Alpha damage?

[Scottx125]

Anyone know what it is? I've got some mods installed and it has SDPS, HDPS and Alpha.

Edit: This mod - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1954934014
And - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1696862840

[Set-115689]

Alpha might be first strike damage like a volley of missiles being fired/hitting.

[Mittens]

In the battletech universe "Alpha" is the total firepower the machine can output with one trigger pull, Every single weapon firing all at once. Could be similar.

[Scottx125]

The mod I've installed specifically states the alpha damage is incredibly high for a beam weapon (~2k damage for hull/shield and 9.5k for alpha). It states because of this high alpha damage it can take down any fighter in one hit. But then what role does the shield/hull damage have in the damage calculation? It's extremely confusing.

[blizard]

Originally posted by Scottx125:

The mod I've installed specifically states the alpha damage is incredibly high for a beam weapon (~2k damage for hull/shield and 9.5k for alpha). It states because of this high alpha damage it can take down any fighter in one hit. But then what role does the shield/hull damage have in the damage calculation? It's extremely confusing.

just ignore it and play

[trooperrob]

Alpha is a "single strike" as opposed to continuous damage. so a beam with a low recharge might give a very high alpha strike but low damage per second. Useful if able to destroy the enemy and striking by surprise. Afterwards continuous or damage per second (dps) becomes more important. sdps is probably sustained dps

[Scottx125]

Originally posted by trooperrob:

Alpha is a "single strike" as opposed to continuous damage. so a beam with a low recharge might give a very high alpha strike but low damage per second. Useful if able to destroy the enemy and striking by surprise. Afterwards continuous or damage per second (dps) becomes more important. sdps is probably sustained dps

Aye, I asked the mod make directly and he said that the value is no longer used but it essentially does what you described here.

[shuulleech]

Originally posted by Scottx125:

Aye, I asked the mod make directly and he said that the value is no longer used but it essentially does what you described here.

Well it still works like that, i just removed those numbers (in latest 2.0 beta version of VRO) form weapon description as encyclopedia was fixed and there is no need for me to calculate and update those every time i change something, this is very time consuming. So yeah, that Heavy Lance beam turret still has one of biggest alpha-damage, meaning its one shot is very powerful but recharge is slow.
edit: btw, SDPS - DPS to shield, HDPS - DPS to hull. But this is also covered by encyclopedia now.