By the Way

[PaulB]

I see where you are coming from but I think that skill is relevant because unless you can hit your target and avoid being englobed by hostiles it doesn't really matter how effective your cannon are. And skill is what works effectively for you and your combat style - the actual practical manoevering that works for you will probably not work for me - if for no other reason than your choice for frame and equipment determine and are determined by your chosen combat style.

If you look at the data I collected with Marvin using the standard available cannon you can see whether they actually support the oft quoted idea that beam cannon take shields out quickly with minimal energy depletion and then particle cannon finish your target off before you run out of energy. My conclusions weren't about specific cannon and combo's but the general performance of beam cannon vs particle cannon vs combo firing.

EDIT: see the post below for a link to a file of the original post containing the three data tables!!

It's a great pity that we can't work together to collect the data you want - I'd be happy to be your target - what I was trying to say is that the data you want to collect wouldn't be directly applicable to combat and different combat styles and hence given the thousands of custom cannon combo's that can be created in the WL it wouldn't be easy for me to find a volunteer to spare a significant amount of their game time for a few specific results.

What's the prognosis for you getting a decent connection in the near/middling future? What's the best server for you? It might be worth a try, even if it takes time



[Edited on 2-6-2014 by DaveK]

I wasn't implying that skill isn't important.
But even if I had the best skill level in the world I still want my Guns combo to kill as quick as possible with hopefully energy to spare so I can move on to the next Hostile (aka before they wipe out the CAP ship I'm supposed to protect).

As an example - I'm having a terrible time protecting CAP ships in Talison Conflict then the Contract says "up to 4 or 5 Enemy" and when I get there there looks like a heck of a lot more than 4 or 5 and so far I've only completed one of such missions.
I grant you I'm a lousy pilot and low skill but the Olympus and Talison Cap ship missions are not as hard as Talison Conflict - and I'm sorry but I hate the Excalibur I had to buy case there were no Rockeyes or Starfires or Exodus missiles available and I don't think I saw the Excal ever take out more than one hostile - maybe cause I couldn't find more than one close enough. I think I did take out a Vanari C with the Ecals but I cold have done the same with 8 or maybe less of the Exodus or possible others. I never got the chance to try since there were none available. None of those 3 (except when I 1st got there). That doesn't make since to me.

And I know about firing the guns separately, that's why I have 3 gamepad buttons so I can fire the Beam or the Cannon or both - and I use all 3 as necessary. (In my other pilot Profile I've converted Olympus from Fair to Good and I'm sure you know it took a lot of contract and individual kills to do that. I can't remember how many I've got without looking.)

But I must not be absolutely terrible because I got from 0 to Ensign and 9 kills while was there giving Talison Conflict a try this evening.

Did someone say that a Auto CM Launcher goes in an Equip slot or is it a Missile slot And wojld it be a bad idea to use one if you only have 25 CMs

I've got a Hat button assigned to drop 3 CM's as a time.

As far as a decent Internet connection posibility - none.
ATT won't expand DSL in the area and I don't have access to the other Cable company in the area.
I'm stuck with Verizon Wireless.


[Edited on 6-3-2014 by PaulB]

[Edited on 6-3-2014 by PaulB]

[PaulB]

Can someone explain to me the Target color in the right thingy??
I read the Bar below it shows the Target Hull health and the 4 Shield display thingu show the Shield health. What does is mean when the Target (that show it's direction) turns yellow or red??
Is that over all health or what??
I couldn't find a description of that anywhere.

[DaveK]

From what I can see now it appears that weapon labs where first introduced with the extension last year (?) and your tables are from pre-extension, correct?

Yep - they were carried out in March 2012 because I didn't believe the received wisdom that beams damage shields and particles damage hulls

Can't prove it but there's no evidence I've seen to suggest that when Vice introduced the WL he changed the basic behaviour of the cannon. When he makes changes he (always I assume) advertises them, like the reduction in kinetic impact effect recently introduced

When looking at the first table (energy use) the lowest level particle weapon (Icespear) seems to be the only one in that table that runs infinitely when used alone. At least the mid-range weapons run out eventually.
Compare this with the heaviest (=> highest yield, longest range, highest energy consumption etc.) weapon you can build from the weapon lab now (it's the custom fusion particle weapon with all sliders to the right):
This weapon also runs infinitely (when used alone)! Do you see now where I'm driving at?

I do

The relations just seem to be wrong in my book.
But you should realise that technology is always improving - perhaps the WL intro uses later generation technology!

Seriously though, the cannon in TW's is better than any of the off the shelf stuff you can buy for your ship

I really really don't like saying 'Can't prove it but there's no evidence . . . ' so I'm coming to the conclusion that a check of how the WL stuff behaves is worthwhile afterall so that we have a comparison with the off the peg weapons. If it can be organised (ie I can get volunteers) then using PaulB's wish list as a starting point makes sense

[DaveK]

Did someone say that a Auto CM Launcher goes in an Equip slot or is it a Missile slot And wojld it be a bad idea to use one if you only have 25 CMs

Yes, it's an equipment slot - personally I'd like more CM's available if they're going to be popped automatically but it is supposed to be more efficient so it sounds like a suck it and see job. There's also the anti-missile system to consider as well . . .

I've got a Hat button assigned to drop 3 CM's as a time. How do you do that? - I've got a stick button assigned but it just spams CM's when pressed - a burst system would be great!

As far as a decent Internet connection posibility - none.
ATT won't expand DSL in the area and I don't have access to the other Cable company in the area.
I'm stuck with Verizon Wireless. That sucks! We were looking to move to the countryside last year - so Valerie could have her own land and stables etc but one factor we had to consider was internet speed - I get around 35Mb but in the countryside 2Mb was considered to be super fast [/color] - for better or worse web access does matter these days

If I can get some volunteers, WL cannon performance research will be carried out!

[Iron man]

Well if you want im conected on cety alpha V

[DaveK]

Thanks Iron man. First step is for me to plan some initial quick tests to check out if there is actually anything interesting to find.

We'll see if the WL cannon behave in the same way as the pre-expansion off the shelf ones and get a preliminary idea of how they behave singly and in a combo.

That'll be followed up by the main measurements (with repeats) over a broad range of cannon - types and settings). Finally any check tests or testing interesting stuff that's been discovered will be done! A lot of work (or at least a lot of respawning anyway!)

To keep the 'just sitting around' time to a minimum I need to plan in detail exactly what I'm going to measure and also stock pile the resources needed to create the new cannon. (for the resources, having a reusable test profile that's got a full complement of stuff will save a lot of time gathering it each time.) Once I've got the sequence planned I can give you an idea of how long it's likely to take and you can decide whether you can commit to that amount of time :P

It might be that yield and kill time are reproducibly related - if it's a constant then a lot of stuff can be done in a spreadsheet and then bits checked in practice to verify and validate it.

[Iron man]

Ahaha rgr

[PaulB]

Did someone say that a Auto CM Launcher goes in an Equip slot or is it a Missile slot And wojld it be a bad idea to use one if you only have 25 CMs

Yes, it's an equipment slot - personally I'd like more CM's available if they're going to be popped automatically but it is supposed to be more efficient so it sounds like a suck it and see job. There's also the anti-missile system to consider as well . . .

I've got a Hat button assigned to drop 3 CM's as a time. How do you do that? - I've got a stick button assigned but it just spams CM's when pressed - a burst system would be great!

As far as a decent Internet connection posibility - none.
ATT won't expand DSL in the area and I don't have access to the other Cable company in the area.
I'm stuck with Verizon Wireless. That sucks! We were looking to move to the countryside last year - so Valerie could have her own land and stables etc but one factor we had to consider was internet speed - I get around 35Mb but in the countryside 2Mb was considered to be super fast [/color] - for better or worse web access does matter these days

If I can get some volunteers, WL cannon performance research will be carried out!

I've got a Hat button assigned to drop 3 CM's as a time. How do you do that? - I've got a stick button assigned but it just spams CM's when pressed - a burst system would be great!

I took Vice's advice and found and downloaded an old free version of Xpadder and set it up to handle the DPAD and trat them as 4 bottons (I actually set it to 8way but didn't assign the 4 corners so there would be less change of the 4 cross positions interfering) - and then I used Xpadder to assign Key stroke and time delays (cause of my old 1.86ghz dual core) like this:
C {.2s}C{.2s}C
So when I press Up-Dpad and get 3 CM's released with a bit of a delay between.
I also used 2 buttons and assigned them then same way to (1) increase Weapon/Shield Energy to +5 and (2) decrease decrease it by 5.
So Start button gives me ]{.12}]{.2}]{.12}]{.15}]
and Back button give me [{.12}[{.2}[{.12}[{.15}[
I have to use different delays to get it to work more reliably (again due to my old laptop specs).

I have the same problem playing the game when I press keys of click the mouse - they don't always take the 1st time. I wich this was a faster Laptop with a more powerful nvidia GPU.

[Edited on 6-4-2014 by PaulB]

[DaveK]

Thanks Paul - I see that the programme is for Gamepads - pity - I use a stick!

I'll add your post to the Hints&Tips Guide if you don't mind - It'll be a useful options for other pad users

[Noesis]

Dave, you could try a program like AHK (Auto hot-key) to do that sort of thing, it requires a bit of basic scripting but it's help file does a pretty good job of explaining stuff. Essentially in an ahk script (a text file with a .ahk extension) you'd need something like this if the button was joystick button 10:

Joy10::
Loop, 3
{
Send {c down}
Sleep 100 ; in milliseconds, ; is a comment
Send {c up}
}
Return

[PaulB]

Thanks Paul - I see that the programme is for Gamepads - pity - I use a stick!

I'll add your post to the Hints&Tips Guide if you don't mind - It'll be a useful options for other pad users

You can use xpadder with Joysticks and Hotas. I watched part of a youtube video where is guy is talking about configing a new joystick and had a hotas on it already. He showed ann image of the joystick because you have to find an image of your controller and make a bitmap of it to use in xpadder.
you might want to consider buying the new version. I think it's $10 or something and may have a lot more features.

- Designed for gamepads, joysticks and arcade sticks - Also works with steering wheels, dance mats, drum kits, guitars...

Config Joystick in xpadder

Paul

[DaveK]

You can use xpadder with Joysticks and Hotas. I watched part of a youtube video where is guy is talking about configing a new joystick and had a hotas on it already. He showed ann image of the joystick because you have to find an image of your controller and make a bitmap of it to use in xpadder. You might want to consider buying the new version. I think it's $10 or something and may have a lot more features.

- Designed for gamepads, joysticks and arcade sticks - Also works with steering wheels, dance mats, drum kits, guitars...

Config Joystick in xpadder

Paul

I've had a look and it seems to be pretty easy and comprehensive. Thanks for the info

Dave, you could try a program like AHK (Auto hot-key) to do that sort of thing, it requires a bit of basic scripting but it's help file does a pretty good job of explaining stuff. Essentially in an ahk script (a text file with a .ahk extension) you'd need something like this if the button was joystick button 10:

Joy10::
Loop, 3
{
Send {c down}
Sleep 100 ; in milliseconds, ; is a comment
Send {c up}
}
Return

I'll look into that as well. I had an initial play when I was prepping the 'articles' on ANNA for the Guides. It seems like a powerful piece of software!

Thank you both!