Posted by: TheDeadlyShoe
« on: March 11, 2016, 10:05:40 AM »well, look at it another way
a PC is like a free-spinal IR laser, giving it a big glob of upfront damage as long as you are firing at 10000-20000km.
the trouble with that is that small weapons firing at ROF 5 can out-DPS a carronade at those short ranges - even just looking at weapon to weapon, not ton for ton! And since the carronade has cruddy penetration to begin with you lack the traditional advantage of heavy weapons. And those same light weapons are _cheaper_ to research than carronades, since beyond TL3/4 they only need Range Mod research- they stop benefitting from capacitor recharge improvements. With those Range Mod researches they are significantly superior to carronades at most ranges.
a carronade's primary remaining advantage is absolute range, letting them exploit a firecontrol/speed advantage if they have one... to slowly peck away at the enemy with 1 damage shots every 30-40 seconds. Ugh.
a PC is like a free-spinal IR laser, giving it a big glob of upfront damage as long as you are firing at 10000-20000km.
the trouble with that is that small weapons firing at ROF 5 can out-DPS a carronade at those short ranges - even just looking at weapon to weapon, not ton for ton! And since the carronade has cruddy penetration to begin with you lack the traditional advantage of heavy weapons. And those same light weapons are _cheaper_ to research than carronades, since beyond TL3/4 they only need Range Mod research- they stop benefitting from capacitor recharge improvements. With those Range Mod researches they are significantly superior to carronades at most ranges.
a carronade's primary remaining advantage is absolute range, letting them exploit a firecontrol/speed advantage if they have one... to slowly peck away at the enemy with 1 damage shots every 30-40 seconds. Ugh.