How do I make this tiny cram cannon better?

[Mango Scribble]

I'm still very new to this game.
http://imgur.com/vpBtj1h.png

[Inim_olend]

I'm new as well, but I belive CRAM cannons shine at high calibers.

[Mango Scribble]

All weapons shine at high calibers lol. I just want to make some cheap disposable swarm units to distract and pepper the enemy.

[Inim_olend]

Originally posted by Mango Scribble:

All weapons shine at high calibers lol. I just want to make some cheap disposable swarm units to distract and pepper the enemy.

Well, I guess you could use missiles and have some support units to produce and the ammo needed.

[Olivine]

If a pellet box is used by, for example, two autoloaders, it counts as two boxes, so try to share pellet boxes with as many autoloaders as you can. And using some hardeners and a fusing box is generaly a good idea, but latter takes a flat amount of space in the shell per fuse, so its hard to do on small crams.

So, if you surround a single block with autoloaders, horizontally, and then put more pellets and an ammo box on other autoloader ports, you should get 10 pellet boxes and 2 ammo boxes in a 3x1 slice that rests on a connector cross.

And I think that gauge increasers are better armor than wood, so put them around the firing piece , except for the back where connectors are.

[Mango Scribble]

Like this? http://imgur.com/bD36J8r.png

[Vectura]

Also, the fact that CRAMs shine at high calibers is really true, to the extent where any CRAM cannon below 800mm or so in diameter is probably better replaced with an advanced cannon.

[Stenk]

1- Enhance azimuth and elevation using motor driven barrel until you reach 45° for both abd use a one axis turret

2- Enhance caliber to reach a reasonable muzzle velocity (current 77m/s is too low in my opinion)

3- Connect your explosives to autoloader if not done already

4- add some armor piercing so that your shell doesnt bounce off or add laser targeter and set the explosion right at the impact

[Mango Scribble]

Originally posted by CMDR Vectura:

Also, the fact that CRAMs shine at high calibers is really true, to the extent where any CRAM cannon below 800mm or so in diameter is probably better replaced with an advanced cannon.

The space and cost of the ammo controller in adv cannons makes it expensive and not viable for my small cram ships

[Mango Scribble]

Unless ofc you teach me a compact design

[Stenk]

Unfortunately i don't see how you can get a compact cram design (apart from bomb but it's not relevant for a ship). Switch to APS cannon if you really want to striclty keep that hull base because a Cram won't provide a correct efficiency in this state. Remember that CRAM is supposed to reflect Howitzer/Artillery with slow firing rate, huge caliber, high recoil.

What total RP do you aim for?

[Mango Scribble]

around 15k-20k(for the entire ship if possible)

[Mango Scribble]

Also would heat rounds be viable for a small adv cannon?

[Stenk]

Wow that's going to be tough, you may manage to do something but your unit will probably be slow and unarmored.

[Fatboychummy]

heres a small info dump on CRAM:



Cram cannons use 'pellets' which increase damage/penetration/EMP/explosiveness, and each pellet distributer takes time to add more pellets to it. Cram cannons excel with a slow reload speed and a large calibre, because then they have more time to 'pack' pellets into the bullet, and the bullet has more space to get stuff packed into it. With more stuff packed in they are actually more ammo-efficient, because each shot uses the same amount of ammunition, but with more stuff packed in, they do more damage.



If you want a small CRAM to do some damage, I suggest just putting as many pellets as you can attached to autoloaders, with very few actual ammo boxes on the gun (Maybe 2-3 ammo boxes total, the rest would be pellets of different types depending on your needs).
The guns will be fairly slow to load, but they will do some pretty good damage.

[Mango Scribble]

That is what I'm trying to do actually, but Olivine recommend to use multiple reloader for each pellet box to save on cost and efficiency