Ships Are Cannons any good?

[CaptKarel]

O7 Cmdrs

I am preparing to buy and outfit an armed trading Imperial Cutter.

I am considering to fit to all hard points gimbaled Cannons with overcharged / autoloader engineering and the huge hard point with a thermal vent beam. The idea is to use the TV beam to drop the shields and then the cannons to take out the power plant, thrusters etc. My T9 just can’t defend itself and the T10 is not really for me.

The main purpose of this ship will be for trading, and to take down any pirates that interdict me along my route, they are a good source of mats and break the monotony of running between pickup and drop off points. Also render aid to those rare distress call USS you get now and then. Waepons will be for self defense and not for extended engagements.

In open it should be able to get away from players with malicious intentions without losing the ship.

I have run across NPCs with cannons and they hardly make a scratch on my ship, then again I hardly ever lose my shields and hang around after that. I tried cannons on some smaller ships but they seemed a little bit ineffective compared to MCs.

I did run a across a youtube video where the Cmdr fitted cannons to all hard points on a medium ship and it blew up NPCs pretty quick, shields and all.

Any Cmdrs with experience using multiple Cannons on large ships out there?

 

[Dragsham]

All efficient PA's except the 2 hardpoints on the nacelles. There l have high ammo drag packhounds.
Reverski and its job done

 

[avow555]

Cannons have been poor for many years, personally I wouldn't waste any time on them.

 

[WeComeInPeace]

Cannons have been poor for many years, personally I wouldn't waste any time on them.

Yep, that's kind of a pity. I love the idea of having cannons on a spaceship.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Generally speaking Cutter isn't a good ship for cannons as they are best for module sniping (they aren't that good against hull) and you need to be accurate, and therefore, need some agility. (although you could reverski as Dragsham notes).

Also, above size 1 their ability to track drops off (even with gimballs, large turrets are near useless).

So no, i would not recommend for a Cutter. Small or medium ships they are more viable, and even a good choice if you're thinking about a piracy build as an alternative to missiles (missiles you're more focused on the external modules, cannons both internal and external).

With a Cutter i never bother stopping to fight. Nothing can mass lock you and you can outrun just about any NPC ship once engineered.

However, if i was thinking about some sort of trade/combat hybrid, for dealing with annoying NPCs, i'd probably just slap turrets all over. Need fast ammo/hitscan though for the large hardpoints regardless if you want to hit anything. So really MCs and lasers. Pulse laser to keep the PD drain down. The huge hardpoint can't be a turret though (shame FD!), so whatever you fancy there (or just use a large turret).

Alternate choice, frags. Just slap fixed frags all over it (huge will have to be just large though), doubleshot engineered for preference. Set course to ram, and when almost on your target unleash hell. Outside combat zones, nothing would survive such a barrage, and i think most CZ ships wouldn't either. Main thing is, double tap that fire button when you are almost on the target. Earlier the damage will be just too dispersed.

Fully engineered with double shot, that's around 2000 DPS. (you could go for overcharged as well, avoid need to double tap and still loads of damage). Sturdy would do less damage but with the added penetration you're liable to wreck most of the internal modules in one go.

 

[DemiserofD]

Cannons are best at small sizes. Small fixed cannons are downright overpowered; against Anything from and adder on up, it will do 250% more damage than a multi canon.On the flip side, huge cannons are dramatically worse than multi cannons.And gimballed cannons are significantly worse than fixed variants.

All in all, I would not recommend them for use on a cutter.

If you want good weapons for defense on a trade ship, I would actually suggest lightweight reverberating cascade torpedoes.You don't need firepower with them,Just take down their shields and destroy them in short order.

 

[Krieger]

I love fixed cannons. Engineered to G5 Overcharged or Shortrange they do an amazing amount of damage to hull (obviously) but also to shields. Better than G5 Efficient plasmas because they have a higher rate of fire than plasmas. I also like them because with cannons you typically take snaphots at targets since you don't have to track the target while they reload. Giving 2 secs or so to reposition. You can't do that with fixed weapons that require time-on-target to do damage (lasers, multicannons).

Here's my trading Cutter that easily takes out Elite NPC pirates (Anacondas, T10s) and is fast enough with enough shields to survive a gank attempt (hence the smallish shield cell bank). Since the Cutter drifts a lot I tend to fly it with short bursts of FA-off as if it's a turret so I can aim the cannon battery (1H+2M cannons under the nose) to help the large pulse turrets drop shields. The turrets are efficient and can keep hammering the target (even with 1 pip to WEP) while I'm manoeuvring to aim the big guns. As soon as shields are down the corrosive multicannon turret enhances the damage greatly. The scramble spectrum pulse turret is mostly for fun to see NPCs flailing around with malfunctioning thrusters.

 

[Dragsham]

I was going to re engineer the PAs as focused flow control like on my PA fdl but nah couldn't be bothered
These baby's travel over twice as fast as other PAs and on an fdl a huge one with 4 packhounds overcharged with drag...ouch!
Slight problem....heat.! Hence a potload of sinks fitted. The hounds keep the target slowed...the pa with 4 pips is a hoot. This is a novelty build mind.
My real fdl just has 4 short range rails and a rapid firing huge corrosive mc. Defo not novelty again with lots of sinks.

o7

 

[CaptKarel]

Interesting, sounds like small fixed cannons are better than small Multis and big Multis are better than big Cannons. Also from the remarks above it looks like fixed cannons are better than gimbaled or turrets.

I like Frags, but the range is a bit short, they hit hard but only when close and I usually only fit them on medium or small dedicated combat ships, mostly ones used for hunting pirates and then only to finish off the target. Ammo is limited.

I was looking for something with slightly better range and more penetration, thus was thinking of Cannons on the Cutter. Ammo is also limited but for interdictions it would do.

 

[Dragsham]

All rapidfiring incendiary multicannons gimballed. Except one that's corrosive.
Heat built up in enemy's ship stops him firing back hehehehe. Yup this does work try it...minor problem....heat!
Minimum 2 pips preferred 4 in weps or you'll cook too lol.. a low draw build ensures heat isn't an issue.

 

[Northpin]

I am considering to fit to all hard points gimbaled Cannons with overcharged / autoloader engineering and the huge hard point with a thermal vent beam. The idea is to use the TV beam to drop the shields and then the cannons to take out the power plant, thrusters etc. My T9 just can’t defend itself and the T10 is not really for me.

The main purpose of this ship will be for trading, and to take down any pirates that interdict me along my route, they are a good source of mats and break the monotony of running between pickup and drop off points. Also render aid to those rare distress call USS you get now and then. Waepons will be for self defense and not for extended engagements.

Cannons are rather crap. Small projectile speed and low ammo, while the damage they do is not really able to compensate.
Sure, eventually they will work, sort off, against NPC. But only because basically anything works

In open it should be able to get away from players with malicious intentions without losing the ship.

Just make sure you dont try to engage in combat.
So do preselect a system so you can high wake out (although with a Cutter, most of the time you can low wake, but that does not stop you from being interdicted again and again).
And again, dont engage in combat, just wake out asap

 

[Three Stars]

I was going to re engineer the PAs as focused flow control like on my PA fdl but nah couldn't be bothered.

Just FYI (or FYReminder if you know already)…

Flow control reduces the power plant usage of weapons, not the distributor draw like the name implies. While it’s sometimes useful to make weapons use less power, there are undoubtedly more useful experimentals to pick for PAs…unless you really are up against the power maximum close enough to have to drop their power usage.

 

[Thwarptide]

Personally my cutter doesn’t need any weapons. Its a trader, not a defender, designed to haul and evade.
Load up all your utilities with shield boosters, engineer each one for all resistance types. They stack so do an an extra focus on thermal.
install a bi-weave shield generator. Avoid prismatic shields, they’re very heavy and significantly reduce your jump range.
You’ll be able to evade and jump out of just about ever situation without the added weight of weapons you’ll never use.

 

[Erwgd]

I've been trying out gimbaled cannons on a Type-9 for the medium hardpoints on the top. I'm pointed at the enemy ship most of the time to shoot them with rail guns and seekers, so I use long-range engineering. The increased projectile speed brings the tracking reticle closer to the target, meaning the gimbaled cannons are able to track a little easier and land more hits.

 

[Trollymctrollerson]

I used fixed cannons alot. One of the absolute best weapons for DPE. I often use them in conjunction with plasmacs because of similar velocity. Don't bother with gimbal or turret though. They are kinda crap. I have a C4 cannon on an FDL and it deletes NPC powerplants.

 

[shadowhand]

Back when I got my first Cutter, I followed the advice of various websites, including this one, and put some turreted lasers on a couple of the hardpoints, and then a few gimballed lasers, and - added a huge cannon to the mix.

This sort of worked, but... I wasn't satisfied with the performance of the cannon, even upgraded to grade 5 Overcharged, it was a little hit or miss, so I replaced it with a huge multicannon, also overcharged. Now, that was a game changer. It hit almost all its shots, and it's got nice steady damage for tearing apart hulls and taking out the occasional module.

The turreted lasers were a bad idea though. At least for me. I can't count all the times they've clipped a friendly ship and got me a bounty (or they've straight up just taken the last % point off a wounded neutral npc and got me a bigger bounty + notoriety.) - so I replaced the various turrets with gimbaled efficient beams, and well - since the combo of that and the huge MC easily shreds npc anaconda pirates, I stopped tinkering with the loadout for that particular Cutter.

I always stop and fight if I'm interdicted, and I haven't lost to an NPC yet.

[edit: I can't type on this tiny keyboard, typos corrected.]

 

[CMDRQuainMarln]

O7 Cmdrs

I am preparing to buy and outfit an armed trading Imperial Cutter.

I am considering to fit to all hard points gimbaled Cannons with overcharged / autoloader engineering and the huge hard point with a thermal vent beam. The idea is to use the TV beam to drop the shields and then the cannons to take out the power plant, thrusters etc. My T9 just can’t defend itself and the T10 is not really for me.

The main purpose of this ship will be for trading, and to take down any pirates that interdict me along my route, they are a good source of mats and break the monotony of running between pickup and drop off points. Also render aid to those rare distress call USS you get now and then. Waepons will be for self defense and not for extended engagements.

In open it should be able to get away from players with malicious intentions without losing the ship.

I have run across NPCs with cannons and they hardly make a scratch on my ship, then again I hardly ever lose my shields and hang around after that. I tried cannons on some smaller ships but they seemed a little bit ineffective compared to MCs.

I did run a across a youtube video where the Cmdr fitted cannons to all hard points on a medium ship and it blew up NPCs pretty quick, shields and all.

Any Cmdrs with experience using multiple Cannons on large ships out there?

I'd go 7A on the power distributor to give you more options on weapons. Class 7 is on the small side for this number and size of hard points as it is. Multi canons a better option to go with the huge beam with thermal vent. Consider going long range to at least 5km on the weapons and use the Cutters speed and reverski to stay at least 3km from the target. You'll almost always win against 'condas and 'vettes and anything else slower than a Cuter. I put multi cannon turrets on the nacelles, one incindury and one corrosive just in case of there are small agile fast ships. In PVE as an armed trader it's never failed. Not the most exciting form of combat though.

 

[Dragsham]

Yup sorry didn't get back earlier...ohhh OK didn't know that I'll be redoing those experimentals I assumed distro as well lol!!

 

[CaptKarel]

I'd go 7A on the power distributor to give you more options on weapons. Class 7 is on the small side for this number and size of hard points as it is. Multi canons a better option to go with the huge beam with thermal vent. Consider going long range to at least 5km on the weapons and use the Cutters speed and reverski to stay at least 3km from the target. You'll almost always win against 'condas and 'vettes and anything else slower than a Cuter. I put multi cannon turrets on the nacelles, one incindury and one corrosive just in case of there are small agile fast ships. In PVE as an armed trader it's never failed. Not the most exciting form of combat though.

Thanks, missed that one, was wondering why it was so limited on TTD. I always go for A rated on PP, FSD and Distro.

 

[CaptainPugwash]

For a trade Cutter time is money so you want to dispatch your attacker as quickly as possible, and the quickest is frag cannons, either double shot or overcharged with screen shell, gimballed in combination with a ram will kill a pirate conda very quickly. For the huge hardpoint take your pick, a huge SR PA is fun, but another large frag is probably more efficient.