After playing with the live version of the new config in real PvP for a while, I feel it’s time to give a full review of my perceptions of how it’s turning out. No CV/CV combat so far unfortunately
SVs:
The combat is now fast paced and very fun. You can be shot down very quickly, or not, depending mostly on how skilled the pilots are at evading enemy fire. The weapons, especially pulse lasers, can quickly destroy you, if you let them.
Pulse lasers: Great primary weapon, high damage, accuracy, and rate of fire drills deep holes in enemy armor. This weapon has no splash so if you’re looking to cause wide spread damage on the surface it won’t do that but it will dig into the internals of your enemy quicker than any other weapon. Very effective against hardened steel, shutter windows are resistant to their damage but continuous fire will eventually get through them. I don’t feel they need any changes at this time.
Homing Rockets: A good shield breaker, highly accurate due to it’s homing ability. Very little damage to hardened steel armor, but if the enemy has shutter blocks on the exterior of their ship this weapon is a good first choice. Don’t expect to take down many armored SVs using homing missiles alone. The range is shorter than other SV weapons, but when in range they are more accurate to use. I would suggest leaving their range short but increasing their base damage around 15-20% and rate of fire by 20% as they feel pretty weak right now.
Plasma Cannons: Another shield breaker, destroys shutters in a large area but only damages hardened steel a bit. Longer range and faster firing than the homing rockets but more difficult to use. It’s very hard to hit an SV in flight with a plasma cannon unless they are a terrible pilot. More useful against ground targets or CVs. I don’t think they need any changes at this time unless the intention is for them to be used against SVs in flight, in which case I would increase projectile speed 50% at least. It feels like homing rockets serve as the shield breaker for SV battles while plasma functions as the primary shield/combat armor breaker for anti-HV combat.
Rail guns: Special device killing sniper gun. This weapon destroys any SV device it hits, which includes wings, but does nothing to armor or shutters. If the enemy doesn’t have exposed components, it’s not a useful weapon. In a real fight, it’s nearly impossible to snipe off an enemy weapon or shoot down a hole that you blew into their armor because the railgun shot travels too slowly. If the enemy is evading at all, you’ll likely miss completely or hit on the armor where it does no damage. The weapon is great at sniping turrets off of bases or HVs that are stationary or moving slowly, it will take a few hits, but no other weapon can kill a turret as quickly. I’d like to see them be a hit-scan weapon if they are meant to be used in SV-SV combat, otherwise they do their job of turret sniping pretty well.
Rocket Launcher: Concrete smashing rockets. These rockets do fairly good damage but not great against armor and shutters if you can land a hit, but you’ll probably only land a hit on a ship sitting on the ground. That being said, other weapons are far more effective anyway. Where they really shine is attacking bases, they do great damage to concrete/armored concrete and also combat steel blocks. Slow firing, decent range, good damage. You won’t kill a base before it kills you, but an SV does have an effective weapon for breaking base armor. No changes needed.
Gatling guns: Stop using these in PvP. They are very pathetic in their damage to anything on an SV/HV/CV/BA and only effective at killing the player if you already shot them out of their cockpit, you can use plasma or rockets or any other weapon to kill a player. Gatlings are good at killing drones, golems, worms, dinosaurs and a host of other wildlife and alien creatures, and that’s about it.
HV weapons:
Artillery: The anti-everything gun: This weapon blows a big hole in any kind of armor it hits. It can but it’s not especially effective at destroying turrets or even internal components of other vehicles unless on a direct hit. Slow rate of fire and slow projectiles make this weapon less effective against moving targets but that doesn’t hinder it’s ability to make a hole in the most heavily fortified bases. No changes needed.
Rocket Turrets: Anti-SV defense weapon: Decent but not great damage and range homing missiles. They don’t seem to do much to base blocks or turrets but are a fairly effective weapon for defending the HV from other HVs or SVs. No changes needed.
Plasma Turrets: Anti-HV defense weapon: Good damage and range, not the most accurate. This weapon doesn’t seem to do a lot to a base either but it does pretty well against other HVs, and when it hits an SV it does decent damage but nothing really spectacular. I would suggest to make HV plasma more effective vs hull or increase their base damage, so they are more dangerous to other HV or an attacking SV.
Minigun Turrets: Kinda worthless as it is. There are 6 of them so in such numbers they actually do start stripping some blocks off, but not very quickly. They are more useful as additional armor blocks that are resistant to most damage than as actual weapons currently. I would suggest making HV minigun turrets effective against “hull, combat hull” and ineffective against “metal” and “hard metal” but short range, so they would quickly strip the armor and shutters off an attacking SV or HV that got too close (as in moving in to lay into the tank with plasma cannons) but wouldn’t destroy internal devices unless a rocket/plasma/artillery landed a hit there.
Gatling guns: same as the SV version