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The player is free to customise the turret loadouts of all ships, and the main weapons of Small and Medium Ships (see the Weapon Configuration part of the Ship Interactions Menu). This allows the player to tailor the roles of ships, or sub-sections of ships, for specific roles (e.g. high damage and long range, or accurate short range weapons). Most ships have blind spots from which they can not attack making ideal spots for their enemies to manoeuvre into. Although an individual ship can be good at duelling opponents, superior numbers are another way to win battles.
Weapon
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Types
Weapons fall into 5 general categories:
- Primary guns (forward-facing weapons on S, M and L ships)
- Secondary launchers (forward-facing weapons on S and M ships)
- Gun Turrets (available on M, L and XL ships)
- Missile Turrets (available on L and XL ships)
- Defense Defence Drones (deployable from some M, L and XL ships)
Primary and secondary weapons are controlled by the player when captaining their ship. Turrets are controlled by Service Personnel, and Defence Drones will deploy automatically to protect their mothership.
Weapon Aiming -
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Guns
The game settings contain an option called player-assist 'target target' mode (enabled by default). When enabled, player-controlled primary guns will automatically fire at a leading point to intercept the position the target is flying towards. The same approach is taken automatically by ship-controlled gun turrets. When 'target target' mode is not enabled, or when manually aiming, main guns will fire at the cursor's position.
Weapon Aiming -
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Missiles
Player-controlled (forward-facing), secondary launchers equipped with dumbfire missiles will fire at the cursor's position. When equipped with homing missiles, secondary launchers use a missile lock HUD marker to automatically try and lock on to the playership's target. Secondary launchers are fired with the "L" key.
Weapon
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Heat
When primary guns are fired they generate heat, which the ship must dissipate in order maintain combat efficiency. When multiple weapons are fitted and used simultaneously, larger amounts of heat are accumulated and it takes the ship longer to dissipate it. The impact of firing multiple guns is visualised by the heat bar to the right of each weapon icon on the HUD (see images below).
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Depending on ship model, there may be 2-4 turrets
- Their rules of engagement can be customised:
- Turret offline
: Will not take any action - Turret online
: Will take the actions below:- Attack Enemies
: Attack any hostiles - Target Target
: Will only attack the selected target if it is hostile - Defend Ship
: Returns fire on things that attacks the ship (not missiles) - Missile Defence
: Will only try to intercept incoming missiles (not ships) - [X3 'Missiles Only' mode] - Break Asteroids
: Supports mining solid materials
- Attack Enemies
- Turret offline
Full Controls for
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All Ships:
- Customisable turret controls for all ships
- Available on two places:
- Piloted ship: Ship Menu (click on the chevron in top-center of screen)
- All owned ships: Ship Info Menu (Turret Behaviour settings are near the bottom)
- Each Turret, or Turret Group (pairs of Mediums), have settings:
- Each setting offers the same options as the HUD Controls above
- Additionally, there is a setting that to apply an option to all turrets
Defence Drones
These small craft can be equipped to, and operated by, ships with Small Docks (Frigates, Large and XL Ships).
Summary of capabilities:
- Cheap (~15,000 Cr)
- Equipped with a Pulse Laser Mk1
- Scout-level hull integrity (1,900 MJ)
- Do not have shields
- Auto-repaired by their motherships after docking
Loot
Hacking or destroying ships and station storage modules will cause them to drop a proportion of their cargo for other ships to collect. Collecting wares dropped from a station is considered theft, so the station may turn hostile with any ships that do. NPC ships also have a chance to drop wares for the player inventory dependent on the type and faction of ship killed.
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