Weapons/defenses meta?

[Tex]

Is there a meta when it comes to weapon/defensive components?

Generally I've been using nothing but torpedoes and shields and it seems to work pretty good but I'm wondering if I can possibly optimize my damaged even further. I read that beams were complete crap so I stay away from those. I was told lasers were good at any range.

Can someone give me examples of their Fleet setups?

Weapons and defense modules?

Thanks.

[FenMuir]

The primary thing to keep in mind is that each of the weapons have specific jobs:
Kinetic Damage is done by Missiles, Slugs, & Squadrons.
Energy Damage is done by Lasers and Beams.

Armor gives a decent amount of defense, but the total is much lower than shields, and kinetic weapons tend to deal more damage.

Slugs hard counter Squadrons and Torpedoes, but they're largely useless at long range.

Missiles do the most damage in the game if the enemy fleet stays at long range, but if they are using Slugs or close into close range, you're screwed.

Shields give a massive amount of defense against energy weapons when compared to armor and kinetic weapons. This essentially makes it so energy weapons are garbage if the enemy has shields. When looking at energy weapons on the whole, this makes perfect sense: they are better than Kinetic weapons in terms of how effective they are throughout the phases.

Unfortunately, neither Lasers, nor Beams target missiles, so your best bet is to close into close range ASAP and hope for the best.

Lasers are fairly good in all phases of a battle, and if your enemy stays at long range while you're at medium, you can dish out a ton of damage if they don't have a lot of shields.

Beams are fantastic as being able to be optimal at any range, but they are the least damaging weapon in the game. Being ultra-versatile has its consequences.

Squadrons come in two varieties: Bombers and Fighters. Bombers kill ships, and Fighters kill Bombers. If you want to protect yourself from Bombers while using Energy Weapons, put fighter bays on your ships.

So what do I usually do?
Best Armor I can get. Best Shields I can get.
2 to 1 Bombers to Fighter.
Weapon of choice, usually Slugs.
Rush into Close Range.
MURDER EVERYONE!

Works well.

An alternative would be the above but only one squadron of fighters with a focus on Beams or Lasers. The fighters kill enemy bombers.

[Sublustris]

Everything can be countered, so go with anything you like until you run into fleet setup it doesn't perform well against. My personal fovorites are Shield Interference Beams (shield EMP) into mix of antimatter energy weapons that have hull penetration bonus. Melts everything for good.
Also, expect to counter missiles and bombers at some point.

[talemore]

Slug-hunter and laser-attackers. Slug stack with number of module slots and attackers aren't doing enough damage to be any use unless when critical hitting. The game itself doesn't attack anything than one ship at a time unless you use only one type of ship inside a fleet. All missiles will fly toward the hunter before anything else and the same goes for bombers.

[Apples]

There was a meta on ES1 and you would win 100% of the time, even if the odds were against you. In this i have yet to see one, it's best to balance.

Don't use Slugs in your 2x/4x slots though as it doesn't improve flak damage. That and they are only good in short range.

I use one shield module and have the rest as plating.

I don't use movement modules unless it is movement for the whole fleet, and i use fleet repair modules, enough to repair the fleet to 90% each phase.

I vary between turtle and power to the shields depending on what the enemy fleet have the higher stats on.


Late game i use the beam in the x2/4 slot as it's optimal at any range, i always have atleast one Slug and then mix between the rest depending on slots. I use the EMP modules on my lighter craft in the fleet, as they naturally do less damage anyway and EMP is for the shields not the damage output.