Today I'd like to discuss the Imperial Hammer, the three-round burst railgun that can be obtained by powerplay.
I recently went into testing it, and thanks to the CG I had quite a good amount of well-equipped targets of any ship class. I tried the lightweight and long-range engineer ennhancements and the feedback cascade, plasma slug and super penetrator experimentals.
Now, let's get to tho the tests: I treid their performace compared to small and medium normal rail guns, also with the same experimental effects and modifications. I have used a python and an aspX as the ships to run the trials with, my hitrate with either of the railgun version has been very high with both ships. Hitting vipers and cobras was hardest because of their incredibly good frontal combat profile (thin as a piece of paper). Still, my hitrate was around 90% with both hammers and normal rails. I ran different setups with two and four rails each and one or two thermal vent long-range beams to keep the ship cool while firing.
My conclusions were as follows: Even when constantly hitting all three rounds with the imperial hammer they are not as effective as normal railguns. The heat buildup cost of the hammers is way too high to compensate for the increased damage, which can't be dealt as fast and reliable as with the normal railguns. The forgivingness of the hammers when missing is also set off by the heat: You can miss one shot and still hit the other two, however to be able to actually able to deal more damage you have to hit 100%, which is very hard especially on fast ships like eagles, vultures, cobras or vipers that only stand still for very short times and then boost, a normal railgun shines a lot more here due to the fact that you can deal all damage in this one, decisive moment.
Surprisingly, the hammers have also been less effective versus huge ships such as the corvette. Due to their higher heat buildup you will even cook up a python in eight to ten shots while firing a thermal vent beam. The Hammer also uses more distributor power than the normal railgun, which can further lead to cooking your ship up. This makes the weapon that deals more burst-dps actually look worse in encounters where you need constant fire, like fighting a conda, vette or cutter. In the end you get around 10 more DPS for a significant increase in reactor draw, heat buildup, ammo cost and a longer needed focus-time. I feel like it's actually a downgrade to the normal rails in most situations. Additionally it will also make the Plasma Slug experimental effect way less effective, as one burst reload costs 3x the fuel of one normal railgun shot, wearing down even the biggest fuel tanks in no time and making using normal ammo the more effective choice.
The concept of a burst-railgun that required steadier aim and better leading and tracking for an increased reward is a really good idea, however the fact that even when reaching the higher skillcap of this weapon the reward in field effectivity is nullified by its stats, I feel a bit disappointed.
I suggest the following minor adjustments to make it more worthwhile:
- Make the plasma slug experimental effect consume less fuel and give the gun a higher ammo cap with cheaper ammo to restock.
- To compensate for the longer burst, decrease wind-up time.
- Decrease power draw and distributor draw, the challenge of having to hit all three shots is enough.
- Decrease heat buildup to equal a normal railgun
What do we have with this? We still get a weapon requiring more skill to be effective at around the same energy cost and draw, keeping the burst-idea but being freed of the unnecessary downsides of the weapon.
Thanks for reading!
I recently went into testing it, and thanks to the CG I had quite a good amount of well-equipped targets of any ship class. I tried the lightweight and long-range engineer ennhancements and the feedback cascade, plasma slug and super penetrator experimentals.
Now, let's get to tho the tests: I treid their performace compared to small and medium normal rail guns, also with the same experimental effects and modifications. I have used a python and an aspX as the ships to run the trials with, my hitrate with either of the railgun version has been very high with both ships. Hitting vipers and cobras was hardest because of their incredibly good frontal combat profile (thin as a piece of paper). Still, my hitrate was around 90% with both hammers and normal rails. I ran different setups with two and four rails each and one or two thermal vent long-range beams to keep the ship cool while firing.
My conclusions were as follows: Even when constantly hitting all three rounds with the imperial hammer they are not as effective as normal railguns. The heat buildup cost of the hammers is way too high to compensate for the increased damage, which can't be dealt as fast and reliable as with the normal railguns. The forgivingness of the hammers when missing is also set off by the heat: You can miss one shot and still hit the other two, however to be able to actually able to deal more damage you have to hit 100%, which is very hard especially on fast ships like eagles, vultures, cobras or vipers that only stand still for very short times and then boost, a normal railgun shines a lot more here due to the fact that you can deal all damage in this one, decisive moment.
Surprisingly, the hammers have also been less effective versus huge ships such as the corvette. Due to their higher heat buildup you will even cook up a python in eight to ten shots while firing a thermal vent beam. The Hammer also uses more distributor power than the normal railgun, which can further lead to cooking your ship up. This makes the weapon that deals more burst-dps actually look worse in encounters where you need constant fire, like fighting a conda, vette or cutter. In the end you get around 10 more DPS for a significant increase in reactor draw, heat buildup, ammo cost and a longer needed focus-time. I feel like it's actually a downgrade to the normal rails in most situations. Additionally it will also make the Plasma Slug experimental effect way less effective, as one burst reload costs 3x the fuel of one normal railgun shot, wearing down even the biggest fuel tanks in no time and making using normal ammo the more effective choice.
The concept of a burst-railgun that required steadier aim and better leading and tracking for an increased reward is a really good idea, however the fact that even when reaching the higher skillcap of this weapon the reward in field effectivity is nullified by its stats, I feel a bit disappointed.
I suggest the following minor adjustments to make it more worthwhile:
- Make the plasma slug experimental effect consume less fuel and give the gun a higher ammo cap with cheaper ammo to restock.
- To compensate for the longer burst, decrease wind-up time.
- Decrease power draw and distributor draw, the challenge of having to hit all three shots is enough.
- Decrease heat buildup to equal a normal railgun
What do we have with this? We still get a weapon requiring more skill to be effective at around the same energy cost and draw, keeping the burst-idea but being freed of the unnecessary downsides of the weapon.
Thanks for reading!
