hi , brining maybe an old info here , but for the sake of argument i will pick level 2 security missions , so before i could hit 50% of the time frigs at 20 km range with antimatter med rails , now after few missions i noticed that even with target painter my med rails hit maybe every 4th or 5th salvo at optimal range …. ermmm thats a huge difference from what i remember , so what were the major changes to ship class sizes and ability to hit smaller ships with bigger weapons ?
They did change the way turret tracking is displayed a few years back, but AFAIK there wasn’t any change to the actual outcomes.
Most likely the two circumstances you are comparing differ in some way (target sig, target angular velocity, tracking bonuses in play Vs not, etc).
Edit: Oh, sorry, I missed “rails”.
Medium and large rails did get a 10% tracking/optimal/falloff nerf not too long ago, IIRC.
I normally do Level 2s with small weapons so I’m not sure of any changes. But rails are pretty bad at tracking in general.
Tracking calculations were changed a couple of times. My understanding of the current situation is that you should use target painters only if you are using missiles. If you are using turrets, tracking enhancers and tracking computers are much more effective.
I say “my understanding of the current situation“ because there was a time when target painters did the job decently. It hasn’t been like that for a while.
Edit: I just remembered. Yes, target painters are still effective in some cases for guns. For example, Tornado fleets use them to paint their targets, especially if they are targeting cruiser or battlecruiser classes. My suggestion for your specific case (solo PvE) is to try fits with tracking enhancing modules and see if it works better for you.