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Flak cannons in .85 are about worthless.
with such a short range it's difficult to hit anything (even the bow of your own ship), and sometimes if you try and lead the target they can shoot in the wrong direction. Then, at the range you can actually hit something, you're probably better off using Solaris turrets instead anyway.


I did some playing around experimenting with stats and here are my thoughts

Instead of a proximity fuse like every other "missile", I wanted to try and make it a timed fuse. Make it hard to actually hit anything, but rather just explode 3 seconds after firing.

I started by reducing detonation distance to 1, so it won't explode with anything but a direct impact. (hard to do with an unguided missiles) I also increased the projectile's HP to 20000 so it won't be set off by other flak explosions. next I increased it's range by upping it's muzzle velocity to 1000, leaving the lifetime at 3, thereby theoretically increasing it's range to around 3000.

However, Ingame using SP, I found that the warheads seemed to detonate only around 1350M away and not 3000. This may be due to the battleship turret placement effecting range (further tests needed). at any rate, they became effective at destroying fighters at that range but only that range. within 1200M or so, with such a low detonation distance, any non direct hit will continue past the target and detonate at it's preset time (beyond the target).

after some more thought and testing I decided to play around with the blast strength/radius numbers. I wanted a big enough area blast so approaching fighters would be in optimal range a bit longer, but I didn't want that damage to wipe out entire NPC wings with a single volley. I therefore increased the radius to 200 but reduced the strength to 1, because I believe that makes the explosion weaker the farther away you are from the blast.
(full damage at the explosion center, tapering off to 1% damage at 200m)

In my testing I also toned down both damage and power by 2/3, but left the fire rate the same. I wanted to keep 2-3 continuously firing without too much power loss instead of just 1.


The important bits I changed to the Zoner Flak from Weapon_equipment.ini for my tests.
[Motor]
nickname = rh_battleship_flak_turret01_motor
lifetime = 2
accel = 25
delay = 0
[Explosion]
nickname = rh_battleship_flak_turret01_explosion
strength = <strike>100</strike> 1
radius = <strike>125</strike> 200
hull_damage = <strike>9100</strike> 3000
energy_damage = 0
impulse = <strike>5000</strike> 0
[Munition]
hit_pts = <strike>2</strike> 20000
detonation_dist = <strike>75</strike> 1
lifetime = 3.0
owner_safe_time = 3
[Gun]
nickname = rh_battleship_flak_turret01
power_usage = <strike>310000</strike> 100000
refire_delay = 1.000000
muzzle_velocity = <strike>300</strike> 1000



I have no idea what final stats are appropriate for MP, since I cannot test in such an environment. I just wanted to see if my idea of a longer range low detonation distance Flak gun would work. and so far it seems to, but again, only as far as I can test in SP.

Hmm, I like this. This seems pretty reasonable to me

Meh, personally I think flak should have incredibly fast refire, dumb firing like it currently is with a large blast radius and medium range.

Deadly it would be then.

Any video you can make? So we get a better idea?

' Wrote:Meh, personally I think flak should have incredibly fast refire, dumb firing like it currently is with a large blast radius and medium range.

Deadly it would be then.

Full flak Lib Assault Carrier.

Best snub support EVER if you have crruiser/BC/Dread escorts.

Flak's at presant are actually better then solaris for anti snub. BUT they both still suck against bombers that stay out of range,and SNAC. All they really need is range.
Also would be nice if every NPC did not go hostile cause they take damage.

This first is the current stats.
as you can see if you try and chain fire 4 they blow each other up and drain power in a short time
http://s377.photobucket.com/albums/oo217/P...-09-00-78_1.mp4


This one shows the changes, again chain firing 4
showing the extended range, not blowing each other up, and not draining. somewhat creating a cloud of death at 1350M
http://s377.photobucket.com/albums/oo217/P...17-46-59-74.mp4



showing the range firing at stationary targets
at 1538M no damage, close to 1304M does damage. was going to close to 1000M to show no damage, but forgot they were stationary and directly hit them.
http://s377.photobucket.com/albums/oo217/P...-28-57-49_1.mp4

' Wrote:Flak's at presant are actually better then solaris for anti snub.

ROFL



Now, on topic, while I can't interpret those stats very well (not being a dev, or understanding that sort of work), I think the damage is best left at current levels, or perhaps increased, as if they only explode on direct impact, and the damage falls of very quickly at the extremities of the explosion radius, doing damage with only 3000 hull damage per shot may be quite difficult.

Other than that, it looks like a rather good take on the "How to make Flak effective" problem, especially the increased projective HP.

Flak cannons with their current statistics are only worth inRP, like sporting something different. If they are properly modified, with your suggestion, I would probably mount them.

But with their current state, they are near to worthless.

Long range Solaris maybe?

Also, who remembers the 'Gundam' missile mod, where you could pump out missiles as fast as you could fire?

Something like that, in turret form.

Rapid re-fire but light damage and power usage to stop people from just loading up a ship with them.

A bomber/fighter is going to run from a missile, they won't know if it is one of these 'frighteners' or a more deadly missile.