Ok, something is really screwed up with the last dev build update. By screwed i mean the damage ratios are f**ed up (sorry for my language).
Ok, simple math:
My ship has main guns - 7 amc arrays, in the current dev build they have around 200 000 dps. I decided to make them into artillery hard-hitting canons. And then i found something interesting.
No slave system (damage pulse or DP) connected - around 600k damage in a single volley, 3 sec reload, total 200 000 DPS - not bad, let's see what the slave system will do.
Slave system - DP 50% power - 40000 amc blocks and 20000 DP blocks. Result - around 1 400 000 damage in a single volley, 10 sec reload time, total 140 000 dps... um, what? That's strange. It should go up, right? right?...
Slave system - 100% power - 1-1 ratio, 40k blocks each. Result - around 3 000 000 damage in a single volley, 30 seconds reload time, total dps - 100 000... ... ... 100k... WHAT?!!!! WHAT?!!!!
WARNING! RANT AHEAD!
Are you kidding me?! I wasted 40k blocks of space, power and weight, not to mention the cost on slave system - for what? For a useless 30 sec reload gun that's two times weaker than unmodified amc array?! That's a joke. That's a niiiice funny joke.
As far as i remember, the devs said that linked weapon will have the added power of both systems with additional effect. And linking pulse with other weapons is supposed to make them a lot more hard-hitting, but with more reload time. Well, technically it IS stronger... But that's just noob trap it seems. That really breaks my faith in the new weapon systems (i had my doubths earlier). Because as far as my testing went it seems to be the case with all slave system - adding slave system doesn't raise damage. It actually lowers it, which is stupid because you use a perfectly good weapon, turn it into slave system to get significant drop in damage output for the master weapon with additional eye-candy effects like rapid fire. I can understand the drop in damage for shotguns - not all shots hit and it is expected to be lower. And sniper arrays should retain the damage, but get a boost in range. But what's the point of heavy pulse-based weapons dropping your dps? Their advantage should be IMPROVED damage output, not vice versa. Especially when you can only fire ever-so-often and with ridiciously slow amc speed it can be dodged easilly. That weapon is garbage if you ask me. It has no benefits, only downfalls and huge risks.
Can someone explain me - what's the point? Or is it some kind of "balance" change in the recent dev build (because it wasn't THIS retarded before). Because right now it's just a waste of space and resourses. And with the ridiculous buff on shields i don't even know what to think about future SM combat (it will take hours to take down capital ship with several hundred million shields... ugh...)
I fully understand that this is a dev build and is subjected to change, it's just my WTF meter went too high.
Just a note - i used the most recent dev build (20140604_180106) and installed it properly - i deleted everything exept blueprints folder and admin txt file and copied the dev build there. So that can't be screw-up on my part.