Cannons

[CMDR Corlas]

Given that weapons are supposed to get a pass soon, I have a pretty simple request:

Please look at increasing the muzzle velocity of the larger cannons. C1 and C2 cannons seems to be in a pretty good place, but C3's seem to be getting pretty slow and C4's are just sad. I really like cannons, and would love to see them more useable on the larger sizes.

While I'm asking for cannon things, making the C1's and C3's look more like the fantastically beautiful C2 and C4 models would rock. They look like goofy howitzers right now.

 

[DragoonKnight]

IF anything, C3 and C4 should have higher velocity because a larger round allows you to pack more explosive into it and without an atmosphere to cause a drop in velocity the cannon projectiles should be faster.

 

[Psycho Romeo]

IF anything, C3 and C4 should have higher velocity because a larger round allows you to pack more explosive into it and without an atmosphere to cause a drop in velocity the cannon projectiles should be faster.

While equally there's also more mass and inertial forces the propellant has to move.

I get the impression that the large/huge hard point weapons aren't really supposed to be used for shooting anything moving much faster than stationary. When the weapon balance pass comes, I fully expect this to be pushed even harder, not reduced.

I should say I don't have a lot of experience using larger weapons - mostly just barrel rolling out of the way of the purple ball of death that is a huge PA. What I take issue with is why people have a problem with the idea that damage is inversely proportional to velocity. Seriously? Use a bullet instead of a hand grenade then. I find it absurd to think that the player should be entitled to both.

 

[CTCParadox]

IF anything, C3 and C4 should have higher velocity because a larger round allows you to pack more explosive into it and without an atmosphere to cause a drop in velocity the cannon projectiles should be faster.

All depends how heavy the rounds these things fire are. We don't know the calibre, we don't even know the muzzle velocity.
Would be nice if we got high-velocity and low-velocity cannons in each class.

CMDR CTCParadox

 

[DragoonKnight]

While equally there's also more mass and inertial forces the propellant has to move.

I get the impression that the large/huge hard point weapons aren't really supposed to be used for shooting anything moving much faster than stationary. When the weapon balance pass comes, I fully expect this to be pushed even harder, not reduced.

I should say I don't have a lot of experience using larger weapons - mostly just barrel rolling out of the way of the purple ball of death that is a huge PA. What I take issue with is why people have a problem with the idea that damage is inversely proportional to velocity. Seriously? Use a bullet instead of a hand grenade then. I find it absurd to think that the player should be entitled to both.

Because a projectile does damage based on its kinetic energy. KE=(MV^2)/2
So velocity is far more important than the mass of the projectile.
It also does not make sense for Cannons that are 2000 years in the future and mounted on ships traveling at anywhere from 100-300 m/s to fire at velocities about 1000 m/s, which is comparable to modern day artillery. This implies no progress has been made in 2000 years for these weapons which is really absurd.

Another absurd fact is the weapons design of the Cannons. If C3 and C4 cannons were meant to be used by bounty hunters, military, and police then they should have been designed to have equal or better projectile velocity as their smaller cousins. A small velocity means you will need a much heavier projectile to do the same amount of damage and it will be harder to hit a moving target.

 

[Psycho Romeo]

Because a projectile does damage based on its kinetic energy. KE=(MV^2)/2
So velocity is far more important than the mass of the projectile.
It also does not make sense for Cannons that are 2000 years in the future and mounted on ships traveling at anywhere from 100-300 m/s to fire at velocities about 1000 m/s, which is comparable to modern day artillery. This implies no progress has been made in 2000 years for these weapons which is really absurd.

Another absurd fact is the weapons design of the Cannons. If C3 and C4 cannons were meant to be used by bounty hunters, military, and police then they should have been designed to have equal or better projectile velocity as their smaller cousins. A small velocity means you will need a much heavier projectile to do the same amount of damage.

You're right, we're not shooting cannons under un-survivable g-forces or after a 30,000km/s rapid deceleration or anything. Oh, space? Yeah, no big deal.

Every time someone brings up the '2000 years in the future' argument I shed a single tear. It's an absurd, cringe-worthy argument. The game doesn't need to forecast the future to any measurable degree. It just has to work.

To me the cannon shells look more explosive than kinetic. I'm no munitions expert, but I see boom and am pretty sure that it's an explosive warhead.

 

[DragoonKnight]

You're right, we're not shooting cannons under un-survivable g-forces or after a 30,000km/s rapid deceleration or anything. Oh, space? Yeah, no big deal.

Every time someone brings up the '2000 years in the future' argument I shed a single tear. It's an absurd, cringe-worthy argument. The game doesn't need to forecast the future to any measurable degree. It just has to work.

To me the cannon shells look more explosive than kinetic. I'm no munitions expert, but I see boom and am pretty sure that it's an explosive warhead.

un-survivable g forces have nothing to do with weapons. Last time I checked my weapons were not alive.
And 30,000km/s deceleration is irrelevant since your weapons are not even deployed under those conditions.
Firing an explosive based projectile in space really is no big deal. A regular gun would work in space just as well as it does here on earth.

 

[Psycho Romeo]

un-survivable g forces have nothing to do with weapons. Last time I checked my weapons were not alive.
And 30,000km/s deceleration is irrelevant since your weapons are not even deployed under those conditions.
Firing an explosive based projectile in space really is no big deal. A regular gun would work in space just as well as it does here on earth.

Things that aren't alive are just as prone to g-forces as living flesh.

Weapons that are retracted are just as prone to deceleration (g-forces), as they haven't left the plane of existence.

I highly doubt a regular gun works in space considering there's a primary element of reaction missing.

 

[Politenessman]

un-survivable g forces have nothing to do with weapons. Last time I checked my weapons were not alive.
And 30,000km/s deceleration is irrelevant since your weapons are not even deployed under those conditions.

Then you've never seen weapons that were jettisoned at height by paratroopers. trust me, deceleration matters to weapons too.

 

[bladerunner900]

I highly doubt a regular gun works in space considering there's a primary element of reaction missing.

Projectile weapons would work in space.
http://www.livescience.com/18588-shoot-gun-space.html

 

[CTCParadox]

You're right, we're not shooting cannons under un-survivable g-forces or after a 30,000km/s rapid deceleration or anything. Oh, space? Yeah, no big deal.

To me the cannon shells look more explosive than kinetic. I'm no munitions expert, but I see boom and am pretty sure that it's an explosive warhead.

What is this 30,000 km/s deceleration you're talking about? Coming out of supercruise? I doubt there's anything resembling Newtonian physics going on with that.
The cannon impacts certainly do look like explosive shells.

I highly doubt a regular gun works in space considering there's a primary element of reaction missing.

Common misconception. Modern ammunition contains it's own oxidiser.
In fact the Soviets have already done it using the below.



CMDR CTCParadox

 

[Muffet]

You're right, we're not shooting cannons under un-survivable g-forces or after a 30,000km/s rapid deceleration or anything. Oh, space? Yeah, no big deal.

Every time someone brings up the '2000 years in the future' argument I shed a single tear. It's an absurd, cringe-worthy argument. The game doesn't need to forecast the future to any measurable degree. It just has to work.

To me the cannon shells look more explosive than kinetic. I'm no munitions expert, but I see boom and am pretty sure that it's an explosive warhead.

This.

Also, if anything just think about balance, everything is fine and dandy when we are the big bad dudes, but when we was in a small little ship we was happy that we could react to things blasting in our direction.
Being bigger, faster, better and stronger is exactly how it sounds: overpowered.

 

[Psycho Romeo]

I doubt there's anything resembling Newtonian physics going on with that.

This is the point.