Some interesting info on JtL guns...

[Zannon]

Last night I spent several hours making special order ship components for a customer. After a while, we figured out how the vs shields/armor and damage stats worked. So...here you go:

the vs shields/armor stat is kinda like damage mitigation on the ground. The number for these stats tells you how much of your damage will actually effect the armor and shields. So, if you have a gun that does a max damage of 2000 and has a vs shields/armor stat of .5, the max damage it will do ever if a ship still has shields/armor is 1000pts. Now, here's where lots of math came in. If you use all experimentation points on max damage, with the leftovers being put into rate of fire, you will end up being able to do LESS damage than if you were to max out the vs shields/armor stats. This is due to the fact that you get a greater increase in the vs shields/armor stat per experimentation point than you do max damage points.

Now, if you add an enhancement to the weapon that increases the max damage, you can get the gun to be more effective without increasing the vs armor/shields stats. BUT, if you have a ship that takes 2 guns, you can use an enhancement that increases the vs shields stat on one gun and then one that increases the vs armor stat on the other and then dump all the experimentation points into the vs armor/shields rating on each...in the end, you'll end up doing about 300 damage more per hit. AND, if you really want to have some punching power, make one gun max effective against shields with the enhancement and experimentation and the other max effective against armor...then use the lefrover experimentation points on each to increase the max damage...THAT configuation will give you about 500 more points of damage per hit!!!

Phew...now I gotta get to work.

Zannon

[Skarr]

thats why the ion/disruptor combo works well

ion .7 vs shields
disruptor .7 vs armor

[Seret Sajet]

Good info there Zanman. Thanks for taking the time to figure that out.

Though instead of duping the leftover points in rate of fire I'd probably put them into energy per shot because my guns always kill my capacitor too fast.

[Ekade]

/applaud

THIS is the stuff I love hearing about. Actual "scientific" information. Good stuff.

I may need to do some shopping soon.. to take advantage of this newfangled technology.

[TramelRaggs]

thats why the ion/disruptor combo works well

ion .7 vs shields
disruptor .7 vs armor

This is only true if you're toggling. If you duel fire, as I do, you'll be just as good (possibly better off depending on the way you like the sprites) with duel blasters at .5

[Zannon]

thats why the ion/disruptor combo works well

ion .7 vs shields
disruptor .7 vs armor

This is only true if you're toggling. If you duel fire, as I do, you'll be just as good (possibly better off depending on the way you like the sprites) with duel blasters at .5

Both of you are right...it depends on your playstyle. The bottom line is that max damage is not the be-all-end-all that everyone seems to think it is.

[Ekade]

thats why the ion/disruptor combo works well

ion .7 vs shields
disruptor .7 vs armor

This is only true if you're toggling. If you duel fire, as I do, you'll be just as good (possibly better off depending on the way you like the sprites) with duel blasters at .5

Both of you are right...it depends on your playstyle. The bottom line is that max damage is not the be-all-end-all that everyone seems to think it is.

Basically I use this formula to determine the value of a gun..

min dmg + max dmg /2 = avg dmg

avg dmg * effectiveness = actual avg dmg

If you want you can factor in rate of fire to get potential dmg over time.. but I have not seen a ton of difference in weapons in regards to rate of fire.. besides, rate of fire effects capacitor drain.. so I kind of consider it a wash. The future may prove me wrong, but for now I don't worry about it.

Another consideration..

Looted guns often have effectiveness ratings in the range of .67/.67.