Railguns bugged

[MightyMonte88]

So i noticed railguns don't always do damage even though its a clear hit, damage particles and all.

I first noticed this when i built an SV with 20 forward facing rail guns bunched togethor, i was going for max DPS.

I sunk almost 300 shots directly into a "plasma turret" on a level 2 zirax defense tower, nothing happened. So i carved a hole through the center instead and blew out the core, then placed my own core, the turret was undamaged.

Whats up with that??? I really like this game but there are allot of bugs, im hoping they fix them soon.

[shdwdrvr83]

Rail guns always seem really questionable. They fire slow, the ammo is expensive, they don't do explosive damage, and then there's this situation - often they seem to do no damage at all.

Looking in the code, it looks like they were supposed to originally do explosive damage - they have the code bracket for it, but the damage is set to 0. It could easily be changed in the config file to have them do explosive damage, which might fix the issue.

Honestly though, my solution has been to just not use rail guns. I've been retrofitting vehicles that started with rail guns to either rockets or plasma. I tested them extensively vs rockets, plasma, pulse lasers, and of the 4 options they're almost universally the worst. Even without the bug, you need an exact hit with them, where plasma or rockets will damage a couple blocks nearby, doing greater total damage and requiring less precision accuracy. Fire rate is higher on Plasma/Pulse, and all of the alternatives do better damage to shields. As far as I can tell, there's just nothing that Rail guns are especially good at that wouldn't be better done by something else, especially considering the material cost of the rail guns and their ammo.

[Midas]

Yeah, railguns are pretty bad, and despite plenty of feedback to that effect going back multiple versions, Eleon hasn't fixed them. One other thing that's always been pretty ridiculous is that miniguns are hitscan weapons, but railguns aren't.

[Khloros]

If they actually reliably did damage and where hit scan weapons (not sure if they are hit scan because i always avoid them.) they might be usable. or if they basically traveled through specific blocks doing damage to them, IE it can pass through 4 blocks and does x damage to each block, sort of to get the point across that its a powerful projectile, i could see their use. But when compaired to weapons like rockets an plasma, they are just pointless.

[Amrak]

I just had this happen. While I to was blaming the Railgun, I found that it was actually the POI Plasma turret that was glitched.
While taking out a POI blowing up the plasma turrets, had one that just sat there, took over the artillery cannon and manually shot it to no avail. Now the plasma turret was not shooting just sitting there. My guns were still trying to get the rest of the turrets so moved around to finish it still watching the plasma. It just sat there. Cleaned everything up and in the end I could not salvage the turret, I could do nothing to it. Though it was still there it really was not. Hence why my guns could do no damage to it or me either.

[Khloros]

Originally posted by Amrak:

I just had this happen. While I to was blaming the Railgun, I found that it was actually the POI Plasma turret that was glitched.
While taking out a POI blowing up the plasma turrets, had one that just sat there, took over the artillery cannon and manually shot it to no avail. Now the plasma turret was not shooting just sitting there. My guns were still trying to get the rest of the turrets so moved around to finish it still watching the plasma. It just sat there. Cleaned everything up and in the end I could not salvage the turret, I could do nothing to it. Though it was still there it really was not. Hence why my guns could do no damage to it or me either.

Well busted plasma turrets are also a thing to worry about, but the rail gun itself is also a lack luster weapon so.

[MightyMonte88]

Originally posted by Amrak:

I just had this happen. While I to was blaming the Railgun, I found that it was actually the POI Plasma turret that was glitched.
While taking out a POI blowing up the plasma turrets, had one that just sat there, took over the artillery cannon and manually shot it to no avail. Now the plasma turret was not shooting just sitting there. My guns were still trying to get the rest of the turrets so moved around to finish it still watching the plasma. It just sat there. Cleaned everything up and in the end I could not salvage the turret, I could do nothing to it. Though it was still there it really was not. Hence why my guns could do no damage to it or me either.

That's exactly how it played out for me, i thought i had blown the core/gen up because the turret stopped firing, but both were still there when i went in on foot...

Thanks for the insight guys, railguns going by the waste side till they get a fix.

[Amrak]

Originally posted by Khloros:

Originally posted by Amrak:

I just had this happen. While I to was blaming the Railgun, I found that it was actually the POI Plasma turret that was glitched.
While taking out a POI blowing up the plasma turrets, had one that just sat there, took over the artillery cannon and manually shot it to no avail. Now the plasma turret was not shooting just sitting there. My guns were still trying to get the rest of the turrets so moved around to finish it still watching the plasma. It just sat there. Cleaned everything up and in the end I could not salvage the turret, I could do nothing to it. Though it was still there it really was not. Hence why my guns could do no damage to it or me either.

Well busted plasma turrets are also a thing to worry about, but the rail gun itself is also a lack luster weapon so.

I do have to agree!! That is why I keep either Gatling guns for me and use Artillery cannon with missiles/plasma/mini's for ground troops.
Rail gun just costs to much, ammo wise, for what you are getting IMHO!

[Khloros]

Originally posted by Amrak:

Originally posted by Khloros:

Well busted plasma turrets are also a thing to worry about, but the rail gun itself is also a lack luster weapon so.

I do have to agree!! That is why I keep either Gatling guns for me and use Artillery cannon with missiles/plasma/mini's for ground troops.
Rail gun just costs to much, ammo wise, for what you are getting IMHO!

Yeah, i have found the best way to "Base assault" something really i just to take a CV down to planet, drop some sort of HV with a artilery cannon on it, then play a game a peekaboo with the turrets.

The rail guns try and be this amazing thing but they arnt, if they worked they would be great.

IMO for the cost, they should do the same damage as the artiliery cannon, just, no explosion.

[Amrak]

Originally posted by Khloros:

Originally posted by Amrak:

I do have to agree!! That is why I keep either Gatling guns for me and use Artillery cannon with missiles/plasma/mini's for ground troops.
Rail gun just costs to much, ammo wise, for what you are getting IMHO!

Yeah, i have found the best way to "Base assault" something really i just to take a CV down to planet, drop some sort of HV with a artilery cannon on it, then play a game a peekaboo with the turrets.

The rail guns try and be this amazing thing but they arnt, if they worked they would be great.

IMO for the cost, they should do the same damage as the artiliery cannon, just, no explosion.

I have fallen in love with the MCRN Ballista HV. Perfect for most all POI's so far.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1967414751&searchtext=MCRN+Ballista

[Khloros]

ooo i like taht, before i was using his basalisk but i might give this a go, really been liking his MCRN line. But still a massive sucker for his nemisis Battle cruiser CV

[Amrak]

It has the right balanced weapon combination I was looking for and the harvester in front as well. HV's and trees do not play well together! LOL

[Sprocket66]

I thought the only advantage to railguns was increased distance. Still never liked the things, always went plasma and rockets.

[Amrak]

Originally posted by Sprocket66:

I thought the only advantage to railguns was increased distance. Still never liked the things, always went plasma and rockets.

I did as well. Railgun "was" great before. Now most POI's have laser/plasma turrets that out range Railguns. I can not get my SV close without shields getting lashed hard.

The artillery cannon plus the lasers, has the range and HV has the maneuverability to dodge and take'em out.