Weapons: A combateer's review

Cmdr Wyvern · Post by **Cmdr Wyvern** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 9:38 pm

This is personal observations only. Your milage may vary.

===== Standard weapons =====

Primaries:

Plasma -
Plasma guns are a poor choice as a dogfighting weapon; weak, slow, and extremely power hungry, they can do little but scare. However, they work well as a defensive deterrant, as the turret mounted military version has shown. On the rear mount, a plasma gun can shake off tailgaters, and in the case of ECM failure or hardened missiles, can destroy incoming missiles.

Pulse -
Pulse lasers score low on almost all counts. Poor hitting power, short range, and terribly low refire rate makes a pulse laser little more than a deterrant. It's only good points is it's low power draw and cool running. Upgrade from it ASAP, and never look back.

Beam -
The machine-gun variant of the pulse, the beam laser has longer lange than the pulse, giving it some sniping ability, and it's extreme rate of fire lets you deal plenty of damage per burst, perfect for close-range dogfighting. It only loses points for being a bit hard on the cooling system.

Military -
This weapon has a lot of hype around it, and a lot of misconception. Here's the lowdown from my experience.
The military laser, like the beam, has an extreme rate of fire. It also has extreme range and immense hiitting power, making it the finest sniper weapon available. True to it's design, the military laser allows you to sit safely just outside the range of a Thargoid assault ship's weapons and give them bugs a severe beating. As a dogfighting weapon, however, it's a poor performer, being power hungry and viciously hard on the coolers.

Mining -
Industrial tool. Useless as a combat weapon.

Secondaries:

Homing -
A fast, accurate, and readily avaliable ordinance, the standard homing missile can finish a damaged, desperate, and fleeing opponent. However, it's rather ineffective against heavily armored targets, and if your opponent has an operational ECM, it's a wasted shot.

Hardened -
Hands down, the king of missile ordinance. Packing an armor-piercing proximity warhead and ECM resistant brain, this weapon can severy damage armored targets, and is a sure kill to lighter opponents. It's only con is a somewhat weak thruster, making it a bit slower than the homing missile.

===== Tactical weapons =====

Energy Bomb -
An EMP blast ordinance, the energy bomb guarentees instant death to all lightly shielded craft within it's blast range. Heavily shielded craft can resist the blast, but suffer varying amounts of internal damage in the proccess. The weapon works by causing severe systems overloads in a blasted craft, the resulting feedback causing the engines to implode violently. Yeah, the Big Shiny Red Button O' Doom.
Detonating an e-bomb and catching Vipers in the blast grants you an instant fugitive rating. Use with caution.

Cascade mine -
As close to an Omega warhead as you can get, this ordinance is ultimately devasting, killing -everything- caught in it's blast, including heavily shielded targets, 'roids, 'goids, cargo, escape pods, and the dumb 'tard that launched it and didn't run away. Better yet, everything it blows up spreads the effect in a runaway chain reaction. I've even watched one mean-spirited scoundrel successfully wreck a station with one of these!
Drop it, light the injectors, watch the fireworks and creds roll, from a very safe distance.

drew · Post by **drew** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 7:28 am

Nice one!

Can I subscribe to this magazine?

Cheers,

Drew.

Dr. Nil · Post by **Dr. Nil** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 9:22 am

q-mine: A riduculously overpowered weapon that took my hitherto peacefully trading commander from Mostly Harmless to Above Average, when he tried one out outside a pirate's cove - I think it gave exactly 75 kills - still with a clean legal record.

But such a carnage gave him serious PTSD so he went and sold his Naga for a rusty old Cobra-III with military shield and naval energy. Now he just drifts around Galaxy 1 committing random acts of senseless violence. He even went and killed a cop one day...

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 10:20 am

I find a good tactic with military lasers is to mount one on the rear. When you run into a bunch of pirates, especially a Python flanked by Mambas and Sidewinders, you then turn tail and pick off the outriders while keeping them at a safe distance, then turn round and close in on the Python, blow the bugger out of the sky and get scooping.

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 10:44 am

Minesweeper EMP pulse cannon : A defensive item of equipment, newley developed. When active, the cannon searches for active q-mines and targets their CPU with a powerfull EMP blast, turning the mine into useless scrap before it can detonate. (Included in Assassins.oxp)!

Arexack_Heretic · Post by **Arexack_Heretic** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 12:58 pm

'Ivan' missiles:
Entry into the 'hardhead' market by Dagg SpaceSystems, it failed to secure the military contract. This due to the unpredictable nature of it's wiring. It is cheap and fast, but may go rogue when ECMed.
Winner of the unsavory 'mercenary's choice' award for bloody mayhem.

johnsmith · Post by **johnsmith** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 3:40 pm

What's with cascade mines vs energy bombs? I've just been playing the Deposed mission, and for the hell of it decided to test both out against some seriously big ships.

Energy bomb: cheap, easy, kills everything.

Cascade mine: very expensive compared to the energy bomb, very dangerous to both self and others, spectacular explosions.

Guess which one I enjoyed more? I know there are historical reasons why energy bombs exist, but I would feel much happier if you couldn't buy them any more. Or only buy them at tech level 10+ arachy planets, a rarity that only crops up once or twice in a galaxy. How about an intergalactic crackdown on these evil weapons of mass destruction?

And by the way, where can you get plasma cannons?

Arexack_Heretic · Post by **Arexack_Heretic** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 3:42 pm

You can get them almost anywhere, they are TL3 IIRC.

useless pieces of hardware though right now.

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 3:44 pm

I have 1.65 (PC) installed and I can't buy plasma cannons. I also found that Oolite woudn't let me arm an NPC ship with them. I am running the planets branch, but had this problem before I installed it.

TGHC · Post by **TGHC** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 4:46 pm

Yup I haven't seen plasma cannons for sale on 1.65 PC buld either

johnsmith · Post by **johnsmith** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 10:34 pm

No plasma cannon on Mac 1.65 either. Hmmmmm...

Cmdr Wyvern · Post by **Cmdr Wyvern** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 12:40 am

I havn't seen plasmas offered on the equipment screen for some versions now, now that you guys mention it. I only seen them used in turrets on the Behemoths anymore.

ovvldc · Post by **ovvldc** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 9:38 am

I wanted to get one for my rear weapon mounting but I never ever found one..

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 10:40 am

Never been offered one, but I'm happy enough with my aft mounted military laser. Running 1.65 on a PC.

Judebert · Post by **Judebert** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 8:54 pm

I've wanted one for my rear mounting since I heard you can shoot hardened missiles with them. I can't seem to accomplish that even with a cold military laser.