Small ships dogfighting

[HerrColonel]

Since the HP update, a dogfight between two small ships (in my case a <500 mass fighter against an isanth cc) is tediously long and painfull

I don't know about big ships combat (I have so much less big ships) it looks like it overheats when the ship took a big amount of block damage, but this amount is scaled down so it overheats only when the ship is damaged enough and it sounds good

But for small ships you have to target every block system until nearly nothing remains. For an isanth it took me several minutes with this weapon setup: 2x beam/-/exp damage pert tick: 2'000 x2
(this weapon setup is actually scary for a fighter, I can barely power it and it takes most of the place inside the hull)

While in this time the isanth had time to take my shields down even with the laughtable small weapon setup it has, and in the end I was badly damaged even if I had my systems waaay more beefed up than this poor isanth.

So I think the basic % of blocks that needs to be destroyed in order to overheat the smallest of ships must be scaled down a lot

 

[Voldrath]

The thing about the type zero Isanths is that they are almost all hull. Wich means they have a lot of armor HP, and lots of sturdy plating to cut through before you can get to their system blocks. The weapons are relatively exposed so they're a good target from the front, or if you can get some shots at their aft the thrusters are relatively close to the surface. The old type VI Isanth on the other hand is filled full of power blocks. They go down pretty quick once you poke through the outer layer.

Edit: Also beams are better for cutting through system blocks. They lose their innate pierce effect when they hit armor. Your fighter would probably do well against a shield tank, or an alpha/glass cannon. But the Zeros are hull tankers.

 

[godmars]

So I think the basic % of blocks that needs to be destroyed in order to overheat the smallest of ships must be scaled down a lot

nope. Like the above said, Isanths are armor tanks and most people will aim for their centre of mass when all of their systems are in the wings, prolonging things even further. I can kill them easily with most fighters I have built or tried from this site, so the problem was more than likely your ships set up

 

[Winterhome]

Protip: Use a missile turret.

 

[Edymnion]

Yup, you're playing right into their game by aiming at their most heavily armored, least vulnerable place. So yeah, its going to take you a while to dogfight one down.

Might I suggest, if you haven't already, to spawn in an Isanth from a blueprint so you can dissect it and see how it works? That'll give you a much better idea of where to aim in the future, but like godmars said, short answer is "Aim for the wings". The central mass is nothing but armor and empty cabin space.

 

[Nickizzy]

Well, a layer of armor, all the computers, the core, and empty weapon space. The engines are pretty accessible from the middle. It's a good idea to start at the middle, then when it loses it's main weapon or it's thrusters, you can fire through the interior to toe wings.

I think they really need to update the pirates, because right now they have no shields(like 220 with 10 recharge), one of any of the weapons, but they cannot fire half of them because of the power update half a year(or was it a full year?) ago. They don't give any experience with shields and, although iconic(that shape should continue, but not the whole setup), is mostly only a danger to unshielded starters and noob ships. The types that were actually dangerous(the missile beams/pulses) cannot even be used by them anymore.

I think it would be nice to have an expansion of the pirate fleet, not something you had to download and then figure out how to use, something that could be used with the full game instead of with the community content(you could drag over builds from there, just add them to the game). It could have a setting on/off, but it would be coo to have armor tankers and shield tankers and cruisers and(only in like 10 wave pirate invasions, safe from weaker players) frigates, then battleships. I don't think they should have anything bigger, but have more then armor filled fighters and nothing else.
[DOUBLEPOST=1451062951,1451062921][/DOUBLEPOST]Holy Necro thread! whoops!

 

[Ithirahad]

We're getting an entirely new set of pirate ships, Trading Guild ships, and even an entirely new AI faction (with its own fleet) with the future AI updates.