Deathmobile Weapons: How many is overkill?

[nameless_survivor]

New player here, just started playing about a month ago. My latest character has had a run of good luck, and I want to take maximum advantage of it. I recently pillaged a National Guard Base and got my hands on a tank. Not going to lie, I laughed evilly when I found it. I have since refitted the interior extensively with all the basic amenities, replaced the diesel engines with 4 enhanced electric motors (with hybrid solar/nuclear power supply). My biggest questions are regarding armaments and their functionality. My tank, which I have dubbed the “Z-1 Abrams” is currently equipped with the pre-installed 120mm tank cannon, (1) .50 Browning machine gun, (1) hypervelocity driver, (2) miniguns, (1) Mk 19 Grenade launcher (ripped off of vehicles, pillaged from the armory, or built by me) mounted on the front and sides of the turret like so:

BTH
MSM (S) is the driver seat.
G
All the weapons are mounted on heavy duty stowboards or heavy opaque hatches with storage to allow shell casings and belt linkages to fall into (this has worked well so far).

So, my question is: How are vehicle actions calculated? If I set all the turrets to automated targeting, and found a sufficiently large horde to fight, would they all fire concurrently with respect to the actions and movements of everyone around (guns all fire, then zombies move/attack). Or would a single turret fire, then the zombies move/attack then another turret fires, etc? I have not had enough ammo (or enemies) to use them all at once until recently, and I would prefer not to blow all my rounds on !!SCIENCE!! if I can help it. The miniguns REALLY chew through the 7.62mm ammo, even on low auto, so much so that I usually try to keep them set to manual.

If they don’t all fire at once, it might be worth pulling off the miniguns and replacing them with more solar panels or something. Between the .50 cal, grenade launcher, hypervelocity driver and the 120mm cannon, I would still have some flexible options to deal with stray zombies, small clusters of zombies, or “oh fuck kill it right now!” situations. However I’d rather be able to use the miniguns for hordes than resort to 40mm grenades or tank rounds due to their scarcity, and the hypervelocity driver is NOT safe for use at even remotely close ranges due to the fragmentation effect. I lost a bunch of upgraded solar panels to it when I first tried it out.

[darktoes]

Personally, my recommendation is to switch to laser weaponry. V9 laser pistols are the most efficient (power to damage) and laser cannons are the least efficient but do the most damage, so they can take down really big, heavy enemies. A7 laser rifles are in the middle but you’ll generally want at least one for yourself.

Once you have a sufficient number of laser turrets (4-6, they fire really fast) mounted on your deathmobile you’re basically invincible so long as your batteries hold out.

[nameless_survivor]

Oh if I had any energy weapons besides a homemade Shoddy Laser Rifle, or any ammo for the fusion rifle I found, they would get replaced in a new york minute believe me. I hate having to worry about ammo, and every interior tile that doesnt have a 60L liquid storage tank has a storage battery and case, so I’ve got plenty of energy to draw from once I find some energy weapons.

[Vastin]

I generally get by with a ram plate and a katana, but YMMV.

[nameless_survivor]

Know any good places lasguns, plasma, or fusion weapons pop up? I’ve only ever found a laser rifle once, on another character in a lab, but that was in the stable version. Do they pop up in Bunkers or gun stores? I couldnt find anything more advanced than the minigun in the national guard base; though some of the underground level is still unexplored because those damned murder bots can one shot me, even in powered RM13 combat armor. The only reason I could secure the surface was through trickery, luring them into the guns of of my old vehicle and cowering inside it while they got gunned down.

[nameless_survivor]

Eh, I hate having to repair my vehicle after hitting like 5 zombies or a couple trees. Even with composite armor on every single part, and composite rams in front they get damaged pretty quick. Especially my solar panels. I’ll squish stuff in a pinch, but I’d rather they didnt get that close honestly.

Besides, there is nothing quite like being surrounded by brutes pounding on your vehicle while you frantically try to repair the engine you just damaged hitting a fence, to make one avoid using your vehicle as a blunt instrument again.

[Hirmuolio]

The dead scientists on surface can sometimes (very very rarely. I saw it once) have energy weapons with them.

Labs too can have them in the final room.

[nameless_survivor]

Yeah thats where I found my fusion rifle, sans ammo. I always look for Gracken; for some reason they always spawn near corpse clusters, especially science or military ones. Not sure why.

[darktoes]

Your best bet is science labs, each one has a finale room with something special in it, and one of the possible finales has a laser rifle and pistol. Get a few of those and you’re in business. You can also find them knocking around in various places like dead scientists or anywhere that spawns rare items (there’s a very long list). As far as fusion/plasma is concerned, those both use ammunition so they’re really not worth bothering about, but you can find them in bank vaults, as well as various other places.

What you do want is the Fusion Arm CBM. With a certain lab report I forget the name of you can convert it into a fusion rifle that only uses power (basically a energy based rocket launcher. No good as a primary/vehicle weapon, but good fun) or a makeshift laser cannon which KICKS ASS.

[Rose]

I hate having to worry about ammo

Then make an avalanche cannon, why not? It’s enough to kill almost anyone. Why do you even need all those miniguns and stuff? Seriously, two avalanche cannons and a scorpion ballista for heavy targets should be enough for ANYTHING you might encounter.

Especially my solar panels.

Reinforce them.

I always look for Gracken; for some reason they always spawn near corpse clusters, especially science or military ones. Not sure why.

That’s a map special. Dead bodies of drug dealers/campers/footbal players and a gracken or two nearby. And an amoebic mold. That’s a thing like in Fallout.

With a certain lab report I forget the name of

This recipe can be found in the following books when electronics is at least the required level:
lab journal-Herrera (level 5)

[nameless_survivor]

Why do you even need all those miniguns and stuff

Well, again I’m still new to this game, and also just updated to the experimental version for the first time (played stable for a while to get used to it), and I wasn’t really sure what to expect, or what hordes of abominations I might run across. The National Guard Base was like right down the road from my spawn point practically, so I hadn’t explored too much by the time I found it. Since there is no kill quite like overkill, I decided to loot every deadly thing that wasn’t nailed down, followed by the nails and the stuff that WAS nailed down, and then stick them onto my brand new tank.

[nameless_survivor]

So far I’ve gotten pretty good performance out of the .50 cal, it splatters just about everything in one or two shots except brutes, isnt terribly ammo hungry on single fire mode, and is pretty damn accurate. At this point, I’m seriously considering stripping off the grenade launcher and miniguns. My biggest concern was not having them in the event I ran into something really awful (I’ve played Dwarf Fortress, and was half expecting something like the randomly generated Forgotten Beasts to be present) and figured having numerous individual weapons might provide an advantage if vehicle turret attacks were considered to occur simultaneously by the game.

[Rose]

Really. The minigun’s low auto (50) is useless. Most targets need 2-3 hits.

My biggest concern was not having them in the event I ran into something really awful

There’s nothing really awful, especially while you’re inside a tank. A scorpion ballista deals the solid 300+ hp blows that are enough to obliterate just about anything. In fact, only the skeleton juggernauts need 2 hits. (I haven’t met jabberwocks).

The main point is that yes, you can use .50 machine gun, but why would you? Ammo with real gunpowder is precious, and there are plenty of ways to kill things using no gunpowder at all. Slingshot cannon, avalanche cannon and scorpion ballista are my choice. There are also guns shooting nail, rebar and serrated disks. All these things are easy to make and replenishable.

[nameless_survivor]

I actually ran into a jabberwock outside my spawn shelter with my very first character, while playing on stable. He died messily when it burst through the door after I slammed it in his face. Rerolled a new character (this time one with a gun), somehow spawned in the EXACT SAME SHELTER, with the Jabberwock still inside. I actually killed it after playing ring around the rosie with the furniture. Took two clips of sniper ammo. I suspect the tank gun or hypervelocity driver would turn it into chunks. Unless its been beefed up since stable was last updated…

[Rose]

ring around the rosie

Well, you get the point. Get some non-combustion weapons and you’re safe and always have a lot of ammo. Just keep in mind that some types of ammo are easier to make than others when choosing the cannon.

Oh, and don’t put the turret above the block you can’t reach. So that you can reload it. But I guess you’ve figured it out (just in case)

[nameless_survivor]

Yeah, I’m not using that unless I have to. I’ve got 14 rounds for it though, so if I have to use them all up, something has probably gone horribly wrong and I’m about to die gloriously. Thats why I have the hypervelocity driver. Ammo for it is EASY to make, just tear up a couple road tiles for rebar. You mentioned the nail turrets, are they any good? Like the coilgun one?

[nameless_survivor]

Speaking of dying gloriously, in the event of my imminent demise, is there a way to set the mini-reactor to meltdown, or otherwise make my vehicle self destruct and take everything with me in an enormous (preferably nuclear) fireball?

[Rose]

You mentioned the nail turrets, are they any good? Like the coilgun one?

I dunno. They have low damage but high armor penetration which is quite useless, since most enemies are not exactly well armored. The nails take longer to produce, also. I don’t know about the ammo capacity, but the avalanche cannon has 250 round hoppers, which is a massive advantage.

[Theundyingcode]

No action you can take will ever be overkill. What you think of as “overkill” is nothing more than the enemy failing to live up to expectations. As phenomena created by the actions of the enemy you must not let it affect you less the enemy rise to the occasion.

[nameless_survivor]

True, but there is such a thing as being wasteful. Its not like I’m gonna just throw them away, but they might be better employed elsewhere. Maybe put the miniguns on remote control drones or something for clearing out lab turret rooms, purging ant hills, or securing underground in the National Guard Bases from those SCAR-L wielding murderbots. Was thinking of trying to make a foldable 1 tile vehicle with casters, a micromotor, storage battery, and drive by wire controls, and then mounting one of the miniguns or an M-60 on it. Not sure if it will still fold, but it might be worth trying.