3.23 Laser Cannons - The New Meta? | Laser Cannon Overhaul & Intensive Weapon Testing | 3.23 ePTU

In this video we will be looking at the laser cannon overhaul in 3.23, especially doing some intensive weapon combat test with these laser cannons, different types, and different sizes. Enjoy and let me know which one you think is for you?
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Star Citizen Alpha 3.23.0 EPTU.9165930
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00:00 Introduction
00:41 Size 1 laser cannon specs
02:44 Size 2 to Size 5 laser cannon specs
03:53 Size 1 Lightstrike Cannon in action
08:07 Size 1 M3A Cannon in action
14:52 Size 1 Omnisky Cannon in action
16:54 Anvil Hawk in action
17:59 Saber size 3 cannons
20:49 Connie with 4 size 5 cannons
22:28 600i with 3 size 5 cannons
25:17 This is wrong -- The Drake Corsair
26:50 The Vanduul Scythe with size 5 cannons
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My PC Specs and Game Settings:
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• CPU: Intel Core i9-14900KF 2.4 GHz
• GPU: GeForce 4090 rtx
• RAM: 128G DDR5 5600
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[@Shanex250]

Honestly this patch looks better and better the more I see it. I didn't even know they were actually going to change the weapon characteristics up. Finally build diversity again.

[@rybuds47]

Finally!

[@NozomuYume]

FOXY I mentioned before but you need to pay attention to energy efficiency of the guns! Ships in SC have overly nerfed weapons power (a few like Caterpillar and Starfarer got buffs, but most have had nerfs). Let's take size 1 as an example: WEAK converts 50 energy into 95 damage. This is a bit less than the 1:2 ratio of 3.22 for cannons. FL-11 and Lightstrike I convert 68 energy into 54 damage. This is *worse* than repeaters in 3.22 which have 1:1 damage. M3A converts 112 energy into 225 damage. This is basically the same as 1:2 energy conversion of cannons in 3.22 NN-13 and Omnisky III convert 90 energy into 120 damage. This is 1:1.3333 energy conversion. A little bit better than repeaters in 3.22. Since weapons power on ships is low, your overall dps is heavily limited by how fast you can charge your weapons. As you can see here, M3A has the best energy to damage conversion, FL-11 and Lightstrike I have the worst. This is also why Dominance scatterguns are so powerful in 3.23 -- they convert energy to damage at a 1:4 ratio.

[@alexpetrov8871]

>This is also why Dominance scatterguns are so powerful The problem with scatterguns is spread. It is so huge that scattergun shot never applies in full to a small fighter unless you shot it at very close distance. I personally haven't researched precisely spread over distance yet, but my practice in Arena Commander shows that part of charge just miss target, making aplied DPS quite low.

[@teahousereloaded]

@@alexpetrov8871They are difficult to balance, because they become extremely potent when used by an ace.

[@NozomuYume]

@@alexpetrov8871 Best use of Dominance in 3.23 seems to be applying maximum damage to large targets where all of that 4x energy damage connects.With most ships limited to 1000-1500 maximum theoretical 1X dps assuming instantaneous charge, the Dominance 4x conversion helps a lot if you can actually hit.

[@uglybob20]

Is so nice my favorite ship weapon the dominance are getting buffed just wish i could get it in s4 and larger for my larger ship :)

[@MersageSW]

Good insight!

[@alexpetrov8871]

This topic is good ) I figured this thing about laser cannons myself )) I even made my own damage calc in excel researching this ))

[@Parobro]

Same, as I always do

[@sharxbyte]

I too have encountered the invisible rocks around GH. Thanks for breaking this down!

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

lol...

[@Lerium]

Theres a setting in Weapons called something like "Gunnery Magification PIP" or something like that. You can bind it and make your PIP bigger to see if anyone has trouble. It makes o to O

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Indeed

[@Aero_Yuki]

Ooh, a pleasant surprise: the Constellation's lower guns have been moved to the top of the engine nacelles rather than being slung underneath.

[@ThomasD66]

Should be two guns in a turret on each upper nacelle that can either be run remotely or slaved into a fixed forward aiming solution. Put the defensive turrets on the sides of the lower nacelles.

[@NoxianSoulHarvester]

really nice videos appreciate fresh context with most recent patches but may i suggest giving us your end thoughts and opinions on what you liked and what cannons you prefer for each size or what you thought about fl-33 vs quarreler's and omniskys and end thoughts on laser cannons or laser repeaters i understand you gave us visual demonstrations but i feel some information and content is being left out! i still cant decide on what size 3 cannons i want i dont have anything too decisive to sway me one specific direction.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Thank you for the great comment, yes, that video is just a general comparison as that was still in the PTU, however I am cooking another short video just for testing different size 3 weapons in terms of their DPS and killing time, just waiting for 3.23.1 to go live, then I will finish that video up. (It's quite a busy time during IWL, so I try to catch up with many viewer's request at the moment.)

[@RYCOPZ]

Awesome, you did the vid! So...meta status? I'm actually thinking that a mix of cannons & ballistics is best for small capacitor ships so you get a bit more ammo mag size plus dps when you want to finish your target off. But if the capacitor is big enough then I think cannons all the way. TTK is really good with them & no mid fight out of ammo surprises. Great science vid!

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

yeah, after many combat test, it is safe to say, laser cannons are the new Meta in 3.23. But that doesn't mean we have to always use them, your idea of mixing cannons with ballistics is really good, and sounds a lot of fun, I must try.

[@DrunkenCitizen]

Glad your science show is back! Will you be doing this with the laser repeaters, gatlings and ballistic cannons? And then do an over all comparison of the groups? Or that is too big of a project?

[@RYCOPZ]

He did some ballistics in the last vid!

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

I did some laser repeater testing, and ballistic testing, but because there are too many changes in 3.23, I have to make multiple small videos, and together they will give you a better picture. And after these videos, I will either mention or make a separate video for overall comparison. As for now, it is getting more and more clear that the new meta will be laser cannons.

[@eavdmeer]

What about the spread? The FL have the lowest spread. How about the lightstrike?

[@BlueSpectre]

If I'm not mistaken the tana will be better with 2 size 4s instead of dual size 2s on the Toshiba mount right?

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

For laser cannons, I think so.

[@justalex4214]

While the connie and the corsair sport more firepower, the 600i offers 2s3 shields, making it extremely tanky vs energy weapons. When I do vhrts or erts with it I usually put 40% shields to the front and take the big ships head on.

[@coldsnap4467]

Those are different size ships.... Connie/Corsair are S4. 600i is S5. A better comparison is the 400i, which is S4.

[@justalex4214]

@@coldsnap4467 eh, ship sizes are quite blurry, especially now with mm and those preliminary archetype balance changes that equalized a lot of bigger and non combat ships in terms of their flight stats.

[@chriskelvin248]

Wait, so with the ship weapon gimbal change, the Connie has 4 S5 pilot guns now, instead of the previous 2 upper S5, 2 lower S4? I thought the S5 gun physical size was interfering with the landing gear before. What changed? Am I mistaken about this?

[@fnunez]

The guns are on top of the nacelles now.

[@swaroopr34]

please test the corsair again you can snipe those little ships from far with precision mode

[@sirAlexander_T]

Great video, do you mind sharing your pc loadout / spec?

[@Parobro]

You wanna play cinematic?

[@Tekjive]

Ya I’m interested in what GPU and resolution he’s playing at, cuz my 6900XTXh @ 1440p everything maxed don’t seem to look this good 😅

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

My PC Specs and Game Settings: ------------------------------------------------------- • CPU: Intel Core i9-14900KF 2.4 GHz • GPU: GeForce 4090 rtx • RAM: 128G DDR5 5600 • Game res: 4K at max setting -----------------------------------------------

[@Parobro]

@@Tekjive because he prob uses cinematic camera and maybe reshade filters

[@amaterasu5001]

Why did u switch from 4 weapons to 3 and then whatever is going on with the Corsair. Hard to compare like this

[@achildofbodom1]

4:05 LMAO I love it

[@GhostofZuuzGaming]

i used to use omnisky cannons on all my ships in 3.22 and found they hit the hardest if you can get a bunch of cannons airborn before enermy knows they are coming at them, get a few hits and they are pretty broken or you can finish of smaller ships before they know you are even coming.

[@Parobro]

They were still shit because of 700ms across all sizes. The Dps was lower which is normal but also telling you that they do less alpha as needed to get to the same dps as repeaters, so overall we’re absolutely shit compared to repeaters due to other mechanics I’m not explaining now. Cannons got upgraded exactly there: speed and alpha.

[@Birbucifer]

omniskys don't hit harder than any other cannon in 3.22, all cannons have the exact same stats. check the erkul DPS calculator, it has their stats listed.

[@gunsmoke9030]

Check erkul again, a set of m7a vs a set of omnisky same size on same ship is a pretty big difference in dps.

[@Parobro]

Lower then repeater bre, literally read my comment.

[@lfc651]

can the connie now change the 2 locked S5 guns? or is it 2 locked standard S5 guns and 2 purchased S5?

[@Plexiei]

there is quad size 5 now u can put size 5 and 4 on it

[@AwdrevCZ]

What about Connie, does it have ulocked lower gimbals?

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

It has 4 size 5 now all gimbaled, but they removed auto gimbal from pilot guns

[@Amikhan457]

Can someone help - did cig make so that you can't control your ship with keys if you use the freelook? Whenever i use it to look around in the cockpit or in the 3rd person i can't control the ship

[@Tekjive]

That’s because the controls you use to control your ship are being used for free look 😅

[@Amikhan457]

@@Tekjive No, I dont think so. Just checked the keybinds and none of the free look or camera controls use wasd/qe which i use for pitch/roll/yaw. It is the same preset I've been playing since 3.17.4

[@Tekjive]

@@Amikhan457 ahh, I use a joystick for thrusters/left hand. I’ll have to explore it more

[@Xaxxus]

I love how you chose thr 85x to test this. It’s basically designed to be the star citizen equivalent of a bmw.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Origin 85X, the ultimate flying machine...! lol

[@stevieC11Hanworth]

It's made in England pick a English car brand

[@conanthelibrarian287]

This really makes me want to put laser cannons in stagger fire on the Scorpius' wings for maximum X-Wing-iness

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

indeed!

[@stevieC11Hanworth]

2 cannons to 1 repeater ratio in staggered fire is the way

[@Tekjive]

I’m glad CIG is finally bringing variance back they the “old days” I’ve read about, can’t wait for component variance, all being the damn same just a diff skin and cost is quite lame 😅 lol

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Agreed, can't wait for the components variance.

[@Tekjive]

@@cpt_foxyloxy ya bro def keep up this series of comparisons with details, appreciate the work behind it 🤙🏻

[@MrSmith123123]

Try Tana with 6 Fl guns (toshima turrets)

[@davewills6121]

Havent a clue what all that means, i buy ships as an indulgence, for their Aesthetics beauty, comfort and Group/Org gameplay. Thank god for REBALANCING. Interesting all the same, you do great content fella.

[@darkdevious3596]

600i Let’s Go!!

[@medicsansgarantee]

Hull A with laser cannons, because I see the Hull A now has a lot of hp ... not sure how the points are distributed through out the ship.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Indeed, it will be fun to try that out, however this is a known bug, so it will be patched soon.

[@rodrigogodoi4250]

I think they are making laser weapons good for small little armor fast agile ships, and ballistics for big armored slower ships. Thats it. In the end thats their plan. Im fine with it.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

sounds about right

[@gunsmoke9030]

Dead elephant is right i melted mine and got a connie, what a shame.

[@AthrunX23s]

If I may suggest, don't use the 85x for weapon showcases. The huge nose covers up the shots so we can't get a good view on the weapon performance. Great piloting though.

[@arrclyde4325]

As someone who also has a Drake Corsair in his hangar, what do you mean by "oh no, its the drake corsair. Its not suppose to go down like that"? Drake is not known to build particular durable ships. Yes they have a lot of guns and firepower, but also paper thin armor. Want something tougher? Don't get a drake ship. Simple solution. 😉

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

lol...indeed.

[@acli9704]

600i is slow? it's mass is 3 times more than Redeemer but red is more slugish... it is perfect balance! ;)))

[@justalex4214]

Well compared to smaller ships it's slow but for a ship of its size it's actually quite maneuverable. Once the internal rework is done in 73.000 years it'll be a carrack killer imo.

[@KarlBarbosa]

@@justalex4214 Didn't it's maneuverability get nerfed into the ground in 3.23? As for it's rework, lol at 73000 years. I was thinking longer than that ;)

[@justalex4214]

@@KarlBarbosa you can't boost anymore to change your flight direction faster, but therefore you now have the nav to scm super brake :D turn/rotation rate is still very okay for a ship of this size I think.

[@DeltaPhoenix180]

​@@justalex4214 *Angry Orca pod noises*

[@Cab8819]

I can't wait for this to be updated. Please just make pitch and up/down thrust match the massive thrusters capabilities fucking please. Leave the yaw and left/right thrust

[@ChiefEigtball]

I think a ground turret shot down his corsair.

[@Luix_OS]

Reliant Tana > Corsair ;)

[@dennisanderson3286]

Laser cannon overhaul 🪐

[@_Koozebane_]

The Corsair is made of cardboard and duct tape. Not a surprise.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Lol...,indeed

[@MasumiHaku]

how about distortions on this patch

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Need to test that, gonna wait until 3.23 goes live.

[@Caltobin550]

Docking denied 😢😂

[@LilApe]

Pretty sure its om-nis-key. No omni sky

[@BenitKolburn]

o7

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

o7

[@Raptorman386]

ITS NOT THE CORSAIRS FAULT ITS YOGI'S FAULT... SLOW ASS COMBAT

[@cybercereal-gg]

You can understand the mental state of a person when that person uses terms like "meta" in a Early Alpha game.

[@dksider9875]

Yh but it will always be early alpha. I think most people treat it like it's a full release because it will never get one.

[@cybercereal-gg]

@@dksider9875 Squadron 42 is the game they going to release not the MMO one. MMO version is simply used for a tech engine showcase. It's an amazing marketing tool to sell the Game Engine. MMO version of the game won't be possible to balance for a fair game. It is technically impossile no matter how many "game chaning" patches they release. People riding the hype train so fast, they don't even care where it's heading.

[@erlinghaaland8046]

Lies. You sound salty 😭