Munitions Technician
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| Munitions Technician | |
|---|---|
 MAKE TORP. | |
| Information | |
| Access | Hangar Bay, Flight Deck, Munitions Bay |
| Additional Access | Maintenance |
| Difficulty | Medium |
| Supervisors | Master at Arms |
| Rank | Specialist (SPC) |
| Duties | Arm, man, and service the various weapons on the ship. "Encourage" Cargo to provide you with more ammo. |
| Guides | Guide to Munitions |
Are you ready to explode? No? You're in the wrong job then. Welcome to Munitions! Your job is to make sure the big guns are fully loaded and ready to blast those Syndicate scum right out of space. This will mostly entail running from gun to gun making sure they have ammo and are functioning properly, but will also see you manning some of those guns and putting a few rounds into the syndicate ships. You will also be in constant communication with supply to make sure your magazines are full, either by having them order your munitions directly from CentCom, or through the miners delivering ore, so that you can fabricate your ordinance on your own.
Bare minimum requirements: Enter Munitions Deck and reload all the guns, also discover that the Master At Arms is your boss, wow.
Weapons/Munitions Bay
This is your new home. Welcome! Each ship type will have a different layout and weapon configuration to them. Some ships have no torpedoes, some have no railguns/Naval Artillery cannons, while others will have nearly every weapon type. All ships are equipped with PDCs, however, so you should always look out for the slots to load those, as they look similar.
The storage room(s) will vary depending on the types of weapons the ship is equipped with. When torpedo tubes or AMS are present, you'll likely have a section of the weapons bay dedicated to the construction of these doom rockets. All torpedo types need to be constructed before they can be used. Other ammunition types may also be stored here, including missiles for fighters. It's generally a good idea to take this ammo out of storage and stash it nearby their respective weapon for faster reload time. In addition, make sure you have enough ammo to last you through any upcoming battles. You can call cargo through the supply channel by using :u in chat if you need more ammo.
The Master at Arms will probably hang out here. You're their subordinate, but there's very little they can order you to do other than "your job, thanks", so feel free to float around and help out in the Munitions Bay where it's needed.
Hangar/Flight Deck
Home of the flyboys, the flight deck is always full of coffins fighters and lacking in atmosphere: don't enter without some sort of space suit! In fact, as a busy MT, you really have almost no reason to enter at all. After the removal of Deck Technicians, pilots have now been put in charge of their own fighters. It's up to them to do their own maintenance and preparation, so you might see them buzzing around the department lathe, or swiping a few tools from the lockers; it's best to stay out of their way unless they ask for some help.
You should let them do their own thing, but that doesn't mean you can't be nice. If the munitions bay is staffed to capacity, or you find yourself with a bit of downtime, you can always drag their cargo orders to the hangar's airlock, or set aside a few missiles/torpedoes from the factory just for them. But just remember: do your job first! The pilots are capable people (usually), and should be more than able to haul their own fighter parts. It's good to be a nice person, but your primary duty here is to keep the guns loaded; you can drift the tug around the hangar later!
Big Guns
There's several possible options for the armament aboard your ship. Some ships will have a full array of weapons, while others specialize in one type while lacking another. Take note of what you have, as it'll determine what ammunition you'll need and what weapons will need the most attention.
- Hybrid Railgun: A big gun, which uses the power of electricity to either fire a high-damage burst of 4 tungsten slugs, or fire off one massive naval artillery shell. It's most effective against capital ships that it can hit easily, and is very hungry for ammo and energy, so ensure the Bridge Assistants don't spam it at fighters.
- Broadside Cannons: A pair of big guns, facing opposite directions of the ship (port and starboard). Each one holds 5 rounds, and fires all 5 at once, in a shotgun-like burst. Loading the broadsides requires you to prepare the shells using a packing bench prior to loading. After firing, it ejects casings which can be reused in the packing bench when preparing more shells.
- Artillery Cannon: A bigger gun, that shoots bigger stuff, with bigger shells. It can only hold one shot, and must be loaded with gunpowder (more gunpowder makes the round go faster), but deals heavy damage with that shot. Will likely require frequent reloading due to it's low ammo capacity. Also referred to as NACs.
- Torpedoes: Rocket propelled explosive charges with tracking and course adjustment capabilities. There are six varieties of torpedoes, ranging from basic explosive charges that do damage on impact, to utility torpedoes like freight and probes, all the way to nuclear torpedoes that will annihilate nearly anything it hits. Torpedoes are heavy, so you'll need to use the munition trolley to drag them around.
- PDCs: Small, fast-moving, rapid fire shots that do light damage. They are best used against fighters or incoming torpedoes.
- Gauss Gun: A manned turret that fires medium sized tungsten slugs at high velocities, a decent anti-ship weapon that operates similarly to the PDCs, but needs to be reloaded with a rack controlled by the gunner instead.
- AMS: An automatic weapons system that fires at whatever is targeted by the bridge bunnies, or at ammunition that is aimed squarely at your ship. You can set what you want the computer to target (enemy ships or enemy munitions). Must be loaded with missiles, not torpedoes.
- Phase Cannons A powerful beam weapon that fires a single, strong, hitscan beam. Has the energy capacity to fire twice in succession. Only available on SolGov ships, like the Aetherwhisp.
- Burst Phasers: A pair of lesser energy guns that can fire many light lasers per volley. Good for getting fighters off your tail. Only available on SolGov ships, which means you won't be working on these anytime soon (there are no munition tech job slots on the Aetherwhisp).
Maintenance and Loading
For a detailed walkthrough, visit the Guide to Munitions.
Although each weapon has a different ammo type, nearly all of them are loaded in a similar manner.
For the PDCs, simply take one of the matching ammo packs and loaded it into the weapon.
For the large, ammo based weapons (Railgun, Torpedoes), employ the following steps:
- Load the ammunition into the weapon. Do note that the railgun holds multiple rounds.
- Open the console next the weapon, and select the option to load the ammo.
- Select the next option to chamber the rounds.
- Disable the safeties, allowing the weapons to be fired.
For the larger guns (The Artillery Cannon), there's a little more you have to do.
- Before you load, you have to prime the cannon round with a multitool.
- Load the round, and chamber as normal.
- Add several bags of gunpowder. Do note that adding more will make the round travel faster, and that you can add up to 19 gunpowder in a single shell (although it is questionable how practical a light-speed shell would be).
- Add in the gunpowder using the console.
For the broadside guns, loading is as simple as shoving a prepared shell into the gun breech. However, you must first pack a shell before you can load it:
- Place 5 shell casings, 5 shell loads, and 1 gunpowder into the bench.
- Interact with the packing bench, and press the "Pack Casings" button. You will now have 5 broadside shells, ready for use.
For the Gauss guns, load the ammo onto the rack (Or click-drag a crate filled with the ammo onto it to load it all at once), interact with the rack, and select the option to load the rounds.
For energy weapons, all you can do is monitor the power and tell engineering to make more power if there's not enough to fire the weapons.
The ammo racks that holds your ammunition also requires maintenance from time to time, and sometimes it will jam.
(Shift clicking it will tell you if it needs maintenance, although it's best to do maintenance on them once after every combat encounter.)
The maintenance procedure for the ammo racks is the following:
- Unscrew the cover using a screwdriver.
- Apply Oil to the mechanical components.
- Re-screw the cover back into place using a Screwdriver.
In the event that an Ammo Rack jams, the procedure to clear the jamming is the following:
- Re-screw the cover back into place if it's been removed earlier, otherwise skip this step.
- Force the jammed components away from each other, and back to their original place, using a Crowbar.
Along with making sure the weapons are loaded, keep an eye on the condition of the weapon. As it's fired, it will slowly degrade, eventually reaching a point where it's completely inoperable. Make sure to do maintenance on it before going in to battle, and make sure command is aware so you don't jump into combat with the weapons disassembled. A guide on weapon maintenance can be found in the Guide to Munitions.
Battle Stations
Things get crazy once the ship is in battle. Once the guns start firing and the fighters take off, your job becomes a chaotic race to reload the guns as fast as possible. You should have next to no downtime while this is all going on, so if you find yourself standing around, you're probably neglecting something important. The important things needing to be done include;
- Make sure the ship's main weapons are loaded. The bridge crew will likely be firing the guns as soon as they're loaded, so keep loading them so they can keep on shooting.
- Man/Load the Gauss guns. This weapon is very ammo hungry while being used, so keeping them loaded is important. If you have enough manpower to keep the main ship weapons loaded, hop in one of the Gauss guns and put a few rounds into the syndicate ship. Make sure you have your munitions helmet on, as you need the ear protection it offers to not go deaf from the gunfire.
- Keep an eye on your ammo reserves. You should hopefully have enough ammo to last for the entire fight. If not, call up cargo and get them to order additional ammunition. If your guns run dry, you can't fight.
- Make sure the fighters are supplied. The pilots should be able to handle this for the most part, but if you're finding yourself with nothing else to do, or munitions is staffed well enough without you, go ahead and help them out.
