Erlking main battery use ?

[Imperial Good]

A battleship should not be "poking" enemies to death if any destroyer can pulverize them 5 times faster. I don't need to go faster backward than a Xenon K if I pulverize it in 15 seconds with a Rattlesnake, way before I'm in range of its turrets.

At the 6 km range you deal tons of damage, without even needing to fire the main battery. Just remember to throw on Slasher green mods with good rolls (attack speed, damage) on all the turrets.

[TheShear]

Yeah "poking" might be the wrong choice of words. I call it that since after using the Asgards Deathstar Ray once everything feels like poking with sticks. I guess the ship just works for me since my usual play style is "running away screaming while taking potshots" because I'm a terrible Pilot. I think it died pretty fast actually and I admit I actually haven't modded it yet since it's a fresh play through and I only "aquired" it recently.

[Imperial Good]

It is weaker against L and XL targets for sure, but it is just so good against S/M sized targets it more than makes up for it.

[nemo1887]

Against the Asgard he has no chance! , it is already necessary to wait for him to load and it is just an unfortunate little "giclette".

[nemo1887]

It is weaker against L and XL targets for sure, but it is just so good against S/M sized targets it more than makes up for it.

Did you see the size of the ship to be able to target S or M? You play X4?

[Imperial Good]

Did you see the size of the ship to be able to target S or M? You play X4?

Considering the L turrets pretty much one shot most S ships.. You just fly and watch S and M ships explode around you.

[nemo1887]

Too bad! when I was able to assemble the erlKing I thought wahou the main battery takes all the front of the ship it must be great! ,and the first attempt on asteroid already a charge temp but it’s not the problem, the little thing that comes out of it at least ten times for a poor asteroid!! . very disapointed

[TKz]

It is weaker against L and XL targets for sure, but it is just so good against S/M sized targets it more than makes up for it.

So basically we agree, it's an AA ship (well .. an AA battleship ) :

Sure, turrets are nice, but not that great. They're only very good at close range, so the best use for this Battleship is .. AA defense ?

[TheShear]

It is weaker against L and XL targets for sure, but it is just so good against S/M sized targets it more than makes up for it.

So basically we agree, it's an AA ship (well .. an AA battleship ) :

Sure, turrets are nice, but not that great. They're only very good at close range, so the best use for this Battleship is .. AA defense ?

Partially, AA is where it shines more than anything else but it still has high firepower and incredible range so it can beat pretty much anything in this game as long as you take advantage of that. As I mentioned I'm comparing it to a Rattlesnake on purpose. Compared to more specialized ships it's a lot less vulnerable. Also easy to get
Hell you call an AA Battle ship like it's a bad thing but try a Halfway modded one in that Fighterswarm in the Casino Sector. It's beautiful.
... Though I agree that the Main cannon is... not weak, it do hurts a lot but annoying to use. Not a Fan of charging mechanics. I'm starting to just broadside big ships and call it a Day.

[Imperial Good]

The clarify, the turrets on it are perfectly capable of killing big ships. It does not "delete" them from 12 km like the Asgard XL battery does but even Branch 9 Destroyer I dies a lot faster than either a Syn or Rattlesnake and probably even a Raptor could kill it all from a safe distance. L ships practically explode, probably even faster than being broadsided by a Destroyer I.

[erroneous zip code]

The Erlking isn't great compared to the Asgard (I mean, what is...) but I actually like it as a personal carrier ship just because it's far faster speed+accel compared to the Asgard and actually has space for more than a single medium ship on it. I think people just had their expections of "every new XL ship has to be bigger and better than the previous one" coming in when in reality the Erlking is effectively a speedy XL Syn

[TKz]

There is currently a zone in my game with 6K, 1I, hundred of M/N/P.
I could very easily exterminate that in my Rattlesnake. Instead I'll mod up the Erlking to the absolute max and I'll try. We'll see

[Rei Ayanami]

I haven't gotten it yet, but I'm glad it seemingly is not more powerful than the Asgard.
We should try to avoid power creep in the X-series and have every ship have its uses.

[quase]

The Erlking is a beast!

Now that I finally got all its blueprints, I equipped it with Terran MK2 shields and this makes it nearly invincible to anything, except Xenon L Graviton turrets, but their limited range of below 6.000 km makes them fodder for any Plasma guns above this range anyway. I usually use Paranid L Plasma turrets on my ships, but the Erlking L turrets are way above this. All modded with at least level 1 mods of course (the one with heat reduction and damage) until I have higher level mods available. Shredding K's an I's to pieces!

Well, the main battery though ... give me the Syn/Osaka or Rattlesnake mainbatteries over this any day. The main problem is against stations though. The turrets don't shoot as soon as there are no targets left on stations and then taking down the remaining hull of station takes forever. I've given up on it, trying to kill a Khak-hive. As long as the turrets fire, take-down is awesome, but then ...

It's certainly very fast (modded mine above 500/10.000 speed), but the manoeuvrability is bad, especially turning around, but also strafing. I might try anyother modification to improve this because I don't like it. Better have lower speed and better handling, as long as you can go faster than a K.


I don't have the credits for an Asgard blueprint yet, so I can't compare it to the Erlking. From the pure stats though, the Asgard seems even more of a flying rock. The turrets are certainly inferior to the Erlking. The Asgard main weapon though, I need it!

[TKz]

I usually use Paranid L Plasma turrets on my ships, but the Erlking L turrets are way above this. All modded with at least level 1 mods of course (the one with heat reduction and damage) until I have higher level mods available.

It's really not the best mod for turrets. The best one is the basic one with improved reload time (up to 100%), increased damage and increased heat (don't care about heat on turrets).

Well, the main battery though ... give me the Syn/Osaka or Rattlesnake mainbatteries over this any day.

Yeah, it's so terrible I think I will simply not use it. I'll see if turrets are really enough, had no time to try yesterday.

[Genoscythe]

Unpopular opinion: Erlking is not weak, the Asgard is just measurelessly OP and could use with some adjustments. I don't know why they gave us a ship that can pulverize a XEN I below 30 seconds and then made no stronger enemies to keep the challenge up. I fully well understand that XL ships should rip through a good amount of enemy forces, but a Hitscan-high-range deathray without any downsides really felt a bit OTT. Erlking can of course be gotten erlier (see what you made me do!?) but Asgard can be mass-produced and terran economy is simple enough to spew these buggers out at a high rate, it's like an AK 74 that fires nukes.

[chew-ie]

Can't see how the Erlking is weak in any way. I just flew it through some Xenon sectors - and the M/N/P clouds swarming me were made to dust without even scratching any shield. Those who managed to not die out of range didn't even manage 1 full attack run.

And there was this K sneaking up on me from behind (like they always do... ). Well - an Asgard would have to turn in order to bring it's main gun to use. (which certainly deletes the K). And the Erlking? Well [all] the turrets opened fire. The time it took the K to come into firing range it's shields were gone and the hull half. The graviton turrets managed to take 10% of the Erlking shields (as always, the K approached from the top to fire from 4-5 graviton turrets) and then the K was done for.

If one makes the mistake to compare numbers, the Erlking might "loose". And yeah, the main gun isn't that great. But then again one hasn't to use it at all (I certainly don't) - and still there is no enemy who can challenge the Erlking.

[Genoscythe]

Can't see how the Erlking is weak in any way. I just flew it through some Xenon sectors - and the M/N/P clouds swarming me were made to dust without even scratching any shield. Those who managed to not die out of range didn't even manage 1 full attack run.

And there was this K sneaking up on me from behind (like they always do... ). Well - an Asgard would have to turn in order to bring it's main gun to use. (which certainly deletes the K). And the Erlking? Well [all] the turrets opened fire. The time it took the K to come into firing range it's shields were gone and the hull half. The graviton turrets managed to take 10% of the Erlking shields (as always, the K approached from the top to fire from 4-5 graviton turrets) and then the K was done for.

If one makes the mistake to compare numbers, the Erlking might "loose". And yeah, the main gun isn't that great. But then again one hasn't to use it at all (I certainly don't) - and still there is no enemy who can challenge the Erlking.

Yeah it feels TOA unique ships Erly and Astrid are heavily balanced about making use of their superior range turrets. They both have comparably sub-par main guns but jesus the range. On the other hand turrets make the gameplay a bit more passive than flying a frontal-heavy ship.

[TKz]

I moded everything on the Erlking (the rotation thrust mod helped a lot, it was unbearable before ).
It's indeed globally powerful. But the main gun is insanely weak. For some reason, when it's charged, the projectile "stick" on the target way longer, and glow. But it seems like it does not deal more damage or damage over time. It almost look like a bug, it's more a flare gun than a Battleship main battery... Anyway, once you take into account that the gigantic main gun is absolutely useless, it's possible to enjoy a little bit the ship.
But not too much, because without a gun, the gameplay is VERY passive. There is absolutely no skill involved, even the Asgard needs more skill (well, just a little). I'll use it when I need to clear a sector while being AFK

EDIT : I tested on a K without my turrets, charging the gun does increase damage. But the damage is so low that it does not matter much ..

[Witzzard]

Having used an Erlking as gate guard against Xenons, i gotta say i love the turrets. The main gun feels like an afterhought, which mostly feels wierd because it's such a prominent part of the ship visually. And i'm not certain i'm especially fond of how exposed it is, and how it doesn't feel really integrated in the main structure, but somewhat tacked on. Though to be fair, all ship main weapons besides the main guns of other destroyers are really just tacked onto flat surfaces of the ships, and i'm happy with that if it's easier for Egosoft and allows them to spend their time on things they feel (and likely rightfully so) are more important.

So all in all, i still really like the ship and think Egosoft has done a great job with it.
The only points buggering me really about this ship is how it feels like such a big missed opportunity to add some more plot around the people who build it and my personal question if the Engergy Core is also linked to the research team who found the Eye of the Beholder at first. Which makes me realize that i liked the story of the plot a lot more than the plots we had before, likely because it felt more centered around NPCs we get somewhat to know and their well-being, rather than the well-being of some nebulous faceless faction represented by mostly bureaucrats. Second negative point naturally being how hard the whole data vault search stuff currently is.