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CCP Hammer
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Posted - 2005.03.02 20:44:00 -
[1]
I'm going to start this post with an image:
That is the current state of the small short range/high damage weapons fitted with the longest range/lowest damage ammos. This is with no ship bonuses, shooting at a frigate flying at 300m/s. I would say that the blasters and autocannons compare relatively well to each other but there is a line on that graph that is just a little out of place, you might even say it's not balanced. That's the pulse laser. The pulse lasers optimal range gives it what some might call "an advantage" over the other classes of short range/high damage weapons. The damage output is also an issue when using Carbonized Lead vs. Iron vs. Radio. This is something that most sane players with a mind for balance and fairness would want fixed I'm guessing.
It's worth noting at this point that the guns are all factors of their smaller siblings so if the Mega Pulse is out of Balance with the 800mm autocannon then the same must hold true for the medium and small guns. Some people might need to read that last sentence twice. Now we then look at a graph of the just the mega pulse lasers with each type of crystal fitted. This simulates shooting at a battleship traveling at a transversal of 150m/s. (no skills included in the calculations)
As can be seen by this graph the laser frequency crystals are all over the place with regard to their range and damage. The standard crystal just sucks and the longer range crystals just get better and better as they go further out without ever getting lower in damage like would be expected and like happens on Hybrid Charges and Projectile Ammo. This makes the radio crystal a no brainer when you want anything longer range than UV and makes the other crystals pretty pointless. This is especially true when considering firing on a typical triple hardened battleship their least resisted damage type is EM. So some fixing was in order for the crystals to fix their feng shui.
So what we're putting out for testing is the fix to crystals and nerf to the pulse lasers optimal range to see if this helps to balance them out. Nerfing optimal seemed like the best choice as that's where they are currently out of balance with the other guns. The other logical choice would have been to reduce their damage at turn them into a truely medium range gun but that would have left lasers with no short range option and would have left hybrids and projectiles without a true medium range weapon. This could have thrown the balance furhter out of wack instead of fixing things.
So here is a graph of the proposed change to crystals and pulse lasers (with no skills added):
If you compare that to the second image I'm sure you would agree that this looks far more "correct".
Finally I've included a graph of the pulse lasers imposed with an ion blaster and a 350mm railgun both fitted with antimatter. This is also shooting at a 400 sigRad target moving 150m/s transversally. (gunnery skills at 5 but no ship skills)
The hybrids are perhaps doing a little less damage than they should be doing considering the amount of cap they use so that will mostly lilely get looked at at some point in the future but no promises there. (I said no promises!  )
I await the flames of my evil Amarrian supressors.
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CCP Hammer
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Posted - 2005.03.03 15:42:00 -
[2]
I want to post a few more graphs to show how things are currently and how they might be if it's decided that this is the right fix. This time I'm using full ship bonuses and showing the differenced between the different resists.
The first three graphs are a Pulse vs. a Railgun vs. Artillery fitted on elite gunships with all skills for everything at 5 (even mining). The guns are fitted on the
This is using Retribution with Radio crystals vs. Enyo with Antimatter vs. Claw with EMP. This is to show how well current pulse do compared to the long range other weapons.
The first against no resistances (the curves look the same against a typical triple hardened ship, just 60% less damage) There are too many "what if" situations to have graphs for every ship vs every ship with various tanking. You're going to have to extrapolate the difference for certain specific tanking and resists. I wish I could make a graph for every one of your setups vs every one of your enemies but that's just not feasable.
The second is against unhardened shields.
The third is against unhardened armor.
OK, so that's how it is now on TQ.
Here is how it is on SISI with the current range nerf and comparing all the short range guns with short range ammo vs each other.
Pulse nerf against no resists:
Pulse nerf against Shields:
Pulse nerf against Armor:
A final image with all the guns
As you can see by these graphs the pulse lasers are STILL GOOD and they are NOT RUINED. The pulse lasers still have a place in the world, they might not be such a no brainer anymore but if you want range you should check out the beam lasers. I'm still reading everyones posts, chatting on IRC and looking at numbers and checking for ships that are worthless. I need to go troll the ammo blog posts and the unofficial thread about the ammo now. I'm going to need to buy a new flame retardant suit soon.
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CCP Hammer
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Posted - 2005.03.03 17:26:00 -
[3]
Just to clear up any confusion the beam lasers are not getting changed at all.
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CCP Hammer
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Posted - 2005.03.03 18:22:00 -
[4]
 Originally by: Lukom N'Sharii
Edited by: Lukom N''Sharii on 03/03/2005 18:01:49
Hammer if I understand your last post well, You are not going to change beams ? So it will be a drastic nerf to them because of dmg and range nerf on crystals ?
We will end with long range guns which are usless at long range.
If you want to balance pulses do it by changing pulses Why to mass up all laser guns ?
I'm not sure what you're asking? Pulse laser range is being reduced. Beam laser range is not. There are some ammo changes in testing also; the radio is gets more range than any other ammo, the microwave crystal does the same damage and range as the other long range ammo types.
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CCP Hammer
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Posted - 2005.04.02 00:10:00 -
[5]
Actually those graphs were made prior to the boost that hybrid got and fitting wise the ion was a better comparison. I don't think there are many people currently on TQ running a full rack of neutrons on their megathron. I could make you a graph of the neutrons vs mega pulse but it's midnight on friday night and that's just not going to happen because I'm a human and need some time on TQ like everyone else.
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