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Author Topic: Mjolnir Cannon  (Read 10326 times)

Squigzilla

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Mjolnir Cannon
« on: September 10, 2012, 12:20:17 AM »

The Mjolnir Cannon has a very nice weapon sprite, and the weapon's description in the Codex makes the gun sound absolutely terrifying. It's also the only ballistic weapon that deals energy damage (thermal pulse cannon not included), so it gives low- and medium-tech ships all kinds of tactical considerations normally reserved for high tech ships.

Unfortunately, the Mjolnir consistently underperforms relative to other large ballistic weapons. Storm needlers and gauss cannons are much better for taking out shields, while hellebores and HAGs outclass it as an anti-armor weapon. Any ships with large ballistic mounts either have enough weapon slots to mount both kinetic and high-explosive weapons at once (Onslaught, Conquest) or can't satisfy the cannon's massive flux requirements (Dominator).

The end result is a very cool weapon that just begs to be used, but is so inefficient that mounting one on your ship just isn't worth it. Am I missing something, or does the Mjolnir need some significant buffing to make it combat-ready?
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PCCL

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Re: Mjolnir Cannon
« Reply #1 on: September 10, 2012, 12:36:29 AM »

I buffed it via modding... Ya it's pretty much a bad weapon as is afaik.....

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Faiter119

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Re: Mjolnir Cannon
« Reply #2 on: September 10, 2012, 12:58:08 AM »

Yeah its pretty bad. But its better than HE against shields, and better than kinetics vs armor. So it has some use, also the EMP really hurts.

I think it needs some unique buff, as its lore is awesome, but the weapon does not reflect that.
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TJJ

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Re: Mjolnir Cannon
« Reply #3 on: September 10, 2012, 01:18:14 AM »

This isn't the first thread discussing the mjolnir. Rather than everyone re-expressing their opinions, have a search.
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BillyRueben

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Re: Mjolnir Cannon
« Reply #4 on: September 10, 2012, 05:37:33 AM »

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Kommodore Krieg

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Re: Mjolnir Cannon
« Reply #5 on: September 10, 2012, 07:28:11 AM »

I tried to defend it in that other thread, but I recant.  It's not TERRIBLE on the Conquest, but it's severely lacking compared to all your other options, and it's 100% terrible on anything BUT the conquest.  I love how it looks and sounds though.
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Sendrien

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Re: Mjolnir Cannon
« Reply #6 on: September 10, 2012, 07:45:55 AM »

It's not a terrible choice for a large mount, but it needed a little help. In my upcoming balance mod, what I did with the Mjolnir was pretty simple. Since the sprite clearly shows that each turret has 2 barrels, I configured the Mjolnir to shoot a burst of 2 shots each time, with a longer cooldown to reflect the longer load time for 2 shells. This doesn't actually change the DPS at all, but makes the Mjolnir into a more "bursty" weapon. If you put 2 of them on a Dominator, those 4 Mjolnir shells become quite lethal against both shields or armour, owing to the EMP and the concentrated damage.



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Gothars

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Re: Mjolnir Cannon
« Reply #7 on: September 10, 2012, 07:49:22 AM »

Maybe some area damage could help, to reflect the effect of the singularity. That would make it effective against bombers and such, it would be quite unique.
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Aleskander

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Re: Mjolnir Cannon
« Reply #8 on: September 10, 2012, 09:38:02 AM »

Making it's projectile speed insane would be nice, maybe increase range to about 1000 and decrease the damage some. A burstish support weapon for the conquest, since it can't keep firing it for very long.
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Sendrien

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Re: Mjolnir Cannon
« Reply #9 on: September 10, 2012, 09:46:02 AM »

Making it's projectile speed insane would be nice, maybe increase range to about 1000 and decrease the damage some. A burstish support weapon for the conquest, since it can't keep firing it for very long.

Wouldn't this encroach on the role currently occupied by the Gauss?
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Wyvern

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Re: Mjolnir Cannon
« Reply #10 on: September 10, 2012, 09:53:45 AM »

I actually had an Onslaught variant that made excellent use of the Mjolnir - I mounted a pair of them in the hardpoints, backed up with a pair of hellbores and a slew of light needlers.  Manual control of the Mjolnirs made it easy to use them as-needed, to spike enemy shields into overload, or to apply their EMP damage once enemy shields were down.

Sadly, the current Onslaught features these odd "TPC" things in those slots instead.  And the TPCs are better anyway - though I do miss having an actual small arc of fire, instead of the TPC's fixed-forward setup.

And, well, there simply isn't any other ship that can mount a Mjolnir as a secondary weapon; nothing else has enough ballistic slots pointed in the same direction to afford a large for a gun that'll only be used situationally.
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Aleskander

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Re: Mjolnir Cannon
« Reply #11 on: September 10, 2012, 10:26:52 AM »

Making it's projectile speed insane would be nice, maybe increase range to about 1000 and decrease the damage some. A burstish support weapon for the conquest, since it can't keep firing it for very long.

Wouldn't this encroach on the role currently occupied by the Gauss?
The gauss is a weapon capable of continuous fire on the conquest(if they are fit on one side) and meh DPS with a little EMP. The Mjollnir could not fire for very long but have a higher DPS and EMP. So yes, but a slightly different version of it.
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Catra

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Re: Mjolnir Cannon
« Reply #12 on: September 10, 2012, 10:31:24 AM »

my conquest has no issue firing the one sided mjolnirs for long periods of time.....
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Aleskander

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Re: Mjolnir Cannon
« Reply #13 on: September 10, 2012, 10:34:42 AM »

Not really specifically talking about the conquest here
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IIE16 Yoshi

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Re: Mjolnir Cannon
« Reply #14 on: September 10, 2012, 11:04:34 AM »

The Conquest is a wondrous ship. But the Mjolnir's insane flux costs, I worry about using any more than just the one on any ballistic-orientated ship. They often do not have the best flux venting in the world. The Conquest is probably one of the few ships that can handle it. It has a far more generous flux capacity, and venting capability. I have yet to ever touch the Mjolnir, simply because of that flux cost. I might try it, if I can find some in the Tri-Tach station later and see how it turns out.
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