Vapor Trail, on 09 November 2012 - 05:03 PM, said:
I'm fairly certain the reason is that accurately quantifying range as a factor in weapons balance will require the use of calculus.
What I think is that comparing the definite integrals from 0 to 2160 (range of the AC2) of (some variation of) Damage Per Second per Ton mass for a weapon system as a function of range.
∫ DPSpT (Range)
Quick and dirty definition of an integral: Area under a curve, (though I guess these are more "composite lines" than curves, the definition still applies).
Basically the area of the shape each of these colored lines makes with the axes of the graph is its integral. The larger that area, the stronger the weapon, in the given environment.
Common Ballistic Ammo Load is a set time that automatically calculated the weapon's ammo tonnage. It's set at 160 seconds here... thats basically 4 tons for the Gauss. It varies due to the different RoFs of the weapons and shots per ton of the ammo.
I like this but i think it also shows something important about how certain weapons are meant to work.
while the Gauss and AC 20 have the highest areas of damage to range. they are both also meant to be taken as singular entities (or, as a major weapons platform in any case). whereas, the Small and Medium lasers are meant to be paired with eachother or other lasers to compliment their damage loadout as well as main systems like Gauss/AC/LRMs. using seperate groups of lasers also helps mitigate heat (by firing smaller, lower heat lasers while your heat returns). If we think about it that way, we can explain why theres so much variance between Lasers and ACs.
the only weapons on there that are arguable is the PPC, Large Laser and ERPPC, while having solid damage, they don't stack up to the AC or Gauss in damage/range. this is something that is definitely still in the works. Large Laser, LPL, and PPCs are meant to be alternatives to ballistic ammo, at the cost of heat and the trade off in ammunition.
however, even at their damage rates. lets look at the facts of these large laser weapons:
1. they do not consume ammo, therefore they can last in long engagements where ammunition might run out. this also means that they don't need precautionary systems like CASE to maintain safety in the chassis in the case of explosion
2. no cookoff. laser platforms don't need to worry about accidently ammunition dumps that would normally cause you to die (they are however, still able to make the core critical)
3. fast. they travel at the speed of light (except ERPPCs, which i still can't figure out). While Gauss and AC platforms require a Distance over Time, lasers pinpoint instantly. making them easy 'snapshots'.
the downsides to lasers are of course:
1. heat, especially for larger ones, they require a ton of heatsinks to maintain them at a nice optimal temperature.
2. damage, much less than anything above AC10s
3. range, theyre limited by how far the emitters can project light
4. duration. ballistic weapons front load damage, however lasers take time to burn in damage. this is difficult when needing to maintain damage on a target.
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