CRAM Cannon

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Overview

CRAM Cannons replaced the earlier Custom Cannons, and are one of the simplest customizable projectile weapons. The name comes from "cramming" the different kinds of pellets into the shells. They come in sizes from 1000-2000 mm, based on the number of gauge increasers on the cannon. They reload very slowly and the shells move at a slow pace of 300 m/s or less. However, they can deal massive amounts of damage and are some of the most efficient weapons per material used. All of this makes CRAM cannons a good starting point for beginners to begin building your own weapons, but be aware that CRAM cannons are easy to counter.

Basics of a Good Design

Typical CRAM cannons (not deck guns, see next paragraph) are designed with a large cylindrical section under the deck, connected through a narrower neck to a turret cap / gunhouse. Most of the components, especially auto loaders, pellets, and ammo boxes, are stored in the underneath section. This section is typically composed of horizontal "slices", where vertical columns of 6-way connectors are surrounded by autoloaders, which in turn are surrounded with pellets and ammo boxes. Multiple of these columns can be arranged so that each pellet has 4 connections, the most without a more advanced 3D "tetris". The connector columns are then joined together before going into the neck, where spare space can be filled with armor and gauge increasers. The final part is the turret cap, where the firing pieces, barrels, and typically most of the gauge increasers are. For the barrel, a good setup is half motor driven barrels, around a quarter recoil absorbing, and about a quarter normal (depends on ship size and CRAM gauge; normal + recoil should be equal to motor driven), then an elevation barrel on the end (or beginning). The fusing box and laser targeter can go anywhere (if you choose to use them), but near the firing piece is typical. Most cannons should at least have an inertial fuse and timed fuse. The gauge components are often in the cap because they are more durable than pellets, and the irregular shape of the cap can be more easily filled with them. For multiple barrel turrets, make sure that 6-way connectors and gauge increasers (and ideally ammo boxes, too) from different firing pieces don't touch (you can use the 4-connection gauge corners to help you prevent unintended connections), otherwise one piece can end up with all the parts.

For deck guns (turrets which don't extend below the deck) you may disregard everything but the last sentence above. Deck guns are necessarily smaller than their in-hull counterparts, and are typically viewed as worse due to how large they must get to fit many components. The fact that the entire system is exposed means that more armor is needed. Few faction designs have deck guns, with most that do being DWG ships with the deck guns as small broadside weapons.

CRAM cannons can also be hard-mounted (not on a turret). For this it is recommended to forgo the elevation barrel as that limits horizontal traverse. hard-mounted guns have the advantage of being easier to armor and harder to destroy, though they suffer greatly due to the fact they are harder to bring to bear on an enemy. The setups which work best for hard-mounts are CRAM bombs (using the bomb chute and mounted to an aircraft, facing down), mortars (use the high firing angle setting and probably add a limit to speed, facing upward), and either broadside or forward-mounted (works best on an aircraft or other forward-broadsider). Bombs and mortars typically benefit the most from an altitude fuse, while it is better for conventional cannons to use a timed fuse instead. Broadside cannons work well on traditional sailing ship designs and as a supplement to larger ships, though turrets are usually superior.

CRAM Tetris

There are many ways to build a CRAM cannon; this process is called CRAM tetris. The two main methods are called 2D and 3D. 2D is simpler and is what most beginners use, focusing on how to fill up the space for the weapon on a 2 dimension plane. This can create effective weapons, though not the most optimized. 3D is more complicated, requiring an undestanding of parts from a 3 dimensional mindset. Typically this is actually only two layers that are stacked and repeated. To maximize the effectiveness of a CRAM cannon, 3D tetris is a must. There are multiple YouTube channels that discuss CRAM cannon design styles and give tips, with BorderWise and GMODISM being two great sources. For a more in depth explanation of CRAM Tetris, go to the CRAM Tetris page.

Shell Size

CRAM shells vary from 1000 mm to 2000 mm. This size is directly proportional to the number of gauge increasers on the cannon, with each gauge increaser adding 50mm to the weapon. Larger shells do more damage and have more health, but cost more time and materials to reload.

Shell Speed

The base speed of a CRAM shell is limited to a maximum of 300 m/s, but this can be reduced by the use of either a bomb chute, flash, or recoil suppression barrels. The more of these suppression barrels you the slower the max speed of the CRAM cannon will be. Nothing else like diameter, capacity, or barrel length affect the max speed of the CRAM shell. The actual speed of a shell can be reduced by adjusting a slider in the CRAM cannon menu. This can be useful if one wants a CRAM mortar to reach its target within a reasonable time.

In the past the max possible shell speed was 200 m/s. Before this the max speed was dependent on the diameter.

Capacity

The fully packed capacity of a CRAM shell is determined by the diameter of the shell and the number of compactors are connected to the CRAM cannon. If a CRAM cannon has a diameter of D, and P compactor connections it will have a capacity equal to

$Capacity=(0.75D-500)\times (1+0.05P)$

Reload Time

The reload time of a shell is affected by its capacity, diameter, and the number of pellet connections. If CRAM cannon has a capacity of C, diameter of D, and N pellet connections its total reload time be equal to

$Reload\ Time=0.003D+{\frac {C}{N}}$

The reload time is equal to the reload time indicated on the cannon’s info card and it is measured from the moment the cannon is fired to the next time it can possibly fire, assuming there is enough ammunition. In the past the time indicated on the cannon’s info card was measured from time the cannon finished preparing its packers to when it could fire next.

Health

The health of a CRAM shell is determined by the capacity of a shell and what fraction of each pellet type is used, and the number of fuses used on the shell. If the shell has a capacity of C, a hardener pellet fraction of H, and f fuses selected the health will equal

$Health=C\times (12H+3.6(1-H))\times (1-0.1f)$

The armour class of the shell on the other hand is not affected by anything and is always equal to 20.

Damage

Kinetic Damage

The kinetic damage of a CRAM shell as indicated on its info card is dependent on the shell’s capacity, what fraction of each pellet type is used to pack it, and if a thump head is used. The speed of the shell is irrelevant to that damage that it can deal. If the capacity of a shell is C, the fraction of hardener pellets used to pack it is H, and it has no hollow point its kinetic damage will equal

$Kienetic\ Damage=C\times (16H+5(1-H))$

And that same shells AP value will equal

$AP=MAX(40H,0.1)$

If the shell uses a hollow point to deal thump damage its kinetic damage will be equal to 0.790569 time its regular kinetic damage. This shells AP will also be equal to

$AP_{thump}=MAX(31.62H,0.1)$

Explosive Damage

The explosive damage and radius of a CRAM shell depend on the CRAM cannons capacity and the fraction of explosive pellet connections. If the cannons capacity is C and the fraction of explosive pellet connections is X then the explosive damage of the shell will be

$Explosive\ Damage=42.38\times (C\times X)^{0.9}$

And the explosions radius will be equal to

$Explosive\ Radius=3.0639\times (C\times X)^{0.2705}$

EMP Damage

The EMP damage of a cram shell depends on the CRAM cannons capacity and the fraction of EMP pellet connections. If the cannons capacity is C and the fraction of EMP pellet connections is E then the EMP damage of the shell will be

$EMP\ Damage=16.5C\times E$

Frag Damage

The amount of frags produced by a CRAM shell is dependent on the CRAM cannons capacity and fraction of frag pellet connections. If the cannons capacity is C and the fraction of frag pellet connections is F, then the number of frag pellets will be roughly equal to

$Number\ of\ Fragments=n\approx 5\times (C\times F)^{0.25}$

The damage produced by each fragment is dependent on the capacity of the shell, the fraction of frag pellet connections used to pack it, the number of fragments, and the fragment angle. If the capacity of a shell is C, the fraction of frag pellets connections is F, the number of fragments is n, and the frag angle is A then the damage per fragment equals

$Fragment\ Damage=((F\times C)/n)\times (41.25\times \surd {A}+82.5)$

Barrels

Barrels are incredibly important for CRAM cannons because they will affect the accuracy of the weapon. Standard and heavy barrels only provide health and accuracy bonuses, but there are a variety of other barrels that provide health, accuracy, and other special modifiers.

Barrel - De facto barrel. Standard barrel parts counts as two barrels for accuracy calculations.
Heavy Barrel - provides more health than the standard barrel, but otherwise are the exact same, to include counting as two barrels for accuracy calculations.
Flash Suppression Barrel - reduces shell detection range to 50% and reduces the muzzle flash and sound, but reduces shell speed to 80%
Recoil Suppression Barrel - reduces recoil by 25% but reduces shell speed by 5%.
Motor Driven Barrel - increases barrel rotation speed (horizontal movement).
Elevation Barrel - increases elevation field of fire but decreases azimuth field of fire.
Bomb Chute - Drops the shell speed to almost nothing and gives perfect accuracy with no recoil. Converts the shell into a free-fall bomb.

Traverse

Traverse speed is proportional to the number of Motor Driven Barrels plus one and inversely proportional to the total barrel volume + 0.1. For a 2000 mm cannon, ignoring non-proportional factors, the traverse speed is about 8 degrees per second.

Fusing

Main article: Fusing

Other References

From The Depths INSTANT Tutorial: CRAM Cannon Turret by GMODISM, June 2021 - Short tutorial that explains the basics of CRAM cannons.

From The Depths INSTANT Tutorial: CRAM Cannon Shell Types & Ammo Damage Patterns by GMODISM, January 2022 - Breaks down the different CRAM shell types and the type of damage that they do.

From The Depths INSTANT Tutorial: Advanced CRAM Cannon Tips For Efficiency by GMODISM, December 2022 - Discusses some of the more advanced parts of CRAM cannons, such as the pros/cons of multiple barrels, how to protect CRAM cannons from EMP, shell health, and how compactors affect the shell and cannon.