personal preference what combos do you use for your heavy ships?

[Whiteboy904]

i just started a new ship and outfitted it with homing missiles only, but i want something more. Whats your favorite combo when it comes to making turrets? any suggestions?

 

[Pacific_Jim]

Cannon/Cannon with either Punch or Overdrive (depending on size and/or available power) will probably be the most popular kind I would imagine.

 

[KiloZulu]

I like heavy hitting long-range cannon/beam turrets. Cannons can't be shot down, so I feel they're more reliable than missiles. I'll use cannon/cannon for medium range opponents (and missile defense.) I sometimes use beam/cannon for close range anti-fighter turrets. I do use missiles. Sometimes just a couple launchers in the off chance the opponent forgot about them, for fighter defense, or just to add diversity. I also have missile boats that combine a variety of missiles to overwhelm.

 

[Whiteboy904]

Cannon/Cannon with either Punch or Overdrive (depending on size and/or available power) will probably be the most popular kind I would imagine.

can you define cannon/cannon? im still new to weapon combos and im still trying to figure out how to combine three weapon types to get different effects.

 

[Pacific_Jim]

Use cannon as the primary weapon, then connect another cannon computer as the secondary weapon. Using cannon as a secondary lowers damage per projectile but increases rate of fire. Cannon/cannon is basically your machine gun type weapon.

Using punch through as a third effect increases damage against blocks and penetration, it mixes really well with cannon/cannon. As in, probably the best kind of weapon for shredding ships quickly in the whole game. Overdrive is a straight up damage boost, but the power cost makes it usually not worth it.

 

[Whiteboy904]

Use cannon as the primary weapon, then connect another cannon computer as the secondary weapon. Using cannon as a secondary lowers damage per projectile but increases rate of fire. Cannon/cannon is basically your machine gun type weapon.

Using punch through as a third effect increases damage against blocks and penetration, it mixes really well with cannon/cannon. As in, probably the best kind of weapon for shredding ships quickly in the whole game. Overdrive is a straight up damage boost, but the power cost makes it usually not worth it.

i was experimenting with that awhile ago, i watched a video and in the video the guy used 5 cannons/ 5 cannons then placed a second cannon computer and only 2 cannon barrels facing them up? i was unclear as to why you face the 2 up, but understand the concept of using them for the rapid fire aspect.

any certain number of cannons can give you the same effect right? like instead of using 2 as secondary for the rapid fire?

 

[Pacific_Jim]

Placing them facing up was likely as aesthetic choice. The direction secondary weapon modules face has no effect, likewise with where they're placed. And the way it calculates how fast your weapon fires is based on proportion to the main weapon. For example if you have 10 main cannon modules, placing five secondary will double your rate of fire, while placing down 10 will give you 10x the rate (may be off on the numbers there tbh), going over 10 won't give you any benefit. Damage wise it adds up to the same as if you just had 20 main weapon blocks, it's just spread over the multiple quicker shots instead of 1 big one.

How many you should use depends on the size of your ship/turret. You should really be aiming to break at least one block of advanced armour per shot (about 2k damage). If your cannon isn't big enough to do that normally don't bother with a secondary, you're usually better off at least making every shot count.

Your tertiary effect (overdrive, punch through etc) is usually more important then your secondary. For example if you go punch through you pretty much always want to get 100% of the effect (in the 10 cannon module example you would achieve this by placing 10 punch through blocks), effectively doubling your damage. If your weapon is still not breaking the 2k mark per shot you should consider using overdrive instead, giving you 3x the damage (at the cost of 6x the power).

 

[aRottenKomquat]

I like cannon/cannon for small ship or turrets, anything larger will have either cannon/beam or missile/beam.

 

[Edymnion]

I like cannon/cannon/punchthrough or cannon/cannon/overdrive (depending on turret size) as my primary backbone dps.

But really, its a combination of different things that is the most effective. Like have the C/C/P or C/C/O as the primary weapon, and then put a C/C/Stop as a secondary. The second Stop cannon won't help the ccp/cco turret its on, but it will slow down/stop a small fast moving target (like a drone or fighter) so that other turrets with bigger weapons can hit them more easily.

Missile/Cannon/Explosive will give you very powerful, rapid fire missiles that act a lot like super beefy cannon fire, but the missiles are so slow they have a very hard time hitting anything that can dodge. The stop effect on the other turret will slow those targets down and let the missiles pound on them to great effect.

Usually, I like to combine things on turrets when I can. So if I have a Missile/Cannon/Explosive, I'll make a smaller secondary Missile/Cannon/EMP that fires along side the Explosive shells. Already mentioned the Stop along with the machine guns.

Only thing to keep in mind when mixing weapons on single turrets is make sure the base weapon is the same. So always have two cannon/cannon mains with different tertiary effects, or two missile/cannon with different effects.

Reason why is that right now the AI is really pretty stupid, it can only aim one weapon or the other, so if you have a fast moving cannon and a slow moving missile on the same turret, it won't know how to aim properly to get both things to hit, so it either aims one or the other, or tries to aim in between the two and misses with both.

I made this more as a primary dps cannon against larger ships (it can't fire straight up so its less useful against fighters), but it might help:
Punchthrough/Stop Combo Cannon Turret

 

[Whiteboy904]

Placing them facing up was likely as aesthetic choice. The direction secondary weapon modules face has no effect, likewise with where they're placed. And the way it calculates how fast your weapon fires is based on proportion to the main weapon. For example if you have 10 main cannon modules, placing five secondary will double your rate of fire, while placing down 10 will give you 10x the rate (may be off on the numbers there tbh), going over 10 won't give you any benefit. Damage wise it adds up to the same as if you just had 20 main weapon blocks, it's just spread over the multiple quicker shots instead of 1 big one.

How many you should use depends on the size of your ship/turret. You should really be aiming to break at least one block of advanced armour per shot (about 2k damage). If your cannon isn't big enough to do that normally don't bother with a secondary, you're usually better off at least making every shot count.

Your tertiary effect (overdrive, punch through etc) is usually more important then your secondary. For example if you go punch through you pretty much always want to get 100% of the effect (in the 10 cannon module example you would achieve this by placing 10 punch through blocks), effectively doubling your damage. If your weapon is still not breaking the 2k mark per shot you should consider using overdrive instead, giving you 3x the damage (at the cost of 6x the power).

thank you for breaking that down! ive got a pretty good understanding now. although im still in the beginning stages of experimenting with weapons i think i will get the hang of it lol.
[doublepost=1482260292,1482260225][/doublepost]

I like cannon/cannon/punchthrough or cannon/cannon/overdrive (depending on turret size) as my primary backbone dps.

But really, its a combination of different things that is the most effective. Like have the C/C/P or C/C/O as the primary weapon, and then put a C/C/Stop as a secondary. The second Stop cannon won't help the ccp/cco turret its on, but it will slow down/stop a small fast moving target (like a drone or fighter) so that other turrets with bigger weapons can hit them more easily.

Missile/Cannon/Explosive will give you very powerful, rapid fire missiles that act a lot like super beefy cannon fire, but the missiles are so slow they have a very hard time hitting anything that can dodge. The stop effect on the other turret will slow those targets down and let the missiles pound on them to great effect.

Usually, I like to combine things on turrets when I can. So if I have a Missile/Cannon/Explosive, I'll make a smaller secondary Missile/Cannon/EMP that fires along side the Explosive shells. Already mentioned the Stop along with the machine guns.

Only thing to keep in mind when mixing weapons on single turrets is make sure the base weapon is the same. So always have two cannon/cannon mains with different tertiary effects, or two missile/cannon with different effects.

Reason why is that right now the AI is really pretty stupid, it can only aim one weapon or the other, so if you have a fast moving cannon and a slow moving missile on the same turret, it won't know how to aim properly to get both things to hit, so it either aims one or the other, or tries to aim in between the two and misses with both.

I made this more as a primary dps cannon against larger ships (it can't fire straight up so its less useful against fighters), but it might help:
Punchthrough/Stop Combo Cannon Turret

i am going to try a few of these, the link you posted wow. if i mounted that one turret id be the baddest mother in my galaxy haha.

 

[Winterhome]

Missile/Cannon/Explosive

Explosive on missile/cannon is literally worthless unless the entire system is enormous and has only one output (which means it can be easily prevented from firing by a guy with a machinegun).

Use Piercing as your tertiary. It has no drawbacks, but actually increases damage, unlike Explosive.

 

[Edymnion]

Use Piercing as your tertiary. It has no drawbacks, but actually increases damage, unlike Explosive.

I seem to recall testing punchthrough vs. piercing on a cannon and finding that PT worked with shields up (in that if the shot did enough damage to bring the shields down, the excess would hit the blocks) while Piercing did not, and that the damage of the two shots on the actual blocks was pretty much the same either way once the shields were down?

 

[Pacific_Jim]

Depends on the size of the missile here, and what they're shooting at. Piercing is better against armour, but doesn't do as much raw damage.

 

[Panpiper]

I use a variety of weapons on my ships.

I like to have a heavy missile barrage of maximum range lock on missiles (missile/beam/pierce equal ratios). This will have a fair quantity of decoys mixed in with them to help overwhelm point defense. A substantial weight of my armament will be devoted to this missile armament. Failing to have such a barrage can leave you highly vulnerable to a similarly armed, high maneuver ship that can maintain maximum range such that only such missiles can reach it. However missiles can be countered by a properly constructed ship, so relying on this solely for your offense can be a mistake.

For instance, I recall once my 100K mass battleminer being the subject of a billion damage swarmer attack (it was an accident). A billion damage in theory would be enough to vaporize a titan. However my miner was very well outfitted for dealing with missiles. It has a large quantity of well placed armored point defense turrets, an advanced armor exterior shell, and full defensive ion, pierce and punch effect. The billion damage managed to destroy one point defense turret and put a small hole into another larger turret. There were a few areas where the armor could be seen to have sustained some damage. Lesson; to deal with a properly defended ship, you are going to want more than missiles.

In addition to the missile armament, I will usually have a large quantity of cannon/beam/punch (equal ratio) turrets. These will be meta weapons firing a layered array of bullets each doing in excess of 4000 damage. If shields are down on their target, such a turret will punch very satisfying holes. These are long ranged weapons, not as long range as missile/beam weapons, but the longest you will get short of that. These are so effective versus larger ships, that in my opinion, one does not need other weapons for primary offense.

That said, I will also have a large quantity of smaller cannon/cannon rapid fire turrets firing 2000 damage bullets, ten times a second. These will be paired with a smaller cannon/cannon/stop weapon. The job of these turrets is to destroy drones, torpedoes and other smaller, close range targets.

Finally I will have an even larger quantity of point defense turrets. These do not need to be more than 1/1 cannon/cannon weapons, but I find that it is helpful to armor them to help keep them functioning while under fire.

By way of example, I'll show you my current battleminer (the one that took that swarmer attack):

You can see that it has no less than 44 point defense turrets. Half of them are concentrated on the nose as that is the direction most attacks will be coming from, I would face the attack. The ship has eight smallish gun turrets (4 fore, 4 aft) that hold those 20K DPS cannon/cannon anti-drone weapons (they use overdrive to fit inside the small turrets). It has four cannon/beam turrets that collectively do about 800K damage every 4 seconds. It also has four missile/beam turrets that every 45 seconds will launch ~100 decoys along with 24 missiles that do a total of 18 million damage (theoretical).

Defensively it has full ion, pierce and punch effect with ~10 million shield, good regen, and an advanced armor shell. Given that this is a battleminer whose primary function is to get to and rapidly digest asteroid fields, it has a good thrust to weight ratio 1.6 to 1, nearly a 10% jump drive, plenty of cargo storage and a very large maximum strength salvage/cannon array of 700 maximum power beams. The high thrust, high jump and large salvage array force both the weaponry and defenses of this ship to be substantially lower than what a dedicated combat ship of the same mass would be capable of. That said, this ship is more than capable of deterring casual griefing, and utterly ignores pirates. I just keep mining and let the turrets deal with the pests.

 

[Winterhome]

I seem to recall testing punchthrough vs. piercing on a cannon and finding that PT worked with shields up (in that if the shot did enough damage to bring the shields down, the excess would hit the blocks) while Piercing did not, and that the damage of the two shots on the actual blocks was pretty much the same either way once the shields were down?

With missiles, no missile loses shield damage.

Punch missiles get an extra +50% damage bonus to Armor HP and a +5 radius. Piercing missiles ignore 50% of armor values and get a +5 radius. Explosive just gets +10 radius with no damage bonuses of any sort. Piercing missiles are significantly better against anything with advanced armor.

I've found that a missile with Piercing effect will generally get anywhere between +1 and +4 radius when being shot at a solid brick of armor. Pretty big difference.

 

[Edymnion]

With missiles, no missile loses shield damage.

Punch missiles get an extra +50% damage bonus to Armor HP and a +5 radius. Piercing missiles ignore 50% of armor values and get a +5 radius. Explosive just gets +10 radius with no damage bonuses of any sort. Piercing missiles are significantly better against anything with advanced armor.

I've found that a missile with Piercing effect will generally get anywhere between +1 and +4 radius when being shot at a solid brick of armor. Pretty big difference.

Hmmm... sounds like I need to make piercing missiles this time around.

 

[Winterhome]

Hmmm... sounds like I need to make piercing missiles this time around.

Piercing is a great all-rounder. Punch and piercing together is even better against armor tanks, though, since missiles do some really bizarre damage to armor HP at the moment. Probably a bug, though - I keep getting 500k damage punch missiles doing around 5mil armor HP damage for some reason, and I think other missiles also do massive armor HP damage as well, but not to the same extent.