Shadow of Cerberus EVE Community Forum

Recycling day: Signature

EDIT (3/March/2013): Please consider the bulk of this post retracted.  While the stuff about tracking is reasonably accurate, the stuff about damage and in particular my assertion that something is wrong with the gun damage math currently in the game is embarrassingly wrong.

Just a quickie for everyone arguing with me about how large gun signatures aren't effective doing damage against a target with a small signature radius.

Guys, I know what the math says should happen in these circumstances.  Really: I'm familiar with it.  But I'm telling you that out in the field where guns hit ships, what's supposed to happen isn't happening.  The math is failing.(1)  Maybe it's the fact that virtually every fight these days happens under MWD.  Maybe it's the fact that EVE pilots are a lot smarter and are holding their fire until transversal drops.  But mostly, I think something's a little wonky in the actual code that governs how much damage large signature guns should do to smaller targets.

It's not operating the way it should operate, which is why we had titans blapping frigates some months back.  When it was happening, I wrote a whole post about it.  In that post, I wrote in a lot of detail how my large artillery Tornado managed to land three volleys with large guns on an Ares, including the final blow that killed it:

There are 23 ships involved in the KM. Billy was running parallel to the main body of the fleet's path of advance at a range of about 35km. He was there for about 10-12 seconds; I and the Tornados only had time for a single volley, but ships like those Zealots and that Claymore got several volleys off. Based on the evidence, I believe he was double-webbed, once from each of our Rapiers. His speed when I took my shot was about 1600m/s, at a signature of about 100m. He was running parallel to the right side my ship, ahead of me at an angle of about 45-50 degrees, range from me was roughly steady. I do not know when the other ten or so Tornados in the KM took their shots. My guns were grouped 4-1-3, and I fired them in that order. All three groups hit; the group of three caused the KM. 

I'm having a very hard time believing that it was just dumb luck that caused ten other Tornados to all miss and me to hit, particularly when I took a lot of trouble to ensure I'd be able to hit a target in this situation and nobody else in the fleet did.

Not only did my large arties track the Ares (the point to that particular exercise), but I was #4 damage on it, ahead of a ship firing 425mm ACs.

Again: I really do know how it's supposed to work.  It's not working that way.

Now just today, this kill-mail happened.  Anyone want to say again how large rail signature is ineffective against ships with a small signature radius?  I assure you that Ranis pilot knows what he's doing.  And that's a Ranis, not a Ferox.

Solution: the actual code in the actual game needs tweaking.  Something like the nerf currently applied to titan gun signature would do.  But don't look at me to suggest it to CCP.  I'm too busy shooting small targets with big guns.  ;-)  I kid, I kid...


(1) And trust me, I know math.
Source: Recycling day: Signature