INTRODUCTION

Cannons are the mainstay weapon in Misplaced Optimism. They use energy from your Cell to blast your opponent. The biggest advantage of cannons is that you don't run out of them like you can with missiles. They derive their power from your Cell which is freely charged at any Light Well.

Below are tables which describe what each cannon does and how to best use them.

	LASER

DESCRIPTION : This is the basic laser that comes with all Moths. It shoots blue balls of laser energy at a rapid rate. It does medium damage to sheilds and hull. Like the other cannons, except the Laser Turret, you must have your opponent in your center firing reticule to hit him. This is a fine finishing off weapon, but it takes a while to strip shields with a laser alone. Be careful using the Laser during sharp turns. You'll miss your enemy and are apt to hit an innocent or faction ship. Keep your finger off of the trigger during turns. Game-generated pilots are fairly easily driven into buidings or crater walls. This is a great time to switch to the Laser to finish them off. The Laser Cannon packs more power than the Laser Turret. Don't be quick to dismount your trusty Laser. It is the most effective cannon available for destroying an unshielded Moth. Use a Plasma Kannon for stripping shields and then go directly to Laser for pounding the Moth's structure and engines.

	PLASMA KANNON

DESCRIPTION : The stats above don't really give a clear picture of this fine weapon. Despite the Plasma Kannon's slow firing rate, it deals tremendous damage to shields per hit. Once the sheilds are dropped, it damages the Moth's CPU. As far as the energy use is concerned, it takes high energy use to cause high damage per hit. The Plasma Kannon shoots blue "bolts" of plasma and takes almost a full second to recharge. The most important thing to keep in mind using the Plasma Kannon is not to have many misfires. They just waste too much energy. Make sure you're as close as possible to your enemy and have him well in your sights. The Plasma Kannon is an excellent weapon to start a dogfight with. Get very close to and behind your enemy and then let them have it. Why waste a missile on an unsuspecting enemy? Start with Plasma Kannon and switch to missiles as your enemy begins to manuver.

	LASER TURRET

DESCRIPTION : The most significant characteristic of the Laser Turret is its auto-tracking feature. It is the only cannon that will hit your enemy when he's not directly in your sights. This trait makes the Laser Turret invaluable in close dogfights with lots of manuvering. You can get hits in while you're trying to gain a better position. It shoots small yellow balls of laser energy at a very high rate. It doesn't pack quite as much power as the Laser Cannon, but, due to its auto-tracking and high firing rate, the overall damage done per second is usually higher. A Laser Turret isn't much at stripping shields, so don't rely on it as an opening weapon in a dogfight. Its real value is in the mid-game of a dogfight. It will finish off shields and begin damaging systems while you are manuvering in for a kill with Laser Cannon. The Laser Turret can really save your bacon if you get totally lost in a dogfight. Just maintain your target and keep the finger on the trigger. The auto-tracking will insure a few hits on your enemy while minimizing the chances of hitting an innocent pilot. Always use missiles or Laser Turret when attacking a pilot that's crowded in with other Moths. It will seek your target out and minimize misfires.

	PULSE LASER

DESCRIPTION : Again, stats can be decieving. On the surface the Pulse Laser looks like it can do a lot of damage in a hurry, but it doesn't. It strips shields as about as quickly as a Plasma Kannon, but uses more energy. It also doesn't seem to be as accurate as a Plasma Kannon. Considering the above factors and cost, the Plasma Kannon is a superior shield stripper. The unique feature of the Pulse Laser is that it will disable an enemy's weapons system once it has stripped shields. This is important if you're wanting to diable a Moth without destroying it. There's no real reason to disable a Moth other than being cruel in an online game or to test your skills. The biggest advantage to having a Pulse Laser comes when you have a Police or gang Enforcer after you. If you kill one Enforcer, another will just be sent out after you. However, if you strip the Enforcer's shields and then disable his weapons system with the Pulse Laser, he can't shoot at you with either cannons or missiles. This can buy you time to pursue "non-standard" methods of killing him. Overall, I'd just put off getting a Pulse Laser until you have the time and money just to play around with one.

	DEATH RAY

DESCRIPTION : The Death Ray is not available in the regular offline or online game. It must be obtained through a hack. The pilot that discovered the Death Ray is Ouch. He's a great pilot and HardWar hacker and has trained the game to do many interesting things. Among his adventures was discovering the Death Ray. The Death Ray fires white balls of plasma that do a great deal of damage to your enemy. They fire slowly and move so slowly that they're almost surreal. Fortunately, they have a very strong homing instinct that always leads them to their prey. I've never really done a lot of dogfighting with the Death Ray, but I think other weapons would kill your opponent quicker. It makes a good long-range, first-strike weapon much like some missiles. The easiest way to get a Death Ray is to download the saved game ouch.zip (for version F2.1) or ouch2.zip (for version F2.0).

Captain Zedo's Picks My favorite cannons are the Plasma Cannon and Laser Turret. I use this combination almost exclusively in the offline game. I've even gone through whole games without using another weapon except for the occassional use of a Laser Cannon to finish off a foe. Online, the Plasma Kannon doesn't prove quite as effective against cagey human pilots. It's an effective follow-up to a GroundBase missile to finish off your opponents sheilds. It's really confusing to a human pilot to lose all CPU function, too. The Laser Turret, however is a Godsend. It's really handy when you're both flying like crazy to get a better attacking position. I generally use the Laser Turret liberally when attacking human pilots.

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