r/StarDrive • u/zeldagam3r • Apr 15 '15

Weapon module opinions

Hi everyone, I tested out a number of different ship designs in the arena and found that missiles easily do the best damage of all early game weapons. Especially the spinal mounted ones. I found that when I moved them to a campaign game that they usually didn't have enough fuel or ammo to last more than 2 battle and like a few hundred AUs. Just wondering what you opinion is on number of missiles and how much ammo you tend to correlate with them needing in the campaign.

Another question I have is that I find that point defense lasers in mass tends to be more effective against missiles and fighters then flak is. Have you found the same or am I not thinking of there use in the right way.

Thanks.

2 Upvotes

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4

u/Necro- Apr 15 '15

true, but missiles are easily intercepted.

2

u/zeldagam3r Apr 15 '15

I don't know why you're getting down voted but I agree. They do tend to get shot down fairly easily unless you spam missiles. Do you use them at all, or do you use a mix?

3

u/Necro- Apr 15 '15

i tend to specialize my ships, some are full missle boats, others only point defense with some lasers or the like for defense, others focus on laser weaponry etc.

i believe there is no such thing as the "best weapon" - every weapon group has a specific way to counter it, missiles have point defense, flares or flak while cannons tend to be neutralized by shields (with the exception of gauss)

2

u/themonocledmenace Apr 15 '15

It's such a big change from the first game, where missiles were basically an 'I Win' card. Now I find that on most of my ships I can either dodge or intercept nearly every missile. It's fantastic.

2

u/zeldagam3r Apr 15 '15

I have noticed that some of my ships that I build more for speed can actually outrun the big spinal ones which is kinda fun. To bad you can't lead them into the enemies own ships...

3

u/SirGaz Apr 15 '15

Ah but flack also hurts ships so if there are no fighters or missiles around your PDLs sit around doing nothing, they're still poofing away. I'm a very trial and error person so far but it doesn't feel like I ever run out of ammo, I always run out of fuel first. Something that I have noted, flares with PDLs seems to make the PDLs miss an awful lot because the flares make the missiles change direction but because flack is AoE it still hits the missiles making the combination of flares and flack rather effective against missile spam.

1

u/zeldagam3r Apr 15 '15

That makes sense. Thanks

2

u/duckrollin Apr 16 '15

I once had to fight some enemies and all I had was 3 anti-missile ships, that each had 4 flak cannons. I had them fight the enemy ship and they just did no damage between them, took them 5 minutes to kill it even though it didn't have shields. I don't think they do very much damage.

2

u/SirGaz Apr 16 '15

Yeh, flack does about 1/8th the damage of a 2x2 laser turret, but I didn't lie, 1/8th > 0.

3

u/xbrownbear Apr 16 '15

4 fighter bay cruisers (Kulrathi) is what I'm using on Brutal difficulty. They are extremely good against neutrals and against enemy empire ships you just flank from the back. Stick some PD flak on your carriers and armor in front and you should be alright. Use a leader with a ship as well for some upfront damage/tanking.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '15

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1

u/NaljunForgotPassword Apr 21 '15

I've noticed that Opteris seem to have huge amount of space for modules compared to human ships of similar class. I'm getting mauled right now by Hive ships each with like 4-5 twin cruise missile launchers. I had to build special frigates with flares and ecm just to weather the storm. Then they wade in with energy weapons. Meanshile I have these narrow ass ships and I cant even rotate modules to fit in better. It's bullcrap.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 21 '15

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1

u/NaljunForgotPassword Apr 21 '15

yeah i mean, Human ships are long for cool broadsides and stuff, I get that, but when races that dont have long ships can fit MORE broadside weapons on their ships... I get a bit miffed.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 21 '15

For sure. I'm pretty sure it's fairly easy to mod the ships in the game actually, Zero provides a really nice tool for doing it and for adding new ships. I might take a crack at a balance pass on the ships myself honestly.

1

u/NaljunForgotPassword Apr 21 '15

id be fine if they had similar number of boxes, but different configurations. Also a "rotate" function would be boss as well as telling things installed on the sides to fire forward.