So weapons are a joke?

[メルクーネオ]

spend millions on weapons and they dont do anything i had to go back to the default weapons

[Kajar]

Depends on which weapons you were using and against which target. their performance can vary wildly depending on which situation you use them in.
Though there are certain overperforming and underperforming options.

[noviastar]

A few weapons seem to be better in the hands of players. in some cases the AI use them a bit better. Dumb fire missiles and Torpedoes do ok with AI and the Meson stream. But players are better at say using main guns on destroyers to say delete small ships. Some race special weapons can be iffy with the high cost.

[dada11dada22]

some of the split unique weapons can be very nice on a frigate or heavy fighter

[Ashaz]

Depends what you try to do with it. You don't chase down fighters with a blast mortar. Pop two shots at a capital ship's engines thou and it's amazing.
Each tool (almost) has a use.
Just don't use beam lasers unless you use the mod for them. They are trash.

[Auto]

Your right, most are useless as far as i can tell. As for missiles, most of them useless too.

[メルクーネオ]

Originally posted by AutoMATTic:

Your right, most are useless as far as i can tell. As for missiles, most of them useless too.

I know right, like i spent 600cr on each missile launcher for nothing man

[noviastar]

x GAMES Used to have internal missile bays on ships. you now need to devote limited weapon slots to a missile launcher. Just to have flares work on them almost every time.

[Kajar]

Missiles be amazing though! (But a good bunch be overshadowed indeed)
Heavy Dumbfire Mk2. Similar damage per second as an L Plasma turret, but you can put it on an M turret. Extremely powerful on a Raptor.
Heavy Swarm. 5000+ damage in a single, target tracking shot. Excellent for removing turrets and engines of capital ships. 1 is enough to destroy M turret groups. 2 removes an L turret.
I never leave dock without them on my ship.
Light Smart Missile is hands down THE best anti-fighter weapon in the game.
Heavy Cluster i use on a Falx fully loaded with them. Launch while boosting to get an incredibly long-range (200km+) sniping weapon with pinpoint accuracy and 48k damage per salvo.

The Interceptor and Disruptor missiles might be useful for you pirate types. The former catches any target and pulls it out of travel drive. The Disruptor missile kills the targets engines for 4 seconds and slows them down by 50% for 10 seconds. Also blocks travel and boost for 30 seconds.

[Daddy Shark]

In X3 a missile frigate was the ultimate "I win" button. You could flood an entire sector with tracking missiles.

[blackphoenixx]

Originally posted by Ashaz:

Just don't use beam lasers unless you use the mod for them. They are trash.

Don't use beams on S ships or in turrets. M beams are the best anti-fighter loadout for corvettes though.

They don't do much damage individually but 5 M beams on a Nemesis is still enough to delete every Xenon ship smaller than a P in one pass even in AI hands (a P takes 2-3 which is still pretty good compared to other weapons), they outrange everything S-sized but plasma and missiles and they almost never miss.

M beams suck on most frigates because you only get two but anything with 4+ main guns can do surprisingly well with them.
I've been using them as replacement interceptors on my Zeus E's to make room for more bombers and if anything they're more effective than the proton Takoba's i used before, not less.

Originally posted by Kajar:

The Interceptor and Disruptor missiles might be useful for you pirate types. The former catches any target and pulls it out of travel drive. The Disruptor missile kills the targets engines for 4 seconds and slows them down by 50% for 10 seconds. Also blocks travel and boost for 30 seconds.

Interceptor missiles have a lock-on range of nearly 30km, which is by far the highest of any missile except EMP (which have much longer lock-on and reload times).
They're great on capital ships and defense stations with a single tracking turret to get K's and I's out of travel drive before they drop right on top of you.

I prefer heavy starburst missiles to swarm missiles for killing turrets since they're faster and more maneuverable. They have decent AoE too so you can often destroy a whole turret group with one salvo.
Unfortunately their lock-on range is only 5,5 km so they're not very good in turrets. Great for bombers though.

[Kajar]

Originally posted by blackphoenixx:

I prefer heavy starburst missiles to swarm missiles for killing turrets since they're faster and more maneuverable. They have decent AoE too so you can often destroy a whole turret group with one salvo.
Unfortunately their lock-on range is only 5,5 km so they're not very good in turrets. Great for bombers though.

I just stumbled upon the AOE values of missiles the other day and they all seem to share the same 128m blast radius. Which feels a bit odd, but it is somewhat hard to test exactly what the blast radius actually is.
Also Starburst has a somewhat big disadvantage. You can only get them from the Split, making resupplying them a bit harder unless you got your own EQ Docks or AUX Ships spread around the galaxy.
The lower damage also makes them less ammo-effecient. You need one more Starburst than Heavy Swarm to destroy a turret group. 1 Heavy Swarm for a medium, 2 with Starburst. 2 Heavy Swarm for a large, 3 with Starburst

[🎮 PalkoVvodets 🔑]

Originally posted by Kajar:

You need one more Starburst than Heavy Swarm to destroy a turret group. 1 Heavy Swarm for a medium, 2 with Starburst. 2 Heavy Swarm for a large, 3 with Starburst

Btw, have you meant station turrets or ship one? I was trying to destroy L turrets at argon/teladi defence platform, but that surface isn't flat and L turrets seem get undamaged if there is no direct sight from the point of explosion to the point of turret center (even if explosion happend righ next to turret). Thereby making torpedos only usefull to demolish turret group shields and few M turrets in the middle, but not L turrets themselves... Which is sad.

[blackphoenixx]

Originally posted by Kajar:

Also Starburst has a somewhat big disadvantage. You can only get them from the Split, making resupplying them a bit harder unless you got your own EQ Docks or AUX Ships spread around the galaxy.

You'll run into that issue anyway if you're not using terran building in terran space.
The galaxy simply doesn't produce enough missile components for a missile-heavy playstyle. Even if it did it wouldn't be where you need it.
Widespread missile use isn't really viable until you have supply ships.

Originally posted by Kajar:

The lower damage also makes them less ammo-effecient. You need one more Starburst than Heavy Swarm to destroy a turret group. 1 Heavy Swarm for a medium, 2 with Starburst. 2 Heavy Swarm for a large, 3 with Starburst

Two starburst missiles take out a Xenon L turret or engine block every time in practice.
Not that it matters since the AI fires on cooldown anyway and any turrets will be dead long before the hull drops to 0%.

Swarm missiles do last longer since they have a longer reload time (while doing slightly lower dps), but the difference is small enough to be negligible. Either last long enough for 2-3 engagements before having to resupply and take down K's and I's with no trouble.

[Auto]

Dumbfire missiles, despite the name are lethal against capitals. Good range, good power, quick reload and good missile speed. These work well.

Torpedoes are too slow and reload is too slow. Yes its powerful but its a futile task, shield will regenerate too quick and you get no where. Think I have read some people have fleets of fighters firing torpedoes at capitals but what an absolute headache that must be to play, reloading and resupplying them. Not to mention trying to manage the fleet when attacking knowing the AI, in adittion I'm sure most would get wiped out if enemy fighters turn up.

All tracking missiles are useless, none have the speed, power, range or turning circle to be able to take out fast fighters, let alone do it efficiently. None are powerful enough to destroy capitals before you run out.

Maybe I have missed something, if so please enlighten me, or this whole area of the game is completely dead. Even the factions know it as missiles are rarely utilised, the HOP use dumbfire in my game, effectively too.

Turrets, the only weapon I think has any value is Argon flak (think its flak) None of the other turrets can keep up with fast fighters. Laser can keep up but is really a bit pathetic from a power perspective. Also makes a stupid noise. Again, a whole area of the game that's not balanced or well thought through.

Lasers/front guns, you need fast fire rate, fast bullet speed range and power, because your going to need this weapon in a dogfight. There are two or three good options but considering the good range of options, again most are useless in a dogfight.

X4 doesn't lack choice of weaponry, its just such a shame that the weapons have not been strategically balanced against each other and the majority are just filler. Each weapon should offer a good tactical option but be limited in someway, then weapon choice and loadout now becomes a much more tactical decision.

In any case, it doesn't matter too much as the Xenon are not exactly AI more like just "A" (remove the intelligence bit), no variety, strategy or real threat from them, pirates present no real threat, not that I want to spend all the game running around the map fending off pirate attacks, well if there was a functional patrol command that worked for sector defence that would not be an issue even if it existed.

In X3, the tornado missile was excellent, so was the wasp.

[Kirshak]

Does taking max DPS weapons do anything for "off map" battles ? I think I heard something like that somewhere. Like Plasma weapons are trash against fast moving targets when in sector, but the game makes whoever have better DPS win the battle when a battle happen and you're not in the sector