Ammo vs Energy weapons?

[Stretchytall]

I've been sticking to laser and plasma weapons in the early game, so I don't have to mess with buying ammo. But what are the advantages of ammo-based weapons?

[RadicalMooseLamb]

Well you don't buy ammo for "ballistic" type weapons. It's unlimited. You only buy ammo for missiles. The advantage of ballistic weapons is higher damage than lasers at the cost of target tracking. Very fast ballistic weapons can shred a target 4x as fast as most beams and still tracks very well. Slower ballistic weapons require more finesse.

Missiles are missiles, the advantage is huge damage at the cost of money.

[heckypecky]

The pros and cons of different weapon types are an advanced topic in this game. There's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of game mechanics behind it (IS/OOS, hit chance, range, turret rotation, ...), which is super fun to learn and get into once you're ready.

Only missile launchers use ammo. Bolt repeaters, shard etc. have unlimited ammo but can overheat. I haven't used missiles much, but they're supposed to have a good hit rate and damage. But the good ones are expensive, so nothing for early game.

Some extra info: For the beginning, my recommendation is to stick to some rules of thumb:
- L Plasma vs. capitals and stations. High damage but very slow projectile, useless against fighters
- Beam vs fighters. Very low dmg but best hit chance of all weapons
- Pulse as an all-round weapon. TER version is really good
- Some weapons bypass shields. Check the value "hull dmg vs shielded target". Those are amazing to disable ships for boarding etc.
- You don't need missiles

[DaBa]

Missiles are great until you run out of ammo. This is why most players don't use them for general purpose loudouts.

But there is definitely something to be said about torpedo bombers. A carrier full of fighers with torpedo launchers is to this day the quickest and most effective way of dealing with large ships. You just send them in aaaaand it's gone. You should also fill your carrier with supplies for replenishing torpedoes, it will allow them to keep going for a while longer without having to go back or wait for ships to bring the supplies over.

[RadicalMooseLamb]

Originally posted by DaBa:

Missiles are great until you run out of ammo. This is why most players don't use them for general purpose loudouts.

But there is definitely something to be said about torpedo bombers. A carrier full of fighers with torpedo launchers is to this day the quickest and most effective way of dealing with large ships. You just send them in aaaaand it's gone. You should also fill your carrier with supplies for replenishing torpedoes, it will allow them to keep going for a while longer without having to go back or wait for ships to bring the supplies over.

Missiles are definitely my favorite. They were my favorite in X3 as well. I think the amount of time they save killing things more than makes up for the time it takes to fly back and re arm. Killing a xenon station with plasmas with a single ship can take 4hours. Plus you're getting harrassed constantly and have to fend off little ships.

Missiles you just aim at the big thing and watch it go boom. The biggest obstacle is money. You'll still make money picking the right targets to shoot with missiles but they eat into quite a lot of the money you're making. And sometimes it requires you to get dedicated to making your own missiles in-case the AI runs out.

[Geist]

Originally posted by Stretchytall:

I've been sticking to laser and plasma weapons in the early game, so I don't have to mess with buying ammo. But what are the advantages of ammo-based weapons?

There is no real advantage but Boltrepeaters go Ratttatttatatatttattattatatatat and Missiles go swooosh BOOOM and Xenons go "Nuuu me hull!!111000111"

I simply love balistic weapons in SciFi much more than laser stuff. I'm also not a fan of the whole "energy shields" concept at all.

So my usual loadout for ships is Boltrepeater on fighters, Flak on traders and MIners and missiles everywhere I can fit them especialy on destroyers.

[RaideR]

Stay with pulse lasers
They are good for most if situations
Once you feel adventurous, go ahead and try a new guns
Bolt are great, but for first weapon they won't do good, you will miss most if the shots, and what have to be a good burst will make less dps than pulse laser
Beam, we'll, nag, never miss but low damage
Stick with pulse really

[Captain Canard]

I like missiles, ironically for a reason many people hate them. I actually LIKE that they cost something. Infinite ammo and infinite fuel in this game is "easy mode". I can support lasers being infinite, but bullets and other KE weapons should have an ammo count IMO.

[Stretchytall]

Originally posted by RadicalMooseLamb:

Well you don't buy ammo for "ballistic" type weapons. It's unlimited.

AAAAAAAAHH! I didn't know that! That's great! :D

Now I'll actually consider the kinetic guns. :)

[RadicalMooseLamb]

Originally posted by Captain Canard:

I like missiles, ironically for a reason many people hate them. I actually LIKE that they cost something. Infinite ammo and infinite fuel in this game is "easy mode". I can support lasers being infinite, but bullets and other KE weapons should have an ammo count IMO.

Ya it would be cool if there was ammo and you could load different types of ammo into your kinetic guns. That's one of the nods I give to X3 being better, it still didn't have ballistic weapon ammo but it had a large variety of missiles with lots of use cases. X4 missiles still feel pretty generic with no specialty race missiles.