Energy weapons have one major advantage over any ballistic guns: infinite ammo. Vanguard is a long range heavy fighter. I always assume it might take some time before I could refuel and rearm this ship. And there is nothing worse than running out of ammo in the middle of the dangerous universe.
Vanguard Warden Distortion Loadout
- Thread starter wmk
- Start date
Sorry for late reply, most people have chipped in already but to put my tuppence on display:
To my knowledge here are the rock paper scissors of it right now:
Ballistics bypass a bit of shields, but need to work on the armour. They start damaging right away, but need to do a bunch of damage.
Distortion strip shields fast and damage components without hitting the hull at all, but you need to target the components or you'll miss them.
Energy weapons include Laser, Plasma and Neutron. These do shield damage and whoooole lot of hull damage, but you need to drop a shield face first.
The benefit of Ballistic is low-signature and bypass a bit of shielding. The drawback is they need to be replenished.
The benefit of distortion is you can strip shields and disable ships systems without damaging the ship hull. Lots of opportunity for no-kill play with these, but as far as I am aware the component damage part of them doesn't work yet.
The benefit of energy is they are the scissors to armours paper, and that they are infinite as long as your jiuce keeps up with your trigger finger. The deawback is so are the shields so if the foe can keep you off their back for long enough they will remain wrapped in plastic.
Bonus: EMP, an area of effect hit for short term disable and shutsdown of ships systems, but it hits everything so a tool for loners or friends who think they smell.
As far as I know, this is as it stands right now. Balance and more weapon types added to the game later may change the above, if it isn't different already!
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Shadow Reaper
Space Marshal
Yes well, I get all that. The point remains however, that describing energy weapons as fast kill weapons is incorrect. If you're afraid of running out of ammo I'd just note the gattlings have a ton of ammo, and if you practice any trigger control you shouldn't run out. They kill targets much faster than energy weapons. This is most clearly illustrated with the complaints that the Vanguard class are super hard to kill with lasers since they have such strong shields that they just need to disengage for a few seconds and their shields are again at full, while their opponents have holes in their ships from gattlings.
The combination of the M7A with the nose gattlings is the best of both worlds. Unlimited ammo for the sniper weapon which will miss more often, and instant penetration from 4 gattlings, both using the same pip. Combining the weapon pips is a huge advantage since you can use all your guns whenever they're in range.
One small correction though. IIUC, distortion weapons do not target components. They cause the computer to shut down and any componnt controlled by the computer is then neutralized. this includes engines, weapons targeting systems, and shields.
The combination of the M7A with the nose gattlings is the best of both worlds. Unlimited ammo for the sniper weapon which will miss more often, and instant penetration from 4 gattlings, both using the same pip. Combining the weapon pips is a huge advantage since you can use all your guns whenever they're in range.
One small correction though. IIUC, distortion weapons do not target components. They cause the computer to shut down and any componnt controlled by the computer is then neutralized. this includes engines, weapons targeting systems, and shields.
Thanks for the rundown brother. I'll be running some tests in the near future to see how everything feels. :)
I decided to equip some of my other ships with distortion guns, as it looks that they have powerful psychological effect on other pilots. When you can see your shields quickly going down, the only logical reaction is either to pull back and let the shields regenerate, or temporarily switch to defensive mode and begin evasive maneuvers ---- unless you don't care or you have better guns.
Although it's not a combat spacecraft, I've equipped my Cutty Red with distortion repeaters. I've been flying with four Size 3 fixed laser repeaters, so I've simply replaced two of them with DR Model-XJ3 repeaters (total distortion damage 1,082 dps / alpha 232 dps) ---- please note that Red has two Size 2 gimbaled distortion repeaters by default. I have also replaced the default shields with the military grade FR-76.
Total upgrade costs:
74,574 aUEC (incl. one FR-76 and two Attrition-3 laser repeaters)
Link to the loadout --
www.erkul.games
Although it's not a combat spacecraft, I've equipped my Cutty Red with distortion repeaters. I've been flying with four Size 3 fixed laser repeaters, so I've simply replaced two of them with DR Model-XJ3 repeaters (total distortion damage 1,082 dps / alpha 232 dps) ---- please note that Red has two Size 2 gimbaled distortion repeaters by default. I have also replaced the default shields with the military grade FR-76.
Total upgrade costs:
74,574 aUEC (incl. one FR-76 and two Attrition-3 laser repeaters)
Link to the loadout --
#DPSCalculator
Star Citizen tools for DPS, damage, power and cooling simulations including an up to date ships and components database
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They do at the moment but only because there is currently no armor so any hit through the shield is against the ships HP pool.