Main > Guides

Gunnery for Dummies v1.3.5

(1/12) > >>

Wundsalz:
I just realized that the last gunnery guide in this section is rather outdated. Hence I'd like to pick up Echoez work here and extend it a bit. The gunnery basics will be elaborated here as well as viable ammunition picks for specific weapons.

Glossary:
arming time: Some weapons, like the Lumberjack or Hades do not deal their secondary damage if their projectile doesn't travel for a certain arming time. The secondary damage is applied to a weapon specific area of effect and is the major damage fraction of any weapon with arming time. Pilots using weapons with arming time should try to keep a sufficient distance to allow their weapons projectile to travel at least for the length of their arming time. The ammunition can alter the arming distance. Lochnagar reduces the arming distance directly by reducing the arming time. Other ammunition types like greased, heatsink and incendiary rounds reduce it indirectly by decreasing the projectile speed which causes the weapons projectiles to travel longer for the same distance. Lesmok rounds increase the arming distance by increasing the projectiles velocity.

arming distance: the distance projectiles need to travel to reach their arming time.

field of operation: the area in which the weapon can be used.

DPS: damage per second

hull strip: breaking an enemies armor, making the ship vulnerable for permanent damage.

raspberry: breaking an enemies armor, making the ship vulnerable for permanent damage.


Symbol explanation:

": This symbolizes Piercing damage, a damage type very effective against enemy ship armor. Armour is the repairable part of a ship's health, you need to take it down before attacking their 'real' health that can not be repaired. Guns with this kind of damage are very good at destroying armour.

 

: Flechette is represented by this symbol, this damage type is extremely effective against enemy balloons, making short work of them. If you take out an a ship's balloon, it will start making a rapid descent towards the ground and of course, impacting the ground will cause the ship to take damage.

 

: This stands for Explosive damage, which is very effective against the enemy ship's hull. The hull is ship's 'real' health as said before, if this goes down, the ship will explode in a majestic display of screws and scrap metal. Weapons with this kind of damage are very good finishers, but are usually not effective against enemy armour, so make sure you wait for the armour to go down before taking your shots, you will know the armour went down when you see a black cloud appear on the enemy ship and black metalic parts falling down.

 

: Shatter damage is very effective against a ship's components, like their engines and guns, this damage type gets an 100% bonus against these components, making guns with that damage type very effective disablers. Aim for the guns and engines to cause some havoc!

 

: This should be pretty obvious, it symbolizes Fire damage which is pretty effective against enemy balloons by itself, though the main use of guns with fire is to ignite the enemy ship's components, putting fire stacks on them that will cause extra damage over time, anything with fire stacks on it is cursed to go down unless extinguished. Guns will also be disabled if 8 or more stacks of fire are applied to them from flames. Use with caution." - Echoez

Here's a table summarizing and quantifying the statements about damage types made above:

Damage modifier table. Source: GoI homepage, weapon section
General notes:

"Just a short note about something that many people seem to misunderstand, if you want to use a certain ammo type you need to EQUIP it first, that means you have to reload your gun with the appropriate ammo type you want, you can see the ammo types you are carrying at the bottom of your screen when you are manning a gun and you can switch to them by either pressing 1, 2, 3 or 4 on your keyboard or switching through them with the mouse wheel, the ammo you are loading will be highlighted.

You can switch ammo types during any time of a reload, only the ammo type you have selected when the reload ends will be loaded in, ALSO make sure you are ON the gun when the reload ends, else the gun will be reset to normal ammo." - Echoez

A major aspect of gunnery is the choice of the ammunition. Some ammunition types are chosen to make it easier, or even possible to hit with. E.g. a couple of weapons spread a lot making precise hits impossible unless heavy clips are used. Other weapons projectiles decay quite early, making long range hits impossible. In these cases lesmok rounds can be used to extend the field of operation of the weapon. Other weapons, like the Lumberjack or Hades suffer from arming time. Which can be addressed by ammunition like incendiary rounds of lochnagar shots to increase the weapons efficient field of operation. Last but not least ammunition can be chosen for the purpose of maximizing the damage output of a weapon. Here's a chart illustrating how every ammunition type affects the damage output relative to normal ammunition in %:

DPS alterations by ammunition including reload times. The table is based on a damage table created by the ducks (v.0.1.3 for GoI patch 1.3.5)
Whoever focuses on gunning on a ship should try to maximize his damage output. Often that can be accomplished by playing as an engineer with a buff kit, rather than as a gunner. Weapon buffs increase the damage output by 20% without any negative side effects. This bonus often outperforms the advantage three different ammo types provide. The most common gunineer loadouts are: wrench, buff, chemspray/extinguisher or mallet, spanner and a buff hammer.

Viable gun specific ammunition choices will be discussed in the following posts.

Wundsalz:
The Whirlwind Light Gatling Gun.



Primary Damage:

Secondary Damage:

"The Whirlwind is a high fire rate, low damage gun, mimicing the old school machine-gun weaponry from your standard FPS game, it fires a stream of bullets in a wide cone, don't be allianated by its low damage stats though, it is a beast and can keep the pressure on the enemy's armour like nothing else from closer ranges. It is also a very good component disabler, so if you need a gun or engine down, just aim for it." - Echoez

Play style:

the main purpose of the gatling gun is to break the enemies hull armor. It's often a good idea to reload the gatling gun once the hit markers turn red - even if the clip isn't empty yet to ensure a fresh clip is ready when the enemy has rebuild their hull. This does not apply to squids (and also isn't always a good idea when fighting goldfishes) as their hull is very weak and can be broken again with the same clip. When fighting squids, hold your fire for roughly 2-4 seconds once the hull breaks (that's roughly the time the enemy team needs to rebuild it when camping it) and start shooting again just before they finish the rebuild so you can take it out again instantly afterwards.
Piercing hulls put aside, the gatling gun is also a decent disabler. Occasionally it is a good idea to take out components (e.g. weapons or engines) rather than going straight for a hull strip.

Viable ammo types:

greased rounds
greased rounds provide the highest dps of all ammo types on the cost of a reduced range. They are currently the most common pick for gatling guns.

charged rounds
while charged rounds provide slightly less dps than greased rounds, they deal the highest damage per clip and do not suffer from a reduced fireing distance. Charged rounds are a viable pick if ships with close range weapons (e.g. carronade, mine launcher or flame throwers) are fought and your captains wants to stay out of your enemies range.

heavy clips
heavy clips are a viable pick against Junkers if you plan to keep barely in gatling range for whatever reason. The spread reduction allows to take out their slim hulls precisely even at the maximum gat-range. Heavy clips are also usefull to take out critical components (e.g. front weapons of the goldfish) quicker and more reliable.

lesmok rounds
Lesmok rounds allow you to shoot enemies which are out of range for any other ammunition. However the massive spread of the gatling guns limits the usefulness of this ammunition type significantly. Usually the damage inflicted by a single gatling gun in lesmok range can be outrepaired by an engineer whacking the hull with a spanner. The one exception is the Galleon with its barn-gate-size hull.


Incendiary rounds are a utility ammunition choice for the gatling gun. While severely reducing the DPS they provide a chance to ignite components. They also grant the gatling gun the ability to burn down the enemies balloon if it isn't maintained properly.

Wundsalz:
The Scylla Double-Barreled Mortar



Secondary Damage:


"The Scylla, just like the Echidna, is an all explosive weapon, it deals a bit less damage per round but has a much larger clip and no random spread, its projectiles have a massive downward arc though, restricting it to mostly close range engagements, but this weapon will drop any ship that gets hit by a whole clip directly to their naked hull. Due to its larger magazine size, it can start firing slightly before the armour goes down to assist in breaking it and then continue to destroy the hull."  - Echoez

Play Style:
Mortars are usually used in combination with a hull stripper, most commonly a gatling gun. As a mortar gunner your job is to kill the enemy once the enemies hull has been broken (red hitmarkers). In the commonly used gatling/mortar arrangement you can also help your gatling gunner to break the hull. For most ships hold your fire and let the gatling gunner do his job until you can see smoke particles beeing emitted from the hull. E.g. when you're fighting a pyramideon and you've got a decent gatling gunner with a clear line of fire that should happen briefly before the gatling runs out of ammo. That's your sign to open fire with the mortar. Ideally you'll help to break the hull with your first shots and kill right right away without granting your enemy time to rebuild the armor.
Currently there's a clear favorite loadout for players dedicated to a mortar. It's the same as for the gatling gunner: greased rounds and buff equipment. With that setup you should load greased rounds, prefbuff your gun, wait for the enemies hull to emit particles, give your mortar the final buff hammer whack and open fire. If executed properly this pattern grants you an almost guaranteed kill on enemies with a low permanent hull, like Junkers, Pyramideons and spires.

Viable Ammo Types
greased rounds
by far the most commonly used ammo type for the mortar. It reduces the maximum range of the weapon and maximizes weapons dps without reload times taken into consideration - and that's what should count, as any ship, including the galleon, can be destroyed with a single mortar volley.
lesmok rounds
lesmok rounds are an uncommon ammo choice for the mortar. It's useful as it allows the mortar to shoot further away which makes it an viable option to be combined with mid-range weapons like the hades. Also the increased projectile velocity allow an easier lead of your shots which might come in handy when fighting fast moving targets or if you need to compensate for your own ships movement - e.g. swaying on a junker
burst rounds
While burst rounds significantly reduce the dps, the damage per clip is increased which allows you to support your gatling gun with breaking the hull earlier. If you use burst rounds, try to aim for the enemies guns. damaging the enemies guns and hence reducing their dps can grant you the upper hand in an outgunning situation.

Mod Josie:
This thread is genius - I hope as many people see it as possible. Breaks it down but with just enough detail. I hope you find the time to do this for all the weapons :D

Wundsalz:
I plan to add weapons here until the entire GoI-Arsenal is covered. Also feel free to discuss aspects of the guide if something needs clarification or debate certain ammo choices for weapons here.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page