Isnt it somehow lame that Multicannons are so much better than Railguns and Cannons?

[tagos]

That could be the case Tagos, but it means practicing with them when you could be enjoying more success now with the gimballed beams and multicannons. I think most players will choose success now.

Sure. But in which case they should not be here demanding things are made easier for them. I'm referring specifically to the 'piracy is too hard' mob. In my limited foray into bounty hunting I found using easily spoofed gimbals made it hard to prevent ships escaping. That's why I learned to shoot straight with rails.

If people want to use gimbals, that's fine. I do most of the time. But the beauty of the weapon mix is there are challenges where if you master the bigger fixed ones you can do them ahead of the curve. Sure, you can load the Conda up with gimbals and do most everything easily. But add Rails to a Viper and as people say, take shots at a Conda power-plant you're going to be pretty effective.

I just get a bit testy in MMO's where as soon as some people find something difficult they head to the forum instead of the practice field, so to speak. That's how games with a PvP element qucklty descend into a never-ending 'nerf that and that' spiral.

IMHO Frontier should leave well alone for the time being.

 

[Lazerus Artificial]

Sure. But in which case they should not be here demanding things are made easier for them. I'm referring specifically to the 'piracy is too hard' mob. In my limited foray into bounty hunting I found using easily spoofed gimbals made it hard to prevent ships escaping. That's why I learned to shoot straight with rails.

If people want to use gimbals, that's fine. I do most of the time. But the beauty of the weapon mix is there are challenges where if you master the bigger fixed ones you can do them ahead of the curve. Sure, you can load the Conda up with gimbals and do most everything easily. But add Rails to a Viper and as people say, take shots at a Conda power-plant you're going to be pretty effective.

I just get a bit testy in MMO's where as soon as some people find something difficult they head to the forum instead of the practice field, so to speak. That's how games with a PvP element qucklty descend into a never-ending 'nerf that and that' spiral.

IMHO Frontier should leave well alone for the time being.

thats the problem. it might be fun to learn how to use a new weapon, sometimes its even worth it, but if such a "high skill" weapon requires an incredible amount of credits to fire...then its not worth it.

 

[nats]

Multicannons better than cannons? Dont be daft. I have one good pulse laser and one good cannon on my Cobra. I reduce their shields with the laser which is gimballed (works well at distance) and then I get close and two or three shots from my fixed cannon is enough to finish most ships up to Cobra size. Cannons are lethal. I love them!

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

C
The IF is the problem, it is not always possible to get that constant fire. Also I think Cannons and Railguns are better for taking out subsystems.
I am currentliy testing 2x Tier 2 Pulse Laser + 2x Tier 1 Cannons on my cobra .

this is my exact loadout as well..... I must admit I am inexperienced with the projectile weapons, but on naked hull they seem to do a reasonable amount of damage.

I will however give the multicannons a proper try as well once i have more of a feeling for the normal cannons.

 

[Lazerus Artificial]

Multicannons better than cannons? Dont be daft. I have one good pulse laser and one good cannon on my Cobra. I reduce their shields with the laser which is gimballed (works well at distance) and then I get close and two or three shots from my fixed cannon is enough to finish most ships up to Cobra size. Cannons are lethal. I love them!

again, what do you pay there? Is a cannon shot worth 200 Gatling bullets?

 

[nats]

again, what do you pay there? Is a cannon shot worth 200 Gatling bullets?

I have no idea the cannon ammo is small fry compared to the repairs and fuel. And I love the way it mashes any ship up in less that a few seconds at close range. My goal now is to get two cannons but at over 20k a piece they aren't cheap. You have to be a decent shot with them at distance but as I am a sim vet the pipper on this game makes leading shots pretty easy.

 

[Mad Doctor X]

I find cannons more fun to use and don't really care about dps/CR etc. Sorry!

 

[ketch1]

I find cannons more fun to use and don't really care about dps/CR etc. Sorry!

Listen to the doctor same as Dr X

 

[Lazerus Artificial]

Listen to the doctor same as Dr X

i have also said that, Railguns and Cannons are way more fun than those Gatlings...but they make me poor^^

 

[Ben_BigBen]

Cannons x 4 all they way for me too ! great for punching out a power plant with a few well times shots

 

[JonnyC0mbat]

I've been rocking Beams and cannons on my Viper for months. I found multi-cannons to be extremely ineffective. However, I was at a conflict zone last night when a guy turned up in a Clipper armed with nothing but multi-cannons and it just shredded pythons. Looks like they are better when you use nothing but multi-cannons on large ships.

I'll be sticking with my current setup for the Viper however.

 

[shigarus]

What about to allow recharging ammo in space? Like fuel scoop, for exmaple out of combat. And decrease ammo for gatlings, allow users not just "my ammo end, i have to go home" but managing of ammo during battle. And i think it won't hurt economy, cos pve does not have much profit as trading. Or weapons have to be damaged during fighting, so u have to repair it.

 

[Synther]

Railguns need much much more ammo. I'm starting to prefer my Class 2 gimballed cannons over multicannons on the Cobra because of the burst potential. It was kind of bad on the Viper since it was much harder to aim being the bottom weapon slot.

 

[PhazonAran]

You know what would make a good Large/Huge multicannon ? Those broadside weapons on the capital ships.

 

[OneAmongOthers]

Cannons and Railguns are meant to be able to deal more damage against larger ships than the ship you're firing from than a same sized multicannon would. If you're attacking smaller or same sized ships then multicannons may do better because of the amount of damage you can still do when missing a few shots where cannons and railguns are punishing if you miss.

Rail Guns have 30 ammo... 30! Even the powerful Plasma accelerator gives you a lot more ammo than that (even though the ammo for it is very over priced vs its actual performance). A cannon will almost never hit a small ship or even a ship of its equal size because the shot velocity is incredibly slow (As mentioned before a dumb fire seems to travel faster). Multi cannons are the go to and completely trump any other weapon type because of their incredible performance. Function over form. The cannon, rail gun and plasma accelerator are very flashy and cool, but at the end of the day a multi cannon will easily out perform it because it's got the things you need for combat. Fast shot velocity, it's cheap to keep ammo and it has a very high dps compared to rail guns, cannons or plasma accelerators. Also the fact a multi cannon is gimballed make it even more effective. Since you only need to face your target. The guns do the rest. Rail guns have a spool up time and are fixed. Plasma accelerators have a very slow shot velocity and are fixed as well. At least cannons are gimballed. But due to their slow shot velocity the target is most of the time gone long before they arrive. Frag cannons are worthless at the moment so nobody even fits them.

Rail guns are very limited because of the ammo. I never fit rail guns because I can get the same performance out of a multi cannon at a fraction of the cost. And I don't have to run back to the station after a single engagement. Also rail guns, plasma accelerators have incredibly high requirements. Which means they are restricted to high cost builds. I can fit a throw away Asp with multi cannons and just go out and blast away because the cost to keep it maintained is minimal.

 

[Briarée]

but even there it seems that mutlicannons are stronger.
its not about the damage alone, as mentioned in this topic. the main problem is that its mostly not worth a shot (literaly). The bounty you get will maybe cover the price you had to spend in railgun/cannon shells, while a multicannon would mage a huge profit (seriously, imagine it like a guy who buys gatling ammo in an open crate - he doesnt care about a few bullets that fall out)

so the main problem is not about the usability of those weapons, not the damage or rate of fire or anything like that.
its simply that its not worth buying the ammo for them.
as mentioned in this topic, those are mainly pvp weapons were you dont care anymore.
if the values are correct, cannon and gatling deal a similar amout of damage per second (what is fine), but the ammo for the cannon costs like 10x more.
so the price per damage is waaaay off.

maybe this is true for plasma / rails / missiles, but not for canon.

on my viper, my complete bill for refilling 3 shield cells + 2 small canon is around 5k cr.

this is 1 cobra kill (the worst cobra i had was around 4k, usuall they are above 10k).

given i can rack up around 300k credit on main faction before i need to reload when hunting cobras, clearly worth the shot, no problem.

and from my own guess, i'd say i can land roughly 70/80% of the shot on target vs cobras, i don't bother using canon on eagles / sidewinders, they melt so fast anyway.
on bigger targets, it's rather hard not to land 100%
this noon i played for around 35 min, was able to rack up 290K, and left the field with still 25 round in each canon, was fighting conda's.

needed to left since dumb security conda thought it'll be fun to ram my viper from below and throw me on a roid, killing y shield and leaving me at 45% hull.
by the time i get out i was 10% hull (seriously fdev, just remove the security until they are sober, fed up of those drunk pilots....).

given i was shooting condas, i would have probably reached 350 or even 400K by the time i had to refill ammo, so clearly a 5k ammo bill is nothing to sweat about

 

[Sim Maker]

Something inbetween the Multi and Cannon would be nice...........how about a Chain Gun? (Skip to 50 Seconds in first vid, sort of thing they have on the Apache....)
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfXLEURxozc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snTf9Qs2yLA

 

[Briarée]

Something inbetween the Multi and Cannon would be nice...........how about a Chain Gun? (Skip to 50 Seconds in first vid, sort of thing they have on the Apache....)
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfXLEURxozc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snTf9Qs2yLA

clearly a "bushmaster" like weapon would be great

 

[Distance]

Cannons and Railguns are meant to be able to deal more damage against larger ships than the ship you're firing from than a same sized multicannon would. If you're attacking smaller or same sized ships then multicannons may do better because of the amount of damage you can still do when missing a few shots where cannons and railguns are punishing if you miss.

It sounds good on paper but in game it's a different story. The majority of people are using mc and beams/pulse which means it's pretty pointless using other weapons unless you have money to burn or are out to just kill players.

The most fun I've ever had in this game was back in beta with the 4 cannon viper. Whilst I agree it was wat over powered, the fixes you made to cannons went to far the other way. I get that things need balancing but with the amount of balance added you've balanced the game by forcing everyone to use the exact same weapon load out, even more so with the recent heat mechanic changes.

Add some ammo back to the cannons and increase the speed a bit and they'll be fun and usable again. Note the word "fun" as this is still a game after all.

 

[rennarda]

I recently experimented with the load out on my Asp - I was running 2 x Class II multi cannons, 2 x class 1 multi cannons and 2 x class 1 beams (all gimballed) - it's a devastating combo. The beams rip down the shields pretty quick (the distributor can run them for ~20s before overheating) then the cannons just shred the hull, and having 4 means that there's always at least one or two firing when the others are reloading.

I tried going with 4 x class 1 beams - couldn't run them long enough to take down the shields any more effectively. I guess I could have run them in 2 separate groups, and switched when one overheated, but as I said even 2 x beams can take down most shields quick enough.

I tried going with 2 x class 1 cannons plus the 2 x class 2 multi cannons - but it's just not effective enough. The cannons are too slow, so regularly miss. The multi just throw out so much ammo that you're almost always making contact. The cannons are only really of use closer than 1km.

I tried flak cannons, but they are next to useless unless you're ontop of the enemy . I guess 4 x flak cannons might give you so much coverage that they become more effective. I've certainly been on the receiving end of something like that.

I didn't try Rails, as I'm running gimballed weapons because otherwise it can be hard to get on target vs. a Viper or Eagle.

So, yeah, Multicannons kick ass. Massive ammo capacity too - I usually need to head back for repairs before I run dry.