GSB stuff/note-taking

[hirumaryuei]

Normal modules:

Fighters

• Fighter Laser Cannon: overall best dogfighting weapon
• Fighter Pulse Laser: very slightly better at dogfighting than fighter laser, but much harder to fit
• Fighter Torpedo: crazy penetration for helping vs. cruisers, but super heavy. not really very viable
• Fighter Rocket Launcher: very high dps (for fighters), but high minimum range. not too good in dogfights. alright vs. cruisers; bad vs. everything else
• Fighter Target Painter: its a target painter on a fighter, see also: overpowered
• Fighter Armor: 11.25, 13.75, 16.25, 7.5, 8.75. possible to make a 4 slot fighter immune to interceptors? definitely not anything else. all fighter armor is very lightweight; fit armor 3 if you have the slots free imo

Frigates

• Frigate Beam Laser: medium range boring frigate gun. good vs. armor, bad vs. cruiser shields. decent in frigate vs. frigate due to poor frigate shield resistance
• Frigate SmallBeam Laser: slightly cheaper beam laser with slightly better range. lower dps, worse armor peneration. better in frigate vs. frigate, due to longer range
• Frigate Pulse Laser: anti-fighter laser gun. tears up fighters, crap vs. anything else. not the best anti-fighter weapon ever.
• Ion Cannon: rapid fire, anti-shield weapon. breaches any shield in the game, but shortish range. bad vs. armor. can possibly be used vs. tractored fighters. very very high dps for a frigate weapon if it hits hull.
• Rapid Fire Laser: cheaper ion cannon with less tracking, shorter range, still breaches shields well. great for disposable frigate rushes.
• Frigate Torpedo: very very long range, inexpensive shield busting missiles. slow-moving, so decoy missiles help a lot. good for their long range, but dps is poor. very cheap. imo RFL/ion are better, but these have their use
• Anti-Fighter Missile: costly, but shred fighters in only a hit or two. good dps if they hit any sort of hull but penetration is so laughable that they can be armor tanked by fighters and shield tanked by cruisers or multi-phasic shields. not very good anti-fighter.
• EMP Missile I: very solid weapon, especially if you have target painters. great teamed with armor tanks to lower dps of armor busting cruisers
• EMP Missile II: better than emp I, if you want to spend a little more. probably always worth the extra cost vs. emp I except when supply is limited
• Fast Missile: fast-travelling missiles, good for killing frigates. not enough penetration to fight cruisers, and not enough tracking to really kill fighters. kind of meh.
• Frigate Missile: much like fast missile, only not really as good. a little cheaper though. still not a good buy
• Frigate Plasma Launcher: actually pretty good tracking for a plasma gun. only good vs. tractored enemies nonetheless. low cost, mediocre dps, but long range and great vs. shields. not super great vs. cruiser armor. probably okay.
• Disruptor Bomb Launcher: "shield disrupting bombs." not very good, fyi
• Phasor Cannon II:
• Frigate Armor: I 31, II 44, III 62, light pa 70, pa 71. armor tanking a frig is totally possible, although probably only on frigs with lots of hardpoints
• Frigate Shields: superlight 18/7/6, light 27/7/6, I 50/9/6, II 70/10/7, turbo 77/7/6. shield tanking a frig isn't really viable except possibly with empire.
• Frigate Point Defense: really, really good at creating an anti-missile wall. unfortunately, frigates kind of die fast so iuno. still probably really good
• iPoint Defense: more expensive, but honestly the faster fire rate is worth it. not as good as a cruiser missile interception system though...
• Automated Point Defense: unless you really need the extra 3 crew to fit, do not use this
• Frigate Tractor Beam: this is so overpowered it's scary.

Cruisers

• Cruiser Beam Laser: good at making frigates your bitch. longish range, pretty overall reliable gun. will break most armor tanks. can't quite break fast-recharge shield tanks. average dps for cruisers.
• Cruiser Proton Beam: similar to beam laser. can break virtually any tank except a reflective shield tank. horrible tracking, need tracking boosters. very cheap, solid gun.
• Fusion Beam: similar to proton beam. can also break fast-recharge tanks and is therefore pretty solid, but not as good at breaking armor tanks. good tracking for a cruiser; pretty reliable. also better dps than other beams.
• Cruiser Defense Laser: ultra high tracking and decent fire rate. not very good against anything except fighters; cannot break even a frigate superlight shield. dps is similar to other beams, but again, can't penetrate. great vs. fighters but fighter armor tanks can survive zomg
• Cruiser Laser: fucking ridiculous dps. breaks shields like crazy, but bad vs. most armor. short range and meh tracking, but zomg crazy dps.
• Cruiser Pulse Laser: some weird lovechild of the cruiser laser and defense laser. good tracking and range, poor penetration. ideal for killing frigates and very acceptable for killing fighters.
• Cruiser Quantum Blaster: el cheapo cruiser laser. way less dps, better tracking. way cheaper, but you get what you pay for
• Decoy Missile Launcher: super rapid fire missile launcher that can spoof iPoints (and everything else is worse). does no damage and is dirt cheap. range is also kind of suspect. would be better if it had 1k range
• Fast Missile Launcher: good vs. shields, decent vs. armor, long range. in light of the proton beam, this weapon is sort of suspect except that it has long ranged and is buffed by painters. but it is interceptable, probably not a good deal
• Cruiser Missile Launcher: needs painters, but the dps is much closer to respectable. horrible horrible tracking! it's what you get for 1200 range, I guess
• Multiple Warhead Missiles: pretty much just better than cruiser missiles. like cruiser missiles, you need painters. missile defense is more effective vs these since all the warheads are damaging
• Cruiser Rocket Launcher: the way I see it, it's a more expensive decoy launcher that does damage. not really very good.
• Megaton Missile Launcher: poor tracking, huge damage/dps. great vs. shields, good-ish vs. armor. only 750 range... medium range is kind of scary for missiles. still, sick ass dps especially vs. shields
• Nuclear Missile Launcher: not sure how this works
• Light Plasma Launcher: kind of like a cheaper, lower dps cruiser beam, honestly. pretty good? breaks shield tanks, many armor tanks, but not all armor tanks.
• Cruiser Plasma Launcher: long range, terrible tracking. tracking boosters are a must. good penetration overall but can't break armor tanks quite as well. inexpensive, but dps is pretty bad.
• Heavy Plasma Launcher: tracking boosters help a lot, but this gun still can't hit stationary targets. like the base plasma, can break a lot of armor tanks but not the best ones. dps is better, kind of like a missile launcher. it has a "fuel" indicator. is it a missile? do painters help it?
• EMP Cannon: kind of meh for an emp weapon, but if you want emp on a cruiser, here you go I guess. still very meh.
• Cruiser Target Painter: a great item if you use missiles, since cruisers tend to die less than fighters, but sadly you also tend to use fewer cruisers with free hardpoints to slot a painter on
• Cruiser Armor: minimal 45, I 74, II 101, III 121, ultra 145, powered 117, light 117. obviously cruiser armor tanks are awesome.
• Cruiser Shields: light 100/16/5, basic 190/19/5, II 255/24/7, fast 262/24/8, multi 275/9/7, reflective 200/27/7. reflective are great for protecting otherwise unprotected ships. fast are probably the best for shield tanks. multis... iuno.
• Cruiser Point Defense: better than iPoint, heh
• Hi-Speed Point Defense: even better, as if missile defense could get better
• Automated Point Defense: hi-speed is so much better
• Cruiser Camoflage Shields: uhhhhhhhh bad
• Guidance Scrambler Beam: these are so awesome it's scary
• Point Defense Scanner: makes point defense likely to hit missiles instead of decoys. expensive. worth it? probably
• EMP Shield: prevents EMP; not sure if it beats stacked EMP missiles. EMP is pretty strong, but your dps cruisers shouldn't be getting hit anyway
• Cruiser Autorepair: it's nano or bust (or the tribe repair). repairers are essential for an armor tank, kind of meh otherwise
• Carrier Support Bay: iirc, if you have your fighters near your carrier, they'll use this without having cautious. if this is true, probably a good deal. otherwise? not really. Reinforced is the ideal choice, but is more costly.
• Target Booster: 0.16 better tracking is usually huge. get it if you can fit it, unless you're a missileboat supported by painters.
• Cruiser Tractor Beam: a very, very good investment vs. those pesky fighters.
• Supercharged Tractor Beam: it seems to have less power. not sure if that is intentional or not.

Alliance

• Alliance Lightning Beam: very high tracking cruiser gun. very very tiny range window, short ranged with a highish minimum. poor dps, but good overall penetration. not very good, due to bad range. would be a lot better if the minimum range was very low.
• Fusion Torpedo Launcher: very fast moving, short range cruiser missile launcher. lower dps than base cruiser missiles, good tracking and solid penetration on all fronts. also lightweight; probably good for alliance tank dps.

Empire

• Shield Support Beam I: frigate gun, restore shields to allied ships within 500; better recharge than any shield unit in the game
• Imperial Laser Beam: replaces the fusion beam for imperial cruisers. very similar to the cruiser beam laser, but with better tracking and longer range, and slightly lower armor penetration. still pretty good for a gun that only kills armor.

Tribe

• Rapid Fire Cannon: frigate gun, insane fire rate, good range and tracking. enough shield penetration to breach any cruiser shield except reflective. can probably kill fighters just because it shoots so fucking fast - wow this gun is insane
• Tribal Frigate Repair System: would be awful, but because tribe ships have so much hp, this is kind of good
• Cruiser Howitzer: super hyper insane fast shooting gun. great shield penetration. probably the highest dps cruiser gun in the game. not too good for killing fighters. also really really cheap to fit.
• Cruiser Autocannon: the tribe are minmatar. srsly. terrible penetration, insane tracking, insane fire rate. only good for killing fighters and frigates, and short range. kind of falls short of good but boy does it rip through hull
• Tribal Repair System: it's tribe, but if it wasn't it'd be ridiculously overpowered. makes nanobot repair look like a joke.

Order

• Cruiser Radiation Gun: No idea how this works, but its dps without the radiation is really high. if this deals damage irregardless of armor, it is too good, period
• Cruiser Limpet Launcher: Another wacky cruiser weapon that basically tractors fighters, but lasts permanently. very strange. not sure if it's good.
• Cruiser Firefly Rockets: an unlockable, these are rapid fire shield damaging "missiles." not sure if painters work on rockets, but they do get hit by interception. not sure if want

Swarm

• Fighter Fusion Gun: fighter dogfighting gun; worse than fighter laser in every meaningful way
• Micro Target Booster: target booster for fighters; probably extremely dominant since 0.1 tracking is a big deal for fighters
• Swarm Crew Nest: frigate crewspace, it's basically crew space III and swarm exclusive. good if you need between 78 and 89 crew, bad otherwise
• Swarm Disruptor Beam: long-ranged shield breaching beam. it's sort of like a beam-flavored missile, right down to the lowish dps and mediocre armor penetration. good tracking for a cruiser gun. overall okay?
• Smart Bomb Pulse Generator: a pretty hilarious weapon that destroys allied and enemy missiles in a 300m radius. pretty foolproof missile defense, if you don't use missiles.

The races overall

• Federation: they have a good mix of ships, including good shield tank frigs, good fighters, armor tank cruisers and gunship cruisers. good for most kinds of strategy.
• Rebels: speed tanking, crazy atlantis bomber with 5 slots. not very good cruisers, best suited to kill things before they kill you. ideal for frig/fighter rushing vs. using cruisers.
• Alliance: best armor tanks, also possible to make rush frigs but most likely you're going to use slow armor tanks, fast durable fighters, and lots of guns to shoot from behind the armor tanked cruisers.
• Empire: uh the shield repair beam. best shield tanks, period. kind of bad fighters so you have to make up for it with anti-fighter ships.
• Tribe: really wacky all-in offense. the idea of hull tanking in general is pretty rofl, but their armor is so bad that you pretty much have to. they also have a crazy 6 slot fighter, but only 1 hardpoint. if you can break armor tanks, the tribe-exclusive frig autocannon and howitzer do so much dps that nothing can survive. gotta break the armor tanks though
• Order: I have no idea. they have a tied for best shield tanking cruiser in the game (although with no shield repair laser), and that wacky radiation gun. if you know how to use order, let me know, I'm stumped
• Swarm: throwaway low cost ships that have high dps. all swarm ships have high speed. if you mount max shield resist frigs and cruisers, you might even survive long enough to kill things. it's probably worth it to mount 1-2 gun cruisers, maybe with a nano repairer and an armor module just to make them a little more annoying to kill.