Most weapons don't seem viable

[ChubbyBunneh]

On a viper I go with 2 class 2 railguns and 2 class 1 dumbfire missiles (class 2 dumbfire seems to be bugged last I checked) I can take out an anaconda in less than a minute at best, at worst it takes about 2-3 minutes. IMO Lasers and MCs are less viable because they take longer. Even when hunting bounty's I can usually rack up a large amount of cash before having to re-arm.

My eagle is similar, but with class 1 railguns and a single missile launcher mounted on the top it takes a bit of luck to take out an anaconda without running out of ammo.

This ^^. Rail guns are still insanely good. The easiest and safest way to kill an Anaconda is to hit the drives with 4 rail gun shots (you can't miss them, the engines are so huge). Then slowly pick it apart with lasers from range as it tumbles end over end. If you are a really good shot just go straight for the power plant or FSD and it blows up instantly, but the drives you literally can't miss.

I think people pooh pooh the rail guns because most players simply can't aim or anticipate the target's flight path and rely on gimbaled or turreted weapons to bash the target's hull with brute force. The finesse players definitely appreciate the power and instant pin point damage of the rail gun though.

 

[YeOldeMiller]

This ^^. Rail guns are still insanely good. The easiest and safest way to kill an Anaconda is to hit the drives with 4 rail gun shots (you can't miss them, the engines are so huge). Then slowly pick it apart with lasers from range as it tumbles end over end. If you are a really good shot just go straight for the power plant or FSD and it blows up instantly, but the drives you literally can't miss.

I think people pooh pooh the rail guns because most players simply can't aim or anticipate the target's flight path and rely on gimbaled or turreted weapons to bash the target's hull with brute force. The finesse players definitely appreciate the power and instant pin point damage of the rail gun though.

Interesting, worth a try. How are railguns against shields? Should I pair them with lasers for best results?

 

[ChubbyBunneh]

Interesting, worth a try. How are railguns against shields? Should I pair them with lasers for best results?

They trash anything you hit. Shields, armor, subsystems, hull. Since they have limited ammo (31 shots), some lasers would be a good idea for backup, to take the opponent's shields off with, or to peck at longer ranges if you aren't sure whether you can hit the bad guy or not.

That config 2 posts up about rail guns + missiles sounds intriguing, it's all about burst damage but not much staying power due to limited ammo. Still sounds like fun and worth a try though.

 

[Koyhaku]

Interesting, worth a try. How are railguns against shields? Should I pair them with lasers for best results?

IMO, railguns do better vs shields than they do vs hull, though from what ChubbyBunneh said they seem to be pretty good at taking out the sub systems. I use them to take down shields then the hull i use dumbfire missiles.

 

[MuthaF Jamal]

IMO, railguns do better vs shields than they do vs hull, though from what ChubbyBunneh said they seem to be pretty good at taking out the sub systems. I use them to take down shields then the hull i use dumbfire missiles.

well, they arent so good, but main advantage of railguns is their high shield penetration (was nerfed too, but still seems highest of all weapons) - they got chance to penetrate shields to damage hull/subsystem...

Plasmas are really weak, but got plenty of ammo. Railguns are very hard to get their best out of IMO now, would be more useful with more ammo - low limitation doesnt even make sense - since railguns would by very definition use least sized/weighted ammunition of all possible projectile weapons..

Agreed, we need more viable weapons, there has been too much nerfing since beta. Ah well, years of evolution and balancing ahead fo us, still

 

[Captain Howdy]

class 2 cannons and class 1 beam lasers

profit

burn shields down with beams and use cannons to open ship like sardine can

 

[Sargon]

Unfortunately, as great as the Cobra is, I feel that I can only use gimballed weapons. It's not ideal, especially considering the vast reduction in damage compared to fixed weapons.

It really isn't as vast as you think. I much prefer my wide mounted gimbals to both hit, instead of just one and the other fling right past the target due to how the harpoint is located.

I use gimbaled beams, and fixes multicannons.

 

[Julio Montega]

Plasma should do hull damage as a thermic weapon. Energy vs shields, kinetic/thermic vs hull.

Plasma Acc. and lasers are categorized as thermal, there is no energy "damagetype" to my knowledge,
just checked the loadout-screen.

Could use some numbers on the plasma Acc. though.

 

[Yachats]

Interesting and good advice. I still haven't tried Plasmas. I like the damage I can get from a railgun but found it hard to get used to. We need a target practice star system or drone module you can fit to your ship so you can practice without risking being targeted yourself.

So a question for those who are better than this Novice, and there are plenty: is there some kind of charge or countdown indicator for the railgun? I didn't notice any but was too busy chasing a bounty and making sure his buddy wasn't on my six.

 

[Julio Montega]

Interesting and good advice. I still haven't tried Plasmas. I like the damage I can get from a railgun but found it hard to get used to. We need a target practice star system or drone module you can fit to your ship so you can practice without risking being targeted yourself.

So a question for those who are better than this Novice, and there are plenty: is there some kind of charge or countdown indicator for the railgun? I didn't notice any but was too busy chasing a bounty and making sure his buddy wasn't on my six.

Nope, you gotta shoot by ear and feel.
I hope they change the railgun firing mechanism soon.

 

[ChubbyBunneh]

So a question for those who are better than this Novice, and there are plenty: is there some kind of charge or countdown indicator for the railgun?

There is but you can only see it if you put the rail guns in their own group with no other weapons. For some reason (bug?) if you put the rail guns in a fire group with any other weapon the 1 second cooldown bar on the rail guns doesn't animate any more. After a little practice you don't need to see the cooldown anyway. If you fire (and hopefully hit), then look at the target on the scanner to check his hull and subsystem % damage, usually by the time you turn your eyes back to the fight the rail gun will be ready to fire again.

Edit: oh you mean the powerup before the rail gun fires? Yeah you gotta play it by ear. The sound it makes gets louder and more menacing just before it fires. A charge up bar in the UI would be useful.

 

[MuthaF Jamal]

Interesting and good advice. I still haven't tried Plasmas. I like the damage I can get from a railgun but found it hard to get used to. We need a target practice star system or drone module you can fit to your ship so you can practice without risking being targeted yourself.

So a question for those who are better than this Novice, and there are plenty: is there some kind of charge or countdown indicator for the railgun? I didn't notice any but was too busy chasing a bounty and making sure his buddy wasn't on my six.

Charging sound and feel (experience). Used to be worth it

 

[zaccheus44]

After test most of the weapons I fine the only useful ones to be lasers and multicannons, especially vs large targets with reguards to power consumption and ammo cost.

Tried multiple configurations on my Asp, Cobra and Viper vs large ships.

Plasma is meh, missiles are crap unless you have 4 mounts, and rail guns are lackluster. I haven't tried then other cannon variations.

What does everyone else vs Clipper and higher?

You are absolutely correct and it's what I warned against in the great gimballed debate. Balance kills variety. In an attempt to balance everything, they nerfed all the other weapons into the ground or made them too expensive for practical use, so now there are clear winners and they are the most basic cheapest guns because when hard points are equal kill times are flat regardless of weapon so you might as well use the pulse lasers and multi canons because they are cheaper, have better energy/ammo capacities and in many cases are easier to use. Its probably to late though for them to bring back meaning full differences between weapons; rail guns used to be deliciously frightening to go up against (I never liked using them), but they even made NPC sidewinder dangerous, now there really is no fear of npcs despite their load out, the only thing that makes them challenging now is the size of their ship

 

[Calaban]

Those looking for a weapon hands down better than a basic pulse laser are in for a disappointment.

FD is fully committed against "pay to win" game mechanics.. even if the paying is done with in game credits.

Thus a fixed pulse laser is just as good at hurting other ships as a plasma accelerator... all things considered (purchase price, ammo cost, etc). as it should be.

In the end the different weapons do things in a different style/mechanic... not just being simply better.

In my Cobra, I am partial to 2 fixed class2 pulse lasers, and 2 gimballed frag launchers. And that eats Anacondas. flying/aiming skill has a lot to do with weapon effectiveness: I land hits much more often when and where needed with fixed boresighted lasers than some wandering spray and pray (and fixed versions hit harder), and the frag ability to salvo 6 clouds of hot screaming death in milliseconds is situational... but devastating when used at the right place/time (which I purposely arrange for)

So.. without trying to sound too troll-ey; the greater effectiveness of the gimballed pulse/MC says more about the pilots experience... than it does about the weapons themselves.

 

[YeOldeMiller]

Railguns are very hard to get their best out of IMO now, would be more useful with more ammo - low limitation doesnt even make sense - since railguns would by very definition use least sized/weighted ammunition of all possible projectile weapons..

Well actually I can think of a reason for that. The issue may be not ammunition capacity but barrel durability. AFAIK the rail degrades really fast and has to be replaced every few shots IRL. This would also explain the high cost of "reload": clearly a few metal slugs wouldn't cost that much but barrel replacement could.

 

[Patriarch]

I have gotten quite a lot of enjoyment from 6 gimballed cannons on my asp (regular, not multi). I find them to be quite enjoyable and while the ammo is more expensive then in multicannons it really doesn't put a noticeable dent in profits when hunting Elite Condas. I am able to chain fire them and since I got them to do that I enjoy them even more. Thread and video of how to do that can be found here.

 

[rote1]

Cough... Yes, absolutely. Canons are worthless right now. Do not try canons, little ammo and almost no damage. No sir. Cough..

 

[Julio Montega]

Cannons lack a better presentation and sound ingame,
normally they would be my first choice,
yet i prefer the dooming hum of a railgun,
over the muffled cannon "dum".

 

[Tigga]

As somebody who doesn't usually have more than one "shooting" engament between trips to station (ie. a pirate) I may give rails a go. Thus far I've been using lasters/gimballed M-cannons.

 

[Patriarch]

Cannons lack a better presentation and sound ingame,
normally they would be my first choice,
yet i prefer the dooming hum of a railgun,
over the muffled cannon "dum".

I do agree that cannons really do lack much flair, and they could very much be improved in the sound department. I would like something along the lines of a deep thud. It would also be nice if there was some sort of recoil when using them. If I have 6 cannons on a ship and I fire them off, it should knock over my coffee or at least stir it a little.