Vorton Projectors

Vorton Projectors are a weapon type introduced with the Lightning Strikes update in June 2020, only equipped by EDENCOM ships Skybreaker

Skybreaker EDENCOM Frigates Skybreaker Class 1 (0/1) 4 3 44 MW 235 tf 330 m/s 158 m³

, Stormbringer

Stormbringer EDENCOM Cruisers Stormbringer Class 1 (0/1) 6 3 970 MW 390 tf 200 m/s 473 m³

and Thunderchild

Thunderchild EDENCOM Battleships Thunderchild Class High amount of medium slots 2 (0/1) 7 5 16,500 MW 880 tf 95 m/s 861 m³

. These are ship-based miniaturized versions of the Standup Arcing Vorton Projector, previously seen as the 'Doomsday Weapon' of Keepstar Citadels.

Mechanics

Vorton Projectors use Missile damage mechanics to determine their damage application, rather than tracking, thus the distance and angular velocity between the user and the target does not affect weapon application.

Vorton Projectors are unlike any other weapon system, in that they fire chain lightning which strikes the ship that is targeted and arcs across up to nine additional random ships (or drones) within 10km of the first. Despite the animation showing the chain lightning bounce off one by one, the fact that bounced entities are determined by the range to ship directly hit by the weapon and the 10km bounce itself does not bounce to chain further entities. The Vorton Projectors will never hit the ship that fires them.

Vorton Projectors consume Condenser Packs as ammunition and deal EM and Kinetic damage. They deal very low single target DPS compared to other turrets, owing to a low rate of fire (in between beam lasers and artillery) and low turret damage multiplier (without the damage spooling bonus that disintegrators get). However, the projectors have excellent optimal range, exceeding that of beam lasers, and can deal high total damage spread across the ten ships that are hit.

Following the trend started by Entropic Disintegrators, Vorton Projectors are further detached from traditional weapon mechanics. Much like disintegrators, the projectors have no falloff, are only fittable to specific ships (EDENCOM ships), and said ships only have one turret slot.

In areas of space where crimewatch is in effect, the projectors will respect safety settings, and with full safeties enabled will only bounce to legal targets. As a consequence, however, bounces from this weapon can initiate Limited Engagements with suspects and outlaws, even if they were not targeted.

Attributes and attribute modifiers

Vorton Projectors uniquely use their own set of attributes, only affected by Vorton Projectors themselves, Condenser Packs, Vorton Tuning Systems, bonuses of EDENCOM ships, and related skills. There are a few other effects that modify the attributes of Vorton Projectors:

• 'Pyrolancea' boosters apply a weapon damage bonus to Vorton Projectors.
• 'Halycon' boosters apply an optimal range bonus to Vorton Projectors.
• Wolf-Rayet effect in Wormhole space apply a weapon damage bonus to small Vorton Projectors.
• Magnetar effect in Wormhole space apply a damage bonus and an explosion velocity penalty to Vorton Projectors.
• Black-Hole effect in Wormhole space applies an explosion velocity bonus to Vorton Projectors.

The general rule is: if something does not say it affects Vorton Projectors, then it doesn't. That said, Vorton Projectors are not affected by anything else:

• Core gunnery skills and missile skills do not affect Vorton Projectors, with this set of weapons instead having its own equivalents for Gunnery and Missile Launcher Operation (root prerequisite, -cycle time), Rapid Firing and Rapid Launch (-cycle time), Sharpshooter (+optimal range), Surgical Strike and Warhead Upgrades (+damage), and a skill combining Target Navigation Prediction (+explosion velocity) with Guided Missile Precision (-explosion radius).
• All modules that affect turrets or missiles do not affect Vorton Projectors.
  • Tracking Enhancers, Tracking Computers, Remote Tracking Computers, and Tracking Disruptors do not affect weapons' optimal range.
  • Missile Guidance Enhancer, Missile Guidance Computer, and Guidance Disruptors do not affect weapons' explosion radius or explosion velocity.
• There are no forms of weapon disruptions that can harm Vorton Projectors.
• There are no tracking upgrade modules for Vorton Projectors, which are available to other weapon systems.
• There are no rigs to improve Vorton Projectors, just like Entropic Disintegrators.
• No medical boosters benefits or penalize Vorton Projectors.
• All system effects except Magnetar, Wolf Rayet and Black-Hole, notably Dark effect in Abyssal Deadspace and Plasma Metaliminal Storms do not apply to these weapons' damage, application, optimal range or any other stats.
• All effect beacons do not affect Vorton Projectors.

A long, long time ago...
Havoc expansion It used to be the case that 'Pyrolancea' and 'Halycon' boosters, Magnetar, Wolf Rayet and Black-Hole system effects do not apply their bonus and penalty to Vorton Projectors, just like all other boosters and all other system effects.

A long, long time ago...

Vorton Projectors had a group of boosters that applied only to them: EDENCOM Vorton Booster DA improves damage. EDENCOM Vorton Booster GU improves explosion radius and explosion velocity. EDENCOM Vorton Booster RA improves optimal range. These boosters were available from Vorton Projector Booster Gift Boxes, given in Gathering Storm login rewards. All three EDENCOM Vorton boosters have expired as of 8 September 2020.

Skills

With the exception of engineering skills Weapon Upgrades and Advanced Weapon Upgrades, Vorton Projectors do not benefit from any of the traditional gunnery and missile skills. Instead, it has its own set of skills. Most are analogues to normal gunnery and missile skills.

• Vorton Projector Operation: Reduces cycle time by 2% per level. Required to train all other Vorton Projector skills.
• Vorton Arc Guidance: Reduces explosion radius by 5% per level, and increases explosion velocity by 10% per level. This skill is the only way to improve the application of Vorton Projectors.
• Vorton Arc Extension: 5% to optimal range per level.
• Vorton Power Amplification: 3% to damage per level.

In addition to the general skills, there is a specific skill for each class of Vorton Projectors, and each will let you load and fire that one class. In addition, each level of the skill will improve your damage by 5% when using that particular class.

• Small Vorton Projector
• Medium Vorton Projector
• Large Vorton Projector

All the Vorton Projector types also have a "Specialization" skill. This gives you access to Tech 2 Vorton Projectors and Condenser Packs, and it provides a 2% bonus per level to the damage of modules that require specialization (mostly the T2 modules). All of these require that you have trained the Primary Skill to Level V, so they are usually pursued after your other training is complete.

• Small Vorton Specialization
• Medium Vorton Specialization
• Large Vorton Specialization

EDENCOM ship skills that are required by their ships give some bonuses to the corresponding class of Vorton Projectors.

• EDENCOM Frigate: 5% to damage per level.
• EDENCOM Cruiser: 5% to optimal range per level.
• EDENCOM Battleship: 5% to rate of fire per level, 5% to damage per level.

Equipment

There are a total of three size classes for Vorton Projectors, being Small, Medium, and Large.

Vorton Projectors

The primary weapon equipped by EDENCOM ships. Vorton Projector is considered a long-range weapon system with extremely long optimal range even with most short ranged ammo, probably intended to avoid chaining your own entities near your ship and other allies Vorton Projector users.

Inconsistently, the Meta Level of all Vorton Projectors is 0 in the Compare Tool. Compact and Scoped variants are Meta 0 too despite Tech 1 variants of other weapon systems using Meta 1 to 4.

Weapon stats, by size

Size	Rate of Fire	Explosion Radius	Explosion Velocity	Optimal Range
				Normal	+11.11%	+22.22%
Small	6 s	43 m	190 m/sec	22.46 km	24.96 km	27.46 km
Medium	9 s	143 m	105 m/sec	34.56 km	38.40 km	42.24 km
Large	15 s	333 m	79 m/sec	57.60 km	64.00 km	70.40 km

Weapon stats, by type

Type	Meta Level	Damage	Optimal range	Fitting Cost
Tech 1	0	(Normal)	(Normal)	(Normal)
Compact	0	+10%	(Normal)	-10% PWG / -10% CPU
Scoped	0	+10%	+22.22%	(Normal)
Tech 2	5	+20%	+11.11%	+10% PWG / +10% CPU
Consortium	8	+30%	+22.22%	-10% PWG / -10% CPU

Condenser Packs

Condenser Packs, similar to exotic plasma, deal more damage per charge since each ship only has one turret, and projectors have a low damage multiplier. For the same reason, damage scaling with increasing size is not smooth, due to the number of turrets the projector effectively substitutes for.

There are four types of Tech 1 condenser packs, offering two range options and an EM or Kinetic slanted ammo type for each.

Name	Optimal	Total damage
BlastShot	-25%	133	17	116
GalvaSurge	-25%	133	116	17
SlamBolt	+50%	66	13	53
MesmerFlux	+50%	66	53	13
Click on the column headers to sort the table; mouse over them for a more detailed explanation. Damage is the raw figures for the 'Small' ammo size; Medium is 4.89-4.95x greater, and Large is 7.42-7.48x greater, depending on ammo type. Damage type ratio varies, with a more balanced ratio for larger sizes.

Tech 2 Condenser Packs

Marketed under the Ultra brand, T2 condenser packs can only be used with Tech 2 and Faction Vorton Projectors. ElectroPunch Ultra is higher damage, shorter range ammo compared to BlastShot & GalvaSurge, while SnipeStrike exceeds MesmerFlux and SlamBolt in range and damage. Both types of ultra condenser packs increase capacitor need by 25% and reduce explosion velocity by 25%.

Name	Optimal	Explosion Velocity	Cap. need	Total damage
ElectroPunch Ultra	-50%	-25%	+25%	160	80	80
SnipeStrike Ultra	+80%	-25%	+25%	90	49	41
Damage is the raw figures for the 'Small' ammo size; Medium is 4.78-4.88x greater, and Large is 7.18-7.41x greater, depending on ammo type. Damage type ratio varies, with a generally more balanced ratio for larger sizes.

Vorton Tuning Systems

The only item that affects Vorton Projectors, other than Vorton Projectors themselves and their loaded Condenser Packs, are Vorton Tuning Systems.

Vorton Tuning Systems are passive low slot modules. They increase damage per volley and rate of fire.

A long, long time ago...
Havoc expansion Vorton Tuning Systems were the only weapon damage mods that did not have faction, officer and abyssal variants.

Availability

BPC of EDENCOM ships, Vorton Projectors, Condenser Packs, Vorton Tuning Systems are solely available from LP store of DED, and Tech 2 BPC of them (if any) are only available from invention. Their production involves abyssal materials, and they are generally expensive.

EDENCOM ships and Vorton Projectors related skillbooks are available in CONCORD and DED, with the exception of Vorton specialization skillbooks are exclusive to LP store of DED.

Faction and officer variants of the Vorton Tuning Systems and Vorton Tuning Systems mutaplasmids are available from aiding the empires against pirate insurgencies and turning in items at counter-insurgency operation facilities in their War HQs.

Vorton Projectors, Condenser Packs, and Vorton Tuning Systems are known for their odds in item cost that their Tech 1 items are incredibly expensive compared to their corresponding Tech 2 items. While Tech 2 Vorton Projectors and Vorton Tuning Systems are just 10% more expensive than their corresponding Tech 1 modules, Tech 1 Condenser Packs are 110% to 140% more expensive than Tech 2 Condenser Packs of the same size. Due to the low price to use Tech 2 items, Tech 2 items are mostly the most cost-effective option to use. Tech 1 variants are somehow ridiculously expensive to buy due to very few capsuleers manufacturing them since Tech 2 items are better, and Tech 2 blueprints do not accept them as ingredients.

The odds are largely caused by the invention, and for Condenser Packs, their invention increase BPC runs and does not consume corresponding T1 items, and uses a different set of ingredients.

External links

• EVE Online: Gathering Storm and Lightning Strikes