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Author Topic: EMP weapons, absolutely useless?  (Read 6332 times)

Bastion.Systems

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EMP weapons, absolutely useless?
« on: March 20, 2016, 04:44:24 PM »

EMP weapons do nothing against shields and nothing to actually damage the enemy ship, also they disable enemy weapons for a ridiculously little time to justify their existence. There is no reason ever to have EMP over high explosive.
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Wyvern

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Re: EMP weapons, absolutely useless?
« Reply #1 on: March 20, 2016, 05:31:05 PM »

Question: On what ship are you directly comparing EMP and HE weapons?  Most of the EMP weapons are energy slots, and in some cases (for example, the very tight flux management of the Scarab), having a dinky little extra ion cannon that doesn't do much damage but doesn't cost much flux either is a pretty decent option.  And, well, there aren't any HE alternatives for small energy slots.
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Cycerin

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Re: EMP weapons, absolutely useless?
« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2016, 05:46:17 PM »

EMP on its own isnt that great, but it's good when comboed with the right weapons. Disabling weapons is also very powerful, as it allows you to just pump damage into a ship with no fear of retaliation. Putting EMP on support vessels is generally not a bad idea, but you'd be stupid to use it to the exclusion of everything else... obviously?
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Achataeon

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Re: EMP weapons, absolutely useless?
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2016, 08:50:22 PM »

Yep. To use EMP properly, you have to combo it with other weapons. Much like you wouldn't use a Kinetic-only setup or a High Explosive only setup on a general purpose ship. Unless, that's what you're aiming for, an EMP support ship. It can't do crap against anything on its own (I imagine it'd still have trouble dispatching fighters) but it should do reasonably well provided it has another ship to do the hammering for it.
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Thaago

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Re: EMP weapons, absolutely useless?
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2016, 11:09:20 PM »

EMP works wonders as a support weapon - not great in a 1v1 duel, but excellent when using fleet tactics. Onslaughts and Dominators are basically obsolete with EMP weapons around, though between skills a hullmods a player can get away with using them.

Also, a single ion cannon is basically a win button vs any pirate.
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JohnDoe

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Re: EMP weapons, absolutely useless?
« Reply #5 on: March 21, 2016, 12:53:09 AM »

Ion Beams locking frigates in place by disabling engines through shields is pretty horrifying.
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Ranakastrasz

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Re: EMP weapons, absolutely useless?
« Reply #6 on: March 22, 2016, 09:52:16 AM »

EMP weapons cripple an enemy ship if there is no shield, and they don't have some kind of emp resistance. The problem is that, similar to beam weapons vs shields, they are generally all or nothing. Either they hit hull and cripple the ship, or they hit shield and are worthless, no middle ground.
When they work, they are honestly far more devastating than any other type of weapon. Worse than overloading a shield, since you still have engines. EMP causes this game's equivilent of a stunlock. If they don't have an omni-shield, then they can't restore the shield to protect themselves, and a a ship disabled like that tends to die rather quickly.

Similar to my opinions on beam weapons, I really think Ion weapons need to have more generalized effects, rather than entirely negated vs devastating. The Ion beam weapons that partly bypass shields really seem like a good direction. The other one being ion weapons also doing damage vs shields.

Having all ion weapons have that kind of shield penetration (dependant on shield hard flux, I think, and having reduced effect) and being mitigated somewhat by armor might make them useful in more cases.

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Megas

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Re: EMP weapons, absolutely useless?
« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2016, 12:57:28 PM »

The main problem with EMP in general is you do not know who is vulnerable and who is mostly immune.  My flagship by endgame is mostly immune to EMP, and even when it loses weapons or engines for whatever reason, they repair so fast that it is a non-issue.  The most powerful enemies have similar skills and immunity too.  In 0.6.5, the Combat 10 enemy flagship was effectively immune to EMP.  In 0.7.0+, any sufficiently high level officer might have that skill combo that effectively grants immunity.

Also, the range cut on Ion Cannon (was 600, now 500) makes that weapon less useful than before.  I only use it on those with no viable ranged options (e.g., Scarab, anything with Safety Override).  Ion Pulser is not good for sustained assault.  Don't know about Ion Beam (too rare to find).  Tachyon Lance is just a long-ranged Phase Lance that has chain-EMP as a bonus.  EMP on the few ballistics that have it (HVD, Mjolnir) is simply a bonus - they are good enough (range and accuracy for HVD, all-rounder for Mjolnir) without the EMP.
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