Cobra + Dual fixed beam + 1.1 heat system seems ok

[Fost]

I was really worried that Beam lasers would be unusable in 1.1 as I tend to play with fixed beams (just because it makes combat more fun. Gimbals and turrets do too much work for you).

Anyway - tested a bit last night and it seems fine under normal combat conditions, where you can't fire all the time anyway, there's plenty of cool down periods. I've always thought the beam lasers were spot on with damage etc so was worried this would break my favourite play style but I needn't have been concerned.


One thought for the future: if weapon heat becomes much more of a thing - add a safety toggle - so you can fire your beam lasers normally and they'll cut out before doing any damage OR you can remove the safety and get an extra 20% but heat will really build up.

 

[Vandaahl]

Cool to read, and thanks for that. Just out of interest, what do you use on the small hardpoints? Assuming the fixed beams are on the medium ones...

 

[Loskene]

The Cobra has a fantastic radiator so I wouldn't expect dual beams to give it much more trouble than before 1.1. I ran a pair of gimballed class 2 beams with multis on the wings (because gimbals behave like fixed weapons if you deselect your target, lol@chaff), but unfortunately I can't verify that it still keeps its cool without selling the Asp I got the day before the update :V

 

[Cmdr Pli55ken]

I think it's a underhanded (but neat) way to buff the fixed lasers over the gimballed/turretted ones. Earlier they just had less power draw and higher DPS, but now the higher DPS and the more intermittent fire you dish out go hand in hand with the heat management. Make them much more viable (apart from being loads more fun).

 

[Fost]

Cool to read, and thanks for that. Just out of interest, what do you use on the small hardpoints?

Homing missiles - just in case anything tries to run away

It's basically an old school Elite1984 style setup but I think the most fun.

 

[Arubeto]

Sounds good! I really like the idea to make managing heat play a much greater role in dogfights. Makes them way more interesting, IMHO.

 

[Cmdr Pli55ken]

Homing missiles - just in case anything tries to run away

It's basically an old school Elite1984

Heh. Homing missiles in Elite were just good for one thing: Making sure targets that are still just dots will be hit by the lasers.
(when the targetting clicked in you knew they were dead center)

 

[Bokugo]

You can also just upgrade (or not) Life Support and have that turn off when deployed with priorities. Then just undeploy to refresh the timer. This cuts sound off but I managed to squeeze an A1 Shield Battery on my Sidewinder that already has a gimbal burst and Railgun. Quite the fun 1 million credit toy

This does take out a lot of sound though so it's really only for last ditch efforts to squeeze more juice out.

 

[Speedbird]

1984 missiles were:

1. Target assist as above poster described. Arm missile line up tartget watch missile change to T and let rip.
2. Ecm of last resort, if he launched one at you, launch one back, if he has ecm, he triggers and wipes his missile out as well.
3. After all these years it is good to see that things don't change. Even in '84 the cost of the missile was often less than the bounty collected.

Speedbird.