Talk:Autocannon/10

Regarding the in-game function of standard 2, 5, 10, and 20 ACs: compared to the alternatives, ACs are a poor alternative to missiles and lasers, even taking heat into account. Consider the Large Laser versus the AC/10. The AC/10 gives you a better heat to damage ratio, but at what cost? 12 tons plus at least one more ton of ammunition. If you invested a total of 12 tons into a Large Laser, you spend 5 for the laser, and 7 for heat sinks. That amounts to 8 damage and 1 heat at the same range, with fewer critical slots taken up. On top of that, the Large Laser costs half the C-Bills of an AC/10. Apply this same critique to all ACs and you will quickly find that you are much better off going with the alternative weapons. PLEASE NOTE: this may or may not apply to more up-to-date ACs. — The preceding unsigned comment was posted by Kendrick (talk • contribs) on 29 August 2008.\

-Well, the Autocannon is quite an effective piece of equipment, and if you are not playing with Double Heat Sinks, the Autocannon can be a high damage, low heat alternative to the very hot Large Laser. In particular, I prefer to arm my Marauder's "head" weapon as an Autocannon rather than a Large Laser if I have the choice.

Also, the Autocannon has several useful variants, such as the Ultra (potential double damage if you roll an eight or higher on 2D6,) or LBX, which has the very useful -1 to hit bonus and can be used for solid slug or pellet shot (which is practically instant-death to anything that flies.) Either way, I like Autocannons for their high power and low heat generation. That, and with them, you don't need to burn up crits slots or tonnage with extra Heat Sinks. -jregley