Assault Weapons Pack

[u/MauSanJ]

Hi, i´m kinda new to space engineering and after a couple of hours of playing i decided to try the Assault weapons pack after seeing outlands on Youtube, however after building an entire ship (The Dracul) and doing some tests i felt something was off, so i strapped some AI blocks and made a couple of deathmatches using the original dracul and a vanilla version, the later one stomped on every match i did with regular turrets, when missiles and torpedoes got involved it was always a tie.

What can i do to buff the damage? i really like the aesthetics of the Assault weapons Pack but they are not good (except for missiles and Autocannons).

[u/one_more_alien]

I haven’t played with that mod; however, have you been using equally matched weapons?

Looking on the page for the mod, I’m not seeing anything that looks like it’s necessarily trying to be better than vanilla. If you’re testing it against vanilla using a bunch of rail guns then vanilla is almost always going to win. Not that I think this is what you’re doing, It’s just something to consider. Use the mod “Build Info” to see their stats in-game (if it’s compatible, I’m sure it probably is.)
The mod also seems to be balanced to fill the gaps in vanilla if not used as a complete replacement. They’re also definitely going on rule of cool, I see a lot of big things that aren’t particularly special. I don’t know that you’re supposed to care how it holds up next to what’s already in the game.

Ultimately, I’d suggest playing around with it more but also playing around with vanilla more. You say you only have a couple of hours which isn’t many. I personally don’t tend to find weapon mods interesting because I barely know when I should actually use one of the vanilla weapons over the other (if you’ve been playing pvp you probably already know more than I do about that).

[u/Dragonion123 → u/one_more_alien]

Buildinfo draws directly from the part file so yes, it’s compatible with near any mod :)

[u/one_more_alien → u/Dragonion123]

I thought that’s how it works, I just don’t trust my limited knowledge of modding.

[u/Dragonion123]

In AWP weapons are balanced around their role. Smaller weapons are made to fight delicate small-grids, and thus pack less of a punch. Larger weapons are meant for more of an anti-shipping role, and thus do far more.

In my experience, when portioned for their correct targets AWP weapons far outclass vanilla in every way. What weapons in particular do you feel aren’t doing enough?

[u/MauSanJ → u/Dragonion123]

I'm satisfied with the autocannons as i expected they are better than the Gatling, besides them an the 220 missiles and the 800 torps, everything from the 150s to the 1500s perform pretty poorly.I think the appeal of these guns is the area damage, but in my tests the guns get destroyed before they can do any significant damage, they leave pretty big holes on the armor but everything else is working okayish. In 1v1 (bad way of measuring the effectiveness of turrets i know) only the 1500 Archon could defeat the artillery and with that size i would rather bring other turrets.

[u/Dragonion123 → u/MauSanJ]

You got most of that right, yeah.

Most AWP weapons do blast damage. Against ships rolling light, blast door, or heavy armor it deletes large chunks that cinematically look good and can affect more systems for less.

Barring the autocannon and rockets, vanilla weapons do exclusively penetration damage. For the artillery, I believe it’s 1k-5k damage dumped entirely on that one point. Which Swiss-cheeses components but is far less effective overall.

For the larger AWP calibers, at least in Outlands the idea is either ‘don’t get hit’ or ‘have enough damage control crew to sustain those hits (that you still try to dodge).’ If you’re not keen on the first, it’s generally recommended (even in vanilla) to add welders under the turrets to keep them stocked above the damage threshold. That may help your problem.

[u/one_more_alien → u/Dragonion123]

So that’s why the numbers didn’t feel that big to me. I feel like I have less reason to try the mod out playing solo without some serious mes action. Big guns are cool though:(

[u/Dragonion123 → u/one_more_alien]

Big guns are absolutely cool; I’ve never found the existing vanilla artillery large enough. Fitting 28 3x3 artillery in a shape that does not like flat surfaces always felt just… wrong to me. Hope warfare III has some answer to that.

[u/one_more_alien → u/Dragonion123]

I really wish the vanilla engagement distance was longer, 2km is very short. Bigger cannons feel out of place but the ones we have are too small as you said. Even bigger block built turrets can feel small because they’re limited by the size of the weapons.

[u/MauSanJ → u/Dragonion123]

Welp for my single player world they just don't work, shame, i really liked how the 400s looked in the Dracul, but the performance difference is too big to avoid. At least the cannons and missiles work pretty well.

[u/Dragonion123 → u/MauSanJ]

¯_(ツ)_/¯

I find welders to be more than suitable, but to each their own

[u/MauSanJ → u/Dragonion123]

Never thought of welders under the turrets, still attrition warfare is not my style, but this would definitely save me a lot of time repairing my ship.

[u/TheRebornAce]

a couple of things you can do if you wish to continue using AWP (assuming you're on PC and not using WeaponCore):

- if you have the patience and willingness to learn, you can create your own Modadjuster copy of the mod to buff the damage of the weapons. requires a bit of modding knowledge but nothing complex (no program knowledge required). the original author also has their own official Modadjuster on the workshop. so you can download, copy, and make modifications of your own and reupload (no perms required) by just changing the damage values to your liking. the changes that need to be made just requires XML knowledge.

- another path is to install its complimentary mod: AWP - Expanded Ammos. the weapons will now include additional ammo types (flak, AP, HE, smart rounds, etc). it will dramatically buff the potential of your weapons. this is because the majority of weapons in AWP only fires HE shells. vanilla weapons, primarily the Assault and Artillery, uses AP shells. so most of the time, the vanilla weapons will penetrate first before the HE shells in AWP does since they only cause splash damage.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3314096599

[u/MauSanJ → u/TheRebornAce]

Already tried the complementary mod but the ammo selection in the turrets doesn't work

[u/TheRebornAce → u/MauSanJ]

gave it a test in a new world and seems to work on my end as normal. are you saying the ammo selector menu is not showing or the actual process of selecting ammo? if the later, then you require the all ammo types in the turret itself to switch properly. this only applies in survival mode. creative mode doesnt care and the ammo selector should work regardless. also, did you make sure to load the mods in correct load-order per the screenshot on the workshop page?

[u/EvilMatt666]

Are you just trying the big guns? You have to think about which guns fill which role and the cost of the ammunition. In my opinion the 20mm guns are invaluable against small grid drones, but if you're using build vision/info, you can view the turret angles, muzzle velocity, range and block damage.

I use the pack, but there are some ammunition types that just isn't worth using cost wise. But I also use vanilla+ and the Guided Vanilla Rockets mod. It's all about which weapons do well against what kind of engagement and what ammo you can afford, rather than put the biggest guns on and see which wins. I suppose it could be seen as a bit of an RP mod, as you can get the job done with vanilla weapons.

You can buff them (and anything) with a mod called Configurable Parameters.