Forums » Suggestions

rails?

Mar 08, 2005 terjekv link
okay, rails needed an adjustment, but honestly, this was a nerf. 15 and 10 shots for the MkIII and MKIV (or Advanced) in no way compensate for their extra spark. I still think that the better rails should be faster and lighter, but with less damage and more ammo. add 100m/s, add 50% ammo, halve the damage, reduce weight some.

the advanced rail cannot kill a heavy ship even with a 100% hit rate. that's not exactly a weapon you rack up 500 PKs for, is it? :-/

what kind of use is this weapon supposed to see? a secondary weapon against slow targets?
Mar 08, 2005 Martin.mac.au link
We have slow targets???? o.O
Mar 08, 2005 Fnugget link
Uhhh, did anyone ever complain about rails being too strong?
Mar 08, 2005 Beolach link
Making them too fast can create problems with collision detection. But, I'll agree that rails aren't as good as the should be, but they're close (although maybe PK badge ones aren't as close).

The big thing that I've found rails really excel at is fighting large targets at a distance. I did a fair amount of Queen hunting with rails at one point, and could easily get 100% hit rate. The big drawback here is the ammo, you will run out and have to redock & reload before you can finish anything off.
Mar 08, 2005 Renegade ++RIP++ link
yes...

on a hornet you could 1 hit kill people from 1k out.

Sure was no fun.
Mar 08, 2005 tramshed link
you couldnt 1 hit kill anything but a bus with a hornet. the hornet is crap, and so are the rails. In fact, the "better" the rail, the worse it is. Rails dont get used because they suck as it is, making them worse doesnt help.
Mar 08, 2005 Renegade ++RIP++ link
tramshed...

You could 1 hitkill practically everything (cent --> prom) in the rail that got introduced to the game. I was not commenting on the rail as it stands now, since fnugget asked if somebody ever complained, on which I answerred in truth. And gave the reason why you have a rail that is less usefull as preffered.

Just because of the 1 hitconundrum.
Mar 08, 2005 simondearsley link
Seriously Renegade whats the point in bringing up a bug from way back in early alpha? You didnt even explain why this was a problem or how it was fixed. I suppose everyone now knows your a 1337uberalphavet though.

I would love to have a slight increase in speed and ammo, with a decrease in mass and damage. Maybe we need an L-port version too?
Mar 08, 2005 yodaofborg link
I have no idea why rails were changed at all, or changed to be worse, and they have been - I have not equipped many rails recently, so maybe my opinion is not worth much, but did anyone suggest recently that rails were in any way uber? it took skill to even hit with any damn rail, nevermind kill your target.

Rene, try the recent rail/hornet, your point is tottaly lost here.

A lighter, more ammo, less damage, less delay rail sounds neat, imho. An L port rail would have to weigh some, and the ships that could effectivly use it effectivly would be rather limited, so id say go for that too, maybe give it 30% damage increase on a standard rail, and a slightly larger projectile to increase chance of a hit, and we are onto a winner =D
Mar 08, 2005 terjekv link
as most of you know, I'm one of the few people who _use_ rails a lot these days. and if _anyone_ wishes to tell me that you can hit with 50% of your shots against any combat ship, I dare you to try that theory in a duel.

secondly, saying "it's a secondary weapon" is pointless. a "secondary weapon" is a backup. a weapon that needs that kind of accuracy isn't a backup, you work too hard to hit with it to ever _think_ of using it as a backup. today, flares are a great backup, or for that matter, you just smack on more of your primary weapon, rails take forever to reload, suck energy and have no real advantages (usage-wise -- apart from velocity) towards other weapons.

I've suggested HighVelocity Lightweight rails before, and I stick to that being the future of rail development. one set of rails like what we have now (but with enough ammo to do kill bigger ships), and one faster, but less damaging set.

my question comes again down to "what is the purpose of the rails "? I imagine rails to be a heavy ships worst enemy, but we're nowhere near that today. with the recent update, a dual layout of the best rail you can get you need to hit with 70% of your shots to take down a SkyCommand. I mean honestly... this is the reward for 500PKs? a weapon that you can use to duck hunt?

(duck hunt, Alamar-speak, a homeage to the old Nintendo game. point and snipe at flying ducks over the screen. due to a lack of ducks in Vendetta, NPC traders are used instead.)
Mar 08, 2005 softy2 link
Actually, I like the idea of a L-port rail. Make it real fast (500m/s), since only heavy ships can use it, 1800-2000dmg.

I can see a dual-L-port-rail Centaur as a counter to the Agt-flare-prom, which just got its sphere of deadly firepower increased by the new 85 m/s flares.

(of course such a centaur is dead vs light ships...but hey, bring escort =P).
Mar 09, 2005 Renegade ++RIP++ link
simon,

the reason behind it was that that was the intention behind the utter suckiness of the rail. Just because of the fear of creating a 1 hit kill behemoth. Namely your cruising around in the universe and all of a sudden bam your getting plastered by a person you didn't even see. It was tested in the game and it is no fun.

The way how it got fixed was by making this exact 1 hit kill impossible by giving it an increased drain so you couldn't fire of 4 shots(well not true, you could but you would be defenseless for a looong time) at a time and decreasing its damage per hit.

Not to mention that anybody that even remotely knows me knows that I have never prouded myself to be a vet in any regard. Nor that I ever would do that.

The only reason why I stated what I stated was to point out the reason why your rail sucks. And that is because of the initial option of getting 1 hitkills. I immediately stated afterwards that I don't have a clue why since after that time nothing has changed although the weight in itself already decreases its usefullness even more (read: make it even suckier then it was).

And I agree most definately that you need to do something to improve it like up ammo, increase damage, decrease drainage, decrease mass ... something. But for the love of god don't make it into full out snipers that can pull off 1 hit kills. It creates more problems then it is worth.
Mar 09, 2005 Beolach link
I don't think anyone was asking for 1-hit kills. My vote goes to more ammo, especially for the MkIV & Advanced rails that got dropped to 10 & 15 rounds. That's way too low - 30 is the lowest I can see myself using, and I'd prefer 40 or 50.