Chaingun or Pulse Laser?

[SquareCircle]

Which one do you prefer and why?

[Maximum stupidity]

both. both is good

[Maximum stupidity]

On a more serios note the chaingun, because i always cans seem to find ammo for the pulse laser on stations and my aim is absolutely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Also i just like how the chaingun feels.
Pulse laser is pretty good too though, i just miss half my shots.

[Greb]

Pulse Laser, it's just easier to get ammo for it and the ammo is inexpensive, plus bots can actually use it without wasting half of the shots. It also feels cool, surgical, accurate shots on weak points doing big chunks of damage, plus the bubbling through the water, it's neat. We already have a Coilgun so I never really saw the need for a Chaingun, myself. It's also really noisy which (to me) is very annoying to deal with.

It's nice burning through wrecks and submarines with the Pulse Laser, too. Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow! and suddenly you don't feel as claustrophobic when exploring them anymore.

Although I think it's too futuristic for this games aesthetic, admittedly. It only really matches high-tech custom workshop subs that try to look high tech and sleek, futuristic etc.

If I had my way I'd use a weapon that was bigger than a Coilgun but smaller than a Railgun, big slow blasts of ballistic goodness, like a big autocannon or something. I wish we had an autocannon

[Rhapsody]

Laser scales better between smaller and abyssal targets, thanks to tri-laser, and is most economical in the long run. Gotta keep an eye on lithium though.

If you never go into abyss, you can go with chaingun everywhere and just avoid dealing with molochs.

[UCEY]

Chain gun's projectiles move way too slowly to make it useful at any range other than point blank. Pulse laser is superior in every way

[Felix]

Pulse laser. The only downside is that the boxes run out of ammo quickly so you will have to run from your fabricator to your ammo storage every few missions. Both materials for Pulse Laser boxes are very easy to get. Alien blood drops from fcking everything and you can get lithium mostly by mining, looting wrecks and buying it from merchants but you can also just buy batteries and deconstruct those. If you are really desperate for ammo there are at least 5 vending machines on each outpost that sell batteries, but those are more expensive. The only way you can run out of ammo for the Pulse Laser is by running out of money.

[climbingeastofwinter]

Pulse laser is an easier weapon to use, hits hards, and has a small AOE effect, all of which make it particularly useful for bots defending the ship against swarms. I prefer the pulse laser, but that said there are reasons to run a chaingun, the primary being that while pulse laser ammo isn't particularly rare, you can go through a lot of ammo in a few rounds and if you switch to chainguns for awhile, you can purchase both laser and chaingun ammo from merchants, use the chainguns to get you through easier rounds, then swap over to the pulse laser and have a nice healthy stock to carry you through harder encounters or rounds.

[DuckieMcduck]

As much as I find chainguns aesthetic they do too little damage and fire too slowly for what I'd expect. It's not satisfying to sustain fire because things are hardly affected; if it was more abrasive and slowed enemies then it'd be more interesting (would be a hard counter to destroy circling targets like Spinelings and Charybdis).

The downside to pulse laser is being hard to aim... but if you give it to a bot they never seem to miss (because it insta hits, unlike the other weapons which are projectile based), so the laser ammo actually lasts a long time in their hands.

[Rotiart]

The chaingun's major saving grace is that it has an ENORMOUS amount of durability. Aside from making them more economically favourable (Drowning Guards is getting a big nerf in unstable), it makes them a good option for drones so you don't need to reload them as often

[Rhapsody]

Originally posted by UnluckyDuckie:

The downside to pulse laser is being hard to aim... but if you give it to a bot they never seem to miss (because it insta hits, unlike the other weapons which are projectile based), so the laser ammo actually lasts a long time in their hands.

In laser's case, it's a mere skill issue (both character and player). But there's nothing you can do to accommodate for the dispersion of chaingun projectiles.

Originally posted by Rotiart:

The chaingun's major saving grace is that it has an ENORMOUS amount of durability. Aside from making them more economically favourable (Drowning Guards is getting a big nerf in unstable), it makes them a good option for drones so you don't need to reload them as often

Depends on what ammo is being used, and what kind of target you're shooting. They are pretty economical though, you'll get like 1000 more damage with regular chaingun vs. regular pulse. The regular chaingun ammo is not sufficient in the long run; you'll have to use rarer materials to amp up the damage or armor penetration, but if you have plenty of physicorium, you can get a large amount of damage from a single box over long duration. Tri-laser on the other hand has like 9000 damage in less than 30 shots, and since burn damage is preferential to laceration, you do get more effective damage out of pulse than chaingun when using the best ammo on each.

[Rotiart]

Originally posted by Rhapsody:

Originally posted by UnluckyDuckie:

The downside to pulse laser is being hard to aim... but if you give it to a bot they never seem to miss (because it insta hits, unlike the other weapons which are projectile based), so the laser ammo actually lasts a long time in their hands.

In laser's case, it's a mere skill issue (both character and player). But there's nothing you can do to accommodate for the dispersion of chaingun projectiles.

Originally posted by Rotiart:

The chaingun's major saving grace is that it has an ENORMOUS amount of durability. Aside from making them more economically favourable (Drowning Guards is getting a big nerf in unstable), it makes them a good option for drones so you don't need to reload them as often

Depends on what ammo is being used, and what kind of target you're shooting. They are pretty economical though, you'll get like 1000 more damage with regular chaingun vs. regular pulse. The regular chaingun ammo is not sufficient in the long run; you'll have to use rarer materials to amp up the damage or armor penetration, but if you have plenty of physicorium, you can get a large amount of damage from a single box over long duration. Tri-laser on the other hand has like 9000 damage in less than 30 shots, and since burn damage is preferential to laceration, you do get more effective damage out of pulse than chaingun when using the best ammo on each.

Agree. I wouldn't be caught dead claiming that the chaingun performs impressively, it's merely more convenient than the other options

[DuckieMcduck]

Originally posted by Rhapsody:

Originally posted by UnluckyDuckie:

The downside to pulse laser is being hard to aim... but if you give it to a bot they never seem to miss (because it insta hits, unlike the other weapons which are projectile based), so the laser ammo actually lasts a long time in their hands.

In laser's case, it's a mere skill issue (both character and player). But there's nothing you can do to accommodate for the dispersion of chaingun projectiles.

Somewhat; from what I understand the idea of the chaingun is to make a wall of fire that "blanket" catches things that touch its line of fire, which requires little aiming. Notably, spinelings.

It doesn't work very well because most creatures aren't particularly bothered by a few pellets if you do this. Piercing coilgun ammo does a better job and seems to reach farther too. Had it been designed to apply another effect for "anti air"/crowd control it could have been an interesting pick.

[Rotiart]

Originally posted by UnluckyDuckie:

Originally posted by Rhapsody:

In laser's case, it's a mere skill issue (both character and player). But there's nothing you can do to accommodate for the dispersion of chaingun projectiles.

Somewhat; from what I understand the idea of the chaingun is to make a wall of fire that "blanket" catches things that touch its line of fire, which requires little aiming. Notably, spinelings.

It doesn't work very well because most creatures aren't particularly bothered by a few pellets if you do this. Piercing coilgun ammo does a better job and seems to reach farther too. Had it been designed to apply another effect for "anti air"/crowd control it could have been an interesting pick.

Piecing ammunition doesn't penetrate creatures. It's only use is fighting molochs through their shells, and attacking things through hulls.

[DuckieMcduck]

Originally posted by Rotiart:

Originally posted by UnluckyDuckie:

Somewhat; from what I understand the idea of the chaingun is to make a wall of fire that "blanket" catches things that touch its line of fire, which requires little aiming. Notably, spinelings.

It doesn't work very well because most creatures aren't particularly bothered by a few pellets if you do this. Piercing coilgun ammo does a better job and seems to reach farther too. Had it been designed to apply another effect for "anti air"/crowd control it could have been an interesting pick.

Piecing ammunition doesn't penetrate creatures. It's only use is fighting molochs through their shells, and attacking things through hulls.

No.. it penetrates limbs. The shell counts as a limb, hence the penetration through its armor.
You can definitely hit multiple characters with a piercing coilgun or through bodies.

https://barotraumagame.com/wiki/Piercing_Ammunition_Box

[Rotiart]

Originally posted by UnluckyDuckie:

Originally posted by Rotiart:

Piecing ammunition doesn't penetrate creatures. It's only use is fighting molochs through their shells, and attacking things through hulls.

No.. it penetrates limbs. The shell counts as a limb, hence the penetration through its armor.
You can definitely hit multiple characters with a piercing coilgun or through bodies.

https://barotraumagame.com/wiki/Piercing_Ammunition_Box

Is that a fact?