tl:dr please give me a hint, how to systematically browse all modules (rigs, turrets, other) that can be installed on a given ship
I am not exactly a total newbie, given that I have a decent amount of hours in the game. However, a lot of the aspects of the game I only understand superficially. E.g. I played casually during 2 years and only specialized on drones.
Now I restarted with a fresh character and want to max out my frigate (a rifter), and sticking to the Minmatar I use projectile turrets.
Now my question: Is there a way to get a list of modules that can be, in principle, installed to my frigate?
Starting with the turrets, it gets already quite confusing. By browsing autocannons in the marketplace, I find a couple of options. Reading the wiki of eveuniversity, I understand that the weapon category is called âprojectile turretsâ and consists of âartilleryâ and âautocannonsâ. First doubt: Do all autocannons carry âautocannonâ in their name so I can find them in the market?
Turns out, just getting a list of projectile turrets isnât possible. Google doesnât help, either. And this is after my decision to stick to the skill âsmall projectile turretâ. I find other autcannon by clicking on the âvariationsâ, but is that list complete?
Another confusing thing: the caliber. There is 125 mm, 150 mm, 200 mm (which I use now, the bigger the better, I assume), but the â220 mm Vulcan AutoCannonâ, which does not exist in a vanilla version, suddenly uses 100 MW power grid (compared to 4 MW for the 200mm Autocannon I), so I conclude itâs not meant to be fit on frigates. Also, maybe related to that, jumping from 200mm to 220mm implies medium-sized ammo. OK, why not.
I know that I can look up / ask for complete fitting guides for a given ship. But thatâs a starting point at best. I want to see for every slot, all available options and then make a choise based on my skills, queued skills, budget, and taste. Is that possible?
It boils down to what are you trying to accomplish. Different weapon systems do different things. Some may have better tracking but crap range. Others better range but no trackingâŠ
What are your targets or what is your plan? FW, small gang pvp? Pve, etc.
The fitting tool in game should show you all options
Ok sure, but I want to browse the available options systematically. Do I really have to pick the brains of experienced players to fit my ship? I want to read on the modules and what they do on my own, to make my own decision. And this is made difficult by the fact, that I donât get a list of installable modules to browse through.
shows you that only small modules can be fit⊠so when you click on small projectile turret, it will show you all the SPJâs and you can further click on them to see the âused withâ tab to see all the ammo for each oneâŠ
from there, you can look at the info for each skill and further look at info for anything related to mastering the rifter⊠at the top of the box under the âxâ are two arrows pointing left and right⊠those can be used to go back a window.
in game you also have a compare tool, you can compare up to 10 mods at a time to compare different weapons/mods
Firstly, youâve found the best reference source: Eve Universityâs fitting guide. From their fitting guide there are links to all the weapon and other modules and a lot of other good advice.
Fit for a purpose: what do you want to do with the ship? âEverythingâ isnât an option Iâm afraid.
Projectile weapons. Not really my area (Iâm Amarrian), however, the bigger the calibre, the heavier the damage, the greater the range and the lower the tracking and rate of fire.
Tracking is important: big guns find hitting small, fast targets hard. Each turret type has a long range version slow firing (artillery/railguns/beams) and short range fast firing (autocannon/blasters/pulse) - long range weapons have a big slow punch, short range are fast woodpeckers.
Shields or Armour? Look at the bonuses the hull has and play to itâs strength - Minmatar ships are a mix of shield and armour things (only do one, mixing is suboptimal).
You can always replace modules as you learn what works and what doesnât. Also, you can upgrade as your skills improve and your fitting skills around CPU and PG improve.
Now I can find for any ship the relevant skills and make decisions where to go. The ârequired forâ of e.g. the âSmall Projectile Turretâ skill gives me the list of modules that I was asking for.
You can easily swich out entire racks of modules for other variants, easily clone fittings to directly compare the results and even make damage graphs to visually compare range/application on selected targets, which often is much more important than raw numbers.
Ah⊠and you can simulate all kinds of âeffecsâ too, from environment to boosterdrugs, fleet boost or remote support. Use PyFa if you really want results, the ingame fitting tool is barely usable for checking quickly if you can use an actual fit (pg/cpu/skills) or link one for someone else conveniently.
Yes, it is a bit tedious to learn, but once you have the knowledge future fitting sessions are quicker to think about.
Hereâs some rules of thumb (you may already know these), there are big exceptions to these rules of thumb:
Weapon Sizes
Frigate & Destroyer: Small
Cruiser & Battlecruiser: Medium
Battleship: Large
Capital: X-Large
Propulsion Module Sizes
Frigate & Destroyer: 1MN & 5MN
Cruiser & Battlecruiser: 10MN & 50MN
Battleship: 100MN & 500MN
Capital: 10,000MN & 50,000MN
Armor Repper / Shield Booster Sizes
Frigate & Destroyer: Small
Cruiser & Battlecruiser: Medium
Battleship: Large
Capital: X-Large
You get the pattern.
I see your OP has some confusion around module variations, plus sizing of turrets, and the different systems. I typed up a bit with screenshots with the hope to provide a foundation that lets you navigate modules at your own pace without exhaustively going into nuances, so that you can discover details at your own pace.
I hope this provides a basic framework for âhow to navigate gun turret treeâ and reconcile it against âI have a ship hull and can fit too many things onto itâ. You may already know a ton of this stuff; I only offer it to be complete and apologize if it is redundant.
With that in mind, the general turret hiearchy is this:
General Weapon System
Specific Turret System
Turret Sizes
Module Variations
This is the important framework from which we will derive understanding. It can be thought of as a âtable of contentsâ. I will start at the very bottom of that hierarchy and work our way up.
Module Variations
Letâs just pick a 200mm AutoCannon I, and see its variations.
As a rule of thumb people only fit âmetaâ T1 and T2 guns. The general thought behind them is simple:
T1 guns are the âbaselineâ (aka least-good)
âMetaâ T1 variants are better than T1 in some key dimensions without the hefty fitting & skillpoint requirements of T2
T2 are great performance for their price (if you have the skillpoints and fitting for it)
Faction & Storyline are too expensive for their price (faction turrets are considered âblingâ and people will try to hunt you for them, no matter where you are).
You can use the âCompareâ tool on this âVariationsâ tab to see this in action. Note that sorting by âMeta Levelâ gives a very rough sense of âleast-to-greatest performanceâ:
So thatâs how to explore the variations of a specific kind of gun. Now to go up one step of the hierarchy and see which guns are what size.
Turret Sizes
The quickest way to get an answer of âwhich guns and missile launchers are Small, Medium, Largeâ is via looking at the module tree browser of any guns to see the size:
This is how you can quickly tell which calibur is which size. That 125mm, 150mm, and 200mm are Small and 220m are Medium autocannons. This works for Hybrids and Energy Turrets as well.
Within a size category, you can use the trusty âCompareâ tool with all the similar variations to compare how these matter. For example, hereâs a comparison of âall T1 Small Autocannonsâ:
The Autocannon / Artillery Cannon split you observed is the usual way guns are split: Close Range and Long Range. We will get to âwhy does this matterâ in a second.
Autocannons are Close Range and Artillery Cannons are Long Range. Hybrid and Energy turrets are also split between Close Range and Long Range. It does not mean all Close Range are equal, and not all Long Range are equal â e.g. Blasters and Autocannons have meaningful differences despite both being Close Range weapon systems.
So why does this matter? Well, if you are fitting a ship â letâs say a Rifter â the shipâs bonuses are very specific:
These are bonuses to Small Projectile Turret. Well, we know that there are Autocannons (Close Range) and Artillery (Long Range), and down one level of hierarchy there are Small sized Autocannons and Small sized Artillery. That means the Rifter can be fitted with Small Autocannons or Small Artillery and therefore those turrets get the bonus.
We could try to fit Medium Autocannons or Medium Artillery on it instead (if we have the fitting), but they will not receive the hull bonuses. Youâre almost always flying a ship for its hull bonuses, so as a general rule of thumb you need a very good reason not to use them. So I donât recommend sticking Medium-sized Autocannons/Artillery on a Rifter.
You can see the bonus in action. Put a 200mm AutoCannon I into a simulated Rifter, right-click & show-info on the gun, and hover over the green falloff attribute to see âRifterâ and âMinmatar Frigateâ skill apply:
Now, letâs go up the final step in the hierarchy.
General Weapon System
For the sake of simplicity, there are roughly four weapon systems to think about, grouped into two game mechanics.
Gun Turret game mechanics
Energy Turrets
Projectile Turrets
Hybrid Turrets
Missile game mechanics
Missiles
Everything explained above works for Gun Turrets. The missiles are grouped into hierarchies differently and have a different relationship between turret-and-ammo than guns do. Iâll leave that for your own adventure (or for someone else to type up an explanation).
Each gun turret type has different fundamental characteristics whether itâs around capacitor usage, reload time, range, damage, etc. They really do feel very different. Iâm not going to go deep there, though. Have fun learning these!
The major important thing I want to stress is going back to the Rifterâs hull bonus:
These are bonuses to Small Projectile Turret. You can still likely fit an Energy Turret or Hybrid Turret â and you know from our hierarchy buildup that thereâs Small Blasters and Small Railguns and Small Pulse Lasers and Small Beam Lasers. Thatâs a lot! But! None of those will have bonuses from the ship hull.
You can verify this the same way we verified the size-differences. Slap a 200mm AutoCannon I into a simulated Rifter, right-click & show-info on the gun, and hover over the green falloff attribute to see âRifterâ and âMinmatar Frigateâ skill apply:
In conclusion, you can theoretically fit a lot of different modules and guns onto a hull. Small, Medium, Large, T1, Meta, T2, Energy, Projectile, Hybrid, Blasters, Railguns, Autocannons, Artillery, Pulses, Beams. And more. Hopefully, the hierarchy explored here:
General Weapon System (Energy, Hybrid, Projectile)
Specific Turret System (Close Range, Long Range)
Turret Sizes (Small, Medium, Large)
Module Variations (T1, Meta, T2)
Helps provide a fundamental framework to help navigate and guide your further exploration of fitting ships and using their hull bonuses effectively.
Good luck out there.
Notes: The above wall of text ignores missiles, armor tanks, shield tanks, active tanks, passive tanks, other kinds of utility high slots, midslots for range control, and tons of other stuff.
Besides the good hints and tips given above by other players, there are plenty of guides on the basic principles of ship fitting. These are some I particularly like, for their clarity.
No guide will ever take away the first problem and necessity of getting acquainted with all the different modules you can possibly put on a ship - and let their mechanisms interact if possible - to achieve a particular goal, but itâs a start to set you on the right path of how to approach the challenge.
Have fun.
