Preliminaries
The motivation for this post was, simply, to come up with a way
to compare different weapons. We've all been faced with the
choice of two weapons with differing speeds, damage ranges, and
HAM costs, and it would be useful to have a way to compare them
and determine which one is better for a given situation. With
that in mind, and with pen, paper, and calculator in hand, I sat
down and tried to come up with a useful method of comparison.
To warn you, this post is very long, and is filled with all
manner of Math Geekery(tm). If you are the sort of person who
likes to see the figures and the formulas and the reasons those
particular formulas are used, then you may want to read the
entire post at your leisure.
If, on the other hand, you're the sort of person that feels your
eyes glaze over at the mere mention of the word "algebra," and
assuming you trust me to know what I'm talking about, then feel
free to skip over all of the following until you get to the next
section. Everything between here and there will be simply me
setting the foundation for my data and my conclusions, so that
those who want to check my methodology can do so. The actual
weapon comparisons will be in first reply to this message.
Before we go further, a recap of some basics:
Base Damage: The damage that
appears in your "Battlespam" (i.e. the text which shows up in
your Combat window). The minimum amount of Base Damage you can
do with autofire will be the minimum damage rating of your
weapon multiplied by 1.5. The maximum amount of Base Damage you
can do with autofire will be the maximum damage rating of your
weapon multiplied by 1.5. So if you have a weapon with a damage
rating of 100-200, your base damage will range from
(100 * 1.5) to
(200 * 1.5), or 150-300.
Floaty Damage: The damage
that appears over the heads of critters, NPCs, and PCs when you
shoot them. This is the damage that is actually removed from the
HAM bars of your target. 80% of the damage is applied to one HAM
bar, and 10% is applied to each of the other two. So a 100-point
shot to the Head would take off 80 points of Mind, 10 points of
Health, and 10 points of Action. Floaty damage is obtained by
multiplying the Base Damage by a Resistance and Armor Factor
(RAF).
Resistance and Armor Factor (RAF):
The effect of Armor Piercing (or lack thereof) and Damage
Resistance. The RAF consists of an Armor Piercing Bonus (or
Penalty), and a Resistance modifier.
Armor Piercing Bonus:
[(1.25)^(AP-AR)] This is applied
whenever the AP of the weapon is larger than the AR of the
target.
Armor Piercing Penalty:
[(0.50)^(AR-AP)] This is applied
whenever the AR of the target is larger than the AP of the
weapon.
----------------------------------------------
One of the convenient things about the SWG combat engine is that
the damage distribution seems to be even. If you have a weapon
with the following stats: 100-200 Damage;
3.5 Speed; 15/20/25 HAM; AP: Heavy, then you will have
Base Damage values of 150-300 for autofire, and the chances of
you hitting for any particular damage value from 150-300 will be
the same for all values. Your chance of hitting for 188 points
of Base Damage is the same as your chance for hitting for 234
points of Base Damage, which is the same as your chance of
hitting for 150 points, which is the same as your chance of
hitting for 300 points, etc.
This is convenient because, with an even distribution, you can
easily find out your Average Base
Damage Per Shot. Specifically:
[(Weapon Min + Weapon Max)/2] * 1.5
So for our hypothetical weapon with damage 100-200, the Average
Base Damage Per Shot is:
[(100 + 200)/2] * 1.5 =
225
Next we need to factor in Armor Piercing. This will give us the
Average AP Damage Per Shot
To factor in the Armor Piercing rating of the weapon, simply
take the Average Base Damage Per Shot of the weapon and multiply
it by [(1.25)^N], where N takes on
a numerical rating based on the following:
0 = No AP
1 = Light AP
2 = Medium AP
3 = Heavy AP
This represents the "base case" where you're firing against a
critter with no armor. Returning to our hypothetical weapon, the
Average AP Damage Per Shot is:
[(100 + 200)/2] * 1.5 =
225
225 * (1.25)^3 =
439.5
With the Average AP Damage Per Shot in hand, one of the more
obvious ways to compare weapons is via
AP Damage Per Second.
And here's where it gets a little tricky.
Each weapon has a Base Weapon Speed. Our hypothetical 100-200
damage weapon has a Base Weapon Speed of 3.5. That means that,
in autofire mode, and assuming reasonable latency conditions,
the weapon will fire once every 3.5 seconds.
But.
Each specific weapon track has a corresponding "Speed" skill. If
you train Novice Rifleman, you receive +5 Rifle Speed, +5 Pistol
Speed, and +5 Carbine Speed. As you go up each track, your
weapon specific Speed skill increases. By the time you reach the
Novice level of one of the three specialized weapon professions
(Novice Rifleman, Novice Pistoleer, or Novice Carbineer), your
Speed skill for your specific weapon will be +30. (And if you're
a Master Marksman as well, it'll be +35.)
This is important because your Actual
Firing Rate is affected by your Weapon Speed skill
thusly:
(Base Weapon Speed) * [1 - (Weapon Speed
Skill/100)]
This means (among other things) that you can't calculate an AP
Damage Per Second rating simply by dividing Average AP Damage
Per Shot by the Base Weapon Speed.
Fortunately, however, the purpose of this exercise is NOT to
calculate Damage Per Second. Remember: We're just looking for a
number we can use to compare weapon effectiveness. And, as it
turns out, dividing Average AP Damage Per Shot by the Base
Weapon Speed will -- with one particularly crucial caveat which
I will detail below -- give us a very useful number for weapon
comparison. I call this number the
Effectiveness Rating. The complete formula for the
Effectiveness Rating is:
Effectiveness Rating ={[(Min +
Max)/2] * (1.5) * (1.25)^N}/Base Weapon Speed
Crucial Caveat(tm):
There is a 1.0 second speed cap on all
weapons. This means that for many weapons, there will come a
point where you are shooting that weapon as fast as you will
ever shoot it, and no amount of Speed skill increase will allow
you to fire any faster. At that point, other weapons which have
a lower Effectiveness Rating will slowly become more effective,
relative to the weapon at the 1.0 speed cap, and may even
surpass the original weapon's effectiveness with increased
Weapon Speed Skill.
To illustrate this point, compare two hypothetical weapons: a
150-250 damage, 1.3 speed weapon with no armor piercing, and a
150-400 damage, 5.0 speed weapon, also with no armor piercing.
The Effectiveness Rating for the first weapon is:
{[(150+250)/2] * 1.5}/1.3 =
230.8
The Effectiveness Rating for the second weapon is:
{[(150+400)/2] * 1.5}/5.0 =
82.5
According to this, the first weapon is clearly superior. It will
throw out more damage in less time than the second weapon.
However, the first weapon will hit the 1.0 second speed cap when
the user's Weapon Speed Skill hits 23.1. Which effectively means
that the user will hit the cap when he trains his 4th box in the
Marksman Weapon Track (i.e. Rifle Specialist, Pistol Specialist,
Carbineer Specialist), since that would put his Weapon Speed
Skill at +25. So once he's trained that 4th box, he's firing
that weapon as fast as he's ever going to fire it. The adjusted
Effectiveness Rating for the first weapon once it hits the 1.0
speed cap is:
{[(150+250)/2] * 1.5}/1.0 =
300
By contrast, the user of the 2nd weapon won't hit the 1.0 speed
cap until she reaches a Weapon Speed Skill of +80. But at that
point the adjusted Effectiveness Rating for the 2nd weapon will
be:
{[(150+400)/2] * 1.5}/1.0 =
412.5
Note that at this point, the 2nd weapon is actually
outperforming the 1st.
If you're curious, the performance of the 2nd weapon equalled
the performance of the 1st weapon when the Weapon Speed Skill of
the user of the 2nd weapon hit +72.5.
If you're REALLY curious, if you have two weapons, and the 1st
weapon (A) has a higher Effectiveness Rating than the 2nd; and
(B) is already at the 1.0 second speed cap, you can calculate
the Weapon Speed Skill needed to make the performance of the 2nd
weapon equal the performance of the first via the following
formula:
Weapon Speed Skill = (100) * {1 - (Min2 +
Max2)/[(Min1 + Max1) * Base Weapon Speed]}
where Min1 is the minimum listed damage for the 1st weapon, Min2
is the minimum listed damage for the 2nd weapon, etc., and where
Base Weapon Speed is the speed of the 2nd weapon.
Anyhow, the upshot of all this fascinating math is this:
A weapon with a higher Effectiveness
Rating will outperform a weapon with a lower Effectiveness
Rating, provided:
1) The Armor Rating of the target critter is equal to or lower
than the Armor Piercing Rating for both weapons.
2) The target critter is not vulnerable to the damage type of
either weapon.
3) The Weapon Skill Speed is the same for both weapons.
4) The 1.0 second speed cap is not in effect for either weapon.
The weapon with the higher Effectiveness Rating MAY
continue to outperform the weapon with the lower Effectiveness
Rating even if one or more of these conditions aren't met. But
if all four conditions are met, then the weapon with the
higher Effectiveness Rating will always be the superior weapon.
This being the case, I will provide the Weapon Speed Skill at
which the weapon hits the speed cap when I finally get around to
actually comparing various weapons (which, at the rate that I'm
going, will probably happen sometime in June 2011).
Finally, if we want to see how weapons compare with respect to
firing special attacks (Eye Shot, Torso Shot, Underhand Shot,
etc), we can divide the Effectiveness Rating by the HAM costs to
get what I call the Volsted Rating.
(I call it that because "HAM Effectivness Rating" and
"Effectiveness HAM Rating" both sound dorky to me, and because I
suck at coming up with names.)
Harking back to our initial hypothetical weapon, the one with
the 100-200 damage and the 15/20/25 HAM costs, the Volsted
Rating would be:
Effectiveness Rating: {[(100+200)/2] * 1.5
* (1.25)^3}/3.5 = 125.6
125.6/15 =
8.4
125.6/20 =
6.3
125.6/25 =
5.0
For each listed ranged weapon which has an autofire
mode, I will provide the Effectiveness Rating, the Volsted
Rating, and the Weapon Speed Skill required to hit the 1.0
second speed cap.
Pistols
Scout Blaster; 60-122 Damage; 1.7 Speed; 11-22-11 HAM; AP: None
Effectiveness Rating:
80.3
Volsted Rating:
7.3/3.6/7.3
Hits Speed Cap at:
+42
Advanced Scout Blaster; 74-145 Damage; 2.0 Speed; 11-22-11 HAM;
AP: None
Effectiveness Rating:
82.1
Volsted Rating:
7.5/3.7/7.5
Hits Speed Cap at:
+50
Advanced Power5 Pistol; 59-182 Damage; 2.8 Speed; 16-39-15 HAM;
AP: None
Effectiveness Rating:
64.6
Volsted Rating:
4.0/1.7/4.3
Hits Speed Cap at:
+65
Advanced FWG5 Pistol; 50-193 Damage; 2.2 Speed; 11-36-18 HAM;
AP: None
Effectiveness Rating:
82.8
Volsted Rating:
7.5/2.3/4.6
Hits Speed Cap at:
+55
Advanced Tangle Pistol; 44-101 Damage; 3.4 Speed; 14-29-23 HAM;
AP: None
Effectiveness Rating:
40.0
Volsted Rating:
2.3/1.1/1.4
Hits Speed Cap at:
+71
DX2 Pistol; 82-129 Damage; 2.4 Speed; 22-40-14 HAM; AP: Light
Effectiveness Rating:
82.4
Volsted Rating:
3.7/2.1/5.9
Hits Speed Cap at:
+59
Advanced Launcher Pistol; 65-235 Damage; 2.5 Speed; 17-51-17
HAM; AP: None
Effectiveness Rating:
90.0
Volsted Rating:
5.3/1.8/5.3
Hits Speed Cap at:
+60
Advanced Scatter Pistol; 114-182 Damage; 2.1 Speed; 17-51-18
HAM; AP: Light
Effectiveness Rating:
132.1
Volsted Rating:
7.8/2.6/7.3
Hits Speed Cap at:
+53
Carbines
DH-17 Short Carbine; 60-150 Damage; 2.8 Speed; 25-27-14 HAM; AP:
None
Effectiveness Rating:
56.3
Volsted Rating:
2.3/2.1/4.0
Hits Speed Cap at:
+65
E11 Carbine; 60-127 Damage; 2.6 Speed; 29-36-17 HAM; AP: Light
Effectiveness Rating:
67.4
Volsted Rating:
2.3/1.9/4.0
Hits Speed Cap at:
+62
Advanced Laser Carbine; 38-264 Damage; 3.7 Speed; 28-45-22 HAM;
AP: Medium
Effectiveness Rating:
95.7
Volsted Rating:
3.4/2.1/4.3
Hits Speed Cap at:
+73
Advanced EE3 Carbine; 80-186 Damage; 2.9 Speed; 38-32-17 HAM;
AP: None
Effectiveness Rating:
68.8
Volsted Rating:
1.8/2.1/4.0
Hits Speed Cap at:
+66
DXR6 Carbine; 97-149 Damage; 3.9 Speed; 27-48-20 HAM; AP: Light
Effectiveness Rating:
59.1
Volsted Rating:
2.2/1.2/3.0
Hits Speed Cap at:
+75
Advanced Elite Carbine; 104-182 Damage; 3.5 Speed; 28-45-22 HAM;
AP: Light
Effectiveness Rating:
76.6
Volsted Rating:
2.7/1.7/3.5
Hits Speed Cap at:
+72
Rifles
Laser Rifle; 29-376 Damage; 5.7 Speed; 14-22-59 HAM; AP: Medium
Effectiveness Rating:
83.3
Volsted Rating:
5.9/3.8/1.4
Hits Speed Cap at:
+83
SG-82 Rifle; 104-166 Damage; 5.6 Speed; 25-22-42 HAM; AP: None
Effectiveness Rating:
36.2
Volsted Rating:
1.4/1.6/0.9
Hits Speed Cap at:
+83
Advanced E11 Rifle; 91-174 Damage; 4.7 Speed; 13-23-36 HAM; AP:
Medium
Effectiveness Rating:
66.1
Volsted Rating:
5.5/2.9/1.8
Hits Speed Cap at:
+79
Jawa Ion Rifle; 100-181 Damage; 6.2 Speed; 14-29-46 HAM; AP:
Light
Effectiveness Rating:
42.5
Volsted Rating:
3.0/1.5/0.9
Hits Speed Cap at:
+84
T21 Rifle; 118-333 Damage; 7.2 Speed; 40-33-75 HAM; AP: Heavy
Effectiveness Rating:
91.8
Volsted Rating:
2.3/2.8/1.2
Hits Speed Cap at:
+87
Heavy Weapons
Flamethrower; 422-810 Damage; 4.7 Speed; 75-17-17 HAM; AP: None
Effectiveness Rating:
196.6
Volsted Rating:
2.6/11.6/11.6
Hits Speed Cap at:
N/A (so far as I'm aware)
