Missile Turrets

[Tenacity]

2 gunboat missiles are effective, - more are somewhat ineffective. - even if you see 5 detonations, one salvo will most probably only take out the shields anyway.

loading up missiles on cruisers isn t such a big deal - since cruisers are not really jousting or adding their speed to the missiles advantage, they re not such a problem like gunboats. - battleship missiles are even completely pathetic, even if you have 16.

but yea - there is no rule. having 100% missiles is as allowed as having 100% primary turrets.

good missileboat pilots should be splitting their numerous missile turrets into individual groups.

I've been practicing with such a ship in open singleplayer quite a bit lately - an orca gunboat (supposed to be the same size as the zoner gunboat, according to doom) loaded up with 4 order missile turrets and nothing else for weaponry.

I dont expect it to be good against anything other than fighters/bombers, but that's specialization - the order has plenty of pilots using cruisers, battleships, and bombers themselves; all I have to do is travel in packs or run when confronted by a capship. Most of the order's enemies are flying fighters/bombers anyways.

With that orca GB in open singleplayer, I've got the four turrets divided into three groups:
-Group one fires the first two turrets
-Group two fires the second two turrets
-Group three fires all turrets

Firing all of them at once is largely ineffective, if one missile is even a single meter ahead of the rest, it's explosion on the target will cause the others to explode prematurely, and they end up doing little to no damage to the target ship. If I fire in groups of 2 turrets at a time with a second or two of 'space' inbetween salvos, I can destroy most of the NPC ships with only 2-3 shots each. If they dont get blown up entirely, they hit cruise and run from the area because their equipment is destroyed.

Likewise, when it comes to player capships, as long as you have an ally around who can get the enemy's shields down, the missileboat can target subsystems and blow the guns off the enemy capship while evading fire. You wont be killing any capships alone, but in group combat you can disable larger ships after their fighter escorts are destroyed.


Chances are that will be my setup in 4.85 when i switch to that gunboat, because with only 4 turret slots it's the only way to be effective. 4 standard order turrets wont have the firepower to take down any capships, and I have severe difficulty hitting fighters with them due to lag. 4 gunboat razors makes it even harder to hit fighters, and is only slightly more effective against capships than standard guns. 2 infernos / 2 razors runs into a similar situation - not enough hull damage to take out a capship, though you might drain their shields fast.

The only way to make the ship truly shine in one area is to give it missile turrets and focus on an anti-fighter/bomber role. I see nothing wrong with that approach as long as you're flying with anti-capship escorts most of the time.

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