[X3TC] Questions on Ion Disruptors, Ion Pulse Generator, Ion Cannons (for boarding)

[Simoom]

Hello everyone.

I have finished all the plot missions I can finish (Terran, Goner, Final Fury, Treasure Hunt, New Home), save for the Hub and the rest of the plot missions that follow. So while I am waiting for the Hub plot to slowly finish itself (got my 150-factory complex up and running and 10 fully trained CAGs buying wares for the Hub), I wanted to try my hands on boarding/capping large ships.

Now, I have read through a few guides on boarding already, and I can't say I particularly like boarding methods that are too complicated (manually controlling a dozen fighter drones for every boarding attempt is just too annoying for me), I also don't want to board using TP-class ships (I've done so several times for the Terran and Goner missions and they are just horrid... drops marines all over the place and takes them forever to reach the target ship)

Since I eventually want to capture capital ships, boarding pods are a must anyway. So I went ahead and bought a Split Cobra, since every boarding veteran recommends this ship and I do like the fact that it's the fastest M7M and the only one to come with a turret (extra fighter/missile defense can't hurt)

Here comes the problem. I like to play things safe and would prefer to fly in on a M7 and fry the target ship's weapons before letting my M7M approach (the fact that the target is defenseless also saves me the need to use missiles). I happen to have a Boron Thresher (best M7 IMO! ) in my possession which is the perfect Ion-weapon platform, since it can equip everything from IonD to IPG to IC. But which one to use?

I already searched on this subject - and almost everyone talks about IonD being perfect for frying enemy weapons. But IPG and IC should have the same weapon-frying effect, right? I also like the fact that both IPG and IC can slow enemy ships down - this will allow boarding crafts to catch up to it more easily. But my main concern remains: How effective are IPG/IC at destroying enemy weapons? The X3 Wiki listed both weapons as being effective at doing so, yet I've come across no posts here regarding the subject or even people recommending their usage for capturing ships.

If anyone have experience with these higher-tier Ion weaponry, your help on the matter would be greatly appreciated.

[eldyranx3]

IPG's and IC's are horrible capping weapons. The IPG is supposed to slow your target, but its effect is too minor to really be of benefit. IC's do too much hull damage to be of any use controlling shields.

[Catra]

IPG's and IC's are horrible capping weapons. The IPG is supposed to slow your target, but its effect is too minor to really be of benefit. IC's do too much hull damage to be of any use controlling shields.

this.

+1

[em3e3]

I don't have the weapon files with me right now, but I'm pretty sure only the Ion Disruptors will fry weapons, shields, and other systems. But the IPG/IC can still be useful for boarding - you don't *have* to fry all the systems before boarding.



http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... 71#2719471

[jannix]

All you need is just the M7M. Simple steps:
1. If I am snatching a ship from a friendly race, I usually use a fast recon ship to fly up and get a passive scan. That will till us how much shields the target is packing.
2. Then based on that, i do a quick calculation of how many hammers are needed to beat the shield down to around 10%.
3. I then use flails to bring it down to around 3% or so.
4. shoot pods along with a few flails to maintain the 2-3% shield level.
5. Shoot off flails periodically to maintain the shield level till marines announce they are in.

Then sit back and watch.

[RandomBandit]

any weapon will 'fry' equipment/weapons once you get into hull-damage
the difference is that an ID will not demolish the hull in 4-5 hits like some other guns
each time the hull is hit there is a chance of losing some gear, the ID just hits more before killing the target

[Simoom]

IPG's and IC's are horrible capping weapons. The IPG is supposed to slow your target, but its effect is too minor to really be of benefit. IC's do too much hull damage to be of any use controlling shields.

Hmm, well I intend on going after capital ships so 5% shield may still be a lot. In any case, my plan was to use a full volley of IC fire to quickly bring down the shields, then keeping it low with either IPG or ID (although I would prefer to avoid ID due to the terrible range)... or perhaps only activate one laser bank for my frontal IC array.

In any case, I just wanted to know if IPGs and ICs are more potent at destroying enemy equipments than other weapons. I know all weapons have potential to do so when dealing hull damage (I read about that in another boarding guide), but the Ion weapons, as I read, are supposed to have a bunch of hidden effects.

[Catra]

give an IRE extremely low hull damage, and itll have the same effect as the IonD as far as equipment destroying is concerned.

[em3e3]

You really don't want to use IonD during the boarding operation, given the fact that it will fry your marines. You'll need to use something else for shield suppression once the marines are inbound, and before they cut through the hull.

[garv222]

Everyone has their own method of accomplishing boarding. Frying off weapons with Ion disruptors can take time and they have horrendous range. I'm not sure if more disruptors = faster/better chance of frying weapons, but I'm pretty sure you don't want to get a thresher within 2km of a M2.

The Ion cannon volley idea before you launch marines sounds good on paper, but in practice it's probably faster to get the entire boarding op rolling with just the m7m. You'll just need to see how shielding the target has and launch an appropriate barrage of hammers to do the majority of damage to the shields and launch a secondary volley of flail barrage missiles to cover the hammer missiles' approach. Same method also to launch your boarding pods. Some people also do their boarding ops from 40km+ so that the AI doesn't shoot down their boarding pods/missiles.

OF course this does chew through missiles fast, but from the sound of it, you've got the ability to make a good sized missile complex in short time.


As far as ID special effects, they seem to chew shields at a nice rate, and also seem to have an aoe effect. Either that or they jump to targets or something. I personally stopped using them after my first two boarding attempts due to the short range. I don't think they can fry off engine tunings either.

[Nanook]

IPG's and IC's are horrible capping weapons.....

Ion Cannons, yes. Ion Pulse Generators, not so. They're actually excellent for keeping a target's shields down while not damaging the hull, if you're careful. Forget the slowing down bit, it's not needed anyway. If I'm flying a ship capable of using them, they're my preferred weapon for this purpose.

@Simoom: As for Ion D's, only use them for frying equipment BEFORE you launch your marines. Otherwise, you'll fry them, too, when the bolts jump from object to object. Not nice.

[Simoom]

Everyone has their own method of accomplishing boarding. Frying off weapons with Ion disruptors can take time and they have horrendous range. I'm not sure if more disruptors = faster/better chance of frying weapons, but I'm pretty sure you don't want to get a thresher within 2km of a M2.

The Ion cannon volley idea before you launch marines sounds good on paper, but in practice it's probably faster to get the entire boarding op rolling with just the m7m. You'll just need to see how shielding the target has and launch an appropriate barrage of hammers to do the majority of damage to the shields and launch a secondary volley of flail barrage missiles to cover the hammer missiles' approach. Same method also to launch your boarding pods. Some people also do their boarding ops from 40km+ so that the AI doesn't shoot down their boarding pods/missiles.

OF course this does chew through missiles fast, but from the sound of it, you've got the ability to make a good sized missile complex in short time.


As far as ID special effects, they seem to chew shields at a nice rate, and also seem to have an aoe effect. Either that or they jump to targets or something. I personally stopped using them after my first two boarding attempts due to the short range. I don't think they can fry off engine tunings either.

Yes I can build a large missile complex (I am at Mogul trading rank and money isn't a problem; I have close to 250 factories total), the thing is I was hoping to avoid using missiles if possible. I really dislike dealing with resupplying fleet with ammunitions.

IPG's and IC's are horrible capping weapons.....

Ion Cannons, yes. Ion Pulse Generators, not so. They're actually excellent for keeping a target's shields down while not damaging the hull, if you're careful. Forget the slowing down bit, it's not needed anyway. If I'm flying a ship capable of using them, they're my preferred weapon for this purpose.

@Simoom: As for Ion D's, only use them for frying equipment BEFORE you launch your marines. Otherwise, you'll fry them, too, when the bolts jump from object to object. Not nice.

I think I can adjust my damage output as needed... So... do you know if IC/IPG have greater chance of damaging ship equipments than most weapons? I am gonna go create a save and give my idea a try I think. ^^

EDIT: Okay, I admit defeat for the ion cannon boarding concept. xD I just spent the last hour trying to board a Ryu and juggling between my Cobra and Thresher is simply too annoying. The Thresher also maneuvers too slowly to avoid incoming weapons fire. Think I'll go the safe route and do hammer torpedo x flail barrage like everyone suggested. Thanks for the help!

[eldyranx3]

They're actually excellent for keeping a target's shields down while not damaging the hull, if you're careful.

Which is why if you are spacewalking marines, it just makes things more complicated. If you are spacewalking marines, then you are probably going after an M6. Trying to manage all the other aspects of boarding WHILE trying not to take a chunk out of your prize is just easier with PBE's.

If you are going after M7+ then you wont be spacewalking marines, and more than likely be using an M7M to launch boarding pods. By that time, IPG's are exceedingly energy inefficient for the shielding of larger prey.

As they stand in Vanilla, the Boron Ion weapon specs do not fit their lore description.

[Nick Northern]

Surprised that no one has mentioned drones yet. Launch them. Issue the command 'attack target shields'. Easy. I don't even bother to recover the drones because I am lazy. I just have drone factories on a complex to build more for when I want to cap ships. You could easily recover the drones though if you launch the drones from a seperate ship for the cap, and then jump out and order the drones to follow the ship that launched them, and then 'return to ship' command them as a whole. To manny commands for me tho. lol.

[NUKLEAR-SLUG]

If you aim to fry the weapons off a capital ship you're best bet is to use one of the heavy M6.

Centaur or Hydra both can mount ION-D and are fine for the job while being small enough to dodge the copious amounts of fire that'll be heading you way as you attempt to get inside the required 1km range.

[Triaxx2]

He doesn't like drones easier.

The simpler way to resupply missiles is to use CLS instead, but I won't go into that now.

Basically mount IonD everywhere you can get it on your thresher, and close with the target. Then hold the button or just let the turrets do it. If you use external view to fly you can get very close and get all the turrets in on the action. Once it's down to the last shield, back off, flip over and use something like an Ion Shard Railgun to control that last shield.

Use the barrage command and keep them as low as possible, 1% or so is where I do it. You'll probably want to dual fly it though. One hand on the mouse, one hand on the arrows to fly.

[philip_hughes]

Controlling two ships in a boarding operation is far more fiddly than resupplying ships. Just go in with your M7M, lob flails like mad, hammer shields down, launch boarding pods, done.

[paulms1980]

do the weapons respawn on a ship during combat when you fry them? stupid question but was wondering

[Alan Phipps]

No they don't respawn after being fried and, although I am not totally sure, I don't think the ship always replaces damaged ones from any remaining spare weapons held in the cargobay.

[Nanook]

do the weapons respawn on a ship during combat when you fry them? stupid question but was wondering

And a four month old thread. Please stop dredging up old threads. If you have a question about something that's not in a current thread, please start a new one.