Ships Best Weapons To Defend NPC's?

[AfxTwn]

Hi, I am doing a few faction missions to try and raise my level from cordial to friendly (also is it possible to be friendly with all factions or just one?) and I wanted to know which weapons to get to defend against NPC's for salvage missions etc and if I come up against anything during passenger missions? I currently have no weapons equipped and around 5 million to spend.

Thanks for any suggestions

 

[Ceekay]

Really depends on the Asp build, the class 4 PD is a bit undersize for full energy weapon fit so I'd suggest at least 2 small gimballed m-cannon and 2 small pulse turrets (in the lower hardpoints) then either gimballed pulse or m-cannons in the medium hardpoints.

https://coriolis.io/outfit/asp/0pft...02242f.Iw18QDJJA===.IwBj4z2HRI==?bn=Asp Ex 6D

If you want a purely defensive build fit 6 mine launchers (even 2 can be surprisingly effective) and spoil your pursuers day

https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/asp...020202242h.Iw18WQ==.IwBj4ypUg===.?bn=Asp mine

 

[goemon]

weapons have no defensive value in ED (beside a questionable small burst laser turret which might let a npc get into combat mode isntead of predator mode)

- defenses are: boost (power distributor), speed (thrusters), shield, chaff, point defence, shieldboosters and a smallish shield cell bank to hold your shield up till you are out of weapon range.

for an AspE without enginnering that means: 4A powerdistributor, 5A thrusters, 5D shield, one chaff, one point defence in the utility slot above the thrusters, 2 class a shieldboosters and maybe a class 2 scb.

for salvage missions fit a collector limpet controller class 3 - it is all about the speed of colelcting salvage.

 

[AfxTwn]

I have 5A power plant, thrusters and FSD and a 4A power distributor. In terms of shield I have a 3A shield generator and 4x 0A shield boosters. My other optional internal slots are taken up by a 6D business class passenger cabin, 5B fuel scoop and a 3E and 2E cargo rack (purely temporary so I can do some cargo-based missions, either deliveries or salvage, in order to increase my standing with various factions).

Perhaps defence was the wrong term, I meant more that sometimes during missions I am told that enemies have been sent to get me and I will receive a bonus if I kill them so perhaps installing some weapons would help with that.

Does anyone rate the use of missiles or are gimballed multi cannons/turrets better?

Also with regard to your point Ceekay about using mines, if I were to kill an NPC with those, would that count towards the bonus for killing them even though I haven't directly engaged them in combat?

 

[Ceekay]

I have 5A power plant, thrusters and FSD and a 4A power distributor. In terms of shield I have a 3A shield generator and 4x 0A shield boosters. My other optional internal slots are taken up by a 6D business class passenger cabin, 5B fuel scoop and a 3E and 2E cargo rack (purely temporary so I can do some cargo-based missions, either deliveries or salvage, in order to increase my standing with various factions).

Perhaps defence was the wrong term, I meant more that sometimes during missions I am told that enemies have been sent to get me and I will receive a bonus if I kill them so perhaps installing some weapons would help with that.

Does anyone rate the use of missiles or are gimballed multi cannons/turrets better?

Also with regard to your point Ceekay about using mines, if I were to kill an NPC with those, would that count towards the bonus for killing them even though I haven't directly engaged them in combat?

Any of the passenger mission assassins I've seen have been dangerous/deadly level FGS/Python/FAS (at the time I was using a heavily engineered Python), with your current shield strength I'd strongly suggest hitting the boost and dropping some mines to distract them.

The Vulture I killed with mines from a T6 (just a standard interdiction) had a bounty around 40k so I don't see any reason why the mission bounty wouldn't be paid on top of the system/faction bounty but they do tend to be fairly serious NPC's that should equate to your ship and rank.

 

[AfxTwn]

Any of the passenger mission assassins I've seen have been dangerous/deadly level FGS/Python/FAS (at the time I was using a heavily engineered Python), with your current shield strength I'd strongly suggest hitting the boost and dropping some mines to distract them.

The Vulture I killed with mines from a T6 (just a standard interdiction) had a bounty around 40k so I don't see any reason why the mission bounty wouldn't be paid on top of the system/faction bounty but they do tend to be fairly serious NPC's that should equate to your ship and rank.

I think I will fit some mines then. Do I put them in all the hardpoints slots because they are all front facing?

 

[Ceekay]

I haven't tried them on an Asp just a T6 (it's 2 hardpoints are on the front) and I must have dropped dozens with no issues (it took about 30 to kill the Vulture) but try them on all the hardpoints and fire them off with 4 pips to shields just in case you get hit by one.

The tactic appears to be run away fast so the target gets directly behind you and drop as many mines as possible so the target ship gets swamped by them, keeping out of the targets weapon range at all times (usually around 3 km).

 

[goemon]

I have 5A power plant, thrusters and FSD and a 4A power distributor. In terms of shield I have a 3A shield generator and 4x 0A shield boosters. My other optional internal slots are taken up by a 6D business class passenger cabin, 5B fuel scoop and a 3E and 2E cargo rack (purely temporary so I can do some cargo-based missions, either deliveries or salvage, in order to increase my standing with various factions).

Perhaps defence was the wrong term, I meant more that sometimes during missions I am told that enemies have been sent to get me and I will receive a bonus if I kill them so perhaps installing some weapons would help with that.

Does anyone rate the use of missiles or are gimballed multi cannons/turrets better?

Also with regard to your point Ceekay about using mines, if I were to kill an NPC with those, would that count towards the bonus for killing them even though I haven't directly engaged them in combat?

3A shield is a bit thin on an AspE ... half the MJ of a class 5D shield. with a 3A you can only run (if you don't engineer the hell out of shield and boosters).

very effective is 3 beam lasers, and 3 missile racks on an aspe - strip shields, fire missiles (seekers).

put 1 turett in the upper slot, and one in the hardpoint downwards.

 

[AfxTwn]

3A shield is a bit thin on an AspE ... half the MJ of a class 5D shield. with a 3A you can only run (if you don't engineer the hell out of shield and boosters).

very effective is 3 beam lasers, and 3 missile racks on an aspe - strip shields, fire missiles (seekers).

put 1 turett in the upper slot, and one in the hardpoint downwards.

That's the trouble with the balancing the Asp at the moment and smaller ships in general, there just isn't enough space to have all high class items on board. I took the 5B fuel scoop as I want to do passenger missions and some of those are quite big distances so I will need to do a lot of fuel scooping.

Eventually I want to buy an Anaconda but as that's so expensive and the missions I'm doing at the moment are paying so little, it's going to take me a long time to save up the money. I have seen that some of the passenger missions can be quite lucrative but they require me to be friendly (I assume with the station's governing faction rather than the station itself?), so at the moment I am having to do lots of grinding missions to bump up my reputation.

I have been staying around RMK 6 (Zudov Hub) and doing various delivery/salvage missions and transporting passengers but some of those missions have involved NPC's coming to take my cargo andd so I thought it best to equip some weapons as there is a cash bonus for killing them.

I have equipped all my hardpoints with mine launchers but since I last posted, I haven't had any interdictions lol. When I do get an interdiction I will see how the mines play out, if they work then I'll stick with those but if I find myself struggling then I might try your weapons suggestion Goemon.

 

[goemon]

That's the trouble with the balancing the Asp at the moment and smaller ships in general, there just isn't enough space to have all high class items on board. I took the 5B fuel scoop as I want to do passenger missions and some of those are quite big distances so I will need to do a lot of fuel scooping.

...

I have seen that some of the passenger missions can be quite lucrative but they require me to be friendly (I assume with the station's governing faction rather than the station itself?), so at the moment I am having to do lots of grinding missions to bump up my reputation.

- this case is only a case with the AspE (which "misses" the appropriate class 4 slot - a class 4 shield would have the right optimal hullmass for an AspE). for comparison: a courier doesn't win much from going from a class 2 shield to a class 3 shield - a class 2 shield is already above optimal hull mass. it isn't about flying a large ship.

- AspE isn't a small ship (at all). i suggest looking at some size comparison videos. at is as wide and high as a python, only slightly shorter. it has a massive hitbox.

- i do mission running in a cobra mkIII - you get less strong ships interdicting you, and you outrun what you can't kill.

 

[StiTch]

That's the trouble with the balancing the Asp at the moment and smaller ships in general, there just isn't enough space to have all high class items on board. I took the 5B fuel scoop as I want to do passenger missions and some of those are quite big distances so I will need to do a lot of fuel scooping.

It's called loadout sacrifice, and is the reason ships have limited internal spaces to begin with.

Only ship that actively has a problem with where it's at is the DBX.

AspX has plenty of internal space. Pre-2.1 it was the multirole king. If you can't make that work, look at "multirole" again - it won't outperform dedicated passenger ships.

Defensively, Goemon is correct. Weapons are generally not defensive, though if you wanted them to be you have to go for highest possible DPS. Two RNGineered C2 pulses or better incendiary MCs and 4 x C1 missile rack could take down most NPCs fairly quickly.

I saw mines mentioned. Mines are a perfectly good waste of hardpoint slots, mass and time. I don't actually know why they're even still in game. Total joke.