Messages

1

Gameplay / Re: What constitutes a "Gameplay" thread

« on: August 13, 2013, 10:48:54 am »

Maybe renaming "Gameplay" into "Game Mechanics" could be an option? It outlines more clearly at one glance the intended content of the forum, whereas the former term is really very broad.

2

Gameplay / Re: Lesmok 1.3.1

« on: August 13, 2013, 10:44:23 am »

An observation I'd like to add as a very new player who's been browsing these forums for advice...

There's a couple good guides on gunnery and ammo out there, and they all seem to agree: lesmok rounds are among the most often mentioned ammo types of them all. I've been getting a similar feeling ingame; when I first logged in and knew zilch all and just browsed the character configurator, lesmok rounds were one of the things I instinctively added to my gunner's equipment, because it simply sounded universally useful.

I think that should be food for thought, and a slight nerf probably isn't entirely misplaced (especially if some numbers even improved in return). There's plenty of other ammo types to use, some of which seem rather underused.

If a gun ends up completely unviable through not having the old lesmok rounds available, then it's probably the gun that needs looking at and not the ammo.

3

Guides / Re: Gunnery for dummies v1.3 - A beginner's guide to the common weaponry.

« on: August 13, 2013, 05:41:57 am »

I'm not sure the sound of the Whirlwind is synched to the actual firing rate, someone from Muse will have to confirm.  But using Burst Rounds on the Whirlwind has always appeared to be more effective than the numbers would suggest.  It's possibly the increased slip size giving a greater DPC, or the effects on the DPS(C).

Huh. Well. That could be why I'm hearing no difference, truth to be told.

I'll see if I can find a stopwatch and time the clip durations when I get home later. If the time difference between normal and burst is greater than 20%, the gun will fire more slowly. Math says the clip time should be around 40% greater if the RoF penalty applies properly.

4

Guides / Re: Gunnery for dummies v1.3 - A beginner's guide to the common weaponry.

« on: August 13, 2013, 04:58:49 am »

I'm a new player too, playing engineer. One of my level 1 achievements calls for using burst rounds to kill components. And with those, I made an odd observation yesterday (v1.3.1 already).

For one, I used them to great effect on the banshee. If it's already good at spreading fire around, than 50% more radius will make it even better, and two more rockets per volley helps as well. It already fires relatively quickly, so the slight drop in rate of fire isn't too critical.

And here's the odd part: the whirlwind gatling. It obviously has no AoE worth mentioning and will never hit multiple components, burst rounds or not... I loaded them anyway, because it makes the magazine go from 60 shots to 72 shots. And then I listened to the rhythm of the shots. And while on the banshee, or the echidna, or the artemis I was easily able to tell the difference in rate of fire... I couldn't detect any difference whatsoever with the whirlwind. It hammered at exactly the same cadence as before, as far as my perception was concerned. I even went in sandbox mode to doublecheck in a stress-less situation, and it still felt the same. Could someone please independently test that?

That would mean that you get 12 extra shots on a primary armor breaker with no penalty whatsoever. Whether that's a bug or not, at least until the next patch it seems like a decent enough option for close range. Greased rounds will still pull higher DPS in the short term, but will inflict less total damage per clip and negatively impact gun mobility and projectile speed.

5

Q&A / Re: How does damage affect components?

« on: August 12, 2013, 01:37:32 pm »

Ah, I see! Good to know.

Regarding engine output, does that only affect acceleration/turning rate, or also top speed? Thinking about it, it sounds a little funny to use something like moonshine to increase engine output when the mere act of using it damages the engines, thereby lowering their output...

6

Q&A / How does damage affect components?

« on: August 12, 2013, 12:38:01 pm »

This is something I've looked for all over the place in FAQs, tutorials, ingame manuals and forums...

Components take damage. Okay. If the component is destroyed, it stops doing its job. Okay. But what about partially damaged components? How do minor or increasingly more serious states of being damaged affect engines? Guns? The balloon? The hull armor? The hull structure? If I am an engineer, is it important to hang around for one more cycle to top up a component before rushing off to the next, or does it make no difference?