Point defense, fighter defense, fighter weapons

[rocky8311]

Hey everyone:

Kind of building off the favorite tips and strategies, I'm trying to decide what weapons are the best for what applications:

1. Point defense (weapons that automatically target missiles)

These seem to be limited to: Neptunium Railgun and Molybdenum Cone Cannon, correct me if I'm wrong.

2. Fighter defense (answer could be the same as #1, but weapons that are the best for picking off fighters, esp. when you lack a targeting computer)

Everyone knows the PVC is great against fighters, but I'm thinking more of things that are commonly occurring like those in #1, Exploding Shell Chaingun, etc.

3. Fighter weapons (best weapon to arm a fighter WITH)

I've been able to arm fighters with those in #1, but also the Exploding Shell Chaingun, Plasma Cannon, Laser, Gatling Laser, and Mass Driver (am I missing any?).

[Brainiac4]

IIRC, the Gatling Laser is also good for point defense.

The Micrometeorite Gun is good for taking on fighters -- the spread of the shot makes it easier to hit moving targets.

My favorite fighter weapon is the Molybdenum Cone Cannon.

If you take a look at the gamedata files, you can learn a lot. For example, the Micrometeorite Gun (wp_projmicm.ini in /default/gamedata/items) shows:

NAME Micrometeorite Gun
NAM2 a micrometeorite gun
ICON items/s_weapon1.jpg 2
GFXP items/l_weapon1.jpg 2
FLAG tech
DIST dead cold warm hot toxic
TEXT A short range tactical projectile weapon that magnetically charges and propels an expanding cloud of particulated micrometeorite material.
COST 253 technology
TYPE weapon
SIZE 2
DATA

TURR 0
AIMD 8
FLAG allowfter allowcaps preffter

and much more, but that first part contains the stuff you are looking for.

SIZE will be either 1 or 2. 1s fit in fighters, 2s need a capital ship.

the FLAG value of 'allowfter' means it will target fighters, and 'preffter' means that it will preferentially target them.

And, of course, if you decide you want to play around with these, you can. Just remember to back up your game first, or create a mod folder.

[Shadowcat]

1. Because you can pause the action, manual point-defense is often the way to go!!

2. The PVC rules the roost, as you say. That aside, with a decent computer, beam weapons rule. The Micrometeorite Gun is my pick of the projectile weapons for the reason Braniac4 stated.

3. Fighters have a very narrow firing arc, so also consider using something that doesn't require you to stay on target.

[rocky8311]

Yeah I've just begun to look at those files. That's how I found the Mass Driver (the extreme rapid fire gun that the newer of the two Space Hulks uses). It doesn't seem to be very powerful, just fast.

Are prefpdef and allowpdef the flags that prefer and allow point defense respectively?

[Brainiac4]

Yes. pdef = point defense, fter = fighters, caps = capital ships (everything above fighter size.

[nihilix]

My fave fighter weapon are the fusion rockets. Because I spend most of my fighter time flying far around the main battle, distracting idiot enemies who have a target lock on me and refuse to switch to the PVC-carrying pirate that's pounding their flank... for these reasons, I take the fusion rocket on the off chance that when I turn on the fighters that are following me, I might get off a shot. So make that shot one that targets!