FM-Prizes
5 new prizes came into the weekly this ...uh... week. Ranging from tier 3 to tier 5. Starting off with the best new prize...
The Siege Reloader is the bigger brother to the Siege Targeting, with increased reload to every damage type and weapon type, 2 hours less build time, and the same building/wall damage bonus. All at the cost of an extra 7% weight, totalling to 25%.
If I had enough room to fit this special on, I would. However, if i had to remove or downgrade armor/weapon to fit this? I would keep the Siege Targeting. While the bonus 10% reload does help, it is not enough for me to lower the total health or damage.
The next best prize is Explosive upgrade, giving the ship an extra 10% explosive damage. Joining the ranks of Concussive, Evade, Speed, Splash, and Ampacity upgrades. This is the type of upgrade I would use to fill special slots on base defense explosive fleets. Like the Vendetta, which people do use, with 5 slots to fill. Being in a defense fleet, there is no need for speed, or building damage/defense. You can't bring up the evade. Whats to fill the extra slots?
A useful idea in some situations, mostly in base defense, I do kinda prefer this special to the Splash upgrade. A 10% bonus to damage seems more useful to me than a bonus 10%, especially when this translates to, in terms of Coaxial Firestorm, an increase of 396 damage to 1.2 splash increase. With the Vendetta, the main mortar ship these days, having an inert 50% splash bonus and -30% spread, the bonus 10% doesnt seem useful. Just remember that a single wall unit, has the width of 4.
This prize needs some retuning. A 5%-10% splash damage deduction is good for almost every turret, good job on kixeye on noticing what helps the player. However, the time for repair ranges from 33 minutes to a full hour. This is the worst part because of what this armor can only be equipped to.
Conqueror hulls, this armor can only be attacked to conqueror hulls. The same hulls where the highest base repair for any ship in that class is 1 hour and 10 minutes, the revenge. The lowest? 30 minutes for the Vendetta, Fury and Spite.
The lowest armor doubles the time for these three hulls. Now, the higher Health per ton is amazing, 9.2 health per ton is a lot better than the bulkhead at 6.5 health per ton.
Let's compare this armor to another popular one, the D5-C,M,X,CT,CO, having 2250 health points at 489 tons, and ranging from 22 minutes 30 seconds to 30 minutes. Two of these armors, equals the health point bonus of the War Plating 3. With 15 minutes saved using the D5-C,M,X armors, and equal using D5-CT,CO; at the cost of double the weight and 2 days 20 hours extra.
With 40 assault/siege deflection over 10% splash damage reduction, on a Vendetta? I'm honestly stuck on this one. Almost all of the successful Vendetta base attacks I have seen, have the Vendettas using their remote targeting. And of those attacks, the only damage the Vendettas take are from Executioner missiles or Ballistas. Both non-splash generating weapons.
I would prefer the siege deflection over the splash damage deduction.
This really just boils down to your play style. All I have to say is to attach it to tanks, and keep it away from remote targeting.
FM-Plasma
I have seen people complaining about the plasma damage being so game wrecking, and sinking everything. I agreed for the most part, but to what extent is it doing such? But first, a couple thoughts on the 102's, aka...
107's but with less points, and initially equal damage. Doom later announced that the damage was dropped by 25%, days after their second integration, however the points issue was the biggest concern. Coming in at around 25 million points. 107's give 73 million points for reference.
Using my old FM week build,
Here and a Fearless Blitzer crew I was able to finish each 107 with about 3 hours repair in to finish it off. Letting me do 3 per a full fleet. Giving me 219 Million points for a 9ish hour repair and 1000+ uranium for me to roll the crew.
Doing 102's I am able to do about 4 with a modified build,
here, again with the Fearless Blitzer crews for dealing with the Blade-Halo. 4 102's nets me ~100 points, and a 9 hour repair time again, and 1000+ uranium for crew again.
Now, reading back to the
September WIP, we find that the 102 was created to be a grind target. Now Kixeye, when I think of grind targets. I don't think equal to the main target, for equal repair but for half the points. How are we gonna find out what Kixeye needs to do to level these targets down to the appropriate difficulty for 25 million points? Off to the Dark Alliance!
And no luck... for the 102's. However, we did find the datamined info for the 97's (107's)
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http://i.imgur.com/9TRCXe6.jpg
What should be done to scale these targets down to fit a 25 million point price tag? Lower the armor on the Rhinos, and drop the executioner damage to 7000. That or like bring up the points way past 25 million for what once went for 73 million.
Now that we know what the damage was in the 107's, before Plasma was added in the game, let's take a look over at the 109's and see how the Plasma is over there.
http://i.imgur.com/V3WWLWP.jpg
Now that we know the full Plasma damage, let's find it per salvo.
- 224 for Executioner x 4 salvos
- 250 for Mortar x 8 salvos
- 114 for Coldsnap x 10 salvos
Let's find the damage per salvo for the three weapons in both the 107's and 109's, and find the ratio.
- 3,103 damage per salvo in 107 / 2,921 damage per salvo in 109 = 1.06, or in other words 6% less damage - Executioner
- 5,000 damage per salvo in 107 / 3,250 damage per salvo in 109 = 1.53 or in other words 53% less damage - Mortar
- 396 damage per salvo in 107 / 1,259 damage per salvo in 109 = .314 or in other words 314% more damage per salvo - Coldsnap
- 1,613 damage per salvo in 107 / 0 damage in 109 - undefined damage markup - Blade-Halo
What does this tell us? That the 109's should be easier than the 107's but due to Plasma, nah son. Plasma is the true killer of ships in the 109, along with the coldsnaps. Lets use the Punisher as an example.
*WE WILL BE USING THE UPPER RIGHT AND BOTTOM LEFT LAND PLOTS IN THE 109 FOR DAMAGE CAL, THE ONES THAT EVERYONE SNIPES FOR 25 MILLION POINTS*
Let's find how well my Pun does under the main damage types, only penetrating and explosive. Both with and without anti's/evade. My finished build, here, has the turret resistances of 90% missile, and 88% explosive, 73.6% evade, with 500 siege deflection. Since we already know the damage per salvo for all three weapons, let's do the math. (Ex-executioner, Cs-coldsnaps)
(((Salvo Damage-Pen-Ex)/(Resistance-Pen)*4)*2+(Salvo Damage-Pen-Mortar)/(Resistance-Pen)*8+(Salvo Damage-Exp-Mortar)/(Resistance-Exp)*8+(((Salvo Damage-Exp-Ex)/(Resistance-Exp)*4)*2)+((Salvo Damage-Exp-Cs)/(Resistance-Exp)*10)*2)-(siege deflection*5)=Final Damage/2
Health/Final Damage=number of full salvo hits to sink hull.
The deflection is multiplied by 5 due to each weapon's damage type being applied to the deflection, and not the finalized number.
Remember that the listed damage is double that of the whole damage. This is why we are dividing by 2 at the end. Also, that in the area of the 109, of which we are testing, has 2 coldsnaps and 2 executioners.
Dividing the damage up by salvo helps to account for accuracy and antis later on. I will be doing this formula in with both antis and no antis. The only differences would mortar and executioner damage. Filling in the numbers we get...
(With no antis)
(((2247)/(1.9)*4)*2)+((500)/(1.9)*8)+((2500)/(1.88)*8)+(((449)/(1.88)*4)*2)+(((1272)/(1.88)*10)*2)-(2500)=35147/2
21346/17573=1.2 full salvo hits to sink.
(With antis and evade)
(((2247)/(1.9)*1.6)*2)+(500)/(1.9)*0+(2500)/(1.88)*0+(((449)/(1.88)*1.6)*2)+(((1272)/(1.88)*10)*2)-(2500)=15580/2
21346/7790=2.7 full salvo hits to sink
What can we learn from this? The basic stuff really, you need anti's for mortars and evade for missiles. But what if we were to add some anti missiles on our ship? Let's take off the hailstorm B, and an arbalest to fit one Phalanx 4 on to our Punisher. Our new stats are Penetrating defense of 92%, explosive defense of 87%, and armour of 21214. Everything else is the same.
Finding the new accuracy of the missiles, counting in the anti accuracy, the CM evade, the ship evade, we get...
29.9 = 150/1.326 *(1 - .736)
Fitting this number in our equation, in place of the 1.6, and still assuming that all mortars will be shot down. We find that
(((2247)/(1.92)*1.2)*2)+(500)/(1.92)*0+(2500)/(1.87)*0+(((449)/(1.87)*1.2)*2)+(((1272)/(1.87)*10)*2)-(2500)=14489/2
21214/7244.6= 2.9 full salvo hits to sink.
With even fewer missiles coming in, and better resistance, our ship lasts even longer. But, let's find out how long in seconds this ship would survive; then compare it to the plasma damage. The time will be separated into two parts, one for every 9 seconds (mortars and coldsnaps) and every 5 seconds (executioner). This number will also be rounded to the next full multiple of either 5 or 9, to account for completely finishing off the ship, and only firing every 5-9 seconds.
Because of this, the damage will only be confined to mortar+coldsnaps, and executioner. Note that this is with anti's and evade.
21214/6052 damage over 9 seconds = 36 seconds to sink due to mortars and coldsnaps
21214/1192 damage over 5 seconds = 90 seconds to sink due to executioners
Using a rate over time equation, we find that it takes 26 seconds for our ship to sink.
Lets find out how long the Punisher will survive now under 4 different crews, in both full salvo hits and time; Steelheads common and uncommon; Sea Serpents common and uncommon. I would have liked to use Midnight marauders, due to their popularity, but since the bonuses come as the health decreases it doesnt provide a straight bonus.
With the common Steelheads, the penetrating defense rises to 93% and 89% explosive defense.
(((2247)/(1.93)*1.2)*2)+(500)/(1.93)*0+(2500)/(1.89)*0+(((449)/(1.89)*1.2)*2)+(((1272)/(1.89)*10)*2)-(500)=14324/2
21214/7162= 2.96 full salvo hits to sink.
With uncommon Steelheads, the penetrating defense rises to... almost same? Hold on, let's check the multiplicative math that Kixeye uses.
100-92=8 100-88=12
8*.15=1.2 12*.15=1.8
92+1.2+93.2 88+1.8=89.8
Just a .2-.8 difference, but let's run the numbers anyway.
(((2247)/(1.932)*1.2)*2)+(500)/(1.932)*0+(2500)/(1.898)*0+(((449)/(1.898)*1.2)*2)+(((1272)/(1.898)*10)*2)-(2500)=14262.6/2
21214/7131 = 2.97 full salvos hits to sink
With only a .01 difference using common and uncommon Steelhead crews, it doesnt matter to which one you use. The absolute difference is only 31 damage points.
Lets now try out the Sea Serpents crew, both common and uncommon. Starting with common, leaving our new stats at 76.8% evade, with the rest being the same. We have to find the new accuracy of the executioner missiles, still assuming that we are using this build here.
26.2 = 150/1.326 *(1 - .768)
This leaves us with the executioner having only 1.05 of its missiles hitting us. Lets plug it in.
(((2247)/(1.92)*1.05)*2)+(500)/(1.92)*0+(2500)/(1.87)*0+(((449)/(1.87)*1.05)*2)+(((1272)/(1.87)*10)*2)-(2500)=14066/2
21214/7033=3.01 full salvos to hit
Using the common Sea Serpent crew is better to use than the Steelheads uncommon crew! Let's compare it using the uncommon Sea Serpent crew now. Using the uncommon version, we have an evade of 80%
22.6 = 150/1.326 *(1 - .8)
This leaves the executioner having only .9 of its missiles hitting us, plugging it in we get that...
(((2247)/(1.92)*.9)*2)+(500)/(1.92)*0+(2500)/(1.87)*0+(((449)/(1.87)*.9)*2)+(((1272)/(1.87)*10)*2)-(2500)=13643/2
21214/6821=3.11 full salvos to hit
Now that we know the best crew to use, let's find how long it can survive in seconds.
21214/6052 damage every 9 seconds = 36 seconds
21214/769 damage every 5 seconds = 140 seconds
This comes to an average of 29 seconds to sink this fleet.
Using the uncommon Sea Serpents is the best way to take the least amount of damage.
Other crews work, just that for your 1000+800x uranium, I would choose Sea Serpents over Steelheads. It works better, and also provides bonus turn speed.
As always, film at 11
Just a moment now; that was the best crew to use for dealing with Penetrating and Explosive damage. What about Plasma damage? How much does it factor into this?
Checking back to what we have for plasma damage per salvo
- 224 for Executioner x 4 salvos
- 250 for Mortar x 8 salvos
- 114 for Coldsnap x 10 salvos
Now, because of Plasma being affected only by deflection, no current crews will help with this. Since the salvo plasma damage is well under 500, how do we calculate the actual pass through damage? We don't have to, thanks to the wonderful people over at Thedarkalliance. Thanks to a very informative post about the pass through damage on the Punisher and Drac Carrier. This number is found to be 57.
- 57 for Executioner x 4 salvos = 228
- 57 for Mortar x 8 salvos = 456
- 57 for Coldsnaps x 10 salvos = 570
- Total Plasma damage is 1254
Since this number was found through deflection, we don't have to worry about turret defenses. Lets plug in the final damage per turret and then into our formula again, counting in for evade and anti's. Here is the formula with names instead of numbers.
Note, we have broken up the turrets into damage types, because of the plasma damage being nonresistance based, we add it at the end after the deflection has been deduced and cut in half.
((((Salvo Damage-Pen-Ex)/(Resistance-Pen)*(Accuracy))*2+(Salvo Damage-Pen-Mortar)/(Resistance-Pen)*8+(Salvo Damage-Exp-Mortar)/(Resistance-Exp)*8+(((Salvo Damage-Exp-Ex)/(Resistance-Exp)*(Accuracy)*2)+((Salvo Damage-Exp-Cs)/(Resistance-Exp)*10)*2)-(siege deflection*5)=(Final Damage/2)+Plasma damage=Total damage
Health/Total Damage=number of full salvo hits to sink hull.
Using this Punisher build, let's find how many salvos it takes to sink it.
(((2247)/(1.92)*1.05)*2)+(500)/(1.92)*0+(2500)/(1.88)*0+(((449)/(1.88)*1.05)*2)+(((1272)/(1.88)*10)*2)-(2500)=(13991/2)+627=7622
21214/7622= 2.78 number of full salvo hits to sink hull.
21214/6585 damage every 9 seconds = 36 seconds
21214/1036 damage every 5 seconds = 105 seconds
This leaves with an average time of 27 seconds
With plasma damage providing for a 2 second difference in survival, but that is with the Uncommon Sea Serpents crew. What about with no crew?
(((2247)/(1.92)*1.2)*2)+(500)/(1.92)*0+(2500)/(1.88)*0+(((449)/(1.88)*1.2)*2)+(((1272)/(1.88)*10)*2)-(2500)=(14413/2)+627=
21214/7834 = 2.71 number of full salvo hits to sink hull.
21214/6585 damage every 9 seconds = 36 seconds
21214/1249 damage every 5 seconds = 85 seconds
This gives us an estimated 25 seconds for this ship to sink.
This provides another 2 second difference between having a crew and not. Now, comparing this last test with the first test using antis and no crew, the ship lasts for 26 seconds.
1 second difference between plasma damage and no plasma damage. What does this all boil down to? The siege deflection. If you can add more, add it, even adding 20 more is a big deal. Back to the equation for proof.
(((2247)/(1.92)*1.2)*2)+(500)/(1.92)*0+(2500)/(1.88)*0+(((449)/(1.88)*1.2)*2)+(((1272)/(1.88)*10)*2)-(2600)=(14313/2)+627=
21214/7783 = 2.72 number of full salvo hits to sink hull.
21214/6585 damage every 9 seconds = 36 seconds
21214/1198 damage every 5 seconds = 90 seconds
Leaving an average of 26 seconds. If using the Sea Serpents, the best crew to use, gives us an extra 2 seconds, and having an extra just 20 siege deflection gives us an extra 1 second, not counting in the extra resistance? You bet i'm gonna try and fit it on.
As always, Film at 11
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The Blade puts out more missiles per second to overwhelm countermeasures, while Scoria is pure damage dealing.
