Adv Point Defense Weapons?

flak cannons have some kind of to-hit bonus.

flak cannons require no supplies, but bomblets do require supplies.

I thought there was a difference in the fire rates of PD Cannons v.s. PD Blasters.

There's also the Point Defense Beam if you've researched Energy Stream Weapons level 1 and Point-Defense Weapons level 6. They get a to-hit bonus. PD Blasters are only 10kT in size, hence their reduced damage/range. Bomblet Missiles will always hit, but are themselves subject to PD, and use ordnance. Flak Cannons do have a to-hit bonus which makes them ok for longer ranges.

The best is to use a mix of short and long range if you have the space.

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Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

In the Standard game:

(1) Point Defense Cannons are cheap, good damage, decent range, decent fire rate -- nice balanced PD weapon good vs anything.

(2) PD Blasters are a little more expensive, moderate damage, short range, fast fire rate -- highest overall damage output if they are firing continuously... so they are best versus swarms of things to shoot at... fighters are a good example. Blasters are hands-down better than Cannons, when you're talking "vs fighters", otherwise Cannons tend to be more cost effective and efficient.

(3) PD Beams are spendier, bigger, huge range, moderate damage, to-hit bonus... great PD weapons at high levels, when their damage at range is decent. At high levels, and vs slowly approaching targets (think "drones"), they sometimes get to fire twice. Best vs drones, but they stand out as arguably the best PD weapons in the endgame, and probably the worst in the early-to-mid game.

(4) Flak Cannons are pretty cheap, good range, good damage, to-hit bonus... They aren't as effective as PD Cannons when used "locally", so you have to consider their value when firing at range (i.e. defending lots of other ships in the fleet from seekers, fighters, etc). These are great for point-defense vessels which might otherwise spend most of their time running from ship to ship to protect the fleet.

(5) Bomblet missiles... are large, the best range, high damage, slow fire rate... seeking missiles. They use ordnance (not much), and they can even shoot down other bomblet missiles... meaning they can be used to defend groups of drones, fighters, etc., if you wanted to have some PD escort type vessels charge with your fighters or whatnot. I see these as another kind of flak cannon... essentially a support PD weapon which is used to defend other ships in a large fleet from PD attacks... not yourself, or your nearby squadron mates.

The unfortunate thing about bomblets is that they seem to blow up when their target is destroyed, rather than re-targetting. This is true for all PD weapons, but as slower moving "seeker" weapons, this kind of defeats the purpose of having the really long range, if you mount them in large numbers. The AI is often not bright enough to target lots of different stuff with PD, and the weapon doesn't retarget to compensate. The end result is that bomblets are pretty worthless when mounted en-masse on single ships (i.e. a single firing point, where they are all likely to choose the same target at the same time). Thus, their only real value lies in single mounts on pretty much every ship in the fleet -- this gives the entire fleet decent coverage, and tends to target many different targets with the bomblet missiles.

The biggest disadvantages of bomblet missiles are twofold: they use ordinance, and they themselves can be targeted by point defense (as well as some of the fighters they might be targetting).

So, if you send a wave of bomblet missiles against fighters that can target seekers, and you'll find that they're not as effective. But, they can be moderately effective against other seekers, since they're a guarunteed hit. The problem here is that their reload rate is half that of point defense cannons, blasters, and beams -- which means that you're probably only going to get one good shot off with the bomblet missiles before the seekers manage to close with your ship.

Point defense is really more effective against seekers than fighters. Against fighters, I understand anti-proton beams are a better choice. A frigate, with three different levels of APB equipped, plus combat sensors, will chew through fighters like nothing, one shotting them left and right, without worrying about overkill since APBs are instant hits and all of the differently leveled weapons are one-shotting at different ranges, and therefore times.

~ Kingside_Bishop

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I'm thinking that maybe the different point defenses should all have slightly different reload rates, and slightly different ranges. This would make them even more likely to pick different targets. right now they vary from 500 ms to 3000 ms but two weapons are 2000ms and two are 3000ms. I wonder how much the reload rate would need to be changed to effect that second shot (obviously range would effect the first shot). Would 1 ms be too little? should it be more like 200 ms?

and in terms of range modding should it be increasing by 1 or 2, so that each weapon has a different range.

SEV, more than a feeling.

"Point defense is really more effective against seekers than fighters. Against fighters, I understand anti-proton beams are a better choice. A frigate, with three different levels of APB equipped, plus combat sensors, will chew through fighters like nothing, one shotting them left and right, without worrying about overkill since APBs are instant hits and all of the differently leveled weapons are one-shotting at different ranges, and therefore times."

How do you get three different levels of the same weapon on a ship? Different weapon mounts or ?

You can choose to display obsolete components, can't you? I haven't tried it yet in SEV, but I remember it from SEIV. It used to be the default was show all components didn't it, It was a long time ago so I may be wrong. Anyone care to confirm?

Innuendo.

I have yet to find the button/option to show me old components.

Since new components cost more and some designs really only need an old clunky version of some things, I've been desperately looking for a way to use the old versions. (besides making 'reference' designs with multiple versions of a tech, to copy and tweak into actual functional designs)

If there's a way to get the game to show you older techs on the Design screen, I'd love to know it too.

No there isn't.

You could make template versions of hulls with older items that you can edit etc.

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Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

No, there's no way to bring up a list of out of date components. What you have to do is create a design with the component before it goes out of date, and then, when you discover the new technology, copy or edit that design. It's a pain, but hopefully, someday, Malfador will edit the ability to use older components into the game.

So, anyway, when I'm going beams + frigates for point defense, I research the highest level of light hull construction available, and then I design a ship with as many anti-proton beams as I want the eventual design to have (usually three). Then, when I research a new level of APB, I edit (or copy) the design, and replace one of the old APB's with a new one. Eventually, I have three different levels of APB on board, and as I discover new levels of energy stream weapons, I phase out the oldest APB on my point defense ships, gradually increasing their range.

It's not the best system, but it works.

~ Kingside_Bishop

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Kingside bishop you could mod in at each techlevel a short med and long APB weapon each could have different characteristics like a + to hit... Then you could do just what your saying but with up to date technology.

SEV, more than a feeling.