Newcomer / Intro Maximizing Damage Output

[Srifenbyxp]

Been playing for 10 hours and finally got me a decent fighting ship with a warrant scanner to get me some quick dosh. The problem is I'm not doing as much hull damage as I should be, I can take down shields with some effort. Do I have to align my ships "center" cross hair with my gimbals always floating reticle so I can do real damage? If that's the case I might as well stick to all fixed weapons. I'm a pretty good shot with them. Also does range have a impact on weapon damage?

I'm currently flying:

Eagle MK 2
(Fixed) Burst Laser [Starter]
(Fixed) Beam Laser [30k+]
(Gimbal Lock) Multi-Cannon [14k]

I also have some decent equipment from Ackerman Market in the Eravate system.

 

[Dommarraa]

Range has a big impact. Try at 500m, much better than 1k

 

[Undecided]

The Eagle is not known for having tremendous damage output. I will caution you that if you that the multi-cannon projectiles have a travel time, so you need to lead the target. It's difficult to mix fixed projectile weapons and lasers.

 

[cmdr lowest]

It comes down to the fact the Eagle only has small hardpoints so will only be able to carry small weapons.

To further increase damage you need to upgrade to a ship with medium/large hardpoints to do significantly more damage with multicannons. (I don't think size matters too much with laser weapons so, for example, in my Asp I outfit it with 4x small pulse lasers to strip shields then swap to medium multicannons once the enemies shields are down).

 

[cassog]

It comes down to the fact the Eagle only has small hardpoints so will only be able to carry small weapons.

To further increase damage you need to upgrade to a ship with medium/large hardpoints to do significantly more damage with multicannons. (I don't think size matters too much with laser weapons so, for example, in my Asp I outfit it with 4x small pulse lasers to strip shields then swap to medium multicannons once the enemies shields are down).

Absolutely agree. You would be much better off in a Viper for combat. I have used a Viper equipped with gimballed F2 multi-cannons alongside F1 turreted beam lasers to great effect.

 

[Waggel]

I still fly my Eagle (fully upgraded power plant and distributor) with 2 gimbaled beam lasers under the wings and a multi-canon up top. Everything goes down....eventually. I guess damage can be increased by using fixed weapons or missiles etc. These are either harder to aim or have limited ammo and damaged will still be underwhelming

Your only option is another ship. But what if you can't afford one yet?

The trick is using your Eagle were you can get the most out of it. Try finding a system with some Resource Extraction Sites, preferably close to station. Make sure it's not an Anarchy system! This way you'll have help from the local authorities which makes dealing with Pythons and Anacondas a lot easier. You don't even need to get the killing blow in. Depending on the types of enemies you encounter you'll make 200k to 300k CR in no time. More if you have a K Warrant scanner.

 

[the100thmonkey]

There is a damage penalty applied to medium and small kinetic weapons:

Weapon Size	Ship Size	Damage Penalty
Small	Small	0%
Small	Medium	33%
Small	Large	66%
Medium	Small	0%
Medium	Medium	0%
Medium	Large	33%
Large	ALL	0%

The Eagle has small (class 1) hardpoints. Against any ship of a higher class, it will suffer a damage reduction. Against large ships, you might as well wait for erosion to take down the hull.

Lasers don't suffer the same penalties 0 their damage profile is flat.

If you have the power available, you might want to consider a class 1 rail gun and work on your aim to take out subsystems (the power plant on an Asp is very weak, for example).

 

[Dark Skies]

Absolutely agree. You would be much better off in a Viper for combat. I have used a Viper equipped with gimballed F2 multi-cannons alongside F1 turreted beam lasers to great effect.

Yep moving up to class two gimballed multi cannons is when I first felt I was ripping Hulls to bits.
beams to strip shields switch to multi cannons and watch the hull go down.
best effect found closer and when the target ship is orientated to be a larger target. Ie not edge on.
the viper is great.