Smuggler Archive

So the idea was to test a few combinations of slices and see what came out on top. Obviously, this experiment is extremely limited and ignores a lot of factors, not the least of which is weapons which are above the caps.

Anyhow, I started with three identical DL-44XT pistols. Before slicing, each of them looked like this. After waiting for Starsider to be brought out of the stone age and spending several eye-bleeding hours at 5 in the morning salvaging kits, and then going out krayt killing until I got my hands on a delicate trigger assembly, I got to work.

Slice 1 (Two Pair)- Going with a 2nd level slice in both speed and damage, I figured this might be a reliable, low-cost slice job which would still come out with an appreciable bump to the weapon's stats.
The advantages to the 2/2 slice are fairly significant. Primarily, it only requires two simple tools, meaning that there isn't a lot of time and rare loots put into the job. A second advantage that going this route has is that for weapons which are made fairly close to the cap, this is the way to squeeze out the last available bit of speed and damage.
The downsides to this method are fairly significant as well, however. Firstly, the end result is slightly superior to a full damage slice (60%), but inferior to a full speed slice (100%). Secondly, the 2/2 method uses up 85% of the customization, leaving a 'dead space' of 15% which can't be used for anything else.
In conclusion, the 2/2 slice job is a cheap and quick, but inefficient, way to work a weapon. This makes it a winner for the mass produced, factory crated weapons people pick up with the intent to use until it stops working and then throw it away. I forsee the 2/2 slice being the bread and butter of the profession.

Slice 2 (Straight Flush)- I originally planned on simply giving the second gun a full damage slice and seeing how it stacked up, but the third level damage slice only uses up 60% of the customization. Since the devs removed any notion of increasing risk the more customized a weapon becomes, there's absolutely no reason to maximize and shoot for the full 100%. So slice 2 wound up being a full damage slice with a level 1 speed and critical chance to fill the remaining 40%.
The largest advantage to the Straight Flush slice job is that it gives you a bit of everything, and can be viewed in a lot of ways as being the best, all-around way to modify weapons. The 3% critical chance may not seem like much, but in my testing I was seeing a *Critical Hit* float up over my target's head at least once every fight.
The downsides are that it requires an Illegal Core Booster, making it extremely costly relative to the Two Pair with only a slight increase in overall DPS. Furthermore, since Slice Criticals don't seem to actually be modifying the damage at this time, the addition of the critical chance slice is purely cosmetic (if and when this is ever fixed, the 3% critical chance will be a welcome use of the otherwise unusable 20% customization remaining, though).
Overall, the added benefits offered by the Straight Flush at this time are outweighed by the added cost of the Illegal Core Booster when compared to the Two Pair. The Straight Flush seems ideal for high speed, low SAC, custom-made weapons which aren't hampered by damage already at or near the cap.

Slice 3 (Full House) - The third slice is a simple, full run of speed slices. Weighed against weapon damage, even small increases in weapon speed go a great deal further towards increasing the overall DPS (obviously).
This slice method has several advantages as well, the primary one being that it is vastly superior for boosting DPS compared to the two methods above. Further, since it is much harder for weaponsmiths to hit the speed cap than it is the damage cap, the Full House is capable of complementing an already amazing weapon, especially if the weapon is custom designed with this slice in mind, allowing the weaponsmith to focus almost exclusively on SAC and damage (after all, the higher they leave the speed the greater the amount of the 12% increase from the slice). Lastly, it makes full use of the customization allowance and uses up 100%, making it an efficient slice.
The drawbacks here are, like the Straight Flush, the neccessity of the expensive and difficult to obtain tool, the Delicate Trigger Assembly. Since it also requires a Simple Toolkit and a Finely Crafted Toolset, the Full House has the largest tool requirement of any of the slices, making it the most expensive. Secondly, weapon speed can be as much of a curse as a blessing, as you will drain your action pool faster and the weapon will decay that much more rapidly through use.
It's my opinion that the Full House is best suited for weapons which have pricetags of two million credits and up, and ideally have an anti-decay kit set aside to put on them. These sorts of weapons typically are already at or over the damage cap thanks to the high damage krayt tissues or gorax shards used, and the players who use them will prefer the consistent DPS increase over the fickle nature of the Slice Criticals (even after they get fixed).



The three test guns, sliced and compared side by side.
The unsliced gun again, for reference to the above.

Three Slices Short Sheet
Slice 1 - 4% damage, 4% speed increase. 85% customization. Requires two Simple Toolkits.
Slice 2 - 8% damage, 2% speed, 3% critical hit. 100% customization. Requires Simple Toolkit and Illegal Core Booster.
Slice 3 - 12% speed increase. 100% customization. Requires Simple Toolkit, Finely Crafted Toolset, Delicate Trigger

Message Edited by PikechickLei on 07-06-2005 03:16 AM