Why is ammo capacity for certain weapons so low?

[Great GiG]

On certain weapons (frag canons, rail guns, missiles) ammo capacity is so low that not only make them useless choices for long sessions, but also decrease the amount of fun you can have with them.

Why not re-do the ammo count for those weapons? Why can I carry 105 rounds of high-caliber canon ammo, 2190 of multi-canon ammo, but only 33 frag ammo? What type of balance does this limit provide other than making frag canon much more unappealing to anyone?

 

[Darth Ender]

it's a mechanism used to balance the effectiveness of weapons that require less accuracy to effectively use. Missiles maybe less so because they're "bigger" and so believably is part of the concern there. But yea, more ammo for weapons where you need to aim to hit and less for weapons that to area of effect or are guided to their target is a common game design mechanism.

Without that or reducing refire rate you end up getting spray and prey spam type combat which is not something that Elite needs or would ever want.

 

[Rupert Hound]

On certain weapons (frag canons, rail guns, missiles) ammo capacity is so low that not only make them useless choices for long sessions, but also decrease the amount of fun you can have with them.

Why not re-do the ammo count for those weapons? Why can I carry 105 rounds of high-caliber canon ammo, 2190 of multi-canon ammo, but only 33 frag ammo? What type of balance does this limit provide other than making frag canon much more unappealing to anyone?

Id actually like to see more types of non-ammo weapons tbh. Ive found that all the ammo based weapons dont give you enough ammo and find im having to dock up every 10 mins to reload. The Plasma Cannon id like to see shifted from ammo based to just heat/power based too but thats wishful thinking.

 

[Zerosum]

it's a mechanism used to balance the effectiveness of weapons that require less accuracy to effectively use. Missiles maybe less so because they're "bigger" and so believably is part of the concern there. But yea, more ammo for weapons where you need to aim to hit and less for weapons that to area of effect or are guided to their target is a common game design mechanism.

Without that or reducing refire rate you end up getting spray and prey spam type combat which is not something that Elite needs or would ever want.

Be great if they added Ammo racks, for some players to choose a missile/gunboat ship for the non existent powerplay assault , seek and destroy missions on fixed targets like stations, capital ships. Oh, wait...

 

[Alex Brentnall]

I'll be honest here:
If im going for a fun build I ignore ammo.
If im going for a dps build I ignore ammo.
If im going for a defence build I ignore ammo.
If im going for a pirate build I ignore ammo.
If im going for a credits/hr build I will only use lasers.

The upshot is that if you are a trader/pirate who is using PA's or Frag cannons for lots of damage but you don't need to use it much the ammo is ok. If you are credit grinding as a bounty hunter or whatever then its lasers all the way.

I kind of agree that it makes them *almost* impossible to use but for certain loadouts all you want is a blast and run tactic or an occasional high damage.

 

[HeavyGroovez]

The real question is..how much frag ammo have conflict zone Pythons got ?

 

[Sonoskay]

So far the only weapon i found completely useless is frag cannons.. otherwise. a careful shot with a rail gun can be amazing. Multi cannons seem to be the "go to" weapon, cannons can be useful against big ships and so on...

 

[Mohrgan]

To put it simply; Balance. The more powerful a single shot from a weapon is, the less ammo you can carry. It makes the choice to take a very powerful weapon, like a Rail Gun, or Frag Cannon, something to consider. Weighing up-time with fighting strength.

 

[Vincent Starson]

I wish some of the guns had more ammo, or you could put ammo in your cargo hold. Especially missiles, I'd live to be a crazy missile boat.

 

[IronGremlin]

Ammo capacity as a balancing mechanic is faulty.

It just introduces a time sink wherein the player has to go re stock to stay effective - or rendering a weapon completely pointless because it runs out of ammo before it can down a target.

In a typical FPS, this can introduce interesting gameplay wherein a player scrambles about the map trying desperately to find ammo while being pursued by his opponents.

In a game dominated by vast distances between spaces with no opportunity to re-stock, this is overly punitive, as the player who runs out just has to disengage entirely from combat and endure an obnoxious trek to the nearest station before they can resume having fun.

I would like to see ammo packs that take several seconds to re fill your reserves - and then lower "magazine" sizes and reserve quantity across the board.

This means you budget ammo per encounter instead of per activity - missing your target is still a big deal, and could make or break an encounter, but it doesn't mean a trip home.

 

[salad]

The real question is..how much frag ammo have conflict zone Pythons got ?

.....

...

How come I never asked that myself!

 

[Mohrgan]

You start by saying ammo capacity isn't a valid balance medium, but then go onto explain how you would maintain balance with more ammo.....

The balancing comes at the point of choice. Who would use a multi-cannon if you could carry 1200+ rounds of frag cannon ammo? Once you concede that ammo capacity is part of balance, then it just a numbers game, ans FD does a nice job of concealing those.

 

[CMDR Beltane]

Maybe FD will add an ammunition hold to expand ones ammunition reserves. And... most probably NPCs have unlimited supply of Ammo. Anything else would suprise me.

 

[geoffrey.hdt]

11 shots for the frag cannon is because it has an area effect! You may be able to take down 3 shieldless Sidewinders!!!

More seriously, I do understand the concept: you use energy weapon (and soon, cytoscrambler) to strip the shield, then you get close and frag your opponent's powerplant and hull! This sounds awesome, but 11 shots is only for the situation where all you need is one kill.

If we assume that kinetic weapons do 50% less damage to shield than hull:
- it gives 170 hull damage with a single burst (3 consecutive shots) of class 3 frag cannon...it's like landing 4 shots of cannons at a time! Of course, you must point blank your target.
- A python with 3 frag cannons, a bit or ramming and 2 cytoscramblers sounds like a death machine for 1:1 PvP! As long as the shield drops and you get close enough, it's 510 hull damage per burst!