EVE New Citizens Q&A

My "Optimal" on Auto-Cannons say 420 M. Yet, I've noticed more damage applied on targets at 2000 M range. How do you calculate the sweet spot? Does the ammo type and fall off calculate into it? Being new, I was setting orbit at 500 M and guns blazing as I approached.

My rule of thumb:
* You want to be no further than optimal + 1/2 falloff, as that's the 80% damage point.
* Consider your max usable range to be optimal + falloff , the 40% damage point.

Note that auto-cannons are meant to be used in falloff, and hulls with projectile falloff bonuses are intended for auto-cannons. Projectile optimal bonuses are intended for artillery, which already have a long falloff.

Hybrid tracking bonuses are common for blasters. Hybrid optimal bonuses are common for railguns. Lasers tend to get capacitor bonuses, but sometimes optimal bonuses, as lasers essentially have no useful falloff (hence they can instantly load different crystals).

I carry at least two kinds of ammo, short-range ammo (max damage) and long-range ammo (can be essential when webbed and you can't otherwise hit out to 10 km), and often a third ammo for medium-range.

Yes, ammo can change stats on guns (RoF / Damage multiplier / optimal range etc. etc.)


As for the sweet spot for damage:


Now let's talk about ranges (without taking trackign into account):


From 0m all the way to your optimal range you have the possibility to do 100% damage application.
Now from optimal range up to optimal + 1 x falloff, this damage application drops from 100% all the way down to about 50% damage application (so say that in optimal range, a normal shot was 100 HP damage, at optimal + 1 falloff it can only do 50 HP damage).
Now if you go beyond optimal + 1 falloff all the way to optimal + 2 falloff it drops down from about 50% to nearly 0%.


So, given that. You want to stay as close as possible. However, some weapons have a insanely small optimal but a long falloff stat, so it's not uncommon to work in your 1 falloff range.



Now I hear you think why not all the time orbit point blank as that means I'm ALWAYS inside my optimal range no matter what weapons I use, I should do 100% damage.


There is where tracking comes into play.

Tracking is a stat that shows how fast your guns can rotate on their mounts (and thus track / keep a target in their visors). The closer you are to a target, the faster a gun has to rotate to keep it's working end pointed at the target

*To explain: If you have a friend running in circles around you at 1 m, you have to turn much faster then if that same friend is running circles around you (at same speed) at 10 m...which is even faster if he would be at 100 m.

So, there is the option of "being too close" for your turrets to work.

If your angular velocity is greater then the tracking rate of your turrets, it means you are rotating around a target too fast. To counteract this you have 2 options. Slow down or increase your orbit.

Which works better...that depends.


So finding that sweet spot in turrets is something you have to find out. It is a combination of:

* Being in your optimal or optimal+falloff.
* Being in an orbit that means your turrets can track the target.
* Being in a position where you can survive (being up close against a brawler isn't smart - maybe you won't do as much damage at a longer range...but he won't do any damage to you at that range)

Each has their uses.


Want big alpha damage...go Artillery (long range projectiles)
Want big DPS...go Blasters (short range hybrids)
Want infinite ammo...go lasers


As you found out..FotM...well, it's temporary.


I've seen Drakes everywhere.
I've seen AHACs thrown left and right.
I've seen interceptors in every system.
I've seen big blobs of Drone bunny fleets.

Hybrids are in a good place right now. I like them because brawling is much simpler than kiting in terms of piloting. But each of the weapon systems has a decent niche. I suggest you try a few and see what you enjoy while you still have short skill trains (make sure you are using correctly bonused ships).

While we're talking about turret range and tracking, watch this video which explains it all quite well.

Issue there is. If you have a long range person knowing how to fight, you won't get close.

It's called kiting.

So how does the game mechanics work? if we both have one another target locked and each click different ranges to keep at...what decides which ship gets the optimal range?

Mostly ship speed - the faster ship can dictate range.
However, there are a lot of tricks you can do beyond simple "keep at range" clicking. The autopilot reacts weirdly to sudden changes in speed. So even if your ship is slower, you can usually force yourself closer or further for a short amount of time - which might be enough to achieve something significant. (E.g. Apply a web, Warp off, apply a ton of damage with blasters, ...)

They work at opposite distances: Tracking speed is important when something is orbiting you very fast (or if you are orbiting it very fast), which is usually only an issue when the thing is very close. OTOH fall-off only comes into play when the thing is very far. Therefore, depending on the situation, one is more important than the other.

The formula for both is identical, only one uses distance, the other angular velocity. Tracking speed is given in rad/s[1] - e.g. if you have 0.1 rad/sec tracking and something is orbiting you at half that (0.05 rad/sec), you will deal ~80% damage.
That's the same ~80% that Tau spoke of from being half-way into falloff.

If you have a fast ship that can dictate range, you should go for one or the other: either boost your own tracking and orbit them so close that they cannot hit you OR boost your optimal & fall-off and try to hit them from a distance where they cannot shoot back.
If you have a slower ship, you might have to go for a balanced setting where you can hit them at whatever distance they choose.

[1] For the non-mathematical reader: a radian is an angle measurement, similar to degrees. 1 radian is ~57 degrees and 6.28 radian is a full circle. So, 0.1 rad/sec means that something takes about a minute to circle around you once.

Base speed (the faster ship can dictate the range).
Tactics (manual flight can beat crappy "keep at range" button - specially with transversal and slingshots).
Initial placement (say you enter the battlefield and the enemy is already set up at his preferred range)