Hello everybody. I was trying to shoot an Anaconda with my Rail Gun but I couldn't fire as it kept saying out of range. The distance between me and the Anaconda was from 1.5km to 3km. I had successfully used it before against smaller ships. Any ideas as to what the effective range of the weapon is or why I could't fire it? Power usage was fine btw. Thanks
Rail Guns
- Thread starter Ahab
- Start date
Hmmm have not heard about this issue before... but then again I find rails to be useless in PVE (if you are talking about that) so I wouldnt know anyway. Used them ages ago but them deemed them underwhelming as they are not worth it in every single way and the Multicannons outperform them in every way.
I am talking about PVE and I am experimenting with ways to bring an Anacondas shields down the fastest so I used a beam laser and a rail gun in one fire group and whilst the beam was firing without any issue the rail gun wouldn't fire because it was saying it was out of range. Any ideas as to why? I mean could the beam fire normally and be within range and the rail not?
I am sorry I do not know the max range for Rails. I know Beams have a max range of 3km. I guess it might be possible. Also after shooting the first time (holding the mouse button) I think you need to release it and press it again to charge up a second shot. Maybe thats what happened? You made a shot with the rails and the beams were shooting but then didnt release the fire button so the Rails didnt charge a second time?
Tho I do now know what this out of range might be. Also currently the UI is a bit bugged. For example if you run out of energy then you get a message like Thermal Overload for the beams. Then even if you wait to recharge it, some still display this message even they are charged and when you restart firing then it gets refreshed properly.
So maybe you werent really out of range per se just the UI didnt refresh that information as it does not if you run out of juice for your beams.
Tho I do now know what this out of range might be. Also currently the UI is a bit bugged. For example if you run out of energy then you get a message like Thermal Overload for the beams. Then even if you wait to recharge it, some still display this message even they are charged and when you restart firing then it gets refreshed properly.
So maybe you werent really out of range per se just the UI didnt refresh that information as it does not if you run out of juice for your beams.
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if you havent used Railguns before, they do require a spinup time (about 1.5-2 sec) around 1/4 of your total weapons energy per gun per shot and quite a bit of heat overhead (meaning it wont charge/shoot at higher heat levels). so if you dont have these things sorted it will not fire.
ignore my ramblings if you knew these things before
ignore my ramblings if you knew these things before
I've had similar things happen with pulse lasers and even some scanners where I know I am within range of my target, but it displays out of range. That is, until I click on my trigger, and the state resets itself and the "out of range" warning disappears.
Worth ticketing unless someone else can confirm this. I was fairly sure that rails have the same max range as beams (3km). Whether they attenuate over range is another question (I think they do which would be strange).
Definitely have to keep them on a separate fire button though, especially if you are using beams (burst and pulse you could conceivable tap the fire button without triggering the rails). Generally, I never bind different weapons to the same fire button.
I'd have two fire groups; beams primary, rails secondary in one. Beams primary, dumbfires secondary in the other. Rotate to either when needed. You'll always have your beams (free ammo) and just switch to whichever secondary you want when you need them.
Like schurem said though, don't waste them on shields. I think rails are listed as "thermal/kinetic" so technically they should do damage on shields as well but they work best on hull and especially for sub-system sniping (A penetration). You have to be accurate and steady though
Definitely have to keep them on a separate fire button though, especially if you are using beams (burst and pulse you could conceivable tap the fire button without triggering the rails). Generally, I never bind different weapons to the same fire button.
I'd have two fire groups; beams primary, rails secondary in one. Beams primary, dumbfires secondary in the other. Rotate to either when needed. You'll always have your beams (free ammo) and just switch to whichever secondary you want when you need them.
Like schurem said though, don't waste them on shields. I think rails are listed as "thermal/kinetic" so technically they should do damage on shields as well but they work best on hull and especially for sub-system sniping (A penetration). You have to be accurate and steady though
Be warned tho, they are ridiculously expensive and have very little ammunition.
Technically railguns are kinetic weapons. They accelerate projectiles by building up a magnetic field. Therefore the ammo clip.
Dont think so. They charge energy and KABLAAAM!
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EDIT: Above knows more than me.
I never saw ammo when checking them in the outfitter, but it might not be stated then.
No I don't think so, I have both an A3 Power Distributor and an A3 Power Supply so I doubt that energy usage was the problem. Most likely it was that I didn't know they had a hidden requirement for ammo as I had used them before with a beam. It's quite frustrating cause there I was jumping into a fight with an Anaconda and realizing I was left with only a beam because of this.