Advanced cannons how do they work

[Riganthor]

so duting my fights with the lightning hoods I started to notice I needed something more rapid fire then a cram cannon and something that delivers its payload faster then a missile so I started to research advanced cannons. but man I have renamed them to advanced pain in the asses for the rules surrounding these gun are just that, a pain in the backside, I just dont see how these guns can be good, after hours of tinkering I just gave up and returned to the old ways. so here is my question, how do advanced cannons work for there must be something here that I am not getting

[XIII]

It takes a bit of learning, but it's absolutely worth it. They are very fun and versatile, the most finished weapon system in the game. Also basically necessary; and almost always stronger than the poor underpowered cram cannons. More complex to build though.

You can basically split APS into three different sets of parts. One connected core with firing piece, gauges and barrel, basically, a string of parts. And secondly, the autoloaders with their clips and input feeders. Lastly, there is also the ammo customizer, but that's completely seperate and very simple.

The core is built this way:

Barrel - Mantlet - Firing Piece - Gauge string (containing cooldown modules and gauge increases)

->Barrel has minimum length depending on the mass of gunpowder and size of shell; also affects accuracy.
->Mantlet differs in size and how far it allows you to move the barrel left/right/up/down
->Firing Piece is the core like with crams
->The "gauge string" is a coherent string that can be split with splitters, and contains colldown gauges for lower barrel cooldown after firing, and the gauge increase (gauge = barrel diameter).

On the Gauge String (not the splittesr!) or via 6 way connectors, you can add autoloaders:

Autoloader + 1 to 4 clips; with input feeders on the clips or autoloader.

Each autoloader can load a projectile into the gun, which is fired as fast as the barrel cooldown allows, and then has it's own reload time to prepare the next projectile for the firing piece. For that, it takes a shell out of the clip - and the clip is fed by an input feeder.

To take the easy way, just use 1 autoloader and connect two or three clips of the same size; the more clips you add on a single autoloader, the faster the autoloader loads. Then usually two input feeders per autoloader somewhere, eg at the sides of the clips. Can't do wrong with that.

In order to chose a shell for the guns clips. You need to place an Ammo customizer. If you want a a higher gauge (=diameter) shell, or a longer shell, you need longer autloaders+clips. The length of the shell depends on the amount of pieces you put at the ammo customizer, but consider that a larger diamter also makes the single shell pieces longer.
Sounds more complex than it is, really. Just make some shell in the ammo customizer (simply first gunpower, then a warhead body, then a head). In the lower left you can then change the gauge with a slider and it'll tell you below what length of autoloader you need.

Just press q at the gun and chose "access intakes" so you can set all inputs of your guns to a specific ammo customizer.

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If you want an effective example to start somewhere, make a 250mm shell with of 8 pieces. That means you have to use 2m loader+clip.
Either use: 4xGun Powder->3xHE->Squas Head.
Or if you encounter shielded enemies: 3xGun Powder->Inertial Fuse->3xFrag Body->Frag Head.
Those inertial Frag and HESH shells are basically the most versatile shells in the game, they work agains lightly and heavily armored foes alike and you can't do wrong with them.

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I know, all of this probably sounds complex, but it's actually pretty straightforward and sensible.

[Kurama Kitsune]

You can start learning by finding an advanced cannon already existing on some ship (either a workshop ship, or goto designer and spawn in a suitable Godly difficulty AI faction ship that uses them under your faction) and edit it to steal the turret and save it as a sub-object.

Then slap it onto a fortress or slow heavily armored test boat of some sort, and mess around with how using different shell components alters how well each shell behaves when hitting a number of different enemy types (you can alternatively save a copy of a reasonably high end ship from each AI faction and remove their AI transmitters and/or weapons controllers so they don't fire back too, and then use it as target practice in the designer).


Once you get a basic hang of making a shell that works, you can then try messing around with learning how to make the guns. Because honestly, the gun itself mostly just determines how rapidly it fires, how big the shell is, and how long it can fire for before its internal ammo runs out and it needs to reload. Changing the ammo types up can make the same gun differ greatly in how effective it is.

[Riganthor]

eh I just used loads of missiles, crams and torpedoes and till now it has served me very well but for my flagship I want to finally add some APS guns but I am having a very hard time finding out how they are good and how they work

[GMC]

Advanced firing piece. Mantlet then barrel on the front, gauge "snake" on the back. Autoloaders (many of them) attached to the gauge snake, clips to autoloaders, ammo feeders to clips. Recoil absorbers attached to whatever part of the gauge snake is still exposed (single-barrel large gauge has more recoil than gatling guns).

Rate of fire is dictated by two things: cooldown and loading. More cooling vents reduce cooldown time (mouse-over the gun after firing it to see cooldown times), more autoloaders reduce loading time. Belt-fed autoloaders are faster but can't reload while feeding the gun and once they start to reload they can't feed until they've finished reloading.

Shell length is equal to the gauge times the number of shell components (each ammo customiser adds two components). Popular sizes are 500mm single barrel (the largest you can have) with a 4m shell (8 components), 150mm x 6 barrels with a 900mm shell (6 components), 121mm x 6 barrels with a 968mm shell (8 components). Roughly half the shell should be gunpowder, but beyond that shell design revolves around what you're trying to hit. Fast-moving targets need fast shells, anything with shields needs a fuse (typically inertial) and payload with a damage radius (typically fragmentation).

If the cooldown is much shorter than loading time (it's common to add cooling vents just to provide lots of surface area to attach autoloaders to), you can force a lower rate of fire so that it doesn't empty the clips in half a second then spend a minute reloading.

A large gun needs a large ship. Building vertically means that the gun can fit into a space only slightly larger than the gun yet rotate through 360 degrees. When constructing the gauge snake, splitters need to have the side of the T on the part of the snake connected to the firing piece.

[Oobaneko]

Just build minimal one - Firing piece, mantlet, barrel, 1-2 gauge increase, 5-7 cooling unit, add autoloader with clip attached (hazardous line on clip must be connected to loader). You may put this on turret.
Then make shell via ammo customizer. Shell must be equal or shorter in length than clip. Put ammo feeder on side of clip and set in it your shell. If cannon firing - good work. After you will get familiar with concepts - you may try build own towers. Or you can check other's people desings.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1431825668

[Riganthor]

the p[robelms are 3 fold, if I build them myself I find them incredible tedious to get working with the whole left rule from the left split, soooooo annoying. if I take them from other ships they either fire quite slow after I am done with em or only tickle the enemy, only damaging the paint

[Oobaneko]

Originally posted by Riganthor:

the p[robelms are 3 fold, if I build them myself I find them incredible tedious to get working with the whole left rule from the left split, soooooo annoying. if I take them from other ships they either fire quite slow after I am done with em or only tickle the enemy, only damaging the paint [/quote]

Check out my Weapon testing facility - all cannons there are good.
Probably, you are building low cooldown cannon (3 seconds for 500 caliber is great) or low quantity autoloaders.
Just check how I've made 4-barrel 500 mm cannon - it's pretty simple.
Also, you will see different shells in my facility, which all is good.

Oh, and if you are going againsts lighting hoods - you need more casing + rail amphiling for speed.