Laser towers are cool!!

Mightysword · Post by **Mightysword** » Wed, 18. Jan 06, 20:20

So, patch 1.3 blew a freshly new wing of death to the universe. Although owning a respectable trading empire I was kinda slacking off in my defense, and since most of my structure is deep within core system I thought I was safe.

Well, My weapon complex in Blunis Snout went from great profit to deficit, it keeps losing an average of 3 freighters per hours thank to Xenon traffic.

So, I get my act together and plan my defense.

- A full kit Titan blockades Menelaus Paradise's East Gate to Xenon 597
- A Hercules with a wings of fighter blockade Bluish Snout's South gate.

Well, there is still Getsu Fune's North Gate to Xenon 534, and I'm out of ship (using Corvette to defense seems to be a really bad idea, I lost a Centaur and a Nemesis for that).

- I decide to use Laser Tower Grid to block this gate. After deploying 16 Tower around the North Gate, when I was leaving a lone L jumped in, destine to be my test subject, and boy, was it beautiful?

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/5522/laser11ip.jpg
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/5783/laser20ew.jpg

Later the Xenon made a huge push through the gate, I had to move the Titan and myself to assit the laser towers. Fighting with a bunch of Laser Tower was quite a sight to behold really (when they're not firing at you ofcourse).

http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/8021/laser38jw.jpg

http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/571/laser42bj.jpg

http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/6280/laser51mu.jpg

Kinda remind me of some mission in Freespace 2, now I know I have to get a P

Geggo · Post by **Geggo** » Wed, 18. Jan 06, 20:59

I quess now only thing I really would like to know is HOW many towers you need to take out ANYTHING xenon throw through the gates, meaning a fully blown fighter incursion (over 50 fighters that is) and a few P's too.

And in NON modified universe where the towers have 25Mj shields....

Apocholypse · Post by **Apocholypse** » Wed, 18. Jan 06, 21:13

Yes Laser Towers are great and I use lots of them, however they are no better with 1.3, I used them in 1.2 and they are just as good, probably better because the AI weren't so deadly doh!

Grassturtle · Post by **Grassturtle** » Wed, 18. Jan 06, 21:25

I heard someone say you need around 60 to stop anything that comes through but i think they were using sheild mods for them also ....

FuxT1000 · Post by **FuxT1000** » Wed, 18. Jan 06, 21:40

wanting to block the pirates coming into blue profit from the south gate, they keep attacking my transports (dreamfarm in greater profit $$$$),
anyway dont have enough $ for a m2 to stick on sector patrol yet... and I'm getting tired of patroling myself, wonder how many laser towers it would take to clear out groups of 3-4 pirates at a time?

Mightysword · Post by **Mightysword** » Wed, 18. Jan 06, 21:50

OOS you need around 20 and that should be enough to take care of a regular combat group. In sector it's a different matter, for a laser beam weapon it's way too inaccuarate. If the enemy bring in something bigger then a M3 it's likely you gonna be wasted.

J. Spartan · Post by **J. Spartan** » Wed, 18. Jan 06, 23:09

Kinda remind me of some mission in Freespace 2, now I know I have to get a P

Indeed. That one when you have to stop the Neo-Terran fleet that attempts to break through the GTVA blockade. Only the gate and the defense towers are smaller in X3. These pics bring back some good memories.

MillerTime · Post by **MillerTime** » Thu, 19. Jan 06, 02:43

FuxT1000 wrote:wonder how many laser towers it would take to clear out groups of 3-4 pirates at a time?

I have 50 LT's near a gate and I saw them in sector take out 3 Falcons and a Harrier in 52 seconds. They didn't even get close to the LT's. OOS is even better I think.

As for the lasers I would have wished that the laser would have been a color other than white. Maybee blue or red.

apricotslice · Post by **apricotslice** » Thu, 19. Jan 06, 02:51

I just did some tests on a Khaak M2.

32 towers dumped at the same time in a clump, with 125 mw shields, take the M2's shields down by 30 odd percent immediately and then the M2 took them apart 3 at a time. Havent worked out just how much me jumping out changed the equation.

However, my initial conclusion is that 50-60 towers is the minimum needed to successfuly defend against a cap ship, with minimal losses.

My home system has only 2 gates. Both now have 50 towers around them, but I'm thinking of seeding the entire sector with clumps of 50 towers, just to be sure if a cap ships breaks in, or jumps in to the center, it wont be able to avoid the defenses.

32 towers incidently, was enough to make the M2 turn and run away on another test where i dumped them out of range, so given the choice, the Khaak M2 will not engage a clump of 32 towers, regardless of whats hiding behind them.

kurush · Post by **kurush** » Thu, 19. Jan 06, 08:49

Mightysword wrote:OOS you need around 20 and that should be enough to take care of a regular combat group. In sector it's a different matter, for a laser beam weapon it's way too inaccuarate. If the enemy bring in something bigger then a M3 it's likely you gonna be wasted.

Fortunately, there are no wondering Ks or Js out there. Ps are getting fried by 3 LTs in no time. It seems that LTs are having more troubles with smaller ships in sector.

Lobai · Post by **Lobai** » Thu, 19. Jan 06, 09:56

This is a discussion that we've had (I've personally contributed my experiences) and 50-60 is the ideal for both IS and OOS defense of ANYTHING coming through that gate. I have 60 on all but 2 of the gates leading in/out of Xenon sectors now (I have my own factories) and I lose one about once every three days OOS. Not bad.

Here are some pretty screenies of what that many looks like:

[ external image ]

[ external image ]

It's also worth mentioning that I use Euclid's lasertower upgrade script which allows you to finally upgrade your towers to 125mj shields which they are capable of handling normally, but ES didn't give you a way to upgrade them (examine them and look at their status and see for yourself).

Euclid has also recently written a script that'll drop 30 of those upgraded lasertowers in a perfect circle around any given point (you adjust the radius) and it's in the scripting/modding forum, both scripts are.

Enjoy.
[ external image ]

Apocholypse · Post by **Apocholypse** » Thu, 19. Jan 06, 10:07

FuxT1000 wrote:wanting to block the pirates coming into blue profit from the south gate, they keep attacking my transports (dreamfarm in greater profit $$$$),
anyway dont have enough $ for a m2 to stick on sector patrol yet... and I'm getting tired of patroling myself, wonder how many laser towers it would take to clear out groups of 3-4 pirates at a time?

I use groups of 16 in that sector, one in the sector and one set out. You will occasionally loose one, the more you put in there the more effective it will be.

Dread · Post by **Dread** » Thu, 19. Jan 06, 10:30

And to think the Pirate Bases have 4 LT's for defence

Apocholypse · Post by **Apocholypse** » Thu, 19. Jan 06, 11:57

Absolutly shocking

apricotslice · Post by **apricotslice** » Thu, 19. Jan 06, 12:10

Anyone know the actual range of the lasers in the towers ?

I have 50 now on each gate in the system, but am thinking of adding several more groups of 50 nearer my complex in case of Khaak jumping in to the center of the sector instead of using the gates. Nearly ready to do this too, facotry has 30 ready, and another 10 well on the way.

Geggo · Post by **Geggo** » Thu, 19. Jan 06, 13:02

Hmm, I'm divided which to build next, massive drone production complex or LT complex.

Since I play unscripted game I quess I better go for drones first.

Mightysword · Post by **Mightysword** » Thu, 19. Jan 06, 16:43

NIce pics Lobai, but I bet it murders the FPS when it fires heh?

ecniv · Post by **ecniv** » Thu, 19. Jan 06, 17:07

Q's qith the lasertowers.
Is it possible to sell them on ?
or is it a make and use ?

I have the option of buying a fac and I am wondering if I should...

apricotslice · Post by **apricotslice** » Fri, 20. Jan 06, 02:17

Once you deploy them they are yours. You can collect them again later.

But if you add multiple factories to your complex, you can make enough to both use some and sell some.

Jeremy Harbottle · Post by **Jeremy Harbottle** » Fri, 20. Jan 06, 02:36

Whats wrong with corvettes? they're not that expensive and
seem effective, particularly the argon centaur when you're in
sector. After you've payed for 30 lasertowers, you've roughly
payed for 0.67 of a corvette anyway (depending on the corvette)

It's also worth investing in one per sector since if one spreads
too thinly then one might not get there in time to solve the problem....

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

Laser towers are cool!!

Laser towers are cool!!