Newcomer / Intro Missiles, Torpedoes, Mines

[Demonlord79]

Hello Commanders,
I am having a bit of trouble understanding the use of these weapons.

1. Missiles or Gimbled Missiles, pretty much useless if target has point defense, is this a true statement?

2. Torpedoes, slow and hit hard but again useless if target has point defense, is this true?

3. Mines, the biggest mistake as I have never seen one hit. Is there a way to make use of them or are NPC's coded to avoid them in expansions, is this true?

Thank you Commanders for any advice or efficiency of just a, IMO, useless weapon for running, as to say trading ships mainly the T9.
See you is the black Commanders...o7

Edit: Sorry, as these are assumed stock weapons and in Odyssey.

 

[Screemonster]

Mines are fun to drop in gravity wells. Strap five rapid fire launchers onto a dropship (all hardpoints on the bottom or sides) and do your best impression of that chopper out of half life 2 as you fly over a CZ.

 

[Codger]

I only use dumbfire missiles and only against ground targets. Even that I hardly ever do, but it's the only use for missiles I've found.

I've never used a torpedo, but from what I understand they are difficult to use because they arm and fly slowly and don't track and blah blah. If you hit something I guess it explodes pretty good. I've only heard of them being used in niche PVP situations where a team of players will use them in some sort of tactical way to overwhelm another player. I dunno. I play solo.

Mines are amusing in gravity. Otherwise, not much use. NPCs will usually avoid them.

 

[Krieger]

Torpedos have good integrity. Point Defences have a hard time destroying them. Its true they fly slow but initially they have the same speed as the launching ship. After launch their speed drops to 150 250 m/s in a few seconds. If you launch them from a fast ship at close range you can hit medium and large ships fairly consistently (bit of practice required ofc).

Here's the nasty secret of torpedos: the Reverberating Cascade special effect (available from Liz Ryder, Juri Ishmaak and Petra Olmanova). Depending on the size and integrity of the target's shield generator two to four hits will destroy the shield generator and drop shields. This way a Viper can remove the shields from a Corvette or Cutter in under a minute. With the generator destroyed shields won't come back.

The Reverberating Cascade special effect is also available for mines. Scoring a few hits with mines is much harder though.

--edit: fixed typo.

 

[Dommarraa]

PD will defeat incoming fire if:
It has line of sight
It has enough time to hit the incoming target often enough (its not 1 hit = destruction)
It only has 1 target to fire at

Attacker:
Fire Multiple Missiles
Fire from the blind side
Fire from up close
Fire some Hatch Breaker Limpets as well

Defender:
Have lots of PD. 1 is not really enough
Have PD in slots that will cover the direction missles are likely to come from

 

[Demonlord79]

Thank you Commanders for your input...o7

 

[Amanojaku]

1. PD is good defense against missles if it has LoS, as someone said above. However, against packhounds (a type of rack you unlock from Li Yong-Rui in Power Play that fires salvos of 4 missles) PD is far less effective. Having a bunch of PD turrets is one option but it often isn't worth it outside of shieldless builds. Shields have high defense vs missles as it is, and in most cases extra shield boosters are better than extra PD. Also, ECM can be effective if you learn when to use it, so it shouldn't necessarily be overlooked.

2. PD is not very effective at shooting down torps. The main problem with torps is very limited ammo, and torps cannot be synthesized like missles. Torps are mainly used in gimmicky ways, like a Silent Running build that ambushes a CMDR with reverb cascades (torpedo dunking).

3. Mines are good for running away, and settlement bombardment . If you are running away and dropping mines, an overzealous aggressor will likely eat a few to the canopy in pursuit. However in a slow ship like a T9 they aren't as effective, because you can get overtaken too quickly to make much use of them. Good pilots/NPCs know how to avoid them in combat scenarios.

 

[AgtPA]

Torps with reverberating cascade will destroy shield generators through shields, so they're good for an opening attack. My preferred assassination mission build is a gunship with 3 reverb torps and 4 packhounds. The sheer number of missiles will make PD basically useless, so the only defense for a slow ship is an ECM, but barely anyone carries those.

I only ever use mines as gravity bombs against ground bases. Stick them on the bottom of a fast ship and zoom by a base.