Most weapons don't seem viable

[Kero]

After test most of the weapons I fine the only useful ones to be lasers and multicannons, especially vs large targets with reguards to power consumption and ammo cost.

Tried multiple configurations on my Asp, Cobra and Viper vs large ships.

Plasma is meh, missiles are crap unless you have 4 mounts, and rail guns are lackluster. I haven't tried then other cannon variations.

What does everyone else vs Clipper and higher?

 

[Yanaran]

Pulse lasers and multi-cannons.

 

[YeOldeMiller]

You're right, sadly. Only MCs and lasers are worth using ATM. Most other weapons require more skill to reliably hit your targets and even then their damage is underwhelming and ammo cost is several times higher. So for now beam lasers and multicannons are the only choice against all types of targets. Hope this changes soon.

 

[defekt]

I've tried all guns, at various stages. It all boils down to just lasers and multi-cannons.

 

[roza3436]

I get by by beams and missiles. so much fun and missiles obliterate if they hit.

 

[YeOldeMiller]

I've tried all guns, at various stages. It all boils down to just lasers and multi-cannons.

It wasn't always this way though. Back in Beta railguns and cannons were great: required some aiming skill to use but rewarded it with damage.

 

[TheNameIsJambo]

I have a Cobra. The hardpoint spacing is pretty far apart. I now primarily use mine for bounty hunting; I really want to sell it up for a Viper though, but I'm having a real hard time letting it go.. The jump distance and cargo space is excellent compared to that of the Viper! Plus, all of the extra internal compartments.. Boo!

Unfortunately, as great as the Cobra is, I feel that I can only use gimballed weapons. It's not ideal, especially considering the vast reduction in damage compared to fixed weapons. But when coming up against smaller targets [Eagles, Sideys, Vipers] you can only really hit the smaller ships with one set of weapons [port/stbd]. So, as a result, I use gimballed weapons. It gives me the ability to unleash all 4 hardpoints upon my targets. Since 4 gimballed weapons > 2 fixed weapons, at any one time.

I've found that the best gimballed weapons are the MCs and Beam Laser. I don't think I can afford [or haven't found] high powered gimballed pulse/burst Lasers. I've found turreted pulse lasers, but their damage is woeful compared to that of my gimballed beam laser.

The beam laser isn't ideal, it 'waves around' far too much before getting a decent lock... Maybe that will change when I get my joystick!

NB.
The beam laser does excellent damage against sub-targets, EG. If you're up against a larger/tougher ship; Asp, Clipper, etc. and you target their FSD or Power Plant, you can nail that equipment in no time with it - Whilst the multi-cannons also hit it, they obviously don't always hit their mark and deal massive damage to the hull as well!

 

[YeOldeMiller]

Unfortunately, as great as the Cobra is, I feel that I can only use gimballed weapons.

What makes you think so? The two upper class 2 slots are ok for fixed weapons. Lower ones are too far apart though, so yeah, only gimbaled guns there.

 

[roza3436]

I have a Cobra. The hardpoint spacing is pretty far apart. I now primarily use mine for bounty hunting; I really want to sell it up for a Viper though, but I'm having a real hard time letting it go.. The jump distance and cargo space is excellent compared to that of the Viper! Plus, all of the extra internal compartments.. Boo!

Unfortunately, as great as the Cobra is, I feel that I can only use gimballed weapons. It's not ideal, especially considering the vast reduction in damage compared to fixed weapons. But when coming up against smaller targets [Eagles, Sideys, Vipers] you can only really hit the smaller ships with one set of weapons [port/stbd]. So, as a result, I use gimballed weapons. It gives me the ability to unleash all 4 hardpoints upon my targets. Since 4 gimballed weapons > 2 fixed weapons, at any one time.

I've found that the best gimballed weapons are the MCs and Beam Laser. I don't think I can afford [or haven't found] high powered gimballed pulse/burst Lasers. I've found turreted pulse lasers, but their damage is woeful compared to that of my gimballed beam laser.

The beam laser isn't ideal, it 'waves around' far too much before getting a decent lock... Maybe that will change when I get my joystick!

NB.
The beam laser does excellent damage against sub-targets, EG. If you're up against a larger/tougher ship; Asp, Clipper, etc. and you target their FSD or Power Plant, you can nail that equipment in no time with it - Whilst the multi-cannons also hit it, they obviously don't always hit their mark and deal massive damage to the hull as well!

i use gimballed class 1 beams on my cobra and even though it takes a while gets the job done. Then I just obliterate them with my class 2 dumbfire missiles.

 

[Muthax]

Not personal experience, just from threads here, plasma weapons are lethal against armor and subsystems but they are crap against shields. Also, being slow moving they mostly suited for slow moving targets (for example capitol ships)

one of the phases used was "and watch subsystems pop"

 

[Sanguisaevum]

I actually spent most of the last 2 days trying various weapon loadouts on my viper.

Sadly... I concur that lasers / multicannons are the best weapons for nearly all situations.

 

[Jim LeCreepé]

It wasn't always this way though. Back in Beta railguns and cannons were great: required some aiming skill to use but rewarded it with damage.

+1 Rail guns used to be too powerful against starter ships, but this was due to the wide use by NPC ships. Now they are utterly underpowered.

Weapons are now boring and everyone found M-Cannons to be the best way to go. I fitted my Eagle with two gimballed Cannons and a fixed Beam laser and shot Anacondas to bits (with help...or should I say bait). This must change as soon as possible, mutli-cannons are small caliber weapons and should only be good for unarmored targets. Class 3 M-Cannons should be better of course.

A small ship should be able to fit high damage weapons to fight off larger prey. Large ships already have the advantage of more hardpoints and high class weapons, these should scale with the size, of course.

As a make-shift hierachy this is what I think is a good solution (lowest damage to highest)

Ballistics:
Multi-Cannon
Mine Launcher
Cannon
Missile
Rail Gun
Torpedo
Plasma Accelerator

Energy:
Pulse Laser
Burst Laser
Beam Laser

Anacondas used to be the only ship able to mount the Class 8 plasma accelerator. I've seen C2 variants. This is meh. Some weapons need to be restricted for the large(r) vessels.

Gimballed weapons also should do less damage (some energy used for the tracking). This way a fixed weapon has higher damage but also needs some skill in aiming.

Turreted weapons should do half the damage, these are the equivalent of WW2 flak cannons or bomber guns only good in a formation with a wall of fire the enemy has to pass through.

 

[Nighthaunter]

I just traded my MCannons for Cannons on my Viper. I'll have to get used to them, but they seem to work well against large ships (ASP and above). For the smaller ships, twin beams are more than enough.

 

[Ganjis]

I love dumbfire launchers for large prey. I have a Viper fitted with four of them for doing the Anaconda Assassination missions. Aside from backward-firing bugs they seem perfect. You can unload massive damage in short bursts and simply overwhelm them. As a bonus, you can run this loadout with no energy to weapons so just switch between full shields, half engines and full engines, half shields. Of course, you have to make every shot count, but that is fun for me. I love the idea of specialised loadouts.

I do think MCs are a little bit too good, especially against larger targets. They seem designed for use against smaller ships, but are perfectly good against large ones too; whereas dumbfires seem designed for use against larger targets and are rightly poor against smaller targets.

 

[Jim LeCreepé]

I love dumbfire launchers for large prey. I have a Viper fitted with four of them for doing the Anaconda Assassination missions. Aside from backward-firing bugs they seem perfect. You can unload massive damage in short bursts and simply overwhelm them. As a bonus, you can run this loadout with no energy to weapons so just switch between full shields, half engines and full engines, half shields. Of course, you have to make every shot count, but that is fun for me. I love the idea of specialised loadouts.

I do think MCs are a little bit too good, especially against larger targets. They seem designed for use against smaller ships, but are perfectly good against large ones too; whereas dumbfires seem designed for use against larger targets and are rightly poor against smaller targets.

This is what I would expect. Eg. ammo cost vs. possible bounty. A torpedo should do massive amounts of damage (check!) and are expensive (check!). A missile should do a little less damage per hit and cost less (check, check). I can kill most ships with a beam laser and two cannons. Or if need be three beam lasers just inside the 3km radius to wear down any ship.

 

[Julio Montega]

Correct me if i am wrong, but isn't the plasma accelerator
more of an anti-shield weapon, than a hull destruction machinery?

It seems it comes down to effectivity in those categories:

Thermal weapons:
Most effective against shields
less effective against hull
direct hit weaponry

Ballistic:
Most effective against hull and subsystems
way less effective against shields
requires aiming and leading

Explosive:
Allround weapon, yet more effective against hull
damages multiple subsystems
can be guided but can be destroyed by ecm and point defense

Hybrid:
a combination of thermal and ballistic
high subsystem damage
direct hit

 

[Jim LeCreepé]

Plasma should do hull damage as a thermic weapon. Energy vs shields, kinetic/thermic vs hull.

 

[YeOldeMiller]

I just traded my MCannons for Cannons on my Viper. I'll have to get used to them, but they seem to work well against large ships (ASP and above).

They do work, of course, just not good enough. Between higher ammunition cost and decreased hit probability due to low muzzle velocity and slow rate of fire, they don't offer any edge over m-cannons, no matter the kind of target. Equipping cannons right now is basically choosing to get the same results the hard way.

 

[Beermachine]

Not too sure of this, been testing running 2xPlasma Accelerators in an Asp and they seem to work very well killing hull on other Asps, Pythons and Anacondas.
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Maybe it's more of a fighting / ship setup style choice. With plasma it's more of a move shoot, move shoot formula, whereas with MC's you have to keep constant fire so have to be on the tail of the target a lot more. Not sure, will need a lot more testing for me to give any definitive answer.

 

[Koyhaku]

After test most of the weapons I fine the only useful ones to be lasers and multicannons, especially vs large targets with reguards to power consumption and ammo cost.

Tried multiple configurations on my Asp, Cobra and Viper vs large ships.

Plasma is meh, missiles are crap unless you have 4 mounts, and rail guns are lackluster. I haven't tried then other cannon variations.

What does everyone else vs Clipper and higher?

On a viper I go with 2 class 2 railguns and 2 class 1 dumbfire missiles (class 2 dumbfire seems to be bugged last I checked) I can take out an anaconda in less than a minute at best, at worst it takes about 2-3 minutes. IMO Lasers and MCs are less viable because they take longer. Even when hunting bounty's I can usually rack up a large amount of cash before having to re-arm.

My eagle is similar, but with class 1 railguns and a single missile launcher mounted on the top it takes a bit of luck to take out an anaconda without running out of ammo.