AX Gear Needs a Boost

Howdy!

I'm sure you all have seen the news of the Thargoid incursions within the Bubble. If not, we've got aliens in the Bubble people, suit up!

However, since I don't see many people talking about it too much I thought I'd toss my thoughts out about base-line AX gear needing a much-needed modernization in order to maintain (or build) viability. Since a lot of people will be stepping into AX combat for the first time as this is (From what I'm aware of, correct me if I'm wrong) the first time in years Thargoids have attacked the Bubble.

Personally, in my time fighting Thargoids from starting with AX multicannons to all the way up to the Guardian goodies, some things just feel like they need a tinkering:

-The Xeno Scanner's range of 500m is stupid short for how squirrely Thargoids are. Once combat has commenced, it is near impossible to get a scan on an interceptor in a fairly large ship (I sometimes even have trouble in my Chieftain, but not as often). In smaller encounters it's not an issue due to the bugs wanting to scan you in turn, but in AX conflict zones or fights where they go aggressive without a chance to scan is annoying beyond belief, especially since the turreted versions of the AX weapons rely upon said scan to combat thargoids. A good range would be 1000-1250m.

-The AX weapons need a touch-up. Admittedly, I like the AX multicannons and prefer to keep them on my gunboat of an Anaconda for mopping up scouts. Beyond this, the AX multicannons -can- do decent damage to an interceptor but their turreted versions rely upon a xeno scan to be useful, see issue above. The AX missiles are just useless, there is no reason to have them over Guardian guns. They changed their stats a long time ago people as the 'Goids "adapted" to their payload. Change the payload and slap a new coat of paint on it, make them useful to crack hearts again.

-Allow the turreted versions of guns to fire on "Fire at will" mode. Having that as an option would be nice.

-The Plasma Charger's damage is underwhelming, shard cannons are kind of neat but niche, gauss guns are the way to go. I wish it was more of a rock, paper, scissors deal with some guns being more useful for certain roles like it was intended for the AX missiles and multicannons, however gauss guns just do it all. They feel great, are hit-scan, and can take down everything from a scout to an interceptor. There's no reason to use anything else once you unlock them. Some stats changes would be pretty sick to put the plasma charger on an even playing field.

-The arbitrary limit on the amount of experimental guns you can have on your ship is dumb. The Type-10 is suppose to be a flying AX fortress (As stated in its description as a quick and dirty retrofit of the Type-9 to combat Thargoids) yet can't fill this role due to the experimental weapon limit. Being limited to four experimental guns "just because" is a bit of a cop-out and sign of poor foresight into future balance. You can engineer beam lasers to the max, slap them on a Corvette, and go scout farming to much better results than the multicannons or even gauss guns. Just remove this limit, it's obsolete.

Those are my big gripes, I have smaller ones but it mostly comes down to what annoys me and what doesn't. However, I do hope that anyone outfitting for the first time to go bug hunting has a good go at it! It's fun and very rewarding when you get good at it!

o7 commanders