sounds like your "racial tracking speed" is 3k, meaning you currently have the 3k tracking tech researched. If you check the PD box for STO, it'll design a 4x speed instead of 4x range fire control. That means you probably should be designing a 12k tracking turret for your PD STO :-)
15.0cm C2 Near Ultraviolet Laser (10) Range 180,000km TS: 3,000 km/s Power 6-2 RM 30,000 km ROF 15 6 6 6 4 3 3 2 2 2 1
Twin 15.0cm C2 Near Ultraviolet Laser Turret (1x2) Range 180,000km TS: 5500 km/s Power 12-4 RM 30,000 km ROF 15 6 6 6 4 3 3 2 2 2 1
Beam Fire Control R192-TS5700 (1) Max Range: 192,000 km TS: 5,700 km/s ECCM-0 95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Hi,
I have designed turret with tracking speed of 5500 with intention to give this turret to STO unit class.
In the Ground Unit Class design window I can choose this turret as an STO weapon. But it shows me a tracking speed 3000 km/s unless I checked "Point Defence Weapon" (don't know exactly what is meant).
Does it work as intended?
What exactly "Point Defence Weapon" means?
PS. By the way, do I understand correctly that my Beam Fire Control with tracking speed of 5700 does nothing to the tracking speed of the laser itself which is still racial 3km/s? Is me BFC is overkill?
STOs can have one of two kinds of fire controls, which are automatically designed and included with the STO:
- The normal kind which has 1x tracking speed and up to 4x range, times 1.25x as a bonus for STOs. The 4x range can be reduced if the weapon has very short range.
- A point defense kind with 4x tracking speed and 1x range, which is what the "Point Defence Weapon" checkbox applies.
The tracking speed of a non-turret weapon is limited to the speed of the hull it is mounted on, or the racial tracking speed tech level, whichever is greater. The BFC cannot improve the weapon tracking speed beyond this (in lore, the BFC can track targets at whatever speed but cannot physically make the weapon traverse and aim any faster).
From this, Do I understand correctly that there is no point to use the turrets as an STO weapon?
If I have only 3km/s racial tracking speed, but designed a ship with 5km/s speed than regular lasers will use 5km/s tracking because the ship's speed is greater?
Correct, as long as the BFC can support that much.
Racial Tracking | Ship Speed | BFC Tracking | Actual Tracking | |
3000 | 2000 | 5000 | 3000 | Racial tracking is greater than the ship's speed and below BFC; BFC is needlessly overpowered |
3000 | 4000 | 5000 | 4000 | Ship's speed is greater than the racial tracking and below BFC; BFC is needlessly overpowered |
3000 | 7000 | 5000 | 5000 | Actual tracking is limited by BFC despite ship's speed it greater |
7000 | 5000 | 3000 | 3000 | Actual tracking is limited by BFC despite racial tracking is greater |
Yes 3000,Most of the new PD rules shouldn't change the comparative usefulness of one PD beam over another, I think?
Yes 4000,
Yes 5000,
Yes 3000,
You got this man, don't worry. This is why turrets are so useful because you can set their tracking speed to match your BFC tracking speed. Which is why the PD weapon rule of thumb is gauss cannons in turrets. There's actually lot more into the optimal PD weapon choice and setup as it varies for different tech levels and situations, plus now 2.2 changed PD and missile rules so things are little bit up in the air but you can safely ignore that stuff for now. Put a lot of gauss turrets on your escorts and have the turret tracking speed match the BFC tracking speed and build lots of them, you'll be happy you did!