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[Cycerin]

The most important stat for ion weapons imo is flux cost, more specifically that they should be low commitment when it comes to flux. The new ion cannon proved this.

In small scale combat, disabling an entire ship counts for very little if you've driven yourself way over 70% flux in the process, unless you have some serious missile chops to finish the job there's no guarantee they won't just be at 20% flux and ready to tank anything on shield. Extreme example but I just want to make my point.

Btw, 3 medium Synergy on that new destroyer?   Or is it asymmetrical loadout wise?

[Alex]

For a weapon that complements the loadout of the ship it's on, yeah, this is true. But the Ion Beam is meant to expand a "support ship" niche. An early game example might be a "Vigilance with a cautious officer, Salamander Pod, Ion Beam, and Unstable Injector". The amount of chaos that thing can cause should be well worth the deployment cost, but it's not a frontline ship, so how high its flux goes to get the job done is less of an issue.

Btw, 3 medium Synergy on that new destroyer?  Or is it asymmetrical loadout wise?

REDACTED

[Dri]

Is the Ion Beam clocking in at the standard beam range of 1000? Can you share with us the DPS? Something like a Tac Laser DPS or over 100?

[Alex]

Currently: 50 dps, 400 empdps, 200 flux/second, 1000 range, 12 OP.

[Cycerin]

What about the pulser?

[Alex]

Off the top of my head, 75 dam/shot, 10 shots/second, 400 emp/shot, 450 range, 100 flux/shot. And either 11 or 12 OP. Probably 11.

[Cycerin]

Noice, more knife fight weapons.

Im not too enthusiastic about the ion beam's stats, but now that officers exist it may not be too bad. I also wanna try Forlorn Hope with 2 of those on the Paragon, bye Hounds.
I like the Vigilance example - that ship's only lifeline is its shield, so you'd really need all the range you can get and a cautious officer with some nice skills to make it work. Situationally powerful weapons are fun, and if it was a no brainer it'd just make shieldless ships even more useless.

Get Stian to make some more beam sounds btw. The phase lance is so unassuming, almost a no-sell given how powerful it is and how quiet it is. And this thing needs a nice crisp loop!

[Megas]

I doubt the upcoming Ion Pulser will compete with Heavy Blaster, given its lack of range.  Players who simply want raw energy DPS will want as much range as they can get, and anything less than 600 is not enough if not using Safety Override.  I get annoyed with 600 range with Pulse Laser and Heavy Blaster, enough that I might take Applied Physics to 7 (instead of ignoring the skill completely) just to get Advanced Optics for 800 range Phase Lance, which becomes much better if the ship can use them with Needlers or Heavy Autocannons (mostly limited to Medusa, Falcon, Eagle, and Doom).  I would love to have long-ranged non-beam energy weapons akin to needlers.  Even heavy energy weapons top at 700, same as Railgun and Arbalest.

I suspect Ion Pulser will mostly be a Safety Override-only weapon, much like Assault Chaingun.

200 flux/sec will be high for ion beam, so I doubt there will be much abuse, aside maybe from Paragon, which has better options than tickling enemies with stun beams.

[Cycerin]

I would love to have long-ranged non-beam energy weapons akin to needlers.  Even heavy energy weapons top at 700, same as Railgun and Arbalest.

Mm, something horribly inefficient yet very top-down effective like SS+ Lightning Gun would be nice. But range is kinda the signature of ballistics now that ammo is gone.

[Megas]

Mm, something horribly inefficient yet very top-down effective like SS+ Lightning Gun would be nice.

I tried that long ago and thought it was overpowered, but that was when non-frigates had unlimited peak performance.

[Sy]

i love the addition of new emp/support weapons. any weapon that can be powerful without focusing purely on dps is a good thing for making refit more interesting.

i think my favorite new loadout in v7.0 was a Sunder with two Graviton Beams and a Tachyon Lance. i never really liked the Sunder before, and was initially disappointed by the changes to the Tachyon Lance, but that loadout with a cautious officer is amazing as long-range support, and lethal against frigates and low-tech destroyers.
can't wait to build more stuff like this with the new Ion Beam! ^_^

i agree with HELMUT that the beam colors could be confusing. you could make Ion Beam and Tachyon Lance blue (since both have emp damage), Phase Lance green (like the Tactical Laser, since both do only energy damage) and the Graviton Beam purple.. or something like that. some kind of color coding that makes it apparent what a beam does.

[Megas]

But range is kinda the signature of ballistics now that ammo is gone.

That, along with superior PD from Vulcan and Flak, is why ballistics will be superior to energy if the ship has a choice.

[Alex]

So everyone, how long are we betting before Alex creates a Ballistic/Missile type slot to round things out?

(Oh, that's already in the dev build. "Composite".)

[Sy]

are there any other ships planned that use these mounts, besides Aurora? like Medusa... putting two Light Needlers on that already very powerful ship always kinda felt like cheating. ^^

[icepick37]

I love this game. Just keeps getting more fun.

I think this is related (if not a direct result) of twitter banter between me and Alex. I am proud that my little idea baby grew up into such a sweet sweet weapon.

Phase destroyer!    Complete with awkward side mounts. Because of course it does.

Keep up the awesome work.