Rail Gun ammo, is it too low?

[Ydiss]

Rails originally had unlimited ammo, like lasers. With the improved heat mechanics, they could be made to have unlimited ammo again.

This is a good point. Even if they made rails less effective against hull (so they're at least more in line with other energy only weapons) than they are now, I think that would be acceptable if they have no ammo requirements.

They're just a big laser. That has a long firing charge, low fire rate but really nice damage. Shame that it's unlikely this will ever happen though. I love rails but am always put off by the ammo.

 

[Robert Maynard]

They're just a big laser. That has a long firing charge, low fire rate but really nice damage. Shame that it's unlikely this will ever happen though. I love rails but am always put off by the ammo.

A perfect alpha strike weapon then....

 

[Ydiss]

A perfect alpha strike weapon then....

Well it still is now, if we're talking pvp The only difference being you need to dock after every fight or two.

The thing is, heat changes to the game have been significant since launch and have definitely balanced the three lasers so none is better than the other. Yet heat management has made even the rail less effective than it used to be (which is fine) so its effective firing rate is lower.

So I'm definitely for an increase in ammo but also see the potential to simply make it an energy weapon.

Essentially, ammo just forces us to decide whether we should use a weapon at all, depending on how long we want to fight for. The 31 ammo for rails dramatically skews the desirability towards pvp encounters and away from pve. I don't want to have to reload frequently and I don't need to if I use pa's. But if I want to have two rails and pa's on my corvette?

That's what I want. But it just means I may as well have 31 pa ammo, or use rails less, or accept two hard points will be useless after a certain time of playing.

Or just use pulse and multi cannons like everyone pretty much does, because then I can stay out for ages.

 

[Shintai]

All ammo counts are way too low. We need ammo racks badly.

This is a good idea, since you need to sacrifice something to get it.

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Never found a planet with Vanadium.

I did. I have quite a few

 

[xlg47]

They're just a big laser. That has a long firing charge, low fire rate but really nice damage. Shame that it's unlikely this will ever happen though. I love rails but am always put off by the ammo.

A railguns is an electromagnetic projectile launcher, they are not just a "big laser". They fire physical projectiles at a target.

 

[violator666]

doing hunting for 2-3 hrs sessions long usually and sadly there is no place for such limited time use weapons at all, even cannons with 105 does not hit long enough especially that half of shots or so usually missed with ammunition weapons often

 

[xRavenKnight86x]

Well my thoughts fall along the lines of it seems as someone else stated that rails are only good for PvP or assassination missions now. I figure with cannons and PAs having 105 ammo counts now, rails and frags should be along the same lines. To me that seems to be the biggest drawback to rails, not even the charge up time is that much of a deterrent. I mean if they introduced C3 or C4 rails I could see them having lower ammo counts, but 31 on C1 and C2 rails seems way too low. Also there is a whole platform that doesn't have access to landings and therefore the materials to synthesize more ammo, so I feel that argument isn't a good reason not to increase ammo count in the rails. Hell I would be happy with something in the 50-60 range, just 31 shots I can only engage a couple big targets before having to reload.

 

[Ydiss]

A railguns is an electromagnetic projectile launcher, they are not just a "big laser". They fire physical projectiles at a target.

Yeh, that's how they are but they weren't before. I know what they are now. I was just discussing an idea. I'd be perfectly happy if we just had a lot more ammo.

 

[sewerratuk]

Agreed, I'm playing around with an Imp eagle in CZ's using 2 C1's and I can unload just about all my ammo into 1 cutter. I know, its a big ship but I like destroying them, unfortunately then I have to go back to port or just use a laser

 

[Troa Barton]

Yes it is. Fragment cannons are still too low, rail guns, and missiles are woefully low in the ammo count.
synthesis is just another bandaid.
ammo racks would be a welcome sight, installing a choice between ammo, armor, or cells.

 

[Ydiss]

Yes it is. Fragment cannons are still too low, rail guns, and missiles are woefully low in the ammo count.
synthesis is just another bandaid.
ammo racks would be a welcome sight, installing a choice between ammo, armor, or cells.

Synthesis may work out well for ammo management once it's opened up to loot from ships. I say may because the RNG might end up making it take too long to micro manage the materials needed only for ammo.

I like the idea of ammo racks. This would definitely increase the value of larger combat ships over smaller ships for players who want to stay out of dock for longer. Though, there's only going to be so much more ammo you need until you need to dock more frequently for hull repairs so it would be a really interesting balancing act for players.

But the idea of being able to carry extra ammo for friends in smaller ships that you can abandon for them really sounds great.

 

[Ozram]

Just synthesise it. I'm ok with the way it works now, but I guess ammo racks could work. They'd need a decent drawback though. It's bad enough with all the Rasps

 

[Troa Barton]

Synthesis may work out well for ammo management once it's opened up to loot from ships. I say may because the RNG might end up making it take too long to micro manage the materials needed only for ammo.

I like the idea of ammo racks. This would definitely increase the value of larger combat ships over smaller ships for players who want to stay out of dock for longer. Though, there's only going to be so much more ammo you need until you need to dock more frequently for hull repairs so it would be a really interesting balancing act for players.

But the idea of being able to carry extra ammo for friends in smaller ships that you can abandon for them really sounds great.

If rail guns didn't use the same mats as an FSD boost I'd be a little more receptive.
and
if they reloaded all weapons of the type synthesized for id be fine with it.

 

[vrasuk]

i love railguns, but i never use them because ammo runs out much too fast.

 

[TheLongShanks]

It is really necessary and obvious that buffing armor requires buffing ammo. It simply cannot be the case that a ship with a full weapons load out runs out of ammo after one fight.

 

[xRavenKnight86x]

Synthesizing ammo shouldn't be the answer to this. A whole platform and anyone who doesn't have access to Horizons doesn't have that "fix" for the ammo shortage on certain weapons. I believe ammo needs to be buffed across the board for all weapons. Energy weapons just straight up outshine any other weapons cause they do such good damage with no ammo limitations. Up some of the ammo counts and I think we'll see more diversified builds.

Edit: Even though looking at it, having a premium reload of Rail Gun ammo with 30% more damage would be awesome.

 

[Flea King]

I would welcome more dakka on my RailGun Boat

 

[audiodistortion]

Increase the ammo count on rails, make it a module option (limit to 1 module and class size = number of rail guns to feed)

+30 per rail gun.

Do it for all ammo types..

 

[Muetdhiver]

Rails need to have increased amo to be usefull, especially with all the armor buffs.
Plus, while they shoot projectiles, these are tiny. I'd say 100 like the cannons would be ok.

Also : put amo racks modules in the game

 

[Neofactor]

What is up with all this new content, but basic things like weapon balancing and variety hasn't been worked out yet? I don't understand why there aren't small-large versions of every weapon system/type (since there aren't that many choices anyways), why ammo is so sparse, why weapons with infinite ammo have a better DPS rate, or why explosives still haven't been fixed months after it became apparent no one used them anymore. Balancing only gets attempted during major updates, and most of the time it seems pretty half done since there isn't even an extensive testing period and afterwords they just do whatever they want anyways (gimp everything that isn't a laser).