Spire Corvette Usage

[Alex Heartnet]

Yeah that's great and all but how exactly do I utilize the thing effectively?  What role does it have in my fleet   



The module slots are for putting stuff on that shoots at other stuff, correct?   

[Kahuna]

Well I've never really used the Spire Corvette BUT.. Since it has Medium hull type.. Which is countered by Fighters.. You might want to unlock additional Missile Frigates to protect it. Now I don't know what modules Spire Corvette has.. but.. giving it something that's good vs Polycrystal would be a good idea. The Missile Frigates would protect the Corvettes from the Fighters and the Corvettes would protect the Missile Frigates from the Bombers. Still most of Corvette's damage is going to come from it's main (beam) weapon so it does good damage vs everything. So you might want to manually target them by rignt clocking on AI ships while holding down X for attack move. The modules are the cherry on top of the cake. In addition to polycrystal countering modules, artillery and structural countering modules should be good too. The top 5 hulls to counter at the moment are Polycrystal (Bombers), Heavy (AI Carriers, Starships, (Core) Guard Posts), Artillery (MFs, Plasmas), Medium (Guardiand) and either Light or Structural. Half of those hull types I mentioned before are countered by Bombers which means you need to protect your Bombers.. so the fifth hull type would be Light (Fighters). On the other hand all (AI) Force Fields are structural and it's very important to be able to destroy them and whatever they're protectig quickly. On the other.. or third hand.. you wont have Bombers to counter the Structural if you don't protect them from the AI Fighters.. So.. conclusion: fifth hull type to counter is Light.
If it has Shield modules get at least one of those.
Also. Corvette is a Starship. Which means it does a good amount of damage and is quite tanky. So use it as a damage dealing tank.. after your Missile Frigates have destroyed the AI fignters.

[Bognor]

Corvettes' Rail Cannon modules counter Fighters, and have the additional benefit of infinite range, despite having essentially the same DPS as the other light module, the Laser Cannon.

You can use Corvette's shield modules to cover a bunch of other ships, with no DPS penalty.  This is most useful when it can annul enemies' hull bonuses, forcing enemies to inflict base damage rather than bonus damage.

You'll want to look after your Corvettes, as they have the highest cap metal cost of all bonus ships (with the possible exception of those from the latest expansion, which I haven't checked).

Edit: By the way, does anyone know what marks of Sniper Turret unlock which marks of Rail Cannon module, so I can update the Wiki?  Is it Sniper II for module II and III, and Sniper III for module IV and V? Rain Cannon Mark N requires Sniper Turret Mark N for N=I through IV, though I haven't checked V.

[Alex Heartnet]

Now I don't know what modules Spire Corvette has...

...something that's good vs Polycrystal...

...most of Corvette's damage is going to come from it's main (beam) weapon...

In addition to polycrystal countering modules, artillery and structural countering modules should be good too

If it has Shield modules get at least one of those.

Also. Corvette is a Starship. Which means it does a good amount of damage and is quite tanky.

[Bognor]

If you're wanting to compare the damage of the main gun to the modules, bear in mind that all photon lances have a 2 second reload time.  So the actual DPS here is 9000/3 = 3000, not 9000.  Still, even a Mk I Corvette with Mark II modules will deal most of its damage with its primary weapon.

[Kahuna]

Ok I took a look at the modules. I'd probably only use the beam and shield modules. I'd make 2 loadouts. One with 2 shields and the rest of the slots would be beams. The other one would have 1 or 2 shields, 1 or 2 beam weapons and the rest would be plasma siege modules. It seems to me that the rest of the modules are kind of useless.

[Bognor]

Ok I took a look at the modules. I'd probably only use the beam and shield modules. I'd make 2 loadouts. One with 2 shields and the rest of the slots would be beams. The other one would have 1 or 2 shields, 1 or 2 beam weapons and the rest would be plasma siege modules. It seems to me that the rest of the modules are kind of useless.

Of the six module slots, four are "small" and can only take Laser Cannons or Rail Cannons.

[Draco18s]

My loadout (for most Spire ships with modules) is 2 shields, then a 50-50 split between the lasers and rail guns.

[Aklyon]

I usually use all rail cannons until I've got higher-mark lasers unlocked, then split between the two.

[Alex Heartnet]

...all photon lances have a 2 second reload time..

Also Supercat look at the thing ingame plz 

[keith.lamothe]

Photon Lances have a bit strange of a reload time, since the beam itself lasts two seconds during which the reload can't start.  So if it says 1 second it basically means 3.  I think

[TechSY730]

Photon Lances have a bit strange of a reload time, since the beam itself lasts two seconds during which the reload can't start.  So if it says 1 second it basically means 3.  I think

Maybe that weapon type should get a special thing for their reload speed? ("1+2 seconds", or something), along with a blurb in the flavor text where it describes the strange firing mechanics of the weapon?

[Bognor]

...all photon lances have a 2 second reload time..

Sorry, poor choice of words on my part.  I meant that the full reload cycle of photon lances includes a 2 second firing time, as well as the nominal reload time, like Keith said.

[Peter Ebbesen]

I use them as Rail Cannon/Shield supporters for the main fleetball.

Laser modules are nice, but they don't provide capabilities that aren't already provided by any number of other fleetships, whereas Rail Cannon provide decent damage output with 100% time-on-target at will on anything not immune to sniper shots.

If one was playing ultra-low AIP and as such had a very limited variety of fleet and starships to use, and chose to invest some of the very limited knowledge in Spire Corvettes, an argument could be made for equipping them with lasers instead due to their increased importance for total fleet damage output in close and medium range fighting, but otherwise I'd argue that Rail Cannon are the better choice from a balanced utility/damage perspective. (In both cases under the assumption that the laser turret/sniper turret research kept up with the SC research, which is a not inconsiderable assumption. If you are only going to be focusing on one of the two, that one is probably going to be the best overall choice for your SCs).