Heavy weapons

[constantvitalrivet]

I’m curious about some of the weapons and armors later along the technology tree- it seems like it’s hard to configure balanced ships around some of them due to the weight. Is that the whole point- if you want this or that powerful weapon, you have to give up on defensive upgrades?

Like the Imperator GD3 Gravity Driver. If I have this right, the Thulun Cutter is the only class of ship that uses the gravity drivers. The Reactor 18 gives you 6100 mass. For a gravity driver with mass of 3320 you can make a maximum level 6 ship, with nothing else. Should you want to add a basic crew or structure upgrades you’re dropping down to level 3-4 ship design. No armor/cladding. Is it worth it? I’m curious if people have examples of good designs incorporating some of the heaviest weapons. Especially this GD3. Otherwise I can at least see the heaviest torpedoes going on a battlecruiser with a heavy reactor >8000 mass, and not being as concerned about the armor.

[drspendlove]

From what I've heard, that is the design intention but the gravity cannons sadly fall short there and few really like them. They just use a little TOO much mass.

[constantvitalrivet]

Indeed. I’ve made some pretty nice cutters with a couple of the earlier gravity drivers like the Raptor, while also having some room for crew upgrades and defenses. Decent probability of taking out a Level 6 Xeno ship in one shot, with some Critical hits at 200+. But I’ve gotten similar performance out of heavy cruisers without needing 3 AP per shot.