Weapons: A combateer's review
Posted: 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.
===== 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.