So there are 3 weapons that seem capable of defending your cruisers from missiles, torpedoes and/or fighters.
Cruiser Defense Laser
I know this one is effective against fighters. Does it work against missiles too? If so, does it require a PD scanner?
Guidance Scrambler
I know these work against missiles. Do they require PD scanner? Are they more or less effective than a cruiser defense laser or a point defense system?
Point Defense
These work against missiles and require a PD scanner. Whats the advantage of using this over a guidance scrambler? Does it shoot fighters too?
Torpedoes
Are these intercepted exactly like missiles? If not, whats the difference?
Thanks for your help. Trying to find the best combination to protect my cruisers from being ravaged by missiles.
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No and no, respectively; its explicitly designed only to smear fighters into a flaming paste of pure fail. You can use it in an anti-shipping role, but numerous superior choices exist.
No PD Scanner needed. MUCH more effective than PD guns at intercepting incoming missiles and torpedoes and rockets. Use it.
BTW, this gun doesn’t require a PD Scanner; that’s just an optional add-on which confers some degree of greater accuracy.
Not only is there no advantage in using a PD gun instead of the GS, but you’re actually taking a performance penalty instead. The GS is very fast and seems to have a longer range as well as better accuracy. A shame that there’s no frigate version of the GS; there, it’s PD guns or nothing. No, it doesn’t engage fighters.
Yes, they are. Not much distinction (at present) between those two seeking weapons. Torpedoes are dang slow. Missiles are quite a bit faster. Torps are only carried aboard frigates and fighters. Missiles are omnipresent. The fighter torpedo is an overweight joke of a weapon; at least the frigate version commands a bit of respect.
No problem, mi amigo.
Even though interception of seeking weapons is sometimes a messy business, at least the slow and half-blind PD guns have one advantage: they will not only try to engage an enemy missile/torpedo/rocket that targeted at the ship the PD gun is installed aboard, but will also cheerfully shoot at ANY such enemy weapon that enters the PD gun’s zone of effect. That allows some attempt at a multi-layered fleet defense scheme. Experiment with it and see what works best for your own playing style.
Thanks Astro, thats really helpful information. A few followups. You said PD shoots at any missiles in their engagement zone. Does that mean Guidance Scramblers won’t work on missiles fired at other vessels? When I was watching, it seemed like they did, but it was hard to tell.
I quickly discovered how pointless fighter torpedoes are. Doesn’t seem to be any reason to put something besides a laser on your fighter or to have more than one type of fighter.
Whats the advantage of rockets over lasers on fighters? I find laser fighters absolutely murder other fighters and cruisers (have to order them to attack cruisers in close).
To the best of my knowledge (and I’m sure one of the more devoted veterans will correct me if I’m wrong) the main advantage of fighter rockets over lasers is that rockets shred frigate shields. The laser advantage is that they have a tight enough range to fire consistently under cruiser shields (and occasionally frigate shields too).
Defence laser is for kill fighters
Guidance Scrambler Beam or GSB xD is the most effective defence against missiles but some rockets can pass trought this defensive line
Point defence, well, personally i dont like this defensive weapon, because needs time for destroy one missile, very useless if you dont have a scanner onboard, but with the PD Scanner II, it becomes very useful BUT one little problem, the Multi Warhead Missiles, you just have time for destroy one or two, but almost always you will be hitted… And, if you fight against modded ships, forget about the PD, for example my mod (Praetorian Ind) has “Darth Launchers”, super fast missiles with high shield/armour penetration, low damage BUT with decoys! Sooo… They are very very very hard to destroy, the best option is the GSB.
AFAIK the Torpedoes are just fatty and slow missiles with high penetration and damage xP
That is right, but forget something, when you make a fighter, you want to make it faster or it will suvirve just some seconds in battle.
As you know, if you want a fast fighter with lasers equiped, you will need a power generator (almost always, some fighters dont need them). So, what is the problem? NEVER (if you can) NEVER use power generators on fighters and NEVER use the fighter engine III, those two are very heavy. The best way to make a fast fighter with high probabilities of suvirval is the Rocket Fighters, what are they? Well, just a rocket launcher and a engine I OR II (NOT III !)
With that configuration, close combat orders (you need to be inside the enemy shields) some ship with Fighter Repair Bays (cautious order to 1%), and maybe some dogfight fighters (armed with lasers) surely you will won the battle.
Oh and use target painters!!, they are very very usefull for the rocket fighters.
There are exeptions, some heavily armoured ships, also knowed as tanks, cannot be damaged by rocket fighters, in this case, you will need some high penetration weapon equiped in some cruiser.
To elaborate on the above posters description of fighter balance (kinda off-topic I know), in dogfights the superior speed of rocket fighters makes them really hard for laser fighters to hits, and with target painters thrown in rockets definitely win out. The one strong point of laser fighters is that they can go inside a cruiser’s shield bubble, bypassing shields, whereas rocket fighters are prevented by their minimum range. If the cruiser has significant armor though, you need overwhelming numbers (about 300-400 lasers present) in order to reliably overwhelm repair and crit the armor away.
More survivability with both higher speed and more HP
More range, making it much better with escort.
Better than laser in dog fights pilot to pilot.
The biggest problem with laser is that they don’t work well with escort, which means they don’t work once posted. Any un-escorted fighters will just get lured away.
Single rocket fighter deals too little damage so I don’t use them if dual rockets are available. They can fly around all they want but they don’t deal enough damage to make a difference before the match ends.
You can use it in an anti-shipping role, but numerous superior choices exist.
No, it doesn’t engage fighters.