X4 Combat Assistance

[MarvinTheMartian]

So, moved to X4 from X3AP and its predecessors and loving it (despite some pretty big bugs) but, boy, is combat much harder in X4.

Perhaps my Hyperion Vanguard has made me soft over the years but my fully loaded Cerberus is getting pwned by a couple of Ms. I know the Cerberus is not a fighter but those Ms and Ns are fast and very accurate and, I know, I'm a much bigger target now too!

Any tips on loadout or other tactics? Should I travel-drive away to recharge shields like they do? Do I release my on-board fighter to draw some fire? Are missiles any use in this game (not had much success with them so far)?

I have maxed shields, beam weapons in all turrets and experimenting with ion cannon/plasma cannon up front right now but these are too slow for fast moving targets. Looking into defence drones next. I survive in the end and my engineer does a good job of patching up the hull but at this rate I'll have to start travelling by Destroyer!

Cheers
Marv

PS any plans to have a sticky for X4 guides like the X Universe forum? I did search on "combat" and scanned through the first 10 of 5000+pages of results so sorry if this has been discussed previously.

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

Hello there,

My preferred loadout for M ships with 2 main weapon mounts is to have Medium Beam Lasers in the main mounts, and Pulse Lasers in turrets. Plus in-game weapon mods crafted to increase damage.

The beams have lower DPS than some guns but I can see when they'll hit reliably via the floating aim dots. The pulse turrets are pretty accurate and have relatively high DPS.

With that combo I can generally melt a single Xenon fighter as it approaches by the end of the second beam cycle.

Plasma weapons are quite powerful but probably only good vs capitals and stations. Ions work well but I got out of the habit of using them (might have to try them again).

Happy hunting!

Sparky

[chew-ie]

Welcome to the X4 party

My first advice would be - ditch the beam weapons in the turrets and go for bolt / pulse guns. Part of your survival is to bring down the pesky fighters fast. Second advice - rotation modifications / hull mass reduction will help to turn faster.

My advice for main weapon is one ion cannon . This way you disrupt the enemies ability to boost around. Missiles can also help a lot to distract them from shooting at you and destroy them.

Defence drones didn't work for me yet - perhaps update 3.0 will improve things. (they just don't follow orders and therefore aren't very efficient).

[Buzz2005]

are you working on some mods maybe Marvin? CIWR was awesome

[ScandyNav]

Any tips on loadout or other tactics? Should I travel-drive away to recharge shields like they do? Do I release my on-board fighter to draw some fire? Are missiles any use in this game (not had much success with them so far)?

Just go and get yourself a Nemesis Vanguard. 1 Ion cannon, 2 bolts, 2 torpedo launchers, plasma turrets. And you have your Hyperion Vanguard unstoppable feeling back.

[radcapricorn]

are you working on some mods maybe Marvin? CIWR was awesome

Different Marvin

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

are you working on some mods maybe Marvin? CIWR was awesome

Different Marvin

This Is Getting Out of Hand. Now There Are Two of Them!

[MarvinTheMartian]

are you working on some mods maybe Marvin? CIWR was awesome

Different Marvin

This Is Getting Out of Hand. Now There Are Two of Them!

I was here first

Anyway, thanks for the advice. Not friendly with Paranid so will have to steal a Nemesis. Going to try the layout suggestions for the Cerberus first.

Not necessarily looking for the indestructible feeling, I got so used to the combat in X2/X3 that the Hyperion was just less effort but turns out I got soft. Really enjoying the early game learning curve with a splash of familiarity that I haven't had since X2 came out.

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

I was here first

Fair enough

Really enjoying the early game learning curve with a splash of familiarity that I haven't had since X2 came out.

Ooh, good point - I'd forgotten about that. It was the same for me. An X game without another familiar map.