I just realized that the last gunnery guide in this section is rather outdated. Hence I'd like to pick up Echoez work (https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,1628.msg28749.html#msg28749) 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:
"(http://i.imgur.com/ZEyudVh.png): 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.
(http://i.imgur.com/oOESO3A.png): 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.
(http://i.imgur.com/N1i2dvh.png): 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.
(http://i.imgur.com/JZuhypz.png): 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!
(http://i.imgur.com/hJVRSEq.png): 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 (https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,1628.msg28749.html#msg28749)
Here's a table summarizing and quantifying the statements about damage types made above:
(http://i.imgur.com/HxrqXPq.jpg)
Damage modifier table. Source: GoI homepage, weapon section (http://gunsoficarus.com/gameplay/weapons/)
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 (https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,1628.msg28749.html#msg28749)
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 %:
(http://i.imgur.com/svAmxZY.jpg)
DPS alterations by ammunition including reload times. The table is based on a damage table created by the ducks (https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nren7iup46pn38f/Hq1BTC1AAs) (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.