Engineering Explained: Railguns

In this tutorial we look at the various engineering blueprints and experimental effects available for railguns. One of the most important weapons proper engineering of railguns can help create an extremely potent combat ship.
INARA Engineering
inara.cz/galaxy-blueprints/
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[@swordlauncher9217]

interesting dogfight tip: Always when using fixed or gimballed weapons keep your speed in the blue section. you will maximise the turning speed and agility

[@Majima_Nowhere]

I just built a challenger with a thermal vent beam on the 3, and 6 railguns. 4 have plasma slug, 2 have reverb cascade, all long range. It's a hilariously fun ship to use.

[@Sinisphere]

Me mission as a relatively new commander is clear. Super penetrator Imperial Hammer!

[@lukalekov1530]

Thank you love the live streams !

[@Nortrid]

Tnx was loking for this!! so glad to have such short and informative guides

[@mxpowertbl595]

Plasma slug rails and phasing burst lasers are great for RES farming with the Krait. Pretty much can stay out as long as you want with the 32t fuel tank.

[@x60mmx]

I prefer thermal vented beam to go with my plasma slug rails. Lets me spam away with quad rails without overheating on my Krait.

[@powerline4564]

why phasing npcs have like no shield

[@swordlauncher9217]

this channel is underrated

[@mynameisntleo]

I hate to be "that guy", since I enjoy your videos and appreciate how succinct and informative they are in a short time format, but I think you should turn down the intro/outro music when switching to/from your voiceover. The volume is quite a a bit louder and somewhat jolting when trying to listen clearly to you speak, and then getting blasted by the music. Sorry to gripe; just a personal observation, which I may be alone on anyway.

[@Exigeous]

Yeah, that's a fair observation - and I in no way mind constructive critisim, in fact I greatly appreciate it. I'll change that in the next one and see how it goes, thanks for taking the time to share.

[@vvoitel]

With all of the data you have been compiling lately, your channel is quickly becoming an Elite Dangerous new player database. Frontier has a lot of their plate.. and I feel like they want to finish it before they throw another marketing campaign for the Elite... but when they do... bro, new players are going to stampede into this channel. Just make sure all of those videos are sorted nicely. I’d give Frontier another 12 months or so... then, you may very well double your sub #’s. You might even triple them if Frontier brings enough new players! Big things are coming!

[@Exigeous]

Thanks, I'm actually working on a website to index all the content and already own edtutorials.com to house it all. I am trying to keep it all organized into playlists right now as while I've cranked out a lot in 4 months I have a lot left to go.

[@scaletho]

Your Engineering Explained series are simply fantastic. Too bad I couldn't find any video about Shields engineering. It will be very useful to me.

[@Norse-11]

Incredibly useful video!!! Any chance you can publish the slides showing the comparison of mods and experimentals? On your discord maybe?

[@Exigeous]

Do you mean the slides that are in the video? If so sure, I can get you those (or you could just screenshot the video). Just ping me on Discord and I'm happy to get them to you.

[@Norse-11]

@@Exigeous Doh! Of course, I took the screenshots :-) I hope you'll follow the same format for the other weapons as well. I think a full collection of those slides would be a great resource to have.

[@davecmdrdjsslugger8395]

Another great bit of information, thanks for your dedication 👍

[@ellorygrundlebunsthe3rd994]

What's your source for the feedback Cascade effect? I'd like to read up on it more cuz the game is so notoriously vague

[@Exigeous]

Check out the link for INARA.cz and pretty much just Google it. I use these on all my PvP combat ships and have verified it personally in game. Often I run 3 small rails on my Chieftain, all cascade, as when I come up against big cell bank ships they are a bitch - if I can hit them during the spin up (6 seconds unengineered and 4.2 engineered with rapid) I can dissipate 90% of the bank, crushing their overall shield strength.

[@blackbay2859]

Are the 30% from feedback cascade for class 1 or 2?

[@user-ib9ry8we9x]

how swith on this pointers on left and right side which show throttle, moving direction? 2:01 fback cascade work only in full damadge range? i use railguns in pve for interupt cell banks, which modification best for this? i use high cap, but not shure its the best choise...

[@nistramai]

Is it safe to assume micro gimballing is from external forces altering the path of the projectile(like electromagnets for rails or lensing for lasers), instead of more sturdy, accurate servos on the base?

[@Exigeous]

Probably safer to assume it's because it's a videogame and they add some elements to make it playable ;-)

[@rusher2937]

I would say it's just more sturdy servos.

[@nistramai]

@@Exigeous shhhh dont break my immersion

[@shalev3368]

how does the armor piercing works ?

[@Baklavah1]

Busy working on a Sturdy Plasma Slug Imperial Hammer as we speak. The fuel consumed is so negligible in a 32T tank that it's more important than having super pen in PVE when mass killing. Staying power beats ammo consumption any day imo. My Krait MkII is practically self-sufficient with the exception of the S3 MC (2 S3 Beam Lasers eith Thermal Vent and Long Range let me control my heat. I can practically play in silent running mode as is). The MC is running High Capacity Corrosive to burn armor for the lasers and railguns to do work.

[@Battlenude]

i love rails, but as it is, i find them difficult to group together with other weapons.. Any thoughts? thx

[@bluntcommando7183]

Fixed weapons with fixed weapons helps, try only using them at longer ranges while using higher damaging weapons closer up, you can watch some videos for recorded help, i have a few where i use railguns quite a bit

[@danielstokker]

I use heat venting gimballed beams with railguns i find hitscan weapons ideal in combination say you miss a few shots you can still damage them easily and get away with a win

[@eva2602]

What's your overlay?

[@adamwhite2681]

You said multi servos decrease rate of fire?

[@Exigeous]

If I did I obviously misspoke - time stamp please?

[@ZirconX1]

See there we can see the very different "priorities of value" when it comes to what blueprints and experimentals are best between the PVE and the PVP players. In PVP the low ammo count on rails is whatever. For PVE players where you are not just jousting with 1 opponent but with a whole Has Rez. 30 shots. That's not enough. And going back to station every 5 minutes is no fun. A PVP player will build into long range super pen with maybe one long range feedback for the cell bank negation. Technically that's the most powerful combo for the weapon. In PVE, having the most powerful gun however I find is a disadvantage compared to long term endurance. That is why my railgun build for PVE always go like this. Sturdy for the heat reduction. Plasma slug with 32T fuel tank for virtually infinite ammo. That way I can farm the haz res with no back to port interruptions for hours on end if I wish it. And rails being rails. The modules still fucking melt like chocolate in the desert.

[@x60mmx]

The -40% thermal load for plasma slugs is huge. Lets you spam the hell out of your rails, my dps is far higher with plasma slugs and a lot of it comes down to this. Pair with some thermal vented beams and spam away.

[@danielstokker]

Did this on a courier and shieldtanked it never had so much fun

[@syntience_music]

@@danielstokker 3x efficient rails with plasma slugs? how many fuel tanks did you fit in?

[@ChaosXOtaku]

How do you get micro gimbaling

[@marc0523]

As I understand it, all fixed guns have a small amount of gimballing, only a few degrees, which over a long range can make a big difference. This is automatic with any fixed weapon.

[@ChaosXOtaku]

@@marc0523 ah ok thanks man

[@wkedjosh1]

Show the whole battles ;)

[@Exigeous]

Oh that was just something in the background for filler - I'll do some more combat analysis videos soon

[@zx6guy]

I'm sorry if this is plain to everyone else but what exactly allows for micro-gimbiling or the targeting of individual systems? We seem to say at 0:58 that it's due to Long Range and then at 2:40 we seem to point to Super Penatrator. I've done some research and it's been fairly ambiguous elsewhere too. And feel free to school me if I'm misunderstanding.

[@hydralizk6631]

Some fixed weapons have micro gimballing (lasers and rails that fire ray cast style) that can correct small mistakes. to target individual systems you have to press T I think and you'll see which sub system you're aiming for under the target hologram. You can target the reactor, fsd, any gun they have, cockpit or anything one might want to shoot out of a target to stop them from escaping or fighting.

[@liirha]

I wish there were more interesting experimental effects for railguns. Cascade and SuperPen are just too powerful compared to the minor increases of the others.

[@Exigeous]

Hmm, well not sure what else you would want that wouldn't make them way too OP. Both cascade and superpen are incredibly useful, so much so that there's not really anything else I'd want from them. This is one of the reasons I like the Chieftain so much, you get those 3 smalls for experimentals keeping the two large and 1 medium to deal all the damage.

[@liirha]

Yeah, I am not sure either? Maybe something that made them do lots of damage to shields but not hurt hulls? I don't want more damage out of them, just some more interesting effects for niche builds.

[@Exigeous]

Yeah, I wouldn't argue for less but we do have 8 experimentals already. If you're looking for something against shields specifically PAs or other weapons are best mixed in - think of these as your anti-module or anti-cell bank weapons really.

[@liirha]

Wasn't specifically looking for anti shield weapons. Just the only idea that came to mind for something to make a different experimental effect. Just comparing rails to what Multicannons or Lasers have for options, it seems a bit dull. Might just be though.

[@Tobascodagama]

I think the main problem is that a lot of these are just generic weapon module experimentals that don't really apply to railguns the way they're used in practice. Flow Control arguably has a place, at least, because they can help shoehorn rails into a ship that couldn't otherwise mount them. You can make a similar argument for Stripped being a way to mount rails on a non-combat ship without sacrificing jump range or speed. But the power of Feedback Cascade and Super Penetrator is so great that I almost don't see the point of equipping rails at all if you're not going to use one of the two.

[@chrisklitou7573]

Best option is Long range with plasma slug

[@Exigeous]

I'll agree about long range but absolutely disagree about plasma slug - as I said the best thing about railguns are the experimental effects of feedback cascade and super penetrator, I'd never in a million years trade that just for more ammo. They shouldn't be thought of as a damage weapon but as a utility one.

[@chrisklitou7573]

@@Exigeous but if you have a fuel scoop and plasma slug that's basically infinite ammo

[@timothy3122]

You don't need that much ammo for anything other than extreme endurance HazRes/CZ builds. Most of the time, when you need to scoop for fuel, you'll need to go and repair as well, and why bother then? You can just rearm right away as well. Only time I'd take plasma slug rail guns is on a Type 10, built for maximum staying power in the aforementioned areas; two smalls and a medium, long range and plasma slug to tag targets from afar, and then rip them to shreds with the bulk of the DPS that thing carries. Combine it with an 8A AFMU and 7A repair limpets, and you can rack up 10's of millions of credits worth of bounty vouchers before having to restock on limpets.

[@chrisklitou7573]

@@timothy3122 I have a fully engineered T10 it's my main ship

[@timothy3122]

Okay? So? I have one as well, close to fully engineered. Point still stands, plasma slug rails are only really useful for extreme endurance builds, or memeboats i.e. combat type 9

[@michaele8157]

Dude these are awesome. I'm somewhat new if any other new players want to hookup in game and we can explore and earn credits together, shoot me a reply

[@sniperschiavo]

SniperSchiavo ps5

[@exiletsj2570]

I don’t believe anything I hear on an Exigious video anymore haha

[@Exigeous]

Man, it took you this long to figure out I'm totally full of shit? :D

[@vvoitel]

👏🏼😆

[@ReFriedNoodles]

A sad reminder that there are no class 3 and 4 railguns. How I long for weapons of substantial power. To then laugh like a maniac at the misfortune of some wannabe pirate lord.

[@Exigeous]

Yeah, I sorta understand how OP they would be but at the same time it does suck.

[@KaanTechCrazy]

eh... wth is micro gimballing ?

[@ellorygrundlebunsthe3rd994]

It's that tiiiiny little bit of auto-aim fixed weapons have. It's more noticeable at long range, but its always there.

[@Exigeous]

Eric put it perfectly, I should have thought to put a pop-up tip in the video about that. To see what we mean get about 3KM from a target with a rail gun and switch between the subtargets - and you'll see the target point change ever so slightly.

[@panzerstorm9016]

The most noticeable example to me is the fixed weapons on fighters, even at close range

[@rusher2937]

@@Exigeous you don't even have to cycle subtargets, if you do it only autoaims on the targeted module. If you don't target any modules you will see the microgimbal targeting the closest module in sight.

[@exarkun4084]

Incase any new cmdrs are wondering, you may not want to use rails if you are farming bounties or bonds in hazres, compromised nav beacons or combat zones. The ammo count is too small, even with engineering, which will cause you to synthesize ammo or travel to a station to rearm way to much. That being said, you may want to have at least one rail, any size with cascade experimental, if you are farming bounties or bonds in open. I'm pretty sure you can figure out why.

[@Exigeous]

100% true - that's why I look at rails as a specialty weapon primarily, for the cascade effect. I very rarely fight NPCs anymore, there you could certainly go with plasma slug as while you'd lose the cascade experimental you'd have basically unlimited ammo and get practice using them (and get the thermal reduction too)

[@exarkun4084]

Mind the fuel tank, though. If I remember correctly, plasma slugs can't be used on ships with less than a class 4 fuel tank. I tried using one plasma rail on my fdl and I actually ended up running out of fuel in less than five minutes. That was back when I first started playing so they may have tweaked it to be more efficient by now.

[@Exigeous]

I'll admit I haven't tried it personally as I really don't do NPC combat any more - but when I do I do use rails and PAs as they just dispatch NPCs so much faster than other weapons. It's also nice to get the practice with them for human targets - and I never fight so long that I'm not already tired (or out of limpets as I use collectors the rare times I do NPC combat) that I don't mind going to restock anyway.

[@exarkun4084]

The practice part for sure. The npc's supposedly have a script in their programming that forces them to fly as evasive as possible away from your leading reticle when using fixed weapons. I have found scoring consistent hits on npc's to be way more difficult than human opponents due to humans being more predictable. I remember I spent weeks in pg and solo honing my fixed hardpoint skills when i first started this game. It was a good thing i did, because within 5 minutes of my very first foray into open, I had to test those skills.

[@NFawc]

I look at what Engineers offers with its upgrades and magic experimental side effects, and just groan... I really do think it has damaged the overall game :(

[@Exigeous]

If you actually use engineering you'll realize that its one of the only parts of the game with real depth and immense options. The combinations of blueprints, experimentals, defenses, weapons, etc. make PvP and to a lesser degree NPC combat one of the richest parts of the game. While there is a good deal of grind, check out my videos on material gathering as if you do it smart you can lessen it dramatically.

[@NFawc]

Agreed, it adds huge variety. That does not mean the outcome is a positive one IMHO. It means alot of it has now become paper/scissor/stone gameplay. And ultimately I'd rather be doing far more involved combat scenarios and general gameplay, than just doing 3-4yr old shallow gameplay just to 2x my pew pew.

[@adammoore251]

Short Range, nuf said, respect lost.

[@Exigeous]

Riiiiiight - if you think short range is the way to go with rails then I'm not sure I value your opinion anyway ;-)

[@jackofallgods7764]

i love your videos but your older ones had way more personality. Now all you release are short quick info that you put to a thumbnail that looks the same as all your others with the same exact background music and with the info spoken the same tone same speed. The quality of the info is good but you need some videos in between these or you need to put more personality behind how you present them or preferably both. Or dont its obviously up to you and ill stay subscribed but i just cant tell which video is which anymore cuz all these quickies are info ive known for a while so i just zone out to them. I just no longer see a video uploaded by you and cant wait for it to load up. The first day i found your channel I was pissed cuz you wre a new youtuber and you barely had any videos. Now in my opinion you have too many of the same video with nothing in between.

[@Exigeous]

Well sorry, that's the entire point of the channel - to give you quick, clear and concise information so you can better play the game. Stuff like this isn't "fun" or "entertaining", it's factual which is why I keep them the same format so it's easy to digest. If you want fun that's why I did the No Man's Sky and Guardian Module spoof video - I do appreciate you taking the time for the feedback though. Oh, and as for the thumbnails each one is a unique background, remember I'm not a graphic artist or video editor - I just know the game really well. As for the music I only use the Elite soundtrack for copyright reasons so it's gonna get repetitive no matter what.

[@Exigeous]

Oh and as for quickies I do a lot of those as I greatly prefer single subject videos, where you can find and learn 1 thing very easily, moving on to the next. For example I have a quickie on data at the Jameson crash site that's under 2 minutes while other KZbinrs take 9 for the same subject. So if you want your time wasted then those may be better videos for you. As for my longer format, like the PvP Combat Beginners Guide I did there will be many more of those, they just take a lot of time. For example this video took about 2.5 hours total where the PvP video took over 15. So I'd rather put out a number of shorter, faster to produce videos that everyone can benefit from than less, longer, harder to watch videos far less often. Get where I'm going? Again I appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback and input.