Kinetic weapons aren't very alluring to me.

Tai Sabaki

T
Why would you use them? Lasers have infinite ammo, whereas every shot with a kinetic weapon pretty much bleeds your wallet. I just don't see a reason to get a kinetic weapon, I'd rather shoot 5 more seconds a target with lasers than shoot it 5 less and lose cash. It would be nice if there was some sort of mechanism to produce ammo from minerals, doesn't seem too far fetched to me.

And the bigger problem I think is that these weapons run out of ammo way too quickly. Basically after 5-6 kills you are forced to dock for rearming. Now I love missiles and torpedoes because they are very powerful, not like in the other games where it takes 10 rockets to kill a light fighter. But they are just not sustainable, not because they take money to shoot, but because their ammo capacity is so low that you might as well forsake them for lasers.

I think either creating a module that increases the ammo capacity or an internal that converts metals into ammo would greatly increase the sustainability of kinetic weapons. I mean, I'm forced to stay away from weapons with ammunition because they run of ammo so quickly. I really like the Rail Gun, but I can't use it since it deals damage equivalent of about 4-5 laser shots, but runs out of ammo very fast. Even in a warzone where maximum firepower is best and where running thermal + kinetic weapons is very efficient, I'd still go with lasers simply because they enable me to stay in that zone indefinitely.
 

Dominico

D
The ammo is cheap as anything, and since they made repairs and fuel easy mode it doesn't cost much to even go ballistic with the ammo and keep your trigger on.

Kinetic weapons do more damage to hull so they are a great idea if you have a few slots, also they use less power and cause less heat usually. So there are lots of reasons to use them.

However if you do well without there is no need. There is no fixed weapon loadout and having all lazers does mean you can stay out a lot longer fighting!!
 

uberdude

Banned
uberdude
that's the trade off because in reality kinetics are really effective. If they had bigger ammo clips and a bigger reserve of ammo. People would say they are OP. It's incredibly epic to load my Anaconda with 8 Multi cannons and go to town in a conflict zone. It's for more amusing and cool looking then 8 thermal weapons, requires less energy, generates less heat to a point where i can run 4 pips in SYS and 2 in weapons and never have to worry about my weapons energy running out.

but it is annoying having to fly back to a station every 10 minutes or so of shooting. But i figure that is the trade off.
 

Tai Sabaki

T
uberdude said:
that's the trade off because in reality kinetics are really effective. If they had bigger ammo clips and a bigger reserve of ammo. People would say they are OP. It's incredibly epic to load my Anaconda with 8 Multi cannons and go to town in a conflict zone. It's for more amusing and cool looking then 8 thermal weapons, requires less energy, generates less heat to a point where i can run 4 pips in SYS and 2 in weapons and never have to worry about my weapons energy running out.

but it is annoying having to fly back to a station every 10 minutes or so of shooting. But i figure that is the trade off.
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I still think having a module that makes ammo from metals wouldn't break the balance. Imagine if it made your ship immobile while generating ammo, or took a bunch of power to operate. After all you'd need a cargo rack to operate it, and imagine if you had a refinery and a mining laser to turn asteroids into bullets lol :D

Also how do you reload? Sometimes I'm at 5 ammo on a minigun and I just have to shoot it in space to reload.
 

Ahriakin

A
Besides the damage increase to hulls they give you more combat options. For example I'm currently in an ASP with 2 Med Beams and 4xGimballed MCs. The beams are my primary weapons but the MCs have longer range (can still hit at ~3.5K, though weakly, out of beam range for the opponent) and will allow me to run 4pips to shields when dealing with larger targets. So basically I can switch to a more defensive posture while still keeping up fire on the target. Use the Kinetics only when appropriate and you have a more effective killing machine than energy alone. I average about 30mins at a res site or nav beacon before running out of ammo.

Still I think being able to equip extra ammo packs would be a good option, have an appreciable weight and even energy cost to make it a truely tactical choice rather than just an easy button.
 
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Cmdr Pli55ken

C
Why would you use them?
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Because it's fun. An Asp with 6 MCs sound just so awesome when you let 'er rip.
Also the energy balancing you can do with all MCs or all Cannons is just obscene :D

(And I guess for those into PvP the higher crunch power is paramount over the staying power of lasers)
 

Lithari

L
For me, i normally prefer lasers, no ammo costs, but i have noticed that you kill things faster and i must have killed several cobras, vipers, an asp and an anaconda, granted i ran several times to get my shields up and it took nearly 75% of my kinetic ammo, which costed me about 1-2k to rearm, refuel and repair, but i got over 150k bounty....totally worth it.

This was my first Anaconda kill, so i felt good about that.
 

Morbad

Morbad
I try to stick to lasers, but for some vessels and some tasks, adding kinetic weapons works out really well.
 

Odan Brota

Odan Brota
kinetics pair really well with beam lasers, since beams produce a lot of heat, and use a lot of energy, while kinetics use very little energy and produce nearly no heat.
 

HeavyGroovez

HeavyGroovez
I think with the current heat mechanics and combat dynamics, kinetics are once again rather awesome.

I was running pure lasers from gamma right up until 1.2 and I have now incorporated multi-cannons back into my FDL build.

I like being able to keep the hammer down when the ship is cooking and dakka gives me this ability.
 

CipherZR032

CipherZR032
But there's something quite satisfying about high energy kinetic based weapons. As The Lost Fleet shows, why waste rare materials to build nukes when you can slam a several kilogram metal projectile at 2 decimals the speed of light into a hardened bunker.

Not that Elite has any of that.
 

Alpha087

Alpha087
Would be nice if we could just choose to fill up cargo space with extra ammo for our weapons. Maybe make it take a little longer every time we need to transfer ammo from the cargo hold to the weapons.
 
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