View source for Talk:Krait MkII/@comment-86.153.169.161-20181210230729/@comment-70.249.189.124-20190115223703

I wouldn't say that.  The Phantom may well be better in combat, but not due to weapons.  The Phantom is more manuverable.  In a ship that's very flat, menuverability is life because you HAVE to keep the narrow edge of your ship facing the enemy or you're dead, period.

That said, the MkII has 3 advantages.  First, you can totally overcharge (or rather, engineer) all 3 weapons on the MkII without power issues.  Mine runs a Class 6A power plant for weight reasons and it can still mount 3 burst lasers, 2 rails, a class 6C bi-weave shield, and shield cell bosters without hitting any power issues.  More importantly, the DPS on the SLF is around 36 average (assuming gimbaled pulse fighter), which is slightly better than a class 3 multicannon, essentially giving you 4 class 3 weapons.  That's twice as many as the Krait Phantom and no amount of engineering is going to compensate for that- since, again, you can engineer the same guns on both ships.

The final advantge is the aforementioned ability to mount both a class 6 shield and a class 6 shield cell booster.  With only a single class 6 slot, the Phantom will have to settle for a class 5 shield cell booster.  This isn't a massive difference, but it's still notable.

I say final, but also, the utility placement on the Phantom is inferior for point defense, if you use them.  Any missiles from behind and above will be in a complete deadzone for the PD.  On the other hand, the front slots work even better than the MkII against missiles from in front of you, so combined with the increased mauverability, this could be a draw.

In short, in combat, neither has a hard advantage.  It's dependant on whether you fight like Ali or Foreman, and neither is inherently wrong (though many people will tell you Ali.)

That said, I just switched from a MkII to a Phantom for Distant Worlds 2, and I gotta say the increase from 28ly to 62ly is amazing.  For exploration, the Phantom is a clear winner, hands down.