Why X-Weapons Are Not Garbage?

[Foefaller]

I stopped using X-weapons when I couldn't beat an awoken empire with my fleet which was two times smaller than the fleet of the enemy. Instead, I focused on plasma and disruptors and wrecked the bastards with very few casualties.

X-slot weapons seem very powerful on paper but, in practice, I've found them to be quite weak especially if the fleets are large enough. Once they start mixing up, all x-weapons become useless, but you still have to output a lot of damage points to win. Idk, at this time, I'm entirely unconvinced that they can be useful in any way.

First, are you saying you lost to an awaken fleet that was 2x larger than your own, and that's why X weapons are terrible?

Anyway, what kind of FE was it? Xenophobic have lots of kinetic artillery and Cruiser computers (which increase fire rate and have the ships rush in to the fight) w/afterburners on all their ships. They are pretty much designed to counter a Battleship-Cruiser heavy comp, especially one that expects to sit back and snip with X weapons all through the fight.

A X-weapon Battleship/ Cruiser heavy settup, on the other hand, would wreck a Spiritualist one six ways from Sunday, thanks to their dependence on arc emitters, torps and missiles.

 

[The Founder]

Well, my fleets heavily rely on small ships instead of battleship spam, perhaps this is the case.

Yes, that is it no doubt. With the sole exception of Arc Emitters and Missiles, anything past medium size is terrible at actually hitting a small target.
A corvette swarm can not outgun a BB fleet. But it sure can outlast one, to the point where they will whittle it down.

 

[Arkona]

First, are you saying you lost to an awaken fleet that was 2x larger than your own, and that's why X weapons are terrible?

Anyway, what kind of FE was it? Xenophobic have lots of kinetic artillery and Cruiser computers (which increase fire rate and have the ships rush in to the fight) w/afterburners on all their ships. They are pretty much designed to counter a Battleship-Cruiser heavy comp, especially one that expects to sit back and snip with X weapons all through the fight.

A X-weapon Battleship/ Cruiser heavy settup, on the other hand, would wreck a Spiritualist one six ways from Sunday, thanks to their dependence on arc emitters, torps and missiles.

They are terrible because you can modify your ships to move in fast enough at the enemy fleets, in which case the x-slot weapons become mostly useless. The moment that happens you lose a whole bunch of energy and weapons, given the lack of micromanagement of the ships. There are gameplays (maybe against human players) where x-weapons are still useful but, there are other more effective ways to fight AI fleets. My 2c.

p.s. The ones that I fought were mostly armor+shields+rechargers, tachyon lances, lasers, fighters, and disruptors (or maybe plasma).

 

[Foefaller]

They are terrible because you can modify your ships to move in fast enough at the enemy fleets, in which case the x-slot weapons become mostly useless. The moment that happens you lose a whole bunch of energy and weapons, given the lack of micromanagement of the ships. There are gameplays (maybe against human players) where x-weapons are still useful but, there are other more effective ways to fight AI fleets. My 2c.

p.s. The ones that I fought were mostly armor+shields+rechargers, tachyon lances, lasers, fighters, and disruptors (or maybe plasma).

You mean Afterburners? Yeah those help them close the range faster, but that also means no Shield Capacitors, which means shields don't regenerate in combat. If the AI is using them, you'd probably see better results trading out some of the Disruptors or Kinetic Artillery for more Plasma than dropping X-weapons altogether. Players will never use them, because if you need to close the distance, you're better off building a station with an FTL trap where you expect the enemy to come and park your fleet on top so you start the fight right at point-blank range.

FE Loadout sounds like Materialist. That's actually one of the other FE's that are good for X-Weapons... though only if you're using Kinetic Artillery as well. Disruptors and Lasers have a max Range of 80, and the Materialists aren't using afterburners at all, so your own tac lances and artillery (with their range of 100) will be able to pound on them for a while with only their Tac Lances (and the Titan's Laser) firing back. Load up Flak on most of the M slots to deal with their double-dipping of fighters, heavy Shields for the Corvettes, heavy armor on everything else, and you're set.

If you aren't using Kinetics, however... then it is just your X-Weapons vs. theirs to start, followed by their good (but not best possible) mix of anti-shield and anti-armor weaponry once all other weapons get into range. If you're not using a better combo and/or took full advantage of the time when you were out of range of most of their weapons, it's going to hurt.

 

[The Founder]

You mean Afterburners? Yeah those help them close the range faster, but that also means no Shield Capacitors, which means shields don't regenerate in combat.

They have fewer shield capacitors, not 0.
The only ones with 0 Rechargers are the Escorts, but those do not mater that much compared to stuff like a 2 XL BB.
http://www.stellariswiki.com/Fallen_empire#Ships

 

[Foefaller]

They have fewer shield capacitors, not 0.
The only ones with 0 Rechargers are the Escorts, but those do not mater that much compared to stuff like a 2 XL BB.
http://www.stellariswiki.com/Fallen_empire#Ships

I was talking about AI ships in general, IE other empire ships, which might stack two afterburners in one of their Cruisers or Battleships.

 

[melkor88]

Is there a X weapon which is the best to go for still?

 

[The Founder]

Is there a X weapon which is the best to go for still?

vs Armor: Lances.
vs Shields: Gigacannon.
vs Dodge: Arc Emitters.

Depends on what the other guns do.

Depending on wich foes you fight, any of them could be the best and the worst. Possibly at the same time.

 

[terrycloth]

vs Armor: Lances.
vs Shields: Gigacannon.
vs Dodge: Arc Emitters.

Depends on what the other guns do.

Depending on wich foes you fight, any of them could be the best and the worst. Possibly at the same time.

Generally Lances are the best because Kinetic Artillery exists to fill the 'vs shields' role and there's no plasma equivalent.