Station Defense?
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CyberTao
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Would it not make more sense to combine those stations into a large mega station? Would have more shields and if you plan the layout right, just as much in the sense of turret placement. If they are spread out, a informed faction would easily be able to pick them off one at a time.
CyberTao
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None what so ever! I'm actually not a huge fan of turrets as they currently are, only ones I have are on my WIP ship, and they need to be redone. Tiny things though, would only really be useful against fighters or corvettes, probably not what you want.
CyberTao
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If your asking if I have any defenses, I don't currently. I only recently came back out of Single Player creative and moved to a build server. If and when I finally get back to a normal server, I'd probably just stick with a single homebase with a few turrets to pick off pirates over time, since they are invincible. Maybe AI drones if I get the resources.
jayman38
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Here's a big turret blueprint that looks unusually interesting to me: The Goblin
http://starmadedock.net/content/goblin-mpv-multi-purpose-vessel.2060/
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As far as I know the only ways to defend a station at the moment are:
A. Turrets
B. Drones
C. Mines (can be eliminated easy)
D. Be only to fight yourself
My preferred method is A, with a bit of B mixed in. One tactic I have used is Mobile Turret Platforms. My MTP's consist of a main ship portion which is often shaped like a cube. The cube provides power to the turrets, shields itself and allows for basic flight if you want to place active AI on it. Then on almost all sides I strap turrets onto it. The advantage is you don't have to build stations, you can reposition them, and they can even move to engage targets if you want to slap on some AI. I like keeping most of mine stationary though.
SO combine station turrets, MTP's and scattered drones and you have some pretty nice defenses. Though I will say there is no real way to stop someone who really wants to attack without being there to intervene yourself. But by using the tools we have to make it harder we CAN discourage them from attacking and/or slow them down. slow them long enough and you have a better chance of logging on before they finish their assault.
A. Turrets
B. Drones
C. Mines (can be eliminated easy)
D. Be only to fight yourself
My preferred method is A, with a bit of B mixed in. One tactic I have used is Mobile Turret Platforms. My MTP's consist of a main ship portion which is often shaped like a cube. The cube provides power to the turrets, shields itself and allows for basic flight if you want to place active AI on it. Then on almost all sides I strap turrets onto it. The advantage is you don't have to build stations, you can reposition them, and they can even move to engage targets if you want to slap on some AI. I like keeping most of mine stationary though.
SO combine station turrets, MTP's and scattered drones and you have some pretty nice defenses. Though I will say there is no real way to stop someone who really wants to attack without being there to intervene yourself. But by using the tools we have to make it harder we CAN discourage them from attacking and/or slow them down. slow them long enough and you have a better chance of logging on before they finish their assault.
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make turrets with many missiles of 100% damage beam and 100% explosive. depending on sector size they will kill pirates that are even out of your navigation range and to massive damage, and also are so fast that point defence turrets struggle to shoot them down.
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I don't have much experience with PvP station combat. The only time my station ever saw serious action (wandering pirate fleets do not count as action, as they die literally inside of one second) was when my server admin spawned in a massive attack using the majorly souped up pirate cruisers he had recently introduced to the game. It was a great fireworks show that unfortunately lasted only about 15 seconds. My defenses at that time were designed to create a non stop barrage of ~30 5000 damage sniper missiles (missile/beam) per second. That is enough to keep pirates well at bay. However while it would also be enough to give most players pause, it could not stop a concerted faction attack.
My thoughts on station defense at the moment are as such... You need to make most if not all of your offensive systems, sniper missiles (missile/beam). Explosive is nice, but I actually favor Ion for tertiary effect. Explosive you would want to field at 100% (or close to) whereas Ion will do nicely at 25-50%, freeing more resources for more turrets. Besides, the barrage approach I use for missiles tends for them to 'tunnel' their way to a core, they don't need bigger explosion radii for that. Sniper missiles because otherwise a smart attacker will simply sit at maximum range and fire with impunity at you with their own sniper missiles.
To create a non stop barrage effect such as I have on my station, create a turret box sufficient to hold a 'lot' of missiles. Build a really effective power system into that box. Record it's power regen. Build a power system on your station that will help feed your turrets and make it big enough that it at least reaches the bonus power cap (~1.2 million). Record it's power regen. Decide how many barrage turrets you are going to install (my station has 12). Divide the station's power output by that number and add that to the turret's power output. Multiply the turret's power output plus it's share of the station's power output by 45 (the number of seconds it takes to recycle a sniper missile's fire). Divide that by 2250 to find out how many modules you will be placing in the missile system. This will be an even mix of missile and beam modules, including however many explosive or ion modules you want to add. Divide them up into however many missiles you want. Do not make them too few or you will need to add too many capacitors to the turret 'and' your missile barrage will be all the more vulnerable to point defense. I wound up having 110 launchers per turret. Make sure you have sufficient capacitors to hold the power needed for at least one missile launch.
These will work just fine all working off one set of computers, but I have recently been told that there is a small energy penalty for adding multiple weapons to a single computer system. If that is the case, install nine sets of weapon computers and divide the missiles between them.
That sort of missile setup will create a non-stop stream of a lot of missiles, and the missiles will simply never stop coming. However while that is both very effective and a lot of fun to watch, it is IMO insufficient to stop a faction attack. For that you will need more. Your missile barrage will do a very effective job of destroying anything that has it's shield's down, but what you really want for an effective attack is that 'plus' an alphastrike capacity that will actually take your opponent's shield's down with one shot. Again, you will want that to be with sniper missiles.
Sgtwisky's advice about turret 'platforms' is good advice. It basically permits you to do with more turrets what I did with the stations's power, adding it to the turret's output, but do it again for other turrets, adding this time the power output of the turret platform to it's turrets rather than the station's. The platforms are essentially docked ships with no weapons of their own. They however have turrets mounted on them, turrets that will fire at faction enemies, and thereby add to your station's defense. Try to build the turret platforms so they at least reach the bonus power cap of 1.2 million.
The alphastrike turrets need to be built a bit differently than the barrage turrets, in that you will need to add capacitors equal to 45 seconds of power output, and do the same with the turret platform. Then add up all the stored power and divide by how many turrets you will be adding to the platform (likely five, one to each side of the platform's face, minus the platform's dock face). That will tell you how much power you have to power sniper missile modules, so again divide that by 2250 and build missiles. These ones do not necessarily have to be as small and numerous as the barrage missiles, though don't make them 'too' few.
Your turret deployment is a serious consideration. You actually want to keep the turrets as close together as possible so that as many as possible will be in range of an attacker. If they are too spread out, it will be too easy for an attacker to park at a range that only a small portion of your defenses can engage, and defeat your station's defenses piecemeal. My advice is to keep your station relatively flat, build it out along the X and Z axes. Leave the Y axis solely for your defenses. Have a short tower that extends just far enough above and below the non-combat X-Z spread station. Deploy ALL your offensive turrets on that tower and as closely packed as you can make them while still providing enough room for them to adequately traverse.
Point defense turrets, of which you will want many, can be much more spread out. You can have auxiliary towers that ring your offensive tower upon which you have deployed point defense. Point defense turrets can be ridiculously small. They do not need to be much more than a ship core, two cannon modules with a couple of cannon computer modules and a bobby AI (though I would add a power module too). Leave the AI on missiles. They won't do diddly on anything else and you don't want them distracted. Don't worry about adding shields to them. They are unlikely to ever be attacked except in case of a concerted faction attack, and in those cases, whatever shields you put on them will likely be insufficient to make a difference. Putting enough shields on point defense turrets to stop attacks is likely to result in you having put too few defenses elsewhere. Just build more point defense turrets instead. Assume an attacker will be hitting you with hundreds of missiles, and build hundreds of point defense, deploy them in little clusters around your turrets.
Obviously you will want to add shields and regenerators to your offensive turrets, to your turret platforms, and to your station. How much such defense you add depends solely on you and your resources. There is really no upper limit. My advice is to accumulate as much defense as you can, but concentrate first and foremost on a good offense. Plan on adding more shielding later as you acquire it.
Four or five turret platforms on each end of your offensive tower with their compliment of alphastrike sniper missiles, complimented by six or eight barrage turrets per end, should be enough to cow anything short of a 'fleet' of titans.
Addendum:
Looking at the full defenses as outlined above, I would revise what I said about using Ion instead of explosive on the barrage turrets. It would make more sense in that structure for the barrage missiles to use explosive and to concentrate any ion modules you have into the alphastrike turrets. It is the alphastrike missiles that will be mostly doing the job of taking down shields, while the barrage missiles will be mostly striking (hopefully) targets left unshielded by the alphastrike.
My thoughts on station defense at the moment are as such... You need to make most if not all of your offensive systems, sniper missiles (missile/beam). Explosive is nice, but I actually favor Ion for tertiary effect. Explosive you would want to field at 100% (or close to) whereas Ion will do nicely at 25-50%, freeing more resources for more turrets. Besides, the barrage approach I use for missiles tends for them to 'tunnel' their way to a core, they don't need bigger explosion radii for that. Sniper missiles because otherwise a smart attacker will simply sit at maximum range and fire with impunity at you with their own sniper missiles.
To create a non stop barrage effect such as I have on my station, create a turret box sufficient to hold a 'lot' of missiles. Build a really effective power system into that box. Record it's power regen. Build a power system on your station that will help feed your turrets and make it big enough that it at least reaches the bonus power cap (~1.2 million). Record it's power regen. Decide how many barrage turrets you are going to install (my station has 12). Divide the station's power output by that number and add that to the turret's power output. Multiply the turret's power output plus it's share of the station's power output by 45 (the number of seconds it takes to recycle a sniper missile's fire). Divide that by 2250 to find out how many modules you will be placing in the missile system. This will be an even mix of missile and beam modules, including however many explosive or ion modules you want to add. Divide them up into however many missiles you want. Do not make them too few or you will need to add too many capacitors to the turret 'and' your missile barrage will be all the more vulnerable to point defense. I wound up having 110 launchers per turret. Make sure you have sufficient capacitors to hold the power needed for at least one missile launch.
These will work just fine all working off one set of computers, but I have recently been told that there is a small energy penalty for adding multiple weapons to a single computer system. If that is the case, install nine sets of weapon computers and divide the missiles between them.
That sort of missile setup will create a non-stop stream of a lot of missiles, and the missiles will simply never stop coming. However while that is both very effective and a lot of fun to watch, it is IMO insufficient to stop a faction attack. For that you will need more. Your missile barrage will do a very effective job of destroying anything that has it's shield's down, but what you really want for an effective attack is that 'plus' an alphastrike capacity that will actually take your opponent's shield's down with one shot. Again, you will want that to be with sniper missiles.
Sgtwisky's advice about turret 'platforms' is good advice. It basically permits you to do with more turrets what I did with the stations's power, adding it to the turret's output, but do it again for other turrets, adding this time the power output of the turret platform to it's turrets rather than the station's. The platforms are essentially docked ships with no weapons of their own. They however have turrets mounted on them, turrets that will fire at faction enemies, and thereby add to your station's defense. Try to build the turret platforms so they at least reach the bonus power cap of 1.2 million.
The alphastrike turrets need to be built a bit differently than the barrage turrets, in that you will need to add capacitors equal to 45 seconds of power output, and do the same with the turret platform. Then add up all the stored power and divide by how many turrets you will be adding to the platform (likely five, one to each side of the platform's face, minus the platform's dock face). That will tell you how much power you have to power sniper missile modules, so again divide that by 2250 and build missiles. These ones do not necessarily have to be as small and numerous as the barrage missiles, though don't make them 'too' few.
Your turret deployment is a serious consideration. You actually want to keep the turrets as close together as possible so that as many as possible will be in range of an attacker. If they are too spread out, it will be too easy for an attacker to park at a range that only a small portion of your defenses can engage, and defeat your station's defenses piecemeal. My advice is to keep your station relatively flat, build it out along the X and Z axes. Leave the Y axis solely for your defenses. Have a short tower that extends just far enough above and below the non-combat X-Z spread station. Deploy ALL your offensive turrets on that tower and as closely packed as you can make them while still providing enough room for them to adequately traverse.
Point defense turrets, of which you will want many, can be much more spread out. You can have auxiliary towers that ring your offensive tower upon which you have deployed point defense. Point defense turrets can be ridiculously small. They do not need to be much more than a ship core, two cannon modules with a couple of cannon computer modules and a bobby AI (though I would add a power module too). Leave the AI on missiles. They won't do diddly on anything else and you don't want them distracted. Don't worry about adding shields to them. They are unlikely to ever be attacked except in case of a concerted faction attack, and in those cases, whatever shields you put on them will likely be insufficient to make a difference. Putting enough shields on point defense turrets to stop attacks is likely to result in you having put too few defenses elsewhere. Just build more point defense turrets instead. Assume an attacker will be hitting you with hundreds of missiles, and build hundreds of point defense, deploy them in little clusters around your turrets.
Obviously you will want to add shields and regenerators to your offensive turrets, to your turret platforms, and to your station. How much such defense you add depends solely on you and your resources. There is really no upper limit. My advice is to accumulate as much defense as you can, but concentrate first and foremost on a good offense. Plan on adding more shielding later as you acquire it.
Four or five turret platforms on each end of your offensive tower with their compliment of alphastrike sniper missiles, complimented by six or eight barrage turrets per end, should be enough to cow anything short of a 'fleet' of titans.
Addendum:
Looking at the full defenses as outlined above, I would revise what I said about using Ion instead of explosive on the barrage turrets. It would make more sense in that structure for the barrage missiles to use explosive and to concentrate any ion modules you have into the alphastrike turrets. It is the alphastrike missiles that will be mostly doing the job of taking down shields, while the barrage missiles will be mostly striking (hopefully) targets left unshielded by the alphastrike.
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