Are PPC's Useless?

kileran · Post by **kileran** » Wed, 2. Jun 04, 19:24

From the commanders space station X2 weapon list

PPC:
- PPCs are useless, except for their range. A Beta HEPT is better than Alpha or Beta PPCs, and the Gamma HEPT is better than the Gamma PPC.

Any thoughts? i see from the weapon damages, they are. But tehre must be a reason all AI M2's are full of them.

Flector · Post by **Flector** » Wed, 2. Jun 04, 19:27

In short: range and refire rate.

xalien · Post by **xalien** » Wed, 2. Jun 04, 19:34

Because of their range PPC's and PSG's are the only real options for capital ship combat.

JTressy · Post by **JTressy** » Wed, 2. Jun 04, 19:34

A HEPT won't even reach the other end of an M1 or M2, let alone anything that's not actually staring straight down the turret..

kileran · Post by **kileran** » Wed, 2. Jun 04, 19:37

Ahhhh, gotcha.

I've never flown anything larger than an M3, except my TL which has no weapons

Thanks

LORDSATAN · Post by **LORDSATAN** » Wed, 2. Jun 04, 19:50

whilst we are on the subject does anyone know where I can find the ranges of all the weapons.
I dont trust the ships computer as according to her the range of my apsg is 1.2 km when at 2 km it seems to do more damage. I think she is telling porkies.
I have looked at the commanders site and it had every other stat apart from that or maybe I am not reading it right.

kileran · Post by **kileran** » Wed, 2. Jun 04, 20:00

I think the last two columns can be used to calculate the range, but i'm not sure how.

sean|Bsc · Post by **sean|Bsc** » Wed, 2. Jun 04, 20:06

depends what lifetime means.

The_Abyss · Post by **The_Abyss** » Wed, 2. Jun 04, 20:08

Lifetime means how long the shot lasts. So a high speed times a long lifetime = long range.

Greyhawk1 · Post by **Greyhawk1** » Wed, 2. Jun 04, 20:20

A pity the shots are so outstandingly, incredibly slow. I could get out and walk faster than those PPC bolts....

Its not unusual to see a cap ship firing a broadside into a large Khaak cluster and not hitting a darn thing because the universe has aged a billion years by the time the bolts get there.

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Wed, 2. Jun 04, 23:16

LORDSATAN wrote:whilst we are on the subject does anyone know where I can find the ranges of all the weapons.
I dont trust the ships computer as according to her the range of my apsg is 1.2 km when at 2 km it seems to do more damage. I think she is telling porkies.

I don't think she IS telling porkies. Don't forget that even if the PSG bolt "explodes" at 1.2km distance, it then spreads out a good deal, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if that ballooning PSG shockwave could boost the range up to 2km.

Momaw · Post by **Momaw** » Thu, 3. Jun 04, 09:42

The_Abyss wrote:Lifetime means how long the shot lasts. So a high speed times a long lifetime = long range.

Don't trust that table. It claims that alpha and beta HEPT's have the same lifetime/range, but you can easily mount them side by side on the same ship and see that the B-HEPT goes further.

LORDSATAN · Post by **LORDSATAN** » Thu, 3. Jun 04, 12:14

Cheers guys.
It makes life alot easier to be able to trust the ships computer.
Anyway tonight is my gaming night when Mrs Satan goes out with her witches coven and leaves me alone in the x-universe for a night so I will put this all to the test.

hst · Post by **hst** » Thu, 3. Jun 04, 13:13

PPC's come into range at about 5km. If you do this at a pirate base, the pirates will be going boom before they can even get off a shot.

dr. lomax · Post by **dr. lomax** » Thu, 3. Jun 04, 13:18

PPCs useless? i`m damn sure i`m not putting anything less on my m2s/m1s! Apart from psgs and ion d`s of course!

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Thu, 3. Jun 04, 14:45

Momaw wrote: Don't trust that table. It claims that alpha and beta HEPT's have the same lifetime/range, but you can easily mount them side by side on the same ship and see that the B-HEPT goes further.

Lifetime is measured in time, not in distance, so you also need to take account of the speed of the bolt--and I believe BHEPT rounds travel faster than AHEPT ones.

EverythingXen · Post by **EverythingXen** » Thu, 3. Jun 04, 15:42

Putting anything besides PPC on a cap ship (or PSGs, of course) is an excercise in frustration... enemy ships will break off their attack runs to avoid colliding with the capital ship as soon as they fire three shots off... and with the projectile speed of HEPT, for example, your turrets have maybe two seconds to get a lock and terminate a target... which doesn't happen.

PPC might do less damage per bolt but keep in mind they have a good rate of fire and start hitting enemy ships long before they come into their own weapon's firing range. Only the Khaak M3 to 5 get away with actually hitting the shielding on a capital ship... all others are dead before they get a clear shot. The only shield damage I ever take is from hornet/thorn missiles hammering me... and the shields can take a lot of abuse from them (pity you can't set turrets individually and dedicate one turret per arc to missile defense... a M2 gets hit from the front, side, back, middle, up, down by missiles.... they're so big that the missile doesn't have to 'chase' much and end up behind you. And you want good guns facing aft on attack enemies in an M2 because enemies love attacking your six; it's an M2's weakest firing arc).

Viperwing666 · Post by **Viperwing666** » Thu, 3. Jun 04, 18:21

I used a money cheat once when i was bored and stuck gamma+betta PPC on and ody. These things are leathal on ships with slow manuverability (<<spelling?) xenon k crushin weopons. (oh and a few psgs doesnt hurt)

But no good for pirates flying round in space.

EverythingXen · Post by **EverythingXen** » Fri, 4. Jun 04, 14:08

They work fine against pirates and khaak... every two seconds I hear 'The argon fed, the argon, the arg, the argon federation would, the argon fed, the argon...." when attacking a base. If you just want a base DEAD then a capital ship is pure brutallity. The forward GPPC will destroy a base on their own in about a minute... if another turret or two gets in on the action it takes only seconds. Meanwhile the pirates with their Buzzing Gnat Power are doing an impressively realistic impression of fireworks all around....

Post by **Xenon_Slayer** » Fri, 4. Jun 04, 15:31

pjknibbs wrote:
LORDSATAN wrote:whilst we are on the subject does anyone know where I can find the ranges of all the weapons.
I dont trust the ships computer as according to her the range of my apsg is 1.2 km when at 2 km it seems to do more damage. I think she is telling porkies.
I don't think she IS telling porkies. Don't forget that even if the PSG bolt "explodes" at 1.2km distance, it then spreads out a good deal, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if that ballooning PSG shockwave could boost the range up to 2km.

3.3 is a distance I have hit with a PSG

egosoft.com

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Are PPC's Useless?

Are PPC's Useless?