EVE General Discussion

I have used railguns for a while now and am quite enjoying the Railgun II and advanced ammunition, but there is just a bizzare range issue for the ammunition that makes me wonder if it's intentional or maybe pushing skills/modules to overcome it.

Spike ammo has awesome range but in a medium ship or larger, the turrets just can't hit diddly at about 20km or less without module support. So, maybe 'Javelin'?

Javelin ammo can hit at short intermediate but it's horrible odds and the damage is relatively weak until you get to 'long' short ranges (under 10k). Now at medium short (4K-10K), it hits like a ton of bricks, but at short short (<5k) you're better off with blasters so a rail fighter won't want to wander into that range.

So, tactically, there is a 'hole' in your offensive envelope at about 13km - 25km (larger if you count in the 5 second ammo swap time). Yeah, you can module/skill to help overcome this but you'll always be trying to find that perfect time to switch out ammunition types.

Anyone have a good solution (besides weapon platform changes) to this predicament? Do you think it's intentional on CCP's part to create this dead spot?

Maybe I'm just using the guns wrong.

From your wording it seems as if you assume t2 ammo to be the standard and obvious choice to use once you have T2 weapons, it's not because T2 hybrid ammo is highly specialized. The "gap", as you put it, is filled by T1 ammo (be it normal of faction). Spike is VERY situational and Javelin is really only used in PVP, scram kiting railgun frigs for example.

Hmmm... maybe I was mesmerized by the range/damage of the Faction ammo but those middle range normal ammos are pretty weak as well.

So, I guess it would come down to doing some real world numbers tests for dps at certain ranges with the logical ammo types.

Personally I like the faction ammo because it is only TWO different forms of ammo in the cargo bay. My T1 fits looked like a buffet conga line of ammo crates... It was also more swapping, I found myself only carrying 3 ranges after a while and 10 seconds lost in a combat for down ranging the ammo was not good for the dps.

Since I'm primarily up against NPC's I guess I have the luxury of starting most fights at the ranges I want (this doesn't work on accelerated gate sites, so I have to do my first pass in hit and run format and draw off the aggro'd units and take them down. After that it's my terms for follow ups. So, I've never really had a major issue with this, even the 'gap' isn't hideous but I was hoping someone had a cool trick to deal with it.

I guess I could hit the AB and close while I switch to Javelin or just keep kiting out the range and stay on Spike. I really don't want to go back to the wait for change out/rainbow ammo cargo bay days... LOL!

Well, I appreciate the input, it's more to consider and maybe weave in some normal ammo.

Don't even joke about that. They might take you seriously, and then we will be stuck with "A Gun I" and "A Gun II" with 2 types of ammo for each and it'll just fit on all races of ships - everything else will get rolled into it.


@ the OP - that is what Fed Navy Antimatter is for.

It's not the recharge timer, it's the 5 second reload timer you get when you change ammo types.

All hybrid turrets have a lot of limitations. The reload timer, they only do Thermal/Kinetic, the range swapping, cargo holds full of the stuff, etc. They have some good advantages too. The larger ships can engage targets at warpable ranges.

I'm not calling for rebalancing here, just plumbing other players skill boxes to see what you guys do to deal with the rail issues. So far, some great answers.

Any rebalance would either need to be very minor or an entire re-do of the weapons systems. Right now I think Missles are about the best overall weapon in the game because of their ability to tailor their ammo against ship type. Hybrids are stuck with Thermal/Kinetic, which is fine for many NPC's but against players that know you have rails? Ouch.

Dear god, do NOT give CCP ideas.

It took them the best part of two years to stop messing with drones, just think how long they would mess with ammo for!

Use Navy Antimatter, Navy Thorium for extended range. Eventually one or two tracking computers with optimal or tracking scripts. Spike is used on ships with a healthy optimal/falloff bonus, like Eagle, Railgu or scripted Rail Proteus, to snipe at targets at over 100km distances.

At this juncture, I thought I'd offer a good, easy to make, fudge recipe:

Ingredients
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup milk
4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Butter a large dinner plate. Set aside.

Combine sugar, cocoa and milk in a medium saucepan. Stir to blend, then bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer. Do not stir again.

Place candy thermometer in pan and cook until temperature reaches 238 degrees F (114 degrees C). If you are not using a thermometer, then cook until a drop of this mixture in a cup of cold water forms a soft ball (soft ball stage.) Feel the ball with your fingers to make sure it is the right consistency. It should flatten when pressed between your fingers.

Remove from heat. Add butter or margarine and vanilla extract. Beat with a wooden spoon until the fudge loses its sheen. Do not under beat. (You may add a 1/4 cup of chopped pecans before you stir...if you're SMART! Cherries if you're a girl.)

Pour onto prepared dinner plate and let cool. Cut into how you like it.

Spike has tracking speed penalty that's why.

Nope. Learn to use things properly.