a question about cannons....

[CMDR MAmadeo]

silly one at that.
say I have a single size 3 cannon, and 2 size 1 cannons... both have high yield shells.

which one is more bound to scare in world/in lore pilots,
pumping a single size 3 round, or 2 size 1 rounds into the enemy ship's hull?

sorry bad english

 

[Rat Catcher]

As can be seen, 1 C3 delivers more damage than 2 C1, so, technically, the C3 should be more worrisome...

Having 2 C1 cannons is more energy efficient though...

Engineering is Short Range / High Yield

 

[CaptainPugwash]

silly one at that.
say I have a single size 3 cannon, and 2 size 1 cannons... both have high yield shells.

which one is more bound to scare in world/in lore pilots,
pumping a single size 3 round, or 2 size 1 rounds into the enemy ship's hull?

sorry bad english

I size 3 cannon should do about 20% more damage than 2 size 1 cannons.
The small cannons do have a slightly better rate of fire and faster shot speed, but they also have a lower piercing value.

That being said, the high yield shells are far less effective than dumb fire missiles if you want to do module damage.

I recommend short range mod on cannons for maximum breach damage for killing the power plant.

 

[CaptainPugwash]

Ah, RatCstcher beat me to it ;-)

 

[Three Stars]

I’m a staunch Short Range chooser for most weapons, but I’d argue that Overcharged is better for cannons in particular. They have no falloff, minimal WEP draw, and generally good shot speed even at stock, so it’s entirely possible to hit modules from beyond 1.5 km. The OC distributor draw malus simply doesn’t matter with a cannon, and there’s no ammo clip malus unlike multicannons. You do lose a bit of damage compared to Short Range, but if you’re confident with your aiming then you can pull off some nice distance shots with OC cannons.

Either will do, really.

 

[DemiserofD]

I've gotta agree. Also, due to the slower max speed of cannons, boosting can actually give you substantially more range still. My mamba at full boost can hit enemies a full 7500m away.

Small cannons are great for their size though. The biggest problem with larger cannons is their AP starts to exceed the Hardness of most ships which loses some value relative to other weapons.

 

[Three Stars]

I've gotta agree. Also, due to the slower max speed of cannons, boosting can actually give you substantially more range still. My mamba at full boost can hit enemies a full 7500m away.

Small cannons are great for their size though. The biggest problem with larger cannons is their AP starts to exceed the Hardness of most ships which loses some value relative to other weapons.

They also have one of the highest module breach chance ranges in the game, 50-90%, and retain the vast majority of their total damage as breach damage, so successful breach hits are rewarded.

I do feel like HYS falls off at medium class and smaller, but it can still be hilariously effective in large and huge sizes. I put two fixed OC/HYS cannons in the top and bottom center larges on a Python Mk II and take great pleasure planting ships in high CZs. The separation of the hardpoints is just enough that you can hit ships with aft-placed power plants from behind and have both shots breach. I also suspect that CZ ships are vulnerable to explosive damage, so the conversion works in your favor.

 

[CMDR MAmadeo]

I size 3 cannon should do about 20% more damage than 2 size 1 cannons.
The small cannons do have a slightly better rate of fire and faster shot speed, but they also have a lower piercing value.

That being said, the high yield shells are far less effective than dumb fire missiles if you want to do module damage.

I recommend short range mod on cannons for maximum breach damage for killing the power plant.

yeah, that's what Im currently running on my size 1 cannons

 

[CMDR MAmadeo]

here's my weapon setup

 

[CaptainPugwash]

I put two fixed OC/HYS cannons in the top and bottom center larges on a Python Mk II and take great pleasure planting ships in high CZs

I have three SR cannons on a python mkII that don’t have HYS, just oversized.
I can usually one shot the PP with those and SR gets you +75% breaching chance, and of course HYS comes with a big damage penalty.
So … did you ever manage to test if there is a benefit in HYS compared to SR without the HYS effect?
It’s a test I’d like to do if anyone is up for it!

 

[CMDR MAmadeo]

I have three SR cannons on a python mkII that don’t have HYS, just oversized.
I can usually one shot the PP with those and SR gets you +75% breaching chance, and of course HYS comes with a big damage penalty.
So … did you ever manage to test if there is a benefit in HYS compared to SR without the HYS effect?
It’s a test I’d like to do if anyone is up for it!

it allows me to not pinpoint the powerplant, I can just shoot in the general vicinity of it

 

[CaptainPugwash]

it allows me to not pinpoint the powerplant, I can just shoot in the general vicinity of it

Good point, it’s probably not that easy to test. I find that with 3 SR cannons with good convergence one of them at least gets a good hit (using fixed), and the damage is so high that the hull doesn’t last long anyway, but HYS may still be better if you want to keep the ship alive ..

 

[Three Stars]

I have three SR cannons on a python mkII that don’t have HYS, just oversized.
I can usually one shot the PP with those and SR gets you +75% breaching chance, and of course HYS comes with a big damage penalty.
So … did you ever manage to test if there is a benefit in HYS compared to SR without the HYS effect?
It’s a test I’d like to do if anyone is up for it!

Short Range doesn’t affect chance to Breach, just the range of the shot and the damage done. Breach chance is baked into each stock weapon, and there’s no engineering that affects it. Cannons just happen to be better at it than most. The quickest way to check breach chance is on EDSY which lists the lower and upper bounds for each weapon as well as the specific breach damage.

As @CMDR MAmadeo said, the real benefit of HYS is the area of effect that it gives. For up close fighters like Chieftains the actual separation of the hardpoints on your ship can prevent weapons from hitting your intended module target…unless the weapon natively has an AOE or you give it one through the HYS experimental.

I actually did test three large HYS cannons across the top of a Python Mk II, but I was not getting 3 module impacts at once which kind of defeated the purpose. The top and bottom larges are closer together and appear to be within each other’s respective HYS AOE. I could see clear double power plant hits.

 

[CaptainPugwash]

Short Range doesn’t affect chance to Breach, just the range of the shot and the damage done. Breach chance is baked into each stock weapon, and there’s no engineering that affects it

Yes, I meant breach damage, my bad.

 

[CaptainPugwash]

I actually did test three large HYS cannons across the top of a Python Mk II, but I was not getting 3 module impacts at once which kind of defeated the purpose

What I would like to test is the trade-off between the SR with HYS (70% damage penalty) against the SR without HYS better damage but requires better accuracy. Do you have info on the AOE effective radius ?

 

[CMDR MAmadeo]

Short Range doesn’t affect chance to Breach, just the range of the shot and the damage done. Breach chance is baked into each stock weapon, and there’s no engineering that affects it. Cannons just happen to be better at it than most. The quickest way to check breach chance is on EDSY which lists the lower and upper bounds for each weapon as well as the specific breach damage.

As @CMDR MAmadeo said, the real benefit of HYS is the area of effect that it gives. For up close fighters like Chieftains the actual separation of the hardpoints on your ship can prevent weapons from hitting your intended module target…unless the weapon natively has an AOE or you give it one through the HYS experimental.

I actually did test three large HYS cannons across the top of a Python Mk II, but I was not getting 3 module impacts at once which kind of defeated the purpose. The top and bottom larges are closer together and appear to be within each other’s respective HYS AOE. I could see clear double power plant hits.

you can increase ur breach chance through corrosive

 

[CMDR MAmadeo]

but for real tho
will the enemy pee their pants if I pump 2 tank round sized APHE rounds into their hull?

vs a single battleship-round sized round into their hull?

 

[Three Stars]

you can increase ur breach chance through corrosive

Nope, that’s Armor Piercing which is a separate thing. AP determines how much hull damage you do when compared against the target ship’s Hardness value in a simple ratio. A small fixed cannon has 35 AP, so if you shoot an Anaconda with 65 Hardness you’ll do 35/65ths of the expected damage before resistances are accounted for. With corrosive that bumps to 55/65ths.

 

[CaptainPugwash]

but for real tho
will the enemy their pants if I pump 2 tank round sized APHE rounds into their hull?

vs a single battleship-round sized round into their hull?

Generally speaking I’d say the smaller cannons are better for their size, but one large is still a bit better than two smalls.

 

[Three Stars]

What I would like to test is the trade-off between the SR with HYS (70% damage penalty) against the SR without HYS better damage but requires better accuracy. Do you have info on the AOE effective radius ?

I’ve never seen hard numbers on the radius. I do know it was hit with the nerf bat hard in the late 2010s because people used to be able to zero multiple modules in a volley.

It really does come down to the physical separation of the hardpoints and the distance at which you’ll be shooting at the module you want to destroy. If you can make shots at distance then the weapons will microgimbal and can all hit at once. From up close you won’t be able to get all weapons to microgimbal, so then the AOE from HYS becomes more useful. For situations with multiple weapons I usually make the one I aim directly as not HYS, and the neighboring ones HYS. The bottom mediums of a Challenger are a good example of this. The center is oversized or dispersal or whatever, and the outer two are HYS.