Ships Are Cannons any good?

[AEBRAM]

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 have an armed Imperial Cutter trader (640t cargo capacity) fully armed with (H) Beam (Efficient + OC), 2x (L) Cannons (LR + OC, turreted), 2x Cannons (LR + Dispersion), and two Packhounds for the hard points; 6A (or prismatic) Shields (Thermo + Multi-weave) and engineered Hull reinforcements, as other slots are available. Full on Shield Boosters (resistance), and the ship basically kills any NPC interdicting ships (bonus credits when you drop your cargo); I went with LR on the Cannons to increase their shot speed to help against fast nimble ships; and dispersion basically gives me Chaff benefits on each hit + damage on target. Never run out of distributor power and the (H) Beam shreds shields so all my other weapons get maximum damage + breach potential. The funny thing is, I can put more cargo and exceed the Type 9 cargo capacity and still kill NPC intradicting ships.

 

[Blue Mars]

I have an armed Imperial Cutter trader (640t cargo capacity) fully armed with (H) Beam (Efficient + OC), 2x (L) Cannons (LR + OC, turreted), 2x Cannons (LR + Dispersion), and two Packhounds for the hard points; 6A (or prismatic) Shields (Thermo + Multi-weave) and engineered Hull reinforcements, as other slots are available. Full on Shield Boosters (resistance), and the ship basically kills any NPC interdicting ships (bonus credits when you drop your cargo); I went with LR on the Cannons to increase their shot speed to help against fast nimble ships; and dispersion basically gives me Chaff benefits on each hit + damage on target. Never run out of distributor power and the (H) Beam shreds shields so all my other weapons get maximum damage + breach potential. The funny thing is, I can put more cargo and exceed the Type 9 cargo capacity and still kill NPC intradicting ships.

make a new discussion...but imo just cause you can kill npcs in a T9 w cannons.. it would be a long one...it wouldnt be a good play

 

[AEBRAM]

For example - instead of cannons, i pretty much prefer dumbfires with penetrator experimental - they're really good to strip hardpoints and with penetrator experimental, they're even better to ruin internals too - much better than cannons.

The problem with dumbfire missiles targeting is affected by the vector velocity of the ship, even when firing on leading target circle. This is where cannons with long-range blueprints shine over dumbfire missiles. The penetrator experiment is subpar compared to overload munitions. Another hardship in fast moving combats with dumbfire missiles is the shot speed e.g., smaller or nimbler medium ship combats, here is another helpful utility hardpoint for small modules is having cannons with long-range and force shells (faster than MC shot speed to "layup" time on target).

 

[Northpin]

The problem with dumbfire missiles targeting is affected by the vector velocity of the ship, even when firing on leading target circle. This is where cannons with long-range blueprints shine over dumbfire missiles. The penetrator experiment is subpar compared to overload munitions. Another hardship in fast moving combats with dumbfire missiles is the shot speed e.g., smaller or nimbler medium ship combats, here is another helpful utility hardpoint for small modules is having cannons with long-range and force shells (faster than MC shot speed to "layup" time on target).

Dumbfires work nice agains npc. Using that DBS i had no issues with any pirate lord flying FDL or Anaconda (even with 4PDT) or anything in between
The trick is to fire them really close.
Penetrator is perfect since it bleeds damage to internals, it does not rely on breach chance, instead it automatically hits both the hull and the internals, has quite large aoe so it mai hit multiple modules at the same time.

 

[St0rmFury]

Penetrator is perfect since it bleeds damage to internals, it does not rely on breach chance, instead it automatically hits both the hull and the internals, has quite large aoe so it mai hit multiple modules at the same time.

Since you're familiar with the penetrator EE, does it trade some hull/external dmg for internal dmg? Or am I doing full damage to hull/external + internal damage?

 

[Northpin]

Since you're familiar with the penetrator EE, does it trade some hull/external dmg for internal dmg? Or am I doing full damage to hull/external + internal damage?

Full damage hull/external and 40% damage bleed to internals (aoe, so for not very large ships multiple modules will be hit at the same time)
But without penetrator payload it will never do any internal damage since missiles have 0 breach chance.

 

[AEBRAM]

Dumbfires work nice agains npc. Using that DBS i had no issues with any pirate lord flying FDL or Anaconda (even with 4PDT) or anything in between
The trick is to fire them really close.
Penetrator is perfect since it bleeds damage to internals, it does not rely on breach chance, instead it automatically hits both the hull and the internals, has quite large aoe so it mai hit multiple modules at the same time.

I agree they do work nice against NPCs. I experienced when you are boost orbiting the target or moving fast in a vertical vector then dumbfire missiles have trajectory firing issues, even when you've dropped them on the leading mark. Not always but it exists due to their movement speed and both ships movements in the dogfight. I was mentioning this occurrence to be an FYI when using them.

 

[Viridian-]

Fully engineer all cannons on all hardpoints, fixed, on an Anaconda. Fight NPC Anacondas with it. It's not a reasonable thing to do but it's fun as hell.

 

[AEBRAM]

Fully engineer all cannons on all hardpoints, fixed, on an Anaconda. Fight NPC Anacondas with it. It's not a reasonable thing to do but it's fun as hell.

I equipped one with all turreted cannons with a LR Beam to tag mobs. Then did the dance to beam more and you get the mobs blown up off the front view screen often enough. Canons are pitiful v. shields but one huge Beam to stripe shields and poof, canons become very effective.

 

[Krieger]

Fully engineer all cannons on all hardpoints, fixed, on an Anaconda. Fight NPC Anacondas with it. It's not a reasonable thing to do but it's fun as hell.

I have a Chieftain build with 4 G5 short range cannons + 1 corrosive small turret + 1 feedback cascade rail gun to counter shield cells. Tons of fun! G5 cannons are surprisingly effective against shields due to their huge damage output. Once shields are down they make short work of everything even without a corrosive turret.
And due to their low distributor draw I can fly with 2 pips in SYS, 3 1/2 pips in ENG and just 1/2 a pip in WEP, fully leveraging the Chiefs manoeuvrability.

 

[CaptKarel]

I have a Chieftain build with 4 G5 short range cannons + 1 corrosive small turret + 1 feedback cascade rail gun to counter shield cells. Tons of fun! G5 cannons are surprisingly effective against shields due to their huge damage output. Once shields are down they make short work of everything even without a corrosive turret.
And due to their low distributor draw I can fly with 2 pips in SYS, 3 1/2 pips in ENG and just 1/2 a pip in WEP, fully leveraging the Chiefs manoeuvrability.

Very interesting build, may have to test this.

 

[AEBRAM]

make a new discussion...but imo just cause you can kill npcs in a T9 w cannons.. it would be a long one...it wouldnt be a good play

Actually, I have not slashed at T9. Now, I have splashed several dangerous+ combat rated T10s, Anacondas, Cutters, and the gambit of medium ships with turreted cannons. The actual time-to-kill is fairly short, couple minutes or less when doing the Coffman's retrograde maneuver.

A buddy asked how much damage you can toss out with your Cutter with cannons. So, he took his pimped-out combat ship, and I nuked his shields in 10 seconds and stripped 40% of his highly engineered ship's hull integrity before I stopped firing.

Edit: Should FDev ever decide to set a universal shot speed on cannons then they will get even better because you would be able to synchronize them with other hardpoint choices better.

 

[Blue Mars]

Actually, I have not slashed at T9. Now, I have splashed several dangerous+ combat rated T10s, Anacondas, Cutters, and the gambit of medium ships with turreted cannons. The actual time-to-kill is fairly short, couple minutes or less when doing the Coffman's retrograde maneuver.

A buddy asked how much damage you can toss out with your Cutter with cannons. So, he took his pimped-out combat ship, and I nuked his shields in 10 seconds and stripped 40% of his highly engineered ship's hull integrity before I stopped firing.

Edit: Should FDev ever decide to set a universal shot speed on cannons then they will get even better because you would be able to synchronize them with other hardpoint choices better.

one day , you will teach me the " Coffman's retrograde maneuver."