How fast do the MCs bring down shields and pop subsystems?

I was running my Anaconda with all MC's before I changed the large 4A to a Beam, which is Effiecient/Oversized.

With all 8 weapons being MC's, compared to the difference between 1 Beam and 7 MC's, I can take the shields down probably 5 times faster than just the MC's, then I use just the MC's to eat the hull and down the ship!

Last night on the last pirate I fought which was a Vette, probably took 5 sec's for shields with Beam, and 5 secs for hull. Of course those are rough estimates, there's several factors involved, chaffing, maneuvering, distance.

I'm saying if we were standing toe to toe at 500meters roughly!

Taking the shields down and killing the hull with 8 MC's would take roughly a minute in comparison. Smaller ships don't stand a chance. I haven't encountered a T10 Defender yet, and they usually are packed with Hull reinforcements, so that will be fun! LOL

Welcome to the Brotherhood of the Beam!

Thanks, Good thing you guys convinced me!! HAHA

Ahhhh, there be no representation without taxation in Elite, err, ahem, cargo surveillance. Plenty of good marks today, here's a nice compliant one doing as he should in the presence of government officials:



Alas, there were some unfortunate souls that thought they were above the laws and refused to pay their share to the people's fund, so they paid in blood:



Noncompliant novices and harmless fellows 'ave no business flyin' round in cutters and pythons, not if they're gonna challenge the strong arm of the financial bureau.

Really cool planetary descent on the way to an installation while hunting a 3 million bounty:





Elite sometimes has nifty looking terrain, they did a great job with the planet generator.

I found this Elite 'pit on Youtube:

So question:

Do ships in combat zones have ridiculously pumped up stats?

Because I tried one last night and ran into Chieftan after Chieftan that would take minutes or longer to kill once their shields went down. Their hulls just wouldn't lose hitpoints, and I'm running fully upgraded long range rails and beams, which should rip them apart. Heck, I even target their modules using super penetrators and triple size 2 rails barely do any damage when they hit directly.

So then I pulled out the PAs, 2x size 2 and 1x size 3, and a full on direct hit might do 4% to 10% if I'm lucky in hull damage, which is sad, given their extreme low rate of fire.

Something feels off. Back when I used to play elite, ships melted, but now they are mega tanks, whereas when my shields drop, my hull still dissolves.


Human players are another story. I melt them just fine with my triple rails and beams.

What skill level were those Chieftains? I've noticed that AI on "Elite" or even the level below which I think is "Dangerous" seem to be extremely tough to bring down even if you have a fully engineered ship.

They are probably Deadly or Elite.

They aren't ridiculously pumped, they are just engineered. If you think the ships in a CZ are tough, try a pirate threat.

In CZs you can encounter 'spec ops' ships/wings, which are even tougher than the other CZ ships.

I like the way it works. Fight the sheep in RES or CNB. Fight the wolves in pirate threats and CZs. I like having tiered combat challenge, and where I can seek it out, or not, by which instances I opt in to.

Does better armor penetration rating bypass module reinforcement?

I believe those are two separate things. I stand by to be corrected though.

Armor acts as DR. Your shot's penetration is compared to the armor hardness rating. If the pen value is lower than the hardness, the damage is reduced. This is why rails deal full damage. No ship has a hardness greater than the rails' penetration.

I don't think anything bypasses module reinforcement, which also acts as DR. But there is another thing at play here and it is hull breach chance. Hull breach attacks deal damage to the module, but still reduced by any module reinforcement. Add resistances to the equation and it's even more muddled. I don't know how this works really

I have been pondering that if you load a ship with nothing but module reinforcement packages, it may become invincible. I read somewhere that your hull could stay at 1% seemingly forever...


I may test this. If true, then I will exploit to the fullest.

Here's a thread on this... probably one of HUNDREDS... Some good information here about how Module Reinforcements stack, but, otherwise....the usual forum dick measuring.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/hull-reinforcements-vs-module-reinforcements.514757/

Hmm, blasting pirates to ragtime for biotech conductors ain't so bad. Good 'ole Joplin to soothe the beams down the hatch.

I stopped playing, or took my annual nine-month break, at the end of March of last year. So this thread came to a halt sympathetically. Matter of fact, the entire forum followed suit. I would have liked to see the discussions continue, but it is what it was.

However! I am at the point where I am thinking about considering how I might ponder whether or not I should contemplate possibly deliberating a return. I'll mull it over

But I plan to skip EDO. At least at first. Those first footfalls though....

Dust-Off 2022 is not yet in motion, but may be at some point down the line

We’re waiting for your return, D.

I smell a trap....