Is there any reason to not use full multicannons loadouts on combat ships?

[Stealthie]

I'm considering making a change to my Python's loadout. Currently the three large HPs have two beam lasers and a pulse laser, while the medium HPs ar MCs. However, I'm starting to doubt the use of that pulse laser, so I may swap it out for another MC. The beams already do a good job of removing those tiresome shields.

I'm no expert (especially at PvP) but I tend to just fit beam-lasers to the smallest HPs on a given ship and that's usually sufficient for shields, leaving me free to get creative with any other armaments.

I should say, though, that I rarely get too ambitious with who I take on.
I just flat-out wouldn't take on, say, an Anaconda if I was flying a Cobra.
No doubt there's some "meta" loadout which would allow me to do that but it's not how I roll.

 

[Surprised Brony]

For PvE, I use an all incendiary efficient multi-cannon loadout on my Cutter while I'm engineering or trading. It's fantastic because not even hulls resist thermal damage so it chews up NPCs. If I want to sustain, I'd go lasers. Efficient lasers.

PvP isn't my thing, so that's a field of knowledge for someone else.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

I'm no expert (especially at PvP) but I tend to just fit beam-lasers to the smallest HPs on a given ship and that's usually sufficient for shields, leaving me free to get creative with any other armaments.

Yeah, I'm not into PvP either, this is just to make NPCs go away faster.

 

[Elyssaen]

I'm talking about PvE, where module sniping is not needed.

Let's take a combat ship like the gunship or the Fer-de-Lance. I've tried several weapon loadouts on those ships and by far the most destructive weapons are multicannons. I've tried full lasers, a mix of lasers and kinetic weapons, special weapons like plasmas or rails, but nothing comes close to how fast ships get destroyed when using multicannons.

I have both of those in main line-up of four, and don't quite use all multi-cannons. But you might be right that I should, at least with engineered Incendiary weapons.

On the Gunship I like to have two small railguns. That ship has enough mass, power and overall firepower that it trivialises the disadvantages of just two small railguns, it makes me feel a little less useless when chaff comes out (I use gimballed multi-cannons on it), it's really not bad at sniping when you target a sub-system to get a smaller reticule over the target, and once I engineer them, they'll disrupt shield cell use.

On the Fer-de-Lance I wouldn't dream of giving up my huge fixed beam, and not just because I don't like the look of huge multi-cannon fire. It's a great little fixed sniper, and the way I fly the Fer-de-Lance I really can't stand risking running completely out of firepower. Beams have a great damage profile, are vastly improved by engineering, and complement multi-cannons really well.

Still, multi-cannons are probably the best weapons out there if you use Overcharged, then a mix of Corrosive, Incendiary and no-special-effect.

I also love crazy loadouts, specially on small ships, and I'd love to build a true missile boat and a ship similar to those Cluster Flak Arrays and Flak Artillery Arrays builds on X3.

I've been working on a relatively 'crazy' loadout for my other two main ships, my Clipper and my Courier. It's... not entirely succeeded yet.

With the Clipper I'm trying to build a laser artillery ship, with the Long Range upgrade's brilliant advantage of essentially no damage fall-off. Haven't quite got myself comfortable with it yet though: fixed beam on one wing is a given, the rest gimballed is too, but I'm playing about with pulse/burst, struggling with the distributor a bit, and am still considering using an Orca instead simply so my symmetry obsession isn't frustrated.

The Courier I've been flying with three flak cannons, aiming for all Double Shot, one Corrosive, one Incendiary, and one Drag Munitions. I tried it briefly in beta with heavy engineering and while it took some getting used to, it was a hell of a lot of fun. Not really a RES/CZ ship except that my Courier is also my surface prospector, and eventually I'm going to have enough raw materials for synthesis, right?

I did also try all railgun and all plasma accelerator Couriers, but... no. Nope. Just no. Railguns fry it too badly, Efficient plasma accelerators kind of work but don't give enough of a damage boost over 2 MC / 1 beam to justify all the trouble, Focused plasmas are easier to hit but really have no damage advantage over a more basic build and put far too much strain on the distributor, etc.

 

[Conch]

ive got the best reason to not use multicannons at all... here it comes, its lame and boring.

be a man, run a full plasma build

 

[Straker]

I remember trying all MCs on my FGS and being disappointed against larger NPC Elite ships that use SCBs. It was a constant battle to get their shields down with only MCs before they pumped them back up again with an SCB. Now days I tend to try to balance my loudouts with a mixture of thermal and kinetic weapons so I maintain a good ratio of thermals to bring down the shields as quick as possible while having enough power to punch through the hull afterwards. This often requires some experimentation to get the mix balanced well. I'll often use rapid fire, phasing sequence pulses along with MCs with corrosive shell.

Perhaps it's just me but I don't totally understood the fixation with all MCs but that's what's great about the game - you can mix it up how you like.

 

[lysan]

As I use my fighter pilot to hammer the shields, the MC loadout will do the rest with a touch of missiles (PvE)

 

[sb413197]

I've found lasers faster at killing the fastest ships in CZs - it can be tough to tag a viper in a slow ship with MCs. In my anaconda I actually have a higher kill per second running lasers.

 

[Flash_Baggins]

I run dual incendiary overcharged MCs on my Vulture, and they are very good against AI, but in PVP you may need something that packs a bit more of a punch or a wingmate.

 

[CMDR ANCALAGON]

I have found that beams + mc to be a nice combo. In my FDL, on one fire group I have two medium gimbled beams (un-modified) for taking down shields & two medium turreted MC (C5 Thermal & Shock mods) for general defense and harassment, and on the other fire group I have one yuuuge gimbled MC (C5 corrosive) for the quick finish once shields are down.

I can sustain the beams for about 10 seconds during a boost and tend to just open up with everything once shields are down.

I spent most of my first couple of months exploring, so I have a lot of the common mats for synth, so ammo refulls aren't a problem.

 

[CMDR CODY]

The Vulture with 2 large guns, carries the same ammo as a Mk5 Spitfire, and they worked just fine.
You just have to hit what your aiming at. BTW the Spitfire is the training ship in most WWII MMOs.
Like the Spit, the Vulture turns on a dime, so saddling up is easy, and as long as you dont out class your guns, you can take them down.

 

[Arry]

Yes, having to rearm at the station it's a pita sometimes. What kind of lasers would you advice? I love beams, they can melt your ship from the inside and they drain the PD pretty fast, but they punch very hard. Tried a full pulse loadout on my FdL and I found it very frustrating.

I use a full pules set up on my FDL, when in a combat zone and have found that 4 mid turrets and 1 huge gimbled works ok and because I only use the huge one when the target is right in front of me, the power is not an issue. The 4 turrets will pew pew all day with just a couple of pips to weapons. Turrets use less power than the other options.

 

[CMDR-AD]

While bounty hunting in my FdL, I have settled on an all fixed Cannon package. Under RES site conditions, I can use the FdL at point blank range to maximize the hits scored, and the maneuverability of the FdL lets me keep the Cannons close and on target for several volleys.

In terms of damage dealt, last night a couple of Eagles with full shielding were reduced to destruction after a single volley. A Cobra Mk4 took 3 volleys. A Clipper from full shielding took 4 volleys. I don't bother with weapon engineering or synthesis.

I probably wouldn't run this setup in a Combat Zone, though.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Ammo.
Same with Cannons and Frag Cannons.

Here's a build variant I find quite effective and fun:

[video=youtube;Eb7dYMY96gw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb7dYMY96gw[/video]

 

[Crash1099]

If they ever bother to make multicannons heat up/ suffer carbon build-up a bit more realistically (I've seized an L85A2 solid with 24 clips of continuous burst/ single shot ), then you'd have a reason to look elsewhere.

Otherwise, I'd have to agree

L85A2 is such a nice gun. So fun to play with it in games. Love to have one however i doubt they sell that in the usa.

 

[GammaZ]

I remember trying all MCs on my FGS and being disappointed against larger NPC Elite ships that use SCBs. It was a constant battle to get their shields down with only MCs before they pumped them back up again with an SCB. Now days I tend to try to balance my loudouts with a mixture of thermal and kinetic weapons so I maintain a good ratio of thermals to bring down the shields as quick as possible while having enough power to punch through the hull afterwards. This often requires some experimentation to get the mix balanced well. I'll often use rapid fire, phasing sequence pulses along with MCs with corrosive shell.

Perhaps it's just me but I don't totally understood the fixation with all MCs but that's what's great about the game - you can mix it up how you like.

Thing is, it is now possible to balance thermal/kinetic damage even with all-multicannon loadout. Just make some of them incendiary. They have much higher no-falloff range than lasers and as a result are considerably more effective at medium range against bigger targets than non-long range modded lasers.