C4 Cannon (Fixed) vs C4 Plasma Accelerator vs Nav Beacon (Projectile Speed)

[SHADEVARI]

Since everyone seems to be so in favor of the class 4 cannon compared to the plasma accelerator I did some tests to get hard evidence that my gut feeling indeed wasn't wrong (meaning is that PA is WAY better).

To test I lined up my FDL exactly 1000m from a nav beacon and did several shots with both weapons.

Cannon has an average measured projectile flight time of 2,695s which results in an estimated speed of 371,05m/s if timed with 1000m.
Plasma Accelerator has an average measured projectile flight time of 1,67s which results in an estimated speed of 596,81m/s if timed with 1000m.

This means the PA is approx. 1s faster over 1000m than the cannon.

Fun facts:
I did not really look at the damage of the cannon, but it took 4 shots to take out the nav beacon from 1000m. I believe the nav beacon had between 5% and 10% health left after 3 shots. The PA did 53% damage with every shot from 1000m, requiring only 2 shots to kill a nav beacon. This means that the PA is doing roughly twice the damage of the cannon, to a nav beacon anyway. ;-)

Result:
I'll keep the PA. ;-)

 

[Cmdr Thrudd]

I'm a big fan of the Huge PA but only on the Anaconda. Need to reduce too many other things to fit it onto the FdL. With practice it's an awesome weapon and I greatly prefer it over the cannon.

 

[Doomprayer]

Nice to know.

But keep in mind only to attack wanted Nav Beacons, otherwise you'll become wanted, too.

 

[Komemiute]

What's the shell count for each weapon?

 

[SHADEVARI]

What's the shell count for each weapon?

5/100 for both.

 

[nightwraith]

It is indeed much more powerful. It also uses almost twice as much ship power if I recall. Not worth it on an FDL, IMO.

 

[Eagle Eye]

People in favour of C4 Cannon is actually news to me. All the people I know (including myself) prefer PA in the C4 slot.

I got it working with minimal sacrifice in my FdL too. I was running Cannon on it but I find the ship much weaker overall with it, so PA got installed and all is well with the world.

 

[SHADEVARI]

People in favour of C4 Cannon is actually news to me. All the people I know (including myself) prefer PA in the C4 slot.

I got it working with minimal sacrifice in my FdL too. I was running Cannon on it but I find the ship much weaker overall with it, so PA got installed and all is well with the world.

Oh, I saw some posts of players mentioning to like the cannon for the FDL and claiming the huge PA would be almost useless, especially against players. So I tried the cannon, but it seems to be only good against (almost) stationary targets, ie. Anaconda vs Anaconda.

 

[Derath]

The reason people use C4 cannon over C4 PA is entirely because you can fire one with nearly no power and the other uses 30-40%, its rarely about the fitting stats though that does play a role.

 

[SHADEVARI]

The reason people use C4 cannon over C4 PA is entirely because you can fire one with nearly no power and the other uses 30-40%, its rarely about the fitting stats though that does play a role.

I understand the power issue, but what good is the cannon if it is almost impossible to hit something due to the incredibly slow projectile speed and if it actually hits it is doing less damage. The speed difference and the resulting lead is actually pretty large between those two.

This seems to be an almost identical situation with fixed vs gimballed vs turrets. Fixed is doing more damage at larger range, but what good is it if I can not get the target into my sights? In that case I prefer a turret that keeps firing even if the target is above/below me or at my sides doing some damage instead of none. If the ship has enough hardpoints available I like a mix of both... high burst damage (ie. rail gun) and lower sustained damage (pulse/burst/beam turrets) while turning.

 

[Time Streamer]

I do like PA's very much. I only consider cannons when power is an issue. Otherwise, i always go for PA. Good to know opinions about C4 tech, since i never tried them.

 

[NullAndVoid]

Surprisingly I'm quite liking a triple large PA setup on a python, serious fire power if you land the broadside.

 

[Caspar]

I've been wondering about this myself so was pleased to see this thread. I've got Gimbaled canons included in my dropship setup as I found fixed were too much work on a boat that turns like a brick. Part of that problem was the travel time of the shell.

I'm guessing that PA's lessen that problem if they get to the target faster .... but does it make enough of a difference? Can someone comfortably launch a volley from greater range and score hits or is the reality that you have to sit on your target before pulling the trigger?

 

[Mephane]

Surprisingly I'm quite liking a triple large PA setup on a python, serious fire power if you land the broadside.

That would be the exact opposite of a broadside.

 

[Efrit]

or is the reality that you have to sit on your target before pulling the trigger?

You have to sit on your target if the target is engaged in combat with you (meaning it does maneuvers). In PvP the PA is almost completely useless against ships below Python and the Conda. Targets suitable for PA: Noob players who sit in front of your PA and wonder whats that green glow over there, NPC's, and big, slow player ships (Python, T9, Anaconda).

Also the fact that it requires so much power, you'll have to be sacrificing shield boosters and/or cell banks, lasers and what not. Its just not worth it, except for the cool factor (same with railguns)

 

[Derath]

I understand the power issue, but what good is the cannon if it is almost impossible to hit something due to the incredibly slow projectile speed and if it actually hits it is doing less damage. The speed difference and the resulting lead is actually pretty large between those two.

This seems to be an almost identical situation with fixed vs gimballed vs turrets. Fixed is doing more damage at larger range, but what good is it if I can not get the target into my sights? In that case I prefer a turret that keeps firing even if the target is above/below me or at my sides doing some damage instead of none. If the ship has enough hardpoints available I like a mix of both... high burst damage (ie. rail gun) and lower sustained damage (pulse/burst/beam turrets) while turning.

Viable range for the cannon and the PA are practically identical, even multi-cannons miss a huge number of shots on anything but a straight line target above 1km, both weapons are extremely high damage point blankers you may as well treat them like frags, the difference is the PA will do huge damage to shields/hull/subsystems but has a power cost whereas the cannon only does hull/subsystems without.

You can however fire the cannon more, and with other weapons which I think make the PA rather useless personally if i was min/maxing

Your right about fixed vs gimballed vs turrets but that ones really a skill-cap issue, a majority of players I suspect use gimballed because they are the best of both worlds, extremely easy to use for great results. Turrets are chosen for certain playstyles as they really benefit anybody who likes rotation and can keep enemies close and below / above, and fixed are for those that have no issues keeping targets dead center. I actually think the balance between these is pretty good, though I do think some turrets should be more accurate.

 

[Morbad]

All the huge weapons are pretty much useless against players, at least if your opponent is aware and cable of any real maneuvering.

That said, the PA is quite a bit more damaging and has better projectile velocity than the Cannon, as the OP notes. This is balanced by the fact that it dumps way more heat into the ship and uses roughly 2.5x the power.

Also the fact that it requires so much power, you'll have to be sacrificing shield boosters and/or cell banks, lasers and what not. Its just not worth it, except for the cool factor (same with railguns)

I'm running two medium fixed beam lasers, two medium gimbaled beam lasers, and a huge plasma accelerator on my explorer FDL (yes, I know) currently. Shields are about 20% weaker than what I typically run, and if I had an SCB, it would not be powered while hardpoints were deployed.

Still, against AI, the time to kill is so fast that my shields are often in better shape than if I had less power hungry or more defense oriented load out.

Against other CMDRs, all the huge weapons are essentially the waste of a slot, and I mount a large fixed beam laser and generally less power hungry medium weapons, if I'm anticipating fighting them.