Gunnery for Dummies v1.3.5

[macmacnick]

Lochnagar also works well in mercuries, to take down the armor really easily (i.e. a galleon's armor) the drawback is that you have to aim beforehand and also rebuild the gun afterwards.

[N-Sunderland]

I don't see it being of any particular value for the reasons you mentioned and because it deprives you of charged, a necessary ammo type for sustained DPS (unless you go gunner and take both, but that'd be a terrible idea for the merc).

It's true that with a buff (on one or both) two loch mercs will take down a Galleon's armour in one go, but you're depending on a few things:
-the armour being unbuffed
-the engi not having time to get a mallet hit (you could have your merc guys fire simultaneously, but that's easier said than done)
-the Galleon not drifting out of the shot right as loch is loaded in
-the projectile not going straight into one of the Galleon's guns and ending up wasted, which is a very real possibility

So in the end it isn't really worth the trouble. Charged merc takes hull armour down quickly enough without all that risk (and so does Hades).

[Captain Smollett]

I just wanted to say that this is a really amazing guide and something that all new players should read.

Also can someone confirm artemis shots drop?  I always thought they kept altitude throughout flight.

[Wundsalz]

I'm pretty sure they don't drop at all either. I've just blindly quoted Echoez statement. The Artemis guide would probably be better off without it to avoid confusion. Unfortunately I can't modify the post anymore :-/

Ragarding the burst rounds for the carronade: I've never tried them myself, but your reasoning seems plausible. Frankly, I do not know whether a carronade can be turned into a reliable one clip-balloon killer. There's little room for error (6 projectiles of the entire clip may miss). Then again it's likely that another gun can help out with finishing the balloon.

[Erheller]

I think a lot of newer players would benefit from having this as a Steam guide. A lot of players probably won't know this guide exists on the forums, but if it's in the shift-tab overlay, maybe they'll see it and start to bring better ammos.

If you don't have the time to reformat it in the Steam guide format (or in Echoez' words, can't be arsed to), I'd be willing to do it for you (and of course give you coauthor credit) as you build this post on the forums.

[Wundsalz]

I do not want this guide to be distributed through other channels than this forum thread until it is completed and a bit more polished than it is right now.
Also before distributing it I'd like to get Echoez and Ailens permission to use their content. It's a kind of dickish move by myself to have reposted their stuff in this thread without it already.

[Erheller]

Ah, I understand.

If you want any help on this in the future, don't hesitate to ask me.

[N-Sunderland]

I'm pretty sure they don't drop at all either. I've just blindly quoted Echoez statement. The Artemis guide would probably be better off without it to avoid confusion. Unfortunately I can't modify the post anymore :-/

I'll fix it. Do you want the quote from Echo removed entirely for the Artemis?

[Wundsalz]

yeah, I think it's pretty much redundant with the text below it.

[Nosgard SilverClaw]

Burst might be more useful on the carronade than I previously thought. While most ammo types on the carronade can one-clip a balloon, burst rounds can deal 1555 damage in one clip, which is enough to destroy the balloon even if an engineer whacks it with a mallet (Balloons have 1200 hp, a mallet repairs 250. 1550 total.). So if you can land every single pellet, you have a guaranteed one-clip regardless of pesky engies repairing the balloon.

That being said, you have to land every shot. In practice, it's probably better to take greased and kill the balloon before the engineer has a chance to whack it. Also, burst loses its utility if the balloon is already damaged because then the other ammos can one-clip it.

Just me looking at numbers, haven't tried it out yet. Any thoughts on this?

Tried it myself in the past, and I stand by greased. My carrondate loadout is Greased, Heavy Clip, and Incinderary. Greased waste a balloon. Heavy Clip precision damages an engine or gun when balloon is down. Incin is for general harassement when balloon is down. Works well from everything i've seen. Burst..I see what your going for, but if your really close your gonna hit pure balloon, If your really far away your gonna hit a little of everything and not break any single thing. I don't see the value here in terms of raw damage.

[N-Sunderland]

yeah, I think it's pretty much redundant with the text below it.

Ok, done.

[Wundsalz]

The Beacon Flare Gun.



Primary Damage:

Secondary Damage:


The beacon gun is a utility weapon. Beacon shots travel until they either reach their maximum range of 750m or get stuck in a cloud or a ship. Regardless of what causes the Projectile to stop, it starts to emit light, revealing any ship which are close to the flare to anyone. If a flare is shot at an enemy ship it sets 10 fire stacks on the hit component. The beacon gun doesn't shoot pin point accurate. Its projectiles spread a little bit.

Play Style
The main purpose of flare guns is to give you the upper hand when it comes to spotting enemies. Note though that the flare works in both directions - if the flare gets stuck too close to you, your position will very likely be compromised. Nothing points your enemies attention more into your direction than green party light which spoils your cloud cover. Hence the best thing you can do with a flare gun is actually very often not to touch it.
Here's a rule of thumb to decide when to shoot the beacon: If you've got an idea where your enemy are likely located AND you're sure that your shot will not get stuck close to your or your allies position, shoot the beacon! Otherwise leave the gun alone!
Of course there is no rule without exceptions. Sometimes it's worth to shoot a beacon even if you're in the middle of a cloud. One common situation like this is an enemy trying to use cloud cover to shake his spot. However you should make sure to communicate flare shots like this with your captain, as he might want to use the cloud-cover himself for other purposes like tactical relocation.
The secondary, often a bit underestimated purpose of flares is to use it as an actual weapon. Each beacon projectile has a 100% chance to set 10 fire stack on the component hit by it. 10-20 fire stacks on the hull or the balloon of a ship can make engineers sweat on their ships and more than 8 fire stacks on a weapon causes their gunner to be kicked out of it and blocks its usage until it's extinguished.

Viable Ammo Types

Usually the beacon gun doesn't need to be reloaded with any fancy ammo. Normal rounds reveal enemies just as as any other ammo type does and the precision of the gun is still sufficient to reliably hit hulls and balloons.

Lesmok Rounds
Lesmok Rounds increase the range of the beacon gun, which comes in handy if you're flying a sniper ship and need to spot your foes from afar.
Heavy Clips
Heavy Clips make the beacon gun pin-point accurate and hence increases the chance you actually hit the component you aim for.
Heatsink Ammunition
Heatsink ammuntion increases the number of flares from 2 to 3. It increases the turn rate of the beacon gun, which can come in handy as a beacon is a gun you quickly want to hop into, place your shots and leave it again. The drawbacks of this ammo type is the reduced projectile speed, which decreased the maximum range of the beacon and makes aiming harder as you need to compensate the longer projectile travel time with an increased lead.

[Wundsalz]

The Hades Light Cannon.



Primary Damage:

Secondary Damage:

 

"Now this is an interesting gun, the projectile itself deals fire based damage, which is a good all-rounder type, but after its arming range of around 150 meters activates, the gun also deals the secondary piercing damage AoE, you will notice that after the arming range has been reached the projectile will burst into flames, that's when it will deal full damage."  - Echoez


Play Style

The hades is the second most powerful weapon when it comes to breaking the hull armor. And unlike the gatling gun, which is the only weapons which outperforms the hades at this particular task, the hades can shoot over an enormeous range of up to 1400m and even beyond 2500m with lesmok rounds. In general you should try to hit the hull with the hades, as damaging its armor is its main purpose. Unlike the gatling gun the hades deals decent permanent hull damage as well. Hence it's usually the best option to continue fireing once the enemies hull armor has been broken.
Every shot has a relatively high chance to set a fire stack on the component it hits, which puts additional pressure on the engineers when it comes to repairing. Due to the chance of setting fires, targeting the enemies balloon can be a viable option as well. While the hades only deals roughly a quater of a light-carronades dps to the balloon, the firestacks it induces can burn it down rather quickly. Note though that shooting at the enemies balloon with the hades is almost useless if the balloon is chemsprayed. That's because chem spray prevents firestacks from beeing applyable to the sprayed component, which is the hades main damage source vs. the balloon.
The gun suffers from an arming distance of 150m, which causes the major fraction of its damage not to be dealt if an enemy is very close to your ship.

Viable Ammo Types

lesmok rounds
lesmok rounds increase the projectile velocity and hence increase the maximum range of the weapon. Furthermore the increased velocity decreases the difficulty to hit with the hades. This makes lesmok a viable option even in mid-range combats - e.g. if you're up against a strafing junker or  a fast moving squid. Note though that lesmok increases the armind distance of the hades to 270m!

greased rounds
greased rounds maximize the dps of the hades and reduces the arming distance. Use greased rounds when you're confident to hit your enemy even with the slowed down projectile velocity, which makes aiming with the hades a bit harder!

charged rounds
charged rounds maximize the dps of the hades when fighting within the normal distance.

burst rounds
The AoE of the hades is fairly large. Hence the percentage AoE boost of burst rounds are quite effective on the hades. Use this ammunition if you want to hit your enemies ballon and its hull at the same time while dealing some minor damage to components along the way.

[Mod Josie]

When this guide is finished and I have built a PC capable - would you be open to turning this into a video guide?
It'd be a great resource to have somewhere that the community could just link people to. I know I'd use it if someone else made one - especially one as comprehensive, useful and in-depth as this guide.

[Erheller]

Hey, uh, I'm reworking my spreadsheet right now and I just realized that a lot of the DPS calculations are incorrect. It turns out that the GoI wiki has (or at least had) numbers different from what's in Evadne's Notebook, especially for shots/sec. I'm going to use Evadne's numbers for consistency (and hopefully accuracy).

I'm in the process of correcting things, and I should have a new spreadsheet out in about a week (that should also have some layout changes).

Yeah, that would explain why my spreadsheet said that hwachas had a dps of 13 versus armor