Thats some serious change to weapon damage in 3.14!

They always change things too much. If you change too many things at the same time you fail to learn which change was the one that was needed and which one wasn't! You end up ain a brand new balance mess starting from scratch. Be interesting to see what 3.14 is like.,

Most players are loving hit because TTK is up.

Montoya said:

Looks like they want to force closer combat, which had in very early patches, but to really do this they would need to drastically reduce the combat speeds if they want us engaging in some tight combat.

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You mean you don't like Space Jousting™?!

Montoya said:

Looks like they want to force closer combat, which had in very early patches, but to really do this they would need to drastically reduce the combat speeds if they want us engaging in some tight combat.

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Most weapons get a substantial damage boost, even the humble S2 laser repeater has a damage improvement so no surprise there especially consider that CIG can now balance weapons also on the n° of shot available even for energy weapons.

Concerning ranges , as soon as CIG will start to bring back custom weapons flavours I'll expect to se some long range weapons to came back: cconsidering cannons are now considered heavy-weapons it will be a nonsense to have a small, fragile ship with a heavy weapon and force them to get closer to a big hulking and weapons dotted ship. Range and small signature will be a good combination to give small ship a potential, otherwise, if youu'll need to rely only on agility, it will be probabluy better to move on scatterguns instead.

I think the intention is to differentiate between gun and missile combat by separating them by distance--guns <2km and missiles >3km, but what happens is dogfighting breaks the 2km limit often and they're now disengaged by distance, where before they were not. This is resulting in more, not less jousting. Looks like a backward fix to me.

If what CIG is after is something more appropriately simulating modern fighter combat, the weapons ranges need to be more, not less. Likewise, the stealth function needs to be greater, not less. After the way they nerfed the Sabre, its hard to see why anyone would fly it in stealth mode. They need to return the third shield and make it possible to disappear inside the range of laser repeaters like the Panther. Fact is though, we're not going to learn much with all the component stats changed at once. This is a very poor way to get data.

Montoya said:

Taking the Glaive as an example, here is 3.13

View attachment 21133

Compared to 3.14

View attachment 21134

Noting that the range of the S5 Wrath Plasma goes from 4.5km to 2.8km and you have all that new capacitor stuff to consider, still a massive increase in alpha damage!

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Also a serious dump in velocity. That size 5 is supposed to be ineffective against fighters. The DPS is only part of the story.

Shadow Reaper said:

I think the intention is to differentiate between gun and missile combat by separating them by distance--guns <2km and missiles >3km, but what happens is dogfighting breaks the 2km limit often and they're now disengaged by distance, where before they were not. This is resulting in more, not less jousting. Looks like a backward fix to me.

If what CIG is after is something more appropriately simulating modern fighter combat, the weapons ranges need to be more, not less. Likewise, the stealth function needs to be greater, not less. After the way they nerfed the Sabre, its hard to see why anyone would fly it in stealth mode. They need to return the third shield and make it possible to disappear inside the range of laser repeaters like the Panther. Fact is though, we're not going to learn much with all the component stats changed at once. This is a very poor way to get data.

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They stated several intentions.

• To differentiate between weapons targeting large ships and those for small ships.
• To make combat closer.
• To force "choices that matter" before and during combat.
• To make combat more "fun."

So far, I give them one of four.

I am not impressed.

Making combat closer than 4km has the obvious deficit that sharp shooting is no longer a thing. I'm not for that.

Shadow Reaper said:

Making combat closer than 4km has the obvious deficit that sharp shooting is no longer a thing. I'm not for that.

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It also limits the style of combat.

They want to force close turning fights like you should use in a Gladius, but most ships are incapable of flying like a Gladius.

Montoya said:

Ballistics run out extremely fast!

Ammo seems precious in this patch, you need a dedicated support craft following you everywhere :P

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15 seconds of ammo for repeaters and gatlings.
60 seconds of ammo for ballistic canons.

Montoya said:

Definitely so. A copilot that can choose between IR or Crossection, short or long range missiles depending on what the pilot is calling for can make a massive difference in combat now.

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Well about ranges... as far as I can tell missiles range are all similar right now.
S1 and S2 missiles have both a 10Km range, same for S3 missiles. What really change is minimum range... and I suspect some other spect on amnuvrability that ae not so visible.
Max range vary most, but to have a significant renge improvement you nee dto move to S4 missiles that boost up to 20Km.
Considering the lack of enviromental effect on the signature even the choice of traking type could have marginal effect, the most valuable choice right now I think are the detonation trigger (strike or proximity) and the damege: for countering small fighter a proximity trigger give you a bettr chance to damage it (since you don't need to actually hit the target), while the more powerfull strike missile are more suitable for slow beefy target.
Cluster missile are, as always a "special" type of missile and they are a story in there own.

Montoya said:

Ballistics run out extremely fast!

Ammo seems precious in this patch, you need a dedicated support craft following you everywhere :P

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Well that depend on the Ballist weapons.
Gatlings are relally shot on magazine, too short IMHO, they'll need at least double if not triple the current capacity to be a viable weapons: at the speed they run trough bullet is too easy to bump several round in the void, and do to the reduced alpha damage you need to dump severl hit on a target and long burst don't play on the accuracy side.

Cannons are, on the other hand, nicely good. Sure you need to cound bullet now, but considering the slow rate of fire you can have more control and land more hit on, plus the high damage require few hit to take out the target, so in this case is a good limitation that force player to actually aim rather then "spray and pray".

Montoya said:

Taking the Glaive as an example, here is 3.13

View attachment 21133

Compared to 3.14

View attachment 21134

Noting that the range of the S5 Wrath Plasma goes from 4.5km to 2.8km and you have all that new capacitor stuff to consider, still a massive increase in alpha damage!

Click to expand...

The Glaives rock now. Blows up baby ships in one shot.

Edit:
Not to mention they look cool as hell.

Montoya said:

Looks like they want to force closer combat, which had in very early patches, but to really do this they would need to drastically reduce the combat speeds if they want us engaging in some tight combat.

Click to expand...

you don't enjoy high speed jousting?