Looking for tips for my DBS railboat loadout

[Aaronjw]

I've been flying a Python for a good while now; have it almost totally G5 engineered, with a few exceptions. But I've been wanting to give a pure railgun build a try, and after doing some reading, decided on the DBS for its agility and good heat management. I've got it pretty much put together; here's what I have right now:

https://coriolis.io/outfit/diamondb...2--B42t0201.Iw1-kA==.Aw1-kA==?bn=DBS Railboat

Any thoughts would be appreciated. I'm not sure about utility mounts; there's not much room for adding any shield boosters as far as power goes. As far as internals go, I'm not married to the cargo racks; I just threw them on since I didn't really know what else to add. I put the 2A life support in since the cockpit is so exposed.

I've done some engineering with the materials I already had together. FSD is G5 increased distance (up to 35 LY), thrusters are G3 Clean Drive Tuning (I'm not up for unlocking Palin right now). I engineered the power plant with G1 low emissions; I'd like to go a bit higher, but I'm not sure it can handle the power capacity being reduced anymore. I've done about as much power priority adjusting as I can, although I could probably lower the life support priority since I'll have 25 minutes of air (railguns will probably be out of ammo a while before that runs out).

As far as railgun engineering goes, I've experimented with a couple of short range blaster plasma slug railguns I already had, but I don't know if I like the reduced damage and range. I'm toying with a few ideas there, but I figure I'll probably wait till the next patch drops to see how that will affect everything.

I've tried some combat in it but I've been having trouble doing much damage, especially on bigger ships. This is largely due to my piloting skills, I'm sure (I'm pretty used to my shield-tanky Python right now). I find it tough to actually stay on the tails of even big hulking Anacondas, much less landing hits on targeted modules. And as soon as they get to facing me, their weapons pretty much have my shields down and hull to 50% within five seconds. Not sure how to deal with this, regarding both my piloting skills and/or the loadout. Even if I stay behind them their turrets often still reach me.

Any thoughts?

 

[Nerwan]

I've been flying a Python for a good while now; have it almost totally G5 engineered, with a few exceptions. But I've been wanting to give a pure railgun build a try, and after doing some reading, decided on the DBS for its agility and good heat management. I've got it pretty much put together; here's what I have right now:

https://coriolis.io/outfit/diamondb...2--B42t0201.Iw1-kA==.Aw1-kA==?bn=DBS Railboat

Any thoughts would be appreciated. I'm not sure about utility mounts; there's not much room for adding any shield boosters as far as power goes. As far as internals go, I'm not married to the cargo racks; I just threw them on since I didn't really know what else to add. I put the 2A life support in since the cockpit is so exposed.

I've done some engineering with the materials I already had together. FSD is G5 increased distance (up to 35 LY), thrusters are G3 Clean Drive Tuning (I'm not up for unlocking Palin right now). I engineered the power plant with G1 low emissions; I'd like to go a bit higher, but I'm not sure it can handle the power capacity being reduced anymore. I've done about as much power priority adjusting as I can, although I could probably lower the life support priority since I'll have 25 minutes of air (railguns will probably be out of ammo a while before that runs out).

As far as railgun engineering goes, I've experimented with a couple of short range blaster plasma slug railguns I already had, but I don't know if I like the reduced damage and range. I'm toying with a few ideas there, but I figure I'll probably wait till the next patch drops to see how that will affect everything.

I've tried some combat in it but I've been having trouble doing much damage, especially on bigger ships. This is largely due to my piloting skills, I'm sure (I'm pretty used to my shield-tanky Python right now). I find it tough to actually stay on the tails of even big hulking Anacondas, much less landing hits on targeted modules. And as soon as they get to facing me, their weapons pretty much have my shields down and hull to 50% within five seconds. Not sure how to deal with this, regarding both my piloting skills and/or the loadout. Even if I stay behind them their turrets often still reach me.

Any thoughts?

I run a DBS with plasma slug rails. Personally though I don't think clean drives is worth it. I have DD5 on mine (DD3 would still be good though). The key thing is the shields, I've gone for thermal biweaves with resistance boosters. I also haven't gone all rails.. with just the two small ones, you can pop shields quite quickly and then use medium overcharged MCs to kill hulls. When I run out of MCs I tend to kill things by module sniping, since it's quicker than trying to use small rails to kill hull.

 

[Aaronjw]

I run a DBS with plasma slug rails. Personally though I don't think clean drives is worth it. I have DD5 on mine (DD3 would still be good though). The key thing is the shields, I've gone for thermal biweaves with resistance boosters. I also haven't gone all rails.. with just the two small ones, you can pop shields quite quickly and then use medium overcharged MCs to kill hulls. When I run out of MCs I tend to kill things by module sniping, since it's quicker than trying to use small rails to kill hull.

I thought about DD; I've got those on my Python. But I kind of figured using DD and four rails would melt my ship after one boost and volley. Do you think that won't be the case? And would you recommend I remove anything to save power for adding some boosters?

And how can I improve my module sniping technique? Tough to hit modules on quick moving smaller ships, and big ships utterly murder me at this point.

 

[Nerwan]

But I kind of figured using DD and four rails would melt my ship after one boost and volley

Yes.. that's one of the reasons I don't use 4 rails.. with 2 I can keep firing them almost indefinitely..

And would you recommend I remove anything to save power for adding some boosters?

What I did was to put a L1 overcharged power plant on it. Because it only uses 1 easy mat (sulphur IIRC), I rerolled it many times to get the right secondary roll for +15% power with very few side affects.. (i.e. little extra heat)

 

[Aaronjw]

What I did was to put a L1 overcharged power plant on it. Because it only uses 1 easy mat (sulphur IIRC), I rerolled it many times to get the right secondary roll for +15% power with very few side affects.. (i.e. little extra heat)

That's probably a good call; I'll give that a shot.

Have any tips on module sniping with the rails? I always hear that that's what they're great for, but I was fighting a Vulture yesterday, had a drive locked, and I swear I hit it dead on several times (from behind); but damage only registered once. Not sure what I'm doing wrong here.

 

[Nerwan]

Have any tips on module sniping with the rails? I always hear that that's what they're great for, but I was fighting a Vulture yesterday, had a drive locked, and I swear I hit it dead on several times (from behind); but damage only registered once. Not sure what I'm doing wrong here.

Sniping with rail guns definitely takes practice. It's also somewhat dependent on your kit. I found it much easier once I upgraded my Hotas-X to a T-1600m for example (because it has much more accurate sensors). The people I've known that have been best at it have been mouse users though. A good smooth gaming mouse really helps, but practice helps most of all.

It's actually easiest on larger ships, although a Vulture does actually have quite a decent sized hit box. Depending on the ship and depending on the module it's sometimes possible to hit modules through the front of the ship too as they come towards you. There's actually some RNG involved too, even if you hit the module dead on there's a certain chance than the game will simply decide that you didn't get lucky... One very important thing is to bind the keys which allow you to quickly scroll through the modules so that you're not faffing about with the menus. I've known some to assign the module next/prev bindings to the mouse wheel or some such so that they can scroll back 6 for the power plant very quickly etc..

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Another heat-sink launcher and chaff might suit you - give you some extra sinks to drop when things get hot, and chaff is nice for keeping turret and gimbals at bay, leaving just your piloting skill to the test when it comes to evading fixed weapons.

I've only recently started playing around with rails myself, but I'm liking them so far. I use them for Power Plant or Distributor sniping on my FdL, with a huge pulse laser for shield stripping and a pair of frag cannons for pesky hulls.

 

[goemon]

I run a DBS with plasma slug rails. Personally though I don't think clean drives is worth it. I have DD5 on mine (DD3 would still be good though). The key thing is the shields, I've gone for thermal biweaves with resistance boosters. I also haven't gone all rails.. with just the two small ones, you can pop shields quite quickly and then use medium overcharged MCs to kill hulls. When I run out of MCs I tend to kill things by module sniping, since it's quicker than trying to use small rails to kill hull.

i run two medium plasma slug railguns on my DBS sometimes, and use the smalls as utilities: a small MC with corrosive effect, and a small efficient pulse with thermal shock (reduces npc scb spamming).

I thought about DD; I've got those on my Python. But I kind of figured using DD and four rails would melt my ship after one boost and volley. Do you think that won't be the case? And would you recommend I remove anything to save power for adding some boosters?

with dirty drive G5 i can do 2-3 double railgun volleys on my DBS, with clean drive G5 3-4. so: there is a difference, but the difference isn't that much, mainly because clean drive tuning adds heat by using more power. if you don't boost a lot, dd G5 works just fine, and you actually will boost less by being much faster....

as for the boosters: if you mod your shield thermal resistant, add restantce augmented boosters --- and if you don't have a lot of power, use e-class boosters; the resistances will be the same.

i went the overcharged PP G1 route, and have enough power and better heat efficiency to run my loadout; but i don't run 4 railguns...

and bring chaff against turrets

 

[Aaronjw]

Sniping with rail guns definitely takes practice. It's also somewhat dependent on your kit. I found it much easier once I upgraded my Hotas-X to a T-1600m for example (because it has much more accurate sensors). The people I've known that have been best at it have been mouse users though. A good smooth gaming mouse really helps, but practice helps most of all.

It's actually easiest on larger ships, although a Vulture does actually have quite a decent sized hit box. Depending on the ship and depending on the module it's sometimes possible to hit modules through the front of the ship too as they come towards you. There's actually some RNG involved too, even if you hit the module dead on there's a certain chance than the game will simply decide that you didn't get lucky... One very important thing is to bind the keys which allow you to quickly scroll through the modules so that you're not faffing about with the menus. I've known some to assign the module next/prev bindings to the mouse wheel or some such so that they can scroll back 6 for the power plant very quickly etc..

I'm using an X52; recently switched to this after using a Thrustmaster T.Flight for a good while. Loving it so far.

Good call on the scroll wheel for module targeting; hadn't thought of that. That'll make things a bit easier there.

 

[Nerwan]

i run two medium plasma slug railguns on my DBS sometimes, and use the smalls as utilities: a small MC with corrosive effect, and a small efficient pulse with thermal shock (reduces npc scb spamming).

I'd have thought the best thing for that would actually be 2 x medium plasma slug + 1 small with feedback cascade... (and then yes maybe a small with corrosive MC)

and if you don't have a lot of power, use e-class boosters

Yeh, good tip. I actually run with 2xA resistance enhanced + 1xE resistance enhanced. On my explorer ship I use all E class boosters. They're fantastic for light builds. The one thing you have to remember is that they don't protect against raw damage and the DBS is a bit prone to ramming so I like my base shield to be a little bit higher.

 

[goemon]

I'd have thought the best thing for that would actually be 2 x medium plasma slug + 1 small with feedback cascade... (and then yes maybe a small with corrosive MC).

definetly. but you know - I'm still learning with rails, and both small hardpoints with turrets help me with focussing on aiming with the mediums. also that pulse turret is good against frustration, when you miss eveery shot in a high RES --- you'll still get the kill from system sec

somehow it is harder for me to use rails than to use PAs.

 

[CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost]

…
Any thoughts?

Im curious how you manage:
- heat
- almost no hull damage

(I stopped using a quad rail DBS with 2.0, multi-cannons are just much much much more effective)

- - - Updated - - -

definetly. but you know - I'm still learning with rails, and both small hardpoints with turrets help me with focussing on aiming with the mediums

Try beam lasers and rails in one fire group. The lasers are a nice aiming aid.

 

[firemane]

If you are a joystick user Clean Drives may be better for you than dirty drives. The extra agility provided by DD's may end up being a problem in terms of laying accurate fire. Combat often plays out at low to medium speeds and the DBS is fast to start with. You can extend or close in without trouble against most ships already.

One way of dealing with "controllability" issues is to use yaw, rather than pitch to line up the shots. It is the one way the artificial limit on yaw can actually work for you.

In general terms, 1 medium weapon is better than 2 small ones. I'd advise you to change one of the mediums or both of the smalls for some other weapon. It will allow you to keep pressure on the target. It also slowed down the target's shield recharge. I am not sure it is still the case, but it used to be that way.

I doubt you'll see any benefit from using this setup in a general bounty hunting environment. The ships there tend to have lower hull values. It pays off in compromised nav beacons and combat zones. Also on PvP, specially due to the psychological effect.

 

[goemon]

Try beam lasers and rails in one fire group. The lasers are a nice aiming aid.

will do that as soon as efficient beams are a thing in live!

 

[CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost]

will do that as soon as efficient beams are a thing in live!

If you use small beams heat is not a big problem - since you will use it mainly in short bursts (that heat reduction special effect might help).

Put all weapons on the same trigger. Then fire, the rails will charge, release trigger if the beams aren't on the right target and the rails won't fire. Repeat.

Thinking about a efficient plasma DBS, not sure if the heat will be manageable…

 

[goemon]

Thinking about a efficient plasma DBS, not sure if the heat will be manageable…

PA only come in medium; i have no heat problem at all with my double PA DBS. works great, especially in CZ. plasma slug special + focussed for increased projectile speed.

 

[Nerwan]

plasma slug special + focussed for increased projectile speed.

Sounds like a very nice combo.. must try it. I've heard efficient plasma is very good too..

 

[CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost]

PA only come in medium; i have no heat problem at all with my double PA DBS. works great, especially in CZ. plasma slug special + focussed for increased projectile speed.

Ah, I want plasma repeaters

plasma slug special for the rails and focused for faster plasma? That sounds like a really fun combination.

Hopefully 2.2.03 will go life soon, don't want to mod something just to notice that things changed.

 

[Aaronjw]

The patch is live! Time to think about what rail mods I actually want. Downloading the patch now.