Indoorsman, on 23 November 2012 - 06:43 AM, said:
Is this objective or subjective? One of the reasons I personally don't like the AC20 much is because if you miss your DPS spikes DOWN. The effect of missing w/an AC2 is hardly noticeable though. 4 DPS being better in longer/larger packets is an assumption/preference. So balancing the game that way would be biased torwards those who prefer their weapons to fire slow.
like you kinda said:
:-p
It is a bit situational. At long range my experience suggests that you're better off with slow firing weapons. Unfortnately, let's face it - with the current net code, we probably all hit worse with ballistics than we would if this game was not an online game. Do we need to account for this when balancing weapons?
I don't know. In my opinion, if we do, we've basically given up on MW:O as a good online game. They must fix their net code.
Okay, but that aside - yes, I think in general there are objective measurements to consider when it comes to ROF.
Take your AC/2 vs AC/20. When you get your target in your cross-hair the first time, and hit, you deal 20 damage in one blow. It will take the AC/2 fired at the same time 4.5 seconds to deliver the same damage - and at the 4tth second, you are already firing your second AC20 shot, so now it's another 4.5 seconds to catch up. Of course, the AC20 has a higher DPS than the AC/2, so it's not quite fair.
Let's imagine an AC/16 fired at the rate of the AC/20.
It will take 3.5 seconds for the AC/2 to catch up to the AC/16's first shot. And 0.5 seconds later, it will have to play catch up again.
UNless you simply miss more often with the AC/16 than the AC/2, the AC/16s is better.
Now ,this "Unless" could be something very subjective, in which case I wouldn't consider it much for discussing weapon balance - but it could also be an objective element. For example AC/2s currently fly faster than AC/20s projectiles. That gives the AC/2 an advantage in hitting, as you have to lead less, which means any errors in your judgement on the enemies movement between time of shot and time to target will have less effect.
I leave quantifying all this as an exercise to the reader.
Edited by MustrumRidcully, 23 November 2012 - 07:02 AM.