Turret Aiming

[Vengeance42]

When making AMC's for myself to shoot, I always make them rapid fire so I can hit things better, by getting the feedback of lots of little bullets.

If you make an AI turret though, is there much point to rapid fire? I have heard rapid fire actually makes overall damage go down, and in any case, you could use the space for something else (like more main cannon modules!). I doubt the AI benefits in accuracy by having lots of shots to see where they go.

tl;dr - Do turrets benefit from having rapid fire cannons?

 

[Megacrafter127]

They benefit from it, as long as accurracy isn't 100%
rapid fire doesn't reduce the overall damage, it just reduces the damage per projectile in turn for more projectiles.

 

[jayman38]

AI will not score 100% accuracy in the default game.

I use rapid fire on all my AI turrets, because by the time AI can hit the enemy with a 3 second reload, the battle will be over before the AI can score a single hit. Since rapid fire does reduce the damage significantly, it will take longer for the AI to chew through a block of hull, but hundreds of hits out of thousands of projectiles will produce more satisfying results than a handful of hits over the course of an entire battle.

 

[Asmael]

I tested it and...

Using a Cannon with a Cannon as slave actually increases the average DPS. It was quite some time ago, but if I remember well, it doubled the DPS (from 0 to 100% support). It's true that having fast firing - low damage bullets reduce the potency of some effects, like punch-through and piercing (as a bullet won't go far if it deals only a mere 100-400 damage).

So... more DPS. Easier to aim. Less power tank required for massive arrays. Main drawbacks being the one stated above and the lack of alpha strike, which means you'll have slightly more trouble destroying a shield with massive regeneration but low capacitor.

Fast firing AMCs are also a very good idea if you don't have sufficient space for effect blocks, as the standard rate of fire is painfully low if you wan't to destroy blocks.

 

[NeonSturm]

pulse-ion cannons :p
1 rapid fire to suppress shield regen.
1 punch through to hit internals rather than the surface hull.

If you attack from cloak, consider a few small ion-pulse beams or missiles with a few small overdrive-pulse beams as cloakers usually are hit&run with shitloads of energy regen.

 

[Megacrafter127]

I tested it and...

Using a Cannon with a Cannon as slave actually increases the average DPS. It was quite some time ago, but if I remember well, it doubled the DPS (from 0 to 100% support). It's true that having fast firing - low damage bullets reduce the potency of some effects, like punch-through and piercing (as a bullet won't go far if it deals only a mere 100-400 damage).

That is because a cannon deals 5 d/s per block, and effect/slave blocks add to that number.