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[frag971]

I am having a realy hard time justifying the use of any missiles, cannons or guns. The "bullets" are all so slow and the targetting hull mod doesn't make the guns aim predictively anyway, and the missiles just fly by without intercepting. I miss most of the shots unless at point blank or a couple of exceptions like mass driver cannon. I just use lasers on everything and seem to be doing fine. This ofc isnt an issue against capitals in the end game but meh...

I just wish the kinetic and missile weapons would have a much faser muzzle speed.

[Catra]

most of the kinetics ballistics are getting speed buffed next patch. aside from the swarmer, missile speed is fine.

as for the kinetics ballistics, you do realize that things like the AC/railgun/mortar/assault gun are for combating big ships yes?

[Doom101]

the key to ballistics combat at any kind of range is leading your target, if you aim where they are you'll always miss if you aim where their going they go straight into your shot and you'll almost always hit. the only time you should aim straight at your target is for PD versus missiles coming at you in a straight line. this same idea applies to a few energy weapons such as the mining blaster and to a lesser degree all the pulse lasers.

[MidnightSun]

Especially for ships that use ballistics, it's critical to have at least a Veteran crew level. Any lower, and the slower-moving shots will tend to miss very often.

[Thaago]

Especially for ships that use ballistics, it's critical to have at least a Veteran crew level. Any lower, and the slower-moving shots will tend to miss very often.

I absolutely agree with this! Ballistics can be truly devastating but regular crew just doesn't cut it (this might be one more reason why we again consider the high tech ships overpowered: the low tech AI almost always has regular crew and therefor can't hit us). This will hopefully get better next update as many ballistic weapons will have a speed increase.

As for missiles - I also wish they would lead the target. This would bring up some issues because you or the AI could 'fake' them out by swerving and making them turn, but those issues would be far better (in my opinion) than the current situation. This is even more critical for LRM's - it would probably stop the LRM tails that grow behind fast frigates. Remember though that if missiles have lead targeting they will also hit us much more as well.

All that said, missiles have devastating strike potential as they are. A single wolf/lasher with extended missiles racks can blow up a destroyer that has overloaded in a single pass.

[TJJ]

Don't be fooled by the relatively modest damage stats for HE missiles.
When impacting armour they don't just damage the armour segment they impact upon, they damage all the armour segments within their blast radius.

Even after factoring in the innate damage bonus HE weapons have against armour, the damage read-outs shown in battle fall way short of accurately reporting the actual damage dealt.

[Alex]

Even after factoring in the innate damage bonus HE weapons have against armour, the damage read-outs shown in battle fall way short of accurately reporting the actual damage dealt.

Actually, to my knowledge, those are completely accurate

[Nanostrike]

No offense to the OP, but most of his entire issue seems to be "I can't hit the target".  Which is a valid problem, I guess, but not the fault of Ballistics or Missiles.  Get Veteran or Elite crew...and practice your own aiming...and this won't be too much of an issue.

IMO, if the ships that could use Ballistics were better, Ballistics would be amazing.  Kinetics shred shields, High Explosive makes armor almost a non-factor, and Frag shreds the hull.  Mass Drivers or Machine Guns can take down shields in seconds, Assault Guns drill through armor, and if a missile gets past the shields, it only takes a couple hits to cripple or destroy most ships.

[Temjin]

No offense to the OP, but most of his entire issue seems to be "I can't hit the target".  Which is a valid problem, I guess, but not the fault of Ballistics or Missiles.  Get Veteran or Elite crew...and practice your own aiming...and this won't be too much of an issue.

IMO, if the ships that could use Ballistics were better, Ballistics would be amazing.  Kinetics shred shields, High Explosive makes armor almost a non-factor, and Frag shreds the hull.  Mass Drivers or Machine Guns can take down shields in seconds, Assault Guns drill through armor, and if a missile gets past the shields, it only takes a couple hits to cripple or destroy most ships.

Agreed. I finally did a low-tech playthrough, and ended up turning it into a solo Enforcer run. Dual flak on the sides means your shields rarely need to go up and fighters don't survive long, plus they absolutely annihilate hull. A pair of Hypervelocity Drivers knocks out shields and ship systems at long range, and a Heavy Mauler in the front and center eats armor pretty quickly. 4x single Harpoons are enough extra burst firepower to take advantage of an ill-timed vent or last-second overload. Hardened Shields, combined with a Veteran crew, means your shields are about as good as a midline ship and plenty solid for stopping the stuff that makes it through your flak screen.

I'd love to see a Frigate-type version of the Enforcer, with more speed and fewer missiles and two or three medium ballistic slots. A few of those would make for a very versatile fleet.

[Thaago]

A ship with the same general stats as a Lasher but with 2 medium mount ballistic turrets and very little else would be fascinating: either a truly excellent PD ship or a truly excellent cap killer (for its size), but not both (or asymetric with flak on one side and a big gun on the other to make a mix, I guess). I guess a lot would depend on its flux stats.

[NONOCE]

Laser ships are better but ballistic ships are just way more cost effective.

[RawCode]

HE shoud deal 100% on impact location and distribute another 100% on neaby armor sections - shockwave over armor plates, this will make such weapons extremely effective at stripping armor, since few hits on same location will create hurge breach.

[Anysy]

HE weapons already are incredibly strong against armor..

[cp252]

Cost effective yes, less effective no. I run straight from start to endgame without a single energy weapon in my fleet. Lashers with harpoons, five shield-cracking kinetic weapons and extended missile racks are death to fighters, frigates and destroyers, and four of them can take any ship in the game down.

[frag971]

I started using ballistics with a couple mods out there. Especially the railguns and velocity drivers