Question: What is the best turret to disable enemies without killing them? [spoilers, maybe?]

[chaylafaysky]

I'm not concerned with damage at all... I just want to know the very best turret, or combination of turrets (not guns) to disable enemy ships WITHOUT killing them, so that I can loot the enemy ship... It's also fine if it is an alien turret that is not normally obtainable. I am currently using a Bactrian, so I have 6 turret slots to fill...

I want to loot enemy ships, (I am specifically trying to loot, not capture) but I have discovered that my turrets keep KILLING every ship that becomes disabled before I can attempt to loot it. (YES, I know I can turn off autofire, but I'd rather see if there is a turret that disables without killing first.)

[Arias]

Disabling without killing is about timing. If you have your weapons set to autofire, they'll keep firing until the target's hull hits 0. That's why I think most prefer to fire manually- you can control when you stop firing, which is hopefully around the 1/4 hull mark, as it's around that point of damage that most ships become disabled.

[chaylafaysky]

Hrm... I was really hoping that there was an actual turret meant to disable ships without destroying them - one with some kind of ability, like the ion damage, or slowing effect that some of the guns have... or something like that... maybe I will have to turn off auto fire, but adjust one of the weapons stats to do massive shield damage, and low hull damage?... hrmmm...

[climbingeastofwinter]

Your best bet for disabling ships without killing them is using laser turrets on your escorts with no projectile weapons (i.e. blaster, plasma, ion, even though the two latter are extremely weak against hull), and to be sure before the target is nearly disabled, you stop firing, as your timing will never be as good as your escorts.

Laser weapons deal damage pretty much instantly the frame they are fired, so you don't have to worry about extra unnecessary projectiles that were fired before the disabling shot reached the target hitting the target and destroying it before the ship ceases fire.

Your escorts will automatically cease fire when a ship is disabled - laser weapons tend to be the best for this work in my experience, but let your escorts do the work of bringing a weakened ship to the disabled state, which is to say, stop firing with your flagship when the shields on your target get weak. :)

[chaylafaysky]

Ahh... this is the kind of advice I needed - excellent information, climbingeastofwinter... thank you...

Although, should I focus on heavy lasers, or regular ones... also, should I use the human ones, or is there a better alien version?

[recneps]

Any continuous fire weapons work. The crucial issue, as has been mentioned, is timing. Your ships - including escorts and your flagship on autofire - will continue shooting at something until it is disabled. If they have projectile weapons, then they will have projectiles still travelling to the ship when it is disabled, and so it will take more damage. If they have beam weapons, then it stops taking damage as soon as it is disabled.

[chaylafaysky]

Is there a list of all beam turrets (with stats) somewhere, so that I can compare them? I suppose that I could go into the game files, and search through all of the weapons, of all of the races, and save-edit one of each into my carohold, then compare them myself... but that seems like a lot of work to do, if there is already a list somewhere... hrmm...

[climbingeastofwinter]

Laser (basic / heavy), Electron beam, and Korath Banisher . Those are the only three that come to mind. The Quarg Skylance and Pug zapper may also be 'beam' weapons, but I haven't had much of a chance to play with those yet so I don't know.

Edit: Oh, right, and the Wanderer 'Sunbeam', and Korath 'Fire Lance' , thats another two continuous beam weapons.

[jafdy]

Auto fire should stop fireing as soon as the ship is disabled.
The best human space lasers are heavy lasers and electron lasers (when they unlock).

[Lorenzo_BR]

Originally posted by climbingeastofwinter:

Laser (basic / heavy), Electron beam, and Korath Banisher . Those are the only three that come to mind. The Quarg Skylance and Pug zapper may also be 'beam' weapons, but I haven't had much of a chance to play with those yet so I don't know.

Edit: Oh, right, and the Wanderer 'Sunbeam', and Korath 'Fire Lance' , thats another two continuous beam weapons.

The Korath Disruptors and Slicers are also continuous, i think. At least they act like it.

[climbingeastofwinter]

Ah yea, so they are. And I think the Coalition 'Ion Rain' gun is as well, but by the time you can get your hands on that you've pretty much already won. Taking on a Heliarch Punisher isn't something you're going to be doing unless you already have the capability to farm jump drives off the Korath , and if thats the case there isn't much that you can't do.

[tehhowch]

Originally posted by Arias:

Disabling without killing is about timing. If you have your weapons set to autofire, they'll keep firing until the target's hull hits 0.

false.

[Amazinite]

Auto fire stops firing when the ship is disabled. This means though that weapons with slow velocities/long ranges may overkill your target, as the projectiles that were fired before the ship was disabled will continue to fly toward the target.

[chaylafaysky]

Originally posted by Derpy Horse:

Auto fire stops firing when the ship is disabled. This means though that weapons with slow velocities/long ranges may overkill your target, as the projectiles that were fired before the ship was disabled will continue to fly toward the target.

This was the exact problem that I had... my entire fleet was equipped for long range "artillery bombardment" style playing... but nearly every single ship that became disabled, died before I could get to it, because of all of the "extra" rounds still in route.

I was hoping that there was some kind of "disable" turret... I did manage to find the absolute BEST one for the job though... the Skylance... I installed a mod that unlocked every ship, weapon, and outfit in the game, and game me 1-trillion credits..

I played around for a few hours, and discovered that the Skylance is an absolute BEAST at disabling enemy ships... and with them equipped on a Kor Ik Vot, with its 8 turret slots... every enemy that appears before you just falls off silently floating away in mere fractions of seconds...

Now I know the goals I need to work towards in a legit game...

[Lorenzo_BR]

Originally posted by chaylafaysky:

Originally posted by Derpy Horse:

Auto fire stops firing when the ship is disabled. This means though that weapons with slow velocities/long ranges may overkill your target, as the projectiles that were fired before the ship was disabled will continue to fly toward the target.

This was the exact problem that I had... my entire fleet was equipped for long range "artillery bombardment" style playing... but nearly every single ship that became disabled, died before I could get to it, because of all of the "extra" rounds still in route.

I was hoping that there was some kind of "disable" turret... I did manage to find the absolute BEST one for the job though... the Skylance... I installed a mod that unlocked every ship, weapon, and outfit in the game, and game me 1-trillion credits..

I played around for a few hours, and discovered that the Skylance is an absolute BEAST at disabling enemy ships... and with them equipped on a Kor Ik Vot, with its 8 turret slots... every enemy that appears before you just falls off silently floating away in mere fractions of seconds...

Now I know the goals I need to work towards in a legit game...

Yep; Kor Automata ships (both the Sestor and Mereti have plenty of turret slots) with Quarg Skylances. I'd recommend having 1 or 2 disruptors in there, depending on the ship.

[chaylafaysky]

I just accidentally figured out that you can remove or even add more turrets and guns to any of the ships...

I discovered it by accident, when I deleted part of the code for one of the ships, and when I played it in the game, it had no guns or turrets at all... after a little playing around with the code, I figured out the coordinates system of the ships for placing turrets and guns...

Now I can literally make any ship in the game have any number of turrets... just pick a ship model that i like, and bam, I can give it ten guns and twenty turrets (if I wanted to)

With a little modding, I can remove the need to have a license to buy a "Strong Wind" [looks kind of like the Gekko State], and I can mod it to have 8 turrets and 4 guns... then, when I make friends with the Wanderers, I can buy it, and have a great ship... I like how easy it is to alter this game.