Never heard of long range?
Bigger railguns and gauss?
- Thread starter RedivivusCrowd
- Start date
Of course all weapons lose damage drop off when you put longe range on, I'm talking about railguns in general.
That's why the most commonly used mod is long range on them. 6 km range, no falloff, lmao.
Nobody is using railguns in general. People tend to engineer them, you know.
The only railgun modification that requires skill to use (good range control) and does not encourage braindead reverski is called SRB. And it's already meta (kind of).
Also a longer charge time. I've always imagined something like a C4 railgun/gauss cannon to take several seconds to charge, but oh boy, when they do...
And then put them on a corvette. THAT'll get me back into ax work again, that's for sure.
So its a PA... That is INFINITELY easier to hit with... And has 6km no falloff... And basically kills range control??? You serious???
Or you know, they lose because PAs require skill to manipulate reticle, preturn, etc, while railguns are point, hold, and click simulator?
Soooooooooo they're even crazier?????? No this is ridiculous. Railguns don't have that because a.) They are easy to use compared to PAs and B.) their base stats are absolutely JACKED.
The Cutter Council does as well...
But no other weapon is hitscan, kinetic, with high breach chance, and super penetrator. Its not a combo that should be taken lightly.
Yes, that too! Adding some recoil would be nice.
If anyone's interested in what the probable stats of these theoretical Large and Huge Railguns would be, I did the math in a similar thread back in February:
They'd be in line with the Class 2s in terms of damage per second with slower rates-of-fire / charge-up times, and wouldn't be overpowered relative to the current state of Railguns in the game.
If the current state of the Small and Medium Railguns is considered to be broken and overpowered, well...
They'd be in line with the Class 2s in terms of damage per second with slower rates-of-fire / charge-up times, and wouldn't be overpowered relative to the current state of Railguns in the game.
If the current state of the Small and Medium Railguns is considered to be broken and overpowered, well...
I would rather see cannons be made worth it again. They already have a huge variant but nobody uses them since the nerf.
I don't want them if they're gonna break the game. I asked people how they think they could be implemented in a BALANCED way.
I'm aware there is a reason larger railguns aren't a thing.
For the sake of argument, let's entertain the idea that bigger railguns are going to inevitably be added to the game. Knowing that, how would you implement said railguns and/or potentially rework railguns in general?
The problem with rails is that they get EASIER to hit with at long range(because microgimbaling), while other weapons become basically impossible.
Take a Cannon, for example. Theoretically it's competition with rails for module damage; in practice, hitting with a cannon beyond ~1000m is basically impossible, because they've got almost the slowest projectile speed in the game. Hitting a specific module at long range is definitely impossible.
By contrast, a long-range rail can not only microgimbal at 5500m, it can have super penetrator and shoot all the way through the target to hit the desired module.
IMO rails need to have microgimbaling removed, and Long Range should be replaced by Focused.
Take a Cannon, for example. Theoretically it's competition with rails for module damage; in practice, hitting with a cannon beyond ~1000m is basically impossible, because they've got almost the slowest projectile speed in the game. Hitting a specific module at long range is definitely impossible.
By contrast, a long-range rail can not only microgimbal at 5500m, it can have super penetrator and shoot all the way through the target to hit the desired module.
IMO rails need to have microgimbaling removed, and Long Range should be replaced by Focused.
C3 and C4 “Railgun Array” … basically 2 or 4 C2 Railguns mounted together and firing in a rapid burst manner. Massive damage but - due to burst firing - tricky to land all shots on the same module preventing it from being too OP.
Mind you … two C4 versions of those on a Corvette could be hilarious …
Mind you … two C4 versions of those on a Corvette could be hilarious …
Rails are almost comical in Elite already. The idea that a hyperspeed projectile has to be fired at a ship 20 or 30 times to even start having an impact is kind of bonkers. They probably ought not be involved in WWII dogfighting in space really. All the weapons are comically bad to artificially reduce the the range of engagement. They are just about as sad as missiles and torpedoes are although I can't stop loving the impact effects.
I would say rails should be carried only by the large ships. Should be devastating as far as damage but the balance is the very real issue of energy needed to charge and fire them meaning you don't get many tries, the hull strength needed to survive their use, and the slow turning rates of the bigs making them hard to deploy against other small ships.
I kinda agree on the micro-gimbal at the maximum range being easier to hold than at close range. That should probably scale out past a certain distance but the fact that it's easier to hold on a target at long range is simple math folks. The target may be smaller at long range but the delta in angle for you to hold on the target point is much smaller and thus more forgiving.
I would say rails should be carried only by the large ships. Should be devastating as far as damage but the balance is the very real issue of energy needed to charge and fire them meaning you don't get many tries, the hull strength needed to survive their use, and the slow turning rates of the bigs making them hard to deploy against other small ships.
I kinda agree on the micro-gimbal at the maximum range being easier to hold than at close range. That should probably scale out past a certain distance but the fact that it's easier to hold on a target at long range is simple math folks. The target may be smaller at long range but the delta in angle for you to hold on the target point is much smaller and thus more forgiving.
The trouble is, if you have realistic ranges, things get pretty boring fast. Real life doesn't even have dogfighting anymore, it just has missiles launched from beyond the horizon flying mach 20 and blowing up their target with no warning. If you want a somewhat realistic view on what space combat would REALLY be like, look at the Honor Harrington books. Basically, each side has missiles and ECM, and in most fights, the side with the better missiles and ECM just wins, flat out. The exceptions are few and far between, and usually have some external factor involved.
So we sacrifice realism for enjoyment. It's honestly similar to how we do the same in sword fighting games; because being stuck in a shield wall and poking guys from 20 feet away with a sharp stick while behind a shield just isn't very fun. Getting one wound and dying of disease isn't very fun.
And getting your powerplant blown up from 6km away with no chance to fight back also isn't very fun.
Oh oh, don't get me started! I could write an Essay on this
But can someone please tell me where the railgun slugs go after 1.5km?
Boring is 15 minutes of pounding with "rail guns" while the other guy just keeps coming. Boring is 25 minutes jousting back and forth only being able to fire within 1KM on the next pass. I don't think many pilots involved in air to air combat describe it as boring.
I acknowledge the developers wanted dogfighting spaceships so they pulled the ranges in. They want longer fights so missiles are just bottle rockets that damage weapons. The rails as implemented in this game are already comically nerfed to the point they sully their namesake. Banging away on ships for dozens upon dozens of shots with rail guns completely undermines the idea of them being rail guns.
I can't blow up your power plant from 6KM away unless you have shields down. In my head if you decide to take on a CVT class ship that can fire rails you best save some shield to run, stick to his blind spots like glue till they come back, or be running like a jackrabbit and drop some heat sinks or some other way to break a target lock.
I acknowledge the developers wanted dogfighting spaceships so they pulled the ranges in. They want longer fights so missiles are just bottle rockets that damage weapons. The rails as implemented in this game are already comically nerfed to the point they sully their namesake. Banging away on ships for dozens upon dozens of shots with rail guns completely undermines the idea of them being rail guns.
I can't blow up your power plant from 6KM away unless you have shields down. In my head if you decide to take on a CVT class ship that can fire rails you best save some shield to run, stick to his blind spots like glue till they come back, or be running like a jackrabbit and drop some heat sinks or some other way to break a target lock.
They fire slugs that are spun at extreme speeds to maintain stability down the firing rail. After 1.5km, small instabilities in the slug cause increasing wobbles, which begin a process of deformation that quickly tears the slug apart. Over the next 1.5km the slug disintegrates , spraying out into a fine spray of particles that hit a wider area, thereby dealing less damage to the target. Past 3km, they have dissipated far enough it does no appreciable damage to modern armor.