There are a few cruisers with forward cannons. The Dragon Cruiser has the strongest, I believe. There are also many Gunboats with forward cannons, the Liberty Gunboat among them.
And believe me, I've used many guns of many refire rates. You have more chance of hitting a smaller enemy with 8.33 refire rate than you have with 2.00 refire rate. Projectile speed has a lot to do with it also, but the forward cannon is designed for hitting larger capital ship targets, not smaller ones.
A higher refire rate is not necessary. The forward cannon works fine the way it is now.
I think the forward guns have to be greater than or equal to the par with the super-slow turrets that deal ENORMOUS damage on anythin too slow to get their behinds off the reticule, or the SNACs. Maybe a .25 refire rate wouldn't be so bad on some caps with forwards, so long as they can beat a bomber any day.
The thing could use maybe a 15 degree firing arc, just so you don't have to turn the ship to aim. After all, most capital ships don't have stuck turrets, and it doesn't make sense for them to. With such a small firing arc, it'd still be next to impossible to manage it (though Gafwmn did it once).
That's my two cents on the gun. As for the refire, do you see cannons on modern-day battleships and cruisers spitting out 1 shell per second? No. Maybe one every three or four seconds, but hey, they have multiple barrels.
A way a lone a last a loved a long the riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay,
brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.
' Wrote:But the point is, surely, that the projectile is accelerated down the forward-facing tube ... hence giving it an arc of fire makes it look silly?
Plenty of ships that have turrets that shoot through part of the model.
A way a lone a last a loved a long the riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay,
brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.
This isn't a turret shooting through the model. The model IS the weapon. There isn't something turning around. The ship has to turn around, because the ship is the gun. (AI SHF, former Marsflyer, just has guns encased inside its hull but not fixed as a major part of the model)
About the refire... no need for that. The gun doesn't need to be even more useful against bombers, the cruiser rapes them even now already (when flown well). Doing it for cooler looks? Not a good enough argument for me.
' Wrote:This isn't a turret shooting through the model. The model IS the weapon. There isn't something turning around. The ship has to turn around, because the ship is the gun. (AI SHF, former Marsflyer, just has guns encased inside its hull but not fixed as a major part of the model)
About the refire... no need for that. The gun doesn't need to be even more useful against bombers, the cruiser rapes them even now already (when flown well). Doing it for cooler looks? Not a good enough argument for me.
The main gun is useless agaisnt bombers, its projectile is simply too slow. All the refire rate would do is make the ship not quite so useless in certain circumstances. However I do agree that against bombers a cruiser IS powerful (too bad the dev team nerfed solaris turrets tho) however it really has no weapons designed to take out snubfighters specificly, solaris is too short ranged to be useful. Prehaps increase the solaris range to that of the basic turret, and they would be worth using.
As for the comment above to give it a 15degree fire arc, I think thats a tad much. at most a 5deg arc, if that, because as said the ship IS the gun essently, however a SLIGHT rotation would make it a tad less annoying while making it not too easy. Hell, that or just give the cruiser a custon cockpit that has a crosshair in the center of it for easier aiming.
To be honest I dont EVER see the main gun being useful against snubfighters execpt under certain circumstances, such as someone sitting @ max range w/o sheilds not moving, just taunting, and too busy to realize they should evade. The main gun projectile is so slow that anything GB size or smaller can EASILY evade it at range, so it should at least be able to fire a tad faster so it has a use in a chase.