Pilot Archive

This bugged me since I was a newbie little pilot on test. What exactly are each of the weapon stat numbers doing? Not on a basic level mind you, but how are they actually intereacting.

So I came up with a very crude equation to rate my guns fairly quickly and so far it seems to work. I thought I'd put it up here so the experts can rip it apart and maybe put it back together in something that truly reflects how 'good' a weapon is, strictly from a damage dealing point of view.

So: ((o.5*(MinDam+MaxDam))*(0.5*(Vs. Shield+Vs. Armor)))/Refire

Or more simply Average Damage times Average 'Vs' divided by Refire. (Higher is better for the result)

This nets me one 'raw' number I can more easily eyeball and play with and from my (non-scientifically valid) experience it sure seems to be at the very least a good solid rule of thumb.

The equation doesn't account for Mass, Reactor Drain, Energy/Shot, Level (Doesn't really matter to me as I spend more time as an ace than I do not) Armor or Hitpoints. More significantly it doesn't account for significant differences between the 'Vs' numbers so hypothetically with a .95/.01 you'd have no trouble battering down shields but you could be plugging away a long time once those shields were down. As many ships allow for multiple weapons... and since you are almost always better loading out more weapons if you can rather than putting in one big one, this lack of 'Vs' specificity doesn't really bug me that much.

Its easy enough to simply divide this number by or into Mass or Energy/Shot to give you a rough idea of efficiency with regards to those stats. (Or you could do so with Armor or Level or something but I don't see why you'd bother)

Anyway, this is the system I use. I actually despise math but I'm getting quickly to the point where I can glance at a gun pretty quick and come up with a pretty good ballpark as to what its Magic Damage Number might be.

As for actual weapons I own... those go into the spreadsheet (What? So I'm a geek! I like to know I'm using the best toys in my arsenal and not have a level six gun collecting dust somewhere because I never noticed its actually better than my level eights.) which contains the equation and one for Mass efficiency, one for Energy/Shot efficiency (Although frankly I have rarely had serious capacitor issues other than it not recharging my shield fast enough ) and one for Reactor Drain efficiency which I've never used since I've had great luck with reactors.

Any and all criticism welcome since I'd really like to know if I've made some glaring errors here.

Almost forgot an example... One of my RE'd level eights has MinDam 2507.1, MaxDam 3876.3, Vs of .68/.70 and a refire of .39 So its average damage is 3191.7 and the average 'Vs' is .69

So the average vs damage is 2202

So the average vs damage over whatever period of time the refire rate is based on (Guessing its a second but I don't know) would be 5646.

So for that level eight I have a Magic Damage Number of 5646

The highest level ten I have right now is a 4970 but I haven't RE'd a ten yet.

I aim to misbehave!

That equation is a good start I think. I have been working on one to come up with a damage per shot equation. The conclusion I have made is that when you are talking about a blaster with fairly equal dmg vs armor and shields, your equation really isquite a good model. When you start talking ions and disruptors where there is great disparity between vs shields and vs armor, however your equation does not reflect accurate results of the weapon's ability. You are in essence attempting to compare apples to bananas. While both are fruit they are hardly more similar than that.

Armor and shields are two seperate systems and must be treated as such. So you have to decide say if you are flying a ship with 2 gun mounts, which you want to do, equal damage all around (2 blasters) or heavier damage on shields (1 blaster, 1 ion) or heavier damage to armor (1 blaster, 1 disruptor) or you could...if you were nuts throw both guns against shields or armor.

lets say that I have 2 guns, 1 blaster and1 ion,I will actually factor them both into the same equation similar to yours except I treat the vs armor and shields seperately. an example

so gun 1 is

1000-2000 dmg with .65/.66 shields armor, refire .332

gun 1

1200-2400 dmg with .89/.21 shields armor refire .405

against shield systems equation

Average damage/second of weapon systems vs shields = ((avg. min dmg+avg. max dmg)*(avg vs. shields))/avg refire rate

same equation for vs armor except that we use the avg. vs armor

These equations tell you the damage per second of the weapon systems of your ship vs the defensive systems of your enemy, which I find to be a more effective measure of how good your guns are

Fear leads to anger, anger leads to stress
stress leads to doobies, doobies lead to twinkies

I'd rate shields as about 2x more important than armor, at least.....usually, by the time you've gotten through to armor, your target is on the defensive. Ships tend to have a lot more points of shielding than they do armor. Once you've downed the shields, you're able to quickly disable components like engines and rear-facing turrets so that you can finish off your target at your leisure

The only caveat I might put on this is if you're flying missions against unshielded TIEs, but that would only occur at very low tiers...

It could just be my experience but I haven't met an Ion or Disruptor that I'd bother shoving in my ship. Most I've found seem to be around .8/.2. So all else being equal (which I'll allow that it sometimes isn't) that is significantly weaker than .6/.6.

I want to be able to switch from dogfighting fighters (More Ion cannony in my book) to battering away at a gunship (More disruptery to me as I like to tear the guns off before I try to work on the hull and that means a lot of shots to the 'armor' [I think]).

If I were to come across a gun that was say 1.0/.2, or even .8/.4 I would seriously consider putting it in particularly if I was having Cap issues (which I usually don't).

But if I'm staying versatile anyway, I'd just as soon get more average bang for my average cred.

All that said... I could EASILY be missing some hidden stat/mechanic that could change all this. Perhaps the .vs number doesn't work on a stricly linear scale as is implied. If that were the case it could be that .8 is more than just a little better than .7. I'm sure there are other possibilities I'm not even thinking of.

Good point though about not forgetting just what you're losing by making a simplified equation. I know several pilots who swear by their Shield ripper/Armor ripper setup and clearly my equation doesn't account for them very well.

I aim to misbehave!