Forums » Bugs

Just a typo?

May 13, 2003 Rabid Panda link
Tach and Grav have the same damage (650), yet the Grav is almost twice as much (cost wise), goes slower and takes more nrg to fire. The Tach is faster, cheaper (both nrg and cost) and stil the same damage. What is the real damage of the Grav?
May 13, 2003 Arolte link
Anyone who buys a Grav isn't too smart. Heheehehe... I mean c'mon! I really hope they leave Tachyons just the way they are. I love 'em.
May 13, 2003 Suicidal Lemming link
The graviton is meant to be fast fireing, 2 tachyons is a bit more then the fire rate of on graviton, but gravitons drain way too much to be of any conventional use.
May 13, 2003 xochiluvr link
It's specifically a centurion weapon, I would guess.
May 14, 2003 Celebrim link
You are just noticing this?

Tachyons have always been faster and more efficient than Gravitons. I'm been whining about that since 3.2.0.

The problem sure isn't the Tachyon, because that's one of the few weapons in the game that seems reasonably close to balanced to me.

See the thread in 'suggestions' about weapon balance.
May 14, 2003 Rabid Panda link
Yes. I am just noticing this. I'm sorry I have a life outside Vendetta now.
May 14, 2003 Arolte link
LOL! I've been telling people to buy Tachyons since 3.2.0 because of the greater advantages and cheaper price. They just told me to shut up and that the Gravitons were cooler. I just shrugged it off. Hehe... suckers.
May 16, 2003 Arolte link
Okay, I did a little testing of my own with the Graviton. It definitely makes a great weapon for a one S-port fighter such as the Centurian, or if there's scarce room for energy weapons left. It actually feels like a very accurate gatling gun, which makes it fun to use. The speed of it was fine. I didn't really think it was slow or anything. I guess the repeat rate balanced that out.

My only issue with it was its energy consumption. And this is where I agree with everyone else. the energy consumption needs to be lower, or at the most it should be the same level as Tachyons. Since its projectiles are already slower and it fires at a quicker rate, it should already be a battery hog by this very nature. It seems like its purpose is for one port usage. It could be okay when combined in a dual grouping. But I doubt it would be efficient with a triple grouping, which is where the Tachyons have the advantage.

This all leads me to believe that the Tachyon, with its slower rate of fire, was specifically designed to be grouped. While the Gravitons were meant to be a quick and easy offensive tool, for those with very limited space. Heck, it may actually encourage more people to use the light fighters for a change.
May 16, 2003 Celebrim link
The grav is a good centurian weapon, just because it has such a high potential damage per second. It could be a good single energy weapon on any fighter with one minor change - less energy per shot than a tachyon. You just have to be careful not to turn it into a weapon that just 'rules', which would be easy to do by bumping up its velocity or improving its efficiency too much.

In another thread I suggested that grav's be made the more energy efficient of the two (like 14 or 16 per shot), and that tachyons be made faster and every so slightly harder hitting (like 700 or 750 per shot). I think that would keep them balanced. It would be similar to the balance between the laser and the ion in 3.1 only the 'ion' (graviton) in this case would have much less clear cut of an advatage.

The numbers would then look like this:

Graviton: Velocity: 170 Damage/Second: ~7222 Energy/Second: ~178 Efficiency: ~41 damage/point of power

Tachyon: Velocity: 190 Damage/Second: ~3889 Energy/Second: ~106 Efficiency: ~37 damage/point of power

A little play testing to tweak the grav's power consumption and possibly rate of fire or damage per hit would then be good.

The only thing that worries me about this is the ability to link the graviton in effective pairs goes up considerably.