Munitions Technician
| MUNITIONS STAFF | |
  Munitions Technician |
Access: Hangar Bay, Flight Deck, Munitions Bay Additional Access: Maintenance Difficulty: Medium Supervisors: Master At Arms Rank: Not defined Duties: Arm, man, and service the various weapons on the ship. "Encourage" Cargo to provide you with more ammo. Guides: Guide to Munitions Quote: "MAKE TORP." |
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 help the flight team repair, refuel, and re-arm their fighters when they return from a dogfight, or construct brand new fighters for them to inevitably fly directly into a syndicate fleet.
Bare minimum requirements: Enter Munitions Deck and reload all the guns, also discover 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/MAC cannons, while others will have nearly every weapon type. All ships are equipped with PDCs and Flak, 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 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.
Hanger Bay
Along with making sure the ship's weapons are operational, you will help the flight crew make sure their fighters are able to take flight. This will include making sure the fighters are fueled, armed with missiles and counter-measures, fully repaired, and taken via the tug to the mag-catapult for launch. Although most pilots will do this work themselves, your help would likely be appreciated, especially if repairs are needed or new fighters have to be constructed. For more information on maintaining and constructing fighters, see the repairs section of the Guide to Fighters.
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.
- Railgun: A burst-fire high-damage sniper capable of holding up to four tungsten-tipped bullets. It's most effective against capital ships that it can hit easily, and is very hungry for ammo, so ensure the Bridge Assistants don't spam it at fighters.
- MAC Cannon: A bigger railgun that can only hold one shot, but deals more damage with that shot. Will likely require frequent reloading due to it's low ammo capacity.
- 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.
- PDC (Point Defense Cannon): Small, fast-moving, rapid fire shots that do light damage. They are best used against fighters or incoming torpedoes.
- Gauss Gun: Only available on multi-z ships! A manned turret that can either fire Gauss or PDC rounds. Gauss rounds are slow moving but do good damage, while PDC mode acts similar to the Point Defense Cannon rounds.
- Flak: Anti-air weaponry. Automatically fires at nearby fighters and torpedoes.
- Phaze Cannons: An energy based weapon that fires lasers. Yell at engineering to divert power to weapons if you don't have enough to fire them.
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 wall mounted weapons (PDC and Flak), simply take one of the matching ammo packs and loaded it into the weapon.
For the large, ammo based weapons (MAC, 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 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.
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.
