Burst Laser Mk 3 is UP

[ScottyDoesKnow]

A percentage of a higher number is higher than the same percentage of a lower number. Thus, higher reload time weapons gain more of a benefit from a percentage reduction in their load times.

Not really, the percentage is really what matters. Let's say you add +2 damage to a fast weapon and a slow one. The way you're thinking about it, they both get the same benefit because they both get +2, but really the faster weapon gets more benefit. The important thing is the DPS, and the DPS is affected equally for all weapons with reload time reduction as a percentage.

[Drasha]

double mk2 should be better then a mk3. Its harder to get two of the same weapon and it costs an extra weapon slot which could be giving you more damage or utility with a some thing you can switch to. The mk3 is a perfectly good weapon that gives you a lot of shield disabling power and has been of great help to me on boss runs.

[Gorlom]

A percentage of a higher number is higher than the same percentage of a lower number. Thus, higher reload time weapons gain more of a benefit from a percentage reduction in their load times.

15% of 8 seconds are 1.2 seconds. new charge time is 6.8 seconds.
15% of 12 seconds are 1.8 seconds. new charge time is 10.2
15% of 14 seconds are 2.1 seconds. new charge time is 11.9
15% of 18 seconds are 2.7 seconds. new charge time is 15.3


in 60 seconds the 8 second weapon fires 7.5 times base charge, 8.82... times with 15% reduction in charge time.
At 47.6 seconds it will have fire one additional salvo when augmented compared to base charge time.
47.6/8 = 5.95 only 5 shots has been fired, it is about to fire a 6th.
47.6/6.8 = 7. it has fired 7 shots with the augment.

in 60 seconds the 12 second weapon fires 5 times base charge. 5.88 times with 15% reduction in charge time.
at 71.4 seconds it will have fired one additional salvo when augmented compared to base charge time
71.4/12 = 5.95
71.4/10.2 = 7

in 60 seconds the 14 second weapon fires 4.28 times base charge. 5 times with 15% reduction in charge time.
at 83.3 seconds it will have fired one additional salvo when augmented compared to base charge time.
7*11.9 = 83.3

in 60 seconds the 18 second weapon fires 3.33 times base charge. 3.9 times with 15% reudction in charge time.
7*15.3 = 107.1. You need to wait 1 min and 47 seconds for weapon with 18 base charge time to fire an addtional salvo.


The % reduction is the same across all weapons. The charge time reduction is bigger on weapons that take long to charge, but it takes longer for any benefit to show on those weapons.


TBH I am not sure which weapon benefits the most from an automated reloader/ crewmember manning the console.
To me it seems that shorter charge time weapons benefit more since they get to shoot extra salvos faster, but that could be a logical misstake from my side.
I'm kind of tired so it wouldn't surprise me. Does my post even make sense without already knowing what I'm talking about?

[Derakon]

Assuming your weapons fire in salvos, the weapon that benefits most from improved reload time is the one that's holding up your salvo -- the one with the slowest charge time. All this talk about DPS ignores the fact that you generally don't fire your weapons out of sync, excepting missile/bomb weapons.

[Whale Cancer]

Math!

I'm going to look at this more closely when I have time, but I may be wrong.

Another question, though. Do we know how seconds round (I have to assume they do)? Floor or ceiling? That could be quite important in this discussion, as certain extremely fast loading weapons (due to optimization) may lose some of that due to rounding.

[Tamren]

I wouldn't mind having the Burst Laser III to be 4 shots at 3 power. Going from 3 for 2 to 5 for 4 is really really chunky. Know what I mean?

That said it makes a wonderful alpha strike weapon. One tactic I used once was to have the burst laser III in combination with weapon pre-igniter. It didn't matter that it took up 4 energy because I would only fire it once on the first round, and then switch to other weapons which totalled 8 energy without the burst laser.

[Unlucky Scarecrow]

I don't know what point Gorlom was trying to prove with his big math post, but the summary at the bottom is the complete opposite from a conclusion I got to on my own. Let me make one of my own to try to make a clear point.

BL1: 2 power / 2 shots / 11s reload = 10,9 DPM
BL2: 2 power / 3 shots / 12s reload = 15 DPM
BL3: 4 power / 5 shots / 19s reload = 15.75 DPM

With 35% reduction (Augment plus high skill crew member manning weapons)
BL1: 2 power / 2 shots / 7.15s reload = 16.78 DPM
BL2: 2 power / 3 shots / 7.8s reload = 23.08 DPM
BL3: 4 power / 5 shots / 12.35s reload = 24.29 DPM

Difference in power between BL1 pre- and post-reduction: 35%
Difference in power between BL2 pre- and post-reduction: 35%
Difference in power between BL3 pre- and post-reduction: 35%

So what does this mean? Before any augments or reductions, the BL3 does 0.75 more damage per minute than the BL2. After reduction (the maximum), the BL3 does 1.21 more damage per minute than the BL2. So what does it mean? As the firing speed decreases, damage over time increases at a rate directly proportional; And because the BL3 has a higher base damage per minute, it gains the most added damage as well. This is true with any and all weapons, and any amount of charge time reduction.

--

However, I still think the BL2 is better than BL3 given enough weapon slots; simply because equipping two of them gives much greater Damage per Minute PER ENERGY. The BL4 only becomes worth it when weapon slots need to be used on other things.

[zarakon]

I like Burst 3.

[Hissatsu]

2 Whale Cancer

Here is some data. Using Pike Beam (16 seconds):
- with 2 Reloaders (15%) and expert (19%) weapon crew gives ~10 charge time.
- with 2 Reloaders (15%) and no crew gives ~12.6 charge time
- with 3 Reloaders (15%) and expert (19%) weapon crew gives ~9 charge time.
- with 3 Reloaders (15%) and no crew gives ~11.3 charge time

I think the way it stacks is these numbers are all added together and applied to recharge SPEED (so, in this case we had 1/16 recharge per second speed). This formula should give the following results for those 4 cases:
10,7382550336
12,3076923077
9,756097561
11,0344827586
which is pretty close (mind it, i measured time with a stopwatch so my measurment might have been off)

[Gorlom]

unlucky scarecrow: I was focusing on the amount of volleys rather than damage output. I'm concerned that just looking at the DPM might be misleading.

I think ion weapons benefit a lot more from charge reduction than any other kind of weapon because of the duration effect of ion weaponry.