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Introduction to Weapon Systems

101 WAYS TO MAKE SHIPS EXPLODE

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Class Rules

  1. If you happen to have voice privileges in Discord, please mute yourself to prevent noise.
  2. Feel free to ask questions out loud when a pause is available, or write them out in the chat for the classroom
  3. If you wish to ask a question with voice, but seem perma-muted, you need a push to talk key set.
  4. Preface questions with Q. (ie: Q> How do I ask questions?)
  5. Stay docked-up in a station or citadel for safety.

INTRODUCTION TO WEAPON SYSTEMS

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Class Overview

  • Weapon Classifications
  • Weapon Sub-Classes and Ranges
  • Damage Application, Ammo
  • Meta Levels
  • Q&A

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Weapon Classifications

  • Small
  • Medium
  • Large
  • XL (Capital)

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Turrets

Missile Launchers

Drones

Unique Systems

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Weapon Sub-classifications

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Hybrid Turrets

Energy Turrets

Projectile Turrets

Drones

Missile Launchers

Entropic Disintegrators

Breacher Pods

Vorton Projectors

Bombs & Superweapons

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Damage Application (Damage Types)

There are 4 types of damage that weapons can apply.

  • EM
  • Thermal
  • Kinetic
  • Explosive

Each damage has a corresponding resist on a ships hull that reduces the amount of damage the weapon

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Turrets

  • Requires turret hardpoints to fit
  • Instant damage application
  • Damage bounded by range
    • Optimal Range: No range penalties to hit/damage
    • Falloff Range: Hit Chance/Damage dwindles down
  • Turret Tracking: Target’s angular speed reduces accuracy and damage
  • Chance to Hit and Damage dealt are directly linked

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Damage Application (Turrets)

Range Speed

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Turrets

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Long Range

Short Range

High

Low

Low

Long

Low

High

High

Short

Damage per shot (Alpha-strike)

Tracking speed

Cycle time

Damage per second

High

Low

Fitting requirements

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Turrets - Energy Turrets

  • High CPU/powergrid requirements
  • High capacitor use
  • Long-lasting ammo with instant reload
  • Restricted to EM and Thermal damage only
  • Smaller gap between long and short range variants
  • Good optimal range, but poor falloff range
  • OOH SHINY

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Impressive optimal range and instant ammo switching make lasers very flexible at many ranges.

Frequency Crystals

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Turrets - Energy Turrets

Pulse Lasers

Class: Short Range

  • Worst tracking in class
  • Longest optimal range in class

Beam Lasers

Class: Long Range

  • Shortest range in class
  • Marginally higher in-class DPS within optimal

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Small Focused Pulse Laser

7875m

3125m

308

Small

Small Focused Beam Laser

16.50km

3125m

112

Medium

14.17km

5000m

36.0

Focused Medium Pulse Laser

Focused Medium Beam Laser

28.87km

7500m

15.1

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Turrets - Hybrid Turrets

  • Moderate CPU/Power Grid requirements
  • Some capacitor use
  • Limited ammo with 5-second reload
  • Restricted to Kinetic and Thermal damage only
  • Extreme range gap between long and short range variants

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Hybrid turrets maximize the advantages (and disadvantages!) of their range category.

Hybrid Charges

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Turrets - Hybrid Turrets

Blasters

Class: Short Range

  • Shortest overall range in class
  • Highest DPS of all turrets

Railguns

Class: Long Range

  • Longest optimal in class
  • Marginally lower in-class DPS within optimal

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Light Ion Blaster

1875m

2500m

504

Heavy Ion Blaster

3750m

5000m

52.8

Small

Medium

250mm Railgun

36.00km

15.00km

8.2

150mm Railgun

18.00km

7500m

91.9

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Turrets - Projectile Turrets

  • Lowest CPU/Power Grid requirements
  • No capacitor use
  • Limited ammo with 10-second reload
  • Can switch ammo to deal any damage type
  • Poor optimal range, but very long falloff range

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Projectile turrets suffer the least from ammo range-penalties, allowing them to use better ammo.

Projectile Ammo

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Turrets - Projectile Turrets

Autocannons

Class: Short Range

  • Similar range to lasers, but mostly in falloff range
  • Good tracking/damage

Artillery

Class: Long Range

  • Longest combined range in class
  • Highest alpha-strike of all weapons

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200mm AutoCannon

1500m

6450m

394

280mm Howitzer Artillery

15.00km

10.94km

80

425mm AutoCannon

3000m

13.55km

42.2

720mm Howitzer Artillery

30.00km

21.88km

8.36

Small

Medium

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Missile Launchers

  • Requires launcher hardpoints to fit
  • Has travel time to target - but if in range, always hit
  • No capacitor usage
  • Range:
    • Missile speed
    • Flight time
  • Limited ammo with 10-second reload time
  • Selects one damage type to the exclusion of all others

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Missiles don’t lose damage to falloff range, but can be mitigated by speed in ANY direction.

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Damage Application (Missiles)

  • No tracking, no Falloff - Just two factors:
    • Explosion Velocity versus speed
    • Explosion Radius versus Sig Radius

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Missile Launchers

  • Short Range
    • Generally a longer engagement range than turrets
  • Long Range
    • Generally a shorter engagement range than similar turrets
  • Rapid Launcher
    • Loads ammo one size category smaller than module (better damage on small targets)
    • Cycles quickly for high burst DPS
    • Much longer reload time and holds less ammo per “clip”

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Short

Long

S

Rockets

Missiles

M

Heavy Assault Missiles

Heavy Missiles

L

Torpedoes

Cruise Missiles

Light Missile Launcher

255m/s

30m

42.2km

Rapid Light Missile Launcher

255m/s

30m

42.2km

Rocket Launcher

225m/s

15m

10.1km

Small - Short

Small - Long

Small for Cruisers

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Drones

  • Travels to target, then applies steady DPS
  • Selects one damage type to exclusion of all others
  • Can be targeted and destroyed
  • Requires drone bay to fit and drone bandwidth to launch

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Drones have speed and tracking just like ships, and struggle with targets smaller than their size category.

Sentry

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Ammo Basics

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Radio

Microwave

Infrared

Standard

Ultraviolet

Xray

Gamma

Multifrequency

Iron

Tungsten

Iridium

Lead

Thorium

Uranium

Plutonium

Antimatter

Carbonized Lead

Nuclear

Proton

Depleted Uranium

Titanium Sabot

Fusion

Phased Plasma

EMP

Long Range

High Damage

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Turrets/Launcher Meta Levels

  • There are several different “Levels” of weapon systems (and modules in general)
    • Tech 1
    • “Meta”
    • Tech 2
    • Storyline
    • Faction

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Special Weapons

Vorton Projectors

  • Used exclusively by EDENCOM
  • “Chain Lightning”
    • Bounces up to 10 targets that are within range
  • Uses its own skills for application - not gunnery or missile skills
  • Is a Signature based weaponry, like Missiles

Entropic Disintegrators

  • Used exclusively by Triglavian ships
  • Single target
  • “Spools” - damage increases over time
  • Is considered a Turret, and uses turret application skills

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Special Weapons (cont)

Breacher Pods

  • Newest weapon system
  • first ‘Damage over Time’ weapon system
    • When the target is hit they start taking damage that ignores resists
    • The damage continues until a cap is reached or the ship is destroyed
  • A single target can only be under the effect of one Breacher Pod at a time.

Bombs, Super Weapons

  • Bombs
    • Straight trajectory weapons, do large indiscriminate damage in an area
  • Smart Bombs
    • Area effect damage center on the ship using it
  • Lances
    • Specialized Dread weapons. Sig based damage in a long line, ‘super tackle’
  • Doomsday
    • Titan weapons, incredible damage over long line
  • Fighters
    • Similar to Drones except in small squads from Carriers

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Q&A

  • Please leave feedback via the “Class Feedback Form” linked in Lecture.E-Uni.

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