On Outfitting: Part 1, Weapons
27 Mar 2021Kissamies
As I have been building up my protégé's ships and refitting some of my own, I thought of sharing my shipbuilding philosophy with you. I intend to make this a small series, starting with arnaments. The kind of weapon combinations I put on my ships doesn't often match the general recommended guides, so I think I might give the readers some new ideas to consider.First of all, the weapon loadouts on most of my ships are divisible to to various roles with corrensponding fire groups and buttons. First, there is the primary battery, which is always in the primary fire button of the main fire group. Second, there is the alternate battery which is also in primary fire, but in another group. Lastly, there is the support weapons that generally go to the secondary fire. Then the weapons themselves:
Plasma Accelerator. My favorite, especially the Advanced Plasma Accelerator. It's always the centerpiece of my primary battery when present. It does a lot of damage, a large chunk of it absolute, but it uses a lot of power and runs hot. Most people seem to use plasma(s) for devastating alpha strikes, but I prefer to mix it with other arnaments and go for more continuous fire. The APA is good for this approach, but the increased fire rate is also good for just giving you opportunities to land shots just when you want to, unless you are stuck reloading. Most of the the engineering has something to offer:
- Focused and Long Range: The most important advantage of these is the increased shot speed, which greatly increases the accuracy. If normally you can expect to hit a maneuvering target to up to 1 km, these modifications can increase that to about 2.5 km. Hitting subsystems is also easier and a plasma ball to a power plant is devastating. To choose between these two mods is mainly up to which disadvantage you prefer. Either more power consumption and mass, or increased heat. With 4 grades of either you can match the multicannon's shot speed.
- Efficient: The easy choice for most. It is hard to make multiple plasmas work without this mod, unless you have one of those ships with oversized power distributors.
- Overcharged: Another popular choice. Make the weapon even more scary.
- Short Range: Might be actually better than Overcharged. It's hard to hit at distance with regular shot speed anyway, so 1.75 km max range is enough. The thermal load increases a lot, but if you lean to it with Thermal Conduit experimental, the damage becomes truly horrifying.
- Rapid Fire: Alleviates the slow rate of fire of standard plasma to give you more opportunities to land the shot when you need to. More importantly, it reduces the reload time as well. Also reduces the distributor draw. APA with rapid fire might not be the most effective, but it's really fun, especially if you manage to use 2 of them and fire in sequence.
- Lightweight and Sturdy: The primary benefits of these ones are real niche, and Efficient does all the secondary benefits better.
- Plasma Slug: A must for extended combat like res sites or conflict zones. Naturally it needs sufficient fuel. I tend to think that at least size 5 tank is required and will use additional tanks when the main tank is too small.
- Target Lock Breaker: Great for inconveniencing other commanders, less so for NPC ships. I use this just in case when I don't have better ideas.
- Thermal Conduit: If you are willing to take heat damage, this experimental will add 60% to your damage output and make the plasma balls shine really bright.
- Dispersal Field: The chaff effect. Useful in similar ways as the Target Lock Breaker and works on NPCs too, I think.
- Phasing Sequence: The common wisdom is that you should use it for all of your weapons to really make it worth it. With my mixed arnaments, that's not really for me.
- Dazzle Shell: The effect seems pretty weak, but I have it on some experimental builds. Might work better if you had a cool, stealthy ship, but that's hard to pull off with a plasma setup.
Multi-Cannon. A very common component of my primary batteries. Traditionally I have preferred fixed variants combined with matching shot speed plasma, but I have also been experimenting with gimballed versions lately. On a same fire button it only fires plasma when I just tap it and both when I hold it down. Turreted variants are only used in my Type-9 and 10 where they are assigned to the secondary fire even though considered the primary battery. The engineering is always High Capacity-Corrosive for the smallest one and Overcharged-Autoloader for the rest, if more than 1 is present. I have tried other engineering, but this is the default I return to. Corrosive is essential and High Capacity offsets the ammo reduction. Autoloader's job is to prevent my weapon being stuck reloading when I need it. There is a rare occasion where I used Efficient on a huge MC because I just didn't have enough power.
Enforcer is the powerplay MC variant I probably use more than I should. Realistically it only makes sense in smaller ships with only size 1 and 2 hardpoints, but I use it on ships of all sizes. I like the sound it makes. It does do more damage and has better shot speed and range than a regular small MC, but it runs out of ammo faster. It should be engineered with High Capacity whether you use Corrosive on it or not.
Rail Gun. Sometimes in the alternate battery, sometimes in support weapons. I have a thing for putting it in the same fire button as my turrets, which always use the secondary fire. This weapon is generally used for its effects or module sniping. Because I use it only in specific situations, it doesn't usually run out of ammunition before my multi-cannons do. The engineering mod is always Long Range. The experimental is Feedback Cascade or Super Penetrator, former being more important than latter. Lately I have experimented on using the Railgun in a more primary role with Plasma Slug guaranteering the ammunition.
I like the Imperial Hammer variant for its utility with Feedback Cascade. I also have the "quadruple shot array" in my Alliance combat ships where I pair small rail with the Hammer. The rail shoots first, closely followed by the Hammer's triple shot.
Seeker Missile Rack/Pack-Hounds. Always in alternate battery. Not a primary damage dealer, but they have a great amount of utility for taking out surface modules and in their engineered effects. Taking out the target's drives is a great way to render it helpless. If their chaff is constantly messing with your gimbals, blow up the chaff launcher. I engineer for High Capacity, unless it's some fast runner build that needs Lightweight. I always use Drag Munitions for the first launcher, but use various effects on others if there is more.
I vastly prefer Li Yong-Rui's Pack-Hounds to regular Seekers. They have more DPS, can defeat point defence and look great. Regular Seekers have an advantage at range, though.
Lasers. These may get used as the main battery in small, not so combat focused ships, but in larger battle wagons they are always mounted in turrets preferably in small or medium hardpoints. They are not used chiefly for their damage, but for the experimental effects and to plink away at the enemy shield so it doesn't start recharging. Long Range Beam is the staple with common experimentals being Thermal Vent and the Regeneration Beam. Pulse Laser might sometimes switch that to Focused, and the experimentals are usually Concordant Sequence and Thermal Shock. Efficient is only used if power and distributor capacity need saving. Burst Laser is a rarity with experimental builds like Rapid fire and Thermal Shock/Scramble Spectrum, or Short Range and Inertial Impact.
For the powerplay variants. Cytoscrambler is really nice, I recommend Overcharged or Rapid Fire with Phasing. Retributor may have some use as thermal venter, I'm not so sure yet. Pulse Disruptor is crippled by its low rate of fire. I have a soft spot for Mining Lance, even though I must admit that it's not very good. I have managed to make a mining T-7 that can fire 3 of them without overheating and they make sense for that very niche build. Even managed to kill some pirates with it.
Cannon. Mostly useless weapon because of its low ammo capacity, but I like to tinker with it from time to time because it has interesting experimental effects. Still, I often use combination of Long Range and Force Shell to match shot speed with my multicannons or plasmas. It's fun to see a Sidewinder spin around when it gets hit by one of those. It can be used more seriously for module sniping. In that case I recommend the Autoloader experimental. Not being stuck in reload beats the benefits of High Yield Shell, at least in my experience.
Fragment Cannon. Not my style and I rarely use it. Pacifier is an exception with its longer range. Matches shot speed with the Guardian Shard Cannon adequately, if you want to easily match it with something in smaller hardpoints. I like Double Shot with Screening Shell, but that is for short engagements only.
Mines. Some of my very fast ships have these with Lightweight mod and Ion Disruption or Reverberating Cascade experimental. No one is stupid enough to run straight in to these, but one can try to use then in close range in 'bomber' fashion. The idea is to dance with the possible gankers a bit before my shields start failing and I speed away. Mines can also be used as actual bombs against ground installations, but that ends up being rather indiscriminate carpet bombing. For more selective targeting, see below.
Missile Rack. I don't know why these are called 'missiles' when they have no guidance. Must be a British thing. Unlike the other projectile weapons, they don't inherit the ship's movement, which makes them really hard to aim. This can used to some minor advantage in piracy, where you can use the lead indicator to tell drifting ship's direction accurately. Do not use these in the same fire group as another weapons that require lead. The lead indicators will get too confusing. Rockets are the premium air-to-surface weapons, which might become more significant with Odyssey. High Capacity and Penetrator munitions seem to be the engineering to use. Possibly Rapid Fire if you are not so worried about ammunition. Also note that the Advanced variant just has more ammo for some reason.
Yuri Grom's Containment Missile sounds like a great weapon, but it's rather limited. It shuts down player FSD charging fine, but against NPCs you'll have to hit before they start charging or there will be no effect. The ammunition is halved, so High Capacity is recommended.
I have never fired a Torpedo, but I'd probably use Lightweight with Reverberating Cascade. Perhaps it's time to mount some on my weapons testing Mamba and go experimenting.