HWS Weapon Config Review/Tips/Tricks

HWS General Discussion
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Hello everyone,
I just wanted to share my thoughts on the new weapon config. Not too many people have been playing since the release of it as the new season is looming over. I think with the testing and experience that we have seen this weapon change that we are entering an incredibly destructive, fun, and elaborate PVP era. The learning curve seems to be steep for inexperienced players as if they are not careful they will be killed within seconds (in SV) however, veteran players are figuring out how to prolong battle. Weapons are now causing mass destruction and “lucky shots” are definitely possible. Veteran players have a much higher chance of being killed but skilled players have a higher chance of success. Remember that as quickly as you can be killed, your enemies can be killed. Keep those guns firing!

Here is a few tips that i have come across for SV PvP combat:

  1. Depending on your design, keep your strong side towards the enemy! Should go without saying but so many players turn their weak side to the enemy for small windows of opportunity. You can be killed in under 5 seconds when your weak side is exposed (most ships have a weak spot).

  2. Design vessels expecting to take precise/deep damage. Meaning the hulking slow heavy armor is not as viable anymore because damage can dig deep fast. Never stop moving, even for a 1 second. Speed and maneuverability are back to being somewhat relevant. Make sure Cockpit and Core are the safest position wise in ships. And of course redundancy with designs!

  3. Without going into too much spoilers and trade (pirating) secrets… make sure to explore ALL of your weapon options. You may be surprised at certain weapon efficiencies that you have never used.

  4. In most cases, come with a mindset that death and destruction are not only likely but dam near inevitable. Do not carry your life savings with you! But you should definately have replacement parts such as: Cockpit, Core, Warp drive, warp fuel tank, and even some spare blocks to fill on holes where O2 is going to leak out. Another thing would be to have a ship ready to spawn to potentially get you out of dodge if you die.

  5. For me this is the biggest. EXPERIENCE! Battle can be intimidating, heart pounding, and chaotic. The only way to get better at it is trial and error. When I first started playing I got annihilated by a big strong experienced faction. I learned exponentially from every encounter with them until one day the tables turned. It wasn’t pretty but I was stubborn. It may take you several tries to realize that your flying style, or ship design is getting your cockpit destroyed quickly. Adapt and adjust, rinse repeat. eventually the only thing that will make you nervous is when you are fight 1v8 and then a couple cvs show up to make it 1v10 lol.

  6. Ask for help! If you die and are stranded, ask for help. Most if not all the pvp players will help in some way shape or form to get you back on your feet. If you have questions about where hotspots for pvp are or if a certain design is strong or weak, or if you have no idea what guilty/stargates/restrictions/or rules are. ASK ASK ASK. If you asked me how I killed you, i would straight up tell you (answers probably going to be weakpoint in ship/ poor flying).

  7. Again, without giving away too much trade secrets… Remember this: When fighitng combat steEl like hvs and cvs, your plasma cannons will rip through the target (if you can hit). Also homing missles are good but not great.

Just wanted to get some of my thoughts about how awesome and fun this is now with the weapons and I honestly feel its great as is. (maybe some tweaks later after more have tested them) What are your thoughts and tips for people?

-Caboose

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Just want to let you and others, who tested it and gave me positive feedback about EWS, know:
Thank you! :slight_smile:
I spent whole 3 weeks with EWS and really wanted to give PvP and PvE just much more, because they deserve it!

With Alpha 8.6 today I’m also excited to hear the PvE feedback and saw already hilarious questions like “What weapon is good against Armored Golem” etc. - that made me smile :slight_smile:

Because as you said: some weapons go through some enemies like through butter but only the right one :wink:

Excited to hear more reviews!

P.S.: “Lagshots” / lucky shots can be nicely prevented with the new “HWS Shields” = Shutter Windows :wink:

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Great changes Rex - too much choice though. I cant decide if i want 10 rockets or 10 flaks, 10 pulses or 10 plasma. Only set i can choose between is cannon over minigun. Still experimenting with my preference here.

Damage is certainly up - im losing hull and turrets at a faster rate which is good.

Liking the effectiveness spreadsheet - even have a printout on my desk lol.

First world problems! :slight_smile:

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You have really done well with this Rex, every battle brings new things to the table.

The “lucky shot” is more of a fun possibility (not a negative) because of all the holes in the ships its possible to get that random shot through the hole you already made. I love it personally, Definitely not a lagshot, just a shot that finds that perfect hole! I think it gives excitement in battle as i could potentially go down at any point if that haymaker punch connects.

Half of me wants to do a full review of each weapon but some thing i like to keep to myself =) but i will probably end up sharing them.

Thanks rex

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n64211319

After playing with the live version of the new config in real PvP for a while, I feel it’s time to give a full review of my perceptions of how it’s turning out. No CV/CV combat so far unfortunately

SVs:
The combat is now fast paced and very fun. You can be shot down very quickly, or not, depending mostly on how skilled the pilots are at evading enemy fire. The weapons, especially pulse lasers, can quickly destroy you, if you let them.

Pulse lasers: Great primary weapon, high damage, accuracy, and rate of fire drills deep holes in enemy armor. This weapon has no splash so if you’re looking to cause wide spread damage on the surface it won’t do that but it will dig into the internals of your enemy quicker than any other weapon. Very effective against hardened steel, shutter windows are resistant to their damage but continuous fire will eventually get through them. I don’t feel they need any changes at this time.

Homing Rockets: A good shield breaker, highly accurate due to it’s homing ability. Very little damage to hardened steel armor, but if the enemy has shutter blocks on the exterior of their ship this weapon is a good first choice. Don’t expect to take down many armored SVs using homing missiles alone. The range is shorter than other SV weapons, but when in range they are more accurate to use. I would suggest leaving their range short but increasing their base damage around 15-20% and rate of fire by 20% as they feel pretty weak right now.

Plasma Cannons: Another shield breaker, destroys shutters in a large area but only damages hardened steel a bit. Longer range and faster firing than the homing rockets but more difficult to use. It’s very hard to hit an SV in flight with a plasma cannon unless they are a terrible pilot. More useful against ground targets or CVs. I don’t think they need any changes at this time unless the intention is for them to be used against SVs in flight, in which case I would increase projectile speed 50% at least. It feels like homing rockets serve as the shield breaker for SV battles while plasma functions as the primary shield/combat armor breaker for anti-HV combat.

Rail guns: Special device killing sniper gun. This weapon destroys any SV device it hits, which includes wings, but does nothing to armor or shutters. If the enemy doesn’t have exposed components, it’s not a useful weapon. In a real fight, it’s nearly impossible to snipe off an enemy weapon or shoot down a hole that you blew into their armor because the railgun shot travels too slowly. If the enemy is evading at all, you’ll likely miss completely or hit on the armor where it does no damage. The weapon is great at sniping turrets off of bases or HVs that are stationary or moving slowly, it will take a few hits, but no other weapon can kill a turret as quickly. I’d like to see them be a hit-scan weapon if they are meant to be used in SV-SV combat, otherwise they do their job of turret sniping pretty well.

Rocket Launcher: Concrete smashing rockets. These rockets do fairly good damage but not great against armor and shutters if you can land a hit, but you’ll probably only land a hit on a ship sitting on the ground. That being said, other weapons are far more effective anyway. Where they really shine is attacking bases, they do great damage to concrete/armored concrete and also combat steel blocks. Slow firing, decent range, good damage. You won’t kill a base before it kills you, but an SV does have an effective weapon for breaking base armor. No changes needed.

Gatling guns: Stop using these in PvP. They are very pathetic in their damage to anything on an SV/HV/CV/BA and only effective at killing the player if you already shot them out of their cockpit, you can use plasma or rockets or any other weapon to kill a player. Gatlings are good at killing drones, golems, worms, dinosaurs and a host of other wildlife and alien creatures, and that’s about it.

HV weapons:

Artillery: The anti-everything gun: This weapon blows a big hole in any kind of armor it hits. It can but it’s not especially effective at destroying turrets or even internal components of other vehicles unless on a direct hit. Slow rate of fire and slow projectiles make this weapon less effective against moving targets but that doesn’t hinder it’s ability to make a hole in the most heavily fortified bases. No changes needed.

Rocket Turrets: Anti-SV defense weapon: Decent but not great damage and range homing missiles. They don’t seem to do much to base blocks or turrets but are a fairly effective weapon for defending the HV from other HVs or SVs. No changes needed.

Plasma Turrets: Anti-HV defense weapon: Good damage and range, not the most accurate. This weapon doesn’t seem to do a lot to a base either but it does pretty well against other HVs, and when it hits an SV it does decent damage but nothing really spectacular. I would suggest to make HV plasma more effective vs hull or increase their base damage, so they are more dangerous to other HV or an attacking SV.

Minigun Turrets: Kinda worthless as it is. There are 6 of them so in such numbers they actually do start stripping some blocks off, but not very quickly. They are more useful as additional armor blocks that are resistant to most damage than as actual weapons currently. I would suggest making HV minigun turrets effective against “hull, combat hull” and ineffective against “metal” and “hard metal” but short range, so they would quickly strip the armor and shutters off an attacking SV or HV that got too close (as in moving in to lay into the tank with plasma cannons) but wouldn’t destroy internal devices unless a rocket/plasma/artillery landed a hit there.

Gatling guns: same as the SV version

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These changes are great, but there seem to be 1 horrible side effect.
Does anyone else has problem with lagshots in sv fights?
Multiple layers of shutter windows, free space, devices and blocks don’t seem to help much.

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Hey Pok, I have yet to see any real lag shot in sv fights. The “snipe” you are experiencing is usually a result of a design weakness with an experienced pilot targeting you. I know from my stand point i seem to kill players rather quickly (under 10 seconds) when they are flying in a straight line because i can hit the same spot where i think their cockpit is multiple times. Therefore penetrating right into the cockpit area. This is preventable by keeping your weakpoint facing away from the enemy and also keeping 2-3 planes of movement going at all time. Make the fight 3 dimensional, not 1.

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In testing the config and different weapons I’ve experienced this multiple times.

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I am not talking about cases when my ship gets destroyed. After every major fight i survive i take a blueprint of my damaged ship and check it out in creative. Sadly there is almost always internal damage with all other blocks around it with no damage at all in a protected area.

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Yes pulse lasers in particular have gotten a bit silly. Seem to ‘phase’ through multiple layers of armour and destroy internals. Only plus side is that it is a level playing field at least.

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For me is all good, just build your ships better :slight_smile:
Is not lagshots. Pulse laser will damage in straight line the blocks after.

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It would be helpful if you would read more than half of one post before saying something.

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Well, if it might feels you better we should ask to add to the lasers a splash damage like railgun and plasma ;D
We were all engaged in combat, never experienced any lagshot since everytime the core was gone it was because of a direct hit.
Lag is the real deal when bases are involved in combat, there are more than 5-6 player shooting in the same playfield or with some players having a bad connection i guess.
Try to run some tests on everything like we did, maybe you’ll get your ships are not so well built like you think.

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There is no fundamental difference between how the big factions on NA/EU build their ships.
All people use a lot of armor, shutter windows and some of them free space to prevent lag shots.
So stop pointlessly try to convince everyone how your ships are superior. No one cares.
There is a got reason a few seasons ago there was added significant spread to miniguns. Now we got accurate miniguns, lasers that work like miniguns and rails with splash damage.
There are some great benefits to the new weapon config, but also costs.

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“There is no fundamental difference between how the big factions on NA/EU build their ships.”

Oh really? Then why the ratio of knocked down ships between opg’s and yours is something like 1 on 4?

“stop pointlessly try to convince everyone how your ships are superior. One one cares.”

Numbers speak, and yes, our ships are superior right now, do the math, it’s not rocket science.

“There is a got reason a few seasons ago there was added significant spread to miniguns. Now we got accurate miniguns, lasers that work like miniguns and rails with splash damage.
There are some great benefits to the new weapon config, but also costs.”

I only see benefits in those modifications. Before, a SV vs. SV battle was just a matter of how many homing missiles you got and the lag. Now you have to actually pilot the sv, you can evade everything with proper manouvers so lagshots aren’t a thing, deal with it.
Lagshots aren’t a thing in SV battles.

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We can sum up the discussion into this.
me:
My ship has always internal damage after fights with no damage around and in a fully covered area.
you:
Lagshots don’t exist, i am better than you.
This is pointless have a good night.

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Pointless just about sums up these 2 immature Neo-OPGs :slight_smile:

@John_Olin and @Russifikator along with Senya - proper OPG - you can have a ‘grown-up’ conversation with those (miss our CV duels guys) but im afraid Pok you’re just banging your head against a wall talking with these idiots on this thread.

On topic - you’re right every SV i’ve had this season win/lose has shown the same characteristic damage you describe - including the captured, ‘superior’ OPG 301 I was flying early on lol. Very little damage to the outside but inside once shutter window layers penetrated - everythings toast. Like I said earlier though - it is a level playing field. So im content to roll with it and amend/adjust builds to try and minimise impact. Keeps things interesting :slight_smile:

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@anon76082228 not my problem if you don’t wanna get it mate
@daddystu sweet to have your say on the matter it shows how competent you are.

Post some pics, maybe your “opinion” might improve from “a kid’s whine” to a constructive opinion.
So far we have 3 people who claims have lagshots and 3 people who claims they don’t. @XcCaboose even gave you an answer which might be the right one for your problems because i see you don’t quite get how the combat works with the new settings.
None of mine or paxxo’s ships suffered of lagshot and again i have to say that lagshots aren’t a thing in SVs fights.

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Ive noticed during sv dogfight i get hurt while inside cockpit, seems like lag but still testing, not noticing any holes in armour and one time happen with fresh bp at start of fight

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