Right now, gimbals wander wildly. That's just fine for things that fire constantly and are able to average this out, or weapons that mostly fire at close range, but is unfairly biased against weapons like Cannons; it can mean missing a huge amount (especially in the short term), disproportionately making them worse compared to other weapons that fire more regularly. Cannons are especially egregious in this regard; they nominally have huge range, but gimbals will never actually hit at those ranges, even if the target is stationary.
So my proposal is this; rather than waving around wildly, like they do right now, have the jitter be changed to recoil. Each shot would push the aim slightly off target, while the gun would try to compensate. As a general rule, faster-firing weapons would climb quickly to the maximum recoil, while slower-firing weapons, or weapons with refire delays, would stay closer to the minimum jitter. This would have several effects.
Multicannons and Beam Lasers would be largely unchanged. The first shot would be on target, but after the first shot, they would immediately become essentially the same as right now.
Cannons and Pulse Lasers, by contrast, would have much less jitter. They would fire, and the jitter would spike - but because they have a significantly longer refire period, the jitter would mostly fade before the next shot. Cannons would become more accurate at longer ranges, but their slower projectile speed would still make them dodgable. Pulse lasers, by contrast, would be quite a bit more accurate than beam lasers at longer range, but this would be okay because of their overall lower damage.
In the middle ground would be weapons like Burst Lasers. For them, the first shot would be on-target, the second shot would be slightly off target, and the third shot would be even more off target, roughly in line with the maximum of what happens at present. But by the time the next burst comes, it would once again be on-target.
The net result would be that slower-firing weapons would become substantially better at longer ranges, giving Pulse Lasers a useful niche as a long-range weapon, and making Cannons more viable in a variety of situations, while largely leaving more common weapons like multicannons and beam lasers unchanged.
So my proposal is this; rather than waving around wildly, like they do right now, have the jitter be changed to recoil. Each shot would push the aim slightly off target, while the gun would try to compensate. As a general rule, faster-firing weapons would climb quickly to the maximum recoil, while slower-firing weapons, or weapons with refire delays, would stay closer to the minimum jitter. This would have several effects.
Multicannons and Beam Lasers would be largely unchanged. The first shot would be on target, but after the first shot, they would immediately become essentially the same as right now.
Cannons and Pulse Lasers, by contrast, would have much less jitter. They would fire, and the jitter would spike - but because they have a significantly longer refire period, the jitter would mostly fade before the next shot. Cannons would become more accurate at longer ranges, but their slower projectile speed would still make them dodgable. Pulse lasers, by contrast, would be quite a bit more accurate than beam lasers at longer range, but this would be okay because of their overall lower damage.
In the middle ground would be weapons like Burst Lasers. For them, the first shot would be on-target, the second shot would be slightly off target, and the third shot would be even more off target, roughly in line with the maximum of what happens at present. But by the time the next burst comes, it would once again be on-target.
The net result would be that slower-firing weapons would become substantially better at longer ranges, giving Pulse Lasers a useful niche as a long-range weapon, and making Cannons more viable in a variety of situations, while largely leaving more common weapons like multicannons and beam lasers unchanged.
