Relative Weapon Power and Balancing

[spunky]

Using the data here, I generated the following table:



In my opinion, the most important statistic is Maximum Damage per Minute per Power, since it gives an idea of how "efficient" each weapon is.

In particular, I think both the Burst Laser 3 and Hull Laser 2 need to be heavily rebalanced to make them worth purchasing over their lower-tier counterparts.

Thoughts?

[Nox]

Combat in this game isn't a matter of dps. It's a matter of situationality and squared combat.

This doesn't consider a few crucial factors such as the burst damage capability, the per-slot capability, or the qualitative factors involved.

It really is not only a quantitative comparison.

For consideration - here's my ship from my last play through. That ship would use a BL3. maybe even two if I could find them.

[Gorlom]

You don't really notice the effects of missiles bypassing shields in that comparison. By the way where are the bombs and the beams?

[JanoS]

Price of Dual lasers and Basic laser is irrelevant, as you cannot buy it anywhere.
Otherwise I would gladly buy several Dual lasers, they are pretty good.

BTW: Did anyone found Artemis missile for sale? There are two versions, one has 11s cooldown and other 9s cooldown. The player starts with 11s, but if there is one for sale, it will be the 9s one. However, I think that there is never one for sale, only the enemies have the 9s cooldown. Bastards

[spunky]

Didn't have time to look up bombs/beams, I'll try and update that later.

Combat in this game isn't a matter of dps. It's a matter of situationality and squared combat.

This doesn't consider a few crucial factors such as the burst damage capability, the per-slot capability, or the qualitative factors involved.

It really is not only a quantitative comparison.

9 times out of 10, you need weapons that fire frequently to either
(a) bring down enemy shields so that systems are exposed to other weapons (especially beam)
(b) bypass shields and bring down a system (i.e. a missile)

The whole point of the "dps" idea is that you want to buy weapons that have a reasonable cooldown. Take the Federation cruiser for example; I bought a hull laser last game but never ended up swapping out because the 10s cooldown on the basic laser is too good for frequently bringing down shields (at least in the first half of the sectors).

Sure, the entire game is situational, but in most cases you are going to want weapons with a small CD, and most of the "advanced" weapons fall short in that area, and can weaken you if you depend on them.

[WordMercenary]

You've got some good ideas here, but there's a lot of important things you've omitted.

Firstly, DPS is far less important than burst damage in this game. Burst damage (or shield penetration) is the only way you'll take down a shield. Reliable DPS will just let them regenerate forever.

Secondly you've also not considered shots per shot. You can only ever have four weapons slots, so the fact that the basic laser is incredibly efficient with power is totally immaterial, since power goes up to eight, but weapon slots only go to four.

Thus, a pair of burst lasers 2s are superior to four basic lasers in every way. They do six shots in a burst, rather than four, meaning they can penetrate and deal damage even against a five shield adversary. And while they take up the same amount of power (four), they take up half the slots (two) allowing you to add additional lasers, beams, or missiles to taste.

Currently I'd say multiple burst lasers are the strongest weapon in the game. But I would agree that the burst laser 3 is a little underpowered. It takes the same amount of power as two burst laser 2s, does one less shot and has a longer cooldown. While it does take up one less slot, having a single power four weapon in a slot is kinda overkill, as it gives you only four power between your three remaining slots.

I don't want to play armchair quarterback on balancing, because way it's a delicate art, but maybe reducing the burst laser 3 to a power requirement on 3 would make it more useful.