Simple moderate Incendiary ammo buff

[Daft Loon]

Maybe greased could be -10% ignition chance. Incendiary and weapons ignition chances could then be tweaked with incendiary/normal/burst as the fire starting options for ammo in mind.

... or make it the dedicated DPC ammo (remove clip size penalty, slightly larger RoF penalty) so it can push Burst out of the applications that aren't even related to burst radius and make it a potent option on guns with long reloads but high rates of fire (Hwacha, Minotaur, Mortar, Gatling(arguably)). The rate of fire reduction should be enough to lower DPS compared to standard by at least 10%, as currently its DPS is actually a hair under normal in a gatling (not counting for reloads).

It could be very interesting to have a killing option for the hwacha at the cost of saturation and a clip for the Minotaur with over 900 armor damage (admittedly spread over more than 12s). The mercury would need a buff to compensate for the lost damage but that would be simple math to apply.

Hopefully it's not rude of me to put all of this in an incendiary thread.

Not at all

[BlackenedPies]

Gun and ammo stats
http://ducksoficarus.servegame.com

I didn't think charged needs a buff because it's good on a few guns and has secondary use on most. As well as merc, mine, lumber, and Hcarro, charged increases dps on Lcarro, artemis, mortar, Lflak, hwatcha, and minotaur. While it's not the ideal ammo, most guns can benefit from charged. It gives a huge bonus on the merc and Hcarro (20 and 24%), and can be used situationally on most others. DPS isn't the end-all metric, and DPS/clip is often more useful, but charged has a very wide function as a secondary ammo

If your engi needs charged for a merc they can also use it on their light flak, in fact charged Lflak does more dps than burst (+6.1 vs 3.6%) and is the highest dps ammo for light flak, although burst is recommended due to higher DPC and the nature of Lflak high ROF vs hull break time (charged is the next best mid-range ammo). That's not saying charged can't be reworked, but it's certainly not unbalanced - unlike incendiary and arguably greased (not mentioning loch)

[Unarmed Civilian]

Gun and ammo stats
http://ducksoficarus.servegame.com

...

If your engi needs charged for a merc they can also use it on their light flak, in fact charged Lflak does more dps than burst (+6.1 vs 3.6%) and is the highest dps ammo for light flak, although burst is recommended due to higher DPC and the nature of Lflak high ROF vs hull break time (charged is the next best mid-range ammo). That's not saying charged can't be reworked, but it's certainly not unbalanced - unlike incendiary and arguably greased (not mentioning loch)

Looking through that site, results are actually mixed with Light Flak. Against certain ships, greased is best. Against others, charged is best. Burst is always slower than Charged.

Kill times in order of Charged, Greased, Burst, assuming no misses. Number of shots in parentheses.

Normal clip size: 6
Clip sizes: 5, 7, 7

Squid: 6.42(7); 6(11); 6.96(9)
Gold: 6.9(8); 6.44(13); 7.38(10)
Junk: 1.44(4); 1.1(6) 1.68(5)
Gall: 7.86(10); 10.9(16); 8.64(13)
Pyra: 1.92(5); 5.34(8); 2.52(7)
Spire: 6.42(7), 6(11), 6.96(9)
Mob: 1.92(5); 5.34(8); 2.52(7)

So against Pyramidions, Mobulas, and Galleons, Charged is the best ammo. Greased is behind on both due to needing an extra reload.
Against Squids, Goldfish, Junker, and Spire, Greased is best. Greased is ahead on these because it does not need an extra reload.

Charged wins out over greased when it does due to superior Damage Per Clip. Greased wins at other times due to superior Damage Per Second when firing.

Looking at the numbers, this seems to be a case where the reduced clip size doesn't affect the Light Flak. Charged L Flak has only 5 shots, but can kill 3 of the ships in exactly 5 shots, so losing its 6th doesn't hurt it. All other ships would require a reload regardless if it hat 5 or 6.

In other words, it seems Light Flak is at one of those magic ammo counts where Charged is really good because it doesn't lose 20% or more of its clip (Only loses 16.6%), due to ammunition changes using proper rounding as opposed to integer rounding (always round down). If it did round down (the case on most guns), Charged would have 4 rounds and be worst of the three on the three it is best on.

I feel like this only supports the idea that Charged needs a lower clip size penalty to be relevant in other weapons. The only other weapons that get a reduced penalty and have more than 2 shots are the Lumberjack (6 to 5), and the Mortar (12 to 10).

If you're wondering, the Mortar can one-clip every ship in the game with Greased, even if it only just barely one-clips a Galleon. So Greased always wins in kill time for Mortars.

[BlackenedPies]

Burst is the recommended mid-range ammo due to high DPC, holding fire for armor break*, and the quick empty and reload times of the Lflak. If you're constantly shooting then charged is 2.5% better**, but when holding fire (superior tactic) you'll likely shoot the full clip in and are unlikely to begin the second (making burst better). This of course depends on the enemy ship and crew, and the difference between the cycle times of burst and charged is only .23 seconds

Basically, if they rebuild armor for longer than 6.9 seconds*** then charged is better, otherwise burst is preferred. In my experience, under 6.9 (roughly) is the most common situation and thus recommend burst. The extra burst radius also makes a difference, for example if you hit the heavy gun on a spire or near the hull on the balloon of a mobula. Secondary burst damage deals full damage up till 50% of the radius, then decays to 20% at the edge. The extra +50% radius can make a secondary damage difference of +50% or more

Greased is a different class than charged because it's a close range ammo. You'll end up missing more with greased at mid-long range and lose any dps advantage. Heatsink is more comparable to greased due to it's high DPC and similar properties as burst, but greased is slightly more likely to begin the second clip (compared to burst vs charged), and heatsink is slightly less likely to finish the first clip. Basically, if they take longer than 6.3s or less than 3***, greased is better, otherwise heatsink. In my experience this is less straightforward than charged vs burst and really comes down to you and your enemies, but I usually prefer heatsink

*The common tactic for double-explosive guns (mortar, L+Hflak) is to hold fire when armor is about to break. This maximizes damage when armor does break. The flak shoots until armor is nearly broken, then holds fire with a full clip standing by. Individual firing tactics vary slightly between each gun

**Armor DPS difference between ammos is small (+2.5% charged), which makes little practical difference compared to the per-clip hull damage (+7.7% burst). Holding fire is the superior tactic

***Assuming a 1 second travel time (350m) for burst/charged and 0.5 seconds (140m) for greased/heatsink. Also assuming you start shooting immediately after armor break. Variables and variables...