The railgun, for a long range weapon times out far too quickly, so you never get a range beyond 1600m.

My suggestion, extend the railgun timeout to 10 seconds.
(4500m range for the advanced railgun, and 4000m range for the other variants)

+1

+1

The only problem with extending beyond the current range is that you can hit and kill people hanging around the station comfortably way outside NFZ. Be careful what you wish for. ;)

That's not a problem. You can already do that with rockets and most missiles. Heck, you can hit the station with Avalons from beyond visual range. NFZ counts those as a violation.

+1 to OP

Are you sure? The last time I shot at someone inside NFZ while I was outside of it, I didn't get temp KOS. I'm 100% positive the hit registered. In fact I've done it several times with energy. Maybe it varies depending on weapon type?

Actually, I think that the zone where you get penalized isn't always the same size as the zone that the client marks as being inside the NFZ. I've had times when I was penalized for shooting people who were inside the NFZ while I was outside, and I've also had times when I wasn't.

+1

So, your proposing that the adv rail has a range of roughly 3 miles? lol

Yet a normal rifle bullet can travel more than a kilometre in the air, why can't a rail gun, which has huge velocity, do that in a vacuum?

Technically, outer space is not a perfect vacuum. There are still friction-causing particles, albeit a lot less than earth's atmosphere.

My concern is that even with NFZ, it's too easy to sit back 4000m from station, shoot at EC-89 noobs right outside of station, and repeatedly send them back into station. My goodness, you vets are not that stupid. Is that the original plan all along, to further reduce the number of idiotic android noobs swarming into the game?

The shot has no thrust of it's own. If it is given this range, it should slow down some over time just like my ship does when I let off the turbo.

None of the arguments against the OP have much merit. The way the NFZ works is that if someone is inside of it then they cannot be shot. Other things play a factor like faction standing and how far from the station did the incident occur. I agree with Rin that there must be a dead zone in the NFZ when comparing the client's NFZ and the server's.

Rail gun being shot 3 miles is way more than just believable. The longest sniper kill on Earth ever made was right at 1.5 and that is with gravity as a variable. The rail gun is obviously intended as a sniper weapon, and as it is, the range of the weapon is hardly effective as such.

Stop making lame arguments against this. A useful and meaningful sniper weapon is definitely missing and needed. At least increase the timeout for the advanced railgun.

My concern is that even with NFZ, it's too easy to sit back 4000m from station, shoot at EC-89 noobs right outside of station, and repeatedly send them back into station.

Yes and you have the same penalties for killing someone in the NFZ.
You cannot possibly tell me that it's easier to rail someone than it is to go up and shoot them with conventional weapons, even if the SF is all over your ass.

Don't be dumb, this won't help vets griefing newbs be any more effective than using Neutrons.

Technically, outer space is not a perfect vacuum. There are still friction-causing particles, albeit a lot less than earth's atmosphere.

Really? Semantics? That's not even an argument.

The shot has no thrust of it's own. If it is given this range, it should slow down some over time just like my ship does when I let off the turbo.

By the time that the weapon times out the speed loss will have been so negligible that it's not even worth discussing. Why do you want to make it needlessly more complicated?

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It won't make evading kill protections easier. I made this suggestion because it's supposed to be a long range weapon, not a very fast short range weapon.

My goodness, you vets are not that stupid. Is that the original plan all along, to further reduce the number of idiotic android noobs swarming into the game?

what are you expecting? the suggestion is coming from a guy who spends time just to try griefing serco newbies in their training sector with his buddies from their tridents. of course thats what he was holding in store lol

what are you expecting? the suggestion is coming from a guy who spends time just to try griefing serco newbies in their training sector with his buddies from their tridents. of course thats what he was holding in store lol

You've clearly never tried it. All ordinance is reduced to a single point of damage in the training sector. And the Training turrets are 100x more powerful now, even a Trident would not be able to enter without dying.

If you can't post something on topic and relevant to the merits of the idea, kindly don't post.

Yeah, I agree with Kierky regarding abusing newbies. This wouldn't make the process any easier; if anything it would be harder because hitting targets with a several second lead time is difficult unless they're standing still or moving at a constant velocity (granted, newbs tend to do those things). It's made more difficult after the first kill when the SF gets deployed to keep you moving and the newb becomes more likely to not fly so predictably.

And killing them from outside the NFZ doesn't get you anything. You still have to deal with all the normal penalties, other than in goofy situations where they're near the edges or a bug interferes. Even if you were just sniping them as they tried to jump, after the third such victim in that faction's space in a week, you'd become KOS for 24 hours. So in that scenario, it might make it easier to get those first three kills per week per faction, but from then on you might as well just use normal weapons.

Also, railguns consume ammo. That makes them less desirable for station-camping anywhere but Corvus.

Also, railguns consume ammo. That makes them less desirable for station-camping anywhere but Corvus.

I should point out that the favorite spots for newb griefing are Dau L-10 and L-11. There are local factions in the system which would let you in and reload despite your temp UIT KOS status. While you're there, you might as well as home and self-explode to get rid of the KOS status. Plus, being able to shoot from 4000m means you can instantly warp as soon as you see SF coming, go to a local faction station, and suicide to reset the KOS status. This is so much easier and faster than turboing close to a station, shooting at a newb 250m away with neutrons, and running to the 3000m range to warp awwwwway. Don't you see how this is a hassle and a waste of time compared to using railguns with the proposed lengthened range?

Since when did NFZ penalties hinder competent griefers from having their sadistic fun? The 3 noobs per faction per week allocation isn't too bad, more enough to gratify most griefers' addiction for sadism.

I should clarify myself. I'm not against the idea of lengthening the range of railguns. It does seem like a fun idea, but I'm just concerned that the mechanics in game are not ready for it. The anti griefing measures need to be improved and tightened up, mainly.

I should point out that the favorite spots for newb griefing are Dau L-10 and L-11. There are local factions in the system which would let you in and reload despite your temp UIT KOS status. While you're there, you might as well as home and self-explode to get rid of the KOS status. Plus, being able to shoot from 4000m means you can instantly warp as soon as you see SF coming, go to a local faction station, and suicide to reset the KOS status. This is so much easier and faster than turboing close to a station, shooting at a newb 250m away with neutrons, and running to the 3000m range to warp awwwwway. Don't you see how this is a hassle and a waste of time compared to using railguns with the proposed lengthened range?

You can get away with this 3 times max, as mentioned before, with the same ramifications as if you did it with a normal weapon. It's still not game-breaking, considering a single move will make the shot miss, I wouldn't consider this "easier" by any stretch of the imagination.

You can get away with this 3 times max, as mentioned before, with the same ramifications as if you did it with a normal weapon.

"3 times max" - you speak of newbs as if they are just statistics or numbers, not alive people with real feelings. You are unfairly disregarding that often it only takes ONE griefing instance to make a potential years-long subscriber feel rejected and not come back. That's a lot of money gone, flushed. It's not surprising coming from you, kierky, since you have a long history of impatience with "idiotic noobs" and you often justify your questionable behavior by "cleansing VO of its idiots."

Again, it's not so much about railguns. Before the range can be extended, the anti griefing measures need to be buffed up. How about making all newbs below levels 2/2/2/-/- temporarily invulnerable only in capital systems? As soon as they reach the mentioned levels, they should be explicitly notified that they are now vulnerable to player attacks, although they are still relatively safe in faction-controller space.