THE JUMPGATE DEFINITIVE GUIDE - Tripod

Realspace Combat - Choosing Armament
I will, in general, talk about ions and lasers as laser-esque weapons, and ammo/mortars as ammoesque
weapons.
Lasers/Ions: Lasers and ions should, in general, be considered the main weapon for group PvP.
While ammo weapons sometimes do well in small combat situations, laser-esque weapons scale much
better to group fights, because they are relatively easy to hit ships that aren't engaging you with. This
allows you to cover your friends well, which is key to victory in a group engagement.
If you have a good aim with ions, it is often a good choice to pick them over lasers. They have good
efficiency (which allows ships like the Tempest to fire at close to full throttle), and great range. They
much harder to hit flashfiring ships with, however, and they also cause your ship to be heavier,
reducing your chasing abilities and making you more vulnerable to attack.
Ammo/Mortars: In general, ammo does not have the versatility of lasers and ions. This is largely
because ammo is not great at covering your friends with as it is relatively hard to hit off angle shots
with it. That said, in smaller engagements its damage can throw the balance in its favour. In general, I
would not consider mounting ammo on any ship other than the Dragon, as the weight penalty in
addition to the difficulty of hitting ships not engaging you is fairly painful.
Mortars (i.e vantage and peeler, all others are worthless as it stands) are excellent weapons. They are
somewhat easier to aim with than ammo, and their low rate of fire gives them fearsome damage over
short contact periods. Any ship that can carry them is a massive danger.
I strongly recommend that you read the following section if you wish to understand why particular
weapons are effective.
Realspace Combat - Choosing Armament - Weapon
Effectiveness
This section details what factors control how a weapon behaves.
Velocity: The faster a weapon is, the easier it is to hit with. Faster weapons are likely to improve in
effectiveness as fight size goes up, as they are better for covering your friends.
Range: Lifetime*Velocity. In general, longer range allows you to hit weapons at a higher range, but a
more important case to be considered is effective range - the range at which you are likely to hit a
significant proportion of your shots. Ions, despite having a shorter range than Novas, have a much
higher effective range. Effective range is important in both duels and group fights, but increases in
import in group fights - again for friend covering purposes - it's not hard to close the range in a duel
situation.
Damage Per Second (DPS): Fairly self explanatory - the damage a weapon does per second.
Efficiency: Damage/Energy Used. Efficiency is not of import for a ship with lots of power. For
underpowered ships, better efficiency gives a higher top speed at which your weapons give full
damage. This gives better chase potential, and also leaves you less of a sitting duck when you're
firing. You're more likely to be concerned with DPS than efficiency in a duel, but efficiency is important
in group fights.
Rate of Fire (ROF): Rate of fire is of great importance, for two reasons. Firstly, weapons with a low
ROF are in general easier to aim for most pilots than fast ROF ones (you get time to aim between
volleys), and secondly because a low ROF increases damage
Z-7
107