20 replies to this topic

[DoomMidget]

Hi there, hoping somebody can enlighten me!

I have a Cataphract loaded with 4 x AC2 because it looked like it could be fun, particularly because the weapon has a low recycle time of 0.5 seconds.

I assumed (perhaps foolishly?) that this would mean that my AC2s would fire once every 0.5 seconds, but this is far from the truth. When I fire the whole weapon group, I would guess that I fire about once a second? Certainly not close to once every 0.5 secs. I was wondering what the problem might be?

My second issue is that when I set the group to chainfire, it doesn't really speed up my rate of fire tremendously as I anticipated. A bit yes, but I would have thought I could fit 4 rounds per second in given that the rounds are firing offset and recycling while others are firing, or is this not the case? Do the subsequent rounds wait for the previous one to finish recycling before firing? If this is the case, is there a way of changing my firing pattern so that the rounds that are ready, fire as soon as the previous one has gone on it's merry way, so that previous rounds are recycling as subsequent rounds are firing?

I'm not sure if it is relevant at all but my ping is usually around 250ms as I am playing from Australia currently. I certainly wish there were servers closer to here as rubber banding and target leading issues often make things almost unplayable, particularly since the last patch.

I have done a quick search of the forum on autocannon related topics but can not see that my question has already been answered elsewhere.

Any help or insight that somebody might be able to give would be greatly appreciated =)

Sincerely,

The DoomMidget

[Redshift2k5]

Server-authoritative firing is probably causing you some additional delays.

Being in Melbourne I bet you have a higher than average ping, and the server is up here in Canada so you have to wait longer for each round-trip packet for each weaponfire action you perform.

[Watchit]

Chainfire isn't useful for weapons like the AC2 which has a short cooldown. Chainfire has a .5 sec cooldown before it fires the next weapon even if the next weapon is already off cool down. It's only really useful for slower autocannons and lasers. If you want to stagger you AC2 fire put all of them in weapon group 1 and two in weapon group 2. First fire weapon group 2 then hold down weapon group 1 and it'll chain fire itself like that.

[focuspark]

Watchit, on 29 January 2013 - 09:53 AM, said:

Chainfire isn't useful for weapons like the AC2 which has a short cooldown. Chainfire has a .5 sec cooldown before it fires the next weapon even if the next weapon is already off cool down. It's only really useful for slower autocannons and lasers. If you want to stagger you AC2 fire put all of them in weapon group 1 and two in weapon group 2. First fire weapon group 2 then hold down weapon group 1 and it'll chain fire itself like that.

This. Chain fire mucks up AC/2 and uAC/5 in my experience.

[Darwins Dog]

Chain firing 2 of them has about the full rate of fire. Your other option would be to assign 2 to group 1 and 2 to group 2, then hold down both buttons. You will get something closer to what you expected that way. For bonus points you can stagger your clicks to get a shot every .25 seconds.

Now I kinda want a cataphract...

[qultar]

i did something like this but 2 AC2 and 2 UAC5
you have to have them on different fire keys as chain fire is useless
back in the days all ACs rocked this was evil

thou this and the 4 AC2 do get real hot real fast and eats ammo

[Mechteric]

Chain fire exists to moderate your firing, not to optimize it for increased damage.

So it exists only to conserve ammo, conserve against jamming chances, or conserve against overheating.

And I guess it can also be good to get a consistent hit against an enemy to keep them off target a bit.

Edited by CapperDeluxe, 29 January 2013 - 10:40 AM.

[DoomMidget]

Thank you all for the information that you have provided and the tips to get a more rapid system going, it has been very helpful =)

Does anybody else think that a way to create your own firing patterns within a weapon group would be pretty cool? There is no real reason that somebody shouldn't be able to rapid cycle four AC2s with firing occurring while the others cool down. In the case of AC2s or AC5s it would lead to some pretty punishing cabin shake IF you can keep on target (which with my ping is nigh on impossible anyway). It would also sound very cool! =D I guess they have much more pressing things to be focusing on for the time being.

[Evolusi]

Well worse case you could probably macro that with a speedpad

[Signal27]

I had a similar question: I was about to buy a Yen Lo Wang and replace the AC20 with two AC2s instead. Is it better to chainfire those two or have them fire simultaneously? I'd like to keep a constant stream of bullets coming out to stagger my opponents but not if chain-firing two AC2s produces the same exact DPS as only one AC2 firing by itself when I hold the button down.

[focuspark]

Fire small weapons together. A pair of AC2 do only 4 damage, so they need each other IMO.

[DoomMidget]

Well, judging by the help I received above, if you have low ping then your AC2s should fire a lot faster than mine, perhaps closer to the twice a second mark. At that sort of speed you should fairly continuously rattle somebody anyway. I would guess that if your ping is higher like mine then you have to make the call. If you can stay on target (or lead the target effectively) then you can offset the firing sequence as described in answer to my question, but bear in mind that if they are offset their damage may be spread across 2 body parts, instead of 1 body part when firing simultaneously =)

[DoomMidget]

It's a shame that my ping will affect my damage output though. Does this mean that if I want to use ballistics I am going to be comparatively gimpy until they put a server somewhere in this part of the world?

[Soda Popinsky]

So splitting up the 4 AC2's into 2 groups, and group firing them should put the most lead in a given time. Assuming a low ping, if you stagger your button presses, you can have a pair go off every 0.25 seconds.

What about put each in it's own group alone, and staggering presses by about 0.125 seconds. I would think that would put out the same maximum shots per seconds, but with maximum dakka.

Anyways, I just tried it in game (ping ~100), Having 2 groups of 2 in group fire yielded 5.6 shots / second. Doing the 4 groups of 4, staggered gave me about the same (4.8 shots / second). The difference was probably in the lag in staggering, as I only shot for 5 seconds each set.

[SpiralRazor]

DoomMidget, on 29 January 2013 - 11:04 PM, said:

It's a shame that my ping will affect my damage output though. Does this mean that if I want to use ballistics I am going to be comparatively gimpy until they put a server somewhere in this part of the world?

Yes, for all intents and purposes.....30-40 ping = good for ballistics...worse then that and its a guessing game.

Besides which, its well known that there was an AC/2 firing speed nerf and that the stated .5 refire is currently incorrect.

[ElliottTarson]

One thing noone has mentioned, and the way I personally use my AC's & (Sometimes) SRM's is to set them to a group for chain firing, and then PRESS the key each time a weapon has finished firing.

Holding the key while chain firing will automatically fire the next round in succession, with a small delay. Pressing the weapons group key again immediately afterwards will fire the next round in the chain. It's entirely possible to do what you want, using the above.

Done correctly, I can literally fire a round every time it's off CD and keep a stream of ammunition downrange permanently. HBK 4G(F), 3 AC/2, 3ML, or adversely, CPLT K2 w/ 2 AC/5, 2 ERPPC.

[Soda Popinsky]

Great. Because of this thread, I've realized I've been firing my quad AC2 at half the speed I should have. I switched to double group fire to increase my RoF without having to continually click.

Now I keep running out of ammo and overheating! Least my damage inflicted has gone up.

I've had to dump an SSRM in favor of more ammo and heatsinks.

Edited by Soda Popinsky, 31 January 2013 - 08:28 AM.

[DoomMidget]

Thanks for the tip on repeatedly clicking to cycle to the next fireable weapon in a chainfire group, I'm sure I will blast through my ammo now, spraying it wildly at where my enemy was 2 seconds previously! =D

[bonapartist1]

Why has this still not been fixed? Why do I have to hold down THREE MOUSE BUTTONS AT ONCE while trying to navigate a cicada 3x AC2? Do you know how ridiculous that is?

[Hauser]

bonapartist1, on 07 May 2013 - 09:31 PM, said:

Why has this still not been fixed? Why do I have to hold down THREE MOUSE BUTTONS AT ONCE while trying to navigate a cicada 3x AC2? Do you know how ridiculous that is?

You don't have to chain fire them. It's less effective even because the damage gets spread.

But if that is what you want, lookup the auto hotkey scripts that float around the forum.