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[Vigal]

Do any of you guys have dedicated PD ships in your fleet? Which ships do you use?

Fighters and missiles can be pretty damn annoying especially because some destroyers can get turned into Swiss cheese when
fighters or missiles get round the rear, and then there is the infamous ion cannon fighters which just turn you into a free punching
bag for the enemy fleet. It then got me wondering whether it would be worth having something loaded with flak cannons and
LR PD lasers to deal with the pests as a sort fighter/missile sponge.


I would have a few monitors but I only encounter them once in a blue moon.

[Megas]

I do not have ships whose only job is dedicated PD for other ships, but I do prioritize PD for some ships.  If I use Onslaught, it will get seven (dual) flak cannons and six Vulcans.  If I use Legion, I try to put four flak cannons (and six to eight Vulcans) on it.  Other ships (like Dominator or Conquest) might get Devastator to supplement their PD.

[Cik]

the range on PD is not enough on any particular ship to make this viable. rarely will a PD ship manage to be in position to effectively shield anything but itself, and as PD cannot intercept non-missile projectiles often they just fold under medium-range enemy fire and die.

if you set up enough ships to hard counter ordnance, you will yourself die to being shot by yon humble gun.

PD ships build for the task don't really exist and if they did they would probably need 200%+ range before they would become effective at protecting anything but themselves.

in theory anyway friendly fighters should be chiefly tasked with defeating ordnance however the limitations of fighter tasking under the new system and the relative ineffectiveness of fighters against certain missile types mean it's not really worth it. the best answer to ordnance is just shooting the enemy to death, which granted is the best answer to anything the enemy is doing in all circumstances in-game.

also i should add that generally there are two circumstances: the PD ship is in front and well-positioned to deal with ordnance and then immediately eats a bunch of cannon rounds and dies, or it's in the back and achieves very little. ships need to be much smaller and ranges much longer before it makes sense to even have dedicated PD ships in game, as IMO "real escorts" are basically impossible in game because ships rarely have an incentive to actually act in real distinct groups and further the fact they are so big makes maneuvering in most ways extremely clumsy and unworkable.

[Vigal]

Cik

How about something bristling with LR PD lasers and a mining pod wing from a converted hanger?

I noticed that the game has some built in configs for PD boats such as a wolf with swarmers and PD lasers.

[BillyRueben]

PD ships build for the task don't really exist and if they did they would probably need 200%+ range before they would become effective at protecting anything but themselves.

That would be a neat hullmod. Ships with PD weapons get +X% range boost, but are only allowed to mount weapons with the PD tag.

[dk1332]

I usually use Mule [D] with dual flaks and swarmers to escort my carriers. Those gotta keep em safe from those piranhas and their carpet of death.

Usually, my ships are balanced to have basic PD. You'll never know which ship will bring the next salamander missile to screw up your day by shutting down your engines.

As for my Legion(which is my fave capital), I usually give it 2 devastator cannons, 2 dual flaks on the side, 1 single flak on the front, and cover it with a hybrid of vulcans and dual LMGs. I keep 2 Typhoon Reaper Launchers in case my fighters need something to bust a capital's armor open.   

[Deshara]

Could very easily have a hullmod that doubles the range and 1.5s the projectile speed on any projectile weapon marked for PD use, including IPDAI

[PCCL]

I have tried dedicated pd ships to little avail, the way PD (at least ballistic PD) works mean that intercepting missiles coming for someone else is extremely difficult, range notwithstanding.

As an experiment, I doubled the range and proj speed of all PD weapons and halved their damage. I then halved projectile hitpoints to make PD weapons just as effective at intercepting. This makes PD escort ships (especially 5 flak enforcer) a lot more viable but may make missiles underpowered as a result. More testing is definitely required.

Side note, looking for some ideas here: How effective should missile weapons be, do you guys think? Say a lasher launches 2 harpoons at another lasher, where both ships have reasonable PD capability (say 2 vulcans) and enough flux to fire them. Should any of those missiles impact? What if the target only has one PD?

What if it's an enforcer's 4 harpoons vs another enforcer's 2x flak? Does that change the equation? A venture's 8 harpoons vs an enforcer with 2x dual flak?

[Thaago]

Omens when I can find them are excellent PD ships due to their system.

@PCCL
IMO missiles should be heavily tilted towards requiring their target to be incapacitated in some way to be very effective. Otherwise they would just be instant unavoidable death buttons (like they were in the last version). I think 1 small mount ballistic pd should be able to stop 2/3 harpoons if it is pointed in the right direction, so maybe the Lasher gets hit.

[TaLaR]

PD ship actively covering others would be Wolf (or Scarab) with IPDAI + Gyro + Tac lasers. But IPDAI is incredibly rare so you won't have it until endgame or at all.

More likely implementation is distraction ship with good PD. That can be done by Omen, as already mentioned. Or Flak Enforcer. Or anything fast with flak, phase, etc...

Though AI simply doesn't have it's priorities on countering missiles. It won't put itself in optimal position for doing this job, other than incidentally.

[Harmful Mechanic]

Shoot the archer, not the arrow.

That said, Omen, Centurion, Enforcer, when I really need it.

[Wyvern]

Yes.  Drovers with spark wings.  Those count as point defense, right?

[Igncom1]

I tend to be a bit afraid of missiles so PD is overly abundant in my fleets.

To the point that many ships might only have one or two actual guns to fight with.

If you are looking for PD ships, use enforcers with two duel flak cannons, they shred amazingly well and then can go on to be armed with arbalest cannons and reaper torpedoes. They are some of the best destroyers in the game for the purpose of fleet defence.

The best PD in the game however is multiple overlapping angles, so even equipping some random mounts with flank, pd lasers and vulcans can put down such a zone of coverage that the fleet becomes invulnerable to fighters due to sheer dakka.

[SCC]

Sparks are the best point defence... Honestly, currently even as a mobile PD they are much better than dedicated PD boats, but that supposedly will change. If I could set a carrier to have it provide air superiority and PD coverage with its fighters and nothing else, I'd field a condor or two in every battle.

[Igncom1]

Sparks are the best point defence... Honestly, currently even as a mobile PD they are much better than dedicated PD boats, but that supposedly will change. If I could set a carrier to have it provide air superiority and PD coverage with its fighters and nothing else, I'd field a condor or two in every battle.

Yeah, carriers dominate currently.

If you can get converted hanger mod's however, then you can have a battestar fleet of cruisers with fighter escorts which I believe is one of the strongest fleet choices currently.... other then like, six Astrals with full torpedo bombers, nothing survives that ***.