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Author Topic: Gauss Sniper  (Read 2234 times)

Thaago

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Gauss Sniper
« on: September 29, 2012, 02:21:39 PM »

I was playing with the Gauss Cannon, but was disappointed by how inaccurate it is. I found two changes which make it into a sniper :D. They may be a bit much but if you want to have fun:

1) Change the chargeup from 1 to 0 and the cooldown from 1 to 2. The gun traverses even more slowly while charging so even if was accurate when it first starts firing it won't be a second later.

2) Change the speed from 1200 to 1500.

In testing with a normal crew with ITU on a capital, this let the Gauss cannon hit frigates about 40% of the time at 1600 range, 20% at 1800. Its probs a bit much, but so much fun.
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Temjin

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Re: Gauss Sniper
« Reply #1 on: September 29, 2012, 03:08:31 PM »

The Gauss is devastating against cruisers and capitals; I think its only real drawback is its low ammo count. I'm okay with it being kind of crappy against smaller ships.
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Aleskander

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Re: Gauss Sniper
« Reply #2 on: October 04, 2012, 09:47:47 AM »

I thought it was one of the guns with perfect accuracy?
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Thaago

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Re: Gauss Sniper
« Reply #3 on: October 04, 2012, 10:38:31 AM »

Well it has perfect "Accuracy": the round will always go exactly where you point it. But because of its long range (compared to projectile speed) and charge up time it is extremely inaccurate in practice.
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Alex

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Re: Gauss Sniper
« Reply #4 on: October 04, 2012, 05:19:43 PM »

The chargeup time is there specifically so that it's not quite as effective against smaller ships - they have a chance to move out of the way while it's charging up. Making it any better is problematic - shields aren't a good option against it, but neither is small-ship armor. Would be very easy to make into something that's too good.

As it stands, if you can predict the path of the ship well enough, you could still land some hits, assuming you control it manually. I do think that letting autofiring Gauss cannons be a hard counter to - well, basically all frigates - would be a bit much :)
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rex

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Re: Gauss Sniper
« Reply #5 on: October 07, 2012, 10:51:43 AM »

The chargeup time is there specifically so that it's not quite as effective against smaller ships - they have a chance to move out of the way while it's charging up. Making it any better is problematic - shields aren't a good option against it, but neither is small-ship armor. Would be very easy to make into something that's too good.

As it stands, if you can predict the path of the ship well enough, you could still land some hits, assuming you control it manually. I do think that letting autofiring Gauss cannons be a hard counter to - well, basically all frigates - would be a bit much :)

Well, isn't this sort of the situation where character based upgradable skill should come into play.  Yes, Gauss cannons with a shorter charge, faster cyclic rate, and quicker turrets would be devastating in some situations. Is there going to be some collection of skills and tech where later in the game can we get there through skills and technology?

I just hope a late game character's capital ship is a terrifying thing.

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Rowanas

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Re: Gauss Sniper
« Reply #6 on: October 07, 2012, 11:04:36 AM »

Well, Elite leading does a reasonable job of it, and if we upgrade our ship/crew/captains to perform a specific task, like providing the sort of projectile speed and leading precision that precision gauss fire requires, then we should be able to pop frigates like cheap piƱatas.
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