Beam lasers not damaging hull?

Ipecac

Ipecac
Hey guys,

I'm flying a Fer-de-lance with two 2F beams, engineered efficient, and a size 4 multi-cannon. In a combat zone just now, I noticed that after the shields were off, my beam didn't seem to be doing any damage at all to the ships, only my m-c and missiles. Has this always been thus and I'm just noticing now?

If this is true, I should more multis? I take the shields of real gud, then I have to blast away for some time to kill them. Can I get educated?
 

Phisto Sobanii

Phisto Sobanii
Ipecac said:
Hey guys,

I'm flying a Fer-de-lance with two 2F beams, engineered efficient, and a size 4 multi-cannon. In a combat zone just now, I noticed that after the shields were off, my beam didn't seem to be doing any damage at all to the ships, only my m-c and missiles. Has this always been thus and I'm just noticing now?

If this is true, I should more multis? I take the shields of real gud, then I have to blast away for some time to kill them. Can I get educated?
Click to expand...

Could we get a copy of your build via EDShipyard or Coriolis? That would be most helpful.

NPCs in combat zones have gotten tougher since the last update or so. Much more armor and the like. With lasers generally doing less damage than kinetics against hull, especially since the Engineers dropped, that's probably part of the problem. The other issue is range control. Damage falloff from lasers is generally worse than kinetics. As a rule I never fire beams if I'm further than 2 km. Always try to get in way closer than that because I believe the falloff starts at something like 600m, though I could be wrong.

I've got a FDL build that runs four beam lasers and a huge corrosive multicannon. Beam the shields, multicannon weakens the hull, but it always takes longer than a loadout featuring kinetics. I should also mentioned the build is mostly for fun and to mix things up.

If you're looking for something really sweet check out fixed overcharged multicannons. Four incendiary and one huge corrosive tears it up while still being relatively gentle on your power, distro, and heat generation.
 

Northpin

Northpin
IN combat zones all the ships are of the highly engineered type.
So yea, they all have lots of hrp/mrp

Also you need to consider:
  • distance of engagement - beams lose a lot of damage if your target is more than 1.3-1.4km away. if you regularly shoot targets beyond this distance you will get better results with long range beams instead of efficient
  • target type - a size 2 beam has a piercing value of 35. Anything with a hull armor rating (hardness) bigger than 35 will take less and less damage from your beams
alliance ships have armor rating of 65, federal mediums have 60, kraits have 55-60, vulture 55, asps 52.
That and the fact that hulls are generally resistant to lasers means your beams will generally do rather crap damage on basically anything bigger than a Cobra Mk3

You can help that by putting corrosive effect on one of your multi-cannons.
 

Ipecac

Ipecac
Okay I'm pretty sure this is it (never used coriolis beore). I have just swapped out the two missiles for cannons.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone s.orbis.zone

I also realized the damage falloff thing too--I'm sure that's why they weren't doing anything.

Thanks for the reply!
 

Phisto Sobanii

Phisto Sobanii
Ipecac said:
Okay I'm pretty sure this is it (never used coriolis beore). I have just swapped out the two missiles for cannons.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone s.orbis.zone

I also realized the damage falloff thing too--I'm sure that's why they weren't doing anything.

Thanks for the reply!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link! Looks like you're making your way through Engineers?

I think cannons are a good choice over missiles. if you can, overcharge the heck out of them and the multicannon.

EDIT: I just noticed the multicannon is fixed. That's a good gun, but with cannons it might get awkward due to different shot speeds of so many weapons unless you gimbal either the cannons or the multicannon. Having as many guns as you can converge on a single firing solution is good practice.
 

Northpin

Northpin
yea, use coriolis and make an engineered ship then save it - one that you encounter most.
then use that save as an opponent in the build of your ship and check offense tab and play with engagement range - it pretty educational :)
 

Kzak

Kzak
I'd go for gimballed multicannons rather than fixed, to get better time on target even if the damage is less. Also, target modules like the powerplant to destroy your enemies faster, otherwise you'll have to chew through the entire hull hit point pool.
 

Camisade

Camisade
As someone who engaged in a delicate and artful elephant ballet today (that being the "in" term for two Corvettes dueling, I believe), where my opponent was using twin beams, I can say with utter certainty that beams DO chew through hull (and shields, and probably Sag A* if you got close enough!) with remarkable speed.
 

Camisade

Camisade
CMDR QUANTIS TRAP said:
When using beams do one of two things: 1) engineer then for long range! 2) Suck the tail pipe of your target!
Click to expand...

I believe it's also acceptable (and certainly more heroic looking) to ride your enemy like Major Kong rode the A-bomb in "Dr. Strangelove"...
(Crying out "Yee-HAW" is also appropriate when practicing good range management during engagements.)

Proper distance when using efficient beams!
 

Riverside

Riverside
CMDR QUANTIS TRAP said:
When using beams do one of two things: 1) engineer then for long range! 2) Suck the tail pipe of you target!
Click to expand...

The biggest long range fixed beam I can fit is my primary weapon of choice in CZs, Normally I use a Python (for sentimental reasons more than anything) but recently I've been using an FDL with a huge beam and 4x short range multicannons, as someone said I put corrosive on one of them & various special effects on the others. Simple & effective.
 

rekurzion

rekurzion
a great way to extend the usefulness of laser weaponry is to use them for shield stripping and then targeting subsystems, don't bother eating through hull. breach chance is not affected by armor toughness so even small hardpoints can deal good damage to large vessels with enough time on target.

if you are packing missiles then i also suggest targeting engines for any ship with no shields. quickest way to disable a ship. also target chaff on the larger ships to allow your fleet more shots on target.
 

Ipecac

Ipecac
Okay this is great feedback thanks!

In my combat now, I'm constantly controlling FA on-off and moving my pipes, doing shield calls and heatsinks and even switching firegroups when shields go down. I'm feeling proud that I'm coming along. But.

How do you guys target subsystems on the quick?
I cant be doodling around in the panels.
 

Kzak

Kzak
Ipecac said:
Okay this is great feedback thanks!

In my combat now, I'm constantly controlling FA on-off and moving my pipes, doing shield calls and heatsinks and even switching firegroups when shields go down. I'm feeling proud that I'm coming along. But.

How do you guys target subsystems on the quick?
I cant be doodling around in the panels.
Click to expand...
You can assign a key to cycling through subsystems, this is in the menu under Controls.
 

masterboot

masterboot
Something is wrong with the whole subsystem thing. I have put their power plant to 0% but they keep on fighting like nothing has happened. That used to blow them apart. Or at least stop them from moving.
 

Riverside

Riverside
oot said:
Something is wrong with the whole subsystem thing. I have put their power plant to 0% but they keep on fighting like nothing has happened. That used to blow them apart. Or at least stop them from moving.
Click to expand...

Each hit to a power plant at 0% has a chance to blow the ship up, some appear less likely to do so than others and that may be a bug on that particular ship type (ime the Chieftain & variants), but it may just be something about the location of the power plant within the ship too. Taking out the hull always works.
 

Schmack

Schmack
I've experienced this many times as well. In fact, I've gotten behind an anaconda and dropped it pretty quick to 12% at which point it stopped dropping at all, and it took me about 3x as long to finish it off as it did to get it to 12%. I get it that 0% is 50% functional, if that makes sense, but why stop at 12% and just sit there tanking massive amounts of dps?
 
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