Newcomer / Intro Kinetic Weapons overheating?

[NewYears1978]

I read on another post that when using Kinetic weapons (Such as a multicannon) you do not need any power diverted to Weapons because they do not require it...I tried this and my weapons would overheat and no longer fire.

Can someone clear this up for me?

I am flying a simple Eagle with a Gimbaled Auto Canon on the top mount with 2 Burst lasers on the bottom. The post had said to divert power to weapons, drop shields with the burst laser then divert power off the weapons and wire the cannon..

I did this but as stated it wouldn't allow me to fire the cannons.

 

[Midgardsormr]

Multicannons can still overheat, they just do so more slowly than lasers. You probably need to upgrade your power distributor to follow that advice. That will raise the heat overhead on your guns.

 

[Space Time]

Get it Real....

"Just Opinion"...
I believe that this is one fundamental flaw within the game... Laser Weapons can over heat and cause them not to fire "that's OK", but when it comes to Kinetic Weapons, they should not be able to stop firing because their ammo should be burning up in the barrel, causing their cartridges to ignite.

Maybe in the year 3300 this is not a problem...

Space Time

 

[NewYears1978]

"Just Opinion"...
I believe that this is one fundamental flaw within the game... Laser Weapons can over heat and cause them not to fire "that's OK", but when it comes to Kinetic Weapons, they should not be able to stop firing because their ammo should be burning up in the barrel, causing their cartridges to ignite.

Maybe in the year 3300 this is not a problem...

Space Time

Yeah that makes sense..curious too why it does that..maybe I am consuming too much power not necessarily overheating..I will run some tests.

Okay I tested, it says "Overloaded" not overheated. Not sure what this means?

 

[Midgardsormr]

I am no expert in firearms or artillery, but I believe that modern fully-automatic weapons will overheat and jam without the cartridge exploding. I'm fairly sure I've heard gun nuts say something to that effect, anyway.

That doesn't really relate to power systems, though. Perhaps what's happening is there is not enough juice to operate whatever cooling system is employed, so the computer halts the weapon firing until said system can siphon off enough heat not to pose a threat of catastrophic failure. And that's why you get an overload warning in the HUD instead of just the "click click click" of a misfiring gun.

 

[NewYears1978]

I am no expert in firearms or artillery, but I believe that modern fully-automatic weapons will overheat and jam without the cartridge exploding. I'm fairly sure I've heard gun nuts say something to that effect, anyway.

That doesn't really relate to power systems, though. Perhaps what's happening is there is not enough juice to operate whatever cooling system is employed, so the computer halts the weapon firing until said system can siphon off enough heat not to pose a threat of catastrophic failure. And that's why you get an overload warning in the HUD instead of just the "click click click" of a misfiring gun.

Would make sense just wondering if there is any data to support that somewhere. Also then, why does setting power to weapons have any effect on said cooling? Am a little confused here. I will try a higher power plant though and see what happens.

 

[carlisle]

Also then, why does setting power to weapons have any effect on said cooling? Am a little confused here.

The weapons capacitor is used for the weapon cooling system. I think in the case of weapons that might be the only thing the capacitor affects.

Edit: yeah I checked the manual, it specifically says that the WEP capacitor is used to power the weapon cooling loop, nothing more... It doesn't power the weapons themselves.

 

[NewYears1978]

The weapons capacitor is used for the weapon cooling system. I think in the case of weapons that might be the only thing the capacitor affects.

Edit: yeah I checked the manual, it specifically says that the WEP capacitor is used to power the weapon cooling loop, nothing more... It doesn't power the weapons themselves.

Now it makes sense! Thanks!

Now if I can just figure out if I need to be using forward/backward thrust in dogfights to stay close..having to throttle up and down works but I can't seem to maintain close distance when I want. Ugh..off topic..time for google and maybe another newbie post.

Thank you everyone

 

[Himmel Tropf]

Thermal overloaded means you've run down your lasers too much i think? ie; from firing. This is an issue that can be managed through having more pips in WEP as it will increase the recharge rate, slowing / stopping this from continued or burst fire. I think i've noticed the same thing with the MC's. In my Sidey having only ~0.5-1.5 pips in WEP means it seems to jam or not load as fast. 2pips lets me run the MC no worries and recharge on laser is near perfect on 1x BurstLaser.

 

[M0rdresh]

I think its perfectly acceptable for the power setting to correspond with 'cooling' required for multi-cannons.
You don't need the same amount of power setting as using beams for example, but still some.

 

[Himmel Tropf]

I'm also having an issue getting Cannons to fire on my cobra. I think that this is more an elevation problem than an energy supply issue, as they seem to like firing down but not up, relative to my horizontal axis.

 

[Dommarraa]

Don't forget that they need to reload. Nothing as annoying as a ship lining up nicely for a point blank barage only to find your cannons only have 1 shot left in the clip. Damned things should reload when not being fired

 

[Himmel Tropf]

it does disappoint that they can't be readied by button pressing / de/reselecting a fire group and have them battle ready at the same cost of time only at your choosing. But yeah, thought they weren't firing because not enough pips. put in 4 and they didn't fire too. Seems it doesn't like firing up.

 

[Syax]

true, think it's also pretty cold in space so that should keep it cool oh well

 

[Undecided]

Firearms use an explosive charge to propel the projectile which generates a lot of heat in the process. If a gun barrel heats up too much due to repeated firing it will warp which is very bad. Rotary guns (like the multicannon) use multiple air-cooled barrels to spread out the heat load, allowing a greater rate of fire. You can read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_cannon

Problem is these designs use air cooling and there is no air in space. A separate cooling system is needed to cool the gun barrels in any reasonable time frame, same as for lasers.

 

[Undecided]

true, think it's also pretty cold in space so that should keep it cool oh well

Space is cold but because space is also nearly empty convection and conduction (the two most effect ways of transferring heat) are almost non existent leaving radiation as the most significant means of cooling. The astronauts of Apollo 13 got cold because their space craft was designed to radiate heat as efficiently as possible. If it hadn't been, the heat from the electronics and their own bodies would have cooked them before any of the Apollo missions even reached the moon.

If you were exposed to the sun in Earths orbit without protection (except for an air supply), you wouldn't freeze, you would die from heat stroke.

 

[Midgardsormr]

Seems it doesn't like firing up.

The hardpoints are on the underside of the ship. If it fired upward, you wouldn't like the result. ;-)

 

[carlisle]

true, think it's also pretty cold in space so that should keep it cool oh well

Space isn't hot or cold in the way we commonly understand those terms to mean, since we normally think of a substance, such as the atmosphere being hot or cold. In space there is no substance... space is like a thermos flask, a hot thing will stay hot for a long time and a cold thing will stay cold. The only heat is that of the radiation from the sun but there's nothing for it to heat up as it passes through.