This is mostly just a quick PSA, to give people a heads up about something that maybe some of you know already, though most of you likely don't, as it's something i only just realised after playing this game for the last year...
That basically all the game's weapons have damage falloff (which i kind of expected, with some types of the games weapons, even then much of their falloff only really makes sense of weapons fired in a planet's atmosphere, not really with weapons fired in space
)...
In particular you might expect lasers to possibly be immune to damage falloff or at the very least be affected the least, but they're actually basically the worst affected by it.
Now again while as said, i only just noticed the damage falloff stat on a particular weapon in the game, then found the following linked chart, though i of course noticed that my weapons were less effective at long range, but i put this down to my weapon's accuracy and convergence at those distances, the big thing i didn't realise was that my shots were doing physically less damage at longer ranges! .
Indeed basically all of this game's lasers have pretty shocking damage dropoff...
For example, while pulse lasers have a maximum range of 3 kilometres, they start dropping off at 500 metres! (with beam lasers etc being almost as bad).
While in comparison, multicannons have a maximum range of 4 kilometres and don't start to drop off until 2 kilometres out.
Anyway, here's a link to the full list:- http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Damage_Falloff .
Edit - I'd some more thoughts since i posted this ...
Of course when bullets are fired on Earth (and as they would react if fired on any atmospheric planet), they have a maximum distance, effective range and ultimate accuracy because they lose momentum as they travel, experience air resistance and the pull of gravity, having less kinetic energy as they slow down and will ultimate be pulled all the way to the ground, if they don't hit something else first...
While their accuracy is effected by how good the person who fired them's eye sight, optics, hand eye coordination is and how steady their hands are, while the accuracy of a bullet fired by a machine will be determined by its' sensitivity, smoothness, tracking accuracy and optics...
Bullets fired in space should realistically only have a maximum accuracy and tracking distance and no real maximum range or distance at which they do less damage because there's nothing to slow them down.
(Actually come to think of it, i believe bullets as we know them couldn't even be fired in space, because there's no oxygen in which their powder can ignite, though rocket launchers would have no trouble firing and we clearly regularly use rockets in space as a species...
Supposedly some of the first astronauts and cosmonauts went to space armed with small rocket launchers because of fears the other side would attack them in zero G, well at least so the urban legend says - that was actually a plot point in one of the Clive Cussler's, Dirk Pitt books .
But assuming you could get around that and actually fire them, bullets fired in space should go on forever, unless they hit something solid or come under the influence an objects' gravity .)
In this game the limit to a projectile weapon's range should only be the limit of any tracking systems being used, as in gimballed or turreted weapons and the ultimate distance at which your ship can track and target another ship, but if you can see a ship at this game's maximum draw distance and can manually target a shot to hit it, the projectile should still hit them with maximum force.
With lasers since they take energy to fire, it makes sense from them to have a maximum distance, but not for them to hit anything within that distance with any less force.
But of course all this being said, Frontier can make the weapons in this game behave however they like because this is ultimately a work of fiction and their own creation, in which they make all the laws of physics .
That basically all the game's weapons have damage falloff (which i kind of expected, with some types of the games weapons, even then much of their falloff only really makes sense of weapons fired in a planet's atmosphere, not really with weapons fired in space
)...In particular you might expect lasers to possibly be immune to damage falloff or at the very least be affected the least, but they're actually basically the worst affected by it.
Now again while as said, i only just noticed the damage falloff stat on a particular weapon in the game, then found the following linked chart, though i of course noticed that my weapons were less effective at long range, but i put this down to my weapon's accuracy and convergence at those distances, the big thing i didn't realise was that my shots were doing physically less damage at longer ranges!
.Indeed basically all of this game's lasers have pretty shocking damage dropoff...
For example, while pulse lasers have a maximum range of 3 kilometres, they start dropping off at 500 metres! (with beam lasers etc being almost as bad).
While in comparison, multicannons have a maximum range of 4 kilometres and don't start to drop off until 2 kilometres out.
Anyway, here's a link to the full list:- http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Damage_Falloff .
Edit - I'd some more thoughts since i posted this
...Of course when bullets are fired on Earth (and as they would react if fired on any atmospheric planet), they have a maximum distance, effective range and ultimate accuracy because they lose momentum as they travel, experience air resistance and the pull of gravity, having less kinetic energy as they slow down and will ultimate be pulled all the way to the ground, if they don't hit something else first...
While their accuracy is effected by how good the person who fired them's eye sight, optics, hand eye coordination is and how steady their hands are, while the accuracy of a bullet fired by a machine will be determined by its' sensitivity, smoothness, tracking accuracy and optics...
Bullets fired in space should realistically only have a maximum accuracy and tracking distance and no real maximum range or distance at which they do less damage because there's nothing to slow them down.
(Actually come to think of it, i believe bullets as we know them couldn't even be fired in space, because there's no oxygen in which their powder can ignite, though rocket launchers would have no trouble firing and we clearly regularly use rockets in space as a species...
Supposedly some of the first astronauts and cosmonauts went to space armed with small rocket launchers because of fears the other side would attack them in zero G, well at least so the urban legend says - that was actually a plot point in one of the Clive Cussler's, Dirk Pitt books
.But assuming you could get around that and actually fire them, bullets fired in space should go on forever, unless they hit something solid or come under the influence an objects' gravity
.)In this game the limit to a projectile weapon's range should only be the limit of any tracking systems being used, as in gimballed or turreted weapons and the ultimate distance at which your ship can track and target another ship, but if you can see a ship at this game's maximum draw distance and can manually target a shot to hit it, the projectile should still hit them with maximum force.
With lasers since they take energy to fire, it makes sense from them to have a maximum distance, but not for them to hit anything within that distance with any less force.
But of course all this being said, Frontier can make the weapons in this game behave however they like because this is ultimately a work of fiction and their own creation, in which they make all the laws of physics
.
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