Longshot vs. Railjack: Some Numbers

A lot of people have been talking about the Railjack's delay and how it "ruins" the rifle. Yet the Railjack has 200 m/s higher bullet velocity than the Longshot. This means that at some distance--let's call it the "critical distance"--the Railjack's high bullet velocity makes up for its initial shot delay compared to the Longshot. So I decided to perform a quick experiment in the last 15 minutes (yes, it's a little rough, so grains of salt are in order).

I present the following:



What I did was record myself shooting the Railjack 10 times, then I went back into Movie Maker (yeah, yeah, I know, but it's perfectly adequate for this purpose) and counted the delay for each bullet fired. This produced a sample of size 10.

I calculated the average and standard deviation for this sample and used a t-distribution with 95% confidence and 9 degrees of freedom in order to infer the true delay time. I can say with (over) 95% confidence that the shot delay is between 0.15 and 0.23 seconds.

Now, using these values, we can go back to calculating the "critical distance," before which the Longshot's bullet travel time is smaller and after which the Railjack's bullet travel time is smaller. Assuming the lowest shot delay, this distance is about 418 meters. Assuming the highest shot delay, the critical distance is about 615 meters. That means that at some distance between 418 and 615 meters, the Railjack's bullet flight time is better than the Longshot's for any distance greater than that (bad sentence structure, bear with me).

So then, is the Railjack that much better/worse than the Longshot?

Assuming the best-case shot delay: at 150 m, the Longshot is about 0.1 s better than the RJ. At 300 m, the LS is about 0.04 s better than the RJ. At 450 m, the Longshot is about 0.01 s worse than the RJ.

Assuming the worst-case shot delay: at 150 m, the Longshot is about 0.17 s better than the RJ. At 300 m, the LS is about 0.11 s better than the RJ. At 450 m, the Longshot is 0.06 s better than the RJ.

Are these differences in bullet flight times really that substantial? Does it really make the Railjack a garbage gun that should be categorically dismissed when placed alongside the Longshot?

That's a decision for you to make.

Personally, based on these numbers, I think the 0.15 to 0.23 second delay on the Railjack is no big deal compared to the advantages it offers (relatively quiet firing, 10 bullet magazine, badass aesthetics, etc.).

Let the flaming begin.

I'd also like to address human error at this point: it's entirely possible that I made errors when counting time between shot delays in Movie Maker. However, this experiment can easily and quickly be replicated. If you'd like to try taking some samples of shot delays yourself but don't want to bother with all the calculations, you could post your numbers here and I could plug them into Excel to re-do the experiment. Really, it would only take a minute since the formulas (very few to begin with) are already in place.

So in the end, it's going to come down to taste. The railjack having that delay will be a godsend for those snipers who have the bad luck of their targets always seeming to move just as you squeeze the trigger, it will allow them to adjust for that kill shot. Me, i'll stick with my Longshot since I don't feel like buying another gun.

Interesting numbers! Just a note to go along with that but the 10-shot magazine is apparently a bug. Tonight it's getting changed to a 4-shot magazine (with a corresponding drop in total ammo capacity) according to the hotfix notes.

To be honest, I bought the railjack and I just can't use it properly at all, the bullet just fly straight out of the crosshair which I aimed for for some reason... Longshot's still better

Sigh... the 10 bullet mag was a big selling point. They better balance it properly by reducing shot delay also, then.

Quoting myself

Buahahaha called it. The only selling point of the Railgun will be gone hahahaha.

this is why people need to wait a good week or two before buying things

lol lol people need to stop and take a step back. Calling it now VS one will loose bullet drop, the whine has already started. And these guns will be nothing like what they are now. Hold on to your certs and sc people, don't waste it till you actually know what weapons your getting.

The only way you will notice the delay is if your target is twitching.

Lets say you are leading a moving target ~250m away. Some infantry trying to cross a large open space etc.
You aim ahead of your target (not compensating for the delay, at all) click fire and miss, cebause of the delay.
Lets try that again.
You aim ahead of your target (not compensating for the delay, at all) click fire while still leading your target like you normally would for an extra 0.2 second (or whatever the delay is) and hit.

No compensation, no nothing. Its not like you aim 4mm in front of your target instead of 2mm because of the delay, its still 2mm...
I can see how this is a problem if your target changes direction the split second you press fire.
But that would be a problem on the Longshot's slower velocity anyway.

Another thing that makes the RJ seem off to people is that they have 5000k+ (or whatever) kills with the Longshot. Suddenly they have to compensate for a slightly higher velocity.
I know when moved on from my Bolt Driver to the Longshot i didnt do were well with it compared, because though it was technically better, i wasent used it it. Atleast not after 1 day. (or a few hours)

Just play with it for more than a day.
I dont know. Maybe im all wrong and i just got lucky with the RJ the first day.

Maths.

I can't see the TL;DR , add one please.

I appreciate the numbers, but this cements it for me.

That delay though small can be painful at closer ranges, the thing about the high tier sniper rifles is that they don't stop being effective at close range, they're just slower. The railjack on the other hand loses effectiveness at close to medium ranges just so that it can shave off a couple milliseconds at extreme ranges. That's just not worth it.

I've only used then in the VR, but to me the Longshot seems the better option in almost all circumstances (especially if they drop the mag size).

Thanks for the numbers!

Yea i regret buying the RL... didn't realise there was a trigger lag...I just thought it was ordinary lag lol when testing in the vr room...

Basically, the trigger lag removes the one advantage the RL has ie its bullet velocity.

Also its mag is glitched its meant to have 4 bullets and a higher chamber time than 1sec... (i did not realise this either)

so Basically this gun loses hands down to the Longshot if you are shooting infantry in render range......

SOE please create a virtual server that exactly the same as the live ones where no one plays.
and Next time and test your updates please....
I can understand obscure bugs sneaking through but surely not stuff like wrong mag size whoops...

SOE pulled another Striker nerf, lol.

except 10 bullets on magazine is actually a bug :A i always knew that XD

It's a very nice bug to have on the first few days of selling it though, I'd imagine it would account for quite a few sales in and of itself.

How is it acceptable that a weapon that has been on PTS for weeks gets changed last minute without any warning the day it is available for purchase? Also, the current version on PTS is STILL different from what is currently live. How is this acceptable?

Writing 1 line in the patch notes about a change that completely changes the function of a weapon moments before it hits live is very very misleading/shady.

By far the worst purchase I have made in-game so far.

That's what I keep saying all the time thanks.
A delay changes in no way the range you have to lead your target. Just keep leading till the rifle actually fires?