Ranx dreads

[prospero]

Newbie here but lurked for ages.

THESE THINGS ALWAYS KILL ME WITH THEIR FRIGGIN KILOTONS. Everytime I playthrough, these things stop me like there is no tomorrow. Please post stuff that makes them a tad easier, and no mods please. I want to beat these guys fair and square.

No "just use jumpdrives!" suggestions, please.

[Sheltem]

thermo resistant shield(armor) & ICX or kill them fast with a non-blast or -thermo weapon.

[digdug]

my favourite tactic (freighter) with ranx dreads:
take cover on a planet, than at the right moment fly over it and try to stay as close as possible to it !
Kiloton don't explode if you are too close.

This tactic works great with 1 ranx dread, if there are 2, you have to use the first as a cover for the second.

I developed this tactic because the freighter is too slow to try to evade the kiloton shots efficiently.

[Aury]

there are often several dead ranx dreadnoughts lying around near: ringer stations, CSC's, and commonwealth settlements

[Psycholis]

icx is your friend here. also the taikon deflectors work wonders. even the taikon-10 reduces the thermo damage dramatically.

[F50]

The ICX is pretty much all you need to face off against 1 dread if you are in a Wolfen, even without the planet trick. Just get close and use your biggest guns. Otherwise, run away or pelt it with an omni from afar.

[Vastin]

THESE THINGS ALWAYS KILL ME WITH THEIR FRIGGIN KILOTONS. Everytime I playthrough, these things stop me like there is no tomorrow. Please post stuff that makes them a tad easier, and no mods please. I want to beat these guys fair and square.\

Obviously any shield that is thermo resistant, or that you can mod to be thermo resistant - otherwise take a really BIG shield and deal with the lousy regen rate. You shouldn't need regen, you just need to be able to take one or two direct hits.

Ideally you'll have an omni-ion weapon of some sort, as you have to keep maneuvering to fight them effectively.

The real trick to fighting a Ranx Dread is to stay CLOSE to it. Kiloton cannon projectiles do not arm within about 10-15 klicks, and will hit you doing little or no damage, so if you can stay close to the dread it can't really hurt you.

Just remember to watch its hull closely and give it a little room right before it blows, or its explosion may finish you off instead!

[F50]

Your playership is really important here, if you have a wolfen:

slalom towards the dread, all but 1-2 missiles should miss. Once close, don't go very far away.

If you have thermo-resistant shielding then you don't really need an ICX (but it helps!) otherwise, you really need one of those, search thor's and if all else fails, order one at a trading post.

The only way those things kill me is by sneaking up on me on autopilot (and they are very good at that)

[Sheltem]

thanks for reanimating this thread.

I have something with dreadnoughts to complaing about.
If the shell hits directly it mostly just explodes, not dealing any load of thermo damage. Just a tiny explosion ... if the projectile is fired slightly aside, proximity explosion deals much more (thermo) damage.

Its curios that direct hits are less dangerous than missing hits ...

[Bobby]

same thing with player frag missiles.

[Stormhawk]

Because least the kiloton cannon is omni-directional(At least on the Ranx Dread) I made it so that it aims badly. That way it misses most of the time.

[dvlenk6]

thanks for reanimating this thread.

I have something with dreadnoughts to complaing about.
If the shell hits directly it mostly just explodes, not dealing any load of thermo damage. Just a tiny explosion ... if the projectile is fired slightly aside, proximity explosion deals much more (thermo) damage.

Its curios that direct hits are less dangerous than missing hits ...

It is because each fragment (48 of them) does 1d8+1 damage; same as the main shell.
The shell doesn't fragment on direct impact, so max 1d8+1 (adjusted to shield/armor resistance). A close fragmentation can hit you multiple times.

I suppose you could up the main shell's damage to compensate; or cut the fragments' damage down. Or both...

[Sheltem]

If the fragment hits you, you could at least get 180 degress (half) of the fragments instead of none, so we would need to updated all fragmenting weapons whic would give complications with mods like the weapon extension.
I think George should think about that here.