I built a fair size carrier and was looking to come up with some decent fighters to compliment it.
I noticed a number of issues with the current weapons balance or more accurately imbalance. Because of what I noticed I decided to start doing some testing.
Factors in test:
Number of blocks, power consumption, refresh, damage vs what was attacked. Secondary factors shield refresh time vs attack charge rate vs normal charge rate.
Test on shields conducted against 100K shield with 10K recharge.
An example where shield time comes into effect is when you fire a missile and it takes longer for the missile to refresh than for shields to start coming back up at full recharge rate.
Damage was compared across hull, standard, advanced and shield.
If you look at just DPS you really don't get the full story, you need to also look at how many blocks it takes and what the power consumption is.
If we take something simple such as 4 cannon+4 cannon DPS is 80. 4 missile + 4 damage pulse is 14400 per missile which 160. That however doesn't work out to be the same based on what you are firing at if you hit shield you get about 2/3 of the 14400 and your dps then works out to about 90. that however isn't the only negative factor because you aren't continually hitting the shields in the allotted time the shield recharge rate jumps from the lower value up to the full value and by the time you go to fire another round you are shooting and a much hire shield value. If you are firing against one of my ships you can figure my shield will recharge in 10 seconds once that rate is hit.
I noticed that some of the stock pirate ships because of the changes can't fire at all.
Because of the changes it has become pretty much impossible to build something like a small bomber craft.
That same 4 M +4DP has a power consumption of 73,800 per missile while power consumption of the 4C+4C is only 88.
To support being able to fire those missiles it doesn't just take the missiles it also means you need the power capacitors for that can handle that amount of power plus enough reactors to recharge in that 90 seconds. That happens to be 16 capacitors and 7 reactor modules.
7 reactor modules produces 924e/s that can power 5 cannon + 5 cannon indefinitely. Not just that I now have no need for the capacitors because there is 50000 to start with. I could choose then to use the added space for power generation/reactors and giving me 4,833e/s. That is enough to power 25 cannons x 25 cannons. But then you are looking at having 50 cannon blocks vs the 4M +4DP.
The original block count for the 4M+4DP = 4M+4D+16Cap +7 reactor for a total of 31. at a DPS of 160 or less depending on what you fired at. Plus Shields would go back up in that time.
In that same 31 block space you can run 11 cannon x 11 cannon + 9 reactor for 110 dps. This will also take the shields down and while the 4M+4DP will never do so.
In short the lesson for Missiles you will need high capacitance and just enough reactor power to recharge in the time for Missiles to cycle. Any extra would go to shields or other weapons you intend to use along with thrust.
If you add overdrive to the missiles you are looking at 6 times the stated power requirement values on it. It says it requires 108,000 power for the 4M+4DP+4OD but in truth it will not fire a missile for less than 648,000 which requires 246 capacitors +30 reactors to recharge in the allotted 90 seconds at 7200e/s that 648,000e/90s. The stated value of damage is 21,600 per missile it appears to give up to 3 times that value.
How worth while is that you would have to compare it against other missile formations and count blocks and power again. It certainly doesn't lend to have a small agile craft delivering a payload of this nature.
I also noticed even on small craft armor damage seems to be miscalculated. On one small craft with 0 armor penalty I found with approx 200 advanced armor when only 5 were destroyed and 1 damaged that it said I had near 50% armor left. Not sure how 6 blocks equals 50% of my armor out of 200 blocks. I'd have to say there is a serious math error there.
I also notice some of the standard pirate fighters can no longer fire weapons because of the changes.
Have to go now. Hope this gives a few people ideas what to watch out for.
I noticed a number of issues with the current weapons balance or more accurately imbalance. Because of what I noticed I decided to start doing some testing.
Factors in test:
Number of blocks, power consumption, refresh, damage vs what was attacked. Secondary factors shield refresh time vs attack charge rate vs normal charge rate.
Test on shields conducted against 100K shield with 10K recharge.
An example where shield time comes into effect is when you fire a missile and it takes longer for the missile to refresh than for shields to start coming back up at full recharge rate.
Damage was compared across hull, standard, advanced and shield.
If you look at just DPS you really don't get the full story, you need to also look at how many blocks it takes and what the power consumption is.
If we take something simple such as 4 cannon+4 cannon DPS is 80. 4 missile + 4 damage pulse is 14400 per missile which 160. That however doesn't work out to be the same based on what you are firing at if you hit shield you get about 2/3 of the 14400 and your dps then works out to about 90. that however isn't the only negative factor because you aren't continually hitting the shields in the allotted time the shield recharge rate jumps from the lower value up to the full value and by the time you go to fire another round you are shooting and a much hire shield value. If you are firing against one of my ships you can figure my shield will recharge in 10 seconds once that rate is hit.
I noticed that some of the stock pirate ships because of the changes can't fire at all.
Because of the changes it has become pretty much impossible to build something like a small bomber craft.
That same 4 M +4DP has a power consumption of 73,800 per missile while power consumption of the 4C+4C is only 88.
To support being able to fire those missiles it doesn't just take the missiles it also means you need the power capacitors for that can handle that amount of power plus enough reactors to recharge in that 90 seconds. That happens to be 16 capacitors and 7 reactor modules.
7 reactor modules produces 924e/s that can power 5 cannon + 5 cannon indefinitely. Not just that I now have no need for the capacitors because there is 50000 to start with. I could choose then to use the added space for power generation/reactors and giving me 4,833e/s. That is enough to power 25 cannons x 25 cannons. But then you are looking at having 50 cannon blocks vs the 4M +4DP.
The original block count for the 4M+4DP = 4M+4D+16Cap +7 reactor for a total of 31. at a DPS of 160 or less depending on what you fired at. Plus Shields would go back up in that time.
In that same 31 block space you can run 11 cannon x 11 cannon + 9 reactor for 110 dps. This will also take the shields down and while the 4M+4DP will never do so.
In short the lesson for Missiles you will need high capacitance and just enough reactor power to recharge in the time for Missiles to cycle. Any extra would go to shields or other weapons you intend to use along with thrust.
If you add overdrive to the missiles you are looking at 6 times the stated power requirement values on it. It says it requires 108,000 power for the 4M+4DP+4OD but in truth it will not fire a missile for less than 648,000 which requires 246 capacitors +30 reactors to recharge in the allotted 90 seconds at 7200e/s that 648,000e/90s. The stated value of damage is 21,600 per missile it appears to give up to 3 times that value.
How worth while is that you would have to compare it against other missile formations and count blocks and power again. It certainly doesn't lend to have a small agile craft delivering a payload of this nature.
I also noticed even on small craft armor damage seems to be miscalculated. On one small craft with 0 armor penalty I found with approx 200 advanced armor when only 5 were destroyed and 1 damaged that it said I had near 50% armor left. Not sure how 6 blocks equals 50% of my armor out of 200 blocks. I'd have to say there is a serious math error there.
I also notice some of the standard pirate fighters can no longer fire weapons because of the changes.
Have to go now. Hope this gives a few people ideas what to watch out for.
