Weapons Console

The weapons console fires either laser or kinetic weaponry by either using the fire ability or by right clicking directly on the map. Single, triple, and penta burst lasers can be fired shooting, on average, more quickly at the cost of more energy. Only single burst is initially available. Kinetic weaponry must be unlocked through research and can be teched into one of two branches after the first upgrade. Kinetic weaponry is designed to deal greater amounts of hull damage, while laser weaponry is designed to combat shields. Only one type of weaponry can be armed at a time, and switching back and forth required a five second preparation time.

Usage of either lasers or kinetics will drain energy from the weapon capacitor rather than the battlecruiser's main capacitor. Because the capacitor is limited, and energy is often diverted to both engines and shields during combat, sometimes the wiser choice is often not to fire in order to conserve energy.

On top of the above, the weapons console also controls the six missile bays. Missiles will always launch from the front of the battlecruiser, however, so aiming them will often require coordination with the navigation console.

Early Game Weaponry

The range of the battlecruiser's lasers are astonishingly far, well exceeding the sight range of the battlecruiser itself. As such, the weapon console will often be used in order to combat wraiths who stray too close to your battlecruiser in hopes of picking off a miner.

Weaponry in Combat

As expected, the weapon console is often to combat various small ships and the enemy battlecruiser. However, it may also be expected of the weapon console to fire at enemies blind based upon radar pings, or even snipe an enemy battlecruiser with missiles at a long range. Also, because cruiser and cruiser fights depend heavily upon energy consumption, the weapon console may also have to frequently switch between various degrees of laser bursts in combat.