So I'm having a small problem with defending against missiles. My strategy here is to make a picket ship, but I'm unclear which weapons to use. Countermeasures are good in theory, but I'm seeing a lot of destruction and they're much more dependent on the pilot level.
Now the way I see it is that there are three possible strategies to use:
Pulse Turrets, Relatively high projectile speeds, (1800m/s), Range of about 3.4km and a rotation of up to 209deg/s (I'm unclear whether this will pack enough punch)
Beam Turrets. Extremely high projectile speed, so if it spots and is in the right directly, got a good chance of taking the missile down, unfortunately relatively low rotation speed (120) and very low damage and low range.
Flak. Probably better on the target ship rather than being able to overlap other ships and also risks damaging friendly ships.
Now I did hear some advice about using missiles to counter (which seems.... not right somehow).
What's the counter to missiles?
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Re: What's the counter to missiles?
As a player in M or lower the counter is 'pulse travel drive, laugh at useless missiles that literally never reach you'.
For other ships, I just give them flares and set their anti-fighter turrets to shoot missiles first. I would not bother trying to create a picket ship personally, because weapon ranges are very low. M beams for instance might seem like they'd be ideal for this, but their coverage of a fleet is likely to be abysmal.
For other ships, I just give them flares and set their anti-fighter turrets to shoot missiles first. I would not bother trying to create a picket ship personally, because weapon ranges are very low. M beams for instance might seem like they'd be ideal for this, but their coverage of a fleet is likely to be abysmal.
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Re: What's the counter to missiles?
If you did want capital picket/flak ships or mini-fleets, one or more Barbarossas with L beams set to 'shoot missiles first' and M flak set to 'attack fighters' are pretty effective at swatting torpedoes and fighters (even for fighters travel-driving past them). Just don't expect many to survive being attacked by hostile destroyers.
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Re: What's the counter to missiles?
The idea is to mix the picket ships in with those ships that are more vulnerable to missiles, so Destroyers, Frigates and Heavy Fighters. So I'd probably assign some Gunships such as the Minotaur Vanguard with Turrets on Missile-Defense, to escort duties along side the Destroyer or other slow ship. That way the ship 'vulnerable' ship would have a better time against incoming missiles. The hope is that some of this coverage would also affect nearby fighters. Unfortunately I can't tell what the coverage is like as I can't draw range rings and the icons are not really a fair representation of ship sizes (unless it's a Destroyer or above).
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Re: What's the counter to missiles?
Possibly there was this idea as the encyclopedia has an "interceptor" missile listed which is designed as anti-missile missile. Never saw any to buy and even then, turrets specifically for missile defence seems a worthless idea as it takes away so much firepower for other responses.
I thought M pulse turrets were designed for missiles (as they're frigging useless for shooting ships), flak doesn't seem to do much (as my player-flown corvette often has them set to missile defence by default and they don't seem to shoot many of them down except maybe luck). I'd try bolt turrets as they appear to offer more damage and that higher rate of fire might mean more hits (or maybe M beams for missile defence only, as they are worthless for anti-ship damage)
I'd like egosoft to give us more guidance on their intended use-cases for turrets.
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Re: What's the counter to missiles?
If/when a turret does shoot at missiles, what missiles does it shoot at?
Does it shoot at any missile, or only missiles that are locked on this ship?
If the latter, then the "picket" will do something only when it is the target of the attackers.
I'm quite sure that in earlier games only the "at me" were shot at. (Also, the dumpfires have no target ...)
I do also recall how a Pirate fighter did launch a missile at our fleet in X3R. I had a large wing of fighters as point guard. I can't say whose fire did hit the missile (or did it reach its target) but the Pirate and a large portion of my fighters were within the explosion radius of "Unknown Object" ...

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Re: What's the counter to missiles?
For the most part, you're stuck relying on Flares; I think only the Smart missile is immune to them anyway.
For M ships and above, I just use at least one M-Beam turret for missile defence. Argon rotation rate is decent enough, and most missiles have super low hp.
Interceptor missiles also work well, but they only come from the Split, so they require the Split DLC.
They are fairly susceptible to flares though, but they do fire in packs of 5, so they can still saturate the battlefield and hit ships. Otherwise, at a whopping 4,630 m/s speed, and over 100km range,they will definitely reach other missiles to take them out.
Problem is only L/XL ships and stations can equip the M/L Tracking Turrets for this purpose; I don't know if you can set any S/M ships equipped with the launchers to use them as missile defence.
For M ships and above, I just use at least one M-Beam turret for missile defence. Argon rotation rate is decent enough, and most missiles have super low hp.
Interceptor missiles also work well, but they only come from the Split, so they require the Split DLC.
They are fairly susceptible to flares though, but they do fire in packs of 5, so they can still saturate the battlefield and hit ships. Otherwise, at a whopping 4,630 m/s speed, and over 100km range,they will definitely reach other missiles to take them out.
Problem is only L/XL ships and stations can equip the M/L Tracking Turrets for this purpose; I don't know if you can set any S/M ships equipped with the launchers to use them as missile defence.