User:Rothbard leviathan/Projectile ammunition
Standard (Tech 1)
There are eight kinds of Standard Tech 1 projectile ammo. The picture here is more complicated than with hybrid ammo: projectile ammo does a wider range of damage types and does not present a gradual exchange of damage for range.
Projectile ammo can be split into three tiers, short-ranged (EMP, Fusion and Phased Plasma), medium-ranged (Titanium Sabot and Depleted Uranium) and long-ranged (Proton, Nuclear and Carbonized Lead). All ammo within each tier has the same range and tracking modifiers, but the different types offer different kinds of damage. The medium-ranged tier (Titanium Sabot and Depleted Uranium) has a significant tracking speed bonus.
 Ammunition Type |
Range Category |
 Range Multiplier |
 Tracking Multiplier |
Total Damage |  EM Damage |
 Thermal Damage |
 Kinetic Damage |
 Explosive Damage | |||
|
|
|
| ||||||||
| EMP | Short | -50% | 12 | 24 | 48 | 96 | 75% | 8% | 17% | ||
| Phased Plasma | 83% | 17% | |||||||||
| Fusion | 17% | 83% | |||||||||
| Titanium Sabot | Medium | +20% | 8 | 16 | 32 | 64 | 75% | 25% | |||
| Depleted Uranium | 38% | 25% | 38% | ||||||||
| Proton | Long | +60% | +5% | 5 | 10 | 20 | 40 | 60% | 40% | ||
| Nuclear | 20% | 80% | |||||||||
| Carbonized Lead | 80% | 20% | |||||||||
Note that the range bonuses or penalties applied by these ammo types only apply to optimal range. If you're using autocannon, which have tiny optimal ranges anyway, your ammo's range modifier doesn't matter very much. It's more important if you're using artillery. This means that autocannon should always be fitted with the most damaging ammo possible, and if a ship has a falloff bonus, it's probably meant to use autocannon.
T2 Autocannon Ammo
The two Tech 2 ammunition types for autocannon are Barrage and Hail. Barrage has a tracking penalty but a 40% falloff increase, and is popular with ships like the Vagabond which like to skirmish in falloff range. Hail has a penalty to falloff range and a large penalty to optimal range, and to tracking, but it deals very high damage. In practice the range and tracking speed drawbacks mean that Hail rarely offers more DPS, although it can be effective against big, stationary ships or POSs. Barrage does roughly equal amounts of explosive and kinetic damage, while Hail does a lot of explosive damage and a little kinetic on the side.
| Name |  Optimal
|
 Falloff
|
 Tracking
|
Total damage | 
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barrage | 0% | +40% | -25% | 11 | 5 | 6 | ||
| Hail | -50% | -25% | -30% | 15.4 | 3.30 | 12.10 |
T2 Artillery Ammo
The two Tech 2 ammunition types for artillery are Quake and Tremor. Quake, much like Javelin for hybrids, lets artillery pretend to be autocannons, with high damage but much-reduced range. Tremor has a dramatic 80% range bonus, but a very significant penalty to tracking. Both do a mixture of explosive and kinetic damage.
| Name | Optimal
|
Tracking
|
Total damage |
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quake | -75% | +25% | 14 | 5 | 9 | ||
| Tremor | +80% | -75% | 8 | 3 | 5 |
