[TC] Laser Towers and Orbital Weapons Platforms

Kravick · Post by **Kravick** » Sat, 10. Apr 10, 10:52

After 4 hours of dragging ore mines around I finally got a working complex going that isn't a collision hazard. Going to start capitalizing on empty factories within a 4-5 jump radius. There is just one problem. One of the systems next door is a pirate system. I'm sure they'll start harassing me at some point. In order to put a stop to this before it actually happens I'm going to build a bunch of laser towers next to the gate leading to that sector.

I don't know much about laser towers however. I've tried looking up their statistics in game and on external websites but there doesn't seem to be any that I can find. Doing an extra search here on these forums didn't give me any threads with this information either. I'd like to know this information so I can gauge how many I need to set up. How powerful are laser towers? Whats their maximum firing range? When I deploy them are there any special commands I need to set or will they act autonomously? Would a cluster of them even stand a chance against a pirate capital ship? This is OOS of course since I won't be around all that much.

Along with laser towers is it possible to obtain those Orbital Weapon Platforms I see floating around the corporation HQs without using mods or scripts? I've looked at the in game encyclopedia but they don't list any shipyards.

Technojerk36 · Post by **Technojerk36** » Sat, 10. Apr 10, 11:15

Lasertowers are pretty good IS, but are crap OOS. OWPs can't be bought in vanilla. For holding down a gate, I would suggest a Boreas

Aro · Post by **Aro** » Sat, 10. Apr 10, 11:16

OWP's are not available to players in vanilla.
Laser towers work great when you watch them, best not to bother for OOS.

Better to raise your pirate rep and sit a big ship close to your complex on defense (to not harass passing pirate trafic).

Kravick · Post by **Kravick** » Sat, 10. Apr 10, 11:24

If I set a ship to protect the Complex hub (only thing it lets me choose) does it protect everything linked to it?

Joman · Post by **Joman** » Sat, 10. Apr 10, 11:56

Kravick wrote:If I set a ship to protect the Complex hub (only thing it lets me choose) does it protect everything linked to it?

if it is an fab linkt to the complex hub with an Complex Construction Kit, yes i think.

Master of the Blade · Post by **Master of the Blade** » Sat, 10. Apr 10, 13:57

If it's a big complex, I'd reccomend you put a few speedy M3s or M6es on guard duty as well - the Boreas is not exactly cut out for being a rapid response craft...

fairywhipper · Post by **fairywhipper** » Sat, 10. Apr 10, 14:35

big ships and complex factory protection: just watch for friendly fire, in case it lobs 24 ppc shots at something and misses.... fighers are abit better.

KongRudi · Post by **KongRudi** » Sat, 10. Apr 10, 17:46

You can watch the Lasertower in the ingame encyclopedia, it won't tell you how much damage or range it have, but it will tell you wich weapon it use.

And then you can watch the weapon-entry in the ingame encyclopedia, and read about the damage and range of that, in order to figure out all the details of the Lasertower.

Tharaphita · Post by **Tharaphita** » Sat, 10. Apr 10, 20:48

About lasertowers.. where to get hold of them??

All factorys are empty.. i even SETA waited next to it for a long time..

AgamemnonArgon · Post by **AgamemnonArgon** » Sat, 10. Apr 10, 20:52

Have you tried to build closer to the Orbital Weapons Platforms, in case they can defend against mutual enemies.

Laden Swallow · Post by **Laden Swallow** » Sat, 10. Apr 10, 21:02

Tharaphita wrote:About lasertowers.. where to get hold of them??

All factorys are empty.. i even SETA waited next to it for a long time..

Try military bases. Some are even connected to shipyards in the same way some equipment docks are connected to shipyards... As such this allows you to

Spoiler

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clone the laser towers by buying multiple ships and buying 1 laser tower for all the ships, then selling one laser tower from each of the multiple ships, rebuying for the multiple ships, selling one from each of the multiple ships, etc.

If you have any freighters with best buy software installed, then you can find any known station with one available for purchase using the remote best buy command and selecting laser tower for the ware from a military base.

Kravick · Post by **Kravick** » Sat, 10. Apr 10, 22:56

KongRudi wrote:You can watch the Lasertower in the ingame encyclopedia, it won't tell you how much damage or range it have, but it will tell you wich weapon it use.

And then you can watch the weapon-entry in the ingame encyclopedia, and read about the damage and range of that, in order to figure out all the details of the Lasertower.

I tried that. Laser Tower weapons do not show up under that list.

Laden Swallow · Post by **Laden Swallow** » Sun, 11. Apr 10, 00:25

They do 11.9k shield damage per second and 4.5k hull damage per second. From experience, 8 laser towers can take down a xenon Q with less than 50% attrition (was probably 25% attrition), a larger cluster would be able to take down M7/M2/M1 quicker than 8 could, aim for at least 12 and preferably more than 20.

In terms of commands, you can't set any, they are deploy and mostly forget.

For comparisons sake, the weapon that laser towers use would value at just under 1mil credits, so adding 1 to each element of a wing of falcon haulers would make an interesting fleet choice - if there were a way to get all the haulers to drop their individual tower... Best bet would be to settle with smaller wings with specific roles, one wing carrying 3 laser towers in each fighter and minimal weapons primarily used for defense...

Kravick · Post by **Kravick** » Sun, 11. Apr 10, 02:53

Do you happen to know what their range is? I want to put some up around my complex anyway and I'd like to know how far I should space them out. I want to make sure theres some overlapping going on.

Bill Huntington · Post by **Bill Huntington** » Sun, 11. Apr 10, 03:50

Congrats on that complex, Kravick!

But putting Lasertowers (LT) near a gate will cause the very trouble you are trying to avoid. Most pirates are blue and don't bother you. Even red ones don't. If the pirates get attacked, more and more will be red, then they will get aggressive everywhere.

Guard ships aren't that helpful. Jumping back for an attack is best, and it takes a long time for an attack on a complex to do any real damage. You do get notified of an attack.

You could put some LTs near your complex and set the command to Defend Your Complex. This command will react to an attack on your complex, and probably not to anything else. You can use the property menu to do it more easily, so you can select each one. Yes, you have to set each one. The property menu is the second button down, on your left, after missions. You can use some Global Commands, like the Friend/Foe settings. They are accessed next to the Encyclopedia. You get more of those commands in the sector you are in. The LT is classed as a ship, by the way. A group of 5 might be enough for you. I find 20 will take down even the biggest ship, and I use a block of 80 if I can when I invade a Xenon sector and hold it.

I usually have the pirate setting as Friend, and then have the setting Show as Enemy if enemy to me as Yes. An attack on a pirate by your LTs will change that setting of Pirate to Enemy, and it will then attack all pirates whether blue or red. An occasional refresh from the Global Commands menu will change all settings in the universe to the one you want.

I hope this helps.

Kravick · Post by **Kravick** » Sun, 11. Apr 10, 04:57

All pirates are already red to me. I've done a lot of assassination missions where you have to kill pirates. I haven't messed with the Yaki yet and I've already docked at their shipyard. I know they won't mess with me.

Still, I'll drop a few towers near the complex itself and see how that goes. I'm mostly concerned about them picking off the towers one by one if I set them to protect the complex. I know when it comes to wingmen and ships the AI won't assist one another if individuals near by or in the group get attacked when set to protect a specific target. They ignore everything even if its sitting right next to them unless they take a shot at the protected target. If I leave the tower on default setting and change pirates to enemies will they all fire on approaching pirates? I have the complex a little out of the way of any normal travel routes through so it shouldn't be attacked unless they go specifically for it.

Bill Huntington · Post by **Bill Huntington** » Sun, 11. Apr 10, 06:13

What you say should work fine.

Saber15 · Post by **Saber15** » Sun, 11. Apr 10, 06:30

Aro wrote:OWP's are not available to players in vanilla.
Laser towers work great when you watch them, best not to bother for OOS.

Better to raise your pirate rep and sit a big ship close to your complex on defense (to not harass passing pirate trafic).

You can board and steal OWPs, but since they cannot move you have to jump them out, then tow them with a tractor beam or pilot it yourself in reverse at -10m/s.

Kravick · Post by **Kravick** » Sun, 11. Apr 10, 07:26

Saber15 wrote:
Aro wrote:OWP's are not available to players in vanilla.
Laser towers work great when you watch them, best not to bother for OOS.

Better to raise your pirate rep and sit a big ship close to your complex on defense (to not harass passing pirate trafic).
You can board and steal OWPs, but since they cannot move you have to jump them out, then tow them with a tractor beam or pilot it yourself in reverse at -10m/s.

LOL they can't move forward but have a reverse drive. Awesome. I'll keep that in mind.

Bill Huntington · Post by **Bill Huntington** » Sun, 11. Apr 10, 08:25

Congrats to you, Saber15!

That is a new one to me! And definitely worth doing. I'll give it a try soon myself.

Very good, Saber15!

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[TC] Laser Towers and Orbital Weapons Platforms

Laser Towers and Orbital Weapons Platforms

Lasertower settings

LTs

Congrats, Saber15!