ships with 5 tac consoles

timonicus

probably a stupid question, but if i ship has 5 tac console slots, should you use all those slots with the enhancement for the particular weapon you are using or can a universal console be used in the 5th slot without negatively affecting dps too much?

nephitis

If there are other great universal consoles you have there is almost no reason to swap it out for an actual tactical consoles. For example, I created a very good but *universal* built where I can practically use the same console layout for any ship... for the most part. So even if the ship has five tactical console slots I still only use my four tactical consoles and then use a universal console in that 5th tactical slot to keep the integrity of my build made up primarily of universal consoles. I just shuffle them around to fit them in but the same consoles are still slotted. Adding a 5th tactical console would compromise that integrity.

So whether you want to do it or not depends on what universal consoles you have and how you benefit from them.

djf021

It's really up to you and your playstyle. I've never been an avid numbers cruncher, but I've heard tactical consoles stack, but give diminishing returns (if this is no longer true, someone correct me). Therefore (at least in my head) it is technically better to use consoles that boost your damage type all the way, but by the time you get to the 4th or 5th console you're not gaining all that much benefit, so you could probably use something else in those slots and not lose much, if any.
I used to use damage boosting consoles all the way, but have begun to introduce other consoles in the 4th or 5th slots (to complete a set, for example). I'm not an elite DPSer, and have discovered any content can be beaten without difficulty with only two or three tac consoles. I'm sure there are those out there who don't use them at all.

noroblad

the only reason to do this would be a couple of specific ships that can be played as near-science gunboats, like the nandi. And even then its a questionable move, but if you are trying to rock 5 tac consoles and 4 sci consoles, you don't have a lot of options left for uni's ... making a 4/4 look attractive if you wanted a 50-50 tac/sci ship.

tobiashirt

As djf021 said, there are diminishing returns, e.g. for a weapon dealing 1000 damage, the first tac console (37.5%) will result in 1375 damage. The second will then give another 375 damage, which equates to only only a 27% increase to 1375. I ran a Nicor for a long time with 4 tac consoles specific to the energy type, anf the 5th as the Counter-Command Multi-Conduit Energy Relay to boost the radiation (kemocite) and photon damage of the torpedo I was using. On a 5/4/2 console layout, one of the universals that I can think that would most directly replace a tac console with minimal net change in dps would be Bioneural Infusion Circuits (lose 37.5% cat1 damage that has diminishing returns, and gain 25% CrtD on all weapons and abilities)

timonicus

so there are diminishing returns on stacking tac consoles? Some of the consoles I used are for specific damage, sticky web and displacement console for tetryon (my current build) or polymorphic probes for ap, but not having to use that last tac slot for a tac console would help make me slightly more tanky, even in something like the plesh brek or any other escort/raider type ship

noroblad

No, its not true DR.
True dr, for example, the first one adds 10%, the second 5%, the third 2.5, something like that.
This is simply a case of linear growth.
If you do 1000 damage, and add 1 console for 10% damage, you now do 1100. Add a second, its 1200. Because each one works off the BASE not the CURRENT. That isn't DR, that is just different from compounded growth. You get 100 times the # of consoles (in this case). IF it had DR you would get 100+50+25 ... instead (continuing my 50% DR example).

So its true that the second one does not add as high a % to your total as the first.
Its also true that it adds the exact same amount as the first. Which is zero TRUE DR.

lagunad

There is a related issue, even with only a single console, that the percentage increase is the % of the base damage of the weapon, before lots of other bonuses, including the Mark and rarity are applied.

So if the first console says +30%, it is not really +30% even then, but more like 10% (or even less) increase in the actual damage done.

The issues are summarized here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/wiki/math/damage_categories