Matrix Games Forums

I'm curious, besides point defense and area weapons, what can shoot down assult pods?

It seems to me that any weapon could destroy an assault pod as it moves toward it's intended target. This is when it is vulnerable to be attacked. Its just that most weapons are not efficient enough to damage or destroy a pod in flight. Just like shooting down fighters, point defense does the best job.

Or the ship being captured has been sufficiently damaged that is can't fire on the pod. Also note that it is more difficult to capture a ship with a repair bot, and my designs which use 3 repair bots (redundant systems rule) are even harder to capture.

Just curious, because I was thinking of switching my point defense cannons on my bases with fighter bays if fighters can shoot down pods

The advantages of PD are they fast fire rate and the fact you'll usually have multiple ones on a ship, so chances are one is always going to be ready to shoot at a pod. Larger weapons could destroy a pod but chances are they won't be ready to fire in the narrow window between when a pod is launched and when it hits the target. I can't see fighter bays being useful as the fighters and bombers are likely to fly off and attack the enemy ships (or their fighters) and if they don't simply get destroyed, chances are they'll be out of position when the pods fly. Certainly if your looking for reliability it seems a bad idea because you are trading ships components that are a fair way down the disable list for ones that can be put out of commission before an enemy has even fired a shot at your base. Indeed it's pretty much part of their design that they don't last the duration of a fight!

Of course if your going to put an insane number on the base it'll likely work, but how big do you want to build them?

My star bases will act as forward launch points so I have to keep them withing size restrictions, I also want to be able to repair, build and supply ships with them as well as be able to fend off most attacks or raids. There will usually be a fleet near by to provide back up so the defenses just have to be good enough to hold out for a time.

FYI, Point Defense is by far your best choice to destroy assault pods.

Here is a related question:

Assuming you are not bothering with trying to shoot the pods, what is the best way to defend against the commandos?

(a) assault pods
(b) onboard troops (troop compartments)
(c) something else
(d) or, do all ships have some intrinsic anti-boarding defense rating?

Adding more Habitat modules will increase defenses against boarding.

ORIGINAL: Fishers of Men

Adding more Habitat modules will increase defenses against boarding.

Thanks!