Microwave Reactor Interaction - A Question

[Rithrin]

Hi there, new to game. Trying to figure out a groove.

One thing I noticed is that pretty much 95% of dives for me end up with pirate encounters, not the "Pay me or else" kind, but the 'Gank me without warning' kind. If my opponent hits me with a microwave, sure sometimes I can main torch behind some ice, but typically their microwave hits my reactor and I go up in flames. I have seen that game over way too many times. When I get the upper hand, I can maneuver to be precisely microwaving their reactor, it usually takes like 15 to 20 minutes of constant reactor microwaving for them to explode. If at any time I let up, they just immediately start hitting me again and overheat my reactor.

So I feel like any time I run into a pirate, the game forces me to either microwave lock my opponent for 20 minutes until my propellant runs out and search and rescue safely retrieves me, or to have to reload from a game over screen. And this happens most runs.

Is there some trick to exploding a pirate's reactor with a microwave? The pirates seem to do it without fail. I'd love to equip some better weapons, but I'm still in the starter ship and anything more kills my maneuverability.

[Keramane]

Honestly, I was never able to pop them with JUST a microwave. However, microwave does shut them off, letting me toggle my Mass Driver on/off for real hurt. I imagine with clever power/heat tinkering you could manage a few microwaves to really cook em. But, I tried a non-stop cook-off with 2 MWG Microwave Emitters and they walked away.

[Burnz]

In the tuning window you can adjust the water resonance, all the way to the right you do most damage to roids, all the way to the left and you'll do most damage to ships. Hope this helps.

[Rithrin]

Thanks! Yeah, I've been toying around with tunings a bit - like increasing propellant to the thrusters now that I have a decent MPU.

I ended up biting the bullet and just hauling both a railgun tuned for defense and a microwave for mining. Gets a bit heavy with the all the additional storage, ammo, etc, but that's what higher thrust boosters are for, right?

Seems to be working better, though I do feel like I'm running into pirates far more often than would be expected. C'est la vie!

[the.momaw]

If pirates really really frustrate you, some ships also have resistance to microwave beams.

(Mostly at this point in my career, when the red gets ominously red I watch LIDAR to see what direction the movement is coming from, and greet them with 600MW pulse laser as soon as I spot them.)

[ImperialForce9]

Originally posted by Burnz:

In the tuning window you can adjust the water resonance, all the way to the right you do most damage to roids, all the way to the left and you'll do most damage to ships. Hope this helps.

I forget that you can even tune weapons, thanks for the tip :D

[Uukrul]

I paid the pirates off at their base and I am still getting "ganked" occasionally. Some of the pirates abide by the terms but others do not. not sure why.

[ImperialForce9]

Originally posted by Uukrul:

I paid the pirates off at their base and I am still getting "ganked" occasionally. Some of the pirates abide by the terms but others do not. not sure why.

I mean if you want a lore-ish reason, not all of them are part of the same pirate faction is my guess.