Guns



What guns are good? Which are bad? How do we use them? 



Reliable Guns


There are a lot of guns in the SI server. Most of them have some use depending on which situation they are used in. We concentrate here only on the guns useful in PVP battles at KOTH.


Below is a list of guns that seem useful to the author of this text. The list could be incomplete, and contain errors. It is only to give players a rough idea. Click to enlarge.


Depending on your style of combat, some guns will be more useful to you than others.


Note: check the se-server info page on discord for up to date info on block limits.








Gun controls

In order to get the most out of your guns, you will need buttons for them on the hotbar - and this means you will need to make gun groups in the K-menu. 


Usually one makes a big group for all the guns (main gun group), and separate groups for each gun type (sub group).


Below is an image of all the gun settings in the K-menu for a typical gun, the 500mm.


Let’s go through them one by one.




Gun Settings K-menu

  • Share control. Not relevant.

  • Shoot on/off. In combination with override, it forces a gun to shoot.

  • Override. Makes the gun ignore all settings.

  • Track angular motion. Makes the gun predict where stuff might be. Useful for guns that do not instantly hit.

  • Shoot mode. Ai shoot is the default, and the gun automatically fires. Mouse control is an option that is needed for manual guns like MAC cannons, but can be useful for missiles.

  • Change rate of fire. Can be useful for guns that overheat.

  • Control mode. This is a confusing setting. It should be called target mode. On auto, the AI will pick a target on the enemy ship. On manual, you have to aim the camera inorder for the gun to shoot. On paintermode, you have to right click something on the enemy ship to ‘paint’ a specific section and the gun will try to hit it. This is very powerful but takes practice. Specially good for targeting enemy guns one by one. 

  • Pick ammo. It’s just that.

  • Pick subsystem. This only works if the Target Subsystems is also enabled. Lets you decide which systems should be targeted. Typically one chooses offense, but weapons can be hard to hit for some guns. Alternatively choose steering to target the player and gyros, or utility to target the shield blocks.

  • Tracking mode. Leave this on any.

  • Target neutrals. Keep this off by default to avoid accidents while roaching. 

  • Target unowned. Keep this on. Some players put their ships on owned by nobody.

  • Target grids. Keep this on unless you want to target daisy flowers instead.

  • Target focus fire. This means your guns will only fire on a grid you have targeted. Very handy in fights with multiple enemies, perhaps leave it off in a 1v1.

  • Target subsystems. Good for turrets and missiles, less useful for fixed weapons. Turn it off if your guns stop firing. Make sure you pick a subsystem.

  • Repel mode. Leave it off. Only useful for point defense turrets.

  • Large grid / small grid. Leave these on.

  • Weapon camera channel. If you want to play with this… put it on 1. Put your cameras also on 1. This will display the predicted path of enemy flight. Can be useful for manually fired guns.


Bugs and things you need to know

  • Not all guns play nice together in a gun group. This can lead to issues with settings. You will notice this when a lot of options will disappear in the K-menu when grouping. For instance gimbals and turrets. Ungroup them. This is because the coding behind most guns is for a ‘conveyor block’ while others are a ‘missile block’.

  • Repair bug / print bug / hangar bug / ammo bug. Once you setup all your guns the way you like them, these settings can get lost. This is because they are only saved once the gun has fired. Use to override and shoot on/off options to rectify this. This goes for creative mode as well. Do it before you save the blueprint. And after repairs.

  • 500mm bug. The 500 can get bugged and stop firing if it has 1 ammo type in the gun but is set to another, or if it is out of 30mm ammo for the little guns. Empty the guns, do a !fixship, and force fire them.

  • The m42 bug. The m42 is best fired with the settings: override and painter, with a hotbar control for shoot on/off. Otherwise it can be quite flakey.

  • Gimbals are bugged. Try not to group other guns with them. It can lead to a rare bug where your grid starts lagging.

  • MACs need to be set to high power as the ammo type. Fire them once to make sure.

  • Seamless bug. Makes stuff not work. If you use it, relog in the pvp sector via F5 before each battle.


Tip: once you printed a ship, go through all the pages on your hotbar, see if everything is correct. Force fire the guns if needed. Then resave the blueprint as a ‘live’ version. Your own creative mode and the server do not always match.



The Hotbar


So how do we setup the hotbar? This is subject to personal preference. Below is just an example.


Hotbar: main gun group

  • Control mode. For switching between auto fire and painter mode.

  • Focus target on/off. 

  • Focus subsystems on/off.

  • Focus neutrals on/off.

  • Guns on/off.


Hotbar: sub gun group

  • Cycle subsystems.

  • Cycle ammo type.


Hotbar: special guns

  • M42 shoot on/off.

  • MAC on/off and shootmode ai/mouse control.

  • Shiva shootmode: ai/mouse control.