Talk:Ion Cannon

Comments from 2005
Hi, I was wondering how usefull the Ion Cannon is. Thanks. -- User:70.28.89.133
 * Not very useful. They have a pretty high shield power but that doesn't matter much (they'll still most likely die in 1 shot from a BS, 70% chance or so). Just build Small Lasers and heavier guns (gauss and plasma). -- Jeffoh (talk) 15:03, 7 Nov 2005 (UTC)

It depends


 * all depends on the amount of defence; first you need quantities of missile launchers + small lasers as fodder to protect your heavier guns. Ion cannons are expensive in terms of crystal but destabilise the shields of an attacking fleet and thus increse the chances that fire from your defences will down/explode one or more ships. If you know the average strength and composition of an attacking fleet or worst case scenario you can simmulate attacks using speedsim and work out what kind of defence works best User: Xina


 * Ion cannons don't actually do anything special. They destablize shields as good as any other def. -- Jeffoh (talk) 16:42, 7 Nov 2005 (UTC)


 * Ion Cannons are brilliant! They have a massive amount of shield power compared to the normal fodder. Ion Cannons work much better than LL or RL fodder because of that shield power. Plus it does reset every round so there you go! Ion Cannons are definitely the best fodder and are very useful!

It seems to me that at least early in the game, they are a good deterant due to the large shield strength. While you may not kill any more ships than you otherwise would have, they need to send a significantly larger fleet to break through. To summarize, they're good if all you're looking for is a draw instead of a victory.


 * Draws seems just as useful for the defender as a defeat, as long as the attacker isn't your arch enemy or something.

I disagree, a large amount of light laser fodder is very useful in detering an attacker, since most ships do not have rapid fire against light lasers. Therefore you are more likely to win rather than draw in a defense scenario.

Seems they might be useful against cruiser/fighter raiders since they can absorb 1-2 hits from those ships without losing all their shields. Against BS it seems that the best combo is LL + Gauss until you get plasma. Still, most BS fleets include cruisers to kill RL fodder, so I can see ion cannons increasing the chance that the cruisers hit one and stop RFing against the rocket launchers. Personally, I see the main purpose of ion cannons is to spend extra crystal if you are getting attacked and don't have a way to hide it all in time. They are marginally better than HLs as fodder in that they better survive random hits from the smaller craft.

Not useful? Come on!
Ion canons are pretty good, it all depends on how you look at your defenses. No, they won't kill much, but they are the ultimate fodder. Their high shield allows them to do the following:
 * Get attacks from the attacking ships, and absorb them with the shields (aka, they survive the round).
 * The shields will be reset every round (and that's important!), so that fodder will be x2,x3,x4... etc.
 * They are relatively cheap, ok they cost crystal, but they are hard to take down, so they last longer.
 * If they were taken down, you still count with the 70%, which gives them even more extended life.
 * Their firepower is not that bad, compared to the lower fodder.
 * With such survival rate, in huge crashes they could decide the battle end on draw.

Bouncing Effect
I added some information on how to become immortal using these ;). It says how many you need to bounce attacks off. Now you can see in what quantity they are not useless anymore. If you ever made it to the 40k ions, you'll become immortal to the death star (considering equal techs).


 * This is not true, it has nothing to do with bouncing effect, because ion cannon WILL get destroyed