The Mass Driver

[patherton]

Quick question, please can someone tell me if this is worth the money..?? Still not sure exactly how it works.. Does this fire through shields, or do the shields need to be down to do hull damage..??

Thanks..

[Cia_Bpi]

It fires through shields. But you will need to buy the ammo too, since it is not an energy weapon.

[Luckshot]

But the damage isn't that good, you need at least 32 hits to take down a Discoverer (750 Hull Strenght). For a Nova (10k Hull) you need a whopping 417 hits.
It can be a good support weapon on light to medium fighters, since you can fire through shields, but on heavier ships with enough firepower its less useful, since you have enough power to take down the enemy's shields fast enough.

[CeeBod]

I'm using twin mass drivers in one turret of my Dragon, where they do a great job of missile defence/taking out Khaak M5s, and other speedy buggers that are usually hard to shoot down.
I wouldn't bother with it in any other capacity though - just too lightweight for general use.

[Brianetta]

Unless, of course, you use it on a lightweight ship. The Scorpion, for example. You can use the Scorpion's speed to dip in and out of firing range, and you can spend as long as you want doing it, because hulls don't recharge!

[Brianetta]

Additionally, in Online Universe, I plan to make it well known that all my ships are armed with mass drivers. If people plan to take on my ships while I'm asleep / at work / whatever, they can at least expect an expensive repair bill, and it's more the bigger the ship!

[Sabo]

One problem with that last statement brianetta - It will all be proportional to the hull points per cost. Therefore your mass drivers will hardly cause enough damage on an M2 to warrant the expensive repair bill. Whats more likely is that the PPCs will eat those TS's of yours in no time =]

[Brianetta]

One problem with that last statement brianetta - It will all be proportional to the hull points per cost. Therefore your mass drivers will hardly cause enough damage on an M2 to warrant the expensive repair bill. Whats more likely is that the PPCs will eat those TS's of yours in no time =]

Those PPCs would do that anyway. My goal is to make every other TS in the universe a preferred target. If my TS ships had gammIREs, big deal, it doesn't dent anything bigger than an M5. Mass drivers, though - every encounter does a little permanent damage.

Eventually, they'll leave mine alone and concentrate on something a little less expensive. bear in mind, it's the few percentage nearest 100% that are most expensive to repair.

People will see destroyers with 99% or 98% hull, and will say to themselves, "He tried it one with one of Brianetta's fleet. How silly, that'll cost more to repair than it did for B to buy the ship that did that! I would have gone for somebody else..."

[Nanook]

One problem with that last statement brianetta - It will all be proportional to the hull points per cost. Therefore your mass drivers will hardly cause enough damage on an M2 to warrant the expensive repair bill. Whats more likely is that the PPCs will eat those TS's of yours in no time =]

Those PPCs would do that anyway. My goal is to make every other TS in the universe a preferred target. If my TS ships had gammIREs, big deal, it doesn't dent anything bigger than an M5. Mass drivers, though - every encounter does a little permanent damage.

Eventually, they'll leave mine alone and concentrate on something a little less expensive. bear in mind, it's the few percentage nearest 100% that are most expensive to repair.

People will see destroyers with 99% or 98% hull, and will say to themselves, "He tried it one with one of Brianetta's fleet. How silly, that'll cost more to repair than it did for B to buy the ship that did that! I would have gone for somebody else..."

Only one problem. A PPC has more than twice the range of a Mass Driver.

[BobVila]

Brianetta, couldn't they simply ram your ship if they were in an M6 or above without really taking any damage? Thus toasting your TS in a pico-second, before it could get a shot off.

[Brianetta]

Brianetta, couldn't they simply ram your ship if they were in an M6 or above without really taking any damage? Thus toasting your TS in a pico-second, before it could get a shot off.

Yes of course they could, but they could do that no matter which weapon I had. You think people will bother to check who owns a freighter, if it's not in their guild?

If nothing else, people will start checking to see if stuff is mine. Most people won't have a destroyer anyway, they'll have a corvette or a heavy fighter.

I don't have to be a much more expensive target. I just need to be more expensive than most other players.

[Spero]

I just took down a Xenon J with a pair of mass drivers! Took well over an hour to do so however...

[BobVila]

Brianetta, couldn't they simply ram your ship if they were in an M6 or above without really taking any damage? Thus toasting your TS in a pico-second, before it could get a shot off.

Yes of course they could, but they could do that no matter which weapon I had. You think people will bother to check who owns a freighter, if it's not in their guild?

If nothing else, people will start checking to see if stuff is mine. Most people won't have a destroyer anyway, they'll have a corvette or a heavy fighter.

I don't have to be a much more expensive target. I just need to be more expensive than most other players.

The problem with your reasoning is that once they (they being those who attack your ships) have had a few run-ins with your mass-driver equipped freighters they will start scanning all TS ships before they attack, then if they find one of your mass-driver equipped TSs they will either simply ram it or fire at it outside the range of your mass-drivers. Therefore, you will lose more money when one of your TSs gets toasted and it won’t really be much of a deterrent any more.

[FreeLorraine]

Dang, that is discourageing, I was hoping a mass driver would help me bring down a pirate base...guess I'll stick too two id's and 7 hornets

[Kitch]

I plan to (eventually) but a Titan and put 18 mass drivers on it - just for a giggle as I watch it steam into a Khaak cluster and view from 3rd person as all the little M5's try to flee the hail of hot lead death!

[Momaw]

Ye gotta watch out, using MD's on a big ship. The "collision avoidance volume" or whatever the Egodudes call it cuts into your effective range quite a bit. Plus the ship itself is big, I think turrets only fire if all sub-turrets are within range. So a side turret couldn't fire at a target anywhere ahead of you, because the rear MD would be out of range mostly due to the length of the ship.

Might be wrong.