*fires up 45 minute long twostepsfromhell playlist and reads all 56 pages*
interesting read. one thing i found missing from the entire thread was an indepth look at how the Longinus Heavy Laser compares to other beams. Especially, how come it's got almost the same stats as the Plasma Cannon which is a large energy? Just based on that i'd say the mod as a whole is unbalanced and OP. Actually, being honest, one has to admit there's been a severe lack of philosophical discussion as to what constitutes a 'Large' weapon as opposed to the smaller brethren...just by looking at some of the [admittedly very cool] weaponry in the armory of someone with most of the mods installed.
Having lambasted Dark Revenant, albeit unfairly, the onus is on me to proof the case that the Longinus either needs a 'Large' designation or some sort of nerf to make it less appealing (because, honestly, why not put the long in a large slot, ffs?)
Using the Sunder (U)'s large energy slot i'm going to beat the stuffing out of successive enforcers (poor things, i know) after entering "allweapons" into console. Now, i'm using probably half of the major mods on the left hand side of the index by now so it should be somewhat definitive.
Using an officer with 10 power grid skill
My hypothesis is that as i travel down the OP cost list of energy weapons available, and make notes as to flux and damage, i will find the Longinus outperforms at an immersion breaking level compared to it's peers.
If it does i'll probably download and install the editor (assuming i'll be able to nerf the gun that way)
- Joyeuse Fractal Laser. (pulse;shotgun) The timing is good for dissipation vs rate of fire. Poor enforcer got splattered, especially with high energy focus active. at 36 OP cost, it seems fun enough aside from probable blue-on-blue incidents.
- Silver Lance. (beam; power up; short burst) *scratches head* for 32 OP cost it's underwhelming on the simulator enforcer. impressive stats on paper; hardly affects the target
- Juger Heavy Cannon (pulse) bullet speed leaves much to be desired but the effect on the target was impressive. never though to use this on sunder. wow
- Unstable Photon Cannon (pulse;shotgun) besides almost maxing out the enforcer's flux, the effect was negligible for what i was seeking.
- Invocation Launcher (pseudo-missile;MIRV) great kiting weapon but not exactly slaying that enforcer. We're at the 26 OP cost range now...
- Plasma Cannon (pulse;triple shot) bit greedy on the flux but i was able to take the enforcer down before i was in danger of overloading.
- Urlan Siege Laser (pulse;triple shot) bit slow on the projectile speed side but had the same take down ability of the Plasma, with less flux problems actually
- Neutron Lance (beam; short burst) slightly better than the other two above and 2 OP cheaper. Still, nothing like the Joyeuse. lol
- Neutron Pulse Battery (pulse) bit slow on the projectile speed and not demanding on flux. it eventually did the job, taking not too long for a 22 OP wpn
- Tachyon Lance (beam;short burst) efficacy along the lines of the Neutron Pulse directly above. It's the default weapon for my Sunders, actually.
- Flux Torpedo (pulse) bit slow on the projectile speed side and efficacy a little less than the above stuff, but kept the enforcer in almost constant overload
- Particle Cannon Array (pulse;Quad Shot) decent shot speed, underwhelming results compared to it's 21 OP peers. (kinetic; hard flux to shields)
- Neutrino Beam (beam; short burst) very niche weapon. useless against the enforcer for this test of actual take down time. (kinetic; hard flux to shields)
- Basilisk Ultrashock (beam; short burst) pretty much along the lines of the Tachyon and Neutron Pulse...i'd go with this but i like pairing range equivalent mediums with my tachyon (1000su easier to pair with other things) on the sunder Us i field.
- Heavy Pulsar Beam (pulse) very impressive projectile speed; enforcer go splat. Range isn't great. flux dissipation nicely timed for next pulse. hmmm
- Super-charged Pulse Beam (beam;triple shot) uhm...yeah...i know why i prefer spending just one more OP for the Tachyon over this POS. blech.
- Auto-hybrid Blaster (pulse;Quad shot) well, it looks and sounds cool, but for one more OP i'd go for the heavy pulsar beam instead for better efficacy.
- Bane (pulse) rate of fire and speed of shot are insane. be a great anti-fighter and frigate tool, albeit expensive (18OP). not so much against the enforcer.
- Ultraheavy Energy Blaster (pulse) rate of fire and speed of shot are insane. worked pretty good for a 18OP weapon against the enforcer
- Sunstorm PDE (beam; short burst) being an explosive variety of energy i didn't expect much from this. niche weapon not suited for this test
- Guardian PD (multi beams; ammo bursts) for *** and giggles i gave this a whirl. the enforcers weapons did more soft flux damage to itself than this thing. lol
- Autopulse Laser (pulse; ammo bursts) at 16op this weapon is awesome if you add 'expanded magazines' hull mod (lasts long enough to hit 'F' key twice)
- Dual Giga Pulse laser (twin beam; short burst) not bad rate of fire, although it took a while to take down the enforcer
- Graser (beam; short burst) *** rate of fire; not familiar with "burst damage" mechanics and "extra damage at high flux" so niche weapon and n/a to test
- High Intensity Laser (beam) And finally we come to the only true 'beam' weapon in my current arsenal that is a large energy weapon. cheap, dependable and everyone's favorite finisher. it wouldn't have been able to take out the enforcer though, especially with the high flux cost (500/second continuous adds up on the sunder)
now, taking a bit to refine my hypothesis i'd like to point out that the first impression of the Longinus was that it's "1000flux/second" statistic didn't really seem like that ingame. It's a continuous fire beam weapon and i worry less about it than my high intensity laser? hello
yeah. confirmed. look at that. jeezuz. wiped the floor with that poor enforcer. didn't even bother to turn on high energy focus once. flux? lulz. seriously? nahhh..something's wrong. i lower the sunder's flux to base and i'm barely scratching flux levels. turn the shields on and it start moving slowly up. yeah, dude. serious problems...did you recently buff the weapon and not touch the ingame statistics? seriously overpowered. stop listening to
Megas. lol
it's got the turning radius of a medium energy but the power of something costing 21 OP that's a large. it's got good range, and it's the only true 'large' beam weapon outputting non-explosive. My suggestion? simply change the damage type to explosive and you'll solve the problem then and there. sure it'll cost more than the large intensity laser, but its stats (corrected) are superb across the board, so why the hell not?
tried to add attachment but forum big meanie. sad.