[X3TC] How do the CIG, ISR & IPG compare to each other?

[Aeshi]

I've always used CIGs for my M6s and the back of my M7 until now and was wondering if the other two were any good? From what I can gather from their stats the ISR is the "anti-fighter" one, the IPG is the IBL of the M6 class and the CIG functions as the middleman.

[A5PECT]

IPGs are actually very good for spacewalk boarding since they do relatively low hull damage and decrease the target's max speed. That's something of a moot point, though, as spacewalk boarding in TC is notoriously unreliable (one of the reasons I love AP).

ISRs drain weapon energy, but I'm not quite sure what that's useful for.

The CIG has the most straight up killing power of the three, which is why it's pretty much the most used corvette weapon by players.

[Raize]

IPGs are damn annoying when you're fighting them as the slowing effect can be lethal. But they're not particularly useful when you use them yourself as the damage is extremely low.

CIGs have the most on-paper DPS, but the first of a stream of shots will knock any target fighter out of the way of the rest, which can be annoying and really reduces their effective DPS.

ISRs have good bullet speed and range compared to the other two, and I consider them to be the most useful of the corvette weapons.

[Triaxx2]

I like to mix, on those ships they'll fit, two IPG, and two CIG. That'll rip off the shields and then shred the ship. Works pretty well except against fighters, where the pair of CIGs is enough, and will just cause the IPG to waste shots.

[Nick Northern]

Of those 3 choices, I prefer ISR's. ISR does slightly less damage per hit than CIG's, but shoot somewhere between 2 and 3 times faster, and have a much faster bullet speed. So the shield damage per second is much higher than CIG's. The downside is that they do less damage than CIG's against hull, but against M6's and M7's this isn't very noticable as hull still dies fast enough. CIG also uses less weapon energy than ISR, so if your weapon battery is having trouble keeping up, CIG is the better choice. I like ISR's because they kill everything well, from M4-M7. Both fast moving, anoying M5's and hefty capital ships are doable, but it will take some patience.

As far as IPG's go, I also like them for boarding ops, but they do less damage and use more energy than ISR's, so I use ISR's instead for regular purposes.

IPG's have a faster bullet speed than CIG's but take more energy.

[garv222]

In terms of damage, to shields anyway....

IPG>ISR>CIG

However both IPG and ISR are a lot less energy efficient at doing damage. CIG are a bit better for hull damage as well. The energy drain off of the ISR is generally negligible from what I've seen when I get hit by it.

ISR are better than CIG and IPG for hitting fighters, but they are not great in turrets due to their bullet size being small. I'd probably put ISR as similar in performance to a HEPT in a turret for anti-fighter. ISR has greater range, but it's unlikely to score hits at the max range.

[AshToDust]

IPGs are damn annoying when you're fighting them as the slowing effect can be lethal. But they're not particularly useful when you use them yourself as the damage is extremely low.

CIGs have the most on-paper DPS, but the first of a stream of shots will knock any target fighter out of the way of the rest, which can be annoying and really reduces their effective DPS.

ISRs have good bullet speed and range compared to the other two, and I consider them to be the most useful of the corvette weapons.

I respectfully disagree.

IPG rocks in M6 boarding operation as it makes it a lot easier to spacewalk to the target (in AP at least).

CIGs knocking effect is a really nice feature as M6 can have trouble when meeting 4 or 5 M3 with HEPT... even 600MJ can go down realy fast. CIG is just perfect to shake M3's firesight. Usualy at long range (2km) you can land 2 salvo before the knocking shakes target out of fire trajectory. 2 x 4CIG salvo does enough damage to take shield out and some hull... if shield was already partially down, it s usualy enough to cripple your target quite enough to make it easy turret meat and you can switch to another target. CIGs are my "don t feed on my back!" weapon...

I do like PRG as turret weapon. The rate of fire make it up for the turret inacuracy and it s enough to deal with M5 (I hate running after M5...) and most M4, especially after they have been shaken by a CIG salvo ^^