Ship Builds & Load Outs Best ship weapon that can deal damage to both shield and hull

[Starbound]

My question is more related to Vulture that only have two large hard points. I already do have an idea with my FLD, which does invovle mounting a huge plasma on it. But I didnt knew that laser weapons are able to dump my heat onto a target (As I understand here) But wouldnt beam weapons really quickly run my weapon powers down? Plus it also sounds like you talking about PvP, which I wont go into. I had seen AI using chaffs, which confuse any gimble weapons I will put on

No, I wasn't talking about PVP

I don't see how a Vulture is going to be of any functional use in combat for your needs even with its 2 large hardpoints. That literally limits it to 2 plasmas or frags or 1 of each.. and it will require a lot of good flying ... so it's rather incompatible with your stated needs and limitations.

The way I see it, if you need low flying skill requirement but effective PVE performance then you are better off giving up the raw damage path and going instead for effects applied to target.

Possible options for PVE effects:

Thermal 'StunLock' : NPCs will not use high heat weapons (like plasma) or boost if their heat level is high. This is why thermal vent, thermal shock and thermal cascade effects are very effective if you can saturate the target with it.

Subsystem Wrecker: High Yield and Scramble Spectrum effects used in conjunction with subsystem targeting lets you knock out NPC ships out of a fight quickly.

.... and if you are having issues with chaff , use a single weapon with emissive munition effect plus upgrade your sensors to 'long range' . That will significantly reduce the effect of chaff as well as improve any gimbal or turret lock on distance (it does not improve accuracy but it does help a lot).

A Fer de Lance can combine all the above too.

3 beam turrets with thermal vent + long range
1 pulse laser turret with emissive munition + long range
1 huge cannon turret with high yield + long range
Upgrade sensors to best A grade and give them long range (which synergizes with long range on weapons)

... and you'll have a ship that can start stripping shields and heating up target from long range and uses its cannon to subsystem target thrusters or the power distributor will literally knock the ship out of the fight. The reason you use cannon is for its turret and high armor penetration.. modules dont take that much damage to delete and many times you just need to drop shields and get in 3 or 4 cannon hits to take out the module. With a Huge cannon its going to be less hits (my only experienc is with mediums and larges).

So.. I guess this build would let you lock down the target via heat as its strips the shields and by the time shields down it wont be able to boost...which increases the chances of your cannon doing the damage. Thermal damage from lasers also helps damage subsystems without applying much damage to the hull so its a synergy for disabling working there. Once thrusters or power distributor are gone, you can just target reactor and pop the ship.

Or you can just focus on thermal lock and go full beams, with the mediums thermal venting and the huge beam with overcharged+thermal conduit so it becomes the sole source of huge heat spike. At grade 5 upgrades the huge beam would be stacking +75% damage and +75% heat generation of overcharged on top of conduit scaling up beam damage once heat is past 90% up to 160%. Since the huge beam will be shorter range than the rest and your target wont be able to boost due to heat levels... your flying is then limited to just controlling the distance. If your huge beam is getting your ship too hot then boost away so its out of range and the medium with vents cool you down while keeping target hot. Rinse and repeat.

Depending on your piloting ability you can use gimbals rather than turrets for increased damage. I've an arm injury that dont let me use joystick or swirl a mouse that good so I fly both hands on keyboard with a tiny jstick throttle lever on the side which I just leave on 'most maneuverable' setting and brake/max speed with keyboard W and S as needed. I can't aim fixed and gimbals still require a lot of nose pointing for my tastes... I find turrets effective enough in PVE if they stack effects and they work great with unassisted flight drifting and rolling.

You could also consider using the Python Mk2 though.. 4 larges and 2 medium weapon slots is a pain train waiting to happen.

Im no pvp nor combat expert but.. it works for me at least. I love beam turrets

 

[Danspy501st]

No, I wasn't talking about PVP

I don't see how a Vulture is going to be of any functional use in combat for your needs even with its 2 large hardpoints. That literally limits it to 2 plasmas or frags or 1 of each.. and it will require a lot of good flying ... so it's rather incompatible with your stated needs and limitations.

The way I see it, if you need low flying skill requirement but effective PVE performance then you are better off giving up the raw damage path and going instead for effects applied to target.

Possible options for PVE effects:

Thermal 'StunLock' : NPCs will not use high heat weapons (like plasma) or boost if their heat level is high. This is why thermal vent, thermal shock and thermal cascade effects are very effective if you can saturate the target with it.

Subsystem Wrecker: High Yield and Scramble Spectrum effects used in conjunction with subsystem targeting lets you knock out NPC ships out of a fight quickly.

.... and if you are having issues with chaff , use a single weapon with emissive munition effect plus upgrade your sensors to 'long range' . That will significantly reduce the effect of chaff as well as improve any gimbal or turret lock on distance (it does not improve accuracy but it does help a lot).

A Fer de Lance can combine all the above too.

3 beam turrets with thermal vent + long range
1 pulse laser turret with emissive munition + long range
1 huge cannon turret with high yield + long range
Upgrade sensors to best A grade and give them long range (which synergizes with long range on weapons)

... and you'll have a ship that can start stripping shields and heating up target from long range and uses its cannon to subsystem target thrusters or the power distributor will literally knock the ship out of the fight. The reason you use cannon is for its turret and high armor penetration.. modules dont take that much damage to delete and many times you just need to drop shields and get in 3 or 4 cannon hits to take out the module. With a Huge cannon its going to be less hits (my only experienc is with mediums and larges).

So.. I guess this build would let you lock down the target via heat as its strips the shields and by the time shields down it wont be able to boost...which increases the chances of your cannon doing the damage. Thermal damage from lasers also helps damage subsystems without applying much damage to the hull so its a synergy for disabling working there. Once thrusters or power distributor are gone, you can just target reactor and pop the ship.

Or you can just focus on thermal lock and go full beams, with the mediums thermal venting and the huge beam with overcharged+thermal conduit so it becomes the sole source of huge heat spike. At grade 5 upgrades the huge beam would be stacking +75% damage and +75% heat generation of overcharged on top of conduit scaling up beam damage once heat is past 90% up to 160%. Since the huge beam will be shorter range than the rest and your target wont be able to boost due to heat levels... your flying is then limited to just controlling the distance. If your huge beam is getting your ship too hot then boost away so its out of range and the medium with vents cool you down while keeping target hot. Rinse and repeat.

Depending on your piloting ability you can use gimbals rather than turrets for increased damage. I've an arm injury that dont let me use joystick or swirl a mouse that good so I fly both hands on keyboard with a tiny jstick throttle lever on the side which I just leave on 'most maneuverable' setting and brake/max speed with keyboard W and S as needed. I can't aim fixed and gimbals still require a lot of nose pointing for my tastes... I find turrets effective enough in PVE if they stack effects and they work great with unassisted flight drifting and rolling.

You could also consider using the Python Mk2 though.. 4 larges and 2 medium weapon slots is a pain train waiting to happen.

Im no pvp nor combat expert but.. it works for me at least. I love beam turrets

This is my current idea for Vulture. It is nowhere near as I had seen the other builds of it. But Im limit to the engineers, as I more or less beginning to unlock them. I still might save FDL and/or Vulture for further CZ battles. But I do need one because one of the engineers does require me to do them.

So my thought, after last experinece I had with CZ, to have a medium to small ship which is more defence focused. Mainly the shields (The reasons for the boosters) As to hope that for my bad pilotting, that my shields could take of of the hits for my mistakes, while I trying my best to fly around and engaging targets. I do have a more agile Eagle for training myself in using the speed and manoeuvre as it's defence rather then relaying on brute force with weapons or relaying on the shields and armour to help me through.

As my Inara shows, then I do have a a Corvette, which I had the idea of building into more of a tank to take hits. But that ship is nowhere ready, and Im abit afraid to take such ship into a CZ because if Im in a system with no stations large enough to have it docked, or that it will get overwhelmed and getting destroyed

 

[BarFly]

Hello,

No, I wasn't talking about PVP

The way I see it, if you need low flying skill requirement but effective PVE performance then you are better off giving up the raw damage path and going instead for effects applied to target.

Depending on your piloting ability you can use gimbals rather than turrets for increased damage. I've an arm injury that dont let me use joystick or swirl a mouse that good so I fly both hands on keyboard with a tiny jstick throttle lever on the side which I just leave on 'most maneuverable' setting and brake/max speed with keyboard W and S as needed. I can't aim fixed and gimbals still require a lot of nose pointing for my tastes... I find turrets effective enough in PVE if they stack effects and they work great with unassisted flight drifting and rolling.

You could also consider using the Python Mk2 though.. 4 larges and 2 medium weapon slots is a pain train waiting to happen.

Im no pvp nor combat expert but.. it works for me at least. I love beam turrets

I also love my beam turrets, so welcome to the club.
A lot of people only look at the damage per second. But if the target is not in front of you, there is no damage. But the turrets deliver damage where ever the hostile ship is.
On my 2 armed and shielded Trader ships (Python & Cutter) there are always two beam turrets, mounted as far in the back of the ship as possible. Both are long range. One is 'Thermal Vent', the other is 'Oversized'. Getting pulled out, i boost away and the beams starting to shoot the attacker. They are set to 'My Target Only'. Of course it is combined with an A Grade long range Sensor. The rest of the weapons are gimballed Multis, pimped up mostly to Overcharged (one also to long range/oversized) with 'Corrossive/ Incendiary/Oversized. Additionally i use the +30% ammunition.
That works great in PvE. But to be honest i don't know how that works in a CZ. But an Elite Conda with its fighter is grilled (i really mean 'grilled').

 

[Danspy501st]

Hello,


I also love my beam turrets, so welcome to the club.
A lot of people only look at the damage per second. But if the target is not in front of you, there is no damage. But the turrets deliver damage where ever the hostile ship is.
On my 2 armed and shielded Trader ships (Python & Cutter) there are always two beam turrets, mounted as far in the back of the ship as possible. Both are long range. One is 'Thermal Vent', the other is 'Oversized'. Getting pulled out, i boost away and the beams starting to shoot the attacker. They are set to 'My Target Only'. Of course it is combined with an A Grade long range Sensor. The rest of the weapons are gimballed Multis, pimped up mostly to Overcharged (one also to long range/oversized) with 'Corrossive/ Incendiary/Oversized. Additionally i use the +30% ammunition.
That works great in PvE. But to be honest i don't know how that works in a CZ. But an Elite Conda with its fighter is grilled (i really mean 'grilled').

I have two pulse laser turrets on my Corvette. They are sat to forward firing for now, but Im always fearful of seeing them accidentally hitting a system sercurity ship while trying to hit the target ship. I had seen some of those police ships flying abit... Annoying

 

[BarFly]

Hello,

I have two pulse laser turrets on my Corvette. They are sat to forward firing for now, but Im always fearful of seeing them accidentally hitting a system sercurity ship while trying to hit the target ship. I had seen some of those police ships flying abit... Annoying

oh yes, they are often flying pretty weird.
In i don't know how many fights, i had that problem once! And i don't even know if i was shooting at the security or my turrets. I just retracted my weapeons and flew to the station to finish the mission. No one shoot at me, there was no fine on me, all the security ships were green...

Edit: Maybee one of the security ships hit me? And that was the reason why my target system painted that ship in red?

 

[Starbound]

This is my current idea for Vulture. It is nowhere near as I had seen the other builds of it. But Im limit to the engineers, as I more or less beginning to unlock them. I still might save FDL and/or Vulture for further CZ battles. But I do need one because one of the engineers does require me to do them.

So my thought, after last experinece I had with CZ, to have a medium to small ship which is more defence focused. Mainly the shields (The reasons for the boosters) As to hope that for my bad pilotting, that my shields could take of of the hits for my mistakes, while I trying my best to fly around and engaging targets. I do have a more agile Eagle for training myself in using the speed and manoeuvre as it's defence rather then relaying on brute force with weapons or relaying on the shields and armour to help me through.

As my Inara shows, then I do have a a Corvette, which I had the idea of building into more of a tank to take hits. But that ship is nowhere ready, and Im abit afraid to take such ship into a CZ because if Im in a system with no stations large enough to have it docked, or that it will get overwhelmed and getting destroyed

Ok, here's my point on this again:

You state you're not a good combat pilot (and thats ok I suck too) but you are going with a weapon loadout that requires manual aiming at very short range in a ship that requires agility to survive (it is not much of a 'tank') . That is what confuses me. Shields will come down quick when multiple NPCs are on you as well as the collisionfest that it sometimes becomes.

On a side note, the power consumption is dangerously high. If you take slight damage to power plant or power distributor half your ship will shut down. At 99% power dist. use when weapons out this thing is a Ford Pinto seeking to bump into something.

 

[BackToTheMud]

Plasma and rails.

 

[Vardaugas]

Large Fixed Short Range Blaster Inertial Impact Burst Lasers.
No joke. Been in a HazRes for the current CG and had fun accumulating 60 mil in bounties. Use it in low intensity conflict zones, too. You only need to be careful about taking aggro from multiple ships. Also, while you don't have ammunition, your heatsinks and your ability to manage heat are what keeps you in the fight. Taking a moment to stop shooting and manoeuvrer will do you a big favour in combat. Also also, you do not become a good pilot by flying easy ships.

 

[Lady Boswell]

I am not one for do it all weapons.
I would go with 2 weapons. Even the weakest ships in the game have 2 small hardpoints.

If you are good, a fixed pulse laser and a railgun. Overcharged and Scrambled Spectrum for the laser. Short Range Blaster with Super Penetrator. You get good with that railgun and your enemies are toast. Now I will say if you unload short ranged blaster rails on the enemy....you have their undivided attention.

Now if you are a lesser pilot such as myself, go with a gimbled pulse laser and keep the railgun. Railguns force good marksmanship and will up your game when you are good.
well placed railgun shots makes up for a lot of lack of piloting skills
if you can't be a great pilot, be a great gunner

 

[Danspy501st]

I am not one for do it all weapons.
I would go with 2 weapons. Even the weakest ships in the game have 2 small hardpoints.

If you are good, a fixed pulse laser and a railgun. Overcharged and Scrambled Spectrum for the laser. Short Range Blaster with Super Penetrator. You get good with that railgun and your enemies are toast. Now I will say if you unload short ranged blaster rails on the enemy....you have their undivided attention.

Now if you are a lesser pilot such as myself, go with a gimbled pulse laser and keep the railgun. Railguns force good marksmanship and will up your game when you are good.
well placed railgun shots makes up for a lot of lack of piloting skills
if you can't be a great pilot, be a great gunner

I will keep that in mind, but Im abit afraid to have two different weapons on the only two hardpoints. Especially when we talking about one that I dont have to lead much (The laser) and one where I do need to lead my shot (Something like with kinetic weapons) I just feel I wouldnt get the most of the time that Im on target to deal the damage out of the two weapons.

I have a gimble multi on my Eagle as an example while having two fixed pulse lasers. Just to train me to get on target and hit with the lasers, while not need to worry that much about leading and hitting with my multi. I had planned to up that skill when I get Imperial Eagle where I will put two beam lasers and a railgun.

In a nutshell, Im not too keen to go with different weapons on all the able hardpoints on a ship. But Im still willing to learn once I getting more experience in combat flying as well so I know I can keep my weapons on target

 

[Lady Boswell]

I will keep that in mind, but Im abit afraid to have two different weapons on the only two hardpoints. Especially when we talking about one that I dont have to lead much (The laser) and one where I do need to lead my shot (Something like with kinetic weapons) I just feel I wouldnt get the most of the time that Im on target to deal the damage out of the two weapons.

I have a gimble multi on my Eagle as an example while having two fixed pulse lasers. Just to train me to get on target and hit with the lasers, while not need to worry that much about leading and hitting with my multi. I had planned to up that skill when I get Imperial Eagle where I will put two beam lasers and a railgun.

In a nutshell, Im not too keen to go with different weapons on all the able hardpoints on a ship. But Im still willing to learn once I getting more experience in combat flying as well so I know I can keep my weapons on target

beam lasers and rail guns is a high heat recipe
I use pulse or burst lasers with efficient engineering to cut down on heat so when I do unload my rails or use a shield bank I don't cook my ride

 

[Danspy501st]

beam lasers and rail guns is a high heat recipe
I use pulse or burst lasers with efficient engineering to cut down on heat so when I do unload my rails or use a shield bank I don't cook my ride

I will put a thermal vent effect on the beam lasers, which I do hope to off set the heat build up, as long Im able to keep the beams on target

 

[Starshot_Jigawatts]

Icing on the cake: use Pacifiers. Real fun on a Vulture.

I see what you did there....

 

[Raitøx]

First thing to say is most ennemies you encounter (minus CZ and Elite ennemies) aren't engineered or filled to the brim of HRM etc so you don't need that much "killing power" to deal with them.

For the Vulture a good all around weapon loadout is x2 Burst Laser/Focused/Phasing Sequence :

• It's effective against shield because you're using Thermal against a non engineered NPC.
• Phasing sequence work as a soft replacement for feedback cascade (something the vulture can't use properly because of the limited hardpoint).
• It's still effective against the Hull because Large Burst Laser with focused are able to penetrate any hull (even the 85 hardness of T10) also Laser aren't bad against most hull, this is the Bulkhead stats against Thermal : "Mirrored surface composite" = 50%, "Lightweight alloy/Reinforced alloy/Military grade composite" = 0%, "Reactive surface composite" = - 40%.
• Focused engineering allow to fight target with the same constancy up to 1000m, it also make the maximum range 6000m so you only lose 10% damage for every 500m after 1000m instead of losing 10% damage for every 240m after 500m up to 3000m.

So it isn't the best damage but it give you the most constancy against most target + laser have infinite ammo.

Why Burst laser and not Pulse laser ? You can use pulse if you prefer but Burst laser have :

• 10% more damage which counteract the 10% damage malus from Phasing sequence
• Are more forgiving because Pulse require you to maintain aim constantly to deal full damage (shot every 0,3 sec) while Burst shoot three shots every 0.9 sec which allow you to rapidly reaim between burst if the target is pretty evasive with no damage loss.
• With an Engineered Power plant and Distro (or using the guardian power plant/distro) the Vulture can easily ignore about the extra distro draw and thermal load of the burst laser.

Beam aren't considered because you can't put Focused or phasing sequence on them.

For the FDL just put 4 medium Laser of your choice with a Huge Fixed Multicanon/Long-range/Auto-Loader or a Huge Beam with whatever and you can kill every things with 0 problem while eating cheetos, it's that easy on the FDL because of that Huge hardpoint.

Edit : while rethinking about weapon penetration and hardness i noticed that my memory was more fuzzy than clear about it so i deleted the value i wrote in the post about it to not spread misinformation.