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

i know i know, no one likes what im about to say but: I think Eve had a pretty good system there. Different types of Ammo against different types of enemies. All in different grades from cheap to extremely expensive.

The thing is, this just perpetuates the issue where instead of the weapons themselves, it is now the super-expensive ammo that is only really usable by someone who has a mountain of cash to burn.
 
Put 8 railguns on an anaconda, then tell me how useless they are :D
A lot of things die in one hit
So yeah, and what was the price for that savlo? :D
I guess a few seconds with Multicannons would do the same effect, just way cheaper.

The thing is, this just perpetuates the issue where instead of the weapons themselves, it is now the super-expensive ammo that is only really usable by someone who has a mountain of cash to burn.
You could still use the "good ammo" like currently, in PVP,
and you could buy some cheap ammo for PVE
isnt it currently like that? someone who has not enough money wont fight in pvp, he would have cheap weapons, energy or multicannons...while the guy with a lot of money has an Anaconda and nukes you with one salvo
 
I have been trying different load outs for my Python, given the changes in 1.1. I have found 3 large beams too restrictive against bigger targets as I'm constantly overheating and needing to cool down, even with an A class power plant and distributor. This left me with 2 medium MCs to shoot with and they're just too slow against anacondas.

I tried 2 fixed missiles and they're good but not so useful against medium and small targets. Plus, they're no good as a backup for when the beams are on cool down.

My other major concern was shield strength. Beams demand all four pips otherwise they're generally always overheating. I needed to be able to use two pips to weapons and four to systems when I was taking damage.

So I experimented with three large fixed pulse and two medium rails. My word, it's a huge difference! I never liked rails before but I've had a lot of practice with fixed weapons and found adapting to them easy. They are useful against any size ship but amazing against asps or larger. And 30 ammo is enough for a decent session. They only cost 200 per shot, which is nothing when you only need two or three shots against an anaconda. Against anything smaller, one double shot is enough because three large fixed pulse lasers do very quick and constant damage.

The biggest difference is the pulse lasers though. They do very good damage against shields and supplement rail damage nicely on the hull. But the main thing is, with two pips to weapons they can keep firing for longer than beams with four pips. And they can fire close to forever with four pips.

I love this setup. I just wish large rails existed. The choice for large hard points is far too limited.
 
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You could still use the "good ammo" like currently, in PVP,
and you could buy some cheap ammo for PVE
isnt it currently like that? someone who has not enough money wont fight in pvp, he would have cheap weapons, energy or multicannons...while the guy with a lot of money has an Anaconda and nukes you with one salvo

Yeah, but the idea was to break up this status quo where you use cheap weapons/ammo to earn money on NPCs (or become rich trading), then spend the money on an entirely different and more expensive PvP loadout.

Specifically, I want the very notion of a PvP loadout to die in a fire. Anything should be viable equally against players and NPCs, and by viable I also mean financially.
 
Just replaced my scatters for regular cannons, and so far I love the change. They are less reliant on positioning, perform better against smaller craft and have slightly more ammo. Not quite the infinite ammo from multicannons, but for me, it's an improvement.
Scatters can outdamage regular cannons, but you really have to get very close and get into a very specific angle towards the target to benefit from them and have a viable amount of pellets hit.
 
I have watched a few videos now, about weapons, combat, systems...
and all came to the same hidden conclusion: Cannons, Railguns & Co are not worth it.

Ammo is expensive for Cannon and Railgun
A few missed hits from the Gatling wont hurt much, but a missed shot from C&R does. You cant cary around a huge amount of ammo, and each missed shot means a lot of missed time and so damage.

DPS is way higher for Multicannons
If you can get a steady hail of bullets on the enemy ship, they seem to be waaaaay stronger than C&R (just watched a video on how long it takes with different weapons to kill Anaconda´s...cannons were the slowest, then railgun, gatling, dumbfire).
Bigger Ship = Easier Target = More Hits = More Damage

to me it's quite ironic having found your post just now; only yesterday i finally switched from my age-old setup of (two class 2 pulse lasers and) two class 1 gimballed multi cannons on my cobra to two gimballed cannons, because the multis weren't doing enough damage, but the cannons (as far as i can tell from testing them last night) do. wow! they blew me (and my targets) away :)

maybe i was just lucky, but i finally feel like i can take on elite anacondas again (have to give it a try tonight :) )
 
Please don't do this.....I can feel FD winding up the nerf bat as I type this. There is only ever one outcome, there will be no buff to anything else just a huge nerf for MCs if you carry on down this road....remember the Python RIP

My MC setup is the only viable one I have for hunting at nav beacons - i've tried beams and cannons - very limited against anything other than large ships, i've tried railguns but couldn't get used to them (just need more practice - but the limited ammo is crippling) I'm not even going to bother with the scatter cannon, just too limited in range to be of use. Missiles got nerfed and have a similar issue as cannons with the poor projectile speed.

That leaves MCs and the only real option - now I'd love there to be more credible options for projectiles but I can't see FD buffing anything else or making Cannons, rails, scatters or missiles more viable, I can only see them nerfing the MC in terms of cost and effectiveness and these kind of threads will ensure it happens.....please don't do it.
 
Please don't do this.....I can feel FD winding up the nerf bat as I type this. There is only ever one outcome, there will be no buff to anything else just a huge nerf for MCs if you carry on down this road....remember the Python RIP

My MC setup is the only viable one I have for hunting at nav beacons - i've tried beams and cannons - very limited against anything other than large ships, i've tried railguns but couldn't get used to them (just need more practice - but the limited ammo is crippling) I'm not even going to bother with the scatter cannon, just too limited in range to be of use. Missiles got nerfed and have a similar issue as cannons with the poor projectile speed.

That leaves MCs and the only real option - now I'd love there to be more credible options for projectiles but I can't see FD buffing anything else or making Cannons, rails, scatters or missiles more viable, I can only see them nerfing the MC in terms of cost and effectiveness and these kind of threads will ensure it happens.....please don't do it.

sure, but doesnt it feel wrong, when there is that one viable setup?
either that means that MC is horribly OP, or everything else is UP, or just that no one really uses them because they are so expensive.

to me it's quite ironic having found your post just now; only yesterday i finally switched from my age-old setup of (two class 2 pulse lasers and) two class 1 gimballed multi cannons on my cobra to two gimballed cannons, because the multis weren't doing enough damage, but the cannons (as far as i can tell from testing them last night) do. wow! they blew me (and my targets) away :)

maybe i was just lucky, but i finally feel like i can take on elite anacondas again (have to give it a try tonight :) )
mentioned that on one of the first pages.
From the wiki alone, Cannons and Multicannons have similar damage values. Cannon just deal it with less shots (same Armor penetration and those things)
i think it was like 8 Gatling bullets per second deal 3 dps, while 0.5 Cannon shells per second deal also 3 dps. so 16 Gatling bullets = 1 Cannon shot.
Problem here...the cost. if the value is correct, one G.Bullet costs 1c, while one C.Shell costs 200. So for the damage that one C.Shell deals in one shot for 200c, i can deal the same with 16 G.Bullets for 16c right? That means for the same price i could fire 12.5 times as many bullets from the gatling, dealing a lot more damage - meaning that you could fight a lot longer before reloading.

also one sentence i just posted in a huge feedback/suggestion topic
Weapons
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.

Sadly...a bigger target is easier to hit, they are slower, cant turn as fast...so i think its the exact opposite.
A Gatling that cant miss a big ship will deal a lot more damage for a way cheaper cost than a Railgun, while a direct hit from a Railgun will nuke smaller ships in no time. A Gatling will miss more hits against a small and fast target, so it deals a lot less damage, while one Railgun shot is devestating for them - and is it worth the cost to kill a small target with a large weapon? I dont think so.
Sure, Cannons and Railguns can kill subsystems faster...but is that worth the cost if you can just spray your cheap Gatlings?

*Plinking & Punch Through* Would help with that. If my Gatling could not damage a bigger ship, because they cant penetrate the armor, they wouldnt be that strong against them. You would need an equal Gatling tier to penetrate it OR just one of those big weapons.
Same the other way around, if my bullet punctures through the hull like a hot knife through butter, the internal damage would be minimal.
So a Gatling would shred lower targets and deal normal damage against equal targets, but nearly none against higher since it *plinks* at the hull.
A Cannon would deal equal damage against all targets since it explodes at the target i think, but it would never be as strong as a Gatling against small ships or a Railgun against large ships.
A Railgun on the other hand would punch through a small ship like nothing. It would deal lower damage. Against equal targets it would deal normal damage and even higher damage against even bigger ships (kinetic impact, rip apart a good amount of the enemy hull instead of just punching a hole in it)
With that the sentence from Mike Evans would make sense

Just a small story towards that:
I was Mining. A Viper attacked me, since i had nothing to loose, i tried to beat him.
In a Sidewinder.
With One Multicannon.
after 1000 shots i had him down to 50% he had me at 60% or so...and then he hit my cockpit.
Doesnt sound right, does it?
But it is.
He couldnt hit me well, i was nearly all the time behind him shooting salvo after salvo. His shield was actually the hardest part, i guess 75% of my shots was needed to get it down.
Only when he turned around (i dont even know how) he was able to shoot me.
So two Gatlings and i would have won with ease.
A Railgun would have drained my energy.
A Cannon would have been too slow.
 
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I suspect many of the posters here usually engage at far closer ranges then I do - I fly fast ships and generally try to stay 2-3km from my target, so find railguns and lasers are infinitely more potent then multicannon and cannon.

All weapons are situational

Would I rather have multicannon or cannon in my Viper to take on an Anaconda? Cannon every time.
Would I rather have multicannon or cannon in my Viper to take on another Viper? Multicannon every time.

I fight a lot more Vipers then Anacondas.

It's not that the multicannon are better, it's that they are more commonly the right tool for the job.
 
I have watched a few videos now, about weapons, combat, systems...
and all came to the same hidden conclusion: Cannons, Railguns & Co are not worth it.

Ammo is expensive for Cannon and Railgun
A few missed hits from the Gatling wont hurt much, but a missed shot from C&R does. You cant cary around a huge amount of ammo, and each missed shot means a lot of missed time and so damage.

DPS is way higher for Multicannons
If you can get a steady hail of bullets on the enemy ship, they seem to be waaaaay stronger than C&R (just watched a video on how long it takes with different weapons to kill Anaconda´s...cannons were the slowest, then railgun, gatling, dumbfire).
Bigger Ship = Easier Target = More Hits = More Damage

I mean...what is the reward of using them? shouldnt it be like a balanced system? Why should i waste money on C&R Ammunition, when Gatling is so much cheaper, a kill is so much faster?
Wouldnt it be better if the "dps" would be closer to eachother? so that one cheap gatling cant dominate a huge railgun in damage, cost and usability?
Also wouldnt it be usefull to balance the prices for full magazines? so that a x thousand shot magazine of small gatling bullets costs nearly the same as a few hundred cannon bullets or a few railgun shells?

I mean...i like the style of Cannons and Railguns, i dont like those "shoot as much as you can" weapons...i like slow weapons that can hit like a truck, Grenades, Snipers... But from what i have seen they are not even close to be usefull (besides sniping modules)

Also from a "realistic" aspect...why is Railgun ammo so expensive?
All you need is enough energy to charge the capacitors for the rails, and a chunk of metal to accelerate. As long as it is conductive, you can fire almost everything with it. And even if its not conductive you can still use plasma to accelerate it.

Go ahead and ruin a good thing. I really like my mc's when something is good, the intelligent thing to do is keep it quiet.
 
I suspect many of the posters here usually engage at far closer ranges then I do - I fly fast ships and generally try to stay 2-3km from my target, so find railguns and lasers are infinitely more potent then multicannon and cannon.

All weapons are situational

Would I rather have multicannon or cannon in my Viper to take on an Anaconda? Cannon every time.
Would I rather have multicannon or cannon in my Viper to take on another Viper? Multicannon every time.

I fight a lot more Vipers then Anacondas.

It's not that the multicannon are better, it's that they are more commonly the right tool for the job.

thats true, and thats also not the problem. the weapons themself are nice, they are just not viable.
just because you like long range or strong hitter more than closerange rapidfire means that you need to spend a lot more money in ammo.
Like i mentioned above, a cannon is not that lng range viable, its like a multicannon that hits stronger but slower right?
still it costs 12.5 times as much to deal the same damage with them (theoretical)

Go ahead and ruin a good thing. I really like my mc's when something is good, the intelligent thing to do is keep it quiet.
actually thats a very stupid way. it will lead to a game where one weapon can be used and the rest is too situational or too expensive.
Too broken.
like a Call of Duty game with Noobtubes - or a better comparison: Spray and Pray weapons. No skill needed for a high reward.
 
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Rails definately have too little ammo capacity to be useful in anything other than assassination (or situational if you have enough weapon mounts to have them spare).

Rail guns would be far more useful if it were easier to divert power from one weapon to another (toggle power to the rail and swap it with something else). That would allow for some surprisingly sophisticated, expensive and deadly small ship builds for instance. Having to about with the Modules menu during a combat situation just isn't going to happen though.
 
From the wiki alone, Cannons and Multicannons have similar damage values. Cannon just deal it with less shots (same Armor penetration and those things)
i think it was like 8 Gatling bullets per second deal 3 dps, while 0.5 Cannon shells per second deal also 3 dps. so 16 Gatling bullets = 1 Cannon shot.
Problem here...the cost. if the value is correct, one G.Bullet costs 1c, while one C.Shell costs 200. So for the damage that one C.Shell deals in one shot for 200c, i can deal the same with 16 G.Bullets for 16c right? That means for the same price i could fire 12.5 times as many bullets from the gatling, dealing a lot more damage - meaning that you could fight a lot longer before reloading.

hm... i'm terrible at maths but i actually checked and calculated the cost for my little cannon adventure yesterday. either i misread something (which is possible, i admit), but it seemed more like 20cr per cannon shell, not 200. i'll check again tonight.
 
hm... i'm terrible at maths but i actually checked and calculated the cost for my little cannon adventure yesterday. either i misread something (which is possible, i admit), but it seemed more like 20cr per cannon shell, not 200. i'll check again tonight.

that would be nice, thanks for that.
from the video i watched, he spend 9432c for 35 shots (*6 cannons), so around 45c per shell.
railgun was at 35350c for 20 shots (*6 cannons) so 295 per shot.

so ~40c per shot seems ok for its damage, absolutely. its still a lot, but its a fair price that one can afford.
~300c for a railgun shell on the other hand...nope
dunno, thats why i always mention that those values are from the wiki.

values from the video for anaconda kills:
Multicannons: 46s killtime - 2324c ammo for a lot of shots (killed with 18% hull left)
Cannon: 108s killtime - 9432c ammo for 210 shells (35*6) (killed with 12% hull left)
Railgun: 60s killtime - 35350c ammo for 120 shells (20*6) (killed with 38% hull left)
Fragment: 41s killtime - 9822c ammo for 96 shots (16*6) (killed with 17% hull left)
Dumbfire: 21s killtime - 46000c ammo for 102 rockets (17*6) (killed with 0% hull left)
Rail guns would be far more useful if it were easier to divert power from one weapon to another (toggle power to the rail and swap it with something else). That would allow for some surprisingly sophisticated, expensive and deadly small ship builds for instance. Having to about with the Modules menu during a combat situation just isn't going to happen though.
also that would be awesome.
divert power to a different group would be enough i guess, so like 20% for your multicannons on your primary fire and 80% to the railguns on your secondary.
and in another firegroup you could set it completely different again. more power to lasers, less to missiles or so.
(from the theoretical view of course, dont know if its viable to have so many different weapons^^)
In general, a way to adjust the energy more precisely would be nice
 
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My main gripe towards the low ammo for cannons and rail guns is a mixture between income scaling and "fun rationing".

The only career that scales in income as you go up in ships is trading.

Any combat profession (the fun professions) has ammo and damage costs that increase with ship and weapon size but income stays the same (fighting the same ships).
Since the heat changes in 1.1 you can't run an all laser set up any more so your fun factor is also decreased by having to spend more time in supercruise to go back and rearm.

It seems that if you want to have fun you have to grind at some point. If you want a big ship with projectile weapons you need to grind the ass out of trading to pay for it with your own time. If you want a small ship with projectile weapons your ammo costs aren't going to be covered by your income and you have the added punishment of spending more time in supercruise to rearm.

FD need to look at the fun vs grind factor for combat professions instead of arbitrarily nerfing mechanics to balance the game.

There's a big group of hackers right now grinding combat zones by leaving their pcs on all night with their ship in a combat zone auto killing ships with turrets. They have infinite ammo, fuel and shield hacks and in the event of a death they have a built in logoff hack as well so they don't lose their earnings.

If the income scaled for professions other than trading people wouldn't be hacking and people would be having more fun without having to resort to a profession they aren't interested in to enjoy the game they bought.
 
If the income scaled for professions other than trading people wouldn't be hacking and people would be having more fun without having to resort to a profession they aren't interested in to enjoy the game they bought.

Nah, they're doing that combat zone grinding because they can hack it and probably won't get detected (so quickly). If they could hack "trading" as easily, they would do that as well. Or mining.
 
Cannons are without doubt the most glaring weapon imbalance in the game right now (IMO). As I said I would massively increase the projectile speed (damage is OK as it is I think). There just no reason to use them since dumbfires are almost as easy to aim and do much more damage. They were OP in beta 1 but they had a quad nerf - shield damage, speed, ammo amount, ammo cost. The speed nerf was not needed.

Cannons are definitely jacked. Projectiles fired from most modern cannons have a very high velocity, and not the "I've thrown a football to a guy 60 yards down the field" type velocity we are currently stuck with. That needs to be fixed ASAP.

Also, we need to have different projectile types to boot. HE, HEAT style, etc....
 
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