Material Disintegrators v. Stormfire Autocannons

[Xecutive]

Which is the more powerful end-game weapon? According to the game, the Stormfire has more DPS but the Disintegrators have more armor and shield penetration. Does the former outweigh the latter?

[markdb92]

autocannons only real use is to put in the small slot to kill the corvettes since they dont have armor or shields since they are evasion tanks.

[Evol_Prodigy]

Screw both weapons. Use plasma.

PLASMA PARRRRTAYYYYYY.

[HugsAndSnuggles]

End-game is all about armor, so armor pen is most important stat (against big ships). If shield penetration is less than 100% - it's useless: you'll either need something else to bring down shield or be down to less than 100% effective dps.

[Renfield628]

I think matter disinegrators have the highest power consumption of all weapons. So, using them is going to limit your ships survivability in the way of shields/armor, since you're gonna be fitting a lot of reactors to keep it all working. You might want to make a close range auto cannon fleet that pulls aggro separately and then have your bigger ships in another fleet fielding the md's that can hit from a distance. Also for the autocannon fleet you might want to make it a mix ratio of rails too. Maybe like 1 third auto cannons and 2 thirds rails, since the autocannons are gonna get real close and the bulk of fleet is gonna be ranging from a distance. This might eliminate ship clutter and allow the fleets to engage easier.

[Azunai]

matter disintegrators are a decent "jack of all trades" solution since they combine high dps and decent armor penetration.

they don't excel against anything, so a combination of more specialised weapons will usually be more efficient against specific targets.

[LAG]

Originally posted by Renfield628:

I think matter disinegrators have the highest power consumption of all weapons. So, using them is going to limit your ships survivability in the way of shields/armor, since you're gonna be fitting a lot of reactors to keep it all working. You might want to make a close range auto cannon fleet that pulls aggro separately and then have your bigger ships in another fleet fielding the md's that can hit from a distance. Also for the autocannon fleet you might want to make it a mix ratio of rails too. Maybe like 1 third auto cannons and 2 thirds rails, since the autocannons are gonna get real close and the bulk of fleet is gonna be ranging from a distance. This might eliminate ship clutter and allow the fleets to engage easier.

Lategame the point of corvettes is to die. Everty corvette lost is a battleship saved.
Not that they get targeted, since large weapons focus large targets. Cruisers are most suspectible here.

Since small weapons target small ships and M/L/X don't you'll see that the biggest corv killer are other corvs most of the time.

Also if you're smart, you can engage a fleet at close range by waiting for them to exit hyperspace in a system. Better still you can get them to chase you which means you'll both end up at the same place.
You also have military stations with subspace snare.

I see no reason to use Gauss cannons on corvettes. I take it railgun is kinetic weapon line.

[Renfield628]

I agree with everything you said but I don't know how that makes putting rails on corvettes a bad idea.

The point of having railgun equipped corvettes is so they compliment the autocannon equiped corvettes in damage projection. Their range ensures that they are constantly firing no matter how cluttered or bunched up the engagement is. They can be on the outskirts firing while the autocannon corvettes take up the front lines.

[HugsAndSnuggles]

1. Apart from few initial volleys your ACs will be in range. Ships with range advantage do not try to run away. So, in the long run it boils down to DPS (since we talking end-game, fleets gonna be large).

2. ACs focus fire instead of trying to negate shields on all enemy ships in range before starting to do damage (as everything with +shield damage does).

[LAG]

Originally posted by Renfield628:

I agree with everything you said but I don't know how that makes putting rails on corvettes a bad idea.

The point of having railgun equipped corvettes is so they compliment the autocannon equiped corvettes in damage projection. Their range ensures that they are constantly firing no matter how cluttered or bunched up the engagement is. They can be on the outskirts firing while the autocannon corvettes take up the front lines.

3 auto > railgun

If the engagement is so "bunched up" that there's not enough targets that usually means you're outnumbering the enemy so much it doesn't even matter really. The money is better spent building more battleships, cruisers or destroyers.
Corvettes does the job of "in your face" really well, i often also use Ntorpedoes on them



Not to mention how the 1 autocannon won't fire if the ship is far away so if anything i'd make 2 types of ships.

You could test your ships vs 3 autocannons, though i'm pretty sure the autocannons are going to come out on top. Alternatively try at 2 different ranges.

[Ξ ＮＹＯ]

Generally KA + Plasma or Neutron Torpedoes + Plasma is the best combination to deal with enemy ships, and is best applied to cruisers.

[Renfield628]

Originally posted by LAG:

Not to mention how the 1 autocannon won't fire if the ship is far away so if anything i'd make 2 types of ships.

You could test your ships vs 3 autocannons, though i'm pretty sure the autocannons are going to come out on top. Alternatively try at 2 different ranges.

That's what I meant. 2 separate fleets. One being a long range/large md fleet and the other a aggro pulling fleet composed of 1/3 autos and 2/3 rail corvettes

I have an impatient tendacy to write long, underly descriptive sentences so I understand if you didn't get my meaning right off the bat.

[Renfield628]

Originally posted by LAG:

Corvettes does the job of "in your face" really well, i often also use Ntorpedoes on them

Actually, now that I think about:

Adding a contingent of torpedo boats to the aggro pull fleet I described earlier might be a good thing, NOT for damage, but for more survival ability, as its gonna detract some of the dps coming from flak, pd, and fighters.

The point is you want the aggro fleet to last as long as possible, while your second long range fleet does the dirty work

[LAG]

Originally posted by Renfield628:

Originally posted by LAG:

Corvettes does the job of "in your face" really well, i often also use Ntorpedoes on them

Actually, now that I think about:

Adding a contingent of torpedo boats to the aggro pull fleet I described earlier might be a good thing, NOT for damage, but for more survival ability, as its gonna detract some of the dps coming from flak, pd, and fighters.

The point is you want the aggro fleet to last as long as possible, while your second long range fleet does the dirty work

3 autocannon ships would do more damage than regular gauss.

Usually since autocannon comes after 2nd mass driver i go for the early game powerspike of mass producing autocannon corvettes before proper cruisers/battleship armour comes into play and KA isn't yet available. Lategame corvettes still do their job better with autocannons and Ntorpedoes, they simply do more damage.

[Spirit]

Originally posted by Aeryk:

Screw both weapons. Use plasma.

PLASMA PARRRRTAYYYYYY.

ignore plasma ... matter desintegrators attack armor AND shields

[NixBoxDone]

You usually want autocannons in small slots because small slots target corvettes, which have too little capability to stack armor or shields to really matter for + shield/armor damage or penetration.

They usually excell at evasion tanking, which the autocannons are very good against by being both quite accurate, having higher base DPS and a higher rate of fire (resulting in less RNG, as more salvos means more attempts to roll a hit vs the corvette evasion).

They also tend to be cheaper and less demanding than other high tier weapons, which is a factor because corvettes are throw-away ships where each slot in utility counts for that one more hit and a less demanding weapon needs less of those slots for reactors.

You don't want expensive high maintenance weapons on them because they are destined to be blown up anyways. Getting a weapon with less energy consumption will let you mount more shields or armor, giving them a chance to survive for one or two more hits.