Why do large railguns seem to be unable to hit anything smaller than a cruiser?
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Because large guns have bad tracking.
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Given that, how much would a Tech I tracking computer help?
basically in eve when you increase a size :
- DPS +30%
- tracking /6.667
- range +100%
except large long range guns which have very low DPS increase because #CCPLOGIC (like +6%, that is 4.9 times less increase than the normal)
Actually large artillery gains multiplier, so rof is decreased to make them alpha only, which actually sucks but +20% is not that bad. Large lasers are bad-ish +15%, and large railguns are super cyka +6%. It’s like CCP devs thought of making a logical progression, and at a moment someone qmlskdfjmoqkudgnannkqbfdioghijhjl (that’s the intern name) asked a stupid question and his boss was so pissed he decided to ■■■■up the players, by giving them worse guns when they expect better ones.
Just like last time they decided to remove 20% of all resist modules. You know, the complete stupid move that makes no sense at all but to say “■■■■you guys”. And they thought it was not enough and added more DPS on the close range guns so it was a “■■■■you to the square”.
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They have super bad tracking. Even with a tracking bonus on a Megathron, you still don’t want to use them closer than 50km. Definitely not a weapon designed for solo PVP. I’ve gotten some decent results when I use large rails for sniping at things that other people have tackled, though.
It is because big guns have lower tracking, while small ships/targets usually move faster.
The smaller a turret it the faster it turns.
The bigger a turret is the slower it turns. (Bigger and heavier is more difficult and slower to move.)
Tracking speed can be improved with Motion Prediction Skill, Tracking Computers/Enhancers, Implants, etc.
The distance and movement of your target is also important because of transversal. It is the “sideways velocity” at which something moves relative to you.
If something is close it appears faster - harder to track.
If it is far away it looks slower - easier to track.
The direction is also important - if it is flying directly at you, its sideways movement is basically zero, which makes it easy to track.
When a fast target gets close, your guns will have a hard time tracking it. However, you can slow the target by using Stasis Webifiers and/or Stasis Grapplers.
If you shoot targets at long range your guns will be able to track them better. This is one of the reasons why some people snipe small fast targets first at long range before they get close in missions, for example.
Another thing that helps is Gallente ships (I’m mentioning them because this is about railguns) have good drone bays. If your guns have trouble because a target is too close you launch the drones and let them chew on the target.
“No”, which means it will help, but the amount it helps is diminishing. With a Tracking Speed script loaded, a tracking computer provides +30% tracking, which is just too poor to be worth the mid slot.
I take it that your proposition to use a T1 module on a ship that can be fit with large Railguns means you’re a new player 
Just don’t do that. Use the Meta Variants or T2. T1 is for suicide ganking, because it’s inexpensive and can be to reproduced faster and easier then T2 modules.
To improve damage application on a target, three types of mid slot modules exist:
- Tracking Computer / Guidance Computer provide up to +30% tracking whlie guidance provides up to +29% application
- Target Painters increases the Signature of it’s victim by 30%, which increases chances to hit it accordingly. Skilling Signature Focusing increases the effect provided by target painters, up to 37.5%. As TP is a debuff to your target, rather then a buff to yourself, attacks performed by other players or your own drones will also have increased chances to hit
- Stasis Webbifiers reduce the movement speed and engine output of their victim by 60%, or cripple its manouverability to 40% of what it usually is, resulting in your weapons being able to hit it 150% better. The downside of a Statis Webbifier it’s range is very low. Without bonuses, the t2 module has 10km range and there’s no skill to improve that
The following fit is probably rather poor:
[Rokh, Railgun Rokh]
Dual 250mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Tungsten Charge L
Dual 250mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Tungsten Charge L
Dual 250mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Tungsten Charge L
Dual 250mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Tungsten Charge L
Dual 250mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Tungsten Charge L
Dual 250mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Tungsten Charge L
Dual 250mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Tungsten Charge L
Dual 250mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Tungsten Charge L
100MN Afterburner II
Multispectrum Shield Hardener II
Large Micro Jump Drive
X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 400
[Empty Med slot]
[Empty Med slot]
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Power Diagnostic System II
Tracking Enhancer II
Large Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Large Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Large Thermal Shield Reinforcer I
Filling the two unused mids with either 2x Tracking Computer || (with Tracking Speed Scripts), 2x Target Painter || or 2x Stasis Webifier || yields the following damage when shooting at a Caracal Cruiser that is moving at maximal traversal (i.e. worst case) w/o a Propulsion Module (because the NPCs move basically w/o prop mods unless they’re elite spawns):
As can be seen, the Web fit Battleship can be very punishing at close range, which is nice, but if we want ed to clap things at close range, we wouldn’t fit long range weapons. As soon as the target is more then 10km away from us, which is what we want anyways, the Target Painter will provide better damage application then the competing Tracking Computer.
No drones are used for simplicity, if they were in engaged, the Web and the Painter would provide additional application to the drones, too, but the diagram would become a mess over drone control range falloff.
Hybrids can swap Ammunition Types to trade off damage and capacitor consumption for range.
If long range isn’t needed, because there are a lot of rats close to the battleship, reloading ammo with higher damage can provide additional damage even if the application is unaffected. For this reason, multiple ammunition types should always be loaded: The first Diagram showed that the damage application on a Webbed Caracal was rather nice at low distance, providing up to around 200dps with the Tungsten Charges, but if it was Antimatter Charges, it would peak to well over 350dps at 10km.
As targets get smaller (and faster), engagements at low distance will become less efficient. The application will linearly degrade with targets getting smaller and also linearly degrade with them getting faster, so shooting the NPCs from higher distance at lower DPS will prove advantagous over shoting them with higher DPS at low range, because there’s two application decreasing modifiers. Redoing the Diagram with the target being a Kestrel frigate instead of a Caracal Cruiser yields
which shows that the frigate sized target is best to be engaged at highest possible distance.
As @EM00 already said, manouvering can increase your application: The Battleship, with engaged afterburner, can move almost as fast as the unpropulsed frigate. If it moves into the same direction as the frigate, the frigate will have a very low transversial, which will help enough to almost completely restore the application level the battleship had on the Cruiser sized target.
Note that this is a two-sided blade: While the battleship can hit the NPCs better if reduces transversal to them, the NPCs will in return also be able to hit the battleship better, resulting in more incoming damage to tank.
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@Moko_Musana Very comprehensive. Awesome graphs with lots of info. Thank you. 
The graph ability is very useful in Pyfa, although it can take some getting used to in the beginning.
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Fit a micro jump drive instead of tracking computer.
But when it comes to tracking computer, i always try to fit one. It is rather improving the applied dps in my experience.
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