Fighter Wing mounted weapons

[Killer_Rabbit]

Would it be feasible to have guns on wings on the side of your ship with a range finder on the nose of your ship to detect the range of a ship in front of you that you want to shoot then use hinges or turntables to angle the guns so their angle of fire intersects at that range or in a range of every 10m like 10 -20m 20-30m etc

 

[Burnside]

You could probably write tier2 or tier3 yolol script to set the toe-in angle automatically based on the rangefinder reading and have a button to set the guns to a perfect 90deg. The real question is whether you want to spend the mass on the necessary turntables/hinges and stub-wing outrigging to gain that kind of functionality.

 

[Killer_Rabbit]

If you build a large heavy long range fighter that isn't meant to be super nimble but has more armour and storage space then you could probably absorb the cost especially if you wanted to get into long range dogfights

 

[Burnside]

If you noticed from the dev videos, they're almost always within a few hundred meters and more often then not probably within knifefight distance (<100m) at those points when enemy ships are taking up good portions of the screen. Mind you, the fighters are also roughly the size of biplanes as well, forgetting anything the size of a mid-WW2 monoplane. So, i can definitely see someone taking the leap and upsizing into "heavy" fighters, tossing on some more guns, because eight is a great number, and going for longer range salvoes. Heck, you might even be able to pull a speed advantage if you leverage most of that extra mass into thrusters and keep the powerplant/batteries streamlined for weight savings.

 

[Killer_Rabbit]

yeah you could also use such a automatic ranging feature on larger ships as it allows multiple guns to fire at the same point meaning more fire accurate than just a single turret

 

[Killer_Rabbit]

also would a rail gun be useful at these sorts of longer ranges as while they have a charge up they have a fire rate of 300 rounds per minute which is good for such a heavy weapon

 

[Burnside]

That data is old, but the velocity did get kicked up from 1000 to 1200-1400

 

[Killer_Rabbit]

so does it not have a fire rate of 300 rps

 

[CalenLoki]

If you gonna put your guns on turntables, you can just as well make them into proper turrets. Then either get some crew to operate it or switch angles for side/top barrages.

Also just put the guns close to the center. Except exploding ammo, there is no reason to keep them on wings. Maybe if they implement heat propagation system.

 

[Killer_Rabbit]

yeah but the reason they are on turntables is so they can range in on the target and so make it easier to shoot as for having it in the centre there may be other stuff there like other guns or a transmitter etc

 

[Killer_Rabbit]

So in the video about spaceship weapons they said you could change out different parts of a mounted weapon to change its abilities so could you make a rail gun shoot faster

 

[CalenLoki]

AFAIK that's the plan, but none of the weapons have alternative parts yet.
. I.e. it would shoot faster, but have lower damage or projectile speed. Tradeoffs are always more fun than upgrades.

 

[Killer_Rabbit]

sounds good for the ship I want to build an increase in speed for a decrease in damage is a trade I am happy with