Combat, what's the deal?

[flyinj]

So, I put a few more hours into this Last night... I'm coming away a little leery. The scope of the game is there, and the customization is really nice... it's just that I'm not really getting the combat. I think I may be not understanding exactly how you're supposed to go about things. I have two good beam weapons on the front of my ship, but they seem totally random as to how long they fire and when they fire. I know the enemy ship is in my forward arc, and I have the enemy ship at about 50 range. Sometimes I get a nice long sustained beam on the target, and sometimes it Lasts for about half a second. Sometimes both weapons fire, sometimes only one does. This is all keeping the ship within 50 km(?) range, which is an optimal range for the stats of my beam weapons.

Anyone have any advice?

[Phoenix-D]

Look closely. The time of the beam depends on two things:

1. If it misses, it will stop firing.
2. If the target moves out of the arc, it will stop firing

The two front guns also probably have slightly different arcs, since they're on different points of the ship.

[Krsqk]

P-D is right about the time the beam Lasts. The staggered firing happens when you have more than one weapon in a weapon group and either 1) they have different reload/recharge times, or 2) only one weapon was able to reload/recharge due to a lack of energy. I personally set my front left weapon on 1 and my front right weapon on 2 (and both are still APB's, just like in SEIV ). I never really found a feasible design using the front heavy slots or any of the side slots. After all, the Terran Battlecruisers only have front weapons, and look how long they survive! */me wonders if that was the best example to pick* At least in the demo, I haven't found a ship which leaves room for more weaps after getting enough power (100kt) and defense (30-40kt shields and 20-30kt armor).

[Phoenix-D]

Um, what exactly do you need a 100kt reactor for? I think the ship I finished the demo in had about 50kt of power, twin CSMs and four APBs. Sure, I couldn't fire non-stop, but since they were on differing arcs that didn't matter..and I COULD fire non-stop with all the forward weapons.

[bor]

why 100kt power? In the demo I just haven't seen power as that big an issue, 50kt seems fine for a cruiser, and that's running 4 beams 2 heavies, and 2 point defence cannons.

In the components file at least, nothing other than weapons show any energy consumption.

[Phoenix-D]

Ooo. Check some of the other weapons before you roll eyes too much at those APBs.

Tachyon cannons are nasty, for one. Shield-skipping, weigh only 5kt more, and do the same damage as an APB- and use less power! I have one of those and one Incinerator Beam on my current ship.