Custom Cannon

Custom Cannons have been replaced by CRAM Cannons and are not in the game anymore.

''This article is about custom cannons. For single-piece cannons, see Simple Weapons.''


 * Legacy information! No longer applies to the game. Links may lead to updated versions of the blocks (for CRAM Cannons or Advanced Cannons)

Cannons are ballistic projectile weapons.

Overview

 * Bulky.
 * Excellent range and accuracy against static targets, but has difficulty hitting fast or distant moving targets.

Minimal example
A minimal cannon consists of:
 * A Firing Piece
 * An Ammo Box
 * A Barrel

Example: MC FP BA

where:
 * MC - Ammo box
 * FP - Firing piece
 * BA - Barrel

The firing piece is the root of the gun. Hovering over this block allows you to see status info, as well as assigning it to a group (press q). Barrels can be attached to the front of the Firing Piece, while other components can be attached to the top or sides.

The cannon can be fired by standing near it and pressing Left Ctrl or the middle mouse button.

Basic

 * Firing piece: The root of the cannon. Multiple Firing Pieces cannot share components, with one exception---see the Autoloader for details.
 * Six Way Connector: Connects other components to the cannon.

Barrels
Barrels affect aiming and the kinetic behavior of projectiles. Barrels must be attached to the front of the firing piece in a straight line. There are a number of different barrels available:


 * Inaccuracy: How much spread there is in the projectile directions.
 * Kinetic damage: How much damage the projectile does on impact.
 * Muzzle velocity: How fast the projectile travels. This cannot exceed 100 m/s, which is achieved at 12 barrels (other than Flash Suppression Barrels).
 * Recoil: How much recoil is transferred to the cannon on firing. The total multiplier to recoil from barrels cannot be greater than ×1.
 * Field of fire factor: See below.

Field of fire
Cannons have an inherent field of fire even when not mounted on a turret by adjusting the angle of the barrel itself. Unlike turret rotation, the barrel is allowed to clip into other objects.

The field of fire has two axes: azimuthal (left/right) and elevation (up/down). This is computed as follows:


 * 1) Sum up the field of fire factor from all barrel parts.
 * 2) If the total is less than 1, set it to 1.
 * 3) Divide 45 degrees by the field of fire factor. This is the base field of fire for both azimuthal and elevation.
 * 4) If there are any Elevation Barrels, compute the elevation factor. This is 1 + the number of elevation barrels.
 * 5) Divide the azimuthal field of fire by the elevation factor. Multiply the elevation field of fire by the elevation factor.
 * 6) The final field of fire in either axis cannot be below 5 or above 80.

Traverse speed
Traverse per second is approximately

$$180^\circ \cdot \frac{1 + \text{number of motor barrels}}{\text{total number of barrels}}$$

Ammunition feed

 * Ammo Box: Holds 200 points of ammunition, and reloads automatically from any Ammo Barrels on the vessel at an average rate of about 1 unit/s. While, like other cannon components, Ammo Boxes must be connected to the rest of the cannon, the Ammo Barrels may be placed anywhere on the vessel.
 * Autoloader: Connects Ammo Boxes and cannon warheads. Each Ammo Box connected to an Autoloader multiplies reload time by ×0.75. Multiple Ammo Boxes stack, to a minimum reload time of 0.1s. If an Ammo Box is connected to more than one Autoloader, all of them get the benefit.
 * Armour Piercing Warheads: Loads armor piercing warheads into shells. For the first Armour Piercing Warheads component, the warhead reload time is 4 seconds and gains a bonus of 1 AP and +20% kinetic damage. Additional Armour Piercing Warheads multiply the warhead reload time by ×0.75, and contributes 0.9 times the AP and kinetic damage of the last Armour Piercing Warheads?
 * Explosive Warheads: Loads explosive warheads into shells. For the first Explosive Warheads component, the warhead reload time is 5 seconds and gains a bonus of 10 explosive damage with a radius of 1m. Additional Explosive Warheads multiply the warhead reload time by ×0.85, the radius by ×1.1?, and contributes 0.9 times the explosive damage of the last Explosive Warheads?

Gauge Increase
The Gauge Increase increases the gauge of the cannon. Each Gauge Increase component is 0.9 times as effective at the last. For $$n$$ Gauge Increase blocks, the total gauge of a cannon is

$$G = 10\left(1 - 0.9^n\right)$$

Gauge has the following effects, applied after all other components:
 * Reload time: $$\times \left(1 + 0.4735 G \right)$$, including the minimum reload time.
 * Damage: $$\times \left(1 + 0.4735 G \right)$$, including both kinetic and explosive.
 * Recoil: $$\times \left(1 + G \right)$$, including the maximum recoil.
 * Ammo use: $$\times \left(1 + 0.4735 G \right)$$.
 * Inaccuracy: $$\times \left(1 - 0.0395 G \right)$$.
 * Muzzle velocity: $$\times \left(1 + 0.105 G \right)$$, including the maximum.
 * Traverse speed: $$\times \frac{1}{1 + G}$$.

Other

 * Interface Screen: Allows you use the weapon from anywhere on your ship. (Same effect as the Fire Controller. Except only for that specific weapon.)

Ballistics
In air, cannon shells are unaffected by drag and follow a parabolic trajectory within the atmosphere. They are affected by drag in water with a terminal velocity of about 13.8 m/s. Kinetic damage does not depend on velocity.

The maximum muzzle velocity of a cannon is about 200 m/s and is achieved with at least 12 barrels and high gauge. Given sufficient elevation angle, this gives the cannon a horizontal range of about 4 km.

Evasion
Cannon shells are easily dodged by fast vessels or at long range.

Shields
Shields provide strong protection against cannons, particularly if their effect strength is set to the maximum.

Strategy

 * One large cannon will generally put out more firepower for its cost than multiple small cannons if both are well-designed. However, a single large cannon may be more vulnerable to damage.
 * A top-of-the-line cannon will cost between 50,000 and 70,000 RP. Ammunition can be up to another 11,500 RP.

Barrels

 * Use at least 12 barrels to maximize muzzle velocity and therefore range.
 * Barrels are very cheap; for a kinetic weapon use as many barrels as is practicable. For an explosive weapon, use as many as is necessary to achieve the desired accuracy.
 * Half Motor Driven Barrels (rounding down) will ensure maximum field of fire for a casemate gun. Using all Motor Driven Barrels will maximize traverse speed.
 * For turreted guns, the minimum field of fire of 5 degrees is generally good enough, though using the gun itself for elevation instead of a two-axis turret can make it easier to armour the turret. If a 45 degree field of fire in elevation is good enough, use no Elevation Barrels. Otherwise use one Elevation Barrel for a 80 degree field of fire in elevation.
 * Apart from these considerations, normal Barrels are the cheapest and most accurate.

Ammunition

 * The maximum rate of fire can be achieved with 13 Auto Loader-connected Ammo Boxes. However, this would only hold enough ammunition for about 30 seconds of continuous fire. It would take 100 Ammo Boxes to sustain the maximum rate of fire indefinitely.
 * Empirical testing suggests that maximum explosive radius is reached with 21 Explosive Warheads. This number is recommended due to the strong effect of radius on actual explosive damage.

Gauge

 * It is impossible to increase gauge by more than 10 due to each additional component being less effective than the last. 7 gauge increases will achieve over half of the maximum possible gauge.
 * The most important direct effect of gauge is muzzle velocity. A high-gauge cannon can have twice the muzzle velocity and four times the range compared to base. Gauge Increases do not affect damage per second or ammo use per second. Recoil per second will increase slightly, inaccuracy will decrease somewhat.
 * Due to the lower rate of fire, Gauge Increases will also indirectly reduce the number of warhead components needed to fill all shells. Two gauge increases will allow the 21 Explosive Warheads for maximum explosive radius to fill all shells.

AI
considerations when attaching to an AI