Weapon Types

DarkZeak · Post by **DarkZeak** » Thu May 12, 2011 1:55 am

I've been playing a few games by myself to look at all the tech, weapons, and ships, as well as to see whats different in the cores since i cant seem to find a detailed page on cores that not in Greek or Latin. Anyways i was wondering what's more used/preferred, EW or PW? This is excluding ships and factions that use only one or the other of course, and the TF who have PE. Also, is PE any better than the other 2?

Alien51 · Post by **Alien51** » Thu May 12, 2011 2:48 am

A Fighter has 2 choices, PW Gattling and EW Disruptor. The PW Gat is best for killing other small ships, and the EW Dis is meant for Capital Ships and shields.

An Inteceptor has 2 choices, Minigun and EMP Cannon. Both require ammo, not energy. The Mini is best for killing most anything, and the EMP is a specialized tool meant for helping with capships. (But can be used to help with base captures!)

A Stealth Fighter has 2 choices, EW Sniper and EW Utility Cannon. The Sniper is best for killing other combat ships, and the Utl is best for killing computer drones. Such as miners, constructors, and carriers.

PE shoots 'straight' , it has no bullet spread and shoots perfectly. Which means if you know how to shoot it, it will usually do more dmg than a regular PW because it is landing more hits. (Someone help explain this?)

AFS I believe is geared toward learning the basics of the game; which means you won't learn the statistical information of the game. If you want detailed information on any of the cores use TEK or ICE. TEK is meant for viewing and ease of use, while ICE is made for editors and such.

LANS · Post by **LANS** » Thu May 12, 2011 2:10 pm

A quick overview of alleg's guns:

Dispersion - how much your shots deviate from centre when shooting. Look at most interceptors with PW Minigun as an example.

PW - particle weapon. Uses ammunition, and has dispersion.
EW - energy weapon. Uses energy, has no dispersion.
PE - hybrid weapon. Uses energy and ammo, has no dispersion.

Dispersion reduces the effect of lag and the total effective range of weapons. If you have good aim, you will land more long range shots with PE/EW than PW.

Drone - AI controlled object, such as miners, constructors, towers, etc.

Minigun - interceptor general purpose. Good against player-flown ships, low damage to drones.
MiniDis - Gatarran specific weapon, does disruptor style damage.
EMP cannon - only good against shields. Can also be used to clear minefields, but it's not commonly used.

Gatling gun - fighter mounted, general purpose.
Disruptor - fighter mounted energy weapon. Good against capship hu and gigacorp light bases.
Galvonic blaster - fighter mounted. Good against capships and small bases.

Nanite - negative damage medic weapon. Use it.

Sniper cannon - long range general purpose stealth fighter weapon.
Utility cannon - long range, good against drones, not so good on anything else.
Gauss gun - Gatarran specific stealth fighter weapon. Improvement on sniper.

Autocannon and mini-AC - similar to gating gun, longer range.
Skycap - capship turret, slow fire rate, area of effect weapon.
Long Tom - capship turret. Long range, high damage.
Skyripper - anticapital capship weapon.

Weapons in allegiance do different damage to different shield and hull types.

Kap · Post by **Kap** » Fri May 13, 2011 2:53 am

DarkZeak wrote:QUOTE (DarkZeak @ May 11 2011, 08:55 PM) I've been playing a few games by myself to look at all the tech, weapons, and ships, as well as to see whats different in the cores since i cant seem to find a detailed page on cores that not in Greek or Latin. Anyways i was wondering what's more used/preferred, EW or PW? This is excluding ships and factions that use only one or the other of course, and the TF who have PE. Also, is PE any better than the other 2?

It depends on what you are trying to do.

The default gun is usually the more used/preferred. But depending on specific situations, you may need to change it to accomodate circumstances. You can use the above posts to get an idea of those circumstances, or go to the wiki for more detailed info.

Anyway, try looking at weapons for their end use rather than their type.

PS: PE weapons have no spread. You won't exploit its advantages tough if you have lag issues.

GoodWill · Post by **GoodWill** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 2:13 pm

I like to equip two Disruptors on my Technoflux opening scout, the reasons being:

- These two PE guns burn through ammo way to fast and I prefer to take more probes instead of ammo-belts
- 2 Dis is still enough to have the upper hand in an unlikely Scout vs Scout dogfight
- I try to avoid dogfights against fighters/ints either way

Does that make any sense?

Spunkmeyer · Post by **Spunkmeyer** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 2:17 pm

Goodwill: no

TL;DR version of the above:

With a fighter always take gats, unless on a galv run.
With an interceptor always take minis.
Stay out of stealths till you know the game inside out.

GoodWill · Post by **GoodWill** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 4:33 pm

Spunkmeyer, thanks for the answer. Not sure if you caught, I was asking about TF-opening-scouts specifically?

I used to take Dis in fighters during my very early attempts too but that was only because my aiming was sooooo bad that I considered hitting something somehow better than using Gats and not dropping enemy-shields by the least bit. Nowadays I use Gats and Minis of course.

Here is another reason I find applicable for the midrange noob in a TF-dis-equipped opening scout:

Con-offense:
- You suck too hard to take down that Constructor on your own anyways
- By the time you got the Con half down, either enemy ints will tare you to shreds or you ran outa ammo once again
- Being first on the scene, you can call in assistance and launch your Dis-attack just in time to have taken down its shields when the reinforcements arrive
(Dis is great for shredding shields ... the offensively minded scouts being equipped with PEs and Plasgens will take care of the hull)

cashto · Post by **cashto** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 4:38 pm

To expand on Spunk's advice:

Yes, if you bring dis with your scout, you will be able to shoot for as long as you want until you get podded -- which will be a lot faster than will be with gatts. Why? Because dis puts out about half the damage per second that gatt does. (You can also temporarily run out of energy if you're in an extended dogfight).

The chances that you'll live long enough to need a reload (or two, if you're TF) are quite low -- especially if you're a newbie. It's really not anything you should be worrying about.

You're probably aware that scouts can solo miners, and TF scouts are especially dangerous because of the two weapon mounts. Do this experiment: launch a single-team server with friendly fire on, and then kill your own miner with gatt. See how long it takes. Then build another one and try to kill it with dis.

Come back and discuss your results.

GoodWill · Post by **GoodWill** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 6:32 pm

Thanks cashto.
Yes, I have tried soloing miners with Dis ... mostly to no avail of course.
(I actually was left alone a few times and eventually got through while strafing behind the drone across like 2 sectors. The hull indeed takes ages ... hahaha)

As for reloading: With a regular scout (IC etc.), I just take the Gat and never ever have to reload, you are right. But with TF-PEs ... I dont know if its just because its two guns or if they also give off more rounds than Gats but I regularly run outa ammo ... and always in the most stupid situations. So I find taking the PEs automatically implies sacrifizing a cargo-slot for ammo.

My idea behind all this was to not be that guy but rather the dude who deploys loads of probes early on because I do get the feeling that stripping your first scout off everything and taking 5-6 probes can make a major difference for early gameplay: Where everybody is keen on popping a miner, taking Prox and stuff, 5 probes can map up to two sectors well enough for the commander to trust the intel ... Subjectively felt, sectors I went to early on are often the ones the comm sends his next Con to, even when there is no escort to guard it. And it rarely ends with a bad surprise as well simply because entrance alephs and neighboring sectors alephs are screened by probes ...
But seeing both of your responses, I should probably shift focus to being as dangerous as possible from the very start.

So from my experience, the only decent loadout for a versatile TF-opening-scout would be:

2 PEs
1 Nan
1 Ammobelt
4 Probes

Sounds good?

Nightflame · Post by **Nightflame** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 6:45 pm

There are a number of misconceptions regarding dis. When fighting with just your gun, against a scout or interceptor, disruptors are comparable. In fact, dis2 will kill a scout or int quicker than gat1. With good aim, you can even kill any small ship of equal tech without running out of energy. Why then, are disruptors never used? Well, a few reasons. First, the ammo on a scout or figs is impressive. You can kill several small ships or a drone without a reload if you have good aim. Second, the power of disruptor against figs and scouts is their shield killing. Missiles, which scouts and figs also have, are good against shields too. If you can hit a seeker or DF, gat is a much better choice. Finally, and most important, dis sucks against util. Being able to solo a miner or con easily in a scout is huge. While TF scouts miss the other two points, having poor ammo and no missiles, the ability of a TF scout to kill a miner before defense arrives is a lot of their opening strength.

If you don't know how to kill a drone with a scout, learn. You don't use dis mostly for the same reason you always carry a nan. If you don't have a gat, and one could kill a drone, it might cost you the game.