marauder,Oct 14 2006, 11:39 AM Wrote:...Gunboat are fine, all people need to do is practice with them a bit more.
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I have to disagree with this quite strongly, with regards to the Bretonian Gunboat (as I have not had chance to try the others yet). The forward guns on this ship are mostly useless, which is twice as annoying as on other gunboats because you basically lose 2 forward gun slots (since forward guns are still locked down - is this still necessary?).
Even with practice, these guns cannot be used effectively against anything smaller than a Battleship, because the gunboat is so big the shots are very widely spaced, and don't converge until they reach maximum range since they can only pivot about 5 degrees each. This means a Kusari Destroyer at roughly 600m side-on cannot be hit by both forward guns in the same salvo.
Plus, Destroyers aren't even a Gunboat's target, fighters are. It takes skill to hit another gunboat at combat distance, it takes a miracle to hit a fighter- and if you manage it in a Bretonian one, you only deal half the damage any other gunboat could dish out because the forward gun damage is halved between two guns. Argh!
What I propose is this: Gunboat forward guns be unlocked again, and/or the firing arc of Bretonian Gunboat forward guns be vastly improved to allow effective use against fighters.
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