)
The last I read about crated ships is they will require a port facility to crate and uncrate. So those crated MPUV you have on your hull will be nice boxes if there is no facilities to uncrate the ships. The second part is I am not sure how effective the MPUV cargo is going to be in atmosphere once again it seems to be a ship that is meant for very short trips in space and the Aurora CL would be a better solution to take boxes to the surface then a MPUV.
Nice write up.
Richard Bong
Space Marshal
The OP has a Carrack and a CCU from a 600i to an M2. Without a large outlay of money there is no C2 here.
And that doesn't answer why you would want both a Carrack and an M2.
Yeah, sorry, I was more breaking down the various Hercules versions and why the M2 is, imo, a bad choice.
But as for a Carrack and an M2, they are completely different ships. It really boils down to what you want to do. Without a deep dive into his fleet and reasons for his ships, I couldn't recommend an M2 at all.
I could see situations where an M2 in addition to owning a Carrack is a good idea, but that'd require specific uses or preferences. They are very different ships so they won't step on each other's toes. But he'd have to actually want one for some reason. I wouldn't upgrade just to have.