Newcomer / Intro Guns not firing

[Icarus619]

Hello everybody!

I am completely new and just making my first steps in the game. However I bought a multi cannon, but i can't fire it. When I deploy it there is not the ammo displayed like i've already seen it, there is just a blue, half filled bar. What does that mean? Not enough energy to power it? I have no clue and don't know how to fix it. When I fire it the minigun starts to spin and stops shortly after without firing a shot..

Thank you in advance!

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Hi!

Ok, a few questions in order to help the issue:
1) Are you pressing and holding, they do have a spin up time.
2) Go to right hand panel, 2nd tab (modules) and find the multicannon module. Is there ammo in the brackets?
3) Have you got capacity in weapons. Bottom right there's 3 bars showing stored power. The little dots underneath show where your power is currently at and which bar will be refilled. These are called power pips, without them bars won't refill. If the bar is empty this means there's no energy to fire the weapons, without 1 or more pips it'll not recharge itself.

Some are silly questions but who knows they may help.

If the above doesn't help at all try a restart of game if you haven't already and consider uploading an image to imgur or whatever and posting a link here, may help us work out the issue.

 

[Chris Simon]

All that above plus:
4) are you sure you didn't buy turrets? Look at the modules tab in your left panel. Turrets have a turret icon, gimbals have two intersected ellipses and fixed weapons have a targeting sight symbol

 

[Icarus619]

First of all thank you very much for your answers. I will upload a screenshot tomorrow what it looks like, but there are few things i can answer right away:

I am pressing and holding, yes
I don't know if there is ammo loaded, but I can't buy since it says that my ammo is at 100%. Do i need to manually load them first?
There is power at the weapons, but i did not switch it there. The stored energy should be enough to fire it a few times before it is empty right?
I bought a multi cannon tower which automatically aims at the selected target.

 

[Chris Simon]

First of all thank you very much for your answers. I will upload a screenshot tomorrow what it looks like, but there are few things i can answer right away:

I am pressing and holding, yes
I don't know if there is ammo loaded, but I can't buy since it says that my ammo is at 100%. Do i need to manually load them first?
There is power at the weapons, but i did not switch it there. The stored energy should be enough to fire it a few times before it is empty right?
I bought a multi cannon tower which automatically aims at the selected target.

So you did buy a turret? Well, in that case (if you want to keep it) you have three options how to use it. Go to the Functions tab on right panel and find "Turret mode".
Fire at will - turrets will automatically fire at any hostile target in their range.
Target only - turrets will only fire at a ship that you have targeted. You have to activate them by pressing a trigger (they need to be in a firegroup) and then they will fire until the target's dead, they run out of ammo or you switch targets.
Forward fire - They will lock facing forward and you can use them like a fixed weapon.

If you don't want this, go back to outfitting and buy gimballed version, they also have limited auto aim and fire normally, operated by a trigger.

 

[Perseus]

On a related note, guns are not firing on my FdL in the top two C2 gun mounts when I do a hard lateral thrust. If I trust left, the top right weapon won't discharge (it's a Hammer and I hear the build up but it won't fire). if I thrust right the top left (Fixed Beam) won't fire.
I can't understand why - they are both fixed and shouldn't be in danger of hitting my hull as my movement is away from any potential self inflicted weapon strike. Both the lower c2 mounts operate normally even in hard spiralling turns.
Has anyone else noticed this or can give an answer why the guns won't discharge?

 

[Chris Simon]

On a related note, guns are not firing on my FdL in the top two C2 gun mounts when I do a hard lateral thrust. If I trust left, the top right weapon won't discharge (it's a Hammer and I hear the build up but it won't fire). if I thrust right the top left (Fixed Beam) won't fire.
I can't understand why - they are both fixed and shouldn't be in danger of hitting my hull as my movement is away from any potential self inflicted weapon strike. Both the lower c2 mounts operate normally even in hard spiralling turns.
Has anyone else noticed this or can give an answer why the guns won't discharge?

Do you, by chance, use X55 or X56?

 

[Perseus]

X52 pro.
Do you think it might be a hardware issue?

 

[Chris Simon]

X52 pro.
Do you think it might be a hardware issue?

X55 family is know to behave weird if they have insufficient power via USB.
But I've never heard of X52 having these issues, so I don't know.

Then again if it was ghosting, it would be the trigger malfunctioning, not individual weapons. I haven't flown the FdL for some time. When I did, I certainly haven't got these issues.
Try flying with FAoff to find out whether it is the direction of the movement, causing this, or the actual thruster input.

 

[Icarus619]

Okay thanks, maybe I will switch the turret and install a normal guided one (forgot the name ). Already got two fixed lasers so i want two guided weapons. I will switch them tomorrow and report back.

How does the ammo work though? Do I need to buy it and then put it in the weapon somehow?

 

[Chris Simon]

Okay thanks, maybe I will switch the turret and install a normal guided one (forgot the name ). Already got two fixed lasers so i want two guided weapons. I will switch them tomorrow and report back.

How does the ammo work though? Do I need to buy it and then put it in the weapon somehow?

I have seen this HUD glitch before. It should update back to the ammo counter once they start firing.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Okay thanks, maybe I will switch the turret and install a normal guided one (forgot the name ). Already got two fixed lasers so i want two guided weapons. I will switch them tomorrow and report back.

How does the ammo work though? Do I need to buy it and then put it in the weapon somehow?

Yeah, my follow-up questions were going to be turrets and targeting.
Just as an FYI you can set your turrets fire mode on the right panel and last tab. Target only, fire at will, forwards fire only. If you set it to forwards only it should act as a regular fixed weapon and fire on trigger press. If Chris was right on the whole turrets thing the way to get it to work is to find a target you want to attack, select them and then press the fire button once, the turrets should auto track and shoot once this has been done but you need to have them in a fire group to activate them, otherwise they'd shoot every ship you target automatically.

Gimballed is the one you want where it autolocks if the enemy is in your field of view in front of you


As for ammo yes you are good to go, if the restock option is blanked out you are fully loaded. The system works similar to most other games lets imagine you have: 100/1200 showing. This means 100 rounds are in your current clip, when it runs out the gun auto-reloads (there is no reload button, it only reloads when empty). If you run out of ammo entirely and it shows 0/0 under the weapon then you need to return to a station to restock ammo. Or use synthesis from gathered materials for on the fly restocking, but thats usually only done in special cases as it's time consuming to gather the materials. Hopefully it'll all make sense when you get the weapons firing..

 

[Para Handy]

............. there is just a blue, half filled bar. What does that mean? ..............

That means the target is out of range of your turret.

The rest of your queries have been answered elsewhere.

Welcome to the fora, enjoy the game.

 

[Icarus619]

Cool thank you very much for all this information!

Another question regarding weapons:
Am I right that thermal weapons do more damage to the shield and kinetic can destroy the hull when the shield is gone? So I would install two multi cannon and two thermal weapons. I would keep them in one firegroup but trigger one with Mouse1 and the second one with Mouse2. So that I can fire kinetic bullets or thermal shots. Does this make sense?

 

[Para Handy]

Cool thank you very much for all this information!

Another question regarding weapons:
Am I right that thermal weapons do more damage to the shield and kinetic can destroy the hull when the shield is gone? So I would install two multi cannon and two thermal weapons. I would keep them in one firegroup but trigger one with Mouse1 and the second one with Mouse2. So that I can fire kinetic bullets or thermal shots. Does this make sense?

yes ....

 

[Imo]

Well, I have often heard it to be like this, but I personally can not confirm this. Multi cannons are quite good in both taking down shield and hull. At least for me. Fly the Python for long.

 

[Khoraak]

Hi, new player too. Came across this in my search;
I was wondering why my cannon wasn't firing, lol.. I suspected it was all about the "automatic targeting" thing, and the fact that there seemed to be something of a difference between gimballed and auto. This thread helped me too, thanks for info.

 

[Para Handy]

Well, I have often heard it to be like this, but I personally can not confirm this. Multi cannons are quite good in both taking down shield and hull. At least for me. Fly the Python for long.

Since someone necro'ed the thread I'll just take the time so say that is complete nonsense. Thermal weapons are more effective against shields by several magnitudes. Sure, a MC will damage a shield but wow - so much ammunition, so much time, so much wasted effort.

 

[Chris Simon]

Hi, new player too. Came across this in my search;
I was wondering why my cannon wasn't firing, lol.. I suspected it was all about the "automatic targeting" thing, and the fact that there seemed to be something of a difference between gimballed and auto. This thread helped me too, thanks for info.

If by "auto" you mean turrets, then yes. There are three types of weapon mount - fixed (only fires forward and you have to aim by yourself), gimballed (have auto aim in about 30° arc (unless the target is obstructed by your own ship - for example belly mounted weapons will not fire "up")) and turrets, which have three firing modes between which you can switch in the ship menu on the right-hand panel - forward fire (like fixed), target only (when you target a ship and press fire trigger they will start engaging the target as long as they have line of sight and range) and fire at will at which point they become 100% autonomous and will attack every hostile ship in their range.

So it's extremely easy for a newcomer to get confused by various types of weapon mounts and firing modes.

 

[Khoraak]

Since someone necro'ed the thread I'll just take the time so say that is complete nonsense. Thermal weapons are more effective against shields by several magnitudes. Sure, a MC will damage a shield but wow - so much ammunition, so much time, so much wasted effort.

People do google searches and get these threads, which are still open to others to share their views on. Sorry that doesn't meet your elitist expectations, your highness.