hmm well i wouldnt really call ppcs "lightweight" ppcs have the same damage to tonnage ratio as an ac20 (minus ammo weight) AND have same rate of fire while being super hot, the biggest disadvantage of the ballistics weapons class is tonnage to damage ratio but they have best heat to damage ratio for the most part (well aside from i believe lrm20s they do 2 more dmg for same heat) so the ppc has the disadvantages of ballistic weapons AND energy weapons while really only having advantage of a mix of alpha damage and range, so lets be honest are the ppcs really them selves that dangerous or is it the shear numbers that they are employed in causing the problem?
for those begginers wondering about pros and cons of each weapon class
Energy:
Always have ammo, they are like salt, a few of it can increase satisfaction without causing much of a gain in weight calories but to much and you run into some health and overheating problems
Pros:
Highest Damage to tonnage ratio (aside from ppc)
larger ones have very good max effective range
unlimited ammo
Cons:
Bigger weapons tend to cause bigger tonnage problems compared to smaller lasers, large and ppc especially, hurting scalability
Most take time to do damage
HIghest amount of heat for damage done, overall hottest types of weapons
Quicker Damage drop off then ballistics, max range is twise effective range so they loss their damage twise as fast as ballistic weapons
Missiles (both srm lrm and streaks):
IMO made and fairly well balanced for boating to turn you mech into walking artillery
Pros:
splash damage
Scalability, bigger lrm launchers dont cause a HUGE sacrifices in heat and tonnage compared to smaller lrm launchers, and the bigger the srm launcher the less heat per missile fired
in the case of lrms and streaks, accuracy, they are server controlled so hit detection bugs have a hard time affecting them
usually better damage per ton of ammo then ballistics
provide cockpit shake and are somewhat effective for destroying internals
lrms have longest effective range in game
Cons:
overall accuracy, due to spread larger salvos from lrm15 and up ad srm4 and srm 6 tend to hit more then one limb, Artemis helps but not enough sometimes, splash inst really active right now
have launcher restrictions meaning certain mechs cant fire all of the missiles from certain launchers all at once, requires careful picking of chassis
only weapon type with a counter measure that can destroy your round preventing it from doing damage
dont offer perfect control on flight path...
"ha damage drop off?"dont make me laugh, the missile just explode at a certain range, also flight path can make effective range less the you think
ammo might turn on you
everyone hates you for having "no skill" just ignore them
Ballistics:
nothing special on paper, but once in a mechs design they work very well
Pros:
Decent Heat to damage done ratio, or often best heat to damage ratio in their damage class
offer all of their damage instantly, ac20 does damage of 2 large laser and a small laser all at once
damage drop off, max range is triple effective range, meaning ballistic loss damage half as fast as energy weapons
cockpit shake!!
might not be the lightest weapon but they are often the best single weapons due to be so all around when it comes to range firepower heat etc...
Cons:
ammo can explode
heavy
bigger ones have slower projectiles then energy weapons
somewhat less damage per ton of ammo as missiles (some are equal to srms others are slightly less
accuracy is pinpoint meaning if you miss what you intended to hit you have to wait for weapon to reload to try again so no correcting aim like with laserz
did i mention needs ammo to be useful?
Edited by Just wanna play, 30 June 2013 - 03:50 PM.