Zappage: Rail guns on a Cobra.

[RustiSwordz]

OK I'm looking for mega zappage to go on my Cobra. An NPC wholloped me a good un with his rails and now i want them

Will i need to upgrade my power plant/ power converters etc. Any advice on what to get small or med or anything like that. I'm looking at a pair of small Zappers and maybe a pair of med cannons.

 

[Sgt Doom]

Eh, if you're putting the small railguns on the small slots for the Cobra, convergence is going to be a serious issue; you'll have trouble hitting with both railguns. You'll definitely need to upgrade the reactor and power distribution coupling even for the small ones. I wouldn't personally go for medium cannons as well, having 2 weapons that are troublesome to hit with might be rather unpleasant, especially as railguns have much more limited ammo than even cannons. I generally roll with 2 guaranteed hitters to strip shields (since shields recharge, I go for something with lots of ammo or just lasers) and 2 heavy ordnance to smash hullsl currently small gimballed beam lasers and medium cannons.

 

[RustiSwordz]

Eh, if you're putting the small railguns on the small slots for the Cobra, convergence is going to be a serious issue; you'll have trouble hitting with both railguns. You'll definitely need to upgrade the reactor and power distribution coupling even for the small ones. I wouldn't personally go for medium cannons as well, having 2 weapons that are troublesome to hit with might be rather unpleasant, especially as railguns have much more limited ammo than even cannons. I generally roll with 2 guaranteed hitters to strip shields (since shields recharge, I go for something with lots of ammo or just lasers) and 2 heavy ordnance to smash hullsl currently small gimballed beam lasers and medium cannons.

Ah OK. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Adept]

Those dangerous NPC cobras have twin medium rails. Thankfully they are a bit less flawless with their aiming these days.

One small rail is workable, you just have to pay attention to where it's gun pipper is, with two you are almost guaranteed to miss with one of them. If you want the NPC style hammer, get two medium ones.

 

[gandy]

If you are going to have some fun and try it i would recommend you set it up in the fire groups so you can fire 1 or 2 or all 4 at a time that way if you need to put a little extra juice in the shields you can and keep firing with one or two rail guns.

 

[EAGLE 5]

I currently run a mid 90s all gimbaled gatling gun setup mediums up front and light in the wings but when I had a different approach I ran with 2 medium cannons up front and 2 gimbaled burst lasers in the wings. One wore the shields down the other went in for a hull smash. Projectile convergence was not an issue having them upfront and for the most part using cannons it's a lot easier on power/heat than railguns.

 

[Don_Von_Hulio]

Rails have ammo now?

 

[RustiSwordz]

I currently run a mid 90s all gimbaled gatling gun setup mediums up front and light in the wings but when I had a different approach I ran with 2 medium cannons up front and 2 gimbaled burst lasers in the wings. One wore the shields down the other went in for a hull smash. Projectile convergence was not an issue having them upfront and for the most part using cannons it's a lot easier on power/heat than railguns.

I just put a pair of small gimbal Pulse Lasers Overcharged outboard and a pair of gimbal Multicannons medium in the nose and took the rig for a spin in the iceteroids (geddit) near Beagle 2. Its a nice combo, made short work of a Cobra and 3 Sidey's.

 

[Lowe1978]

Those dangerous NPC cobras have twin medium rails. Thankfully they are a bit less flawless with their aiming these days.

One small rail is workable, you just have to pay attention to where it's gun pipper is, with two you are almost guaranteed to miss with one of them. If you want the NPC style hammer, get two medium ones.

But when they do hit, ouch. I got jumped by two Cobras the other day and whilst I took on the one the other managed to land a hit with the rails on me. Took my thrusters clean out and I drifted away into the dark unknown. Had to self destruct in the end, was gutted!

 

[forger]

Eh, if you're putting the small railguns on the small slots for the Cobra, convergence is going to be a serious issue; you'll have trouble hitting with both railguns. You'll definitely need to upgrade the reactor and power distribution coupling even for the small ones. I wouldn't personally go for medium cannons as well, having 2 weapons that are troublesome to hit with might be rather unpleasant, especially as railguns have much more limited ammo than even cannons. I generally roll with 2 guaranteed hitters to strip shields (since shields recharge, I go for something with lots of ammo or just lasers) and 2 heavy ordnance to smash hullsl currently small gimballed beam lasers and medium cannons.

that's why experienced combatants have rail gun on ONE side: in medium and small hardpoint, that way you can easily hit with both and have 1 medium and 1 small hardpoint for other weapons.

 

[Carradin]

Railguns are fun. Just be aware that you can't really afford to miss much with them. They take a long time between shots, and sap a lot of energy. They also have only 31 ammo, so I'd advise against going all rails and bringing something else for popping easier targets. Personally I run two beam lasers for grunt work and two rails for when something absolutely, positively has to die right now.

[Edit] I should also mention that they have a short charge time. So from the time you press (and hold) the trigger, it'll be a second or two until you actually fire. So you have to plan for that - You need your reticle over the target not when you press the trigger, but when the gun actually fires.

 

[xaccers]

I used to have two cannons in the middle, a rail gun and a missile launcher in B1, worked well with the rail gun knocking out the shield, then the cannons knocking out the hull (and the rail gun again if I missed with the cannons), but with rail guns having ammo as they should, I'd pick a beam laser for an outside mount.
The missiles were used only in emergencies as a volley of them would deter most attacking players