3.23 Ballistic Weapons Overhaul & Testing - Part.1 | Ammo, DPS & The "Shredder" Shreds!

This video is a start and an overview of the total ballistic weapon overhaul in 3.23. And in this video we will be focusing on ammo change and the DPS of each weapon with some fun weapon test as the second half of the video where we will compare three size 3 ballistic weapons and in the end we will find out that the Shredder shreds. Enjoy!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Star Citizen Alpha 3.23.0 EPTU.9165930
---------------------------------------------------------------------
00:00 Introduction
00:55 Size.1 Ballistic weapons, ammo & damage
03:46 Size.2 Ballistic weapons, ammo & damage
04:11 Size.3 Ballistic weapons, ammo & damage
05:33 Size.4 Ballistic weapons, ammo & damage
07:23 Size.5 Ballistic weapons, ammo & damage
08:02 Two special ballistic weapons
08:40 Weapon test: Mantis in combat
11:27 Mantis: no overheating but lowest damage
11:59 Tigerstrike combat test - low overheating
14:10 Shredder combat test - this gun looks beautiful
15:14 Overheat is a problem
17:07 But the Shredder shreds!
19:15 Last torpedo
19:41 Thoughts on 4 points
----------------------------------------------------------------
My PC Specs and Game Settings:
-------------------------------------------------------
• CPU: Intel Core i9-14900KF 2.4 GHz
• GPU: GeForce 4090 rtx
• RAM: 128G DDR5 5600
-----------------------------------------------

[@AthrunX23s]

Man I hope they change the design of the Tigerstrike. It still has the shrouding from when it was made for the Avenger series.

[@ephalanx1]

They added hit points to all ships (I think 1000 hp) to simulate armor for the time being. This will change with armor and Maelstrom. They surely dont want TTK to be that long. But this allows them to get the data they need on the weapons because they can test actual live DPS over a period of time during engagements. This will give them good data to work from.

[@Yumemaru.]

Man, I love the scorpius. The way it looks, the cockpit view, the fact that it's a two seater, the fact that it has a turret that can move on rails. It's just such a cool ship.

[@seeker_rodan3113]

More ships should adapt that spine. I think the Corsair could really benefit from it. Like sliding up to have almost as good a view as the pilot and then sliding back to handle targets behind it. It also needs better coverage from the rear because that blind spot is so punishing at times

[@SFGamingShow]

The new combat system wants you to use lasers to drop shields and then ballistics to drop hull. It's why most ships come with mixed guns.

[@gabzsy4924]

Makes sense. Tbh the new flight and fight system seems to have taken a lot of inspiration from ED and that's not a bad thing.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

This gives me Elite Dangerous vibes...........

[@scribblescrabble3185]

@@gabzsy4924 I think it is a bad thing.

[@IrisCorven]

@@gabzsy4924 To me, I enjoyed that Star Citizen didn't borrow that mentality. I liked that having a pure ballistic/pure laser build on your ship could both be equally viable.

[@TUROCK320]

@@gabzsy4924 DCS injection is needed

[@EnderLinken]

This is a truly great video, straight forward and informative. Exactly what I was looking for. +1 Subscriber

[@Dazvanu]

In addition to nerfing the ballistic weapons by about 7% damage, they also suffered a dramatic reduction in their total firing capacity from 25% to 30%, almost making these weapons unviable for combats against more than 2 enemies, so just like the multicrew ships, the ballistics, especially the gattlings, were almost killed with the Master Mode. This combat mode values the ones that has a set of dedicated controls like hotas etc. and penalizes the ones that uses keyboard and mouse much more than the previous mode.if this mode is maintained, all ships above interceptors will need much much, much, much more attention in their balance, in a test we did with a mantis and a buccaner we easily shot down an A2 and an ares Aion, which were together, soon after using again a mantis and a bucaneer in a 32 min combat we intercepted and shot down an HH that only had 2 manned turrets. an interceptor destroying an HH alone in my opinion is unacceptable. As a player who likes combats, I am saddened by what has been done here, limiting to a tiny portion of the existing ships those that have a chance of victory, and frustrating players who expected a game in which they could have fun with friends on the SAME ship(at least in pvp), now have to go out in packs in separate ships because in a single ship only if they find more than one smaller enemy the defeat is certain. I sincerely hope that they dedicate themselves a lot to balance the ships or return with the decision to add the master mode. sorry the long test and is just my opinion

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Thank you so much for sharing your test in detail with us here, it is very very important. I was just testing alone for a few days and our results come out about the same. First of all ballistics even though they added ammo count, but are not as effective as before which I don't mind too much. However, this master mode was created in the aim of counteracting the light fighter meta that dominated SC for such a long time, now somehow even encouraged light and fast ships whether it is a fighter or not, and made solo medium to large ship extremely dangerous in the verse. Maybe it is a way to encourage team play, but it might discourage a lot of players. Really interested to hear what new players think when they play 3.23 live later this week.

[@Syphirioth]

Since I see this 2 week late I should test gattlings on A1 again cause they were ripping before 3.23 imo but had little ammo. I did try test but I found bugged prospector and empty all and not killed it. XD According to the stats in your video about the gun you can probably better take the ballistic repeaters. They probably closest to original gattling guns.

[@stormycatmink]

I think the C-788 does an AOE detonation, damaging items into the ship beyond the impact point. That may just be the impact damage and not the total damage capability

[@SwedishYouthHumanist]

Or the total damage but part is spread to internal components, which can't take much damage before shutting down. That needs testing!

[@Wolf-Odonnell]

It used to have explosive AOE but they removed AoE from it and I think distortions for some reason

[@Fluke2SS]

Its a flak cannon basically

[@undeadpeak]

@@Wolf-OdonnellI think they removed it because with the AOE people would one shot ships with it

[@shufadragon]

C-788 was my choice for anti infantry last patch, and for the 100 npcs standing in formation the patch before that.

[@NicouLenny]

Cheers FoxyLoxy, nice video o7

[@gyratingwolpertiger6851]

Projectile velocity is also something you should consider

[@kalikiller1771]

I think the mass drivers will take the cake at 3000 m/s. Short range tho

[@gyratingwolpertiger6851]

@@kalikiller1771 and sod all ammo

[@blomsky3475]

Thank You so much for the ballistics comparison! I was used to run Longsword ballistic cannons on my 315p. In 3.23 they overheat real quick after 5-6 rounds what makes me rethink my decision and prob go back to lasers. Till 3.22 the advantage of ballistics has been that their fire was not interrupted as it is for lasers due to the recharge time. Now ballistics can overheat rather quickly which kills this advantage. Up to 3.22 I made up my decision not only on Alpha damage and ammo count, but also on fire rate and ammo speed. That´s why i also took a closer look on the Mantis and Tigerstrike for my 315p. Now, that i saw it in your video, the Tigerstrike is no longer in option for the only reason being that it totally ruins the elegant looks on my 315p :D

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Yeah I agree, at least the size 3 tigerstrike looks horrible....lol. The size 2 tigerstrike looks a little better. But ballistics as a whole was a bit nerfed because of the overheating, however if you choose carefully with the ship and combat situation, they are still quite effective.

[@acli9704]

yep, bucksaw and sawbuzz was my choce for f7c mk2 turrets in 3.22

[@darkdevious3596]

Awesome video, can you do a test with the 600i because she goes BRRR…

[@Josefppaz]

New gun sound effects are awesome

[@MersageSW]

It seems like they balanced ballistics for post-malestrom where damage is more about piercing through armor and disabling a ship before they put malestrom in the game. Now we are in this weird middle ground where some ballistics feel weak.

[@mrvei-vg7et]

C-788 cannon is the only weapon with a AOE zone on the ammo, like a missile

[@TUROCK320]

Like FLAK ? or on impact, increasing component dammage easier ????????

[@b00nz0r]

When deadbolts awake you from deja vu dreams *solo level guitar playing used as a bridge

[@StarCitizenJorunn]

This was a great overview but I really wish you'd covered the ballistic cannons which are supposed to be the best performing in 3.23. The Deadbolt looks really strong on paper... More please!

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

oh yea, of course. One video at a time, I am preparing for laser cannons and ballistic cannons video at we speak.

[@filipemrbean2]

Well i guess Mass drivers will be a thing when armor is implemented for real in game, because...i understand it dont do "kaboom" but still should be king of kinect damage (or the queen since a particle acelerator, in theory, would be better depending how much close to Light speed it gets)

[@davewills6121]

Luve the Antares, Babylon 5 Fury vibes

[@Tekjive]

Maybe the size of the bullet (larger alpha) is the reason some overheat faster then others? Would make sense and seem like CIG is trying to connect with reality more, I like that.

[@GreebsCitizen]

"nothing but the rain" 😂

[@amigo3284]

I believe (could be wrong) but the ballistics do 50% less damage when the shields are up. Could be an interesting test.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Yes you are right , it has been like this for a long time, some ships have more than 50% physical damage reduction

[@JoyGamer23]

Shields do not receive damage penality if shields are up, but every ship in the game (almost) has a 50% damage reduction against ballistic, to simulate armor wich is not yet implemented; this means you have to calculate a -50% to the total max damage on ballistic weapons

[@whendarknessfalls6969]

False. The shields can negate up to 30% ballistic damage depending on how much power is going to your shields.

[@SkyBiscoff]

I’ve missed the ballistic repeaters loved them in 2.x patches

[@papascronch]

i think the yellow jacket was designed to be an anti-snub option but honestly im just stabbing in the dark. i cant think of another reason for the ammo to damage ratio to be like that.

[@RYCOPZ]

Got to try the deadbolt ballistics just to round out your data and.....laser cannons! The properties of laser cannons vary a LOT now....but am going to bet that they end up as the new meta.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

absolutely, those videos are already in the process.

[@Cyco-Dude]

Ooo, will wait for parts 2, 3 and 4: ballistic cannon, laser repeater, laser cannon.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Will do. And I already did one video for the laser repeaters.

[@michaelwparks]

Oh that's easy. Please test Deadbolt IV and V on the Corsair.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Oh absolutely.

[@wraith5524]

They also dis a stealth update to ballistics that makes shields absorb up to 30% of the ballistics

[@blomsky3475]

Very interesting! Where did You get this from?

[@Blue-Mystic]

try the Mass Drivers ! and the Cannons you only tried Gatlings and a Repeater

[@iambecomejeff]

What ship is that? It's sick (the X-Wing looking one)

[@blomsky3475]

It´s an RSI Scorpius

[@iambecomejeff]

@@blomsky3475 Thank you!

[@cyvan1750]

I prefer slower firing high alpha weapons. The problem with rapid fire low alpha is that you have to keep ur shots on target longer to do any real damage. With high alpha u can manage ur trigger to only fire when u're sure to hit. Those times might be much shorter but any hits you get will count because of the much higher alpha. When it comes to the real slower firing canons I just switch to staggered so I basically have a continuous stream of bullets going out. With their high alpha they HURT. Just need to make sure the velocity isn't too low.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

absolutely agree, after many combat rest in master mode, I thing this approach is very effective with a good combat ship

[@mrbaglog]

You don't seem to use the precision aim mode in your weapon testing videos. Any reason for that? Not a habit yet?

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

I don't like the half speed reduction in precision mode.

[@hujiaming6151]

So Revenant gatling is good now? Finally, devs of CIG have gained their common sense, give us some realistic set up for weapons, this is good news. (Need to know fact is A-10 attack jets have 1500 rounds for its 7 barrel 30mm gatling gun)

[@obaniehia]

don't shields also reduce phys damage by 35-50% depending on ship?

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Yep, I thought it was 50% and up, and it's been like that for several patches now.

[@obaniehia]

@@cpt_foxyloxy i think the 50% and up is meant for when they add armor

[@LogisDavoth]

TTK is just fucking enormous.

[@Syphirioth]

Why did i miss this video... Damn algorithms.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

lol. Thank you

[@psychokevv]

You should watch avenger 1 to get the basics of flight combat, thanks for the stats showcase though, those repeaters look fun, deadbolts not looking like a bad option either

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Thank you, I been watching him since a long time ago, I am not an ACE pilot, but my basic combat skills are fine.

[@dennisanderson3286]

Gearhead going ballistic nice 🪐

[@alexpetrov8871]

Ballistics benefits right now mostly depend on intended target. All ships have armor resistane 50% and more. At the same time most small ships and all fighters have relatively small shields. Big ships mostly have bigger shileds. Just as example - Cutlass Blue has 50000Hp, 6000shield, C2 has 80000Hp, 200000shield. Which means if you attack CutlassB with ballistics - you need to make about 100k overall damage, if you attack it with energy weapon you need only 56k overall damage. With C2 things are opposite - it is faster to attack it with ballistics, partially ignoring shield. Partially - because contrary to common misconception ballistics doesn't ignore shields. We can see here 12:33 as Gladius shileds melt under ballistic damage. Shields absorb randomly between 0% and 30% of ballistic damage and after that 50%+ of rest damage absorbed by armor. So ballistics for dogfighting right now is a bad choice. When using precision targeting or manual gimbals which lowers firerate this choice becomes very bad.

[@luistigerfox]

actually in 3.23 last I saw the shield absorption of ballistic damage was increased very significantly. closer to 70% at most times, with ballistics now receiving a damage bonus vs hull/armor and energy weapons now having a damage penalty toward armor but a bonus toward shields, with the exception of neutron repeaters having 0/0, no specific advantage or disadvantage on either hull or shield. It seems to hold up in the ptu from what I experienced.

[@alexpetrov8871]

@@luistigerfox >ballistics now receiving a damage bonus vs hull/armor and energy weapons now having a damage penalty toward armor I get penetration data from Erkul, they claim to main that data form SC files, there is nothing like what you said at the moment for 3.23. All shields ballistic absorption 0-30%, all hull ballistic resistance 50-58%. No any penetration bonuses for guns. If you have other information - share your source.

[@alexpetrov8871]

​@@luistigerfox Btw, I did very simple test yesterday at EPTU. Equipped Andromeda with one Attrition4 and one Revenant - they have same BurstDPS. Landed at Lyria mining site, spawned Talon several times and shot it with both guns in turn, aiming its side near the back. Talon has 3k shield and 19k HP - it took about 35sec to destroy it with Revenant and 16sec with Attrition4. ))

[@brentwillems726]

@@alexpetrov8871 That seems like a huge nerf to something like the Inferno.

[@whendarknessfalls6969]

Shields can negate up to 30% ballistic damage

[@alexpetrov8871]

3:08 "damage only 8000" - this looks strange for you because in this table you ignore Burst DPS, projectile speed, spread, heat per shot. Yellowjacket has fast projectile, it precise and a bit cooler than others, therefore it has lower damage just for some balance. For instance Tarantula 870 has same Burst DPS, same projectile speed, bigger spread and heats more. Which means in short fight Yellowjacket is better choice as 2 such guns do 16000damage, enough to shot Gladius.

[@tynrova9639]

Did you see bunkers no longer target hoverbikes?

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Will test that when 3.23 goes live

[@matthewfletcher4627]

The Yellow Jacket looks like an anti personnel weapon maybe?

[@blomsky3475]

Might be that way - it´s mounted by default on the wings of the Valkyrie, which is a drop ship

[@greatdanexlks]

So you just multiply Alpha x ammo count = max damage. Looks like there is nothing else to it, no X factors involved. Example, ballistics doing moe damage when they hit a certain part of the ship (even a per x many shots). Everything is just straight forward.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Of course there are other factors to consider and I said it many times in the video, but if I add all those factors, this can get complicated very fast. So I simplify it to the core and only consider ammo and damage for this overview video, and more detailed testing will come later when I focus on specific weapons.

[@Leptospirosi]

Mass drivers are insanely fast and long range. The weapons of choice for PVP

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Will test them out

[@Kazockas]

As much as it pains me to say this. I think going forward having a mix of energy and ballistic weapons is going to be needed. Energy for dropping the shields and ballistic for hull damage.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Sounds like Elite Dangerous combat styles now

[@Zamuroq]

Sadly, this damage dont seem to be applied ingame, it takes for ever to kill anything with balistics. Laser canons are 3x more effective

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

indeed

[@dex6147]

More SC "balancing," that seems to make no sense.

[@skepticalpianist3266]

they just throw shit to the wall (us) and see what sticks. if you all didnt figure that out multiple years ago..

[@trikkimick]

Like your videos mate but I don’t get the point of padding out the length reading stuff that’s both on the screen and on a website we all use

[@epnexx7234]

I see your intention for this video. but there are so much more on this changes to inspect. Like slower speed is less accurate. Also the spread over 2km. so evry weapon has a sweetspot for affecting most dmg... I tested in arena commander and im absolutly unhappy with the changes.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Agreed

[@gaatjegeenrukaangek6]

I still can't wrap my head around the fact that ammo count is based on the weapon and not the size of the ship..

[@starbuck5728]

Nothing in SC makes sense. Don't bother try to understand

[@purzifal]

you completely forgot the inferno

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

You are right, but that SF7B is fixed on that ship, and I just made a video about that as well.

[@HitmannDDD]

You left out one of the most important stats, projectile velocity, which dictates the weapon's effective range. Ive found the sweet spot for dogfighting to be the 1400-1600m/sec weapons. This gives enough velocity to apply good damage at around 1000m and prevent shield regen around 2k. It also severely punishes those who get within the 1000m pocket. The 1800m/sec weapons feel weak comparatively for very little effective range Ammo count and rof can be simplified to a ratio of ammo and rate of fire. "minutes of ammo" Unless they cut the repeater projectile range and significantly up the DPS, 3.23 is going to be a cannon meta.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Yeah, I left many other important stats on purpose, coz if I add them, I will be talking about numbers forever in this video, and I did mention this several times in the video. This video is just an overview, an introduction.

[@BenitKolburn]

o7

[@Parobro]

Half the shots don’t hit because you use look ahead settings, yes it looks nice and dynamic but it’s a totally useless feature. Besides this, ballistics are not worth it anymore, the speeds are bad, the ammo count is bad, the damage is bad.

[@scienz0220]

What is the look ahead feature you speak of? I also expected ballistic to be short range high damage but it's just a pillow fight

[@GGZeek]

​@scienz0220 might be talking about the pip setting he's using. By default it's lead pip so based off where the enemy ship is flying. And they're saying to use lag pip so you can see where your shot will actually go

[@scienz0220]

@GGZeek okay thank you. I've been using lag pip, and it's looks like it will take practice to get good wit, but it allows you naturally learn how enemy ships are flying a little bit better than lead pips do, as a side effect?

[@GGZeek]

@scienz0220 lag pip is just better overall as you can target parts of the ship your self. Like if you want to target a wing for instance. Lead pip iirc focuses on center mass. Also you have to be careful on what guns you use as if they have different velocity your lead pips won't line up and 1 might hit while another missed entirely. But generally you have more control where you hit with lag pip. Take this with a grain of salt though as I've only watched some videos on 3.23 and havnt touched it my self

[@Parobro]

@@scienz0220 yes lead vs lag and also look ahead is in your gamesettings when your head/ eyes track enemies and zoom in so u don’t see your MFDs anymore. This all coupled with super low velocity on ballistics and damagereduction is totally useless now, sadly ofc. My personal opinion: use lag and lead when you need it, use omnisky or mxa laser cannons and enjoy the game shredding people with few well placed shots. I personally use some really clean gamesettings for most static viewangle because being able to repeat things is better then your head moving left to right because of g forces and then even zoom in on an enemy so it moves even more 🥲

[@copespitter1942]

Love your videos man but mm is even more boring to watch than play and that's saying something.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

appreciate the comment, but for this video, I have to get through these numbers, boring or not.

[@Turican76]

ballistic weapons are useless - ammo for few secs CIG is terrible

[@dredknotgsx600f]

They really need to let the pilot control the turret on the scorpius even if it's locked to fixed. Scorpius just gets obliterated when solo in AC

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Yeah, I found out that the hard way, the scorpius just don't have enough SCM boost speed, so I am trying out light and medium fighters, and the results are better than solo the scorpius. They really indeed the scorpius to be manned.

[@dredknotgsx600f]

@cpt_foxyloxy ya even the auras in AC have an advantage lol.