Does anyone else find the phase cannon to be too situational?

[Lolpingu]

In terms of raw damage, the phase cannon is a beast. 4d12 Means it can hit like a truck even without any overpenetration. Its PV is massive aswell - 16, which is far higher than the AV of most enemies in the game. This means that the weapon will overpenetrate against many enemies, often dealing upwards of 100 damage.

Here's the problem, though. I haven't encountered many enemies that have low AV but high HP, meaning that I could have just as easily killed them with an Eigenrifle, which would drain a lot less power. Saad Amus and Oboroqoru are two such enemies, and indeed, the phase cannon is a godsend against them as neither have 16 or more AV but both have high HP. Otherwise though, the phase cannon is usually overkill and it lacks the Eigenrifle's ability to hit multiple targets, meaning that it's not very effective against large groups of enemies.

On the other hand, most high-HP enemies have more than 16 AV. Salt Krakens, Great Saltbacks, Leering Stalkers and Chrome Pyramids are examples of enemies that have upwards of 16 AV and a lot of health. Powerful as it is, the phase cannon fails to pen their armor and you're much better off using other means to kill them.

I think this weapon should be the vibro-weapon equivalent of a missile weapon to be used against late-game enemies, and for that, I think it should be changed to a variable-PV weapon. To balance this out, I think it would be fair to make it weigh more, consume more power and perhaps require more rare tinkering bits to make.

What do you think?

[CHOO CHOO]

Ranged combat feels underpowered in general; why use it when you can chop things up instead?

[3xBacon]

My current tinker carries multiple ranged and melee weapons for a variety of situations. I find that late game my carrying capacity consists less of drams and trade goods and more items so that I can be prepared for those situational moments.

[Lolpingu]

Originally posted by CHOO CHOO:

Ranged combat feels underpowered in general; why use it when you can chop things up instead?

Well, with giant hands and gun rack or helping hands for true kin or multiple arms and helping hands for mutants, you can wield three two-handed missile weapons or six pistols which is pretty hilarious. After all the times I encountered a swarm of ickslugs and got annihilated or had to use a recoiler, slaughtering them wholesale using three modded chainguns never gets old.

But yeah, missile weapons are generally not great against late-game enemies. They either lack the penetration to kill them or, in the case of flamethrowers and missile launchers, they will probably hurt you more than whatever you're trying to kill.

[Stafford's Bees]

Top level pyschic assassin encounters are often stuff like a handful of massively leveled knollworms with three or four hundred hp each, so there's that.

One time I found one way too early and killed slog in three turns with flaming hands->mark->beacon shot.

[THANKS OBAMA]

Originally posted by Lolpingu:

Originally posted by CHOO CHOO:

Ranged combat feels underpowered in general; why use it when you can chop things up instead?

Well, with giant hands and gun rack or helping hands for true kin or multiple arms and helping hands for mutants, you can wield three two-handed missile weapons or six pistols which is pretty hilarious. After all the times I encountered a swarm of ickslugs and got annihilated or had to use a recoiler, slaughtering them wholesale using three modded chainguns never gets old.

But yeah, missile weapons are generally not great against late-game enemies. They either lack the penetration to kill them or, in the case of flamethrowers and missile launchers, they will probably hurt you more than whatever you're trying to kill.

Grenade Launcher + Resonance MK III Grenades. Or just straight up Resonance MK III being tossed far enough.

Its like the only Mark III grenade that doesn't use a 1 bit in it, only two jank ones.

Of course you're gonna be messing up the entire battlefield while you do it.

But yeah the heavy weapons need work, I don't think they even compare against lobbing high explosive nades.

[CHOO CHOO]

Explosives in general feel overpoweed, what with bypassing all resistances.