Hi!
Returning after 5 year break and I see that some of the mechanics have changed.
And I haven’t really managed to learn the new system. So some questions below.
I try to structure this for easy reading and write only from the perspective of turrets.
The old system
Back in the day there were 2 major factors:
- tracking speed of the weapon VS the speed of the target
- signature resolution of the weapon VS signature size of the target
The tracking speed was a measure of gun turning speed. I.e. how quickly it could turn and follow the target.
And the speed of the target that mattered was actually the angular velocity. I.e. how quickly the target was moving “across” your view. Maybe the english word perpendicular is the right one.
Both of these were measured by rad/s. So I could check my weapon and overview (I always added the angular velocity column) to see if this was the reason for missing the target.
Signature resolution and size was the same. The weapon and the target ship had this value. Altough, I think you couldn’t see the signature size in game, but you could check it out of game for the ship in question (MWD and shields naturally effected it). There was also some lore explanation for the signature resolution, but let’s not go in to that.
Both of these were something you could check and do something about.
Target going too fast? Web it or add tracking speed to your gun (via tracking computer or enhancer)
Target too small? Paint it.
But both of them were also something you had to work on separately.
New system
Now the new system has somehow put these 2 together. Every weapon still has the signature resolution, but it is the same for all (40000m). Only thing that changes is the new value weapon tracking and that seems to be the important one to follow.
What I have understood is that instead of the 2 values there is only one that is checked when a hit is calculated. This weapon tracking. And it is checked against a some target ships based value that has target’s angular velocity multiplied by target’s size. Probably some constant also in that calculation (as a divider or multiplier).
Anybody know how this is done? What does the weapons tracking value present? And how is the matching value of the target calculated?
Different approach needed?
In the old system one had to (or did he?) work on both values. Enough tracking speed and small enough signature resolution. Now if they are combined by multiplication, then it is enough to improve either one as long as you do it enough. Right?
E.g. web, paint and tracking enhancer now do the same thing for improving your hit chances. Web does it the best (about -60% speed) but at shortest ranges (about 10km). When paint is worse (about +36% more signature size), but at longer ranges (about 50km). And tracking enhancer is the worst (minor tracking speed increase), but has unlimited range as it affects your gun and not the target.