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[Menos87]

I am really struggling with the entire game, but more specifically, I am having a lot of trouble with customizing my new ship. How do I equip it with a well balanced/powerful load out? I Try to have a balance of kinetic and high explosive weapons but I feel like everytime I run a simulation I get destroyed by any ship that seems at all equivalent. I guess what I'm saying is; HELP!!

P.S. Im running SS+ and Nexereline.

[Cik]

you need to give more details, what ship, what level are you, what weapons do you have access to, and what are you fighting?

[Menos87]

I started allied to the Hegemony and I just bought an Enforcer XIV class, and I've tried to put a balance of 2 kinetic and 2 High Explosive with one plasma turret in its 5 turret slots, and with 2 HE and two kinetic missiles in its 4 missile slots. I'm level 1 but it seems like my loadout is extremely weak and I can't figure out why!

[Cik]

what weapons specifically, how many vents are you using, how many capacitors, what hull mods if any, what missiles in particular?

[Serenitis]

The Enforcer is a wonderfully forgiving ship which is essentially a ball of armour with excellent weapon coverage and a great big panic button.
There are lots of ways of equipping one, and which one works best for you depends on your preferences.

It would definitely help if you could tell us the exact loadout you're using, and how you're struggling when you fly it.
Until then....

The way I like to have them is:

Spoiler

Missiles - All explosive, and all homing so I can use them without having to point my nose anywhere specific. All the same type usually set to control group #1 and alternating fire.
Harpoons are the go-to choice for me, but swarmers can work as well if you like close range fighting.

Central gun mount - An explosive weapon with range 600 or more set to control group #2 and automated.
A Mauler is the preferred choice here, but if you're stuck and can't find one a Light Assault Gun will work.

Forward left/right gun mounts - Kinetic weapons with the best range you can find. Lots of choice here....
High Velocity Drivers and Heavy Needlers are the preferred option, Heavy Autocannons are pretty good, but Arbalests are fairly mediocre.
Both in control group #3, automated and linked.

Flank guns - Point defence weapons. These are the only gun mounts you have that cover the whole of your ship so putting PD weapons in them gives you a bubble of protection against missiles etc.
Dual Flak is the best, normal Flak is perfectly fine, and Heavy Machine Guns are okay (but they're much better at something else).
Both in control group #4, automated and linked.

With all these guns don't worry about putting a small gun in a medium mount if it does what you want it to do, or you want to spend points on mounting a specific expensive weapon / hull mod.

This ship wants to be flown at a range from enemies. Let your kinetics batter down thier shields and use your missiles to finish them when they overload / vent.
Burn drive lets you close in to range or escape from being overwhelmed.
The hull mods I like to use are: Expanded Missle Racks, Stabilised Shields, Blast Doors, Integrated Targetting Unit.
Put 2 points into capacitors, then fill up on as many vents as you can. Any left over points put into capacitors.

[close]

Spoiler

The other way of doing it builds your ship around a specific hull mod - Saftey Override.
This makes your ship fast but very time and range limited.

All the missiles are explosive again and are the only thing on this ship not affected by the range limits of SO.
Virtually anything will work here due to the very short ranges you'll be fighting at.

The centre gun is explosive again, but this time we can use the Chaingun. Both because the short range doesn't bother us now, and the double vents from SO lets us cool it properly.

The left & right forward guns want to be Heavy Machine Guns. Again the range doesn't bother us here, and the HMG is brutal close in against anything.
Even small guns work pretty well, Autocannons and even dinky little Machine Guns are decent at taking down shields.
If you're totally stuck by availability even the Arbalest can do okay as the short range we'll be fighting at makes the slow projectiles not matter nearly as much.

The flank guns are the same as previously, but with an added choice.
Flak guns give you better protection from missiles, but an extra set of HMGs gives you more punch against ships.
For ultimate dakka put HMGs in all 5 slots.

Hull mods: Safety Overrides, Blast Doors, Hardened Subsystems. Unstable Injector is fun but not nescessary.
With the SO hull mod, vents count double so maxing them out isn't as important (but still a good thing to do), so try an even split between capacitors and vents and adjust for your play style.

This ship wants to be flown right into the enemies face, where it will then proceed to erase said face.

[close]

[Cik]

i wouldn't recommend SO if you're new. it seems like a "i'm feeling suicidal today" mod. your first fit is very good though. in fact, it might just be easier to hand him a few fits.

an XIV enforcer is a forgiving ship, if sometimes a little unintuitive. if you have your heart set on the enforcer, it's not a bad ship though personally i recommend sticking with frigates until you have a reasonable pile of cash, considering having burn 9 with a single destroyer can sometimes get you entered into a speed contest that you don't want to get involved in. many things that could eat a single enforcer alive are faster than one, whereas a frigate can nearly always escape being caught if it needs to.

[Clockwork Owl]

One of the most important things in combat is flux-fight. You can fire all the heavy guns you got, deal considerable damage to your enemy, get nearly full flux and then get wrecked by full Harpoon salvo that overloads and destroys your ship.

*When refitting, max out the vents first. Guns and hullmods goes after that.
Don't remove vents without a good reason(specifically, a very good one). Vent speed is quite often life-or-death matte(or prevents such situation at the first place).
*Don't set your non-PD main guns to autofire.
AI tends to miss it against frigate or fighters even with max Gunnery Implants, and can't prioritize targets properly. A waste shot costs your flux pool while contributing none to enemy flux in return. If you need to fire more than two main cannon groups at once, toggle autofire(Ctrl + number in combat).
*Invest reasonably in PD.
Point Defense save your ships against missiles even when shield is down. Not only that, amount of flux generated by PD weapon shots is usually smaller than that of the missile hit on shield.

[Serenitis]

i wouldn't recommend SO if you're new. it seems like a "i'm feeling suicidal today" mod.

On the other hand, SO makes the early game much easier as you can win battles almost as soon you see an enemy but just bowling up to them and opening fire.

*Don't set your non-PD main guns to autofire.
AI tends to miss it against frigate or fighters even with max Gunnery Implants, and can't prioritize targets properly. A waste shot costs your flux pool while contributing none to enemy flux in return. If you need to fire more than two main cannon groups at once, toggle autofire(Ctrl + number in combat).

Ugh. Micromanagement is horrible and tedious.
I always set my main guns to automatic and solely control missiles myself and I've literally never had a problem with being able to hit things with it.
Even with zero skills an Enforcer's main guns can pick off fighters and frigates with very little effort.

Preferences I suppose. If you're a masochist micro your guns.

[Clockwork Owl]

Er, depends on what the guns are. Mine was 2x Heavy Blasters.

And it's not that micromanagement IMO. What's [Pause] for?

[Megas]

For standard weapons, Assault Chaingun is a flux hog.  Enforcer cannot support more than one of them very well.

My SO Enforcer configuration uses one chaingun, two HMGs, two (dual) flak cannons, and annihilators.

[Clockwork Owl]

@Megas: How does SO + 5 HMGs sounds like? I have one fit with such and want to know if it is an effective loadout or not(aside from my experience).

[Megas]

It works, but not as well as a mix.  Against two Enforcers in the simulator, it takes five HMGs twenty to thirty seconds longer to kill them both than a configuration with one chaingun, two HMGs, and two other high DPS weapons (dual flak or even thumper).  Five HMGs are less effective at PD than two dual flak; the HMGs could not totally stop the annihilator spray like flak could.

[Cik]

IMO enforcer side mounts are made for dual flak. not only does it protect the enforcer itself but it protects the enforcer's engines and anything to the side from even fast-moving missiles like salamanders.

once i figured out that was a thing i've never mounted anything else, save perhaps once or twice when i couldn't find dual flak, i mounted the single flak.

if you're going for SO, megas is probably right that chainguns are the best. with the SO speedboost they're probably much easier to actually apply to the enemy and they are murderous now, as long as you can get the shields done in reasonable time.

i'd consider mounting a duel rack of sabots to blitz their shields and then just lay into them with 2x kinetic weapon of your choice, the chaingun and 2x harpoon/reaper/whatever kind of HE missiles you like.

4x harpoon is also acceptable of course.

[Thaago]

I've recently been running a heavy mauler instead of a chaingun in my SO enforcer, just to have lower flux costs. Very few enemies actually NEED 400 HE DPS, and the Enforcer is a very flux poor ship. The range doesn't hurt either, even if it is cut down to like 585.

[Menos87]

Hey all thanks for the responses! I really appreciate all the feedback. As to what my loadout is, I have a save where I just bought the ship and I've been fiddling around with buying things and running simulations with whatever I end up with, but I can't seem to beat even one ship that is in my weightclass. I usually end up with like 10-15 of each flux stat and I add blast doors and expanded magazines. Then I do two light assault gun turrets on one side and two heavy needlers on the other side then a plasma turret in the middle. Then two sabot srm missles and two anhilliator missle racks on the other. Do I need more flux?