Please explain the strenghts of different weapon types

[Andy]

I just found out via this forum that the manual is on the pop-up start screen. I didnt expect it to be there but I expected just a pop-up screen in the game when pointing over a module in ship designer. There is a lot of text in this game, but nothing usefull to read. I want to know what is the best against fighters etc. What does it mean 90° in lower decks for weapons? What direction? In fight I cant manage to find out are my topredos activated now or not? Do I have to press the text "activate torpedos" or is it already activated, when I see the text? So many questions. I am tired to ask you things here that should be explained in the game. I loved "Endless Space" and I thought this is the same kind of game but its just boring. Waiting and producing ships. No point in managing economy of planets as there are only about 5 to 10 building. No developments to research for planets. No terraforming. No colonizing asteroids. No moons to discover. Just nothing compared to Endless Space. Research is boring. Ships have to be filled with generators. Nothing fits in ship designer. No perfect setting possible. Just building ships. Endless building ships. Always clicking left down corner, open menue , slider to 50 ships, again left down corner... Big fleet sent to enemy. No retreat button for auto-fight in case enemy fleet to strong. Tired of going into battle menue. Battle boring, Everything so boring. Graphics awfull. Looks like 10 years old game or worse. Going to enemy with huge fleet built with endless clicking during 10 minutes or longer and loosing everything. dont know why. happens again and again. dont know why. game doesnt give me feedback what works best like: spear against horses, horses against archers, archers against spear, sword against spear, etc. Endless research, still same generators, finally new generators, now new researches take 50 years, what happened. Enemy spies sabotaging me every second, always auto-stop, endless waves of enemy spies. Enemy attacking me, planet lost in 3 seconds. no time to react. endless auto-stopping. Endless agony. Battlescreen: going maximum speed as ships so slow, auto-slow motion comes cause enemy fighters approaching, going middle speed as slow motion is waaaaaay to slow. Speeding up again, auto slow motion again, going middle speed again. Endless Agony.

[JH]

That was a pretty good poem :) Even if I don't find the same problems you do, not so far anyway. I'm an Endless Spacer too and it's worth remembering that game had quite a few Endless Annoyances too. At least you get to move your ships in battle, and I think there is more than just one weapon worth using in this game. Also Endless Space is fully matured now, and I expect this game will get just as good after some more expansions and development.

[partclman]

When you're in the ship design, if you mouse over the weapons it'll tell you the range. Ion Gun - 1900, Laser - 800, Plasma Missile - 1300. In the lower right of the screen there's a button that has a circle inside a square. If you hold down on it, it will show you the range and firing arcs of the equipped weapons. For the corvette ships you have to specialize them a little more when deciding what weapons to put on them because space is at a premium. Also, the Human ships seem to have the smallest amount of build space. You can pack a lot more on to the other race's ships. Makes them tougher but you can't build them as fast. Pretty much everything in this game, that I've seen so far, involves trade offs.

[Andy]

I hope so as well. But looks like the developers think battle is more important than managing. I like to manage. Battle is just a boring thing after a while and I use the auto fight button. In this game even auto-fight takes too long including some annoying sounds and the enemy always flees, while I cant flee using auto-battle, so either I have to go into battle, just to flee with some anyway helpless carriers, or to loose them. And why can't I regroup my ships before battle, when I am the attacker, but the defender can? When I attack, I should have the initiative to plan my tactic and the enemy should be surprised and thus not being able to regroup before battle. Another thing was that today an enemy fleet attacked my two battle stations and they were in such a big distance to each other that the enemy just could kill them one by one. And he killed them with just some fighters and they didnt even use torpedos. Looked more like red beams, so I guess it was a laser. Station died very fast. But when I attack an enemy station with two destroyers and four frigates and some cruisers they dont shoot while enemy is shooting them, not sure if they even shot torps, then very close the start using lasers but all my fleet dies. Game mechanics are mysterious to me. And back to my bases, they should be built close enough to have overlapping range.
Why do I have strange looking fighters in my fleet after a battle? Are they captured from enemy? Does game even say something about that? Where is the encyclopedia where I can compare ships and weapons from different types and races?

[partclman]

I think the idea with the scattered forces when on the attack is that after jumping out of hyperspace your forces don't have a chance to regroup. A simple solution is to pull away from the front and regroup. I.E. When battle starts, order your ships to clump together on the right side of the screen away from the defenders.

Yes the red beams are lasers. If you look at the pop ups when mousing over weapons, you'll also see a speed/fire rating. Lasers shoot fast. That's what makes them strong against fighters. The trade off is that they are really weak and have very short range. Your missiles weren't firing because the other ships weren't in range of them yet. The Ion guns, at the start of the game, have the longest range. This means that if you go up against a ship armed with ion guns using only torpedos your ship will blow up before you even get a chance. At the top right of the combat screen there is a toggle to turn on weapon ranges. Blue is for energy weapons, red is for lasers and a thin line is for missiles.

[Andy]

İlk olarak partclman tarafından gönderildi:

When you're in the ship design, if you mouse over the weapons it'll tell you the range. Ion Gun - 1900, Laser - 800, Plasma Missile - 1300. In the lower right of the screen there's a button that has a circle inside a square. If you hold down on it, it will show you the range and firing arcs of the equipped weapons. For the corvette ships you have to specialize them a little more when deciding what weapons to put on them because space is at a premium. Also, the Human ships seem to have the smallest amount of build space. You can pack a lot more on to the other race's ships. Makes them tougher but you can't build them as fast. Pretty much everything in this game, that I've seen so far, involves trade offs.

Thx, but I already knew that. I always built ships with every type of weapon. Laser I thought would be usefull against fighters so I always too double-paired laser, heavy beam guns against medium ships and torps against the big ones. On the lower decks I mostly put in lasers as the most slots are pointing to side, so I guess, but dont know as game is unclear, theycan only shoot enemy on the side of my ship and this will mostly be fighters. It is painstaking to compare this numbers about damage and reloading rate etc. and it doesnt tell you the chance to hit, and I dont know what the enemy ships are most vulnerable against. Is it really just range and damage. So why that many types of beams and lasers? How can i find the perfect one? Is the single laser even usefull after researching double-paired laser?

[Andy]

İlk olarak partclman tarafından gönderildi:

I think the idea with the scattered forces when on the attack is that after jumping out of hyperspace your forces don't have a chance to regroup. A simple solution is to pull away from the front and regroup. I.E. When battle starts, order your ships to clump together on the right side of the screen away from the defenders.

Yes the red beams are lasers. If you look at the pop ups when mousing over weapons, you'll also see a speed/fire rating. Lasers shoot fast. That's what makes them strong against fighters. The trade off is that they are really weak and have very short range. Your missiles weren't firing because the other ships weren't in range of them yet. The Ion guns, at the start of the game, have the longest range. This means that if you go up against a ship armed with ion guns using only torpedos your ship will blow up before you even get a chance. At the top right of the combat screen there is a toggle to turn on weapon ranges. Blue is for energy weapons, red is for lasers and a thin line is for missiles.

Thx. Why did you know that about colors of weapon range cirlces? Did the game tell you?

[partclman]

It's the same colour as in the ship designer. Add an ion gun to your ship, hit the weapon range button, you'll see blue. Take it off, add a laser, you'll see red

[partclman]

Until you unlock frigates through tech, it's a really bad idea to add more than one weapon type to a ship. There isn't really enough space available. Even with the frigates it can be tricky sometimes. Just keep one type of weapon on each ship.

Sometimes you'll want to use regular lasers after you unlock the paired lasers because they use less power so you won't need to try and stuff as many generators on a ship. It's all about tailoring the ships to fill a specific roll.

[Andy]

Did you find out what's about the gravity anomaly? I transported 3 of them to my home planet and merged them together to one fleet. Do they all need keys or are they keys themselve? How to use them?

[Zak]

Weapons on the top most deck fight inside all directions. Weapons on lower deck only fire in port or starboard. I think missiles can curve around your ship a bit and ignore this requirements.

You can really seperate weapons into a few different catagories. Laser, slow firing energy, fast firing energy, torpedo, and missile.

- Lasers: Lasers can destroy missiles. There weakness is range. I find them not that strong due to a very limited range. There anti missile ability is pretty good and they can do pretty good damage to fighters. I put them on my fighters early game and I use them latter for anti missile. But once you get missile traps you dont really need them. Overall I dont use them mostly due to limited range.

- Slow firing energy weapons: There benefit is range which make them superior anti ship weapons. There weakness is rate of fire and lower DPS. I find them very strong due to there high range. If you have a range advantage you can destroy stations without taking any damage. You also have a very strong advantage in battle able to take significantly less damage and deal significantly more. Dont try to use them against fighters however. You unlock these latter in the game.

- Fast firing energy weapons: There benefits is rate of fire and all around good. They have no real weakness. Good all around weapons can take out fighters, do good DPS, and outrange some weapons.

- Torpedos: High damage and range. There disadvantage is they can miss, shot down, and have limited ammo. They can also go through shields. You have to unlock torpedos and they are called torpedos in the description.

- Missiles: There benefits is they are very good against fighters and are not as restircted to the 90 degree angles. I find them very useful on the lower decks giving my battle ships a much needed anti fighter ability. If you want to fight fighters these are your guys. They can also go through shields but there range is lower making them kind of poor anti ship weapons.

The pirate ships that use missiles as there primary weapons are very vulnerable to being outranged by the ion gun ships.

A battleship equiped with slow firing will be able to take out fast firing energy ships. Bombers or fighters swarm can kill the battleship with slow firing energy. Fighters beat bombers and other fighters. Ship with fast firing energy will be good against fighters. If you want to make a escort for your capital ship use fast firing energy with a few lasers

Early game I put missiles bellow deck and load the top with ion guns. You dont have the hit points to turn and broadside your oppoments. The missiles gives your ship a needed edge against fighters.

[K00lex]

İlk olarak Tau tarafından gönderildi:

Battle is just a boring thing after a while and I use the auto fight button.

Did you go thru the tutorial's sample battles?
They explain various tactics, maneuvers, and tips for beam fighters, torpedo fighters, anti-fighter escorts, and anti-ship capitals.
If your battles are so easy that you can auto-resolve, then, you need to increase difficulty. Or, you should try engaging at even or lower odds, and take tactical control of your ships to win. Being able to survive by the skin of one's teeth is the rewarding experience in 4x games.

İlk olarak Tau tarafından gönderildi:

And why can't I regroup my ships before battle, when I am the attacker, but the defender can? When I attack, I should have the initiative to plan my tactic and the enemy should be surprised and thus not being able to regroup before battle.

It's explained in the game manual (sec 9.4) and in the tutorial that attacking forces will be randomly placed. (Due to uncertainty in maintaining relative positions and formation during hyperspace/warp.)
The defending forces are alerted to the incoming hyperspace/warp signatures, so they can prepare and put themselves into advantageous formation. Seems more realistic...

İlk olarak Tau tarafından gönderildi:

Why do I have strange looking fighters in my fleet after a battle? Are they captured from enemy? Does game even say something about that?

Yes, you captured stranded enemy fighters, since they are not warp-capable of going anywhere.
It's stated in the game manual, sec 9.3.

[K00lex]

İlk olarak Tau tarafından gönderildi:

On the lower decks I mostly put in lasers as the most slots are pointing to side, so I guess, but dont know as game is unclear, theycan only shoot enemy on the side of my ship and this will mostly be fighters.

Difference between top deck and lower deck is explained in game manual, sec 4.3.
Also, advantages/disadvantages of energy, beam, and missile weapons, page 27.

[Steven Brattac]

İlk olarak partclman tarafından gönderildi:

When you're in the ship design, if you mouse over the weapons it'll tell you the range. Ion Gun - 1900, Laser - 800, Plasma Missile - 1300. In the lower right of the screen there's a button that has a circle inside a square. If you hold down on it, it will show you the range and firing arcs of the equipped weapons. For the corvette ships you have to specialize them a little more when deciding what weapons to put on them because space is at a premium. Also, the Human ships seem to have the smallest amount of build space. You can pack a lot more on to the other race's ships. Makes them tougher but you can't build them as fast. Pretty much everything in this game, that I've seen so far, involves trade offs.

You should make a Guide you explained the problem that accurate !

[Andy]

İlk olarak Zak tarafından gönderildi:

Weapons on the top most deck fight inside all directions. Weapons on lower deck only fire in port or starboard. I think missiles can curve around your ship a bit and ignore this requirements.

You can really seperate weapons into a few different catagories. Laser, slow firing energy, fast firing energy, torpedo, and missile.

- Lasers: Lasers can destroy missiles. There weakness is range. I find them not that strong due to a very limited range. There anti missile ability is pretty good and they can do pretty good damage to fighters. I put them on my fighters early game and I use them latter for anti missile. But once you get missile traps you dont really need them. Overall I dont use them mostly due to limited range.

- Slow firing energy weapons: There benefit is range which make them superior anti ship weapons. There weakness is rate of fire and lower DPS. I find them very strong due to there high range. If you have a range advantage you can destroy stations without taking any damage. You also have a very strong advantage in battle able to take significantly less damage and deal significantly more. Dont try to use them against fighters however. You unlock these latter in the game.

- Fast firing energy weapons: There benefits is rate of fire and all around good. They have no real weakness. Good all around weapons can take out fighters, do good DPS, and outrange some weapons.

- Torpedos: High damage and range. There disadvantage is they can miss, shot down, and have limited ammo. They can also go through shields. You have to unlock torpedos and they are called torpedos in the description.

- Missiles: There benefits is they are very good against fighters and are not as restircted to the 90 degree angles. I find them very useful on the lower decks giving my battle ships a much needed anti fighter ability. If you want to fight fighters these are your guys. They can also go through shields but there range is lower making them kind of poor anti ship weapons.

The pirate ships that use missiles as there primary weapons are very vulnerable to being outranged by the ion gun ships.

A battleship equiped with slow firing will be able to take out fast firing energy ships. Bombers or fighters swarm can kill the battleship with slow firing energy. Fighters beat bombers and other fighters. Ship with fast firing energy will be good against fighters. If you want to make a escort for your capital ship use fast firing energy with a few lasers

Early game I put missiles bellow deck and load the top with ion guns. You dont have the hit points to turn and broadside your oppoments. The missiles gives your ship a needed edge against fighters.

Thx

[Zak]

İlk olarak Tau tarafından gönderildi:

Thx

No problem. Its worth noting that fighters are especialy hard to deal with before you unlock three barrled ion guns and balastic computers.

Beam weapons are meant to be used on fighters to destroy other fighters.