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[Igncom1]

I mean, for the other large energy weapons you have:

High Intensity Laser: A HE damage constant beam weapon.

Paladin PD System: An energy burst point defence weapon.

Thermal Pulse Cannon: An Onslaught exclusive built in version of the Autopulse Laser.

Tachyon Lance: An energy burst beam weapons that only deals soft flux to shields.

Plasma Cannon: An energy burst fighting energy bolt weapon.


So for anti-shield, and not including the built in weapon you basically only have the Autopulse Laser and Plasma Cannon. Anything smaller can be killed with just about all of the large energy weapons but for big targets a Tachyon Lance is highly overrated in my opinion. If I have a capital ship and the enemy Radient battleship has four Tachyon Lances then I praise the heavens as they literally cannot kill me. If they have Autopulse Lasers and/or Plasma Cannons then you are basically guaranteed to take heavy damage.

In my mind the Autopulse Laser and Plasma Cannon are your choice for general purpose or anti-shield large energy weapons where as the High Intensity Laser and Tachyon Lance are your anti-armour finishers. All of them are great at punching down due to their energy type damage, or the HIL's immense HE damage per second over it's pinpoint accurate beam.

I personally favour the Autopulse Laser over the Plasma Cannon as in AI hands the Plasma Cannon is far too flux expensive to consistently use without endangering themselves. But perhaps that is just me.

[Plantissue]

@ Plantissue:  I do not think I wrote MRLS for Squalls.  As for Locusts, sure they are not very good against heavy armor (or shields for that matter), but ships that have it also have a lot of hull to chew through, and Locusts will put a big dent in that.  That is why I call Locusts the anti-everything missile.  Fighters die.  Frigates die.  Destroyers will be hurt.  Cruisers and up will need some armor broken first, but after that, Locusts is a good finisher.  Locusts have shorter range, but unless I use Gauss cannons, they still have more range than my ship's main guns.  As for Hurricane, I tried them without boosts, and been frustrated or underwhelmed by the results.  Not reliable enough, not damaging enough (because insufficient converging makes too many submunitions miss), and not enough ammo for the expense.  Only with boosts (ECCM and/or Missle Spec.) do MIRVs perform adequately.

No, you didn't write MLRS for Squalls, which is exactly why writing MIRVs for Hurricanes is strange and confusing. Especially MIRVs imply that you are refering to more than one wepon. It's like writing LRM instead of pilums, it wasn't clear what you are talking about. Not sure why you think I wrote that you wrote MLRS for squalls when I wrote the opposite but whatever floats your boat, it isn't that important. Locusts are terrible at defeating armour. The difference in our opinions could be attributed to intended use. I see Hurricane as a harpoon replacement for large missile mount, whilst for whatever reason you view Hurricane as a Locust replacement. Well, of course a different weapon isn't going to be the same as another. You seem under the impression that if there is an option that can upgrade the power of a weapon, that weapon not worth fitting without without that option, but that simply isn't true. Fighter LPC are worthwhile without their expanded deck crew, PD weapons are worthwhile without APDAI, all missiles are worthwhile without expanded missile racks, all beams are worthwhile without advanced optics, Hurricane is worthwhile without ECCM.

________

Autopulse vs Plasma Cannon. Autopulse is better if you have more large weapon mounts relative to flux dissipation. Argument could be made that Autopulse is also better the faster the ship is to make best use of its charges as it otherwise has very low sustained damage. Plasma Cannon is the simplest as it is the only large energy weapon which can work very well alone.

[Megas]

@ Plantissue:  As far as I know, there is only one MIRV in unmodded game, the Hurricane MIRV.

Locusts as anti-armor?  Against small targets like destroyers and smaller, damage is overwhelming enough that it does not matter.  Big targets, no argument they are not very effective, but as I wrote before they are good against hull.  The ships (I use) that can make good use of Locusts also have other ways to punch holes in armor.  Apogee? Its large energy weapon (or Mining Blaster during early game).  Conquest? It has a bunch of ballistics to choose from.  I rarely use Gryphon, and using missiles instead of fighters on Astral is silly.  If I use Legion (XIV), it is mainly to give Hammer Barrage or Cyclone Reaper some love, so no Locusts or Hurricanes on that (even if they may be better).  Odyssey has ECCM for free, so it is a good candidate for MIRVs, if I can squeeze Expanded Missile Racks on it.  (I probably would eschew missiles if I attempt dual plasma loadout, though.)

I often use PD without IPDAI, although if I am stuck with normal PD Laser or LR PD, I do use IPDAI.  I do not remember using IPDAI with any ballistic PD, except (rarely) on Railguns.  For energy, continuous beam PD is anemic, and almost need it (if pilot does not have Advanced Countermeasures 3).

Advanced Optics has that turn speed penalty which may necessitate Advanced Gyro Turrets.  I do not use Advanced Optics very often.  (Also, while I would like Advanced Optics for four lance Paragon, getting that means giving up Hardened Shields.)

Hurricane is worthwhile without ECCM.

I only agree with this if the pilot has missile spec.  Otherwise, unboosted submunitions do not converge enough and too many of them miss against most targets.  The few that do hit do not cause enough damage to make MIRVs worthwhile, unless there are no better options.  If the ship needs to hang back from long range and snipe with Gauss Cannons and MIRVs, then sure, that loadout needs MIRVs.  (In such a case, I probably want an officer with Missile Spec. so that the MIRVs will converge and hit smaller stuff more easily.)

[KCR]

I personally really enjoy to play with Tachyon Lances. If i have a possibility, i will put it on everything i can. I just enjoy it being pretty long ranged and high dmg per burst. I really don't even care about all soft flux thing that everybody complains, because, you know, in campaign you almost always will have some other ships on your side that will definitely help you raise flux levels on enemy ships. At some point of game i go to high danger [REDACTED] system to actually farm not alphas, but Tachyons, just because it's easier to acquire them from remnants rather then find some on markets or even acquire a blueprint.

Other honorable mentions: Burst PD, all Flak Cannons, Autopulse Laser, Hypervelocity Driver, Locust, Heavy Blaster, Heavy Needler.

[Megas]

If I had a favorite weapon, it probably would be Tachyon Lance, especially on ships that can mount long-range ballistics to put hard flux on shields and enable Tachyon Lance to be partially unblockable.

[PapaPetro]

Anti-matter blasters on a phase ship.
Nothing quite beats using submarine tactic to phase flank under a ship, blasting the rear with the AM blasters, and then finishing it off with a reaper.

[Vind]

Tachyon Lance/Ion Beam due to shield piercing/emp arc mechanic.

[Makhan]

Hresvelgr with 4 Maulers and HVDs, always good combo

[Aereto]

Anti-matter blasters on a phase ship.
Nothing quite beats using submarine tactic to phase flank under a ship, blasting the rear with the AM blasters, and then finishing it off with a reaper.

Like a proper kriegsmarine u-boot, phase ships are like that. I use antimatter blasters exclusively for phase ships. As for the reaper, I leave that to a Doom. For the Harbinger, I just use phase lances to deliver spike damage, then follow up with the disruptor system if they are fighting another ship.

In fact, I use the Harbinger for anti-phase ship combat, the disruptor interrupts their phase cloak, allowing my phase lances to deliver the necessary damage and any extra from pilums or fighters maintaining pressure.