supremacy of bolts over beams ...
 

is it just my feeling or bolts tend to be much more deadlier than beams against ships ?
against fighters I still believe beams are better cause fighters usually evade bolts fire but not point defence cannons http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
I usually equip my ship with master computer to direct fire and well when you hit with DUC or MB well you really see the effect of damage on enemy ship shield armour and hull ...
with beams it happens so often that one beam completely miss the target http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif the other succeeds but does a just a very little damage even near point blank range ... am I the only one ? another thing ... reload time DUC has a wonderful reload time and comes online so often that if you succeed to follow an enemy ship you can cripple its engine and then finish it in a matter of seconds with beams it takes forever ...

Re: supremacy of bolts over beams ...
 

Yes, bolts will often hit even if they are not "supposed" to. Beams will be guided by the animation process to deliberately miss if the "to hit" code says they must miss. Fighters are small and so less likely to get an 'accidental' hit in spite of the percentage "to hit" calculation by the game engine.

Re: supremacy of bolts over beams ...
 

Bolts are the weapon type for the point defense cannons. At short range they are more accurate. If you make them long range they miss quite a bit. Bolts are not intercepted by Point Defense Cannons unless you mod to allow for bolt target. However I think by doing this then you would cause a fire issue everytime a bolt wep is fired even by you own ship. This is my experience with this.

Beams are meant to miss sometimes (reason for attack and defense ratings)

Re: supremacy of bolts over beams ...
 

Toxic Injectors>everything

Re: supremacy of bolts over beams ...
 

Actually I'm a solid beam man. Bolts are light and have fast recharge but they have no special properties. From what I heard bolts are auto hit but they don't compensate for the target moving after the bolt is fired so unlike beams an agile ship can dodge bolts. I drove the xiati crazy by flying in, firing a salvo, and turning off before they could fire or they caught me in my turning arc and missed. Bolts also have short range, both max out at 80 ls right?