Here is a weapon that could become very useful. Capable of a whopping 3400 blast or a 400 rapid fire and weighing in at only 400kg, you would think these would be seen around more often. I was playing around with them for a while today due to my boredom and it seems the one thing that makes these much less useful is the inability to hold a charge. When charging, you have to either keep charging until you fire or fire early. Wouldn't these be great if you could stop charging whenever you wanted and save that blast until you had the opportunity for the shot you wanted? The ability to hold a charge would make these weapons quite useful IMO.

As long as you don't completely drain your battery, it charges up to maximum, and then stops draining & holds the charge (doesn't fire) until you release the fire button.

It's only if it completely drains the battery that it will discharge the shot before you release fire button.

yeah I just wish the rapidfire were easier to use. As it is, you have to click so much that it makes it impossible to aim and fire.

I think that it could afford to charge faster. It takes so long to charge to full that basically you're giving your opponent a ton of free shots.

I think there's room for a few Charged Cannon variants.

Charged Cannon Mk1 - as it is now
Charged Cannon Mk2 - Same damage & Damage Per Energy, less time to reach max charge
Charged Cannon Mk3 - Same time to reach max charge (maybe even longer), more damage & DPE

Also, IIRC (@work so I can't check) the Charged Cannon info doesn't tell what its DPE is, I really think it should.

And my favorite suggestion for the Charged Cannon is to give it variable velocity as well as damage - the more it is charged up, the faster its velocity.

You could also make it like the repair gun and max out at a certain charge and hold it until you release the mouse button.

It is like that already, Lonestar. The only time it (or the repair gun) will discharge before you release the fire button is if it completely drains the battery.

[edit]
Huh, it seems I remembered wrong. Even when the battery is drained to 0, it still doesn't fire until you release the trigger.
[/edit]

OK, someone check my math. As I calculate it out, on a F/C battery the charge cannon drains ~170 units down to ~80; on a Heavy it drains ~255 down to ~295. So, it takes 17 seconds for full charge, and drains 1020 energy. That puts its DPE at 3.333. That's barely better than ¹/₁₀ of the next worst DPE weapon (Plasma Dev Mk2, DPE=26.67), and worse than ¹/₁₀ of most weapons.

That seems.... rather bad. Especially when you consider that rapid-firing it lets you do 400 damage for next to no energy.

It keeps draining after it reaches full charge Beolach, it's a full power shot after like 3 to 6 seconds.

Then why does it stop after draining 1020? I can guarantee that it does.

how would you know that it drains 1020 when there is no battery in the universe that holds 1020 charge?

What I want to see is an L-port charged cannon for attacking Cap Ships. Anyone else think so? Maybe it does 15000 damage, but drains a heavy battery completely.

He's taking the battery charge into effect. The fast charge hols 250 but recharges at some rate; if he held down the button, it would hold both the energy already stored in the battery and whatever the batter produced while he was holding it down.

Yeah, the Charged Cannon is listed at draining 60 energy/second; on a F/C batt it drains down to about 80, and then stops draining. And 1020 is only my best estimate, it might be a bit more or less, but as far as I can work it out, it drains about 1020 energy and then stops. If it has already reached max charge, why is it still draining? If it needs to keep draining in order to sustain the charge, then why does it stop draining after about 1020 energy? It's confusing.

What I want to see is an L-port charged cannon for attacking Cap Ships. Anyone else think so? Maybe it does 15000 damage, but drains a heavy battery completely.

I'd like that, but first the Cap Ships need some serious buffing up so that they warrant it.

The biggest issue with the charge cannon is its refire rate, the velocity is fine, 190m/sec is great really, but when you spend 10 to 15 seconds to fire a single shot, you lose. Combine that with youll spend 20-30 seconds for a pair, and it makes them rather pointless to use. The main reason they dont have a dpe rating is because it varies, the full 3400 damage shot might take 1000 energy, but the cheapo 400 damage shot takes 1 energy.

The Charged Cannon is a neat idea, but the current stats make me scratch my head. It really seems like it oughta be a heavy, L-port weapon with more power, not a small, 400 kg blaster capable of rapid fire.

Ghost's OP is still the best fix.

teehee. ghost, shape, tramshed, pidgeon... nice job Mynt, a nearly 2.5 year dig up from the grave.

remember the quad flare hornet's rain of rockets? the same script was used once upon a time to autofire quad charged cannons. it wasn't as useful in my hands, but in a better skilled energy fighter, it might have been pretty good.

unfortunately, the original script writer is out of contact, and the people who would know what i'm talking about aren't around.

Hah, I wrote a script to do it a LONG time ago, was cool lookin.

Vo needs a decent Charge cannon Please A1k0n make it happen :)

After firing the charge cannon, it should have to cool down, or have a period of inactivity so it doesn't ¡ASPLODE!
I am all for the faster projectile with greater charge idea.
Then a charge toggle. That would be cool.