Do Railguns Suck?

[Roger Wilco Jr]

Or is just me?

After getting my new Sidey A-rated, I tried some combat at a nav beacon. I had the standard issue gimballed pulse lasers. Against equally low rated opponents, they worked really well. I took down a Cobra III and an Asp Scout with no problems, but the pickings were pretty slim.

I thought I'd try some railguns, so I picked up dual fixed versions, class 1, and headed to a RES. There was a wanted novice Asp Scout. Well, I thought, this should go a lot faster than those weak pulses. Four shots in and I'm at critical heat levels. Six shots in and I'm taking heat damage. After about 40 shots (hits), the Asp finally explodes.

I mean, seriously? WTF?

[Loriath]

Target the Power Plant and get close. Oh, and "GitGud!"

[Cpt. Trev]

Can you not get a Gimballed version?

[Loriath]

Can you not get a Gimballed version?

Nope. Rails and PA's are fixed only.

[JohnLuke]

IMO, rail guns are a weapon of opportunity, much like a PA. I like weapons that I can use all the time, and I certainly don't do well with fixed weapons.

[evovi]

My experience of a pa on my imperial eagle is my hit rate sucked, unless you're against a big target the npc ai always manages to move at the last moment... I resorted to one beam and two multis and I can have more "fun" in a high res on most targets - no experience against another player but I won't be running pa's or rails for the forseeable

[CMDR Abil Midena]

Rails have deceptively LOW damage. They look good on paper, but here's what happens...they penetrate and do module damage. So if you're looking to hull someone, rails are not the weapon for that. If you are looking to module snipe, they are great.

Note they're increasing ammo count for rails with 2.2.03 as well. I think from 30 to 90 or something like that.

[Relix Typhon]

I've used a Rail on an Eagle and it worked ok but I agree with JL, it's a weapon of opportunity.
I prefer cannons. I tried frag cannons and they're powerful but only if they are pressing against the hull of the enemy

I recently tried an imperial fighter that had PA's and couldn't hit anything past about 400m. Didn't help that the GU-97 is more manoeuvrable than the Condor that I'm used to!

[Roger Wilco Jr]

Rails have deceptively LOW damage. They look good on paper, but here's what happens...they penetrate and do module damage.

OK, thanks, that explains it. I was aiming center mass and I don't think I missed, but nothing was happening - although the shields went down fast. This is actually the way I'd like to see weapons work, because "hull damage" should be mostly cosmetic. It's hitting the critical systems that should disable ships.

But maybe only 1 at a time in a Sidey due to internal heat damage.

[FCB1891]

Got fixed rails on the Python with plasma slug (ammo from fuel reserve).

They work really well as a first strike weapon, but you have to to be accurate in order to use them.

There are probably more efficient ways to kill something, but I like the combo of medium rails with large MC's.

Fly safe, o7