Sister Ray

[Doctor Ragnarok]

Over the past two weeks I've been working hard on designing turrets, each one bigger than the last. After the fourth attempt or so I finally decided to really push the limits and see what the game will allow me to do.

Reigning in at 263m in length and roughly 1:3 scale, The Sister Ray / Mako Cannon has come to life:

Yes, it's a turret. Yes, it docks with turret platforms just fine in testing. Recommended to be mounted to planets only however due to its overwhelming size. This is modeled after the cannon in Junon and I'm likely to leave out some of the front support due to turret rules.

There are 52 rows of AMCs at 256m in length. With each one modified to 60-10-5-25, this gives roughly 32k damage per shot and 5 shots per second.

Take one home today: http://star-made.org/node/9346

And here is a bonus image proving that it can dock to a turret platform:

The lag of being within the planet's gravity was unruly, but as soon as it linked up I was back to 145 FPS.

 

[Stormclouf3]

Wow. That is amazing. I would recommend making a bunch of 1x1 groupings in a checkerboard pattern that are at the front but go as far back as they can. Cant wait to see the end result :D

 

[Doctor Ragnarok]

It\'s hollow all the way to the back plate, so that would be about 256m per rod if I go that route. It\'s challenging to come up with something that would resemble the shot you\'d hope to see come from this barrel, but in the end I suppose we\'re just going to be going with how much you can shred in fewer shots. I figure that I\'ll be dropping speed and reload, though I\'m unsure how much range I should be looking for before piling the rest on damage.

 

[Riftmaster]

This prompts an idea based on a salvager ship I saw someone post...

They basically had 2 checkerboard patterns, with the second placed behind the first, offset one block - thus making the salvage beams hit every block in front of the thing, without sweepint.



Now, my idea here is that you could do a similar thing with this cannon - have two checkerboard sets, one behind the other, each set being....128m long.

It would reduce your cannon power, but it might make the blasts appear as a larger one (because all the blocks in line with the barrel fired).



No idea if it would work or not though...

 

[Doctor Ragnarok]

The offset would be a fine idea, but then it would appear as 2 shots fired at once that are 128m apart. That tactic works better for beams. If we ever get a combat beam I\'ll gladly swap it out and see how it fits.

 

[Riftmaster]

For the devs to re-skin a salvage beam, change the beam color, and give it some damage ability...



Or maybe it is.

 

[drs93]

Holy mother of god. This is awesome. Could you post some more pictures, perhaps some of the rear part? I\'d like to use the style for my turret, if you are okay with that

 

[Doctor Ragnarok]

I\'ll get some more shots of it out as soon as I get some more of the finer points hammered down. When it\'s done I\'ll upload the .smnt file as well.

 

[Doctor Ragnarok]

Images in the original post have been swapped out now that the project is finished. Download is also available in the OP.

 

[Riftmaster]

A ship to put it on.../evilgrin

 

[mitchelltrt]

i think this would do better on a station. a REALLY BIG station. a faction home base perhaps. hook up 2 or 3 of these babies and let the good times roll.

 

[Zambo Ace]

One third scale and not quite small enough to fit comfortable on a planet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOQdnPUT7gs

 

[Vitavoro]

would you or have you tried fireing at one of the near by planets to see if it would reach that far, though you may need to put almost everything into range but would be fun to try?

 

[Doctor Ragnarok]

I\'ve not coordinated an attempt on this though it may be worth messing with.

However, I do remember reading somewhere that damage doesn\'t carry across sectors properly yet? Even fighting with pirates on the edge of a sector at short range has previously resulted in no damage done until both the attacker and defender are in the same sector. (In my own experience)

One thing I have done though, was to bring the cannon up to the side of a planet and just sustain fire until it passed clear through the longest way. There was so much lag, but the hole was glorious.

 

[Vitavoro]

Would love to see a picture of it if you have one or remember where it was 8)

 

[captjtkirk]

now to mount a few of these on a titan :D

 

[Doctor Ragnarok]

I\'ve actually received a PM from a user stating that they were going to attempt to create a ship to mount it on and send it to me before going public with it, so we\'ll see how that goes. In the meantime I\'m glad to see anyone else give it a try, and I may do so myself after a few of my current projects come to a close.

By my count, the ship would be in the neighborhood of 800m+ to feel proportionate.