Railjack - What is the Forward Artillery for?

[(PSN)Ozymandias-13-]

I keep hearing people say it's for crew ships, but that just doesn't make sense to me (constant bug causing zero damage aside).

- it has a long wind up time. 

 -Crazy screen shake that makes aiming hard unless super close.

-Extremely limited ammo.

- Requires pilot assistance to keep the ship in the right direction. 

- Comes AFTER the 2 Slingshot skills that have much more wiggle room for aiming, and Slingshot can't miss...

 

I'm not saying it's useless,  but I have not found it to be better in any way compared to Slingshot. What am I missing? 

(Also, I don't see why it doesn't have the same lock on mechanic as Slingshot even if you have to still charge it fully to fire)

Edited December 24, 2019 by (PS4)Ozymandias-13-

[(PSN)Ozymandias-13-]

39 minutes ago, Masquerine said:

When you blow up a crewship reactor from the inside, if you then leave the crewship and shoot its 3 engines out and shoot its main body you can blow up the crewship instead of waiting for the slow reactor timer to tick down. Helps cut down on the crewship getting free bombardments off and you get to pick up the loot right away.

Just like the forward artillery, it doesn't seem to work if you shoot out its engines before blowing up the reactor. Not many people seem to be aware that you can do this.

Even on a "one or the other basis" it's not even. 

Having to do "one and then the other" is just bad. Lol

[(XBOX)Synthet1c Angel]

I use the forward artillery to snipe crew ships from outside of their engagement range but only when playing solo. If another player looks at the pilot seat funny the movement will throw the aim way off.

 

I can only imagine its use will be like what was shown at the 2018 tennocon demo where an away team laser painted the reactor core on a corpus battleship and then the railjack crew gutted it with a precision shot. I'd love it if it could be used to create breaches in the sides of capital ships, allowing us to make our own doors instead of using the enemy doors.

 

For now it's handy as a crew ship sniper when you're soloing and don't want to leave the railjack and that's really it. Not sure if it's just me but I've actually found if you don't hit the center of a crew ship (where the reactor is.) they seem to lose all health from their diamond but then slowly regen, instead of exploding.

Edited December 26, 2019 by (XB1)Synthet1c Angel

[TheDayfall]

On 2019-12-24 at 9:09 PM, (PS4)Kamranos said:

This is probably one more aspect of railjack that will be looked at and reworked. Most of this is very much testing the water and getting feedback. I could see it getting a massive damage buff for what it is, does and requires. Keep ramp up, no lock and screen shake, but make it one shot crew ships in Veil.

when were first introduced to this weapon, it was used to be the final blow to a capital ship. In its current state that isn’t even remotely possible.

its good for when you're doing solo stuff or your team wont take the crew ships down but going to go to a 2nd are to sue it is a pain ad you only get 4 shots, it would be better as something the one flying the ship could use while flying and was a level 3 unlock not 5, its cool idea done badly  

[JMP3]

I like to use it because it looks cool.  Also when there's multiple crewships and only one Tenno leaving the Railjack, you can take them out a bit faster.  Good to know that I need to up the damage past Saturn, though.  Haven't upgraded that avionic, but I do keep a copy.

[Vejova]

On 2019-12-24 at 9:26 PM, Uhkretor said:

Railjack - What is the Forward Artillery for?

War... What is it good for?

[Uhkretor]

2 minutes ago, Vejova said:

War... What is it good for?

To make you quote the player that didn't ask about the Forward Artillery's purpose.

[--K--Sharkfin]

On 2019-12-26 at 5:35 AM, Masquerine said:

When you blow up a crewship reactor from the inside, if you then leave the crewship and shoot its 3 engines out and shoot its main body you can blow up the crewship instead of waiting for the slow reactor timer to tick down. Helps cut down on the crewship getting free bombardments off and you get to pick up the loot right away.

Just like the forward artillery, it doesn't seem to work if you shoot out its engines before blowing up the reactor. Not many people seem to be aware that you can do this.

Because this trick requires the boarder to have a decent archgun with particle proc to start with. Many thought it would take a lot of time.

With proper build you could down a CS's HP from max to 1 within 5 seconds in veil proxima.

[--K--Sharkfin]

My feedback would be these:

1. Forward artillery should have infinite punch through, hitting everything on its path, neglecting asteroids.

2. has a radius of damage multiplier. inside the beam with a radius of 50m = 1x damage. 100m from the edge of the beam = 0.5 damage. with a total of 300m diameter.

3. fast switching from pilot to artillery seat. Like a battle avion, when you press a key your pilot seat slides to the artillery seat.  Limit usage of artillery to pilot only. And the artillery should be able control the ship face-direction.

4. A slight lock-on or aim assist on a target of choice, like slingshot

 

[(PSN)Kamranos]

5 hours ago, SHArK-FiN said:

My feedback would be these:

3. fast switching from pilot to artillery seat. Like a battle avion, when you press a key your pilot seat slides to the artillery seat.  Limit usage of artillery to pilot only. And the artillery should be able control the ship face-direction.

4. A slight lock-on or aim assist on a target of choice, like slingshot

 

The only problems I can see with these are:

it would require the pilot to be gunner 5 or no one else can use it. 

Adding another button to push while in the pilot seat is easy on keyboard, not so much on controllers 

Having an aim assist would have the same problem slingshot has sometimes. If the battlefield is littered with fighters, you could accidentally lock onto one of them instead of the real target. I think it should take a touch of skill to aim and fire.

 

[Steeldragonz]

Thats just it, last saturn missions with no arty avionics looking at 2 shots to rekt a CS, even with the Avionics its the same. The in the Veil, why even bother with it, Tenno are the best ammo, in a matter of 14 seconds [without the need of the pilot holding steady, in 1 direction] a Tenno can go over to the CS hack it, blow its reactor and be warping back.

 

As a a part of the ship we cant customise or retro fight right now, this would be the next step in Railjack Equipment imo, not for any other reason than utility, otherwise..... like i am currently and im sure most other people are once they get far enough along, it will just be ignored and forgotten about. 

[SinergyX]

I would rather see a dedicated forward turret system like the 2 side turrets, but able to switch from normal gunner to 'heavy gunner'. A 4th person sometimes feels kinda obsolete if all gets destroyed by pilot and 2 gunners, would be nice the front gunner could do the same. 

I have mine equiped, on veil it takes 3 shots to take down a crew ship, slingshotting to it is far cheaper regarding forge and material usage.

[--K--Sharkfin]

2 hours ago, (PS4)Kamranos said:

The only problems I can see with these are:

it would require the pilot to be gunner 5 or no one else can use it. 

Adding another button to push while in the pilot seat is easy on keyboard, not so much on controllers 

Having an aim assist would have the same problem slingshot has sometimes. If the battlefield is littered with fighters, you could accidentally lock onto one of them instead of the real target. I think it should take a touch of skill to aim and fire.

 

regarding to these

using artillery should no longer requires gunner rank. Instead, make a rank that increase artillery damage, effective range, and/or reload time etc.

the swap seat button could be mapped to 4th battle avion.

The aim assist should tie to a lock-on which you need to hold the fire button for several seconds. Instead of instant fire. Releasing the button would cancel the "charge up"

[CandyManCriminal]

they should turn it into another equipped weapon
higher levels = more damage, faster charge
different families = different added effects
Lavan, punch through
Vidar, drags nearby fighters into the exploding crewship, damaging them
Zetki, more damage

added effects could include:
10% of damage dealt is converted to shields for the railjack
kills with the Tunguska cannon have a 20% chance to not consume a dome charge
additional damage when shield is depleted 
nearby fighters panic when charging
fighters near target lose control on hit

i'd also like to see ordnance from families 

[(PSN)Kamranos]

21 hours ago, SHArK-FiN said:

.the swap seat button could be mapped to 4th battle avion.

The aim assist should tie to a lock-on which you need to hold the fire button for several seconds. Instead of instant fire. Releasing the button would cancel the "charge up"

There is no “4th battle Avionics” button on the controller. It is already a series of buttons to make that happen. PC players seem to think a controller has a keyboard of bindings. More buttons means more complex actions to make simple things happen. We already need to hold a button while pressing another one to activate tactical menu.

Not having a rank requirement would mean anyone could burn through the 4 rounds we have. I would like to see them level up with ranks, but IMO, the current setup is good, but needs minor adjustments to make it viable outside of earth.

[--K--Sharkfin]

1 hour ago, (PS4)Kamranos said:

There is no “4th battle Avionics” button on the controller. It is already a series of buttons to make that happen. PC players seem to think a controller has a keyboard of bindings. More buttons means more complex actions to make simple things happen. We already need to hold a button while pressing another one to activate tactical menu.

Not having a rank requirement would mean anyone could burn through the 4 rounds we have. I would like to see them level up with ranks, but IMO, the current setup is good, but needs minor adjustments to make it viable outside of earth.

its the job of DE to make controller easier to control, not PC players.

Anyway, if you think anyone would burn through your dome charges, it means you have a bad crew. Try premake one from the recruit channel. Rank won't prevent people from wasting your shots.

[(PSN)Kamranos]

No matter what DE decides to do to make the big gun worth it, it will be pointless until we can get people to stop parting the ship and archwinging the entire mission. It is currently a symptom of a much bigger railjack problem and that’s is damage balance.

[(PSN)Ozymandias-13-]

1 hour ago, (PS4)Kamranos said:

No matter what DE decides to do to make the big gun worth it, it will be pointless until we can get people to stop parting the ship and archwinging the entire mission. It is currently a symptom of a much bigger railjack problem and that’s is damage balance.

Well, the bigger problem isn't exclusive to damage. 

1. Enemies move too fast so you need Amesha to slow them. The forward artillery uses limited ammo so someone goes and does crew ships, and someone is doing the away crew objectives (based on dialogue it suggests they are buffing ships so it encourages you to jump ahead and complete them - I don't know if that's just flavor text though, but i'm sure others think the same thing).

2. The big gun sucks and is locked behind higher level intrinsic so many players have little choice but to manually board crew ships. 

3. Everyone staying on ship means all damage and aggro is focused on the ship so it's better for your resource gains to go out and distract them so they aren't wasted just trying to avoid failing the mission since you need TONS of everything for upgrades. 

4. All of the resource and kill drops are scattered all over space so players have to go pick them up or else risk everyone losing them all together. 

The whole concept, as fun as it is, is greatly flawed and contradicts its own design. I wish the mess it's in ended with just a damage balance. Lol

[(PSN)AbBaNdOn_]

I do not use mine at all.  Mostly because ammo is costly and limited.  As soon as i unlocked it i tried it but i do not think it killed the crewship.

However I totally WANT to use it on crewships.  Those bastards dont approach my ship until my back is turned.  I have gunnery7 and extra long slingshot but those crewships sit out of range.

Could also try to use it on outriders/bombers.  They move slow as dirt and can take some punishment.  But that sounds like a very bad idea.

I wish slingshot was where artillery is.  I wish artillery was in back and either a normal turret or artillery that had more than 4 shots, costs an arm and leg, and instakilled stuff.

[(PSN)AbBaNdOn_]

3 hours ago, (PS4)Ozymandias-13- said:

 

3. Everyone staying on ship means all damage and aggro is focused on the ship so it's better for your resource gains to go out and distract them so they aren't wasted just trying to avoid failing the mission since you need TONS of everything for upgrades. 

Theres only three things that wreck ur ship.

1. Crewships
2. Bombers
3. 5-10+ fighters all blasting u to crap.

1-2 are pretty easy to deal with as pilot.  3 is the only one i wish i had help for.  Crewships usually start to spawn close enough to fire boarding sleds.  By the time i kill crewship and drive it back to my ship a boarding party has trashed the place so i have to repair a little,  but bombers have usually got in range by then and just continuously rip ur ship apart.  So u gotta be smart and find em and take em out asap between ruptures.  But then as you try to repair from that u either have a swarm of fighters or more crewships to deal with.

If I had just 1 person to man guns and watch my back I would take very little damage.  I solo the hardest earth nodes and prob only spend 40-60 on revo ammo.  If I had 1 good gunner that would prob drop to 10-20.  

Anyways my point is a good crew should EASILY handle all aggro.  If they cant then some of them have no idea how to assess threats.  All aggro on ship is awesome if u sit in place.  All the loot becomes a bubble around u and easy to farm after the shooting ends lol.

[buffalobuffalogaming]

Forward artillery:

1. Can't shoot through the Crewhip's side engine,
2. Can't punch through the Crewhip's healing bubble,
3. Can't punch through a small fighter,
4. Deal low damage to higher level Crewships.
5. Long wind-up time and no target snapping.
6. Time to kill / ammo consumtion for killing one of Exo Crewship still worse than The Classic Slingshot Method.

In short, It's not viable useless for now.

Edited January 14, 2020 by blimsoon