Currently switching ammo is not really viable in most small fights, because the cost of reloading far outweighs the benefits.
The solution would be to enable the autocannon to switch ammo while it’s firing.
Currently it works like this:
You start shooting,
The enemy puts themselves in suboptimal range
You want to switch to a better ammo,
You stop shooting
You reload (looooong reload)
You start firing again with full ammo mag.
I would want it to work like this:
You start shooting,
The enemy puts themselves in suboptimal range
You want to switch to a better ammo,
You click switch ammo,
Ammo starts switching (gun is still firing)
Ammo finishes switching, the amount is the same (if you had 34 buttets in the gun when switch finished, you still have 34 bullets but of the new type)
This doesnt change the damage output (reload still remains) but it gives the ACs that versatility they should have with different ammo.
I think you need to look at another weapon types that have that advantage - lenses are switched immediately and hybrid ammo has 5 sec reload timer compared to 10 sec of projectile weapons (and missiles). Projectiles and missiles have advantage of not being locked to certain damage types tho.
Thats not what he is proposing. He asks for continious fire while he is reloading new type of ammo and once reload finishes - whatever ammo is left is now a new type. A magic trick that makes no sense.
Also if minnie ships operated with ammo belts then there wouldnt be a need for the clip size and ammo capacity in the guns - game would just say “X amount of shots left” where X is the number of that ammo type in your cargo.
Swapping mags whilst still firing sounds like asking too much. Not being able to instantly switch ammo isn’t that bad in most situations because you can see your enemies incoming on d-scan the vast majority of the time. And then make an educated guess on what the best ammo is going to be.
I think you should be able to ‘queue’ the ammo swap for when you finish the mag. Or have a choice to swap ammo in the middle reloading, but doing so restarts the timer.
I think that this makes zero sense whatsoever. Just think about it. The ammo is being changed, yet the turret keeps shooting. Where does it take the ammo from, when the ammo is currently being changed?
You might as well just ungroup your turrets and switch them one by one, but considering that most engagements don’t last that long there’s no point in doing this and for any engagement that lasts long enough this feature isn’t even needed.
A while ago I thought that this would be a neat feature for lazers. Start firing, and while it’s cycling you could swap between lenses for each shot without having to stop the cycle.
Maybe you could load different ammo types into the same lazer and then select which one you want like switching tactical destroyer config.
I would definitely make this a laser specific thing, as quick switching ammo is suppose to be it’s thing, but the stop-switch-start feels clunky.
