How effective are the plasma fighter variants really

[goemon]

... but it can't all be right. I'm a bit confused. Maybe I'll try that Trident.

well, i personally trust canonns research.
so that's 50% kinetic, 50% thermal for the plasma repeater
and absolute damage for the tridents plasma autocannons (i have one - and i think that was the last time in read up on it).

 

[goemon]

Huh, so in summary
Human plasma ships are useless.
if you want to do plasma, get the trident guardian fighter instead.

actually no.

human plasma repeater is a great pve weapon in hand of a non-npc pilot. as almost all npc are not running high resistance builds, the balanced damage type makes it a great weapon there - but npc pilots have a problem hitting with fixed slow projectile weapons.

trident guardian fighter would only make any sense against engineered human (npc or not) targets.

at least that's my understanding - until i learn something new here!

 

[Ian Doncaster]

but they do seem to do decent damage when they hit hulls

Default hull thermal resistance is 0%, or -20% for kinetic, so damage type isn't all that important versus mostly-unengineered NPCs there.

Shields at -20% thermal but +40% kinetic the damage type makes a lot more difference, though.

 

[Howardxu23]

actually no.

human plasma repeater is a great pve weapon in hand of a non-npc pilot. as almost all npc are not running high resistance builds, the balanced damage type makes it a great weapon there - but npc pilots have a problem hitting with fixed slow projectile weapons.

trident guardian fighter would only make any sense against engineered human (npc or not) targets.

at least that's my understanding - until i learn something new here!

I think I should have clarified that NPC plasma fighter are useless, the trident seems to have better projectile speeds and it is a continuous fire weapon, so that is better.

 

[here_it_comes]

Fun for personal use, terrible in the hands of an NPC.

 

[Ydiss]

I just use mcs. Npc hull is much more likely to require the lion's share of damage and the fixed mcs is like a free large MC that's almost always firing which is significant.

Plasma is OK though for the reasons stated in the op.

 

[Rubbernuke]

I'm disturbed no-one has made a pun about plasma canonn research.

 

[Northpin]

Default hull thermal resistance is 0%, or -20% for kinetic, so damage type isn't all that important versus mostly-unengineered NPCs there.

Shields at -20% thermal but +40% kinetic the damage type makes a lot more difference, though.

Which puts the plasma repeaters in the middle ground between multicannons and lasers. Too bad for the really crap projectile speed, but they do put up a nice show
And i use the SLF mostly in the CZ where damage type kinda matters - to the point that an F63 with fixed multicannons is absolutely useless against any shielded ship, but they do really great on hulls if i keep them on short leash with focus target orders.

 

[Morbad]

Default hull thermal resistance is 0%, or -20% for kinetic, so damage type isn't all that important versus mostly-unengineered NPCs there.

Shields at -20% thermal but +40% kinetic the damage type makes a lot more difference, though.

All the SLFs having extreme APVs accounts for their viability vs. hulls.

 

[Nadreck]

I've been using Tridents lately, and my copilot is getting rather good at chasing down NPC's and blowing them up. Especially when they're moving in a straight line, either jousting with me, or fleeing. I guess the projectile speed is less of an issue under those circumstances.