Ships & Modules

it is my opinion that a target painter, which increases the signature radius of a target, is better then a tracking computer, which increases turret tracking speeds.

Tracking is a value that indicates how well you can hit targets that are passing you by, higher tracking is needed for faster moving targets. This is not a limit value either, in fact it works exactly as falloff does. When the target's angular velocity is equal to the turret's tracking value you will have a 50% hit chance (note: size of the target will also affect this, see below). Just as for falloff, when a target's angular velocity is two times your tracking, the hit chance is down to 6.25%. It doesn't matter what a ship looks like physically. They are all treated as if they were spheres when they are shot at. The target signature radius describes how big this sphere is, the bigger it is the easier it will be to track with guns. A big target also tend to take more damage from missiles.

Target size only influence tracking penalties, never range penalties. It may seem counter intuitive, but that is the way the game works. So, when it comes to target painters, since these modules increases the targets signature size, it means that turrets will have an easier time to track the target. Increasing your own tracking with, for example, +30% helps just as much as increasing the targets signature size with +30% (stacking penalties will probably be counted separately but this has not been verified). It is noteworthy that a T2 Target Painter with full skills give a +37.5% boost and help your friends tracking too, while a T2 Tracking Computer (with tracking script) gives +30% (but it can swap to increased range scripts, can't miss and need less cap).


A turret with a 100% hit chance will see a natural and unavoidable damage spread between 50% to 149% of its base damage for normal hits, and will always do exactly 300% of its base damage on perfect hits. A turret with a 75% hit chance will have a damage spread of 50%–124% on normal hits and do 300% on perfect hits. With a 75% hit chance there can be no excellent hits because they are now turned into misses, according to this table.

Hit description Random damage modifier
Barely scratches 0.500–0.625
Hits lightly 0.625–0.750
Hits 0.750–1.000
Well aimed 1.000–1.250
Excellent 1.250–1.490
Perfectly 3.000

The raw damage dealt by a turret is calculated by taking the randomly generated number that resulted in a hit, adding 0.49, and multiplying this sum with the turret's base damage. Since the first 1% of the random value is used for perfect hits, normal hits have a damage spread between 0.50 to 1.49, or 50% to 149% of the base damage, or in the case of perfect hits always exactly 300% of the base damage. This number will then be reduced accordingly by the target's damage resistances in order to obtain the final damage number.

This is the to hit equation :

Chance to hit =0.5((TS/(RxTT)xTSRe/TSRa)^2+(max(0,D-OR)/F)^2)

Where

TS= Transversal Speed
R= Range
TT= Turret Tracking
TSRe= Target Signature Resolution
TSRa= Target Signature Radius
D= Distance
OR= Optimal Range
F= Falloff

In this to hit equation, we can see that tracking speed is multiplied by range, but we also know tracking speed is greatly affected by target size, with modifiers of

frig cruiser battlecruiser battleship
Small ×1 ×3 ×7.5 ×10
Medium ×0.33 ×1 ×2.5 ×3
Large ×0.10 ×0.33 ×0.75 ×1

Range is the distance to the target you are shooting at. Range is used to determine penalties to hit chance based on the distance between the shooter and the target. It does not offer any bonuses, it is their as a penalty.

Percent of
Tracking or Falloff Hit chance DPS reduction
0% 100% 0.0%
25% 95.8% −6.1%
33.3% 92.6% −10.6%
50% 84.1% −22.1%
84.8% 60.8% −50.0%
100% 50.0% −61.1%
150% 21.0% −85.2%
200% 6.25% −94.3%
300% 0.20% −99.4%

So, when you are boosting your own tracking speed, you are boosting what is often a penalized stat. As opposed to boosting the targets signature radius, which does NOT suffer from penalties, but is instead a direct integer. In addition to that, engagement ranges can often be 30+km, where the angular velocity is not an issue, especially when approaching or keeping at range a target, having the computer minimize the Radials between targets.

When you are boosting a targets signature radius, it is also boosting all your drones, any allies, and ally drones DPSing the same target, all adding up bits of DPS, and as you can see from the theory cited above, the DPS boost itself at best is better then a tracking script boosted booster, before the tracking has suffered any penalties from range or target size.

This comes at the price of more cap, the need for a target lock to be acquired, to be activated before firing the turrets, and I believe it can miss as well.

Thank you for you time.

Zhilia, I had never even considered that tp's stack with mwd's, shield rigs and the like. Interesting. Not so important in a pve environment, but some elite npc ships do mwd I guess.

Analysis is good, but I still prefer tc's for turret ships due to quality of life, but if I have space for a third one it is often a tp instead these days, to help drones as well as my turrets.

hi

what is best being used with 3 people using tachyons on a battleship with 400mm sig, traveling at ~150-200m/s?

all 3 will have sentries

will 3 TPs on said battleship be better for everyone or 3 tracking comps (1 each)


thanks

While a TP might look better on paper don't underestimate the perk of turning on a TC and forgetting about it.

If you're worried about frigs orbiting close the answer is simple: fit a web. That's another missing part of this analysis. Assuming all three hit and are the only relevant effect: web > painter > TC. The issue with webs, of course, is range.

I use Tracking Computers so I can switch the bonus to increase my optimal range for sniper mode, if the need arises.