Ion disruptor question

[yokozuna]

Ok. I have some problems with this weapon, or maybe it`s me not knowing how to use it... The thing is when i press fire some buzzing sound comes out but the weapon is not firing. Is there a special procedure that i must complete or something is broken? The game is X3: TC 2.0a and I`m using Cmod3 and 3-4 not weapon related scripts.

[Abscon]

You have to be within..let me think 700 ms i believe for the weapon to start "hitting" enemy (And allied!! remember that) ships.

Though it may be some other problem, what ship are you using?

Edit: also it requires a target within range of you,if you have no target specified it will just buzz annoyingly,when it does fire its like a stream of electricity extending towards the target ship

[Seleucius]

Also, I've noticed that sometimes it won't look like it's firing, but it is. As in you don't see the lightning-esque beam 'hitting' the enemy ship, but his shields are also not going recharging.

[perkint]

Not sure if CMOD3 changes the ID weapon, but the two comments already here are probably the answers you need.

It will buzz and you should be able to see sort of lightning flashing round in front of you (randomly) if no ships are in range. IDs have a very short range (I believe about 1Km).

If it is hitting the other ship, you should see a beam from you to the target ship, but I (as Selecius said) often don't get that displayed properly. You should be able to tell if it's hitting the other ship as there should be a small shower of sparks coming off the other ship if it is being hit. And obviously his shields going down/stopping on zero

Tim

[yokozuna]

Thanks for the replies guys. I`ll try it out from closer distance and report I didn`t know it has such a short range and doesn`t fire if no target is locked. This is got to be the most fastidious weapon

[Paranoid66]

I do not know if it has changed in TC but watch out for it jumping from target to target as it used to leap across to friendlies.

I may be wrong as I do not pay much attention to figures but I think its range may have been reduced to prevent such friendly fire chaos.

Used to for example bounce from your target to spaceflies to police patrols in a disturbing manner in X2.

[GCU Grey Area]

I do not know if it has changed in TC but watch out for it jumping from target to target as it used to leap across to friendlies.

That can be quite handy at times, for example I've found Ion-D bouncing useful in the following circumstances:

A. If you've launched a drone swarm at the target, the ability to bounce an Ion beam off the drones & onto the target means you can hang back a bit & don't need to go within 1km of the target (normal max range of Ion-D), so it's much easier to evade hostile turret fire.

B. During station defence missions, if the current target launches a missile at the station it's possible to bounce the Ion beam off the target & onto the missile (thus destroying it) even if the missile is nominally outside Ion-D range.

C. During boarding ops, if an NPC launches missiles at the ship your marines are trying to capture, a quick blast with Ion-D aimed at that ship instantly destroys any missiles within a 1km radius of it - no need to aim specifically at the incoming missiles.

D. Ion-D in anti-missile turrets is also incredibly effective against swarm missiles - just needs to hit one of the warheads & the Ion beam bounces off it to hit all the other warheads - i.e. destroying the entire swarm in a single hit (most conventional weapons need to target each warhead individually, so often a few of them will get through).

Personally find Ion-D bouncing to be exceptionally useful (it's one of my favourite aspects of the weapon) & well worth the occasional bit of annoyed comms chatter from NPCs - anyway, it's unlikely to harm them & I can apologise if they turn nasty.

[Paranoid66]

I have rarely had much luck with ion D my timing always seems to be slightly off with that weapon think I will blame my poor frame rate.

Still I could swear I am an ion D jinx. Every time I decide to try this weapon out something always goes horribly wrong like space flies rucking up or some other idiot getting in the way.

Still I have read lots of other people having great success with this one. I just advise caution.

[s22008404]

I noticed that, in my Nova Raider, if I equip one Ion-D, I can see the lightning bolt flying from my ship to the target. But if I equip two Ion-Ds, the lightning disappears although the target's shields are still dropping.

[Abscon]

@ s22008404

It could just be a frame rate saving device...instead of having the 2 beams sucking up fps they get rid of it altogether, though it may be that the two animations need to take place at the same time in the same direction in the same place and therefore the game makes an exception and cancels the effects out...doesn't really matter anyway it still works

[Cpt.Jericho]

I've experienced the same thing in X3R - in X2 however, it worked fine. Maybe the problem has something to do with the additional weapon racks added to the X3 ships. I may be wrong since I don't have much use for IDs, but it would be interesting if this problem still occurs if you mount the IDs in rack 1 and 2 (since in X2 only two fighters were able to mount more than two guns to their main battery (capships had turrets and no main batteries) these are the logical places to mount them, at least for a computer.)

[Ecthelion]

I use two ion disruptors on my Barracuda Raider (I think they are in mounts 7 and 8 ), and I can always see them when I'm firing.