The video explains that in Star Citizen, ballistic weapons are heavily mitigated by ships’ high shield and armor resistances, significantly reducing their damage output. As a result, even powerful ballistic weapons become largely ineffective against well-protected ships, making them a poor choice for combat under current mechanics.
The video discusses the effectiveness of ballistic weapons in Star Citizen, prompted by a viewer comment from Okan Odor. The viewer pointed out that ships’ shields do not significantly reduce ballistic damage because ships have high ballistic resistance, often over 50%. As a result, even powerful weapons like the Polaris cannon, which has a raw damage of 3400, only deal a fraction of that damage after resistance and shield mitigation. The video aims to explore how shield resistance and armor resistance impact ballistic weapon damage, questioning their actual usefulness in combat.
The creator explains that ships in Star Citizen have two main resistance modifiers: one for shields and one for armor (or physical resistance). The shield resistance is based on an old default value of 33%, meaning 67% of the damage penetrates the shield regardless of the shield’s power level. Once past the shield, the remaining damage is further reduced by the ship’s armor or physical damage resistance, which varies by ship. For example, the Gladius has a -57% physical resistance, meaning only 43% of the damage that passes the shield actually affects the ship’s hull.
The video then details a series of tests firing ballistic weapons at different ships, including the Gladius, Hornet, and Lightning. The creator calculates that a single shot with 1024 alpha damage from a Deadbolt 5 cannon, after passing through the shield resistance and armor, results in only a few hundred damage points to the ship’s hull. For instance, seven shots are enough to destroy a Gladius’s vital part, which has 2000 hit points, confirming that ballistic weapons are significantly mitigated by resistances. Similar tests on other ships show that more shots are required, but the damage remains heavily reduced, making ballistic weapons less effective in combat.
The creator also notes that if a ship’s shield depletes during sustained fire, the damage calculation changes because the shield no longer provides resistance. This can result in slightly more damage passing through, but overall, the resistance mechanics still heavily diminish the impact of ballistic weapons. The conclusion is that due to these layered resistances—shield and armor—ballistic weapons are largely ineffective against well-protected ships. This inefficacy is reinforced by the resistance chart, which shows that many ships have high physical damage reduction percentages, with some reaching over 60%, further reducing the damage output of ballistic weapons.
In summary, the video emphasizes that ballistic weapons in Star Citizen are largely rendered useless against ships with high resistance values because of the combined effects of shield and armor mitigation. The resistance mechanics significantly reduce the damage dealt, making even powerful ballistic weapons insufficient for effective combat unless shields are depleted or other factors come into play. The creator concludes that understanding these resistance values is crucial for evaluating weapon effectiveness and suggests that ballistic weapons may not be a viable choice in the current game mechanics.