What the h*ll has happened to ion disruptors in X3?

[Commander PJ]

I recently bought a new laptop powerful enough to play X3 and have been progressing quite happily ever since. Well, actually I've hit a little trouble.

In X2 my main source of income was the assassination missions which use to give me approximately 25 million credits at a time, mostly completed in my faithful Nova with two ion disruptors and two Beta HEPTS.

Anyway, after the assassination missions in X3 started to require me to take out TL class ships, I thought it might be time to move on from the old Buster equipped with 6 Beta IREs, so I looked for a nice replacement M4 that could equip ion disruptors. My choice was a Mako Vanguard, equipped with 4 Beta PACs and 2 ion disruptors.

I quickly rushed from station to station to find an assassination mission (and found one about an hour later ). Great, I thought, time to get my first capital ship class kill.

So I got within range of the Split Elelphant and let rip with my twin ion beams. Which did bugger all. In fact my 4 BPACs did more damage to the shields.

Disheartened, I reloaded my old savegame with my Buster. I'm now sticking to assassination missions where the target is a TP or TS, or just trying to capture pirates .

Maybe I should do the tactic of mounting 6 mass drivers on my buster and boring the TLs to death?

[LV]

There is nothing wrong with the ion disruptors as i have spent more time killing ships with them during testing than any of you ever will playing

Your using a god dam m4 against a TL, laser energy recharge on m4's won't handle ion disruptors against big ships.

Try capping an m3 with your buster, preferably a nova

[TerrorTrooper]

Sooooo...

Let me get this straight...

Your unhappy becaus you cant take down a TL in an M4 Easy Peasy???

Well.. hate to say it.. but M4's arnt meant to be able to take down TL's Easy Peasy...

Personally, i like the challence in X3.. IMHO its still too easy!!

[Cucumber King]

The ion's are not a good choice against cap ships. They tend to drain a lot of energy for not much weapon power. I think beam weapons do the job better and you don't have a good chance of capping a TL anyways. Just go for Mass Drivers to bypass the shields and unleash the full wrath of your ship on the enemy. They only do as much damage as a BPAC, BUT I'd count it double, cause it goes trough shields, which saves a lot of time. The costs for them are minimal. Go for a Nova if you want to play save, or a Mamba if you're good in dodging. TL's are pretty easy to shoot down, because they mostly don't have much weapon power, leaving you room to destroy the smaller fighters first, and when done, you have time to shoot the TL down. Another advantage for you will be the slow shield recharge rate if you don't use the MD's.

[Commander PJ]

Don't get me wrong TerrorTrooper, I don't want X3 to be too easy. I agree with you, the combat should be more difficult!

It's what Cucumber King has said. Ion disruptors should, for the given amount of energy available, do more shield damage to shields than other weapons.

I know that an M4's going to take a long time to kill a TL, I was just hoping that the ion disruptors would speed up the process a little.

[anima36]

i'll admit its not easy but i have taken down 2 TLs both with 4 M3 escorts in a maxed out buster so i think you should upgrade the buster not buy a new ship.