Is this Railgun FAC any good?

[TheTalkingMeowth]

You cannot turret railguns.

Honestly, I don't really agree that railguns are a good early game offensive weapon. The range disadvantage versus lasers is just really painful at the low speeds achievable. And low amounts of armor mean you can't afford to take hits on the way in. At absolute minimum tech (this was VB6), I won a 2 to 1 tonnage victory playing against myself because one side had 10cm infrared lasers and the other had 10cm railguns with level 2 range.

FACs exacerbate all of those problems. Smaller ships aren't actually any easier to make fast than bigger ones (for a given range, they are actually HARDER to make fast). And they don't have the space for thick armor (which takes up a smaller fraction of a ship's space as the ship grows) or redundant components. So you have a ship that isn't actually fast and cannot afford to get hit, armed with a weapon that FORCES it to get hit. This...is a bad combination.

Higher tech levels mitigate some of the problems outlined, but don't necessarily solve them. FACs, as has been pointed out in this thread, are better armed with missiles and the like.

Think of it this way: FACs are fragile, so they don't want to sit there and trade shots with the enemy. That means they should be designed for alpha strike, not DPS. Railguns are DPS weapons, not alpha weapons.

[Llamageddon (OP)]

I see your reasoning. What would you recommend I do with the research I've done into railguns to get the best use out of them? Now I realise they can't be turreted and my FACs are going to be pretty vulnerable I'm scratching my head thinking what they can be used for.

[DFNewb]

The thing about Beam FAC's, and their biggest advantage in my opinion, is that it takes only 1 to destroy a ship with no weapons or ammo left.

I really wouldn't ever give them a range larger than 2 Billion km either cause 1 Billion km seems like more than a reasonable distance to start the engagement with the enemy.

Big railguns on big ships that move fast are more than fine. If your ships move as fast as the enemy ships you will never really have a reason for wanting turrets. Turrets are best for anti-missile duty. I find myself boosting my military ships up to 1.25 engine power a lot, very useful for non-turreted big weapons like railguns and particle beams to hit the target. Also for those spinal mount lasers.



Also you can making boarding party FAC's that work very well. They are pretty much missiles that capture the enemy ships.

[TheTalkingMeowth]

With capacitor three, a 10cm railgun is an excellent and incredibly cheap antimissile weapon. I forget how much tech you need to invest in gauss cannons and turret tracking before they can compete, but since you already HAVE the railgun tech, that is a nice usage. And if you put higher range mod on the 10cm rails, they are a decent secondary battery for proper energy armed warships. You can also use railgun FACs to escort your missile or laser or particle beam FACs; just don't expect them to kill anything except maybe another FAC.

And as DFNewb said, railguns themselves aren't bad weapons. They are just not great at low tech and are particularly ill-suited to FACs.

[liveware]

I see your reasoning. What would you recommend I do with the research I've done into railguns to get the best use out of them? Now I realise they can't be turreted and my FACs are going to be pretty vulnerable I'm scratching my head thinking what they can be used for.

Nerf the range and launch them from carriers. They would make excellent fleet escorts/point defense craft.

[Llamageddon (OP)]

People have said that 10cm Railguns are great for point defence, should I drop the railguns on these down to 10cm as only 1 damage is needed or keep the 12cm for faster ROF, twice the damage and 1.5x the range, which I assume will be more useful if they get into range of an enemy FAC? Carrier tech is next on my list so I will be dropping the range way down.

[JustAnotherDude]

Early game 10cm rails are kind of great, absolutely go for it. I rarely regret using them.

[Barkhorn]

12cm have a WORSE rate of fire than 10cm, not better.  The ROF number is how many seconds it takes to fire.  ROF 5 can fire every increment.  ROF 10 can fire every other increment.

[Llamageddon (OP)]

Silly me, I misread it. Makes sense for missile defence then. I'm making some corvettes with AMMs I might put the 12cm ones on then, so they can do more damage to FACs that get in close.