Gimballed weapons should be able to act like fixed on demand without deselecting our target

[Gorr]

I made a few months break and I've come back to grind combat status to elite (50% deadly atm) and I just forgot how annoying npc chaff spam in this game is.
It's like 95% of the npc ships use chaff and periods of it's downtime are just so short that it's not enjoyable at all.

I know that I can deselect target and than being able to use gimballed weapons as fixed but why in so far future we can not turn gimball computer on our weapons off on demand?
Something like button for hold/toggle flight assist off?

I think this option would improve pace of battle A LOT as deselecting target just feels clunky and not needed at all.
Purelly fixed weapon versions should keep their dps edge.

 

[Tiili]

Good idea, simple and I can't really think of any argument to go against this.

 

[Old Duck]

I would love hybrid weapons that can be toggled between fixed and gimbaled and behave exactly like their dedicated counterparts. So when in fixed mode, you get the extra DPS and microservers, which you lose when toggling to gimbal mode. Seriously, I'd pay extra for these!

 

[sandkid]

It's certainly not a bad suggestion and technically the weapons are already balanced around functionality with turrets being the least lethal and the fixed the most.

I can't remember but I thought there was a forward fire for Turrets that essentially operates like 'fixed'. I don't know if this ignores chaff launchers, though.

I would have the option be present there (and thus not be a mappable option, requiring HUD interaction to switch modes). While this means chaff launchers and low heat signatures can 'technically' be defeated (as they are with fixed weapons) you've introduced a mechanic that for all intents and purposes takes time to use and thus really boils down to 'is it worth it' in a fight scenario.

EX: I'm fighting an enemy vessel that is liberally using its chaff launcher.

• Switching to fixed will allow me to combat it more effectively but require me to first switch modes.
• Switching modes does not give any inherent bonuses aside from setting the weapons to 'fixed' or 'gimballed' (if the weapon can support these).
• Switching modes takes time (using the systems panel) and can only be reset the same way (using the systems panel again)

Turrets have the advantage of being the most adaptable weapon (they already were this) at the expense of the lowest damage yield and less-than-great tracking.
Gimbals can take advantage of fixed mode in scenarios like the example but lack turret mode. Better damage than turrets, though.
Fixed weapons have no other mode but yield the highest damage output and are, of course, not affected by the scenario to begin with.

I'd say turn it loose. The weapons are already balanced - we're just adding functionality without upsetting balance.

 

[Havvk]

I made a few months break and I've come back to grind combat status to elite (50% deadly atm) and I just forgot how annoying npc chaff spam in this game is.
It's like 95% of the npc ships use chaff and periods of it's downtime are just so short that it's not enjoyable at all.

I know that I can deselect target and than being able to use gimballed weapons as fixed but why in so far future we can not turn gimball computer on our weapons off on demand?
Something like button for hold/toggle flight assist off?

I think this option would improve pace of battle A LOT as deselecting target just feels clunky and not needed at all.
Purelly fixed weapon versions should keep their dps edge.

Only if they have the same damage output/power useage as per normal that way they don't become an objective upgrade over normal fixed

 

[tolm]

I’d like to be able to choose - per Fire Group - whether Gimballed weapons are in Gimballed or Fixed mode. Would allow you to set up a second Fire Group - with the weapons set to Fixed - to toggle to when encountering an “uber-chaffer” NPC.

I’d be happy if the damage and power draw stays as per the gimballed variant, TBH, as I always took that to be a feature of the sturdier Fixed mount weapons being able to handle more recoil from a more powerful version of the weapon.

Plus otherwise there’d be no reason to buy the actual Fixed weapons. Like, ever. Which would just be silly.