Cram cannon range?

[Patchworth+]

everything I make is practically a ramming weapon, can anyone suggest how to up the range?

[TUBono]

Motor driven barrel, if projectile's velocity is low.

Elevation turret, if fire arc is low.

Edit : Found something wrong with arc. I'll do some experiment later.

[Patchworth+]

Originally posted by TUBono:

Motor driven barrel, if projectile's velocity is low.

Elevation turret, if fire arc is low.

Edit : Found something wrong with arc. I'll do some experiment later.

I tried replacing the entire barrel with motor driven barrels and it didn't increase the velocity.

[TUBono]

Pellet doesn't matter, even considering air resistance.

About velocity, I was wrong. barrel doesn't 'that' matter, unless using bombchute.
Velocity starts 60 m/s at 200 mm, ends 100 m/s at 2000 mm.

This velocity can be increased by adding more barrel, up to double. Elevation, motor, heavy, all OK. So maximum velocity is 200 m/s at 2000 mm with adequate barrel setting.

Not only using elevation barrel, but also adding motor driven barrel also increase elevation arc. Your 'effective range' would be maximum at 45 or little lower. (Due to air resistance)

Originally posted by Senpai-kun:

...CRAM cannons are inherently short-range weapons due to their nature as giant derpguns which hurl refrigerators at the target...

Right, CRAM's are not as strong as APS. But it has its own merit.

CRAM doesn't require ammo resource, which means you can design your ship without any 'Ammo Parts Box' (not CRAM's one), and any ammo processor, if you're to use laser as secondary weapon and defense.

CRAM itself is not explosive, making ship much more stable. Also, 200 m/s and 45 arc make CRAM barrage to fight against slow target beyond 1 km, not that short.

Just place a lot, shot simultaneously, LAMS and shield can't block 2000 mm barrage with fuse. They can destroy any ship. If it hits.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1734016974

[FourGreenFields]

Originally posted by TUBono:

Not only using elevation barrel, but also adding motor driven barrel also increase elevation arc. Your 'effective range' would be maximum at 45 or little lower. (Due to air resistance)

"Air resistance"? Pretty damned bloody sure that's simply not a thing for fridges (ironically). Aiming becomes far more complicated with drag, so neither the AI nor the player's auto-aim take it into account. Because of that, only shells beyond effective time, and missiles have drag.

Also, you want more than 45° for max range. A little more due to rolling/pitching (though that'll only be a few degrees, so let's say 50°), and then you need more if you shoot something above you (airships and land buildings might still be hittable even with fridges).

[Finn_The_Noob]

You can't really get around cram's slow shell velocity unless you use an absurdly long motor driven barrel, but you might get some more range by setting it's firing arc to high only or prefer high. This will make the CRAM more like a long-ranged mortar cannon.

[TUBono]

Sure, CRAM is for slow target. Also bad against aircraft. That's why having 45° is enough. Rather shooting higher, better get covered by other AA, while aiming at more valid target.

If you're going to make 'CRAM only' ship, you're right. It needs higher arc.

Shooting at low or high doesn't increase the max range. High-arc is for special case. It takes really long time, almost impossible to hit.

[BlackTemplar]

2000 mm cram shots area by far the most devestating hit in the game next only to long large missiles or 500+ piece particle cannons. Why there better? To get damages into the 30k area for particle cannons you have to have a 10 sec charge huge battery supply and have target dead in your sights. Large missile 1.2 min reload time....... Cram cannon. Can have as fast as an 18 second reload at 2000 mm. Low ammo cost. Low cost of parts. x4 triple berrel turrets hitting anything in game will take it to dead in under a min or less. ( hitting is issue did i mention the derpiness)

[Salami Tsunami]

Originally posted by blacktemplar:

2000 mm cram shots area by far the most devestating hit in the game next only to long large missiles or 500+ piece particle cannons. Why there better? To get damages into the 30k area for particle cannons you have to have a 10 sec charge huge battery supply and have target dead in your sights. Large missile 1.2 min reload time....... Cram cannon. Can have as fast as an 18 second reload at 2000 mm. Low ammo cost. Low cost of parts. x4 triple berrel turrets hitting anything in game will take it to dead in under a min or less. ( hitting is issue did i mention the derpiness)

Yeah, but you can get much better results from a direct feed APS. 4 meter long derp shells at the maximum 500mm will get comparable reload times to a CRAM, if you have all 4 input feeders on the firing piece. Not to mention that you can stack in multiple iterations of your direct feed APS gun, since it's much more compact than a 2000mm CRAM. You can easily fit 5 of them onto a single flat turret on any good sized vessel.

Furthermore, APS shells allow you options that CRAM cannons just don't. Like muzzle velocity greater than 200m/s. Or better payloads. Against unshielded targets, HESH is more effective, pound for pound, than HE. And against shielded targets, any combination of inertial fuzes with HEAT/frag will have the shields down after a few hits.