This defensive system tracks down approaching missiles and torpedos and fire them down. Relatively bulky. It can also withstand some measure of lasers and ballistic fire. - Ingame Description
Range radius is 19.
fire rate of 10 rounds per second.
Unlock Level: 11
Acquisition: Market
Cost: 70000
Unique Module Bonus[]
Value Name: Total Module Armor
Base Value: 0.25%
Max Value: 5.25%
Module Upgrade[]
| Parameter | Base Value | Max Value
(Before Limit Break) |
Max Value
(After Limit Break) |
| Power Use | 45 | 36 | 31.5 |
| Health | 200 | 282 | 332 |
| Armor | 2 | 2.8 | 3.2 |
| Mass | 200 | 192 | 188 |
| Reflect | 20 [%] | - | - |
| Rocket Disruption Chance | 30 [%] | 50 [%] | 60 [%] |
| Torpedo Disruption Chance | 30 [%] | 50 [%] | 60 [%] |
| Mine Disruption Chance | 30 [%] | 50 [%] | 60 [%] |
| Range1;2 | 19 [Cells] | - | - |
| Fire Cone1;2 | 360 [°] | - | - |
| Targeting Rate1;2 | 10 [Hz] | - | - |
1: This parameter cannot be upgraded
2: This parameter does not appear in the module’s information window
Alternate versions[]
BM1 version[]
Unlock Level: 14
Acquisition: Black Market
Cost: 210 000 Credits
Early Access: 420 Celestium
Differences from base[]
- Rocket Disruption Chance: -15% → 15%
- Torpedo Disruption Chance: +20% → 50%
- Mine Disruption Chance: -15% → 15%
BM2 version[]
Unlock Level: 16
Acquisition: Black Market
Cost: 260 000 Credits
Early Access: 520 Celestium
Differences from base:[]
- Rocket Disruption Chance: -20% → 10%
- Torpedo Disruption Chance: -20% → 10%
- Mine Disruption Chance: +40% → 70%
Additional Information[]
Point Defense Turrets (commonly abbreviated as PDTs) are the primary choice of defense to install on a ship when it comes to countering missiles. They are the only modules that have the consistent potential to completely negate the attack of an enemy missile type module without any drawbacks. On the downside the PDT is also the most expensive module to upgrade in terms of credits. Regardless, the PDT is the best module in existence no matter what, which obviously has nothing to with the fact that it’s the author’s favourite module (No biased opinion and no objections permitted!).
Functionality
PDTs will try to target a missile in range every 100ms, prioritizing the missile closest to the center of the turret module. The probability of intercepting a targeted missile is given by the value of the turrets corresponding module upgrade parameter. If an attempt to intercept a targeted missile fails, the PDT in regard will not try to target the same missile again but instead move on to the target with the next highest priority.
Viability
Utilizing the potential of the base turret through upgrading its parameters to higher levels can portray a great challenge for newer and even advanced commanders, since the core attributes of the module are constituted of three disruption chance parameters, whose upgrades as special parameters are exceptionally resource intensive in terms of chips and credits. Due to this reason, the two BM versions of the PDT grant upstarting commanders the opportunity to acquire affordable and abnormally effective countermeasures against enemy builds that rely heavily on one single missile type, namely torpedoes or mines.
For both turret alterations, one of the respective disruption chance parameters gains a significant boost, while concurrently receiving a heavy reduction in the value of the remaining two parameters. As a result, both BM variants match or even outclass the performance of an upgraded version of the original turret against one specific missile type, while being deemed useless against any missiles of a different category.
But even though these altered versions proof to be quite handy tools in the earlier stages of the game, both modifications become increasingly unviable when the potential of the base turret is put to use properly. Despite their unique strengths, the fact that both BM variants possess a fatal weakness against two of three missile classes makes them less useful the further a commander progresses in level and resources became abundant enough to invest in upgrading the original turret, which delivers excellent performance against any missile type when upgraded to the maximum level and possibly even limit broken parameters.
Effective installation
When it comes to installing PDTs on your ship, the placement of these modules should be treated with more importance and put some careful thought into it than just placing them at leftover space1. However, it’s not suggested that there is one definite bad positioning, even less so a definite good one. A good positioning is quite circumstantial and always depends on the shape, size and speed of your ship as well as the strength of enemy support ships and the type of missiles they have in their arsenal. Ultimately, every type of missile sets different requirements in terms of placement to counter it in the most optimal way2. But for the sake of simplicity and since missiles of the same category obviously share similarities, we will assume the same relevant key characteristics can be assigned to missiles of the same category.
Mines
The key characteristic of mines is their inability to move which allows them to accumulate to dense clusters, which the enemy ship leaves in its trail. Inevitably, even a small burst in the wrong direction could result in the collision with a great number of high damaging explosives and leave your ship heavily crippled or completely destroyed. Though both scenarios would lead to your defeat anyways. Looking at the previously mentioned characteristic that give mines their lethality, countering mines effectively must mean to prevent or at least diminish the accumulation of mines to provide your ship some space to move.
If you want the brief solution for countering mines, let’s just say the optimal placement for PDTs is closer to the edge. Taking a closer look the advantage of placing PDTs at the edges of the ship is obviously that the turrets’ range extends further beyond the ship’s boundaries, covering a larger area and thus intercept missiles sooner as well as further away from the ship. In this case the larger area covered by your PDTs works as a kind of buffer that enables the PDTs to continuously engage mine clusters during most phases of your ship’s movement patterns. While moving at higher speeds the mines will have to close a greater distance upon entering the range of action before possibly colliding with your ship (which should never happen, that’s why too much speed is really bad). Contrary, while moving at lower speeds or even standing still, the PDTs will have much time to target every mine inside an adequate area around your ship, creating space for your ship to maneuver. Would the PDTs be installed in the ships center instead, mine clusters could only be engaged during a brief period before impact, giving the PDTs not enough time to destroy a significant part of the dense clusters before a collision with the ship. But despite this it’s still mandatory to keep the average forward thrust at a medium level and exclude warp drives in the build to prevent excessive movements or randomly warping into a mine field, which would more often than not result in the destruction of your ship and consequently your defeat.
Rockets
The key characteristics of rockets are their high speed and their curved and excessive trajectory, allowing them to hit the flanks of a ship, even though fired facing the front. Clearly, trying to apply the analogy with a buffer would make no real sense here, since the very high speed of the missiles pushes the relative speed of your ship and the missiles so high that movements of your ship practically make no difference. As a consequence, the rate of approaching missiles does barely fluctuate at all and thus will either overload3 your PDTs from the start of a battle going forward or probably not at all. Considering this fact and the characteristic of rockets to approach a ship from wide angles, we must choose a position that allows as many PDTs on a ship to simultaneously cover area in as many directions around your ship as possible, holding the benefit in mind of not having to reach very far beyond the ship’s boundaries. Frankly, the optimal positioning is closer to the center.
Torpedoes
The key characteristic of torpedoes is their overall constant and slow to medium velocity, that translates to their linear trajectory. Since all torpedoes don’t follow a guided path, it’s more or less random if it hits your ship or not. Unlike mines, torpedoes have a medium velocity what makes them unable to accumulate for long while also allowing them to hit a targeted ship at a reasonable rate. On the other hand, their velocity is low enough to make the own ship’s movements relevant enough to influence the rate of incoming missiles in some circumstances and thus validate the purpose of a buffer zone. It also makes them not completely leave the field of action once they miss and bypass your ship, but still might hold a threat to your ship in case of an unfortunate warp or to your support ships that might be positioned in the torpedoes’ trajectories. Additionally, their linear but unguided path enables them to hit your ship from any direction, in wide as well as concentrated angles, requiring as many PDTs installed to cover as many directions of a ship as possible. All these great variables make it rather difficult to suggest a consistently effective positioning, but regarding the elaborated circumstances that indicate a good positioning close to the center as well as further to the edge, a compromised strategy that involves PDTs in both positions or perhaps in between may be a promising one.
Footnotes:
1 The position of a PDT on a ship plays a small role up until the cruiser/battleship classes due to its relatively high range compared to ship size.
2 Disregarding the Flak Rocket Turret module whose effectiveness is hardly diminished by PDTs no matter what
3 I’ll refer to overload as the scenario when the rate of incoming missiles exceeds the turrets firing rate of 10Hz. In a simplified model, we can assume that overload is reached when the rate of incoming missiles exceeds: R=(5+5*N)/s with R=rate of incoming missiles and N=number of installed PDTs.
Credits to: “[DTEK]Kurt3550”, “ShadowWizardMoneyGang”, “[R*S]JKIstre”, “Mezor”, “MaddMatter” and “someone1010”
Good luck commanders and see you in the arena!
[at]Meraki aka Spectre ;D