Thoughts on Grenade Launchers?

[Sunshine!]

I was playing with them not too long ago, and they seemed a little ineffective.  What's the max ships they can hit per shot?  Is it possible that can be listed somehow?

IIRC it was something like 15?  So they'd have 2000 DPS under high cap, epic/4x under optimal situation at mk1.

Anyone have any opinions on them either way?

Edit: I was playing against a Neinzul Youngster as one of the AI types, so they were certainly in a situation that should've been optimal for them.

[zoutzakje]

can't help ya with that one, never played with grenade launchers yet. Just fought against them once but they didn't seem to have much impact on my fleet.

[Orelius]

I haven't play for grenade launchers very long, and mostly because I don't like how they work.  Generally, I tend to avoid support ships at start, I normally try to start with a raider-type ship.

[Shrugging Khan]

Yeah. I wouldn't really pick AoE ships (or built AoE turrets) unless AI numbers have grown VERY high, or I'm playing with high caps. Or with multiple HWs, but I never do that anyways.

tl;dr: AoE is inefficient.

[RogueThunder]

Its been a while since I used GL's but from what I recall, theyre not stelllar at killing anything spesific, but rather generally effective against 3/4 of the ships in the game instead. This would make them seem lackluster against everything, as there is only one tiny group of ships they curbstomp. (Tele raiders, and a few of the swarm ships due to their microscopic health)

Havent used em in a while tho so I might need to see myself.

[Fleet]

I tend not to use them, due to a perceived utility loss as soon as the AI units are not clustered close together. I have so many things going on in my game, I don't have time to make sure the grenade launchers are being used effectively, targeting the right units, and targeting the units clumped up the most.

[Orelius]

I think that one of the more useful purposes of grenade launchers would be to hit incoming waves on wormholes that have tractor beams.  Because the buffer fighters that come in first will absorb the first wave of grenade launcher hits, that's the only way it will work.

[Fruden]

I think that one of the more useful purposes of grenade launchers would be to hit incoming waves on wormholes that have tractor beams.  Because the buffer fighters that come in first will absorb the first wave of grenade launcher hits, that's the only way it will work.

 The big issue with this is that grenade launchers have shortish range and low survivability. They work well with tractor beams + flaks + lightnings but they die so very fast. The only way to make this work is to put them under force fields, and then they don't do enough damage to be worthwhile, or under shield bearers but then... shield bearers can be put to better use elsewhere.

 As part of a big blob of ships they are alright, but their shots have the same sound as ships exploding, so it's both grating and confusing.