Railgun Wonkiness?

[Tomn_Peng]

So I've been going through the campaign, and got to the bit where you unlock railguns. "Sweet!" thinks I, "From the stats, these look like they'd be a good replacement for my Pegasus cannons!" So I loaded up one of my Interceptors which had previously been outfitted with a mix of Pegasi and Barbosas with full broadsides of railguns and headed on in.

That was when I discovered that railguns can't hit diddly-squat. As far as I can tell, the problem is that the railguns stop tracking while they're charging up to fire, which means that if either you're moving or the enemy is moving, then unless both of you are moving directly at each other it's going to miss. This, obviously, badly limits the potential effectiveness of railguns.

For more oddness, I tried running a challenge map to see if the same held true outside of the campaign. First off, though, I discovered that apparently ship layouts differ from the campaign and challenge maps - seems like the campaign ships get more ship slots. More importantly, though, it appears that unlike the campaign, challenge map railguns don't actually fire at will and rely wholly on manual fire.

So, is anyone else getting the same results? And is all of this working as intended?

 

[unmerged(733157)]

I've seen no issues with the railguns, only the captains of the ships. If you're moving, and fire your railgun in a straight line, it will fire exactly where you aimed it, but if you're moving, it will miss your target entirely.

If you stay perfectly still, the railgun will hit it's mark everytime, or so I've seen.

I believe it's working as intended. They're very OP and take some care and precision to operate effectively.

 

[Tomn_Peng]

I've seen no issues with the railguns, only the captains of the ships. If you're moving, and fire your railgun in a straight line, it will fire exactly where you aimed it, but if you're moving, it will miss your target entirely.

If you stay perfectly still, the railgun will hit it's mark everytime, or so I've seen.

I believe it's working as intended. They're very OP and take some care and precision to operate effectively.

OK, sure, I can see an argument for them being intended to be used as manual-fire special weapons the way rockets appear to do. Is there a reason why the campaign defaults to them being autofire weapons like everything else despite being utterly incapable of doing any good when doing so, however? It's pretty confusing for a newbie to see your brand new fancy-fly railguns keep firing into space or hitting your own ships way more often than they actually hit the bad guys. Relatedly, not that it matters too much because they're practically useless on autofire, but is there a reason why autofire doesn't seem to work for railguns on challenge maps?

 

[unmerged(733157)]

Auto fire isn't on on points or assassinations map either. Could potentially be a bug in that mission? Or intended for that mission so users get used to the rail gun before making it manual?

Honestly, I couldn't give you an answer, I'm just another player, but I can see how it might be intended for the ship to be stationary.

 

[unmerged(733414)]

I believe how it is supposed to work (and currently is) is that the rail gun tracks to whatever angle you set, then charges and fires. It's fine if your ship is stationary, if your ship is rotating you have to take that into account. The angle it is firing at I believe is going to be constant relative to the ship, not a fixed point in the water (like manually targeting ballistic weapons).

 

[unmerged(35541)]

I believe how it is supposed to work (and currently is) is that the rail gun tracks to whatever angle you set, then charges and fires. It's fine if your ship is stationary, if your ship is rotating you have to take that into account. The angle it is firing at I believe is going to be constant relative to the ship, not a fixed point in the water (like manually targeting ballistic weapons).

This is a good summary how railguns work. We wanted them to be weapons that requires a certain amount of skill. They get harder to use, the more mobile you are.

 

[Tomn_Peng]

This is a good summary how railguns work. We wanted them to be weapons that requires a certain amount of skill. They get harder to use, the more mobile you are.

All right, then - are they supposed to be on autofire in the campaign, then? To somebody who doesn't know how they work, they just seem broken (doubly so since their lack of tracking means they miss if either you OR your target is moving.)

Relatedly, are campaign ships supposed to have more equipment slots than challenge ships? While testing to see how railguns shook down, I discovered that while yo can fit a three railgun broadside to an Interceptor in the campaign, you can only fit a two railgun broadside to an Interceptor on challenge maps. Same ship parts, same ship, fewer slots.

 

[unmerged(35541)]

All right, then - are they supposed to be on autofire in the campaign, then? To somebody who doesn't know how they work, they just seem broken (doubly so since their lack of tracking means they miss if either you OR your target is moving.)

Relatedly, are campaign ships supposed to have more equipment slots than challenge ships? While testing to see how railguns shook down, I discovered that while yo can fit a three railgun broadside to an Interceptor in the campaign, you can only fit a two railgun broadside to an Interceptor on challenge maps. Same ship parts, same ship, fewer slots.

They should not be on autofire in the campaign. It is probably a bug.

There are some differences between ships in campaign and challenge modes, yes.

 

[unmerged(733622)]

I was wondering what the railgun target reticle is for? Because there is both an angle and a reticle aspect to the railgun targeting system...

 

[DerKrieger92]

I was wondering what the railgun target reticle is for? Because there is both an angle and a reticle aspect to the railgun targeting system...

That is an excellent question. I am not sure myself I think it is just an easier way for us as the player to select it and then move it or cancel it. This seems even more likely if you consider it from a tablet users point of view.

 

[unmerged(733622)]

That is an excellent question. I am not sure myself I think it is just an easier way for us as the player to select it and then move it or cancel it. This seems even more likely if you consider it from a tablet users point of view.

If I remember correctly (I havent used railguns that much so far), at one time my railgun shot stopped short just a few hundred meters when I tried to lead the fire onto an enemy vessel (reticle placed in front of it), which leads me to believe that the reticle could be the end point of them beam. But most likely it has nothing to do with that since Ive fired other beams that went through my intended target and onwards.

 

[unmerged(733157)]

I think it's simply a graphic to represent a straight line...