[TC] OOS Ammo Usage

[Fluff]

I have a couple of questions about how ammunition is handled in OOS combat.

1) How much ammunition is actually consumed? Would a Skate with 8 EBCs chew through 8 crates of ammo after a single 30 second OOS round?

2) What happens if a ship runs out of ammunition in the middle of a round? Does it still do full damage for that round, an amount of damage equivalent to the amount of ammo that was available, or something else?

[Zaitsev]

1 - according to my limited experience; a lot. It seems they go through ammo even faster than they do IS, and eight EBCs will burn through some 3157 rounds per minute IS. So the answer is probably 'yes'. I usually carried about eighty crates when I played vanilla and used EBCs, and they would last me perhaps three or four patrols/station defense missions before I had to go find more. I did leave a reserve of some 4-5000 rounds, though.

2 - No idea.

[Gazz]

OOS, the time that a weapon is assumed to fire is 30 seconds - give or take.

IS, a fighter spends about 90% of it's "fight time" not shooting the cockpit lasers but evading or lining up for another attack run.

Turrets work differently yet again.

I really don't think anyone bothered to take into account a case where the ammo runs out during shooting. =)

[Dog G6]

Does this work similarly in Albion Prelude? Or was it changed/improved?

[Fluff]

Oh good. I was hoping for a response from you, Gazz. I have to say that these questions are mostly your fault. After seeing your NPC Ammo script, I wondered what it would take to give the player a set of equipment to similarly negate the need to resupply with ammo. Whether or not my approach to it is balanced, we'll see.

OOS, the time that a weapon is assumed to fire is 30 seconds - give or take.

This is unless the player is viewing the sector map, correct? Those are 5 second rounds?

So OOS, ammo-based weapons will use ammo for either 30 seconds or 5 seconds of continuous fire, correct?

I really don't think anyone bothered to take into account a case where the ammo runs out during shooting. =)

Hmm, if so, then a single crate of ammo would be sufficient for an entire round of OOS combat, regardless of round length.

Gazz, do you know if your NPC Ammo script keeps NPC ships stocked with ammo during OOS combat? I'm guessing my initial approach to this would have the OOS ships stocked for every other round, which just isn't good enough.

[Geek]

Whether or not my approach to it is balanced, we'll see

But why you would want that ? Energy weaponsalways do more damage than ammo based guns of the same class OOS, and there is no energy drain.

[Gazz]

This is unless the player is viewing the sector map, correct? Those are 5 second rounds?

Doesn't matter. It's 100% one way or the other.

Gazz, do you know if your NPC Ammo script keeps NPC ships stocked with ammo during OOS combat? I'm guessing my initial approach to this would have the OOS ships stocked for every other round, which just isn't good enough.

Fights or any contact with player assets force a cooldown so ships can still run out of ammo. It's the whole point of having an ammo requirement.
They just get "resupplied" during "downtime".
That's an abstract implementation but a game-wide supply network with freighters is not realistic for several reasons.

As a result, it's not normal for some ships to become permanently crippled. (I'm looking at you, M7M on a long range patrol!)
Goal achieved.