I have decided to de-classify some previously confidential Adle’s Armada military data and release it to the wider Galaxy via an occasional series. Future ‘episodes’ may include the Pulse Disruptor (full comparison of module disruption rates vs. other weapons), mythbusting and ramming damage (HRP’s, mass … heh, no spoilers), other powerplay weapons and perhaps more 
The Imperial Hammer
The Imperial Hammer is a powerplay variant on the medium rail gun. The following table sets out my damage figures for both weapons:
DPSvH = Damage per second v hull of medium ship
DPSvS = Damage per second v shield
SSDvH = Single shot damage v hull of medium ship
SSDvS = Single shot damage v shield
(Edit: for the avoidance of doubt, with c2 rails or Hammers, which count as c3 weapons for hull damage purposes, the damage will actually be the same against the hull of a ship of any size, subject to the more complex 'Piercing' values which Cmdr Frenotx is investigating and which are beyond the scope of this thread.)
All weapons table
These figures have in turn been incorporated into my comprehensive weapon damage table here:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=226355
As ever, if anyone wishes to provide or update the various third-party spreadsheets that seek to convey that data in better ways, I will gladly link, with thanks to the Cmdrs concerned.
In due course I will amend to include dpe (damage per weapon capacitor energy usage), though practically speaking dpe is unlikely to be a significant factor when using Hammers (because as with rails, the wep cap drain is low).
Discussion
The figures above are for the full triple-shot burst of a Hammer, compared to the single shot of a rail. The in-game Outfitting rate of fire stat of 0.6/second for Hammers and 0.5/second for medium Rails is confirmed as accurate, providing 20% greater rate of fire. Put another way, the Hammer cycles one triple-shot burst every 1.66 seconds, whereas the rail cycles one shot every 2 seconds.
Each triple-burst delivers c 108% (actually 1.0786) of the damage of a rail gun, or 45.3 Mj compared to 42.0 Mj.
Neither weapon employs an ammo clip or suffers from occasional reload times (put another way, the clip contains one burst/shot) meaning that dps consistently equals single shot damage times rate of fire.
With it’s 20% faster r.o.f., a Hammer provides 129.4% of the dps of a medium rail (45.3 x 1.2 / 42.0).
Note that my testing (full methodology below) produced a single shot damage v shields figure of 42.0 for the rail, as opposed to the 43.3 originally reported by Cmdr StarLightBreaker. I do not know the reason for the discrepancy of c. 3% but I am confident of my figure and have amended my own all weapons damage table accordingly.
Usage
The Hammer will continue to fire so long as the trigger is depressed, whereas the rail requires a release and re-press between each shot, meaning that achieving the maximum rail rate of fire requires a degree of timing.
Because the Hammer’s triple-shot burst begins firing earlier within its 1.66 second cycle than a rail shot does within its 2 second cycle, there is much less delay from activation to first fire – hence target acquisition is easier. However, to deliver its full damage the Hammer must then be kept on target throughout the triple-burst. This is generally considered to make subsystem sniping more difficult with Hammers than rails.
Hammers cause a greater heat increase in the firing vessel’s temperature than rails. This is of little consequence if firing one weapon. However, the difference is significant – perhaps catastrophically so - when (a) multiple Hammers are fired simultaneously and/or (b) maximum rate of fire (i.e. holding the trigger down) is employed. This has particular implications for silent runners. Hammer users are strongly advised to test the heat sink requirements of their ship, build and tactics before engaging in live combat. Note that different ships have different heat characteristics and A-rated powerplants provide the best heat management.
The Hammers’ higher heat generation operates to balance their otherwise overwhelming dps advantage over rails somewhat – the full dps of five rails is far more accessible than that of five Hammers…
Methodology
To establish single shot damage v shields I fired at an Asp Explorer kindly provided by Cmdr Philip J Fry (to whom, thanks again) and having a shipyard-confirmed total Mj of exactly 200. Replicating Cmdr StarLightBreaker’s test conditions, all firing was conducted from precisely 500m with the target having a completely empty Sys cap and 0 pips to Sys.
A control test was first performed using a c3 fixed pulse laser, which downed the 200 Mj shield in about 9.5 seconds, consistent with StarLightBreaker’s dps figure of about 21.5 (200 / 9.5 = 21.05). Working as expected.
One standard c2 Rail Gun was then fired four times, reducing the shield by increments from 100% to: 79%, 58%, 37%, 16%. There was no variation. Each Rail shot did precisely 21% shield damage or 42 Mj. This test was then duplicated from full and for a second time produced precisely the same increments: 100-79-58-37-16. 42 Mj confirmed.
One Hammer was then fired four times, reducing the shield by increments from 100% to: 77%, 54%, 32%, 9%. Note that the third burst delivered 22% and the others 23% (which will be due to the effect of approximation of decimals in the left-panel view, i.e. it took three shots for the decimal to work through). The fourth burst was therefore disregarded, leaving total damage across the first three bursts of 68% or 136 Mj, meaning single shot (burst) Hammer damage of 45.3 Mj. This test was then also duplicated from full and again for a second time produced precisely the same increments: 100-77-54-32-9. 45.3 Mj confirmed.
Rate of fire was then tested and the in-game Outfitting description of the same confirmed as accurate (actually, afaik, the Outfitting r.o.f. is always accurate, unlike the damage description – would be interested to know whether anyone else has spotted any anomalies?)
Having ascertained shield damage for both weapons via testing, hull damage has then been projected using the method described in my thread on that topic (same link above).
I hope you find this useful. All comments and corrections welcome.
TRUESILVER
Adle’s Armada
www.inara.cz/wing/336
The Imperial Hammer
The Imperial Hammer is a powerplay variant on the medium rail gun. The following table sets out my damage figures for both weapons:
| WEAPON | DPSvH | DPSvS | SSDvH | SSDvS |
| Imperial Hammer | 32.2 | 27.2 | 53.6 | 45.3 |
| c2 Rail Gun | 24.8 | 21.0 | 49.7 | 42.0 |
DPSvH = Damage per second v hull of medium ship
DPSvS = Damage per second v shield
SSDvH = Single shot damage v hull of medium ship
SSDvS = Single shot damage v shield
(Edit: for the avoidance of doubt, with c2 rails or Hammers, which count as c3 weapons for hull damage purposes, the damage will actually be the same against the hull of a ship of any size, subject to the more complex 'Piercing' values which Cmdr Frenotx is investigating and which are beyond the scope of this thread.)
All weapons table
These figures have in turn been incorporated into my comprehensive weapon damage table here:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=226355
As ever, if anyone wishes to provide or update the various third-party spreadsheets that seek to convey that data in better ways, I will gladly link, with thanks to the Cmdrs concerned.
In due course I will amend to include dpe (damage per weapon capacitor energy usage), though practically speaking dpe is unlikely to be a significant factor when using Hammers (because as with rails, the wep cap drain is low).
Discussion
The figures above are for the full triple-shot burst of a Hammer, compared to the single shot of a rail. The in-game Outfitting rate of fire stat of 0.6/second for Hammers and 0.5/second for medium Rails is confirmed as accurate, providing 20% greater rate of fire. Put another way, the Hammer cycles one triple-shot burst every 1.66 seconds, whereas the rail cycles one shot every 2 seconds.
Each triple-burst delivers c 108% (actually 1.0786) of the damage of a rail gun, or 45.3 Mj compared to 42.0 Mj.
Neither weapon employs an ammo clip or suffers from occasional reload times (put another way, the clip contains one burst/shot) meaning that dps consistently equals single shot damage times rate of fire.
With it’s 20% faster r.o.f., a Hammer provides 129.4% of the dps of a medium rail (45.3 x 1.2 / 42.0).
Note that my testing (full methodology below) produced a single shot damage v shields figure of 42.0 for the rail, as opposed to the 43.3 originally reported by Cmdr StarLightBreaker. I do not know the reason for the discrepancy of c. 3% but I am confident of my figure and have amended my own all weapons damage table accordingly.
Usage
The Hammer will continue to fire so long as the trigger is depressed, whereas the rail requires a release and re-press between each shot, meaning that achieving the maximum rail rate of fire requires a degree of timing.
Because the Hammer’s triple-shot burst begins firing earlier within its 1.66 second cycle than a rail shot does within its 2 second cycle, there is much less delay from activation to first fire – hence target acquisition is easier. However, to deliver its full damage the Hammer must then be kept on target throughout the triple-burst. This is generally considered to make subsystem sniping more difficult with Hammers than rails.
Hammers cause a greater heat increase in the firing vessel’s temperature than rails. This is of little consequence if firing one weapon. However, the difference is significant – perhaps catastrophically so - when (a) multiple Hammers are fired simultaneously and/or (b) maximum rate of fire (i.e. holding the trigger down) is employed. This has particular implications for silent runners. Hammer users are strongly advised to test the heat sink requirements of their ship, build and tactics before engaging in live combat. Note that different ships have different heat characteristics and A-rated powerplants provide the best heat management.
The Hammers’ higher heat generation operates to balance their otherwise overwhelming dps advantage over rails somewhat – the full dps of five rails is far more accessible than that of five Hammers…
Methodology
To establish single shot damage v shields I fired at an Asp Explorer kindly provided by Cmdr Philip J Fry (to whom, thanks again) and having a shipyard-confirmed total Mj of exactly 200. Replicating Cmdr StarLightBreaker’s test conditions, all firing was conducted from precisely 500m with the target having a completely empty Sys cap and 0 pips to Sys.
A control test was first performed using a c3 fixed pulse laser, which downed the 200 Mj shield in about 9.5 seconds, consistent with StarLightBreaker’s dps figure of about 21.5 (200 / 9.5 = 21.05). Working as expected.
One standard c2 Rail Gun was then fired four times, reducing the shield by increments from 100% to: 79%, 58%, 37%, 16%. There was no variation. Each Rail shot did precisely 21% shield damage or 42 Mj. This test was then duplicated from full and for a second time produced precisely the same increments: 100-79-58-37-16. 42 Mj confirmed.
One Hammer was then fired four times, reducing the shield by increments from 100% to: 77%, 54%, 32%, 9%. Note that the third burst delivered 22% and the others 23% (which will be due to the effect of approximation of decimals in the left-panel view, i.e. it took three shots for the decimal to work through). The fourth burst was therefore disregarded, leaving total damage across the first three bursts of 68% or 136 Mj, meaning single shot (burst) Hammer damage of 45.3 Mj. This test was then also duplicated from full and again for a second time produced precisely the same increments: 100-77-54-32-9. 45.3 Mj confirmed.
Rate of fire was then tested and the in-game Outfitting description of the same confirmed as accurate (actually, afaik, the Outfitting r.o.f. is always accurate, unlike the damage description – would be interested to know whether anyone else has spotted any anomalies?)
Having ascertained shield damage for both weapons via testing, hull damage has then been projected using the method described in my thread on that topic (same link above).
I hope you find this useful. All comments and corrections welcome.
TRUESILVER
Adle’s Armada
www.inara.cz/wing/336
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