Q's from a Newb

[roder]

hey just bought the game, lots of things to know might as well ask it here

1. what is the difference between the 2 damage types of each weapon (e.g. artemis does explosive and shatter dmg), is one stronger than the other?

2. in terms of armor vs durability stat, i saw on wiki that the ship has a hull health and a ship health. is hull health = armor, and ship health = durability. and further, pierce dmg takes down armor while explosive dmg takes down durability?

3. Why are the smaller/weaker ships used as the close range ships, wouldnt it make more sense to use them as snipers since they are smaller targets in distance and the bigger/durable ships usually have more/stronger guns

4. Does the goldfish and pyra do more ramming damage with that front horn or is that purely asthetics, and also why are they considered effective for ramming if they have low armor/health and both ships are supposed to take equal damage in a ram (before factoring that pilot shield item)

5. In terms of prioritizing enemy ships, which ones are the biggest threats to take out and which ones should you avoid for last? (e.g. Squid> Pyra > Goldfish  etc.)

[roder]

Also - is there any difference between the two 2ndary engines, are they both equally responsible for turning, or does the left one control left turn and vice versa for right?

Does the lock/targetsquare ever disappear around the enemy? when and what situations

[Kyren]

1 They usually do more damage with the first damage type, that is considered primary, the other one secondary. You usually rely on the first damage type, the second one is just a.. nice boon to have, but nothing essential.

2 Exactly, Hull Health is the armor, the upper white bar on the Hull when ingame, the one you can repair. Ship health is the lower, yellow bar that gets damaged when the Armor is down and cannot be repaired. Piercing damage (Gatling, Mercury Field Gun) takes down the Armor, Explosive (Flak guns) the Health

3: Because of their higher maneuverability. A big ship is of no use if it can't catch up with the small one. And the small ships don't have so many weapon slots or options, so they have to use them on close range on enemy blind spots to make a difference. They simply don't do enough damage from afar - AND the big ships can always shoot back, chances are, the small ship gets hit and can't take the damage, while the big ship can easily take loads of damage without flinching.

4 The front horns are purely aesthetic, I think. They're good for ramming because they have a gun at the front; that means you can fire while going in for the ram without worrying about positioning your ship right or anything like that. Also, they have the necessary speed and maneuverability for ramming. A galleon is just too slow to ram, and it doesn't have guns at the front.

5. That purely depends on the enemy crews. If you've got a enemy spire that isn't even firing, it'll die in a second and is a very easy kill. You could take those down while getting fired at by the other enemy ship. Then, a Galleon with short range weaponry on the other side of the map isn't a threat, you can ignore them until they get into firing range, and so on. What usually works though is focusing on the weakest ship in terms of hull health and so on, hoping for a easy kill before you close in with the bigger enemy ships.

6. The 2 side Engines are indeed responsible for turning, if you've got one of them destroyed, you can only fly in circles, for example.

7. The Targetsquare is called a Spot and can be made using the Pilot's tool (also available to the other classes) Spyglass! It disappears when the enemy ship is "out of sight", meaning behind an obstacle you can't see trough, very far away, or in clouds.

[Moo]

7. The Targetsquare is called a Spot and can be made using the Pilot's tool (also available to the other classes) Spyglass! It disappears when the enemy ship is "out of sight", meaning behind an obstacle you can't see trough, very far away, or in clouds.

That is, out of sight of all ships on your team, as far as I know.

For the gun damage, I believe the AoE Radius applies to the second damage type. So the Artemis does the explosive damage to the part that is directly hit, and shatter damage in an area around that.

[N-Sunderland]

One thing Kyren missed: the Pyra is also really good for ramming because it has a high top speed and weight. This puts a huge amount of force in the ram. It's also got armour covering the balloon, meaning that unlike most ships, it'll often only tale damage to the hull under ramming and not to both. To add to that, it has good hull armour.

[dragonmere]

4. Does the goldfish and pyra do more ramming damage with that front horn or is that purely asthetics, and also why are they considered effective for ramming if they have low armor/health and both ships are supposed to take equal damage in a ram (before factoring that pilot shield item)

5. In terms of prioritizing enemy ships, which ones are the biggest threats to take out and which ones should you avoid for last? (e.g. Squid> Pyra > Goldfish  etc.)

The beak that comes off the front of a Pyra is part of the hull armor, and not the balloon. This is what make the Pyra an effective ramming ship. You will only be damaging your hull, which should already have someone on it and attentively in full repair mode. Ramming with other ships means that you will be damaging your own components that no one is actively repairing, or you must have an engineer repairing components instead of your hull and instead of firing on the enemy. I'm sure you've noticed destroying your own front guns or balloon when trying to ram with a Goldfish.

What makes the difference between a crappy ram and a kill is having your Pyra gunners strip armor RIGHT BEFORE you actually make the contact, and making SURE that your hull armor is full or nearly full. If you are at all interested in ramming, I posted a (mostly overlooked) thread that explains some of the benefits/usages of moonshine, and why not to overuse use the bumpers. https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,1056.msg17422.html#msg17422



As far as ship priority... Generally speaking, my priority depends entirely on what weapons the enemy ship is bringing. Always kill Spire first AND FAST, then move to the "kill ship" that has gat/flak, followed by any support ships.

Focus fire with your co-captain is actually much more important than specific ship prioritizing. Get on that captain's chat and make sure you are firing at the same target at the same time, always.

Oh, and never prioritize an enemy Squid. Chasing a Squid is just a bad idea, you will have a hard time killing an evasive Squid and most likely get dragged to a situation in the enemy team's favor. Shoot at Squids when they are in your way, and you have no other shot.