Distortion Weapons
- Thread starter Shadow Reaper
- Start date
Many thanks for sharing, as i'm a lover not a fighter the distortion repeaters are totally my bag.
I have been wondering about using them on the Hoplite as a boarding platform. The Arrester IIIs look like they will be great for single seat small ships, but the shields on medium class and above are so powerful now that if all 8 of the Arresters that a Hoplite can carry were to hit say, a Lancer; the shields would not go down. OTOH, if you loaded up the Hoplite with all distortion weapons, you would need about 2.5 seconds to disable the shields and the ship.
Personally I don't think that speaks of good balance and I hope they change it, but they have said boarding will be one of the most difficult tasks in game, so could be they intend this. What that means is you're stuck with close ship to ship combat and distortion weapons if you intend to disable rather than destroy. So these weapons are obviously important.
Personally I don't think that speaks of good balance and I hope they change it, but they have said boarding will be one of the most difficult tasks in game, so could be they intend this. What that means is you're stuck with close ship to ship combat and distortion weapons if you intend to disable rather than destroy. So these weapons are obviously important.
Radegast74
Space Marshal
Nice! Now with larger distortion weapons in game, I'm wondering about the utility of the smaller EMP ships. If you can get in close and take out a Connie's shields like that, or stand off at a distance and still take them down, you don't need EMP.
One thing EMP has over the aimed weapons - it''s Area Of Effect zapping anything in the area. Also means you don''t need to aim which for me is a big bonus.
You still need to aim your ship. The nicest thing about ravens and such seem to me you don't need to worry about the target's shields. I don't think that is true of spike missiles (Arresters) and certainly not distortion weapons. IIUC, the missiles will attack a shield first, but we don't really know until they're in game.
Radegast74
Space Marshal
A difficulty I've had is that the are of effect for the Warlock (so far, the biggest EMP in the game) is reliably only about 500m...with a lot of jousting combat, the person whizzes by you, and you can often fire and with the 1 second or so delay, it goes off when they are out of range.
To think you could dogfight, sit off several hundred meters (or more!), aim carefully *and* take out their shield, is a very very appealing thought!
I think the solution has to be to target bigger ships. IIUC, the EMP knocks out everything except manned turrets, so that gives you plenty of options. Any medium ship ought to be fairly easy prey if you can make a single pass, especially from below and behind where most medium ships have blind spots. IIUC the trouble is the second computer, but you could deal with that with distortion weapons once the bird is down.
To do this you can't joust. You need to come from behind which is very counter-intuitive to any but a real fighter pilot. Break away from the engagement, and circle. Then point the Warlock behind the arrow giving the direction of the target, and once you're behind follow it until you catch it, and steer down the target's ventral side. Connies, Cutties, Corsairs, Mercs, even Vanguard would be very vulnerable to this.
To do this you can't joust. You need to come from behind which is very counter-intuitive to any but a real fighter pilot. Break away from the engagement, and circle. Then point the Warlock behind the arrow giving the direction of the target, and once you're behind follow it until you catch it, and steer down the target's ventral side. Connies, Cutties, Corsairs, Mercs, even Vanguard would be very vulnerable to this.
Shadow Reaper has hit on another point with EMP - it effects all components at once. Just theorycraft here, but I'm pretty sure with targatable components coming in you'll have to choose what you are firing at with the repeaters and canon like the Suckerpunch and knock it out so while you may be able to reduce the output of the power generator they'll still have their engines and ballistic weapons running...?
The way the game dynamic was originally explained was that distortion guns, spike missiles and EMP all shut down the main computer, and only life support and individually guided (manned) turrets will work with the computer down. After this they added the dynamic that distortion weapons kill shields, and they have not made any defining statements since that time. But if the original is true, then you can't individually target enemy ships components. Your only real target is their computer.
Big questions remain about whether spike missiles (Arrester III is the only we know of so far) actually attack shields first as distortion weapons, or if the missile doesn't detonate until it hits the hull. EMP obviously does not care about shields.
Big questions remain about whether spike missiles (Arrester III is the only we know of so far) actually attack shields first as distortion weapons, or if the missile doesn't detonate until it hits the hull. EMP obviously does not care about shields.