Rail Guns in Beyond (3.0)

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rxay579
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Rail Guns in Beyond (3.0)

Postby rxay579 » Mon Apr 09, 2018 5:24 am

I'm looking for informed opinions on Rail Guns in the Beyond (v3.0) expansion, specifically on engineering them.

If you have any thoughts on my weapon loadout, let me know. General Rail Gun feedback is also appreciated.
I'm hoping your answers will help me see a clear answer for myself. Quite a lot of text below, sorry about that.


My Weapon Loadout:

My specific situation is that I'm changing up the weapons loadout on my Python multipurpose mission running ship and I'm having trouble deciding what engineering to put on the two C2 Rail Guns I plan to use with it.
I'm certain that they will be lightweight for the reduced power and distributor draw, but I'm on the fence about Feedback Cascade, Super Penetrator, or Plasma Slug (for the reduced thermal load).
My other hardpoints are two C3 Gimballed G5 Efficient Thermal Vent Beams and a C3 Gimballed G5 High Capacity Corrosive Multi-Cannon. The beams are currently a given as they overlap with my combat loadout and I'm quite enjoying them; the MC is there for much needed kinetic damage and the corrosive effect.
On my mission runs (I'll take 6+ missions at a time), I'll often encounter a dozen ships and up to half of which will be big ships like Anacondas; the Beams and Multi-Cannon will do much of the work with the Rail Guns coming in for situations like chaff or particularly tough shields.

I'm thinking that two Feedback Cascades would be overkill, but I've never used them, so I don't know how effective they are alone. Reading up on the matter, it looks like two C2 FC Rails is enough to drop any active SCB in 1-2 shots.
With the two C3 Efficient Beams, I don't usually have too much trouble getting shields down as I can fire them alone almost continuously (~65s on 2.5pips in wep), and this effect seems better for a build where taking down shields isn't otherwise as easy.
I also plan on taking shots when the target's shields are offline and am not looking forward to the 20% damage reduction in that situation.

Super Penetrator seems to have few downsides for me as I still have some trouble lining up frequent shots with Rails, so I'm not firing 100% of the time I can anyway. Lining up to hit multiple modules is more of a "that's nice" than a "must have" goal for me.

Plasma Slug looks nice, but as far as I've been able to tell from videos on the subject, the fuel usage is about 1/10 ton per shot; this calculates to 160 shots (80 shots each) eating up half my 32t fuel reserves while still having a 10% damage reduction.
I know I'm unlikely to use that much in one encounter; I keep thinking that if I'm not going to get much more than 80 shots each before fuel reserves start being a concern, I might as well go with Super Pen without the damage reduction; I really don't want to clear an optional slot for an extra fuel tank as my optional modules are all there for the types of missions I'm usually running and some extra padding in case my shields go down.

Thanks for reading. Let me know your thoughts.
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Re: Rail Guns in Beyond (3.0)

Postby uvelius » Mon Apr 09, 2018 6:55 am

Depends on what you want to use them for really. Generally, I would go for long range, since you can hit even small targets nicely if you target their subsystems, on long range (the Rail auto-adjusts a bit). It is even a nice anti-fighter weapon due to the "hitscan" effect.
As for experimental, I am not sure, though. I use them for PvP where Cascade and Penetrator are king, but in PvE ... depends on the goal you have in mind, I guess. I feel Penetrator has almost zero effect on NPC?
Two Cascade do just fine, by the way.

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Re: Rail Guns in Beyond (3.0)

Postby Lanceor » Mon Apr 09, 2018 8:22 am

Previously, I used a C4 fixed beam in combo with two railguns on my FdL. A year ago, I described the DPS of this combo as "mindblowing". However, it does not seem to be the case any more.

I've switched to four efficient beams and an overcharged multicannon (all gimballed), and my kill speed has doubled. I do miss having Feedback Cascade against big ships with neverending SCBs, but against everything else however, my new setup is noticably more effective.

And like uvelius says, I'm not sure if super penetrator was having any effect on NPCs - I'm shooting out modules far more reliably with my current gimballed beam/multi setup than I was with super penetrator rails.
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Re: Rail Guns in Beyond (3.0)

Postby CMDR Abil Midena » Mon Apr 09, 2018 10:35 pm

Based on what you said, I would not put rails on your python.

Rails are best used by smallish maneuverable ships that can quickly and frequently target and hit the module you are aiming for. Pythons are neither small/manueverable. Also, right now, hitting the pp doesn't do anything. Maybe FD will fix that soon(tm).
Rails do crap damage to hull.
Lasers of any type are better vs shields.
Feedback Casc must hit within a small time window, or they do nothing. Do a search of the FD forums, and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Long range doesn't make sense to me, as even with the slight "auto aim" at long range, it can be harder to hit with rails, assuming you're after a module, which is what rails are for.

FWIW, I fly a heavily engineered Python, nearly 100% of the time. I've tried rails, including Imp Hammers, and found them lacking. Maybe in a FDL, or better in a small ship to module snipe (but remember PP sniping is useless right now). Choose whatever loadout you want for fun, but rails are not the way (PVE, not talking about PVP).

Here's my loadout for shits and giggles:

http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=B050,HgBG ... U11IM02UI1
My Youtube Channel
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Re: Rail Guns in Beyond (3.0)

Postby rxay579 » Tue Apr 10, 2018 9:52 am

Thanks for the observations, all.

If super penetrators aren't working well (in general), I'll probably go with Plasma Slug and just plan to top off a little longer when fuel scooping. I've noticed that NPCs don't seem too bothered by having their modules shot out, but knocking out the Shield Generator still works.
If I get into PvP, I'll look into getting some with Feedback Cascade.
Long Range G1 does look pretty attractive and would make my weapons loadout more versatile.

My use is general ship combat incidental to flying around; not PvP focused but I want to attempt to defend myself without just high waking every encounter. I generally take on NPCs that come after me as they're basically delivering miscellaneous MATs to me, they just need help digging them out.

When running missions, I can be out of my home station for 1-3 hours and I prefer not having to dock somewhere else for reloads unless strictly necessary; I can accomplish this with my existing loadout but I've been spending more time than I like on individual NPC encounters. The last time I had a game session, NPCs mostly spammed chaff nearly non-stop for the entire encounter, so I'm looking for good fixed weapons in the mix and my AspX did pretty well with C1 Rail Guns.
The missions I generally run in this ship are a mix of locate and recover, assassinate, salvage, skimmer kills, occasional data courier, and occasional light cargo deliveries; all legally sanctioned with some (salvage, shipping, skimmers) being "don't get caught" legal.

To head off any specific questions about my specific ship build, link below. The weapons are up for consideration, mostly the Shock Cannons.
http://www.edshipyard.com/new/#/L=C50H4 ... NT,RX_DV03

I like my ship to run cool for fuel scooping, fighting in hotter environments, no heatsink with my SCB, and reducing any gimbal/turret effectiveness from my opponent (though I don't know how well that last one actually works in practice).
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