Railgun needs to hold charge

[Soulkiller]

Hello!

I have tried it and I think it kinda underperforms. I would suggest to bump up the dmg a bit and let us hold the charge when it is fully charged so we can line up our shot. I think currently it is underpowered considering the huge energy and heat requiremts. Also the ammo part is quite bad in it as well. I mean why do all heavy hitter weapons come with ammo like the Plasma Acc and Railgun? Didnt railguns used to have just energy req?

Cheers,
Soul

 

[DMLeeroy]

Railguns use a massive amount of energy to propel a projectile, its these you are paying for

Also, railguns are amazing at sniping subsystems, they can do a lot of damage.

 

[Soulkiller]

Well try to hit something fast with a Railgun with its fixed charge up/shoot period. I really think we should be able to hold the charge up to line up our shots.

 

[Apec Valorian]

Hint: The Railgun is designed to be a Big Game hunting thing, not a thing you'd shoot at Eagles with.

 

[DMLeeroy]

I wait until the target gives me a nice chunk of hull to aim at before loosing one off, like when an asp tries to pull a turn and shows you its entire undercarriage.

There is no point using rail guns on anything smaller, as like you said they are nippy and it's difficult, and also the size of the bounty is less than the re supply cost.
Also, lasers and multicannons take out the smaller ships with no issue.

 

[beelbeebub]

The railgun used to be the ultimate weapon back in beta days. The "charge" or "firing lag" is there to even the weapon out, massive damage and accuracy - bloody difficult to use.
.
ED is about balances and trade offs, rather than simple levelling up. There are circumstances where a SW with pulse lasers is a better bet than an anaconda with railguns.

 

[Hexen]

Railgun have mixed damage. I suspect it's good against both shields and armor. In my experience it performed quite good but I want to carry at least 2 of them and that's where the problem starts. It's just too hard to align 2 of them. And ideally I want at least 4.

 

[Yodafone]

Hello!

I have tried it and I think it kinda underperforms. I would suggest to bump up the dmg a bit and let us hold the charge when it is fully charged so we can line up our shot. I think currently it is underpowered considering the huge energy and heat requiremts. Also the ammo part is quite bad in it as well. I mean why do all heavy hitter weapons come with ammo like the Plasma Acc and Railgun? Didnt railguns used to have just energy req?

Cheers,
Soul

Perhaps there could be a tweak as you describe but with the trade off of whilst holding fire, the heat keeps building, subsequently are then not as powerful the longer you have held it. Using Heat sinks in combination with Rails are a great match (despite the heat sinks running out, even carried two sets of HS to enable the fun to last even longer), but launching a heat sink just before you fire has a massive effect on the Rails effectiveness and power on a targets hull. Am waffling, but I quite like you idea Soulkiller, interesting post, as long as there is a trade off I like it.

Lancer

 

[Zebarmy]

Hint: The Railgun is designed to be a Big Game hunting thing, not a thing you'd shoot at Eagles with.

Although it's pretty hilarious hitting an Eagle with a pair of C2 Rail's (you forgot to mention that bit )

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For the record, I like them just the way they are, they take serious skill to use.

 

[Ydiss]

If the rail gun was hold charge and release to fire, I'd probably use it. As it is, it's a bit unreliable.

It would need to keep building heat whilst held, of course. So there would still be a skill requirement to use it. But the current design doesn't make any combat sense; I can't imagine any weapons manufacturer would seriously design a fixed weapon this way and actually expect to sell the product. Beams are far more reliable and as such are higher DPS.

 

[Jim LeCreepé]

As I suggested way back in Prem Beta, rails guns need to be made realistic. A rail gun has to be charged before the shot (true), but this energy is already stored in the capacitator. It generates a massive amount of heat (true) when shooting. Rail guns shoot projectiles. Plasma cannons, well, plasma (ionised gas at high temperature). Where does the plasma come from? So they also need some sort of "ammunition".

My suggestion for the rail gun is still to make it use the power in the capacitator and have it charge afterwards when the capacitator charges up. This will reduce the rate of fire and makes the shot instant when the trigger is pressed. Rails guns were OP in Prem Beta, but now are nerfed too much.