Yeah it seems like big numbers, but they're mostly improved chances, and not much improved potential like Damage or Frequency capacitors.

I don't think that's super important. I mean, how do you quantify a hit that would have been for 800 but instead is 0? Normalized damage is a good way to look at it. For every time you would have gotten lucky with damage cap and rolled all hits, there's many other times where you miss with one and ranged would have boosted your damage by way more.

And those big numbers are true only for BLC because of its incredible variation of damage and accuracy...

Is that true? Did you do the math?

I don't think that's super important. I mean, how do you quantify a hit that would have been for 800 but instead is 0? Normalized damage is a good way to look at it. For every time you would have gotten lucky with damage cap and rolled all hits, there's many other times where you miss with one and ranged would have boosted your damage by way more.

One will induce better average, one better "best".

Not saying that they're similarly worth, but if they were to be, it would only depend on what you want.

Do you want your average encounter to go smoothly, by not missing, or do you want to use it in optimal ranges and have the biggest "oomph" as you're betting you won't miss ?

It's a bit like Slug Railgun's T5 upgrades, one gives 10% more damage while the other one gives 20% chances to get 50% additional damage... beside the fact they literally provide the same average improvement, they have a similar impact on gameplay as "accuracy or damage".

Is that true? Did you do the math?

Actually yes.

You know the post which make an example at 3000m ? It was mine.

I think you've read it since you avoided the 3000m mark in your post... It was to be complementary, right ?

And that's also simple logic. BLC has high variation in accuracy and damage like no other (RfLC has actually almost the same accuracy profile)... ...and that's these variations which define the gain induced by Range Capacitor.

If a weapon would have a constant damage and accuracy profile (no variation due to range), then Range capacitor wouldn't induce any damage gain. That's a trivial deduction.

Seekers have a range of 4 km, so scouts can only shoot them with range capacitor or quad/medium laser cannons. (If you get to the 4 km max range of the other weapons, the seeker launches at you instantly and you're forced to use a lock break to avoid taking damage -- shooting it down doesn't work).

That said, seekers can be upgraded to 4.5 km range, which negates the advantage of a range capacitor. It doesn't seem like a lot of people do this, though.

I am getting a bit cross about the variable claims regarding ranged capacitor. The devs have told us that the damage is extrapolated linearly, and so is the accuracy, between the three given points. We know that each range increment is extended by 10% with ranged capacitor.

All of my math is 100% based on that information from the devs.

math stuff

Your attempt at being a Bayesian is laudable, but I object to your flat prior. Better to just give the information without a prior (as I did) and let people apply to their own situations. (To your credit, you do this later on.)

You can see from this that ranged absolutely DOMINATES the 10% and 15% options from the other caps at many values of ranged and evasion. Do you spend more of your time at those ranges, and versus those targets?

Yes, but it is dominated by damage or frequency at many others. I do, however, endorse the YMMV methodology.

And that's also simple logic. BLC has high variation in accuracy and damage like no other (RfLC has actually almost the same accuracy profile)... ...and that's these variations which define the gain induced by Range Capacitor.

If a weapon would have a constant damage and accuracy profile (no variation due to range), then Range capacitor wouldn't induce any damage gain. That's a trivial deduction.

Yes, I agree with this logic 100%.

Adding a "lolwt* Gunship" build for all the aces that are crying boredom/too easy/buff my Flashfire/etc. Play this and post some scoreboards!

GSS-5C DUSTMAKER // K-52 DEMOLISHER // SGS-41B COMET BREAKER // K-52 STRONGARM

Coined the “shi**y gunship.” Intentionally trades off many of the strengths of gunships for weaker alternatives. This build is a torpedo platform, for fun. I understand the idea behind the design but feel it’s vastly inferior to other offerings. However, any ship is devastating in the right hands. This thing can still score the bulk of kills in a Team Deathmatch. If you're not having fun, why are you playing?

:: COMPONENTS

Primary Weapon: Heavy Laser Cannon (T4 Ignore Armor, T5 Shield Piercing)

I use heavy lasers over the other alternatives for the armor piercing and range. They are great for clearing turrets, drones, mines, killing other bombers and attacking enemies coming in to attack you. As mentioned, bypassing enemy damage reduction is immensely useful. I go with the shield piercing upgrade to finish off any additional hull weaker enemies have after being hit by my railgun or other allies. I built this gunship as a long range weapons platform without the "lolnerfrailguns."

Secondary Weapon: Thermite Torpedo (T4 Increased Projectile Speed, T5 Plasma Warheads)

Fire off one of these and switch to the other! Thermite Torpedo was buffed in the recent patch, allowing it to hit shields hard while still leaving a nasty debuff for your laser cannons to utilize. Use this to either strip shields and apply the bleedthrough debuff or finish off a shieldless opponent.

Secondary Weapon: Proton Torpedoes (T4 Increased Projectile Speed, T5 Increased Range)

Fire these to hit their hull directly. This ship does a lot of shield penetration damage so take advantage of it!

Engine: Barrel Roll (T3 Increased Turning Rate)

Ridiculously good for mobility, offense, defense and a missile break with sugar on top. I opt for increased turning for faster target acquisition. This is even more useful for locking on Thermite and Proton Torpedoes.

Shields: Directional Shield (T3 Reduced Regen Delay)

The only shield option that allows mobility and gives you hefty shields. Useful for handling enemies that try to come head-on or even while retreating. Reducing regen delay seems better than increasing shield regeneration rate, and so I go with that option.

Sensor: Communication Sensors

Communicate amongst your allies to get more of a wholistic view of the battlefield.

Reactor: Large Reactor

Larger shields are tastier shields. Since dying to burst damage is more commonplace than dying to attrition, I favor larger shields.

Capacitor: Frequency Capacitor

These offer the highest amount of damage with the tradeoff of increased weapon power pool consumption. With Regeneration Extender I feel like the drawback is minimal. More damage is always good if you can handle the power consumption.

Magazine: Regeneration Extender

The all-around best choice for sustained fire. More regeneration means more blaster shots means more damage.

:: CREW

Copilot: Skadge / Nadia Grell (Bypass)

An amazingly useful copilot ability, pair this with Heavy Laser Cannon and Thermite Torpedo shots.

Offensive: Skadge / Aric Jorgan (25% ammo, 8% secondary weapon reload)

More ammunition for your torpedo banks. Faster torpedo reload times (nearly a whole second off), which is very nice since you'll be trying to chain fire these.

Defensive: Vector / Nadia Grell (10% shield power pool, 5% evasion)

I am always a fan of a larger renewable source of defense, and evasion is too good to pass up.

Tactical: Mako / Lord Scourge (sensor radius & communication)

Increased sensor radius and communication range for finding enemies and getting a larger view of the battlefield.

Engineering: Blizz / C2-N2 (10% engine power pool, 13% engine efficiency)

With regeneration extender it’s unlikely you’ll be running out of power to your heavy lasers. Gunships also tend to run around a lot. I chose the companion that would give the largest bonus to mobility, allowing you to respond more quickly and evade enemies longer.

I feel there's a little contradiction in your Comet Breaker build.

You say that Frequency Capacitor has little drawback with the right crew and yet, you use only the ones who don't improve primary weapons at all (Ammo Extender/Rapid Reload and Power to engines/Engine efficiency)

And in the Reactor category you say "with the coming patch".

Maybe you wrote that a few time ago, but now the last patch we've been aware of is now part of the past.

I feel there's a little contradiction in your Comet Breaker build.

You say that Frequency Capacitor has little drawback with the right crew and yet, you use only the ones who don't improve primary weapons at all (Ammo Extender/Rapid Reload and Power to engines/Engine efficiency)

 

And in the Reactor category you say "with the coming patch".

Maybe you wrote that a few time ago, but now the last patch we've been aware of is now part of the past.

Good point, fixing these discrepancies! They must be elsewhere through the guide (as it was written pre-2.7 as you said). Thanks for pointing it out!

I am a VERY strong believer in C2N2 / Blizz for gunship engineering guy. I feel strongly enough that I'll say that the other options are wrong.

The other option- 2VR8/Yuun- only helps your blasters, not your railguns. The "power to blasters" setting helps your railgun a very small amount.

Ultimately, your blaster power is something you can manage- it's a resource you are in control of. If you are left along long enough that you are concerned about it, you have already made such a big difference for your team that it doesn't matter. Blaster secondaries are "wins more" talents. Booster secondaries are "avoids losing" secondaries.

Even if you plan to be aggressive with heavy lasers with the double-missile / 0 railgun build above, the fact of the matter is that you are still going to be running very hard to keep people in range and to breaks LOS on your attackers. If your opponents spend so much time under your reticule that you are out of energy- hooray!

But what you can't get enough of, is purple running juice!

I am a VERY strong believer in C2N2 / Blizz for gunship engineering guy. I feel strongly enough that I'll say that the other options are wrong.

If you're looking for the decided advantage in a Mangler/Quarrel (because by that logic, playing the other gunship is also wrong), I agree. If the Efficient Fire buffed your Railgun, I'd definitely test that out.

Ultimately, your blaster power is something you can manage- it's a resource you are in control of. If you are left along long enough that you are concerned about it, you have already made such a big difference for your team that it doesn't matter. Blaster secondaries are "wins more" talents.

It's kind of sad that stock gunship regen is so bad that picking up the regeneration talents early is almost mandatory. Without them, you do a small fraction of what the ship is capable of (in addition to being immobile and what amounts to a free kill). Gunships definitely get the short end of the stick in their stock format.

Even if you plan to be aggressive with heavy lasers with the double-missile / 0 railgun build above, the fact of the matter is that you are still going to be running very hard to keep people in range and to breaks LOS on your attackers. If your opponents spend so much time under your reticule that you are out of energy- hooray!

True, but the build is meant to be challenging, not something you drag in on a 12v12 aces battle (unless you're trying to feed kills or something).

But what you can't get enough of, is purple running juice!

This applies to all ships. Agreed.

If you're looking for the decided advantage in a Mangler/Quarrel (because by that logic, playing the other gunship is also wrong), I agree.

I would argue that losing max engine in exchange for efficient blaster is, um, wronger. The gap in effectiveness between the Type 1 and Type 2 gunships is bigger, of course, but the things that the Type 2 gunship is superior at- locking on a missile when low on railgun juice or versus targets that are unsnipable, mid range shooting while locking on a missile- at least mean that you are in theory choosing a different playstyle.

Instead, choosing efficient fire over power to engines will allow you to melee a tiny bit more, which already is the most energy efficient part of your damage cycle, and also the rarest.

If the Efficient Fire buffed your Railgun, I'd definitely test that out.

I would definitely consider it a very interesting choice if this were true.

It's kind of sad that stock gunship regen is so bad that picking up the regeneration talents early is almost mandatory. Without them, you do a small fraction of what the ship is capable of (in addition to being immobile and what amounts to a free kill). Gunships definitely get the short end of the stick in their stock format.

Well, at least they don't have rapid fire laser added to their chassis SOLELY for the point of making the stock ship awful and trapping new players, like certain scouts.

But yea, it's definitely silly.

True, but the build is meant to be challenging, not something you drag in on a 12v12 aces battle (unless you're trying to feed kills or something).

Yea, true. If that's the intention I have no complaints.

Does this thread have a shield-to-engine converter thing in it yet? That's a definitely interesting subset of type 1 scouts.

Just throwing my hat in the ring for new pilot guidance on Harbinger.

Republic: Apèx, Wardancer

Imperial: M'shén, Warsmíth

Add me to the list of helpful volunteers.

Server: Ebon Hawk

Republic: Rhodogast

Imperial: Kelril

Pretty much everyone on pot5 is gone, go ahead and add me, my pilots are

Imp = Evae

Pub = Hylõ (ALT+0245)

I notice that two of the scout builds have LLC and frequency capacitors recommended. I am trying this combination now, but not seeing a whole lot of difference between LLC & FC and rapid fires and damage capacitors. Do most of you see similar numbers when comparing these combinations as well?

People would actually have to use Rapids to actually be able to make that comparison.

There is a really good guide from a VERY good support pilot named Pylan hosted on constantwarfare.com (here) for the Clarion. This dude will sacrifice himself to make use of his HoT / shield abilities as well as being able to do some pretty good damage. Just wanted to spread the word if anyone is contemplating playing a support role and doing it well (he even topped the kill charts in one game!)

Side note - if you go to the mainpage, you can see a cheese-mold sculpture of Jokin's take of a Dustmaker. Pretty neat huh!

I'm willing to help aspiring/struggling pilots on my server.

Empire : Harlocke,

Republic : Korvydae

Tomb of Freedon Nadd, EU

Does this thread have a shield-to-engine converter thing in it yet? That's a definitely interesting subset of type 1 scouts.

No, I've tried it and find it interesting but haven't yet had time to type a build for it. Add one!

I've added the helpful players to the community section among other things. Will address more later.

No, I've tried it and find it interesting but haven't yet had time to type a build for it. Add one!

 

I've added the helpful players to the community section among other things. Will address more later.

Uh... lemme see if I can remember what I was flying...

-Some kinda lasers

-Rocket pods

-Telemetry

-S/E converter

-Some sorta missile break (probably barrel roll or power dive)

-Dampening sensors

-Obvious armor

-Probably turning thrusters

-I think frequency capacitor? Maybe?

-Pinpointing + Concentrated Fire offensive crew member (ideally Pierce for extra pods)

-Evasion + shield pool

-Dampening + focus or radius

-Engine pool and efficiency

Basically, zip in, pop cooldowns, blow something up, zip out, turn around after their target of target goes blank. It works pretty well, though it's not quite my style. Pretty sure I got the idea from Nem at some point, maybe he'll pop in here.

Slightly silly type three strike builds, focused on single purpose builds for maximizing the frustration of others.

Not really competitive, but not meant to be. Unless the point is to maximize the number of people targeting you in the next match.

Minelayer killer type 3 strike.

Primary

Light Laser Cannon: crit and hull damage

Secondary

EMP: ammo and engine suppression, Thermite with firing arc and debuff duration is also strong (any of the other secondaries are ok)

Engine

Shield power converter: shield power pool

Systems

Repair probes: Improved repair and Shield restoration

Shields

Charged plating: Weapon power shunt

Reactor

Large Reactor

Armor

Deflection armor

Capacitor

Frequency

Crew

Lockdown, structural support, efficient fire.

An important note on usage: Against a minelayer running charged plating the light laser cannon will do almost no damage while plating is active. The thing to do is take down their shields and then hang back a bit so you have at least a chance to avoid mines while watching the buffs on their ship using your target display window. When the charged plating wears off that's your signal to boost in and try to burst down their hull in 11 seconds or less. If you have thermite torpedoes though, you can get around this because the debuff from a thermite hit will completely negate charged plating for the duration of the debuff.

Stunlock type 3 strike, amuse yourself by driving other people nuts with frustration.

Light Laser Cannon: Crit and Shield damage

Ion missile: range and engine Ionization or EMP missile with range and engine suppression.

Interdiction Drive: increased duration

Remote slicing: engine power reduction and Engine suppression

directional shield

communication sensors

Large reactor

Lightweight armor

Frequency capacitor

Crew Lockdown, same as standard build for passives.

I notice that two of the scout builds have LLC and frequency capacitors recommended. I am trying this combination now, but not seeing a whole lot of difference between LLC & FC and rapid fires and damage capacitors. Do most of you see similar numbers when comparing these combinations as well?

Rapid-fires with Damage Capacitors will almost always deal less damage than LLC with Frequency Capacitor. If you're firing at the edge of your arc extremely often you may want to use RFL, but I've found LLC can score very easy (and fast!) kills on unsuspecting opponents. I definitely play differently than some other veterans here on the forums, though.

Added all the builds posted. Thanks for the contributions!