I have built my type-8 as a robust and protected transport. Now time for weapons and I'm pretty confused what works good on 8. I don't mind occasional bounty hunting and powerplay tasks, but main purpose of having weapons on my 8 is to blow up those pesky npc ships nice and quick. Railguns, cytos, multis, cannons, what do you recommend?
For a merchanter, those few seconds that a stream of explosive mines buys you ,till your FSD is ready, is gold
None, don't try to multipurpose at the same time, but a workable setup would be 1M2S gimbaled MC and 3S gimbaled pulse lasers
Besides mentioned cytos I would propose to take a look on Enforcer. Not sure that 4A PD will allow practical use of Railguns, PA nor anything other then kinetic.
From behavior of my T-8 and my insufficient PvE skills, for me reinforced transport setup would be Concord or Frags in M, something similar in S, 7A Prismatics and I would count mostly on face-to-face attack (NPCs are liking that for strange reasons), discharge all what I have during last meters, then ramming.
Whatever guns you enjoy using really. Ignore the "you can only play the game the way I want you to" people, they're just projecting their own insecurities onto others. Try out a few different things and see how that works for you. You can always swap to something else.
Here are my sidenotes I took while trying different weapons...
Missile build (some has to thermal engineered), viable to take down a pirate conda. Limited ammo, escpecially if someone decided to use seekers.
Lower hardpoint is situated in lowest and back section of a ship which is ideal for turreted weapon. It fires backwards too, so it like a ventral turret on a B29 bomber, good for a laser or multi. That hardpoint has a terrible alignment with remaining ones. So it has to be a turreted debuff weapon or a missile pylon.
Top frontal small hardpoint. It has slightly better alignment than medium ventral hardpoint, for ~80% syncs well with remaining small hardpoints. In my opinion - same as above - has to be a turreted debuff weapon or a missile pylon.
All remaining fours small hardpoints. Pretty much good for anything that fires straight. Lasers, multis, cannons, missiles.
Distro not sufficient for handling four small railguns. Ok to handle two.
I haven't tested all frag build. Small frags are pretty meh in my opinion.
There is a space for being creative here...
I ended up with... four small shock cannons. Ventral turret focused pulse scramble spectrum. Top turret rapid firing mine launcher with rev cascade effect.
In the near future I'll be building Type 8 for pvp piracy and that version will feature 3-4 cytorscramblers and fsd distruption missiles.
Missile build (some has to thermal engineered), viable to take down a pirate conda. Limited ammo, escpecially if someone decided to use seekers.
Lower hardpoint is situated in lowest and back section of a ship which is ideal for turreted weapon. It fires backwards too, so it like a ventral turret on a B29 bomber, good for a laser or multi. That hardpoint has a terrible alignment with remaining ones. So it has to be a turreted debuff weapon or a missile pylon.
Top frontal small hardpoint. It has slightly better alignment than medium ventral hardpoint, for ~80% syncs well with remaining small hardpoints. In my opinion - same as above - has to be a turreted debuff weapon or a missile pylon.
All remaining fours small hardpoints. Pretty much good for anything that fires straight. Lasers, multis, cannons, missiles.
Distro not sufficient for handling four small railguns. Ok to handle two.
I haven't tested all frag build. Small frags are pretty meh in my opinion.
There is a space for being creative here...
I ended up with... four small shock cannons. Ventral turret focused pulse scramble spectrum. Top turret rapid firing mine launcher with rev cascade effect.
In the near future I'll be building Type 8 for pvp piracy and that version will feature 3-4 cytorscramblers and fsd distruption missiles.
One of the things I really enjoy about my armed traders is using weapons I wouldn't normally put on a ship due to ammo restrictions, namely shock cannons and missiles. You can never go wrong with Cytos to get the most out of a size 1, assuming you can stay on target well enough with them in a loaded cargo ship, but the Type-8 is probably up to that task. I would probably go with 2 Cytos (efficient to free up pips, they'll still do the job no problem) then 2 small Advanced Missile Racks for their ammo capacity, as I know from a Viper MKIV I have set up that way it can make sure work of Condas and the like, then use the last small and the medium for something I could reliably hit smaller ships with. I haven't put any weapons on my Type-8 yet, once I finish up a couple of other ships I can't decide hard points for I'll give it a try now, thanks!
I put a beam laser in the medium slot, and 5 cannons in the small slots. The cannons are G5 sturdy, to increase their armor penetration stat in an attempt to somewhat overcome the disadvantaged AP of them being small weapons. Auto-loader to help sustain fire rates a little bit.
I don't know if it's "good" in a min/maxxer sense, but I find it quite comical to hear 5 cannons firing at once, and it's fun to see how fast your enemy's powerplant can be turned into scrap.
I've been toying with the idea of changing them from auto-loader to high-yield. I'm not sure if the reduced damage tradeoff for the increased internals carnage is worthwhile but ponying up buckets of mats for an experiment that might suck kind of turns me off.
I don't know if it's "good" in a min/maxxer sense, but I find it quite comical to hear 5 cannons firing at once, and it's fun to see how fast your enemy's powerplant can be turned into scrap.
I've been toying with the idea of changing them from auto-loader to high-yield. I'm not sure if the reduced damage tradeoff for the increased internals carnage is worthwhile but ponying up buckets of mats for an experiment that might suck kind of turns me off.
Punching above weight with 5 hard points, easy enough on the size 4 PD, if I was better with fixed MCs I'd give it a go.Three Cytos, two enforcers and a fixed MC. Didn't test it yet, but sounds like the best alternative. I also had them leftover, so
For myself I'm currently mounting 3 Cytos, and 3 adv. Multis
I'm considering going to 2 Cytos and 4 multis.
edit:After some combat testing in a lo-RES I'm leaning towards 2 Cytos, 4 adv. multis.
I'm considering going to 2 Cytos and 4 multis.
edit:After some combat testing in a lo-RES I'm leaning towards 2 Cytos, 4 adv. multis.
Last edited:
I tested it today and consider it junk*.Three Cytos, two enforcers and a fixed MC. Didn't test it yet, but sounds like the best alternative. I also had them leftover, so
The cyto range is soo poor combined with the relative slow speed and turn rate of the T8, even with DD5 drag drives, you can rather skip guns alltogether and just run away as a trader. Might be ok for the lone Conda or T10 that interdicts you, but anything more nimble and it's no fun. I'll keep the guns, but I guess they won't be used much
* I mean, it works in PvE, and it's ok. But muh credits per hour
This all short range Enforcer Cannon build minces NPCs coming and going to stations. (Not for cz/res!)
"The Hall Monitor"
A mix of engineering to:
"The Hall Monitor"
A mix of engineering to:
- thermal shock to stop them boosting
- incendiary to help with shields
- corrosive for hull
- auto-loaders for sustained fire.
- distributor is done for high charge capacity
Personally I've never understood why people add offensive weapons to a trade ship...it's just so much quicker, and profitable, to wake out of there and continue on your trading route than killing the NPCs that interdict you. The many minutes wasted killing the NPCs is simply not worth it for the tiny bounty you get from them...and as to defend yourself against a PvP Cmdr, no, just no, you will die.I tested it today and consider it junk*.
The cyto range is soo poor combined with the relative slow speed and turn rate of the T8, even with DD5 drag drives, you can rather skip guns alltogether and just run away as a trader. Might be ok for the lone Conda or T10 that interdicts you, but anything more nimble and it's no fun. I'll keep the guns, but I guess they won't be used much
* I mean, it works in PvE, and it's ok. But muh credits per hour
CMDR, no chance, true dat.
PvE Elite Condas for those sweet G5 mats (before the mats flood)... yes please
Even before the over abundance of g5 mats I wouldn't have wasted my time for such a small return.CMDR, no chance, true dat.
PvE Elite Condas for those sweet G5 mats (before the mats flood)... yes please
Dedicated combat ship and haz res or stacked assassination missions resulted in more mats / hr.
The only thing that would make me attack them is if the npc was named after someone I know in RL, so I screenshot it and gloat I killed them