Weapons...

[Commander_Keyes]

Hello people.

So, I was recently playing a skirmish game, and got pretty far down the tech tree. Also, I've met a number of weapons with questionable use.
O.K., everybody knows Minipods and Light Cannons suck. But then I got different stuff, like:
HEAP Bomb Bay (High explosive armor piercing?)
Cluster Bomb Bay (the stuff which is STILL explosive and laying around in Laos)
Hypervelocity Cannon (a souped up light cannon?)
Plasma Cannon (a stronger heavy cannon?)

After a few tests, I can at least assure to myself that the HEAP and Cluster Bomb Bays are no use at all. I guess the Cluster would function against Cyborgs, but the AI refused to build them.

So, what is the use/effect of those weapons?

[Per]

So, what is the use/effect of those weapons?

Very little. That should be fixed some day.

[Skrim]

I'm talking 2.0.10, so things might be different if your playing a 2.1 Beta or a nightly build. But still:

HEAP Bomb Bay: It stands for High Explosive Anti-Personnel, I think, but this name is a misnomer since it actually uses the Artillery damage type. It's like a Ground Shaker shell dropped from a VTOL. Large explosion radius, very high damage. It's extremely useful in the campaign, especially the Gamma stages, when enemies send clumps of cyborgs and hovercraft at you, that are weak against the HEAP's damage type and can be taken out en masse by HEAP bombers.

Cluster Bomb Bay: It's a lightweight standard VTOL bomb weapon with a fair blast radius and nothing special about it. Best used against Base Structures and Cyborgs, though I don't use it myself because the Phosphor Bomb just seems to do the same thing better.

Hypervelocity Cannon: Yes, it is a souped up light cannon. The Assault Cannon is a souped up medium cannon. I've personally never used either of them since the Heavy Cannon is just better. Still, just like you need the Minipod to research the Lancer and the Light Cannon is needed to research the Medium/Heavy Cannons, you need to research the HPV and AssCan in order to research the also-useless Needle Gun, which in turn allows you to get the rather awesome Rail Gun.

You could also say that the Tank Killer is just a souped up Lancer(it is) and the Assault Gun is a Machinegun on steroids(it is), but they don't have a HeavyCannon-like big brother counterpart to render them useless.

Plasma Cannon: The ultimate incarnation of the idea behind Flamer-type weapons, and the spiritual successor of the Flamer family. It's got short range, it is not very tough, it's slow to reload, but it does massive Thermal damage. Yet it is not actually a Flamer, because it uses Anti-Personnel damage type(like Machineguns and the Lasers) instead of Flame damage type, it benefits from Laser upgrades and not Flamer upgrades, and it does not set the enemy to fire. It does enough damage to make it stronger than any of the actual Flamers, however. It is in no way related to the Heavy Cannon.

[Zarel]

HEAP Bomb Bay: It stands for High Explosive Anti-Personnel, I think, but this name is a misnomer since it actually uses the Artillery damage type. It's like a Ground Shaker shell dropped from a VTOL. Large explosion radius, very high damage. It's extremely useful in the campaign, especially the Gamma stages, when enemies send clumps of cyborgs and hovercraft at you, that are weak against the HEAP's damage type and can be taken out en masse by HEAP bombers.

It's not really a misnomer. Did you know that Artillery weapons do more damage to personnel (i.e. cyborgs) than Anti-Personnel weapons?

Cluster Bomb Bay: It's a lightweight standard VTOL bomb weapon with a fair blast radius and nothing special about it. Best used against Base Structures and Cyborgs, though I don't use it myself because the Phosphor Bomb just seems to do the same thing better.

You get it earlier than Phosphor bomb, though, which is the point. It's your first bomb, and it's pretty good for that.

Hypervelocity Cannon: Yes, it is a souped up light cannon. The Assault Cannon is a souped up medium cannon. I've personally never used either of them since the Heavy Cannon is just better. The HPV and AssCan are lighter than the Heavy Cannon, but the Tank Killer rocket can fill in any lightweight weaponry requirement you may have. Still, like you need the Minipod to research the Lancer and the Light Cannon is needed to research the Medium/Heavy Cannons, you need to research the HPV and AssCan in order to research the also-useless Needle Gun, which in turn allows you to get the rather awesome Rail Gun.

Nah, the HPV is a souped-up Medium Cannon. Its 2.1 stats are exactly the same as Medium Cannon except for slightly more damage and higher range. I prefer HPV to Heavy Cannon because of the range and lighter weight, but that's mostly because I'm a fan of hit-and-run and outranging everything. Tank Killer may do more base damage, but HPV has higher range and all the cannon upgrades, so I think it ends up doing higher damage anyway.

Assault Cannon is pretty useless as it currently is. You don't need it to research Needle Gun, either.

Plasma Cannon: The ultimate incarnation of the idea behind Flamer-type weapons, and the spiritual successor of the Flamer family. It's got short range, it is not very tough, it's slow to reload, but it does massive Thermal damage. Yet it is not actually a Flamer, because it uses Anti-Personnel damage type(like Machineguns and the Lasers) instead of Flame damage type, it benefits from Laser upgrades and not Flamer upgrades, and it does not set the enemy to fire. It does enough damage to make it stronger than any of the actual Flamers, however. It is in no way related to the Heavy Cannon.

It doesn't do flamer AOE damage, either, and it's heavy and slow. This makes it pretty useless, despite the highest damage rate in the game, so I don't see it being used much. The Thermal damage doesn't help much; by the time you get it, your opponents are usually using Nexus and Super Heavy bodies, which have high thermal armor. (Thermal is only really useful against Project and Collective bodies)

It's basically an upgraded Heavy Laser, which is also useless.

[Skrim]

It's not really a misnomer. Did you know that Artillery weapons do more damage to personnel (i.e. cyborgs) than Anti-Personnel weapons?

*nods head*

I see. But the point is still the same, it munches up cyborgs and hovertanks.

Nah, the HPV is a souped-up Medium Cannon. Its 2.1 stats are exactly the same as Medium Cannon except for slightly more damage and higher range. I prefer HPV to Heavy Cannon because of the range and lighter weight, but that's mostly because I'm a fan of hit-and-run and outranging everything. Tank Killer may do more base damage, but HPV has higher range and all the cannon upgrades, so I think it ends up doing higher damage anyway.

It's a souped up Light Cannon because it looks exactly like a light cannon with a protrusion on one side and a fancier barrel.
The Assault Cannon is a Medium Cannon with a protrusion on one side and a fancy barrel.

It doesn't do flamer AOE damage, either

Flamers don't have splash damage. The "AoE" comes from the fact that they set the ground under their target on fire for a while, so if it moves off that square and something else goes there or near there, that something else also catches fire. Almost the same effect anyway.

Yes, the PlasmaCan doesn't do that as well. Sad, cause I find it rather cool. It's also a beacon of SciFi un-realistic phlebotinum(along with the Truck and Repair turrets) in the midst of Warzone's almost entirely realistic spread of weapons.

[Zarel]

Nah, the HPV is a souped-up Medium Cannon. Its 2.1 stats are exactly the same as Medium Cannon except for slightly more damage and higher range. I prefer HPV to Heavy Cannon because of the range and lighter weight, but that's mostly because I'm a fan of hit-and-run and outranging everything. Tank Killer may do more base damage, but HPV has higher range and all the cannon upgrades, so I think it ends up doing higher damage anyway.

It's a souped up Light Cannon because it looks exactly like a light cannon with a protrusion on one side and a fancier barrel.
The Assault Cannon is a Medium Cannon with a protrusion on one side and a fancy barrel.

I'm not talking about graphics, I'm talking about functionality. You know, damage, ROF, range, that kind of stuff.

[themousemaster]

I'm not talking about graphics, I'm talking about functionality. You know, damage, ROF, range, that kind of stuff.

Zarel is correct. In both the tech trees and the functionality, the HPV replaces the medium cannon, and the AC replaces the light.

[Zarel]

I'm not talking about graphics, I'm talking about functionality. You know, damage, ROF, range, that kind of stuff.

Zarel is correct. In both the tech trees and the functionality, the HPV replaces the medium cannon, and the AC replaces the light.

Well, technically, AC doesn't replace light in the tech tree. I completely forgot that one of the reasons I consider HPV a medium cannon replacement is because it literally replaces Medium Cannon, though: http://celerisdrive.com/wz/r/r.php?hypervelocitycannon