Pulses on large ships

posted on June 11th, 2010, 10:04 pm

Who knows, maybe the roles will change in a few patches. I said nothing about the Phoenix using torpedoes though, just about its role . Furthermore, this is 30 years in the future, and many things can change. Lastly, canon is problematic, as there is no evidence of any of what you are saying, other than the Phoenix used torpedoes.

posted on June 11th, 2010, 10:07 pm

You still haven't explained why ships can be "too big for pulse weapons".  There are some battleships that are designed to do more damage to smaller vessels, as that's their role.  The Norexan is a large battleship, and it's perfect with its pulses.

posted on June 11th, 2010, 10:09 pm

You still haven't explained why ships can be "too big for pulse weapons".  There are some battleships that are designed to do more damage to smaller vessels, as that's their role.  The Norexan is a large battleship, and it's perfect with its pulses.

He said it isn't 'Starfleet-style' to use pulses on big things.

Adding to what Dom said about freighter/destroyer killing; pulses are good, torpedoes are no so good.

posted on June 11th, 2010, 10:13 pm

Yes... in fact that is why the Phalanx has pulses too - because it was designed to do that

We've only seen one ship with pulse weapons - and we've only seen a handful of Federation vessels use their weapons, so we don't know what is canon or not.

[Myles]

posted on June 11th, 2010, 10:14 pm

Last edited by Myles on June 11th, 2010, 10:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

romulans love pulses lol. and their norexan is wide at the front, and was demonstrated to have pulses on several sides, it only really has 4 to cover, front back top bottom. the sides are tiny

fed pulses are fixed armaments, they can only fire in a limited arc. so to fire forward pulses at an enemy you must point the whole ship at the enemy.

now a small ship could zip around a big ship, staying out of the forward pulse arc, so putting forward pulses on a big ship seems like a bad idea to me. as small enemies will avoid being hit by pulses. the defiant has pulses, but it is small and zippy, its easy to point the defiant at the enemy and make them go boom.

battleships designed for killing small enemies may feel better with several standard phaser arrays, they have 100% hitrate.

it just seems weird point the front of a behemoth at the enemy to fire your serious weapons. imagine a galaxy class with pulses lol it just doesnt fit in my opinion.

hey tyler i never said that, neb said that lol.

EDIT: i'm not a fan of the phalanx much either. looks like intrepid too much.

posted on June 11th, 2010, 10:16 pm

Excel II and Remore only have forward firing torpedoes - how do you feel about that? Or how about all the other myriad of vessels that have forward firing weapons

posted on June 11th, 2010, 10:21 pm

hey tyler i never said that, neb said that lol.

My mistake...

battleships designed for killing small enemies may feel better with several standard phaser arrays, they have 100% hitrate.

Sounds like pulses to me, with 100% accuracy (against almost all targets).

fed pulses are fixed armaments, they can only fire in a limited arc. so to fire forward pulses at an enemy you must point the whole ship at the enemy.

Just like the Romulans.

[Myles]

posted on June 11th, 2010, 10:27 pm

Last edited by Myles on June 11th, 2010, 10:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

@ dom that is a good point.

i'm happy with forward firing torps, they are good for bigger ships a lot of the time.

pulses are specialised at killing little ships, but if the little ship can get out of the firing arc of a big ship with pulses then they are pointless. at least with torps you are targetting something that u can keep in the crosshairs. a big ship would not easily be able to keep a small ship in front of it.

@tyler, romulan ships usually have less sides, in fo as there is no third dimension usually, that means the norexan for example is either front or back towards the enemy. romulan ships are quite wide, like wings on a bird. so they can keep the front facing the enemy easier. the neb or galaxy are longer, there is less front to them, meaning its harder to keep the front facing the enemy.

posted on June 11th, 2010, 10:32 pm

In a large melee, you aren't going to be microing your small ships very well, usually.  The nebs (along with every other ship) will go after the lowest defensive ship, i.e., your small ones.  Then the nebula ends up being very good dps wise for you.

posted on June 11th, 2010, 10:35 pm

@tyler, romulan ships usually have less sides, in fo as there is no third dimension usually, that means the norexan for example is either front or back towards the enemy. romulan ships are quite wide, like wings on a bird. so they can keep the front facing the enemy easier. the neb or galaxy are longer, there is less front to them, meaning its harder to keep the front facing the enemy.

Gameplay makes no distinction, pulses always fire the same. From the front and side.

posted on June 11th, 2010, 10:37 pm

In a large melee, you aren't going to be microing your small ships very well, usually.  The nebs (along with every other ship) will go after the lowest defensive ship, i.e., your small ones.  Then the nebula ends up being very good dps wise for you.

in fo yes the neb does great against small ships, i was talking about in a canon scenario. the devs said they are working on making fleets spread their fire, rather than bunch up like that. changing fleet battles to more canon style fleet battles.

posted on June 11th, 2010, 10:39 pm

Canon-style doesn't mean identical to canon. That isn't even possible.

posted on June 11th, 2010, 10:45 pm

Where did they say that?  I missed that part somewhere. 

It's not a bad thing to spread your fire now between counters (anti short against shorties, while ships with TWA go after long ranged, etc.  Maybe they mean that.  Do you have a link or a key word and I'll search it?  I'm curious more than anything.  I guess for me, I'm less concerned about canon, and more about specific ship roles, as that is what translates to a good game.  If this is just a canon argument about star trek in general, I'll stop, cause I don't care about that so much.  I see now that this is in the small talk section, and not about game balancing, so my bad.

posted on June 11th, 2010, 10:47 pm

Myles is referring to a "better combat and movement system" planned for several years from now - when it is possible  

EDIT: ah, didn't see it was in the small talk section either. I have no further points to add, as long as it doesn't move into game balancing