Weapon Range and Combat Computer?

[Kimmaz]

Hello, I was wondering about the Combat Computer options. And how that affects combat.

If I choose Artillery mode The ship will hold a 80 range distance. But If any of the guns on the ship have less range than 80, they will not be used or what?
My Large modules are fine with 100 range, but my medium sized modules, only have 75 range (78.5 including the 5% bonus from artillery). Do you know of a bonus that gets me past the 80 range mark?

Does this work the other way aswell? For instance, If I engage somone that has lots of small guns (with low range) they might not even hit my ships at all?


I wanted to try some Cruiser's with Rail guns and long range, and Destroyers with Lasers to help them combat ships with Armor.

[Mistfox]

They'll not use the out of range weapons but very often, you'll find in a mobile battle, the enemy corvettes will 'circle' into your range (med) and when/if your corvettes die, they'll close in with your 'artillery'.

[HugsAndSnuggles]

Ships close in and stop when they reach dedignated range from enemy fleet (not the closest ship, mind you). They will not change position (with exception of swar computer that forces ships to 'orbit' their target), unless they are further away from their preferred target (or, more likely, its fleet position) than combat computer is set to. So all range advantage does is enables artilery alpha strikes, then its down to usual close-ranged mess, where only thing that matters is caauracy+tracking vs evasion.

[EleventhStar]

wouldnt say getting the first strike is "all" range advantage does. thats quite important in big battles where the first volley kills multiple enemy ships.

[LuNi]

Weapon ranges play a very big part in ship combat. Very good example would be dealing with Unbidden crisis faction because they have a poor range on their extremely strong weapons.

Outranging them to deal critical damage to their fleet before they even open fire is quite essensial in dealing with them. Using hit and run war doctrine with long range weapons allows you to hit their fleets from range and when they close in you can emergency jump out to save your own ships from taking any damage at all.

Weapons from long range aren't as accurate though. Lightning weapons being exeption to this. They always have 100% accuracy.

[Kimmaz]

I used Leaders with that +20% range bonus to make them work. And I use all 3 ship types and have great sucess!
BTW the "auto best" ships have terrible stats compared to what I make, Maybe because it preffers to use small size tier 1 weapons instead of large tier 4 weapons. I dont understand why it does that.

[LuNi]

Originally posted by Kimmaz:

I used Leaders with that +20% range bonus to make them work. And I use all 3 ship types and have great sucess!
BTW the "auto best" ships have terrible stats compared to what I make, Maybe because it preffers to use small size tier 1 weapons instead of large tier 4 weapons. I dont understand why it does that.

If you use auto best you need to be careful. You never know when the AI thinks best possible destroyer has nothing but flak in it or best battleship has hangar bays in it. I've seen some atrocious weapon combinations while using auto best.

[Kimmaz]

Something as simple as, it decides to use tier 1 armor plates, when I have tier 4 armor plates avaliable (but it did use the tier 4 shields tho). I just stopped using auto best all together.

[HugsAndSnuggles]

Originally posted by EleventhStar:

wouldnt say getting the first strike is "all" range advantage does. thats quite important in big battles where the first volley kills multiple enemy ships.

You need to outnumber enemy enough to deal meaningful amount of damage with alpha strike. At that point it's irrelevant what you bring into battle - you'll win anyway (albeit with higher losses).

[Mistfox]

I design in such a way that my weaker Destroyers carry the big guns while my Battleships fight in line, this way, the hammer falls on the tougher Battleships while the weaker destroyers act as snipers and don't die too fast.

[Belhedler]

In my experience, starbases have M range most of the time and a few missiles. With +range module it's 90 range at best for their battery guns. A squad of L artillery range (100+) + guardian can take down any starbase as long as it's not disturbed in the process.

[LuNi]

Originally posted by Belhedler:

In my experience, starbases have M range most of the time and a few missiles. With +range module it's 90 range at best for their battery guns. A squad of L artillery range (100+) + guardian can take down any starbase as long as it's not disturbed in the process.

You could outrange Ancient Fortress with Giga Cannon battleships at one point.

[Mistfox]

It used to. Now they run into 80 range no matter what it seems. I had artillery cruisers with 100 range sunk by outposts that they should have stayed out of range to.

[tomasoltis]

Originally posted by Mistfox:

It used to. Now they run into 80 range no matter what it seems. I had artillery cruisers with 100 range sunk by outposts that they should have stayed out of range to.

only a torpedo has 80 range, missiles have 100, outposts being defensive turret, gets +20% range from nothing. Torpedo on an outpost would have 96 range, or missiles, 120.

100 range +something from combat computers isnt that much. What is very noticable is when you stack it.

admiral can get 20%, arty computer late game, 15-20. Rapid deployment 10. (that robot 'ascension/descent 20 I think)

In general range is not everything. But it was supposed to scale with distance how far your stuff stations. If speed and evasion is something you dont care about, you can use poor engines to slow own movement to prolong long shooting.

In general you can have some 40% bonus range. I generally do not utilize artillery combat computers cause I actually like to go gun heavy. That one requires line computers for optimal dps output. XL from 150 gets 210 range, T goes from 250 to 350.

Starbases have that upgrade that gives 50% range. It stacks to that base 20% range that Ion cannon gets 250*1,7 = 425 range. With new megastructure and defensive perk, you will be able to put 6 ion cannons with this range +4 small platforms, or 52 small platforms (104 L weapons, 17 battleships L slots) Vs. AI fleets in large gravity well you need 1 ion cannon to force engagement and fill out the rest with neutron/kinetic arty combo depending on what is needed.

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by tomasoltis:

In general you can have some 40% bonus range. I generally do not utilize artillery combat computers cause I actually like to go gun heavy. That one requires line computers for optimal dps output. XL from 150 gets 210 range, T goes from 250 to 350.

Yes but the very important question is 'Does it stop out of range?' or at the preset 80. I observe it being the set range.