he i know this tread is a bit out of date but still.
with the new weapon balance i gone for 9k cannons 100 groups of 90 in a line with 6k beams and 99.7% ion.
every shot still does 58 or so hull damage.
So with the new balancing plz let me know what you think and how it can be further improved.
Depending on the weapon type there's a peculiar maximum effectiveness to be had. For instance Punch/Pierce Cannons have no limit to their effectiveness however missiles and beams both have a limit which, after you reach it, there's no point in further adding anymore blocks to the group.
Beams reach their maximum at 400 damage, because nothing has more than 400 effective hp, aside from shields of course. Keep in mind that pierce and punch will not cause them to actually go through blocks like cannons, it only increases damage the same as just adding more beam blocks would. So the total number of blocks you can destroy is only 5(1 per tick). If you decide to use explosive beams the maximum is actually around ~4000 damage or so. Ideally making each explosion do 400 damage so as to instantly destroy advanced armors(a maximum destroyed block total of about 30).
As far as shields go, the most
damaging weapon to use is ironically not beams or cannons but damage pulse. The pulse gets a whopping x20 multiplier with full Ion effect, which can eat shields in no time at all, however it does require you to be point blank. So let us assume a more reasonable weapon and say that cannons beat beams for a few reasons.
- Range: Cannons by default have twice the range of beams and can travel more than a measly 500m.
- Reload: No matter how you slice it cannons will always reload faster than a comparable beam weapon, this means the shields have less time to recover. Less recovery time means more time spent at only 6% of your total shield regen. A huge win honestly.
- Cost: In energy, cannons require less cost and can be fired more readily without the additional support structure(reactors and capacitors) that beams must have to function.
So with that in mind you can more easily swap your beams for Ion cannons. Make sure you add either punch OR pierce to your regular cannons as well, the damage you will do will skyrocket. Why will it jump? Cause punch/pierce will rollover the damage left from the first cannon hit into the block behind the first. So 90 cannons will essentially core out much of the enemies ship in short order.
Just my 2 cents.
