Weapons and their balance

[corisai]

Please take a note that I'm comparing weapons placed on human light cruisers and will do so both for basic weapons and with all mods except Armor Piercing (if you plan to use it - it just will raise all your cost linearly). I hope I will tomorrow update it to include Heavy weapons too.

I will use term "DpS" = Damage per Salvo for 1 gun, taken as median between min and max damage (if anybody have formula for accuracy - I don't refuse to look on it ^_~).

I will look on guns from point of DpS, because it's determine how much damage we can unleash in single turn and more damage = less retaliation fire we will get in next enemy turn.

Coilguns : while they have more damage, range and ability to bypass early shields - they also more expensive in most sensitive area - minerals.
Coilgun average DpS 7.5 vs laser DpS 5.5.
Laser notable less resource-hungry : 0.55 metal per 1 DpS vs coilgun 1 metal per 1 DpS, but much more hard to produce : 2.18 production per 1 DpS vs coilgun 1 production per 1 DpS.

With upgrades laser DpS will reach 11 and bypass coilgun (RF will cost you 360 research points) and will equal in production costs (laser 2 vs coilgun 2.18 production per DpS), still being less costing in minerals (laser 0,55 vs coilgun 2 metal per DpS) and became more power-efficient then coilguns (actually upgraded coilguns worst in terms of DpS per energy, but at least it's pay for range).

Still seem coliguns as quite stong gun but quite expensive in minerals. It's shield penetration and long range also nice to have.

Ion weapons : what is that madness, devs? 1330 research (based on normal & imperials with no field bonuses) and will lose comparison with simply Rapid Fire Lasers (costing mere 360 RP).

Actually basic Ion cannon have better stats then basic turbolaser in all field, but if we include Rapid Fire modifier - will lose completely to basic laser.

Basic RF+Acc laser will have a bit less DpS then Acc ion (11 vs ion 12), but will be easier to build (2.18 production per DpS vs ion 2.25), cheaper (0.55 metal per DpS vs ion 0.58) and only a bit more power-hungry.

Need fix, definitely need.

Turbolaser : what we will get for 2330 research? Well, as basic gun turbolaser is in same field as coilgun and unable to compete with Ions at all. So we will include additional 360 Rapid Fire cost and receive 2690 total RP (actually we will need RF tech for heavy turbolaser so its okay). And that's will change everything.

Turbolaser, RF+Acc will have 17 DpS, will be easier produce then any other uprgaded gun (only 1.76 production per 1 DpS - second best by production costs upgraded gun in medium slot!), and will be absolute cheapest in minerals (0.44 metal per 1 DpS - cheapest medium gun in game!). And it's even most power-effective DpS-wise.

It's simply great gun.

Disruptors : pretty horrible as weapon for combat, not piracy. Sure, for 3440 research cost it will deal more damage then basic turbolaser, but with addition of weapon mods situation will change dramaticaly.

Disruptor, Acc, will have 13 DpS, will be very expensive to produce (2.77 production per DpS, worst value over all upgraded medium guns) and will be 1.5x times cost in metals as RF+Acc turbolaser (0.69 metal per DpS vs turbolaser 0.44)

So if you don't plan to be pirate - avoid that gun.

Primary beams : ultimate beam weapon. Let's see how much it's "ultimate" for it's incredible 10920 RP cost. Main problem that it's crap. Totally crap. Devs-please-fix-it. Let's compare this with 2690 RP Turbolaser with RF mod.

Primaries (+Acc) will have 18 DpS. 18! While RF+Acc turbolaser will have 17. And this what we have got for all that science? Meh. Also primaries will be more expensive in both production and metal per 1 DpS then updated Turbolaser.

Very disappointing gun. Seems it's done simply as waystone to stellar surge and nothing more.

Force beams : and now we shall look on best kinetic gun. It's simply awesome. 30 DpS, cheapest upgraded gun production-wise (1.5 production per DpS), but also most second expensive in metal among upgraded guns (1.5 metal per DpS).

Including range and shield penetration for all but top-tier shields - it simply awesome. At least it's cost (14390 RP) payed.

QUESTIONS (if anybody reading :P)
1) How's PD work?
a) missiles & fighters increasing own HP with techs (armor techs like was in MoO, or somehow else), or they have fixed HP values?
b) are damage to fighters and missiles are calculated per individual model, or all their HP combined into single pool?

2) How's range penalties work? Seems like it's separate 25..75% multiplier on weapon damage. I'm right here?

[corisai]

Point defense

PD Coilgun : It's follow same guideline as basic Coilgun, much cheaper to produce in manufacture points (1.25 per DpS compared with basic laser 3 production per 1 DpS), but cost more minerals (1.25 per DpS vs laser 0.75).

Sure, PD Coilguns deal more damage then Laser PD, but I think you could use that 200 RP into something else, especially because lasers more effective metal-based and metal is often bottleneck. Obliviously if you're plan to use only kinetic antishield guns - then PD Coilguns will be nice supplementary as side weapon against enemy ships.

PD Ions. 1530 RP. For what? They're twice as effective as basic laser PD - sure, but we can get Rapid Fire for mere 360 RP and then laser RF PD will bring more DpS then ion PD have.

Still PD Ions not that bad as ordinary Ion guns - while Ion PD (+Acc) bring a bit less damage then PD Laser (RF+Acc) : 3.5 DpS vs 4 DpS, it's notable cheaper - using only 2.57 production points per 1 DpS (upgraded laser cost 3 points per 1 DpS) and more importantly - use less metal (0.64 metal per DpS compared with upgraded laser 1.5)

Anyway they need a bit of love too (or RF tech need a bit of nerf. Well. A lot of nerf!).

Defense Turbolaser. Quite expensive tech, but linked with heavy Turbolaser design and RF mod - so it's okay.

Even basic, unmodded PD Turbolaser is better then RF laser PD - good job here. Upgraded PD Turbolaser (Acc+RF) very economically efficient over any other PD systems at that time. Don't seem any numbers needed here - it's clear upgrade. Only if you're in dire shortage of metal, then you should know that PD Ions are cheaper (0.64 metal per 1 DpS compared with turbolaser 0.94).

Defense Primaries : very, very strange thing. After done calculation for Primary Beams I'd expected that gun being very bleak too - and got wrong. Defense Primaries are notable upgrade and VERY economicaly effective over any other PD.

They done 10 DpS (compared with previous best 8 from Turbolaser RF+Acc PD), their upgraded version are very easy to produce (0.9 production per 1 DpS compared with best previous value 1.88 from Turbolaser RD+Acc PD, yes more then twice as effective!) and incredible effective in metal - 0.23 metal per 1 DpS (previous best from Ion PD 0.64). Also they're less power-hungry DpS-wise.

Very pleasant surprise. That's how basic Primary Beams should be - notable stronger then turbolaser (Defense Primaries have +25% DpS then Turbolaser RF!) and much more economically effective. Please, someone, fix Primary Beams :)

[corisai]

Heavy weapons

Things became a bit more complexicated here because you can put Medium-sized weapons into Heavy slots to get x2 of them and there's some artifacts with costs of such addition. But mostly I'm think that range advantage of heavy weapons is more important and I will ignore medium weapon options until specifically mention it.

Heavy Laser : and here we again hit into devs not considered rapid fire mod effects. Sure, basic Heavy Laser is stronger then even RF Laser and it's okay, but with Heavy Laser tech we're very close to Turbolaser - and 2x turbolasers even without RF mod will outshine Heavy Laser a bit.

Seems that this is very situative weapon, not intened for any real usage and serving only waystone to turbolaser. Well, at least it's in all stats better then basic Laser.

Heavy Coilgun : stronger then Heavy Laser, but also notable more expensive in terms of RP (480 vs 300 for lasers with them have same prerequisites). Again same problem - rapid fire laser will outshine coilguns in raw dps, but kinetic have nice range and ability to ignore shields.

Heavy coilgun have 13 DpS (basic heavy laser 10, heavy laser with RF 20), upgraded coilgun (Acc+LR) again easier to produce then upgraded heavy laser (Acc+RF) : 1.77 production per 1 DpS vs 1.8, and again cost more metal then laser : 1.77 metal per 1 DpS vs 0.45 per DpS.

So seem that's balance line between lasers and coilguns, all okay here.

Heavy Turbolaser : next major step in heavy weaponry, 3130 RP cost advanced laser. It's follow same guideline as basic turbolaser - a bit more damage then coilgun, notable to build and notable cheaper in metal.

Clear upgrade for heavy slot if you're don't use kinetic, take it without think. It's more economically effective then RF laser if someone mad enough to check it :)

Heavy Ion Cannon : 3720 RP cost and waystone for end-game beams. But as weapon itself... Devs, please fix ions, they're useless. Yes, basic Heavy Ion Canon better then basic Heavy Turbolaser, but Heavy Turbolaser ALREADY include Rapid Fire tech and it's super stupid not to use it.

Let's compare it : Heavy Ion Cannon(+Acc) have 17 DpS, cost 1.59 production and 0.41 metal per 1 DpS. In same time Heavy Turbolaser (+Acc, +RF) have 28 (!) DpS, cost 1.61 production and 0.39 minerals per 1 DpS.

It's clearly seems that dev's intended to make ions "beggar" weapons, but actually damage-wise ions don't cheap enough to make notable difference. Definitely need some kind of fix here.

Heavy Railgun : oh, my, what a gun. No range dissipation is VERY strong buff if we remember that currently SiS don't limit our fleet sized in any ways. 3990 RP cost is notable larger then turbolaser, but let's see what we get for it.

DpS 50. It's freaking amazing, combined with it's range and no range penalties. Actually only one gun (excluding stellar convertor) have more DpS. Because of such high damage, Heavy Railgun also cheapest heavy gun by production per 1 DpS, but mediocre expensive in metal.

Heavy railgun outshine all, but Hellbore Cannon and Stellar Convertor. It's making kinetic very viable choise - you're got best medium-sized gun in game and second-best heavy gun, but need to win before enemy start to spawn Dread Stars with doomday weapon.

Plasma Cannon : 4520 RP. well, again we're see waystone to more powerfull gun, but at least plasma cannon is more then upgrade over turbolaser or god-save-me - ions. Inferior to heavy railgun completely, but enveloping bonus not bad at all, especially in mass fleet combat.

Stat wise it's major upgrade for both ions and turbolasers. DpS 37,5 and as for cost-per-dps is totally same as Turbolaser, so here we're see okay balance.

Neutron Beam : 4720 RP. Here again we're see much better balance then with medium guns - despite being obliviously boarding gun, Neutron Beams outperform RF Heavy Turbolasers in all ways.

Cost wise Neutron Beams more economically effective then Plasma Cannon, while have same DpS (but not have enveloping). So if you're up to boarding, then Neutron Beams based ships may still viable until endgame.

Hellbore Cannon : Extremly expensive (17320RP), extremly powerfull. Hellbore cannons are again okay balances - more DpS (90), more economical then Plasma Cannons. Clear upgrade.

Pulson Launcher : somewhy it's placed in heavy slots. Here we're have a black horse of weaponry... or that's was intended.

First : pulsons have smaller range then other heavy guns.
Second : they're vulnerable to PD.
Third : they're don't unlock anything.

Yes, on paper that thing have even more DpS then Heavy Railgun (theoretically pulsons have 70 DpS and same no range dissipation - but much less range and PD weakness), but if we look on all that items, we can realise that in most time Pulsons will be inferior.

I can see only one use for them - to put them into Battleship missile slot if you're don't using fighters / missiles and don't need to increase amount of targets for enemy PD. But here lie another problem. Antimatter missiles cost only 6700 RP, while pulsons 6420 RP.

Conclusions

Will be soon :)

[Kain_99]

Yeah I found the coil/rail guns to be far better just for the fact they can ignore shields when fighting off the marauders and there battleships mid game you almost need them or atleast I did becuase it just takes to long to get the shields down with lasers, ions etc