Ship Builds & Load Outs Size 3+ rail guns (Mass Drivers) and ammunition

[Shadowjester]

I personally love rail guns I had 2 on my Viper when I was flying one. However i was disheartened that there was no class 3 rail guns when i had the slot for it; while i understood why when the game was early but now that power play was released along with a few more ships with size 3 hard points I am curious as to why. I can understand about balancing issues with a few weapons but this i am curious about; there is a class 3 plasma accelerator why not a rail gun (at that point they can even call it a mass driver) on top of that the plasma gets 105 rounds where as the rail gun only gets about 31.

It is also my understanding that a rail gun uses magnetic force to propel the projectile at speed; they are not specialized; now if they do make bigger rail guns even if they do not increase the magazine hold of the rail gun why not make it so that a ship can equip a mining laser and a refinery so that a ship can make their own shells and they take up cargo space like the hatch breakers; personally I would feel that it might balance any power increase or reload time of the larger gun.

 

[Aleksej]

The answer is simple - size 3 rail guns would be too powerful. Plasma accelerator is very close range weapon, it is not possible to hit anything at medium and large distances with it unless you have tons of luck. With rail guns you can easily hit a target that is within any range, these are great sniping weapons. As for the ammunition, the patch notes of 1.3 Beta stated that ammunition should have been tweaked but this was never seen to be implemented in the game.

 

[TruffleSnout]

As I understood it, the railgun ammo was only changed from 1 per reload to 5 per reload. That actual number of shots remains unchanged.

 

[Shadowjester]

There are complications with OP balancing, I am aware however there are still minor changes to the Rails that would be gladly received such as the charge meter to know when the shell will be released. While the mining an asteroid in a RES for shells would be nice i feel that that would be a Medium to large ship operation the Rail guns on those ships minimize the maneuverability so long range weapons are the only thing they have going for them against small ships.

With possible corvette and hinted larger ships sooner or later current class weapons will become inadequate and if/when pythons or anacondas have to compete with frigates or carriers (just thinking about the game now and the size of the ships then is staggering) and i would like the rail gun to move up the line.

Even with the rails being a snipers tool given the way the combat is, you are using an iron sight on targets at something like 3k out where the aiming dot fills the size of the ship up to cobra sized even with a sub system targeted you still cannot accurately aim or time the shot; with the bigger round its even less likely to hit.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

There are complications with OP balancing, I am aware however there are still minor changes to the Rails that would be gladly received such as the charge meter to know when the shell will be released. While the mining an asteroid in a RES for shells would be nice i feel that that would be a Medium to large ship operation the Rail guns on those ships minimize the maneuverability so long range weapons are the only thing they have going for them against small ships.

With possible corvette and hinted larger ships sooner or later current class weapons will become inadequate and if/when pythons or anacondas have to compete with frigates or carriers (just thinking about the game now and the size of the ships then is staggering) and i would like the rail gun to move up the line.

Even with the rails being a snipers tool given the way the combat is, you are using an iron sight on targets at something like 3k out where the aiming dot fills the size of the ship up to cobra sized even with a sub system targeted you still cannot accurately aim or time the shot; with the bigger round its even less likely to hit.

I get what you mean but putting say 8 very high powered railguns on an Anaconda would give you almost instant kills on all ships apart from other Anacondas and even they'd die quickly in 2/3 salvos. Simply apply full reverse thrust and line up once for the kill.

The other main issue is that they do both thermal and kinetic damage so are equally effective against shields and hull. Simply put they are very powerful weapons and the upper classes (in my opinion) would be way out of balance with similar weapons. I mean the frag cannon has similar ammo yet thats offset by only being kinetic damage and having to get close to be effective.
I'd advise looking at Pulse lasers, they have that sniper quality and a pair of large pulse lasers will shred most enemy ships.

 

[Shadowjester]

I get what you mean but putting say 8 very high powered rail guns on an Anaconda would give you almost instant kills on all ships apart from other Anacondas and even they'd die quickly in 2/3 salvos. Simply apply full reverse thrust and line up once for the kill.

The other main issue is that they do both thermal and kinetic damage so are equally effective against shields and hull. Simply put they are very powerful weapons and the upper classes (in my opinion) would be way out of balance with similar weapons. I mean the frag cannon has similar ammo yet thats offset by only being kinetic damage and having to get close to be effective.
I'd advise looking at Pulse lasers, they have that sniper quality and a pair of large pulse lasers will shred most enemy ships.

I appreciate the suggestion with the pulse lasers; and i do see your point with throwing a conda in reverse. A possible counter would be power draw for the rails, longer load time (considering they are bolt action rifles), in all honestly I'm really hoping for more weapon choices along with more ships. As I said I'm excited for larger ships and the current weapons will turn in inadequate on those large ships and when they are implemented certain weapons will not work such as fixed weapons (unless your fighting another large ship and are going to give it a full broad side [can't wait to do that]) or at least weapons that are currently only fixed such as rails or plasma accels.