Firing mode
See my previous post for details. In summary, one long and one short burst (full auto) or two long burst (high velocity) cause the greatest damage. Therefore, I will only be looking at full auto and high velocity weapons for this comparison.
Reload Interval
I define this as the time spent reloading the weapon instead of firing it. I calculate it as a multiplier of the damage.
Formally, let
d = damage multiplier (the goal)
a = ammo capacity
b = bullets fired per initiative phase
n = number of simple actions to reload (where 1 complex action = 2 simple actions)

Example: A full auto smartgun with an ammo capacity 18(c) firing a long burst and a short burst per action phase (9 bullets) spends 4 simple actions firing and 1 simple action reloading out of every 5. 4/5 = 0.8.
a = 18, b = 9 and n = 1.
d = 18 / (18 + 9 / 2 * 1) = 0.8.
Reload Interval | Full Auto (long + short burst) |
High Velocity (2 long burst) |
Smartgun (clip reload) | ![]() |
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All Others | ![]() |
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Smartgun, Extended Clip | ![]() |
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All Others, Extended Clip | ![]() |
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Extended Clip Drum | ![]() |
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Here we can clearly see that smartguns will benefit from their quicker reload times over non-smartguns (smaller "n"). We can also see that extended clip shrinks the impact of bullets fired and reload time (bigger "a" compared to same size "b" and "n"). Last but not least, we see that high velocity creates a smaller reload interval (bigger "b").
By making an inequality of the reload intervals of the extended clip options compared to the non-extended clip counterpart and solving for "a" we can determine that extended clip reduces reload interval (increases damage) for all a > 0. We will therefore only consider the extended clip reload intervals.
Whence Additional Clip?
The additional clip modification does double the ammunition capacity of a weapon, but does so by introducing another clip to reload. The reload interval therefore stays unchanged, and for the purposes of increasing damage over time, gives no bonus.
Smartgun vs Laser Sight
At short range, smartgun clearly wins over laser sight alone. Not only is the dice pool modifier larger, it reduces the reload interval of a clip weapon by reducing "n" in our formula (see above).
For the remainder of this post I will focus on the longer ranges.
P is the (base) Power of the weapon. These values include all recoil for the extra bullets, as if there were no recoil compensation on the weapon. Adding recoil compensation does increase the (probable) damage, but it doesn't change the relationship of the options.
Reload Interval | Full Auto (long + short burst) |
High Velocity (2 long burst) |
Smartgun | 2P + 5.67 | 2P + 7.67 |
Laser Sight with Tracer Rounds | 2P + 6.67 | 2P + 9.00 |
In terms of raw damage, laser sight with tracer rounds is simply better.
Bringing It Together
A smartgun does not influence the reload interval of a non-clip weapon, and is inferior to laser sight with tracer rounds in straight damage. Therefore, for non-clip weapons, we should always choose laser sight with tracer rounds. For the rest of the post, I will focus on clip weapons.
The average damage of a weapon (over all action phases, including those spent reloading) can be derived as the modified damage value multiplied by the reload interval value. In other words, DV * RI.
For this initial comparison, I will fix the power of the weapon at 4 since power (literally) adds a whole other dimension. This includes the damage value bonuses from full auto or high velocity, each combined with either smartgun or laser sight with tracer rounds.
As we can see, the situation is complex. Initially full auto smartgun takes a very slim lead, but in the long run it finishes last. Conversely high velocity laser sight with tracer rounds begins lowest, but by the end is ahead of all the others.
High velocity smartgun is best for mid range ammo capacities. Full auto laser sight with tracer rounds is poor throughout.
Weapon Power
Here we incorporate the power of the weapon as a third dimension (mostly just because the graph looks so cool).
From this we can see that the trends set out in the previous section continue to hold for all weapon powers 4 through 10. The points at which each group becomes dominant changes; as power increases everything shifts diagonally up and to the right.
Scarce Modification Slots
For single shot (SS) and semi auto (SA) clip weapons, a choice must (sometimes) be made between extended clip and high velocity modifications, due to the number of modification slots used to convert to full auto. The graph is again for power of 4 only.
We can see that full auto laser sight with tracer rounds and extended clip is never the leader. It should never be used.
Full auto smartgun with extended clip would initially be the leader for small ammo capacities, except for full auto laser sight with tracer rounds and extended clip, drum. Next is high velocity smartgun for mid range ammo capacities, with high velocity laser sight with tracer rounds the winner at the high end.
In reality single shot and semi auto weapons tend to have low ammo capacities, and most will be full auto smartgun with extended clip, drum.
Note: full auto smartgun with extended clip, drum is a horizontal line (the apparent slant is an optical illusion) because it is not derived from ammo capacity.
Summary
The selection of options depends on the firing mode, power (P) and ammo capacity (a, shown here as the base before modification) of the weapon.
Full Auto (long + short burst) |
High Velocity (2 long burst) |
|
Burst Fire & Full Auto | ||
Laser Sight, Tracer Rounds, Extended Clip Drum |
a < 2P + 28
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Smartgun, Extended Clip |
a < P + 1.25*
|
a < 7P + 27
|
Laser Sight, Tracer Rounds, Extended Clip |
-
|
a > 7P + 26
|
Single Shot & Semi Auto | ||
Laser Sight, Tracer Rounds, Extended Clip Drum |
a < P + 27
| |
Smartgun |
a < 9P + 30
|
|
Laser Sight, Tracer Rounds |
a > 9P + 29
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Non Clip Weapons | ||
Laser Sight, Tracer Rounds** |
a < 2.5P
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a > 2.5P
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**Not shown in graphs in this post.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteUpdated (again), with apologies to anyone following this thread.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I forgot about restrictions for drum, and limits on modification slots, then the option for drum for single shot and semi auto.
Most importantly thought, I erred in my input to the program I was using to do the calculations. As a result, it was using integer arithmetic, so everything was rounded down, loosing significant precision.
It's all fixed. Hopefully it's correct this time.