Weapons firing wrong

General discussions about the games by Egosoft including X-BTF, XT, X², X³: Reunion, X³: Terran Conflict and X³: Albion Prelude.

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Trevelvis
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Weapons firing wrong

Post by Trevelvis » Sun, 22. Oct 17, 09:29

I have played most of the X games over the years and never come across this but when I am trying to fire my weapons they don't fire anywhere near my crosshairs whatever my k button is set. It seems to be firing from over my head . I have tried different ships but still the same problem. I am wondering if I have accidently changed a setting as never had this problem before

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Post by RAVEN.myst » Sun, 22. Oct 17, 10:09

There are two firing locations, one of them is called "boresight" (uses the central reticle as reference), the other I don't recall. Basically (possibly subject to key re-binding), using the mouse button will place the shots closer to where your cursor is, using your keyboard will fire closer to the central reticle (and adjusted by the laser-sight auto-aim, if the correct Fight Command Software is installed.)

That's one possible source of your difficulty - the other is differences in ship weapon placements. What ship are you flying? Some examples: in many frigates, the weapons are placed quite far apart on the hull, and so they start very spread - consequently, it is quite easy, when the target is small and near, for your guns to all miss around it. A couple of Terran corvettes have the same problem: Katana and Springblossom - both of these also have their weapon mounts widely laterally spaced. As far as I recall, other races' corvettes all have more sensibly placed weapons...
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Trevelvis
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Post by Trevelvis » Sun, 22. Oct 17, 14:27

I have tried a Barracuda and Falcon Sentinel but maybe I need to reset a key bind. Will let you know if its that.

While I am on what weapons should I be using on these, at the moment I have 8 Hepts which drain very quickly

Thanks

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Post by RAVEN.myst » Sun, 22. Oct 17, 15:49

Trevelvis wrote:I have tried a Barracuda and Falcon Sentinel but maybe I need to reset a key bind. Will let you know if its that.

While I am on what weapons should I be using on these, at the moment I have 8 Hepts which drain very quickly
Yes, I would say that HEPTs are over the top for that size ship, certainly in a full bank - running 2 or maybe 4 can be viable, if you have multiple weapon configs, such as IonDs as an alternative, or something - but I avoid HEPTs on fighters, using them only on corvettes. My default fighter weapon when using fighters and if I don't have some specific loadout in mind is the PAC; it's very strong vs shields but a bit weaker against hull, which means that it's quite good for capturing incidentally once in a while, and its energy consumption is reasonable while dealing decent damage overall at a good shot speed and decent rate of fire. In tail turrets, I usually put PACs or PRGs (the latter are really good at anti-missile, because of their high shot speed and rate of fire, equating to high accuracy.)

For more special cases:
That Falcon Sentinel is pretty good to use with EBC: this weapon delivers good DPS at very good range and at excellent rate of fire and shot speed (therefore it's accurate), while sucking down little power at the expense of ammo. Ammo is cheap enough, and Falcons have good cargo capacities which makes them suitable for missiles and ammo-based weapons.

Barracudas I would outfit with my default of PACs, normally. Often, if I am personally flying one, I tend to fit 6 PACs and 2 IonDs, this allowing me to actively pursue captures if I so desire (and if not, the IonDs can still be used to quickly strip off an enemy's shields.) Another possible versatile Barracuda fit could be something like: 2 IonDs, 2 HEPTs (for straight-up killing after shields down), and 4 IREs (for capturing after shields down - IREs' low DPS gives you time to respond to a bail-out.)

If using Argon or Split fighters, you may well want to look into Mass Drivers (which you may be familiar with from previous Xs) - HIGHLY accurate but require you to get really intimate with your target, and ensure quick kills without possibility of captures (unless you jump through some overly convoluted hoops.)

Good hunting! :)


PS: Oh, btw, you may want to make sure your auto-targeting is set to where you want it. The terminology is different from X2 (I don't remember how the jargon is in X3R) - OFF is no aim-assist, no predictive sight; SEMI is predictive sight, no aim-assist; ON is both predictive sight and aim-assist.
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Post by Timsup2nothin » Sun, 22. Oct 17, 17:42

As a general rule I prefer PACs to HEPTs, myself. I find that I have a much higher hitting percentage, which allows me to actually deliver more damage. But even with PACs I seldom go full bank of eight. As you noted, it drains the laser battery too quickly. I do keep one fighter armed with HEPTs for use against big slow targets where I'm going to get hits no matter what I'm shooting with, but for dogfight fighters I go with PACs.

On most M3s I will go with a bank of six as my 'group 1' choice, with two of them also set as 'group 2' so I can maintain continuous, though limited, fire as the batteries recharge. The last two slots are 'group 3' and will be some sort of special purpose weapons. Usually the humble IRE for fighter drone swatting, PBGs for flamethrower operations, or ion disruptors on my equipment frying capture support ship.
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Post by RAVEN.myst » Sun, 22. Oct 17, 19:16

Oh, I forgot to mention: this is probably only going to become relevant some way down the road, but out-of-sector combat doesn't take weapon energy into account. Consequently, fighters that are *only* going to be used OoS as patrols or defense craft or such (I personally seldom have need for such, but play styles do differ...) can be fitted with full-HEPT and are then really lethal (ditto corvettes with CIGs, if used in the same manner - for in-sector, though, I prefer to go with HEPTs on corvettes, as previously noted.)
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Post by Honved » Mon, 23. Oct 17, 16:42

For anything I'm flying personally, I'll generally load up a bank of 6xPAC, plus a pair of weapons for dealing with faster targets: usually PRGs or PBEs, although PBGs can work wonders in some situations (and count as a war crime in others). PACs are actually more energy-efficient than HEPT, so if I'm taking on a larger ship, I can do more total damage before having to run away and recharge my guns. In one memorable situation, I was unable to wear down the shields on an M7, because they recharged marginally faster than my HEPTs, so I docked at my TM, switched to PACs, and gradually eroded its shields in an epic 20+ minute fight. I've been carrying PACs as my main M3 armament ever since.

If I encounter M5s, incoming missiles, or other small and fast targets, the high bullet speed of PRGs and PBEs provide a major targeting advantage, and a pair are generally more than sufficient to deal with those kinds of targets. Phase Repeater Guns, thanks to their extremely high bullet speed, plus their extremely high Rate of Fire with low individual shot damage, are highly controllable for teasing bails (not a lot of damage still enroute to target after you release the firing button). I avoid using them on OOS ships, because the pathetic per-bullet damage renders them almost worthless (each round of combat, energy weapons fire ONE bullet, regardless of RoF). HEPT are the clear winners in M3 OOS combat, where their high per-shot damage counts for everything, and their insatiable appetite for energy is completely ignored.

My preference: 2 PRGs in one firing group, and a 6-PAC in the other. 8 PACs suck too much power for most fighters anyway.

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