Weapons and mount sizes (incl. spoilers re: weapon specials)

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MindQuake
Voyager
Voyager
Posts: 3

Weapons and mount sizes (incl. spoilers re: weapon specials)

Post by MindQuake »

As things stand, the base weapons appear to be the same aside from minor damage differences and different level 5 abilities.
All abilities have a 100% chance to activate aside from Vorpal, which is 25% for crystal cannon and 50% for neutrino cannon.
Some weapons have an amount of bleed damage, power leak, etc. This is expressed as a fixed value, not as a % of damage dealt, except, once again, for Vorpal, whose mechanics are are a simple %chance of double damage.

Details of this can be found (and edited if you so desire) through the steamapps\common\horizon\gamedata\tech_stats.xml file within your steam directory if you are playing through steam, or \gamedata\tech_stats.xml within your game directory if not.
BACK UP YOUR XML FILE BEFORE OPENING AND EDIT AT YOUR OWN RISK, PREFERABLY WITH A DEDICATED XML EDITOR.
This warning goes for all xml files, as saving them wrong can render them unreadable by the game.

Now the questions:
1) Pulse Cannon at level 5 and above drains 25 energy. Is this increased or decreased based on weapon mount size, or does a heavy pulse cannon drain the same 25 energy as a light mount pulse cannon, and does the affect stack multiple times? (Same question for armor weakening and other such debilitating weapons)

2) How do missiles and torpedoes work (as much detail as possible about the differences and the mechanics, please)? What are the advantages of each over the other?

3)If I fire a torpedo and a missile at a target, I have a base 100% chance to hit with both, and both do a base of 50 damage and are not developed enough to have specials, what would get in the way of my ability for each to hit (ecm, enemy shooting at the projectiles, distance, or anything else)?

Thanks for your help and input on this, and I hope the info provided at the top of the post is helpful to those who do not already know it.

MindQuake

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Zaimat
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Location: Toronto, Canada
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Re: Weapons and mount sizes (incl. spoilers re: weapon speci

Post by Zaimat »

Hello MindQuake. here are some answers:

1. The pulse cannon energy drain like other negative effects has a duration, the de-buff effect gets weaker until it expires. While the effect doesn't stack from multiple attacks but it does get re-applied to full effect.

2. Missiles have travel time, can be shot down but have longer range where as torpedoes are more like beams in that they hit the target immediately and can't be shot down. Torpedoes have range dissipation so their payload gets weaker based on distance to target, missiles always deliver the maximum payload. Missiles and Torpedoes have potential to do more damage than beams but they also require ammo. Missile/Torpedo stacks are also effective against a stack of fighters.

3. Mainly missiles can be shot down where as both are affected by ECM. Damage will be affected by the various factors including distance and if the enemy can shoot down some of the warheads for missiles.
Horizon - Lead Designer | a.k.a. Raf

MindQuake
Voyager
Voyager
Posts: 3

Re: Weapons and mount sizes (incl. spoilers re: weapon speci

Post by MindQuake »

I was wondering whether there was a benefit to developing multiple weapon types rather than focusing on a single weapon and this clarifies why it would be beneficial.
Thank you.

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Zaimat
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Location: Toronto, Canada
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Re: Weapons and mount sizes (incl. spoilers re: weapon speci

Post by Zaimat »

Early game it's usually a good idea to focus on getting one weapon type high enough to be effective (less chance to miss, unlock special, etc). But yes each weapon has advantages once level 5 unlocked, for example lasers are best for crippling ships with critical hits and board them.
Horizon - Lead Designer | a.k.a. Raf