More details for ship weapons

[FroGG2]

would it be possible to get a more detailed overview of ship weapons like dps against shields/hull/systems so that you're able to fit your ship more focused?

I'm fairly new to the game but the information we get for ship weapons is lacking.

at first, I thought my heavy turrets stopped firing on ship systems because heavy turrets cant track them.

Later i found in the help screen for boarding (not the place i would look for that information) that ion weapons are best against systems because they nearly useless against hull and that explosive/plasma weapons deactivate automatically once you target a ship system too not blow the ship up.

in short, i think it would be really helpful if we get more detailed ship weapon tooltips and descriptions (still no idea what role laser weapons have, or why i should use beam weapons)

[Here]

Hi FroGG2. As you probably noticed, like on the Ground, in Space shields have resistances. These fields can be capped out by Crafting in your future if you are curious.

Plasma does explosive damage slightly weaker to shields, but does more to hull when the shields are down. than the other non-missile turrets.

Laser does Thermal and is more Balanced than Plasma for shields and hull and can also target subsystems.

Gauss does Kinetic and is decent all around as well. I have not used Gauss much only because it is always ammo based and always has a shorter range. It also can target subsystems if I recall correctly.

Ion of course does Ion damage and does more than 2 times as much shield damage as the other turrets, but does nothing when the shields are down ... unless you go right to subsystems or have those turrets target another while your non-ion turrets and missiles finish off the first target.

Missiles of course do Explosive damage and hit both hull and shields pretty damn hard lol. But suffer from chaff {or can}. So are balanced by that a tiny bit ... Enemy ships will spam it lol.

While I cannot be critical of the Help menu as I have not looked at it in a long time ... it is true in combat we only see damage not damage type done ... and of course we cannot see enemy ship resistances like on the ground ... nor could we switch on the fly if we could hehe. It may be safe to say you can glaze over it and just make the ship you love ... it will work.

For the non-missiles above {Crafting separates Missiles from the others if curious}, per you question on Beams, a player may use them to gain range mainly. Also Beams do not use ammo so can keep you from buying should you run out.

Missiles drop plenty so you will likely never have to worry about those. Other ammo does drop a lot less to balance out needing beams for more than range and perhaps a tiny bit of added dps. If you do use ammo weapons, then it may be a good idea to diversify it some ... so they are not all using Fusion Cells for example {made this mistake on my current file lol}. But in time as you get a more powerful Warp Drive {Engine/Core lol} you can equip more beams. Missiles can have identical range to beams ....

All in all Space is totally voluntary ... meaning unlike the ground, there is nothing "forced" upon you in Space so can be completely avoided if the player only desires Story and/or ground combat ... you may have to run sometimes though lol.

There are a lot of really cool ships in the game ... complimenting a need for a diverse build. It is a game so there are ways to maximize like via crafting etc. But Houses Aralion, Conrair, and Civilion are awesome in that they allow you to buy equipment for tokens. It will not be cheap, but working toward it is a lot less painful than hoping to see it anywhere else ... and you can pre-plan.

Anyhow a lot of great players here so never be to shy to drop a question in the General forum. Hope that helped a little ... over all you will be fine with just about any choice you make. Space is not only for fun right now, but you will not likely see more than 3 ships attacking you at once without you trying to see more than 3 at once lol.

[FroGG2]

Thanks for the extensive answer. That helps a lot.

to the point that all variations are somwhat viable. Yeah it works somehow, but if you dont know what your doing the fights can become long drawnout sluggfests. Started as Bounty Hunter and wanted to get some cash and xp by boarding ship and selling them.

The fight was going just fine till the shields of my enemy went down then my plasma weapons stopped firing and my dps cratered. Combined with the fact that the AI repairs their shield and then their subsystems once the shield is back up. The fight took ages.

And your answer aside it would still be cool if you could find what you told me somewhere in the game and not in the forums. I know the game is in EA, but thats also why feedback from a new players perspective is still be valuable.

Players that played the game for a while, wouldnt ask the questions i had.

[Here]

Originally posted by FroGG2:

Thanks for the extensive answer. That helps a lot.

to the point that all variations are somwhat viable. Yeah it works somehow, but if you dont know what your doing the fights can become long drawnout sluggfests. Started as Bounty Hunter and wanted to get some cash and xp by boarding ship and selling them.

The fight was going just fine till the shields of my enemy went down then my plasma weapons stopped firing and my dps cratered. Combined with the fact that the AI repairs their shield and then their subsystems once the shield is back up. The fight took ages.

And your answer aside it would still be cool if you could find what you told me somewhere in the game and not in the forums. I know the game is in EA, but thats also why feedback from a new players perspective is still be valuable.

Players that played the game for a while, wouldnt ask the questions i had.

No doubt. Having played as long as i have ... you just learn it all on your own. I agree though more info could be provided.

I did not get too deep into it {I almost did, but deleted it lol} ... but there are still some work to be done. Some of the weapons could use a slight balance pass when comparing them at the extremes. Beyond this I can only share how I play.

Since the addition of the "Space Houses" ... well since Houses Aralion, Conrair, and Civilion got their Faction Vendors it is usually best to pre-plan your Space adventure. On any new file i make these days I always work for those houses ... at least enough to earn enough Tokens to outfit a ship in all Legendary Equipment. Unlike Space, the ground is not optional ... not really. We are not forced to go too far to run Story, but most player would naturally like to raise their combat lvls some ... even if Story has no combat lvl requirement per se. So cannot hurt to lvl up working for another objective.

Before the "Space Houses" {just call them this for what they sell for Tokens} it was slow and a slog ... hitting Space raw and growing and improving from loot drops and perhaps the occasional lucky purchase from the Ship Equipment vendor at any station was about it. Of course players still have this option and nothing wrong with it, but we were given a "path" ... that if used can allow the player to hit Space {yes later in time} in style.

Make no mistake mastering the Red skills {except Mining} will take a player a decent amount of time ... perhaps sped up by lowering the difficulty as this does not hurt the amount of points you earn per kill that I recall.

To this day I am still not certain what base stats affect Space growth, In the past before Space EXP {EXP toward your combat lvl} per kill ... a combat lvl 1 could sit there and hit 100 in a Red Skill lol .... no base stats mattered. But I think they might now ... not sure.

A safe bet would be to use INT perhaps ... this is what I would do if not so stubborn and on my current file my ground crew is also my ship crew {a more streamlined crrew/file} ... so are stated for ground combat {in my case zero INT investment as no one is using Psionics this time ... though that same file has not even spoken to Forley Coresh so not even started post Achmedius Story yet ... so would not have the amplifier yet anyhow}.

Glad to see you are enjoying Boarding also ... one of the more fun things to do and a great place to work on the Hacking Skill as there are usually a lot of things to hack ... Though I would likely suggest other means for money making lol.

But yeah early on it can be rough with stock equipment and low Red Skills ... but as you may have seen the Space Perks for each skill offer a variety of setting to compliment what you are using. We can add damage, reload speed, or efficiency {for Weapons as an example} ... setting these to comport with what you are using etc.

I did not mention it above but things like Ion and Laser have faster innate reload times ... which is why they will often show more damage potential than say Plasma which has a lower reload speed etc. So using your perks may mitigate some of this ... and since you sound like you are skilling up old school ... taking whatever improvements you get as you go ... adjusting your perks might help.

Should you start mining and have decent progress in your Weapon Red Skill ... it will compliment how fast Mining goes as setting Weapons to the Reload speed perks speed Mining even more etc. Mining has been improved dramatically and will lvl up super fast ... again the other Red Skill will take their sweet time.

Anyhow glad you are kicking but. Wise choice picking the BH Career ... it will never be obsolete as added damage is always nice {forever}.

While I have played this game more than any one else on Earth ... I still have questions and still discover new things all the time. I may not ask a lot of questions, but I have them lol. Mostly in the form of "why was this decision made?" lol.

By all means do not be a stranger. If you have any other questions etc ... feel free to shout.