Has anyone had much luck with Ion Disruptors?

General discussions about the games by Egosoft including X-BTF, XT, X², X³: Reunion, X³: Terran Conflict and X³: Albion Prelude.

Moderator: Moderators for English X Forum

Post Reply
J Cubed
Posts: 113
Joined: Thu, 3. Nov 05, 18:36
x3

Has anyone had much luck with Ion Disruptors?

Post by J Cubed » Wed, 8. Feb 06, 15:56

I finally got an IonD for my Buster Raider. I took it for a spin by one of the Spacefuel Distilleries in Herron's Nebula. A Discoverer Raider went hostile when I scanned it and found Spacefuel on board. I figured this is a perfect guinea pig for my new toy, as it is lightweight in both shields and armor.

The IonD melted the shields effortlessly. I was pleased by how it aims itself at the target, keeping the beam on the Discoverer effortlessly. However, once the shields were gone, nothing happened to the Discoverer! He once complained about me ruining his shields, but he never seemed to loose speed, weapons, or shield generators. I kept on him until the local law enforcement came by and blasted him for me! (It's a good thing they didn't take offense to getting caught up in the Ion chain!)

I've had better luck capping with my twin Alpha Phased Shockwave Cannons! (Got a Mercury and another Buster Raider, both at ~ 80% hull remaining. Oh, and that Buster Raider was the first victim of a group consisting of 3 Busters and 2 Falcons. The others of that group never bailed, but they weren't Boron, either. Both of these ejectees were Boron.)

Has anyone had any luck taking out systems with IonD's? How did you do it?

Spenny
Posts: 160
Joined: Mon, 10. May 04, 18:31
x3

Post by Spenny » Wed, 8. Feb 06, 16:03

IonDs only strip shields in order to allow you to chip away at the hull with a laser weapon in order to try and force the pilot to abandon ship. They don't force (to my knowledge) pilots to drop cargo for you to pick up.

Essentially, although the pilots shields have dropped, he/she still has a fully functional ship which they are obviously reluctant to leave. Only hull damage causes a ship to lose speed etc.

UserUnfriendly
Posts: 38
Joined: Tue, 3. Jan 06, 10:02
x3

Post by UserUnfriendly » Wed, 8. Feb 06, 16:18

Use it as a defense against missile spamming. If you haven't noticed, the beam tends to bounce off and hit multiple targets.

Darklight86
Posts: 210
Joined: Mon, 14. Nov 05, 19:46
x3

Post by Darklight86 » Wed, 8. Feb 06, 16:25

I've heard that constant fire from these can destroy enemy weapons also.
>3.2 Ghz
>2gig RAM
>X850XTpe GPU
>865p NEO 2 fisR
>SB X-Fi

J Cubed
Posts: 113
Joined: Thu, 3. Nov 05, 18:36
x3

Post by J Cubed » Wed, 8. Feb 06, 16:33

Darklight86 wrote:I've heard that constant fire from these can destroy enemy weapons also.
This is what the IonD's description implies, too. I don't have the full quote before me, but I thought the description stated that these weapons also destroy subsystems. I seem to recall that the subsystem destruction is why the Split youth stopped raiding Boron space when this weapon was developed. They were supposedly finding themselves in the embarrasing situation of needing rescuing because their ships were suddenly unarmed buckets crawling through space. :fg:

If these things only damage shields and can't damage subystems, then these things are *NOT* worth 280K and 10 units of cargo to lug around! :evil:

EvilInside
Posts: 55
Joined: Fri, 23. Dec 05, 02:44
x3

Post by EvilInside » Wed, 8. Feb 06, 17:32

I mainly use them to strip shields, then switch to my 'chipper' till around 50%. If they haven't bailed by then, they probably won't...so I just use my AHEPT to turn them into a fireworks display...

Alche
Posts: 416
Joined: Wed, 18. Jan 06, 12:30
x3

Post by Alche » Wed, 8. Feb 06, 17:35

J Cubed wrote:If these things only damage shields and can't damage subystems, then these things are *NOT* worth 280K and 10 units of cargo to lug around! :evil:

How long does the target lose shielding ?

Taking shields down can take a lot of work sometimes, are you saying this Ion disruptor takes them down immediately….. if so, that's an awesome weapon, follow it through with missiles or a bank of laser fire and the target is toasted … no?

TicTac
Posts: 28
Joined: Tue, 3. Jan 06, 21:27
x3

Post by TicTac » Wed, 8. Feb 06, 18:05

It’s an essential weapon if you flying through Xenon sectors! – Knocks out the M and N’s shields in next to no time and seems 2 slow up L’s for a bit. Follow it up with a few blasts of HEPTS and bye bye Xenon.

But it has to be said, its main use is for taking care of them pesky missile attacks! You don’t even need to find the missile, just listen to the range beep, wait till it gets close(ish) fire up the up Ion and roll around madly! – If you lucky, you can even get the missile close to the moment of launch which takes out the ship launching it :-)

Only one draw back ive found is that it does jump to other/multiple targets, so if you’re in a populated sector, make sure you not in range (1.5k) of any friendlies or they’ll get it too!

Identitystolen
Posts: 161
Joined: Thu, 22. Dec 05, 21:16
x3

Post by Identitystolen » Wed, 8. Feb 06, 18:07

I lost an entire flight of M4's to this stupid weapon. I had the Terracorp combat pilot script going and decide this was a good opprtunity to take care of some Pirate M3's that were causing me some grief. I put dual distruptors on a Buster to help with taking down the enemies shields quickly in hopes I wouldn't take any loses. Problem was, when it was fired, it would hit the target then go on to hit the next two ships, which were usually mine. Needless to say, after all my M4's lost their shield to friendly fire the M3's had little trouble dispatching them.

J Cubed
Posts: 113
Joined: Thu, 3. Nov 05, 18:36
x3

Post by J Cubed » Wed, 8. Feb 06, 18:08

Taking shields down can take a lot of work sometimes, are you saying this Ion disruptor takes them down immediately….. if so, that's an awesome weapon, follow it through with missiles or a bank of laser fire and the target is toasted … no?
They go down PDQ for a Discoverer Raider, but it only has 2-3MJ shielding. BPACs take them down faster, though they require better aim. Still, this only vidicates their existance in the game, IMHO, not the hefty cost in $ and cargo space.

I suppose they might have also shown more worth if I used them against that squad of 5 pirates. (Sure would have been pretty to see that chain! :D) So, I'll try it a little longer before selling it at the nearest Equipment Dock. I was just wondering if anyone managed to take any enemy systems down with them.

ecniv
Posts: 336
Joined: Wed, 14. Dec 05, 11:50
x3tc

Post by ecniv » Wed, 8. Feb 06, 18:41

Nope - I hit local police/military enforcement with them. they weren't pleased. sigh. So I sold them. Bpacs for the buster. Upped to a mako, for more speed and now using a nova. Although I also have a scorpion (fast and ahepts - just no sheilds). If I pick one up they are very nice to sell. but psg s reduce the sheilds more assuming the comp doesn't die (mine does sometimes . very annoying !
if the enemy/pirate has then psg or ion then they go first usually - unless there is a nova around.
Alienware Area 51/7500, Geforce 8800 gtx, 2gb ram
Alienware laptop m5550, 2gb, 7600go
Commodore Gx9770, 4gb, quad q9300 2.5gHz , gtx 260 (replaced) - Vanilla game (no extra scripts except the upgrades from es)
*¥ Most posts written on an iPhone - please excuse mistypes/replacements ¥*

I'm not locked in her with you. You are locked in here with me. Watchmen-Rawlins

Augustini
Posts: 1604
Joined: Tue, 13. Dec 05, 21:55
x4

Post by Augustini » Wed, 8. Feb 06, 18:48

You script it in with LV's cheat script!

J Cubed
Posts: 113
Joined: Thu, 3. Nov 05, 18:36
x3

Post by J Cubed » Wed, 8. Feb 06, 22:28

augustini wrote:You script it in with LV's cheat script!
Call me dense, but I am not quite following your comment, augustini. I script what in? The ability for IonD to destroy systems?

Cycrow
Moderator (Script&Mod)
Moderator (Script&Mod)
Posts: 22201
Joined: Sun, 14. Nov 04, 23:26
x4

Post by Cycrow » Thu, 9. Feb 06, 01:47

ions i've used destoryed weapons

it doesn't happen straight away thou but it does happen

theKettle
Posts: 408
Joined: Mon, 15. Nov 04, 22:39
x3

Post by theKettle » Thu, 9. Feb 06, 02:17

You can't cap ships at full hull - in X2 they had to be at 87% or below hull, and it's probably the same for X3 (I've never capped one at above 87%). Therefore the main point of Ion Disruptors (which do only shield damage, no hull damage) was to fire then at a target after its hull was damaged enough, in order to make it bail without doing it more damage than necessary, so it was worth more. They do destroy weapons, and shields (although they'll never destroy all of a targets shields, just all except one), but this can take quite a while. In terms of the amount of shield damage they do, they seem rather nerfed in X3 compared to X2 - I'm sure they do less shield damage for the energy they use than AHEPTS!

Given this, and the fact that they (eventually) destroy weapons and shields - thus reducing the potential value of the capture (if you get it) I don't use them any more. They are great at missile defense, but I prefer to use a ship with a BIRE in the rear turret, and just get on with the job of killing.
------------------

If I want to be toned up, calmed down, invigorated or anything then it's very simple. I just have a cup of tea.

Post Reply

Return to “X Trilogy Universe”