{X3TC} ISR or CIG for overtuned Hyperion Vanguard

[Kelvhan Amaratharr]

Hi all,
I constantly wonder which cannons to mount on my overtuned Hyperion Vanguard?
I lucked out and ended the Poisoned Paranid start with a very quick Hyperion Vanguard, so this is definitely my player ship. Usind IRE or PAC in the back and EBC in the front turrets I tried 8 ISR or 8 CIG in the frontal battery. It seems to me, that the CIG somehow works better in an energy draining sense, the ISR seems to me better statswise. So what do you use and what would you suggest?

[Lone Jedi]

This topic has been discussed many times. You can search for them.

Personally I choose CIG since it has much better accuracy due to the large bullet size.

[Baratheon79]

I tend to use whichever is most readily available, though I've decided that I prefer ISRs (which worked out well in my current game, cause I got lucky early on and got a nice load of them off some weapons dealer).

Incidentally, I use pretty much the same loadout for my own Hyperion in AP (ISR or CIG in main, EBCs in front turrets with 100 crates of ammo, PACs in rear turrets).

[Kelvhan Amaratharr]

Incidentally, I use pretty much the same loadout for my own Hyperion in AP (ISR or CIG in main, EBCs in front turrets with 100 crates of ammo, PACs in rear turrets).

Great minds think alike!

[Sovereign01]

For the main battery I use 4 CIGs for anything M6-sized and 4 PBGs for anything smaller. Anything bigger on the other hand gets a swarm of Wraith missiles

[Lone Jedi]

Incidentally, I use pretty much the same loadout for my own Hyperion in AP (ISR or CIG in main, EBCs in front turrets with 100 crates of ammo, PACs in rear turrets).

Great minds think alike!

Cough...that's a pretty standard loadout. 90% of the players have been using this for several years.

The majority of X players has great mind, that's true. Those are not games for stupid people.

[OniGanon]

HEPTs in the main guns, PAC everywhere else.

Mid range weapons are a waste of time on corvettes in TC.

[imperium3]

HEPTs in the main guns, PAC everywhere else.

Mid range weapons are a waste of time on corvettes in TC.

Agreed (though I put HEPTs in the forward turrets as well).

I've yet to find a corvette that can actually sustain CIG/ISR fire for any length of time. The energy demands are just too high.

[DrBullwinkle]

It seems to me, that the CIG somehow works better in an energy draining sense, the ISR seems to me better statswise.

Yes, that's right. Concussion Impulse Generator (CIG) is more efficient, while Ion Shard Railgun (ISR) is stronger.

ISR is an extremely versatile weapon; it is great for stripping shields on large ships (for boarding), and is fast and strong enough to kill fighters (and larger ships). As a bonus, ISR drains the target's laser energy, which temporarily reduces the return fire from your target (which is especially great for boarding ops).

I use a mix of ISR and Energy Bolt ChainGun (EBCG) in my main guns. That way I can maximize firepower for whatever laser energy the ship has available. Depending on my target, I then use weapon groups to adjust the number of each weapon that fires.

The same logic holds for any M6 or M7 that is capable of mounting both guns. They are a terrific combination.

[hisazul]

This is more of AP relevant but it still holds true for the most part in TC.

I dislike CIGs because they are absolutely horrible against anything smaller then medium ships. One projectile touches ship and it gets tossed out of the way and everything else misses and all that energy efficiency goes down the toilet.
If you are 1v1 Q good luck blowing though entire laser energy reserves of frontal guns and not taking hull damage. If you start maneuvering and avoiding damage your guns get enough rest that it never matters how much energy they use unless it just enough for one volley.

Energy efficiency is just as dependent on person as on the number in a formula. Having multiple weapon groups does... wonders... to address that issue when you want to just spray and pray. From 8 I switch to 4 when fighting fighters, when I'm cleaning up m4/m5 or trying to force bail I sometimes switch to 2, tho I do still prefer the massive fast damage tactic for forcing bailing over slow whittling which never seems to work for me. 4 ISR on hyp can be fired indefinitely. If you are turbo boost style fighting capitals... and using laser energy as priority for TB then you can sustained either 2 ISRs or 4 frontal HEPTs while turbo boosting entirely of laser energy. Not exactly efficient but still more fun and then covering entire sector with missiles from 50km away.

Hell if you like spray and pray shooting take EBC its still better then CIG most of the time... despite timeframes(how long it takes for each individual/all targets) most of actual enemies are fighters. And throwing them around is not useful for anything other then wasting time.

[Nanook]

For the main battery I use 4 CIGs for anything M6-sized and 4 PBGs for anything smaller. Anything bigger on the other hand gets a swarm of Wraith missiles

PBG's for smaller ships?? That's a bit of overkill, don't you think? PBG's, with their small energy drain and area effect, absolutely melt larger targets. If you put eight of them in the main loadout, even M2's will be dead in a matter of seconds. I wouldn't use them for smaller ships due to the large friendly fire issues you generally encounter in most fighter-rich situations. IMO, you're better off using Hurricanes or Wasps to deal with the small, fast fighters.

My recommendation is to put 4 CIGs/ISRs + 4 PBG's in the main (as suggested), and smaller, fighter suppression weapons in the turrets. But use the CIG's/ISR's at long range, and when you close with the target, switch to PBG's. Again, this is for attacking ships M3-sized and larger (including TS's). The Hyperion can't really maneuver well enough to take on M4's and M5's with the main guns, so leave those to the missiles and turrets.

[Sovereign01]

For the main battery I use 4 CIGs for anything M6-sized and 4 PBGs for anything smaller. Anything bigger on the other hand gets a swarm of Wraith missiles

PBG's for smaller ships?? That's a bit of overkill, don't you think? PBG's, with their small energy drain and area effect, absolutely melt larger targets. If you put eight of them in the main loadout, even M2's will be dead in a matter of seconds. I wouldn't use them for smaller ships due to the large friendly fire issues you generally encounter in most fighter-rich situations. IMO, you're better off using Hurricanes or Wasps to deal with the small, fast fighters.

My recommendation is to put 4 CIGs/ISRs + 4 PBG's in the main (as suggested), and smaller, fighter suppression weapons in the turrets. But use the CIG's/ISR's at long range, and when you close with the target, switch to PBG's. Again, this is for attacking ships M3-sized and larger (including TS's). The Hyperion can't really maneuver well enough to take on M4's and M5's with the main guns, so leave those to the missiles and turrets.

I do use the turrets for anti-fighter duty (PACSs aft, EBCs fore), I find the PBG is the only weapon the main battery can mount that can reliably hit anything smaller than an M6.

I'll have to give the missiles a go, it just so happens I've expanded my largest complex to include various missiles including the wasp in the last day or so

The Hyperion does have one of the best turn rates in its class from what I've found- since I'm now hunting Qs for the elusive PALC I'll have to see if PBGs melt them or whether I should stick with the ever-reliable Wraith