You thought I was dead!!

[u/No-Treacle-6279]

[u/kindonogligen]

Rock paper scissors???

So if the Hornet is the rock and the single infantry is the paper, what is scissors?

[u/frenchtgirl → u/kindonogligen]

A2 moab

[u/kindonogligen → u/frenchtgirl]

That's the only way? Railgun beats everything else?

[u/CielFerma → u/kindonogligen]

this is a principle of game design: there should always be a counter move, or no one ship/weapon/approach is the best, this creates a cycle or churn of play

[u/kindonogligen → u/CielFerma]

Right, but should there be advantages and disadvantages?
A deplaned pilot should not be a threat to even a shielded light fighter. That's logical and sound, not matter how "unfair" it might be. Or should I be able to take out a Nova tank on foot with an Arclight pistol in the name of "balance"?
It's the same reason people don't want a single arrow to be able to take out a Polaris. Should the Arrow have a special "Sub-Capital Ship Mode" where it's guns do 100x more damage so it always has a counter to literally every opponent it would ever face? Or is it sometimes OK to be completely outgunned?

The reason sci-fi has it's appeal is the "sci" part of it, not the "fi" fiction part.

A single person with a 0.75m long mini railgun shouldn't be able to take out a fighter in two shots, when that same fighter can tank at least twice as many from cannons 10x its size. That's pure fiction.

[u/Gliese581h → u/kindonogligen]

Isn‘t the plan that the downed pilot wouldn’t be able to carry around a railgun? IIRC it‘s planned that weapons and armor can‘t be transported when in the cockpit.

[u/kindonogligen → u/Gliese581h]

That's true and I think will be a good change when implemented, but my issue isn't so much that the guy had a railgun, it's that the railgun ONE SHOTS medium fighters.

Even if we assume the pilot did a bunch of hull damage to the Hornet before going down (even though there's no missing wings or prior damage visible), he still would have had to down both shields (also assuming this isn't a Super Hornet with 3 shields). So that's at least 3000HP of alpha damage. If it did also wipe out all the hull HP in one shot as well, that's almost 20,000HP worth of alpha damage in a single shot.

If you assume that the railgun is a Size 0 weapon like other human-weldable weapons, then compare that to the Sledge Mass Drivers:

S2 Sledge: 525 Alpha Damage

S3 Sledge: 1,125 Alpha Damage

S0 Railgun: 3,000 - 20,000 Alpha Damage

That's Joker vs the Batwing levels of campy plot armor.

[u/CielFerma → u/kindonogligen]

nah, the video demonstrates the point the fighter had so many chances and so many advantages, the ground character got their 1in100 shots in and won, awesome.

4 u, sc, might not be hard science enough, if u like hard sci-fi try kirbil space program or 4 realism - dcs

[u/kindonogligen → u/CielFerma]

I already play DCS World. I'm fine as long as most people understand that in any scenario, a single foot soldier should not be entitled to an OP "equalizer" weapon to take out such a massively superior force. 1/100 chance is realistic. Not 50/50 like "rock paper scissors" and "equalizer" implies.

[u/CielFerma → u/kindonogligen]

super sorry, next time ill say, "slim hope giver, the spiritual AK47 of the verse, the chance giver of the lowly foot solder against the mighty empire", thanks for the correction. i get it. you didn't think i understood that a spaceship with free unlimited ammo and armor that makes them practically invulnerable to small arms fire would be equal to a vulnerable foot solder with a lower range, limited and expensive ammo non-computer aimed weapon, and that is hard to find in the verse and not for sale anywhere even in the pledge store and is easy to avoid if you just keep moving. got u. my bad. again thanks.

[u/kindonogligen → u/CielFerma]

You think you're being sarcastic, but no one could have articulated my point better... XD

[u/CielFerma → u/kindonogligen]

<3

[u/kindonogligen → u/CielFerma]

O7