🚀 go-pugleaf

Sean Clark (sean....@rti.uucp.netcom.com) wrote:

:  >:      I'm afraid that I must jump on the "fusion cannon sucks" bandwagon.
:  >: As it stands, the weapon simply is not cost-effective.  Slow firing rate,
:  >: comparatively low damage, prohibitively expensive, and difficult to aim
:  >: make this weapon a player's last choice.  Sure, it can be fun to goof off
:  >: with to practice sniper shots, but what's its value in a real game?
:  >: The cannon obviously needs to be causing greater damage per hit to make
:  >: it a viable alternative to the quad lasers or plasma cannon.  Was the
:  >: weapon intended to be this poor, or did the creators of Descent let this
:  >: one slip by?  I'm looking forward to the possibility of a fix-it program
:  >: being released to tweak this weapon towards what it should have been in
:  >: the first place - a devastating weapon above all others.

: D>If you asked me a week ago, I would have agreed with the general
:  >sentiment on this newsgroup -- that the fusion cannon sucks. However,
:  >I've been toying around with it now, and it doesn't seem half bad. True,
:  >you'll never be able to fill up a region with fire the way you can with
:  >the plasma or quads, but a direct hit from the fusion is so devastating
:  >(about 60 shields, I think?) that it makes up for its deficiency in the
:  >rate of fire and energy consumption rate. It may be difficult to hit your
:  >opponent with it, but hey... you only need two shots... :)
:  >I find it most effective in medium-sized rooms, where there's enough room
:  >to dodge "faster" weaponry, yet not so much space that you can't get
:  >close to your adversary. The central room in Chaos level 2 is a good example
:  >(not the lava-filled cave, the other room). This area is especially nice
:  >because it is right next to an energy recharge station that is difficult
:  >to defend, meaning you won't be deprived of juice at a critical moment.

: I don't know about "devestating".  I did some tests last night.  A FULL
: POWER blast from the fusion gun seems to be only the equivalent of about
: 2 shots from the level4 quad lasers. (Full Power being charge until you
: start taking damage.)

: Actually, this was a question I had - does the power of the fusion
: cannon only have 3 "levels"?  i.e. single-shot, charge-but-not-damage,
: charge-taking-damage?

: Incidentally, I also found that a single shot from the plasma gun is
: roughly half the power of the level4 quad lasers.

: And, amusingly enough, the "Mega" missile is equivalent to about 5
: shots.

See the table I posted today for exact, quantitative comparisons.
And 5 level 4 quad laser shots is pretty huge, so the Mega is still Mega. 
Keep in mind, you don't have to aim the mega, the damage comes all at 
once, and the blast radius is huge. Besides, 186 damage sounds pretty 
huge to me ;)
I don't think the fusion cannon has discrete levels, but rather charges 
continuously, because when I was measuring weapon strength, I kept 
getting slightly different damage values. I think this corresponded to 
the time it took to "tap" the trigger.

:  * QMPro 1.52 * "Charity and beating begin at home." - John Fletcher