This is going to be a long post, prepare yourself.
Anyone with any experience knows that most ships are under constant fire in PVP, this is exceptionally true in both winged combat and 1v1’s and especially for large ships, good luck ever getting an ammo synthesis off vs a competent pilot. One might argue that large ships can boost under or over each other and begin synthesis then in hopes of getting a synth off. Using your imagination, you can easily see that a turreted (anything) would mean that there is absolutely 0 time when the opponent IS NOT taking damage. Factor in the ship launched fighters, and even attempting to synth may be suicide as you spend forever trying to get one synth off at a time for upwards of 8 different hardpoints. This is just in regard to the two second synth timer that is cancelled with incoming damage. The synth timer no longer allows for premium reloads during a fight whatsoever, not only does it take too long which forces you to lose out on doing damage, but incoming damage immediately cancels it, only for you to keep trying and keep getting it canceled.
So ironically, a synth “feature” was added to the game that was uncalled for, and it effectively removes the feature of utilizing standard or premium reloads. Not only this, but let’s get real, standard and premium reloads will never be used again in 1v1s or winged combat, just for gank wings. Furthermore, basic synths only allow for half of the capacity of the hardpoint to reload… (what the hell, like I want to try to synth all of my 7 guns twice over… Like I want to spend minutes at a time during a 1v1 to attempt to completely restock my hardpoints)
Let’s get back into the details, firstly, why should synthesis be cancelled when you are taking shield damage, how does that even make sense logically? Secondly, how does this benefit any singular player among the community? Thirdly, why am I forced to stare at the synth screen while it is synthing? (probably because it has a 95% chance to be cancelled) Fourthly, why would anyone now synth a premium fsd charge for 100% increased distance when the synth itself takes as long as doing the additional jump itself. (and don’t tell me it’s for surviving out in the wilderness of the galaxy, many people use this in their large ships to expedite traveling and trading.) This is entirely immersion breaking, tedious, and meta changing.
Even medium ships still require at least one synthesis per hardpoint in a 1v1, larges often take more, this is due to ammo capacities not scaling properly with shield hitpoints and resistances that were introduced with engineering. Is every player now going to have to switch out all of their hardpoints for high capacity, long range or efficient lasers, and long range turrets? This is an utter slap in the face to anyone who has dedicated any significant amount of time to engineering a singular ship, let alone an entire fleet. So again, who does this benefit the most, obviously gank wings, they can force any well intended patrolling ship to wake away due to running out of ammo and not being able to synth, all the while they happily synth their heatsinks for silent running and chaffs for the gimbals that are necessary to counter their exceptional degree of pitching and boosting. Target lock break and biweaves are already a problem for well-intended policing forces of areas like CG’s and high traffic areas, now we can no longer synth.This is officially a game breaking mechanic, that is sufficiently detrimental enough to the 1v1 experience, the winged combat experience, and role playing such as the policing of systems experience to cause players to entirely give it up. This leaves the open community with much less to do, and is in favor of wing ganking and griefing other ships for the lulz.
I've heard weak arguments for a "laser meta" because now "you can't synth." No PVP player wants to commit to a plethora of lasers due to how improperly balanced they are. Yes, I have said it, lasers are not balanced, and have not been since the release of engineering. Nothing has changed with lasers at all, but what has changed, is that shields are now stronger, shields have more thermal resistances, etc. What does this mean you ask? It means that currently lasers draw too much power from the power plant, draw too much distributor from the capacitor, generate too much heat, and have damage fall off to justify their use. The answer here is not to force people away from all of the weapons they have been using, but to properly balance the lasers and give some real incentive to use them (and not just because of ammo synthesis.....). The only argument for the usage of lasers at the moment is, they take no ammo, so I can understand the nearsightedness of thinking this is the time for lasers to shine when all other hardpoints will be made obsolete. At the moment, lasers are essentially pure con, with the only benefit of being that they don't require ammo. They were previously balanced before engineering with the idea that they were definitively the strongest weapons against shields at the time. Lasers are no longer the strongest hardpoint of choice when targeting shields. This has failed to be addressed since engineering has released and this is why competent players outright refuse to run any type of laser in large ships. So as of now, the only opportunities for lasers are either further detrimental to their usage, such as long range requiring more power to counter drop off, efficient which now does less damage than other alternatives, or utilizing some type of gimmick like scramble spectrum, phasing, or thermal shock.
Back to the ammo synthesis timer and damage cancellation. This is a mechanic that no one has asked for, and I fail to understand how this will benefit any of the sub communities within Elite Dangerous. I can understand that its origin came from the addition of heatsink and chaff synthesis, but breaking another game mechanic, for an already broken game mechanic is redundantly absurd. Not all hardpoints have received an adequate ammo capacity increase, some have, but not all. This is something to consider as many of us who do PVP, go through synths quite readily. One might say synths are infinite ammo, but understand that in order to play competitively, we players have to actually take time out of our day to do things that we would ultimately prefer not to do (surface prospecting.) Give any true PVP player the ability to buy the materials with millions of credits to synth, and they would likely prefer that. Give them an option to use internal modules in the same fashion as cargo, and have ammo racks, and many players would do that as well.
I am not here to talk about how heatsink and chaff synthing will ultimately hurt PVP, that is for another thread, I just acknowledge that the birth of the ammo synth conspiracy against PVP and 1v1 players arose from a poorly thought out heatsink and chaff proposition. Heatsink and chaff synth is a wonderful idea for exploration ships, have it cost 10 zirconium and 10 arsenic/antimoney, and 10 tungsten and you can be sure that the PVP players will not be synthesizing it to their exploitative potential.
In conclusion, ammo synth cancellation is a bad idea, spawned from another bad idea. Basic synths should completely restock a hardpoints capacity and have the 2 second cancellation window removed. Weapons should still take 15-60 seconds to synthesize ammo and make it available for usage, but not force you to stare at the panel or allow for cancellations whatsoever. This is a proper balancing mechanism with skill involved for ammo synthesis as it punishes players who do not monitor their ammo capacities and rewards those who do.
Lasers have been broken since engineering was released, they need attention, this is self-evident. The change of ammo synthesis will cause the PVP community to suffer and it will essentially make absolutely no difference at all to casuals targeting 1 ship at a time in a haz-res in solo play. PVP players don't want to synth, but are forced to due to the terrible balancing of lasers, PVP players don't want to spend hours chasing down materials in their SRV, we are forced to because of terrible laser balancing and ammo capacities that have not increased since engineering. Consider that when you make the claim that synthing is infinite ammo. We may spend hours at a time stocking 40 reloads per hardpoint, only to have to blow through all of them in a days’ worth of combat. Once again, lasers are broken. Perhaps the dev's should consider fixing the lasers, increasing the ammo capacity of all weapons and making synths less costly, or allowing one to trade hull reinforcement for additional ammo storage capacity.
On a final note, I can understand perhaps a 15-60 second synthesis penalty for weapons (THAT HAVE ALREADY BEEN 100% DEPLETED) Keep that last bit in mind. Synthesis is not something that should take place from within the weapon itself, but from within the ship. I can understand that synth taking time to complete and being delivered to said weapon, but cutting all dps potential out during a synth seems unwarranted and unwelcomed. Those who time their synths correctly will not be punished by this mechanic, and those who fail to monitor the remaining ammo in the hardpoints will be punished. This is fair. Heatsink and chaff synthesis is great for exploration ships who do not have stations to dock at to replenish. Properly address this by enforcing that they have an exceptionally high cost to synth so they do not become an exploited meta within the PVP community that will yield nothing but grief for the majority of players and spawn numerous threads about balance. I hope I have been clear, and if you have read through the entirety of this post, I congratulate your dedication. Thank you all for your time.
Anyone with any experience knows that most ships are under constant fire in PVP, this is exceptionally true in both winged combat and 1v1’s and especially for large ships, good luck ever getting an ammo synthesis off vs a competent pilot. One might argue that large ships can boost under or over each other and begin synthesis then in hopes of getting a synth off. Using your imagination, you can easily see that a turreted (anything) would mean that there is absolutely 0 time when the opponent IS NOT taking damage. Factor in the ship launched fighters, and even attempting to synth may be suicide as you spend forever trying to get one synth off at a time for upwards of 8 different hardpoints. This is just in regard to the two second synth timer that is cancelled with incoming damage. The synth timer no longer allows for premium reloads during a fight whatsoever, not only does it take too long which forces you to lose out on doing damage, but incoming damage immediately cancels it, only for you to keep trying and keep getting it canceled.
So ironically, a synth “feature” was added to the game that was uncalled for, and it effectively removes the feature of utilizing standard or premium reloads. Not only this, but let’s get real, standard and premium reloads will never be used again in 1v1s or winged combat, just for gank wings. Furthermore, basic synths only allow for half of the capacity of the hardpoint to reload… (what the hell, like I want to try to synth all of my 7 guns twice over… Like I want to spend minutes at a time during a 1v1 to attempt to completely restock my hardpoints)
Let’s get back into the details, firstly, why should synthesis be cancelled when you are taking shield damage, how does that even make sense logically? Secondly, how does this benefit any singular player among the community? Thirdly, why am I forced to stare at the synth screen while it is synthing? (probably because it has a 95% chance to be cancelled) Fourthly, why would anyone now synth a premium fsd charge for 100% increased distance when the synth itself takes as long as doing the additional jump itself. (and don’t tell me it’s for surviving out in the wilderness of the galaxy, many people use this in their large ships to expedite traveling and trading.) This is entirely immersion breaking, tedious, and meta changing.
Even medium ships still require at least one synthesis per hardpoint in a 1v1, larges often take more, this is due to ammo capacities not scaling properly with shield hitpoints and resistances that were introduced with engineering. Is every player now going to have to switch out all of their hardpoints for high capacity, long range or efficient lasers, and long range turrets? This is an utter slap in the face to anyone who has dedicated any significant amount of time to engineering a singular ship, let alone an entire fleet. So again, who does this benefit the most, obviously gank wings, they can force any well intended patrolling ship to wake away due to running out of ammo and not being able to synth, all the while they happily synth their heatsinks for silent running and chaffs for the gimbals that are necessary to counter their exceptional degree of pitching and boosting. Target lock break and biweaves are already a problem for well-intended policing forces of areas like CG’s and high traffic areas, now we can no longer synth.This is officially a game breaking mechanic, that is sufficiently detrimental enough to the 1v1 experience, the winged combat experience, and role playing such as the policing of systems experience to cause players to entirely give it up. This leaves the open community with much less to do, and is in favor of wing ganking and griefing other ships for the lulz.
I've heard weak arguments for a "laser meta" because now "you can't synth." No PVP player wants to commit to a plethora of lasers due to how improperly balanced they are. Yes, I have said it, lasers are not balanced, and have not been since the release of engineering. Nothing has changed with lasers at all, but what has changed, is that shields are now stronger, shields have more thermal resistances, etc. What does this mean you ask? It means that currently lasers draw too much power from the power plant, draw too much distributor from the capacitor, generate too much heat, and have damage fall off to justify their use. The answer here is not to force people away from all of the weapons they have been using, but to properly balance the lasers and give some real incentive to use them (and not just because of ammo synthesis.....). The only argument for the usage of lasers at the moment is, they take no ammo, so I can understand the nearsightedness of thinking this is the time for lasers to shine when all other hardpoints will be made obsolete. At the moment, lasers are essentially pure con, with the only benefit of being that they don't require ammo. They were previously balanced before engineering with the idea that they were definitively the strongest weapons against shields at the time. Lasers are no longer the strongest hardpoint of choice when targeting shields. This has failed to be addressed since engineering has released and this is why competent players outright refuse to run any type of laser in large ships. So as of now, the only opportunities for lasers are either further detrimental to their usage, such as long range requiring more power to counter drop off, efficient which now does less damage than other alternatives, or utilizing some type of gimmick like scramble spectrum, phasing, or thermal shock.
Back to the ammo synthesis timer and damage cancellation. This is a mechanic that no one has asked for, and I fail to understand how this will benefit any of the sub communities within Elite Dangerous. I can understand that its origin came from the addition of heatsink and chaff synthesis, but breaking another game mechanic, for an already broken game mechanic is redundantly absurd. Not all hardpoints have received an adequate ammo capacity increase, some have, but not all. This is something to consider as many of us who do PVP, go through synths quite readily. One might say synths are infinite ammo, but understand that in order to play competitively, we players have to actually take time out of our day to do things that we would ultimately prefer not to do (surface prospecting.) Give any true PVP player the ability to buy the materials with millions of credits to synth, and they would likely prefer that. Give them an option to use internal modules in the same fashion as cargo, and have ammo racks, and many players would do that as well.
I am not here to talk about how heatsink and chaff synthing will ultimately hurt PVP, that is for another thread, I just acknowledge that the birth of the ammo synth conspiracy against PVP and 1v1 players arose from a poorly thought out heatsink and chaff proposition. Heatsink and chaff synth is a wonderful idea for exploration ships, have it cost 10 zirconium and 10 arsenic/antimoney, and 10 tungsten and you can be sure that the PVP players will not be synthesizing it to their exploitative potential.
In conclusion, ammo synth cancellation is a bad idea, spawned from another bad idea. Basic synths should completely restock a hardpoints capacity and have the 2 second cancellation window removed. Weapons should still take 15-60 seconds to synthesize ammo and make it available for usage, but not force you to stare at the panel or allow for cancellations whatsoever. This is a proper balancing mechanism with skill involved for ammo synthesis as it punishes players who do not monitor their ammo capacities and rewards those who do.
Lasers have been broken since engineering was released, they need attention, this is self-evident. The change of ammo synthesis will cause the PVP community to suffer and it will essentially make absolutely no difference at all to casuals targeting 1 ship at a time in a haz-res in solo play. PVP players don't want to synth, but are forced to due to the terrible balancing of lasers, PVP players don't want to spend hours chasing down materials in their SRV, we are forced to because of terrible laser balancing and ammo capacities that have not increased since engineering. Consider that when you make the claim that synthing is infinite ammo. We may spend hours at a time stocking 40 reloads per hardpoint, only to have to blow through all of them in a days’ worth of combat. Once again, lasers are broken. Perhaps the dev's should consider fixing the lasers, increasing the ammo capacity of all weapons and making synths less costly, or allowing one to trade hull reinforcement for additional ammo storage capacity.
On a final note, I can understand perhaps a 15-60 second synthesis penalty for weapons (THAT HAVE ALREADY BEEN 100% DEPLETED) Keep that last bit in mind. Synthesis is not something that should take place from within the weapon itself, but from within the ship. I can understand that synth taking time to complete and being delivered to said weapon, but cutting all dps potential out during a synth seems unwarranted and unwelcomed. Those who time their synths correctly will not be punished by this mechanic, and those who fail to monitor the remaining ammo in the hardpoints will be punished. This is fair. Heatsink and chaff synthesis is great for exploration ships who do not have stations to dock at to replenish. Properly address this by enforcing that they have an exceptionally high cost to synth so they do not become an exploited meta within the PVP community that will yield nothing but grief for the majority of players and spawn numerous threads about balance. I hope I have been clear, and if you have read through the entirety of this post, I congratulate your dedication. Thank you all for your time.
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