General EMP Questions

[-Moose-]

I've been considering using EMP weapons for a while now, but still have a few logistical questions.

1. Is there a current "meta" for EMP weapons? Are they viable in PvP? PvE?

1b. are EMP weapons more effective on a turret or the main ship?

2. What is a most effective setup, an alpha weapon or a rapid fire weapon?

3. What is a good size for an EMP weapon? (Assuming the target had 1m to 2m e/s)

4 Are EMPs better than a power drain beam with a beam slave of equal size?

Any answers would be appreciated.

 

[taisong]

This is all my perspective, so please read with a little salt on your side.

So, EMP weapons sap power out of an enemy ship, which is a very scary thing indeed. However, Making an EMP blast that can overcome power regeneration of an enemy ship will probably take a lot of space. So, I rather go for piercing/punch-through/ion effect for faster ship destruction.

Now, the viability of EMP.
This is something that depends on the structure of the enemy ship, rather than your own ship. Most of the ship (even my ship too) are geared to use as much power as it possibly can, so no power regen could go to waste. So, disrupting this "power regen - consumption balance" can do annoying effects to an enemy ship. It probably can deactivate few power-hungry defensive effects. It also might stop the enemy from using missiles too.

I do not use them at all, so I have no idea if a turret is better.

 

[GRHayes]

I've been considering using EMP weapons for a while now, but still have a few logistical questions.

1. Is there a current "meta" for EMP weapons? Are they viable in PvP? PvE?

1b. are EMP weapons more effective on a turret or the main ship?

2. What is a most effective setup, an alpha weapon or a rapid fire weapon?

3. What is a good size for an EMP weapon? (Assuming the target had 1m to 2m e/s)

4 Are EMPs better than a power drain beam with a beam slave of equal size?

Any answers would be appreciated.

EMP in this game isn't like in the movies or other games. Like taisong said to fully take down power it take a large weapon.
It doesn't have any lasting effect except to diminish a little bit of power. Which will be replaced next to instantly with power generation. It is possible power generation is so much higher than your weapon they never notice the drain. It damages no equipment at all. It doesn't reduce power out put or storage area or anything after it is turned off.
If you had a really large ship maybe you could catch a smaller ship with two beams one of emp and the other being pull. But the way the power system currently lots of luck on that.

 

[Scypio]

EMP is great, works only on specialized ships or some occasionnal situations and got their niches uses and users wich is fine for this kind of weapon. Main problem about them is when you hit a docked entity and not the main ship... You drain the power from this entity and not the main ship itself, nullifying all or almost all of your damages.
For the rest of the questions, you could think about it a few seconds and obviously find answers yourself, you'll need to deplete completely your opponent power and nullify it's regeneration at the same time. The rest is basic maths.

 

[AtraUnam]

People often overlook the fact that EMP effect does 20x as much power damage than regular weapons do damage, this means its actually very easy to completely depower ships with more power regen than yourself.

 

[JinM]

It just came to my mind, that a docked hull could be reffered to as an emp shield. Like a Faraday Cage.

The only thing that bothers me, is that it's not enough to shoot a hole into it, to break its protection from emp damage. Hitting a hole on a ship in fights is really hard in my experience. =)

What is about emp-missiles? Do they splash their damage over multiple entities?