Rewritten cannon mechanics post. Bringing weapon computer point distribution into the mix has made the damage model FAR more complicated, and I think it may be a little over my head. I can still offer some observations and suggestions, but they should be taken with a grain of salt until someone with more time and math skills can give some definitive answers.
1 - Weapon groups gain no benefits from their dimensions. Only the number of blocks directly connected to the group matters.
2 - Weapon damage scales linearly. You get 15 damage for every AMC block you add to a group.
3 - Damage per second, however, appears to exhibit quadratic growth* (at least up to 99 blocks) due to the influence of reload time, meaning you get an increasingly large benefit from making your gun bigger.
4 - Reload time is capped at 0.05 seconds. This cap occurs naturally (no points reallocated) at 99 blocks, or possibly 100 (the game may not visually display the third decimal point), but can be reached slightly earlier by taking points from range and projectile speed. In most cases, it appears to be advantageous from a DPS perspective to stay as close to the reload cap as possible.
5 – Subtracting points from one weapon stat always increases all the others. Adding points into one stat always decreases all the others.
6 - Putting 100 points into any one stat causes the other three to default to their lowest possible value (or highest in the case of reload).
7 – While reload speed is capped at 0.05 seconds, it appears that the game continues to add “reload stat,” for lack of a better term, even after the cap. For example, if I subtract five points from range (increasing all the other stats), I can put five points in damage (causing all other stats to decrease) without affecting reload speed because those five points I subtracted beefed up the reload stat, even though the value displayed in the computer didn’t change. This also explains why with increasing mass, points can be taken from reload without it actually causing reload speed to slow down. Each AMC block adds a little bit of speed by itself, even after the cap, up to the point where all 25 points can be subtracted. This point occurs naturally at 395 blocks, but like the 0.05s cap, can be reached sooner by taking points from projectile speed and range.
8 - Projectile speed and range do not appear to have an upper limit that I was able to reach during testing. At its biggest, my test gun was firing lasers that traveled 8.5 sectors per second (17000 m/s) and had a maximum range of 125 sectors (250000 meters). Both speed and distance scale linearly with block count.
What does all this mean? For starters, it means that given the choice between making your current gun bigger and adding another gun, in almost all situations, one big gun is better than multiple smaller ones. This statement *appears* to hold true all the way up to extremely high masses (+10,000 blocks). As the mass of the weapon increases, stat points provide increasingly large amounts of damage, and the base stats provided by each AMC block allow you push more and more of those points into damage without making major sacrifices. While I can’t give a perfect mathematical description of the system, I can definitely say that it is non-linear.
Secondly, while you could theoretically figure out the perfect stat distribution to maximize DPS for a certain number of blocks, which would involve subtracting all 75 points from speed, range, and reload and then redistributing them between damage and reload (how many into each being entirely dependent on mass), in most cases this isn’t practical at all. Speed and range DO have value, it’s just difficult to define. Do you need the accuracy that comes from fast projectiles, or are you good at leading targets? Do you intend to engage enemies from a distance, or brawl with them up close? The answers to those questions are entirely up to your play style and the nature of your ship, and will change how you should distribute your points. The best advice I can give for figuring out how to get the most out of your weapon for what YOU want to do with it would be always remember point 5, try to stay close to the reload cap, and monitor how moving stats around changes your DPS using this equation:
Weapon damage / (Reload speed * 0.001)
Also remember that sectors are, to my knowledge, about 2000 meters across, so if your range is much longer than that, those points are currently not doing you much good.
As a final note, if you are building turrets or small ships, always remember that small cannons are just really bad. The difference in natural DPS between a 1 block cannon and a 10 block cannon is two orders of magnitude (3 vs. 300). I’m not suggesting that 10 is the magic number to shoot for, just that you should try to cram as many cannon blocks onto your smaller guns as possible.
*Mathy explanation- Quadratic growth is similar to exponential growth in that as you move along the curve, its slope increases. They are differentiated in that with exponential growth, the rate at which the slope increases is constantly increasing, whereas in quadratic growth, the steepness of the curve increases at a constant rate.
1 - Weapon groups gain no benefits from their dimensions. Only the number of blocks directly connected to the group matters.
2 - Weapon damage scales linearly. You get 15 damage for every AMC block you add to a group.
3 - Damage per second, however, appears to exhibit quadratic growth* (at least up to 99 blocks) due to the influence of reload time, meaning you get an increasingly large benefit from making your gun bigger.
4 - Reload time is capped at 0.05 seconds. This cap occurs naturally (no points reallocated) at 99 blocks, or possibly 100 (the game may not visually display the third decimal point), but can be reached slightly earlier by taking points from range and projectile speed. In most cases, it appears to be advantageous from a DPS perspective to stay as close to the reload cap as possible.
5 – Subtracting points from one weapon stat always increases all the others. Adding points into one stat always decreases all the others.
6 - Putting 100 points into any one stat causes the other three to default to their lowest possible value (or highest in the case of reload).
7 – While reload speed is capped at 0.05 seconds, it appears that the game continues to add “reload stat,” for lack of a better term, even after the cap. For example, if I subtract five points from range (increasing all the other stats), I can put five points in damage (causing all other stats to decrease) without affecting reload speed because those five points I subtracted beefed up the reload stat, even though the value displayed in the computer didn’t change. This also explains why with increasing mass, points can be taken from reload without it actually causing reload speed to slow down. Each AMC block adds a little bit of speed by itself, even after the cap, up to the point where all 25 points can be subtracted. This point occurs naturally at 395 blocks, but like the 0.05s cap, can be reached sooner by taking points from projectile speed and range.
8 - Projectile speed and range do not appear to have an upper limit that I was able to reach during testing. At its biggest, my test gun was firing lasers that traveled 8.5 sectors per second (17000 m/s) and had a maximum range of 125 sectors (250000 meters). Both speed and distance scale linearly with block count.
What does all this mean? For starters, it means that given the choice between making your current gun bigger and adding another gun, in almost all situations, one big gun is better than multiple smaller ones. This statement *appears* to hold true all the way up to extremely high masses (+10,000 blocks). As the mass of the weapon increases, stat points provide increasingly large amounts of damage, and the base stats provided by each AMC block allow you push more and more of those points into damage without making major sacrifices. While I can’t give a perfect mathematical description of the system, I can definitely say that it is non-linear.
Secondly, while you could theoretically figure out the perfect stat distribution to maximize DPS for a certain number of blocks, which would involve subtracting all 75 points from speed, range, and reload and then redistributing them between damage and reload (how many into each being entirely dependent on mass), in most cases this isn’t practical at all. Speed and range DO have value, it’s just difficult to define. Do you need the accuracy that comes from fast projectiles, or are you good at leading targets? Do you intend to engage enemies from a distance, or brawl with them up close? The answers to those questions are entirely up to your play style and the nature of your ship, and will change how you should distribute your points. The best advice I can give for figuring out how to get the most out of your weapon for what YOU want to do with it would be always remember point 5, try to stay close to the reload cap, and monitor how moving stats around changes your DPS using this equation:
Weapon damage / (Reload speed * 0.001)
Also remember that sectors are, to my knowledge, about 2000 meters across, so if your range is much longer than that, those points are currently not doing you much good.
As a final note, if you are building turrets or small ships, always remember that small cannons are just really bad. The difference in natural DPS between a 1 block cannon and a 10 block cannon is two orders of magnitude (3 vs. 300). I’m not suggesting that 10 is the magic number to shoot for, just that you should try to cram as many cannon blocks onto your smaller guns as possible.
*Mathy explanation- Quadratic growth is similar to exponential growth in that as you move along the curve, its slope increases. They are differentiated in that with exponential growth, the rate at which the slope increases is constantly increasing, whereas in quadratic growth, the steepness of the curve increases at a constant rate.
