Ultra Autocannon 5

Equipment Overview Ultra Autocannon 5  Tech Base: Inner Sphere  Equipment Type: Ballistic Weapon  Tonnage: 9 tons Ammo per Ton: 30  Critical Slots: 5   Item Health: 10   Cost:  400,000   Sell:  200,000

Equipment Specifications Recycle: 1.5 Damage: 5  DPS: 3.33 Heat: 1 HPS: 0.67 Range: 600m  Maximum Range: 1200m Projectile Velocity: 1300 Impulse: 0.03 Cockpit Shake: 0.15

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Overview

This class of Autocannon can fire up to twice as fast and a little farther than the standard AC 5. The Ultra Autocannon 5 (UAC/5) does reasonable damage per shot and can reach out to long ranges. At nine tons, the weight of the UAC/5 is relatively light for an Autocannon. Each ton of ammo yields an ample 30 rounds. To use the weapon in double fire mode, you can simply hold down the trigger or fire it again before it has a chance to completely recycle.

Jamming

The weapon does have a 20% (reduced to 15%) chance to jam if double fire mode is used. If it does jam, it will unjam itself after 5 seconds.

Tactical Use

The UAC/5 is capable of doubling it's firepower, the tradeoff being a 15% chance to jam. On the battlefeld that means a pilot gets an additional shot out of the gun to increase frontloaded damage. This can be vital in do-or-die situations and an advantage in fights using cover. As a jam takes 5 seconds to get fixed it's a hard gambit to use the doublefire in open brawling encounters.

As of launchday patch the rate of fire has been tuned to match the standard AC/5. If we are to compare the effective rate of fire we end up with:

• AC/5: 5 damage / 1,5 seconds = 3.33 dps
• UAC/5: On average jams every 5 shots fired in cooldown resulting in a 5 second jam time: 6 shots (first shot + 5 fast shots) * 5 damage / (5 * 0.75 seconds + 5 seconds jam) = 30 damage / 8.75 seconds = 3.429 dps

This means for plain DPS purposes the UAC/5 beats the standard AC/5 by 3 % and most of that damage is delivered earlier in the fight than with the standard AC/5. Drawbacks are its unstable fire rate and higher weight.

Don't panic with this weapon... 3 or more tons of ammo recommended per UAC/5.