Laser towers - Do we really need them?

testpilot_bg · Post by **testpilot_bg** » Fri, 16. Jul 10, 15:05

OK, here is the question:

What are they using for? They can't destroy even a M4 or M3 in pack.
Do I need to place lots of them about 20-30 around the gates, so they protect "my" sectors from pirate raids?

Palladin888 · Post by **Palladin888** » Fri, 16. Jul 10, 15:20

I've done several very hard missions to protect a sector where there are medium towers. Most times I lead the pirate swarms to the tower which does a pretty good job of killing them all. Best of all I still get credit for the mission.

El General · Post by **El General** » Fri, 16. Jul 10, 15:24

Have a look at the second screenshots by Kilrathy on this french post.

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... sc&start=0

I you can produce hundreds of them, maybe you'll find some use...

Honved · Post by **Honved** » Fri, 16. Jul 10, 15:37

From the descriptions, the Laser Towers seem to be armed to engage opposing capital ships and heavy fighters, while the defense stations appear to be equipped to engage lighter fighters. Of course, I could be completely wrong......

Gazz · Post by **Gazz** » Fri, 16. Jul 10, 16:02

They can be very good but you have to use them like WW2 anti tank guns.
They don't defend themselves very well so set up a crossfire.

Infekted · Post by **Infekted** » Fri, 16. Jul 10, 16:10

Or get Gazz's (Him up there^^^), Ring of Fire script. I like it cos it hides the damn things on my map/property screens. Otherwise the amount you need makes an unholy mess...

Nafensoriel · Post by **Nafensoriel** » Fri, 16. Jul 10, 17:07

Having a handful of towers can allow you to do a much harder mission with a smaller ship. For example if you know which route an invasion is coming from drop LTs on one side of the gate and position yourself on the other. I have destroyed many a Q with just a TS and an M3 doing this. (It's also much faster than flying in a blind spots for 15-20 minutes if there is more than one Q)

testpilot_bg · Post by **testpilot_bg** » Fri, 23. Jul 10, 17:00

I like the ring of fire from one of the screenshots:

http://www.imagebanana.com/view/fz5u8w7 ... _fire1.jpg

I'll try something different. I'll buy a laser factory and then will place 10 laser tower around a gate. Every tower will be protected by a single M3/M4 (I have around 50 of them - most capped).
So, my idea is to put 10 towers with fighters at each gate at some of the dangerous for my transports sectors. Lets see what happens ...

Zaixionito · Post by **Zaixionito** » Fri, 23. Jul 10, 17:13

testpilot_bg wrote:OK, here is the question:

What are they using for? They can't destroy even a M4 or M3 in pack.
Do I need to place lots of them about 20-30 around the gates, so they protect "my" sectors from pirate raids?

....Are you serious? I destroyed 3 m7s with just 8 laser towers.

Yes, I desperate need them. They can serve as decoys, or huge killing machines against anything trying to hurt my HyppyVanguard...

In short, whoever dares to take them out of the game will soon be dead.

Flozem · Post by **Flozem** » Fri, 23. Jul 10, 17:52

I love to place them (144 per gate) in the right spots for Xenon defense missions. That way I do not even have to bother firing missiles or flying towards ships...

Serial Kicked · Post by **Serial Kicked** » Fri, 23. Jul 10, 18:12

Basically, they are crap OOS without a script as they can't pack on a single target. However, IS, when you put them in a nice ring around a gate, they are quite effective.

Infekted · Post by **Infekted** » Fri, 23. Jul 10, 18:17

Every gate into one of my important sectors has at least 65 towers and an M2 sat on it.

testpilot - Why do you want to put an M3/4 there? LTs are a lot easier to replace

Cpt.Jericho · Post by **Cpt.Jericho** » Fri, 23. Jul 10, 20:33

In X2 they were pretty efficient against fighters and a good defense for Stations.

Reimu Hakurei · Post by **Reimu Hakurei** » Fri, 23. Jul 10, 23:15

Towers are good IS, bad OOS. Shame since OOS combat is what they were intended for, being factory defenders. Apparently if you build them in hundreds they'll do well enough OOS, but it seems rather unconventional for me to be doing. IS they are incredibly cheap for their power, tou're buying a PBC turret, a (all be it unbuyable in vanilla) capital-grade beam cannon, for 1/9 the price.

Cpt.Jericho wrote:In X2 they were pretty efficient against fighters and a good defense for Stations.

And in X1 you could make them shoot like a normal GHEPT, fun stuff.

Palladin888 wrote:I've done several very hard missions to protect a sector where there are medium towers. Most times I lead the pirate swarms to the tower which does a pretty good job of killing them all. Best of all I still get credit for the mission.

You seem to be thinking of an (unbuyable) orbital weapons platform, not a simple lasertower. Those also seem to suck OOS, so I'm led to think it's something about the 0m/s top speed these constructs all have in common.

Cpt.Jericho · Post by **Cpt.Jericho** » Sat, 24. Jul 10, 00:10

Reimu Hakurei wrote:And in X1 you could make them shoot like a normal GHEPT, fun stuff.

Inefficient, however, I was more thrilled by the beam version. Another shame is that they still use the same model since X-T; even the fighterdrones got new meshes (at least more stylish snippets of Argon fighters) in TC. For station defense an average sized wing of M3 homebased at the station was even better. I really miss fighter hangars.

Post by **Nanook** » Sat, 24. Jul 10, 00:11

Reimu Hakurei wrote:....
Cpt.Jericho wrote:In X2 they were pretty efficient against fighters and a good defense for Stations.
And in X1 you could make them shoot like a normal GHEPT, fun stuff.....

It was also in X-Tension (which I believe you refer to as 'X1'), as I recall**, that you could also teleport yourself into those lasertowers and turn and shoot the laser. Can't recall now if they patched that 'feature' out or not.

**Might have been X2, though.

Dantrithor · Post by **Dantrithor** » Sat, 24. Jul 10, 00:27

@Nanook: XT, and it was patched out for last version i'm afraid. It seems in first versions you could also make them and drones "eject" their weapons, for a profit.

Post by **Nanook** » Sat, 24. Jul 10, 00:46

I remember the weapons exploit. I also remember transporting into a Navigation Relay Satellite and trying to figure out how to put a lasertower weapon in one. I really wanted killer satellites.

testpilot_bg · Post by **testpilot_bg** » Mon, 26. Jul 10, 14:42

Infekted, because the LT would have some protection. As someone said the LTs are a disaster OOS, so perhaps it would be not so bad with some M3 and M4 to defend them, or to attack their targets. I do not to replace them because it takes too much time ... I'll post some progress after I bought some LT with fighter support.

Infekted · Post by **Infekted** » Mon, 26. Jul 10, 15:02

Well let us know how it turns out. I take you are not at the point you can back them up with a Boreas, Osaka or Tyr?

Laser towers - Do we really need them?

Laser towers - Do we really need them?

Re: Laser towers - Do we really need them?