The Analysis of Infinite Space, Part 2a: Introduction to Weapons

The Analysis of Infinite Space, Part 2a: Introduction to Weapons

There are 30 different playable (in the sense that they can be used during normal gameplay) weapons in Infinite Space III: Sea of Stars, and some are obviously better than others. These weapons are classified according to size and how they work. In addition, some weapons may be purchased from homeworlds (since they are standard equipment for whoever controls them). Before I discuss each weapon in depth, I will give a brief description of each attribute and how it affects its effectiveness.

From top to bottom: examples of a missile weapon, a projectile weapon and a beam weapon

Weapons in Sea of Stars fire projectiles, beams, or missiles. Projectile weapons fire a round of ammo at short intervals, and in addition to being smaller on average, tend to have high fire rates, except for larger ones, making them ideal for taking down fighters (as well as being capable of point defense in some cases). Beam weapons emit a continuous beam every few seconds; they are bulkier than projectile weapons but deal more damage per shot and have longer ranges, although they tend to have slower fire rates. While not as effective against fighters without a targeting system, their increased damage and range makes them more useful against capital ships. Missile weapons launch a homing or unguided missile at regular intervals. Most of these do not automatically target fighters, and the ones that can are best reserved for use against capital ships, since they are unguided.

Above, from top to bottom: Examples of large, medium and small weapons

Weapons can also be classified according to size. Small weapons can be mounted on any regular ship; of the 13 weapons in this size class, only one (the Fusion Rocket Launcher) is missile-based and just three (the Electron Accelerator Beam, Laser Beam and Laser Repeater) are beam weapons, while the remainder fire some sort of projectile. Medium weapons can be placed on anything but the smaller Calatian ships; most of these 10 weapons emit a continuous beam, while a few launch projectiles, but none of these weapons fire missiles. Large weapons cannot be mounted on any Calatian vessel and are almost exclusively missile-based, except for the projectile-spewing Particle Vortex Cannon; this is the smallest category, with just seven weapons in total.

The most important attributes for weapons, however, are damage, fire rate and range. Damage per shot determines how many points are taken off a target's shields or hull with each hit. Fire rate is inversely proportional to the amount of time taken between shots. Range is the farthest distance at which a weapon can fire at enemy ships. Ideally, a ship should carry at least one fast-firing short- or medium-range weapon for anti-fighter use, and, if possible, some slow-firing, long-range, high-damage weapons for attacking capital ships from afar. You will find out why you need this combination in the next post.