Battleship lasts forever...

[XenonSurf]

Hi,

I was on a mission against a battleship and 2 escorts. I have changed my ship to 1 cargo bay, 7 missile slots. Phantom canon and Fusion laser as best possible primary, a lot of energy consume, but: maximum yield; that's the point against battleships right?

My other equipment was:

- Heatsink
- Canon relay sys
- Shield recharger
- Afterburner increase

The Heatsink + Canon relay should considerably increase the phantom canon in rate and recharge, especially if I put the weapon energy to +5.

Ideally, I should carry Exodus missiles designed for such large ships, but sorry my station has only viper missiles.

The mission result is:
I have to abort the mission, I went back to the station several times to refill my missiles after engaging the battleship, I aimed at the sub-systems 'weapons', 'engines', but nothing goes, not even a scratch... All remains at 100 in my display.

Now the station has run out of missiles so I must abort, my primary weapons are not enough to go on I think.

What are your thoughts on this, did I use wrong weapons?

Thanks for your comments,
XenonS

[Sinbad]

Hi XenonS,

Maximum yield cannon is not necessarily the best option. If you have a cannon with lower yield but you are able to continue firing for longer because of high rate and low energy consumption you can actually do more damage.

Your shield recharger and afterburner drive are draining your energy very quickly. So you're probably not getting much effectiveness from your cannons, even with the heatsink and cannon relay.

Against a battleship Exodus is probably most effective. Also possible with Excalibur, but only after you bring down the shields.

Also, I think the level of difficulty for battleships may depend on the system... have you tried the mission in other systems?

Finally, best way to take down a battleship is with assistance... hire wingman in sp, or team up with another player in mp.

There are lots of different tactics against battleships... I'm sure some of the others will share here

[Marvin]

The only thing I have to add is that it's the luck of the draw. Some capital ships are harder to take down than others ... and sometimes the AI can be a great help. Sometimes.

[XenonSurf]

Thank you Sinbad, Marvin. Yes, more firepower in the form of a fleet is best I guess, also I think the Shield Recharger is more a defensive device requiring a lot of energy.
I was battling in a diputed area of Sirius, actually I forgot to replenish for more missiles at the planet cities

What I noticed and surprised me is: Before this episode, I was in the Onyx system, also disputed but after placing a sensor station, I saw ONLY red dots, no friendly ones. It was impossible to hire anyone also the difficulity of the missions (mostly 7+ enemies to kill) was way too tough for me with a single ship. Some missions cannot be done with 1 ship in SP I think. So I had to get out.

Greets,
XenonS



[Edited on 5-8-2016 by XenonSurf]

[Marvin]

Planning ahead helps. In SP, you can actually be awarded a medal if you hire a flight of at least five AI (and keep them alive, I guess) when going off to conquer the universe.

[XenonSurf]

Yes, I got 2 medals yet, one for persistance I think (after reaching 10-20 kills or so), I saw the message after mission completion. BUT...
Without game reloads I wouldn't go very far in these combats I think
Also a lot of my equipment went destroyed, a costly adventure, I remember a post complaining that your money doesn't go away, so these guys should do more combat

I stay with my opinion that the fighting in EL/EM is the toughest and most interesting of all space games I played, and I've played a lot of them. No comparison, really

XenonS


[Edited on 5-8-2016 by XenonSurf]

[Marvin]

Yeah, you can lose equipment, especially when you get a bit cavalier in your choice of contracts. Which is why it's always a good idea to make note of where you bought that really difficult-to-find piece of equipment (like a TW or stealth generator).

[Rubber Chicken]

Nix the Shield Recharger if you're planning on shooting at a high enough volume to have an effect on something like a capital ship. Every time you take flak hits, even if it's <1% damage to shields, the SR is draining energy from the weapons reserves and putting it into shields. The SR is meant more for being able to keep shields up whilst running towards safe(er) space or punching through a blockade. Shooting and Shield Recharging are just not all that compatible.

[XenonSurf]

Thanks Rubber Chicken, you made an important point because some equipments will anihilate each other, with the result that your ship is uneffective.

But my main problem remains. I have now tried to use specialized missiles, designed against engines and weapons. I target the battleship with the U key to lock on its sub-systems.
In fact, in SP, I don't expect to destroy such a battleship in a single run, even with hired wingmen (who die like flies), instead I think you must first destroy the weapon system, because I noticed that my missiles get easily destroyed otherwise. Then maybe the engines to make the ship stop and be more vulnerable.

But all this doesn't seem to work.
The problem is: even by using specialized weapons, the sub-systems remain at 100, I mean , after firing a whole salvo of Exodus missiles, or a whole Excalibur group shot after using my canon to deplete the shields (that's the only result I can actually see!!) , I expect these numbers going down, maybe to 90, 80 etc.. but NO: I never see the sub-systems sustaining any damage, they always remain at 100.
If the battleship does self-repair instantly, then there is NO chance you are ever going to destroy it in SP.

The other problem is a logistic one: if your region is technically poor, you are not going to have the equipment you need, so you must 'import' it from other systems, but every single secondary weapon take an entire slot, also the Hangar is limited to 25. All in all, you are not going to import very much - and you cannot leave the sector once you are on a mission.
That^s all very difficult.

Also I suspect AI friendly ships perform MUCH better against battleships, although they use mediocre weapons, so what's up ??

XenonS


[Edited on 5-9-2016 by XenonSurf]

[Marvin]

Also I suspect AI friendly ships perform MUCH better against battleships, although they use mediocre weapons, so what's up ??

Some do. Some don't. When testing a quest scenario half-a-dozen times, I can get a half-dozen results. Sometimes the AI can do it all by themselves ... sometimes they all die.

[Rubber Chicken]

Also I suspect AI friendly ships perform MUCH better against battleships, although they use mediocre weapons, so what's up ??

I could be wrong on this, but IIRC, in Mercenary, the AI would be equipped according to the tech level of the area it spawned in. Hence an area that had Ice Spear cannons and Rockeye missiles available as the best available would spawn ships ranging in equipment from class1 stuff all the way to the best the system had to offer. Granted, you have no control over your friendlies' outfitting, but you may want to hire from higher tech areas to increase the chance the ship you hire has better kit.

[XenonSurf]

I have now changed to 10 cargo bays to go buy the best missiles and equipment in a 100 tech world before going back to Orion (Tech=35, disputed area). I have taken Trebuchet canon (good against shields), Fusion laser, Atlas gun, I finally found the permanent stealth (not that this will be better against CAP ships...) and I still have a good stock of Exodus.

I will now try the Trebuchet + Exodus missiles + Heatsink (improve shot rate).
With the energy almost maxed out in Frame Config, this should do fine if I first use the Trebuchet to get its shield down and then fire a salvo of Exodus. If I see no damage whatsoever, then something is wrong IMO.

XenonS

[Edited on 5-10-2016 by XenonSurf]

[Sinbad]

As another tip... if the battle is between two battleships (one friendly and the other enemy), attack the enemy battleship on the same side as the friendly battleship. The shields tend to be weaker on that side, since it is already taking damage from the other battleship.

[XenonSurf]

Thank you Sinbad, I appreciate any tips

I discovered, that my 'logistic' problem does not exist because I could use the Weapons Lab to modify/build weapons.

XenonS

[Edited on 5-10-2016 by XenonSurf]