itto
12-05-2005, 07:31 AM
There is alot toknow about weapons
The original article is found on E.P (http://entropia-pioneers.kicks-ass.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=134)
Choosing the right ranged weapon!
A lot of the info presented here is collected from the PE forum. Thanks to all that contributed in any way! Also: almost any stats about any weapon can be found in our gun chart.
Why do you want to shoot mobs?
The first thing to consider, when you are about to chose which weapon you are going to buy, is why you want that gun. I will here give some examples of different uses and later on I will tell you which gun to buy for each of the application areas. (As a matter of fact I won't, but I will help you make your choice.)
For fun!
To gain skills!
To make money!
To play as long as possible for your money!
Basics
But first lets go through the basics.
There are several things to consider when you want to rate a gun. The most basic parameters are Cost, Damage, Ammo usage, Range, Fire rate and Decay rate.
Cost: Not important in this discussion, as it is a one-time investment. If you can afford the weapon and think it is the best one for your needs, then buy it. You can probably get the money back when you're done with it anyway.
Damage: This usually refers to the total amount of damage your weapon can do. It should however be noted that:
The damage dealt is highly dependant of your current skills and could actually go higher than the number on the gun says, if your skills are high enough.
The damage is divided in to several groups, like impact, penetration, burn, etc. and different mobs are vulnerable to different kinds of damage.
Ammo cost: This is the number of ammo cells needed to fire one shot.
Range: This is how far you can shot. This is dependant on your skills!
Fire rate: This is how fast your weapon can shoot. In this guide it will be defined as number of shots per second.
Decay rate: This is how fast your weapon decays. I.e. the repair costs per shot.
These parameters can then be combined into several other ratios like Damage/Ammo, Damage/PED, Damage/Time, Damage before Mob X reaches you, PEDs to kill Mob X and Shots per PED.
Damage/Ammo: This ratio is really not much of a help in comparing guns at all... Except to use Ammo as a cost approximation if you don’t know the decay rate.
Damage/PED: This is equal to Damage/(Ammo cost + Decay cost). That is the amount of damage you can deal for each PED you spend on Weapon repairs and Ammo. If you are going to hunt low health and low damage mobs then this is the ratio you want to maximise.
Damage/Time: This is equal to Damage*Fire rate. This is important if you want to hunt high health mobs.
Damage before Mob X reaches you: This is equal to Range * Damage/Time. Important if you want to hunt mobs that you really wouldn't like to reach you (i.e. high damage mobs).
PED to kill mob X: This is a combination of all the above and is very dependant on the mob you want to kill. More about this later.
Shots per PED: This is how many shots you can make per PED, regardless of the amount of damage done. Defined as 1/(Decay Rate + Ammo usage). Important if you are out to raise you skills and don't care what mobs you shoot.
So, now you need to decide why you want to hunt.
For fun!
If you only want to hunt for the fun of it and have no restrictions of the amount of PEDs spent then you want a gun with high Damage before Mob X reaches you. With a weapon like that you can hunt almost any mob, which I think might be the actual definition of fun.
Not much to say here really, as you only have to buy one (or more) of the expensive guns out there...
Examples:
Modified FF BGH 4400M
Improved MK II
Adjusted Omegaton M61A5
Improved FF ARR 8000. Backed up with a Modified EWE EP-40 or Adjusted Sweeper V1.
Mechel & Loch ML-35. Backed up with a Modified EWE EP-40 or Adjusted Sweeper V1.
To play as long as possible for the money!
If you are on a shortage of PEDs for one or another reason, you need to think more of the economical parts of the weapon choice. The most important parameters to think about is the Shots per PED and Damage per PED.
If you have low skills (no numbers given as they will most certainly be considered wrong by everyone anyway ) the first parameter is most important, as you can't/shouldn't hunt big game at this point. And if you have higher skills the Damage per PED is most important as this one can actually make you break even, thus making the money go a long way. See the respective section below.
To gain skills! (Increases both of the above)
If your skills are low you should buy the gun with the highest Shots per PED ratio. This way you might not make much damage, but you can shoot many shots for a few PEDs. This also means that you need to hunt easy mobs, but in the long run you gain/save PEDs from gaining skills!
Examples:
The handgun with the best Shots per PED is the Omegaton M2201. So if you want to increase your Handgun skills you should use this gun.
If you however want to increase your Rifle skills you should use the Sollomate Outbacko.
To increase BLP skills use Omegaton Z1001 Blp pistol resp. Starkhov AS-97 rifle. These are pretty heavy on Ammo usage compared to the previously mentioned laser weapons though.
To make money!
If you want to make money you should first raise your skills. Then you want a weapon with low PEDs to kill Mob X ratio. This can be increased in several ways though.
First of all the Damage per PED ratio is important. But the Damage/time ratio is also very important. This depends on which mob you want to hunt.
For example: killing a Tantardion with a Outbacko is not economical, as the Tant will regenerate a lot, forcing you to deal out a lot more damage than you would have to deal with an Improved Mk II.
Another example: (trying) to kill an Ambulimax with a Outbacko is also a very bad idea. As you will get killed! Thus spending PEDs on nothing...
So depending on what mob you wants to kill, you should find the right gun(s) for that mob. This is best done by killing that mob with a couple of different guns, and see what gun took the least costs (ammo and repairs) to kill say 10 of that particular mob.
Until you have all guns though you can look at our gun chart.
Remember, the bigger and meaner the mob you want to kill is, the more important Range and Damage/time is.
Amps
Amps are heavy on repair costs so only use them when you hunt big game or when you need that extra damage. They increase your Damage/time ratio.
The new 200-series (crafting only) is lower on repairs than the older 100-series (lootable).
Scopes and lasers
Use them!!!
They increase your chance to hit and they are cheap on repairs.
For most weapons, you can have one laser on the scope and one on the weapon.
Mini-Sweepers can use neither lasers nor scopes!
Difficulty of weapons!
Different guns have an intrinsic difficulty. Good guns (i.e. high damage, fast etc.) are much harder to master than the easy ones (like outbacko).
While as a noob you can do full/close to full damage with an easy gun, you will need very high skills to fully utilize a high end rifle. It is hard to tell exactly which guns have which difficulty, but a good rule of thumb is that the more expensive (tt) the gun, the harder to utilize it fully!
What this means is that you might acctually make less average damage with a high end weapon, than with a low end one, if you don't have enough skills!
More than one weapon!
You should have several weapons, as there are several situations you can find yourself in.
The minimum, I think, is one long range weapon and one fast short range weapon. And preferably one set with high Damage per PED and one set with high Damage per time.
However: A lot of switching between guns makes you less accurate with them! So don't use several guns if you can take down the mob with just one!
Example of good guns
Here are some things said in the PE forum about some guns:
"A real decent combination of weapons for the not so Hardcore hunter, is a regular FF 4400 with a Regular Mini-Sweeper V1, a real good combo and cheap to acquire, you will however have some trouble with armax guardians cuz they will regenerate a great portion of their health when you are fleeing from them."
/Luni
"I use the 4400 to do ~70 damage from great distance and when the mob gets in range I switch to MKII for much faster firing rate. Usually the atrax drops in front of me. Armax gets a hit and run party "
/Vmax
"Modified Starkhov is a bit better then ML-35 but to a much higher cost, anyway with Mod Starkhov and Adjusted Sweeper Ambullimax will drop 3 out of 4, with ML-35 and Adj Sweeper 2 out of 4."
/Luni
MK2 vs. Punisher (By Luni in the PE forum.)
"Lets compare the mk2 and punisher
The mk2 shoots faster then punisher but both rifle have same range which is to the 3rd circle.
Which means the mk2 can get away say 10shoots when the punisher can get away 6shoots.
So we get...
Mk2 .. Eff = 10 * 43 = 430 .. cost = (10 * 10) + 0.5 * 10) = 105pec
Punisher .. Eff = 6*21 = 126 .. cost = (6 * 5) + (0.27 * 6) = 31.62
Which makes the Eff/cost
Mk2 .. 4.092dmg/pec
Punisher .. 3.985dmg/pec
If I were to compare the mk2 and the punisher however I wouldn’t take note on the Eff/cost. I would just compare the efficiency which makes the "correct" comparisation --> 430 against 126, so the mk2 is around 340% more effective then the punisher...
But there is one very important variable left to take into consideration and that’s the regeneration rate of the creature.
If a creature have say 400HP (a.k.a allophyl), killing it with the mk2 would probably take around 17 shots (not including misses) if all shots hit for 30dmg.
"How come you ask yourself". Well lets assume that the allophyl heals 4HP every second, and the mk2 shoots once every 1.5seconds it would take around 25,5s to kill it which makes the creature regenerate around 102HP. And 17*30 = 400 + 110 = 510dmg
So... The creature have 502HP total and the damage dealt is 510 after 17 shoots, which is a little overkill
With the punisher however which shoots once every 2nd second and with lower damage. The same creature could regenerate a much greater portion of its health. Lets make an assumption that the punisher makes 14.5dmg every shoot. Then it would take around 62 shoots to kill it.
The creatures health = 400 + 4*(number of seconds it takes to kill it) = 400 + 4 * (62*2) = 400 + 496 = 896HP
Damage dealt = 62 * 14,5 = 899dmg
Cost per kill...
Mk2 .. 17 * 10 + 0,5*17 = 178,5pec
Punisher .. 62 * 5 + 0,27 * 62 = 326,74pec
The conclusion is quite obvious. Do not hunt creature with high health if you have a weapon with low efficiency."
Regards /luni
Feedback
If you have comments or suggestions please pm (personal message) them to me here, or post them in the Forum Suggestions area. All info about weapons is welcome and just might be added here.
Thanks
Thanks to Luni, Vmax and anyone else who contributed by sharing info in the PE forums.
And to the Entropia Pioneers staff!
Other Info
If you liked this guide, you might also like my Newbie Guide or my Skill FAQ.
The original article is found on E.P (http://entropia-pioneers.kicks-ass.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=134)
Choosing the right ranged weapon!
A lot of the info presented here is collected from the PE forum. Thanks to all that contributed in any way! Also: almost any stats about any weapon can be found in our gun chart.
Why do you want to shoot mobs?
The first thing to consider, when you are about to chose which weapon you are going to buy, is why you want that gun. I will here give some examples of different uses and later on I will tell you which gun to buy for each of the application areas. (As a matter of fact I won't, but I will help you make your choice.)
For fun!
To gain skills!
To make money!
To play as long as possible for your money!
Basics
But first lets go through the basics.
There are several things to consider when you want to rate a gun. The most basic parameters are Cost, Damage, Ammo usage, Range, Fire rate and Decay rate.
Cost: Not important in this discussion, as it is a one-time investment. If you can afford the weapon and think it is the best one for your needs, then buy it. You can probably get the money back when you're done with it anyway.
Damage: This usually refers to the total amount of damage your weapon can do. It should however be noted that:
The damage dealt is highly dependant of your current skills and could actually go higher than the number on the gun says, if your skills are high enough.
The damage is divided in to several groups, like impact, penetration, burn, etc. and different mobs are vulnerable to different kinds of damage.
Ammo cost: This is the number of ammo cells needed to fire one shot.
Range: This is how far you can shot. This is dependant on your skills!
Fire rate: This is how fast your weapon can shoot. In this guide it will be defined as number of shots per second.
Decay rate: This is how fast your weapon decays. I.e. the repair costs per shot.
These parameters can then be combined into several other ratios like Damage/Ammo, Damage/PED, Damage/Time, Damage before Mob X reaches you, PEDs to kill Mob X and Shots per PED.
Damage/Ammo: This ratio is really not much of a help in comparing guns at all... Except to use Ammo as a cost approximation if you don’t know the decay rate.
Damage/PED: This is equal to Damage/(Ammo cost + Decay cost). That is the amount of damage you can deal for each PED you spend on Weapon repairs and Ammo. If you are going to hunt low health and low damage mobs then this is the ratio you want to maximise.
Damage/Time: This is equal to Damage*Fire rate. This is important if you want to hunt high health mobs.
Damage before Mob X reaches you: This is equal to Range * Damage/Time. Important if you want to hunt mobs that you really wouldn't like to reach you (i.e. high damage mobs).
PED to kill mob X: This is a combination of all the above and is very dependant on the mob you want to kill. More about this later.
Shots per PED: This is how many shots you can make per PED, regardless of the amount of damage done. Defined as 1/(Decay Rate + Ammo usage). Important if you are out to raise you skills and don't care what mobs you shoot.
So, now you need to decide why you want to hunt.
For fun!
If you only want to hunt for the fun of it and have no restrictions of the amount of PEDs spent then you want a gun with high Damage before Mob X reaches you. With a weapon like that you can hunt almost any mob, which I think might be the actual definition of fun.
Not much to say here really, as you only have to buy one (or more) of the expensive guns out there...
Examples:
Modified FF BGH 4400M
Improved MK II
Adjusted Omegaton M61A5
Improved FF ARR 8000. Backed up with a Modified EWE EP-40 or Adjusted Sweeper V1.
Mechel & Loch ML-35. Backed up with a Modified EWE EP-40 or Adjusted Sweeper V1.
To play as long as possible for the money!
If you are on a shortage of PEDs for one or another reason, you need to think more of the economical parts of the weapon choice. The most important parameters to think about is the Shots per PED and Damage per PED.
If you have low skills (no numbers given as they will most certainly be considered wrong by everyone anyway ) the first parameter is most important, as you can't/shouldn't hunt big game at this point. And if you have higher skills the Damage per PED is most important as this one can actually make you break even, thus making the money go a long way. See the respective section below.
To gain skills! (Increases both of the above)
If your skills are low you should buy the gun with the highest Shots per PED ratio. This way you might not make much damage, but you can shoot many shots for a few PEDs. This also means that you need to hunt easy mobs, but in the long run you gain/save PEDs from gaining skills!
Examples:
The handgun with the best Shots per PED is the Omegaton M2201. So if you want to increase your Handgun skills you should use this gun.
If you however want to increase your Rifle skills you should use the Sollomate Outbacko.
To increase BLP skills use Omegaton Z1001 Blp pistol resp. Starkhov AS-97 rifle. These are pretty heavy on Ammo usage compared to the previously mentioned laser weapons though.
To make money!
If you want to make money you should first raise your skills. Then you want a weapon with low PEDs to kill Mob X ratio. This can be increased in several ways though.
First of all the Damage per PED ratio is important. But the Damage/time ratio is also very important. This depends on which mob you want to hunt.
For example: killing a Tantardion with a Outbacko is not economical, as the Tant will regenerate a lot, forcing you to deal out a lot more damage than you would have to deal with an Improved Mk II.
Another example: (trying) to kill an Ambulimax with a Outbacko is also a very bad idea. As you will get killed! Thus spending PEDs on nothing...
So depending on what mob you wants to kill, you should find the right gun(s) for that mob. This is best done by killing that mob with a couple of different guns, and see what gun took the least costs (ammo and repairs) to kill say 10 of that particular mob.
Until you have all guns though you can look at our gun chart.
Remember, the bigger and meaner the mob you want to kill is, the more important Range and Damage/time is.
Amps
Amps are heavy on repair costs so only use them when you hunt big game or when you need that extra damage. They increase your Damage/time ratio.
The new 200-series (crafting only) is lower on repairs than the older 100-series (lootable).
Scopes and lasers
Use them!!!
They increase your chance to hit and they are cheap on repairs.
For most weapons, you can have one laser on the scope and one on the weapon.
Mini-Sweepers can use neither lasers nor scopes!
Difficulty of weapons!
Different guns have an intrinsic difficulty. Good guns (i.e. high damage, fast etc.) are much harder to master than the easy ones (like outbacko).
While as a noob you can do full/close to full damage with an easy gun, you will need very high skills to fully utilize a high end rifle. It is hard to tell exactly which guns have which difficulty, but a good rule of thumb is that the more expensive (tt) the gun, the harder to utilize it fully!
What this means is that you might acctually make less average damage with a high end weapon, than with a low end one, if you don't have enough skills!
More than one weapon!
You should have several weapons, as there are several situations you can find yourself in.
The minimum, I think, is one long range weapon and one fast short range weapon. And preferably one set with high Damage per PED and one set with high Damage per time.
However: A lot of switching between guns makes you less accurate with them! So don't use several guns if you can take down the mob with just one!
Example of good guns
Here are some things said in the PE forum about some guns:
"A real decent combination of weapons for the not so Hardcore hunter, is a regular FF 4400 with a Regular Mini-Sweeper V1, a real good combo and cheap to acquire, you will however have some trouble with armax guardians cuz they will regenerate a great portion of their health when you are fleeing from them."
/Luni
"I use the 4400 to do ~70 damage from great distance and when the mob gets in range I switch to MKII for much faster firing rate. Usually the atrax drops in front of me. Armax gets a hit and run party "
/Vmax
"Modified Starkhov is a bit better then ML-35 but to a much higher cost, anyway with Mod Starkhov and Adjusted Sweeper Ambullimax will drop 3 out of 4, with ML-35 and Adj Sweeper 2 out of 4."
/Luni
MK2 vs. Punisher (By Luni in the PE forum.)
"Lets compare the mk2 and punisher
The mk2 shoots faster then punisher but both rifle have same range which is to the 3rd circle.
Which means the mk2 can get away say 10shoots when the punisher can get away 6shoots.
So we get...
Mk2 .. Eff = 10 * 43 = 430 .. cost = (10 * 10) + 0.5 * 10) = 105pec
Punisher .. Eff = 6*21 = 126 .. cost = (6 * 5) + (0.27 * 6) = 31.62
Which makes the Eff/cost
Mk2 .. 4.092dmg/pec
Punisher .. 3.985dmg/pec
If I were to compare the mk2 and the punisher however I wouldn’t take note on the Eff/cost. I would just compare the efficiency which makes the "correct" comparisation --> 430 against 126, so the mk2 is around 340% more effective then the punisher...
But there is one very important variable left to take into consideration and that’s the regeneration rate of the creature.
If a creature have say 400HP (a.k.a allophyl), killing it with the mk2 would probably take around 17 shots (not including misses) if all shots hit for 30dmg.
"How come you ask yourself". Well lets assume that the allophyl heals 4HP every second, and the mk2 shoots once every 1.5seconds it would take around 25,5s to kill it which makes the creature regenerate around 102HP. And 17*30 = 400 + 110 = 510dmg
So... The creature have 502HP total and the damage dealt is 510 after 17 shoots, which is a little overkill
With the punisher however which shoots once every 2nd second and with lower damage. The same creature could regenerate a much greater portion of its health. Lets make an assumption that the punisher makes 14.5dmg every shoot. Then it would take around 62 shoots to kill it.
The creatures health = 400 + 4*(number of seconds it takes to kill it) = 400 + 4 * (62*2) = 400 + 496 = 896HP
Damage dealt = 62 * 14,5 = 899dmg
Cost per kill...
Mk2 .. 17 * 10 + 0,5*17 = 178,5pec
Punisher .. 62 * 5 + 0,27 * 62 = 326,74pec
The conclusion is quite obvious. Do not hunt creature with high health if you have a weapon with low efficiency."
Regards /luni
Feedback
If you have comments or suggestions please pm (personal message) them to me here, or post them in the Forum Suggestions area. All info about weapons is welcome and just might be added here.
Thanks
Thanks to Luni, Vmax and anyone else who contributed by sharing info in the PE forums.
And to the Entropia Pioneers staff!
Other Info
If you liked this guide, you might also like my Newbie Guide or my Skill FAQ.