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So if I understand your list, we don't have a weapon for every single combo possible but if the pattern holds there are only a very few weapons out there worth having in general.

sumowrestler wrote:So if I understand your list, we don't have a weapon for every single combo possible but if the pattern holds there are only a very few weapons out there worth having in general.

I wouldn't say that.
Just because some weapons are stupidly good doesn't mean that the balanced ones aren't.

Just about every weapon does more damage than brawling if you have 3 or less strength (except for some of the truly terrible ones *cough*AstroBlasters*cough*) and even the rest of the 2 upgrade weapons are better than Brawling until around 6 Strength... It's just that the XS2's and Lightsabers are SO MUCH BETTER than anything else right now that they've warped the scale. (Lightsabers are almost always better than Brawling and XS2's Are always better)

If anything I'm impressed that the weapons are still as balanced as they are. When we started I thought for sure we were going to find a lot of stand out (good & bad) weapons in every stat level and that just hasn't been the case. I feel much better about the state of weapons then I did 4 months ago.

sumowrestler wrote:So if I understand your list, we don't have a weapon for every single combo possible but if the pattern holds there are only a very few weapons out there worth having in general.

There are always reasons why you might want to equip a specific weapon on your character over another.. heh if/when in doubt go always go with x-ray lasers

Weapons updated up to 7 upgrades

Concealed Liguid Hydrogen whatsits have proven them selves to be on par with XS2, meaning it's OP but because of the extra stats involved they're not considered as OP. (only 33% more powerful than anything in it bracket instead of almost 100% more like the XS2's)

Update time

Sorry it's been so long.

Between summer life and the nature of our tests updates may become more spread out from this point on.

All the 8 upgrade weapons are done.
Black Magic, Twin Swords, Megaton Battle Sword, & Concussion Cannon are all balanced in accordance with the established system.

Concussion Blaster-Gun, Atomic Fire Breath, Hellfire Shotgun, & Dual-Bladed Lightsaber are all technically over-powered (listed here from least to most).

I take full responsibility for the AFB since I advised Burn on that. It was a good recommendation at the time but now that I have a better understanding of the system used to balance weapons I would have done better. Mea culpa.

thank you bun bun

steve2275 wrote:thank you bun bun

Wow.
The rare occurrence of steve thanking someone else. I should frame this.

Thanks really should go the testers: Wingz, Red, GI, AZ, & sometimes Psych. They're the ones that have to put up with me bugging them to do more fights or harrasing them about proper builds. I'm not fun to work for so they deserve medals

So the results are in on the Shatterblasters nerfing:

Their new range is 15-20 which makes it's median damage 0.5 more than Lightsabers.
So certainly not the powerhouse they were but still well above average.

On a related note we're starting the process of confirming that all the colored lightsabers have the same damage values as the colorless model. (though I have no reason to believe they don't)

Well, Summer Break is over & a new [TAG] session is about to begin.

Just a reminder that we ask if you see a mech with [TAG] in their name waiting in the arena that you try not to engage them as it's like clubbing blind kittens. They're not formatted to put up a good fight and it slows down our progress significantly to have to sit in CR for what are essentially unusable logs for us.

Weapons testing will resume presently, Armor testing as soon as I remember how I was doing it.

good luck

For some reason it looks like I missed an update or two in my original post.
It's now current up to 10 upgrade weapons

Weapon damage current up to 12 Upgrades

TAG testing will go on hiatus for at least the upcoming 1WW if not longer depending on circumstances but shall return... eventually.

* edit * lulz... wrong thread

13 upgrades finished.

Only a few left

I'll update the chart when I get to it but I just found that the DOL has a 6 second recharge instead of none as indicated above.

If you ever notice a weapons recharge is not what I have listed please let me know so I can correct it. Most of them have been TAG or RDD tested at some point but occasionally some slip through the cracks or (in this case I suspect) I made an error entering the data into the chart.

All Weapons done.

Now I'm out of excuses and have to get serious about Armor

Thanks to all the TAG testers for all the hard work And for having to put up with me & crappy Arena payouts

Speaking of...
Since the beginning of TAG we have participated in 73% of all Arena matches and about 35% of ALL Arena matches since the last log reset (time unknown since Ryan didn't add dates to Arena Logs just Missions)

Any favourites now you've covered them all?

I found a few that I loathe due to how wide their damage range is...

Also a few that are criminally under powered. i was going to do an article on them for the HMW Newsletter but since it looks like Red is never coming back to head that up I might as well just list them:
(from Bad to Worse)
6 - Rocket Propelled Mortar Shells
5 - Cyclone Gun
4 - X-Ray Laser Cannon
3 - Proton-Pack Rifle
2 - X-Ray Laser Pistol
1 - Astro Blaster

their rating is based on their median damage and number of upgrades required to wield.

My considered recommendation is to never use any of the above.

As for what I will recommend,
Clearly the XS2 is THE go-to weapon for low to low-mid players & Mid Rammers that don't want to waste xp on FRP/SKL.

Once you can afford the upgrades though a Dual-Lightsaber (I guess the closest thing I have to a favorite other than my beloved shovel), Atomic Firebreath, Hellfire Shotgun, or Drohung-Tipped Vermittlung (if you can find the latter) will hold you over until you can get an Acid Rainmaker, Magnus Hammer, or Fusion Cannon.

There are very few weapons in the game that are worthwhile from a power perspective. From a flavor perspective, well that's up to the individual.
Secret is the higher up you get the less weapons really matter anyways. It's all tactics.

That being said I am working on a way to re-balance all the weapons but it may take a bit of altered code and a Mod with time... So that's a pipedream really.

Some may have noticed that [TAG] is back in business.

Currently working on re-doing armor values since I never really liked the answers we came up with last time (as such all old values have been stricken)
I've come to accept that armor AC is not a singular value but a range ( those that wish to say "I told you so" can make a line over to the right) and I will update the thread as we calculate them.

We're also working on getting the values for the new(ish) Reaver weapons and Firework launcher.
I've added the recharge value that we have to this thread (previously they were only available in the faction forums)

Due to The 'Rona (more accurately, the RL side effects of my whole family needing to use our 1 computer for far more important things while in lockdown) [TAG] activities have been temporarily suspended.

But before we went offline we did learn some things.

Most importantly we've learned that the assumed formula for how armor effects damage is incorrect.

For those that don't have it memorized the assumed Damage formula is:
% Damage = [(RANDOM[minD~maxD)] x [1+(STR/10)] x [1.5-(END/10)] x [1 - ((Tons * AC)/100)]

The underlined bit is still solid as proven by the weapons testing but the bold bit isn't holding up.
At the very least there is another variable in there but it's possible it needs reworked from the ground up.

As such, even after a couple false starts and finally settling on a method we thought might work we STILL do not have a satisfactory answer on even Aluminum.

If/when we get back to "normal" we'll work on collecting more data on other armors to see if we can work backwards into an accurate formula.

Now that the Gamma Ray Blaster is common we tested it.
Just another cookie-cutter FC/MH clone

Also retesting the Dreadnaught Missile since I noticed it seemed nerfed.
Final verdict is still pending but preliminary testing indicates its been toned down to yet another FC clone.

That's a real shame since it was a faint glimmer of variety among the 10,10 weapons. A higher average damage traded off by a longer recharge time.
Having a new gun to choose at that level is great insofar as it allows for a weapon that might fit a character better but it doesn't give any variety to the actual gameplay.

Finally verdict is in, DM is just another clone