With Update 32: "Roughnecks at Work" right around the corner (Q3 Oct 8th Oct 22nd), I thought it might be interesting to do a comprehensive overview of how U31's weapon balances have shaken out before U32's new balance changes get deployed. To help you do as little scrolling as possible, I'll put the conclusions of the analysis up here at the top and the data down at the bottom so you can engage with the numbers as much or as little as you desire. Disclaimer: ~450 user submitted loadouts isn't really a big enough sample size to be representative of the community as a whole, but it might be big enough to be a good indicator of the bigger trends.

Part 1: Conclusions

The first and foremost thing that jumps out at me is that the weapons are pretty stale in terms of build variety. Breach Cutter is the biggest offender, but most of the weapons seem to have settled in on just a few mods and Overclocks (OCs) that are used far more than their counterparts. Most weapons have one or two tiers with variety, but "auto-picks" seem to be everywhere else. In an ideal world, every mod tier would have compelling choices and healthy variety of selection rates, and Overclocks wouldn't necessarily be equally picked but at the very least none would be used more than 40% of the time while others aren't used at all. However, in my opinion, I don't think that Ghost Ship Games (GSG) currently has the tools necessary to create that type of balance just by changing numbers of existing mods and OCs. More on that at a later date, but the summary is this: the mods will eventually need to be reordered to make tiers' choices more meaningful, and Overclocks should focus more on adding or altering weapon mechanics rather than being a "sixth mod tier" of stat changes.

Secondly, it seems that ammo is strongly valued on most weapons. I'm curious to do some research into whether or not there's enough killing power per resupply for these weapons without ammo upgrades, or if it's because the ammo values are balanced to be slightly lower than what players expect. That said, I'm hesitant to suggest adding more ammo to the base weapons because I want to avoid the "almighty power creep" that many video games fall victim to. For my preferences, I really enjoy the current difficulty of DRG's combat and I don't think that arbitrarily changing a part of that balance is a wise decision. To borrow a term from MOBAs, "mana tension" is a necessary part of game balance and making our "mana pools" bigger without sufficient cause is a troubling prospect.

The last thing I'll touch on in this post is how mods or Overclocks with "hidden" stat changes are widely underestimated or misunderstood, and that can lead to artificially low pick rates on some really strong effects. One of the best examples is Scout/GK2/Mod/5/B "Battle Cool". In game, all the description says is "Killing an enemy increases accuracy". What that doesn't tell you is that after the GK2 scores a killing blow on any enemy, its Spread Recovery Speed (SRS) gets multiplied by x12.5 for the next 1.5 seconds. For reference, that's boosting the SRS so high that it will take less than 0.042 seconds to bring the crosshair all the way from max value down to Base Spread. Even at its fastest Rate of Fire, 14 bullets/sec, there's still almost twice as much time between bullets as it takes to remove all Spread from the weapon! This mod has such a strong effect, but it's not chosen very often and I suspect it's because players just simply don't know what it actually does. Other examples off the top of my head are Scout/M1000/Mod/2/B "Better Weight Balance", Scout/M1000/Mod/5/C "Killing Machine", Gunner/Minigun/OC "Burning Hell", and more! In my opinion, if GSG were to provide much more detailed descriptions of what their mods and Overclocks are actually doing, we would see some of the lesser-picked options get used.

Part 2: Weapon Slots per Class

Of all the loadouts submitted, there were a few cases where certain primary or secondary weapons were preferred. The largest difference was Scout loadouts strongly preferring the Boomstick over the Zhukovs at a ratio of 3:1, in stark contrast to an almost even split between GK2 and M1000. Drillers seem to prefer Flamethrower over Cryo Cannon and Subata over Experimental Plasma Charger (EPC) by about a 3:2 ratio, Engineers prefer Shotgun over SMG and Breach Cutter over Personal Grenade Launcher (PGL) at 3:2, Gunner primaries are pretty even, and Revolver is more popular than BRT at about 8:5.

Part 3: Most Popular Loadout (per Tier and Overclock) per Weapon

• Driller
  • Flamethrower: BABCA + Sticky Fuel
  • Cryo Cannon: CBACB + Perfectly Tuned Cooler
  • Subata: BACAA + Oversized Magazine
  • EPC: BBCBB + Heavy Hitter
• Engineer
  • Shotgun: ABCBB + Mini Shells
  • SMG: BABBB + EM Refire Booster
  • PGL: BABBB + Clean Sweep
  • Breach Cutter: AABBC + Return to Sender
• Gunner
  • Minigun: CBCAB + Lead Storm
  • Autocannon: CCBBA + Carpet Bomber
  • Revolver: BCCAB + Magic Bullets
  • BRT: ACBCA + Lead Spray
• Scout
  • GK2: BBCAC + Bullets of Mercy
  • M1000: BAABA + Minimal Clips
  • Boomstick: ABCAC + Special Powder
  • Zhukovs: ACBAB + Gas Recycling

Part 4: Overused Options

Any mod used in >= 75% loadouts or OC used in >= 40% loadouts

• Flamethrower T4.C "Extra Ammo"
• Cryo Cannon OC "Perfectly Tuned Cooler"
• Subata T2.A "Expanded Ammo Bags"
• EPC T4.B "High Density Battery"
• Shotgun T4.B "Bigger Pellets"
• Shotgun T5.B "Miner Adjustments"
• SMG OC "EM Refire Booster"
• PGL T5.B "Spiky Grenade"
• Breach Cutter T1.A "Prolonged Power Generation"
• Breach Butter T2.A "Expanded Ammo Bags"
• Breach Cutter OC "Return to Sender"
• Autocannon T5.A "Feedback Loop"
• Autocannon OC "Carpet Bomber"
• BRT T3.B "Increased Caliber Rounds"
• M1000 T2.A "Fast-Charging Coils"
• M1000 OC "Minimal Clips"
• Boomstick T4.A "Super Blowthrough Rounds"
• Zhukovs T2.C "Quickfire Ejector"
• Zhukovs OC "Gas Recycling"

Part 5: Underused Options

Any mod or OC that was used in 0-2 loadouts

• Flamethrower T4.A "It Burns!"
• Flamethrower OC "Compact Feed Valves"
• Cryo Cannon OC "Flow Rate Expansion"
• Cryo Cannon OC "Ice Spear"
• Subata OC "Explosive Reload"
• EPC OC "Magnetic Cooling Unit"
• SMG OC "Well Oiled Machine"
• SMG OC "Turret EM Discharge"
• PGL T2.C "High Velocity Grenades"
• PGL OC "Compact Rounds"
• Breach Cutter T2.C "Loosened Node Cohesion"
• Breach Cutter T5.A "Explosive Goodbye"
• Breach Cutter OC "Roll Control"
• Breach Cutter OC "Inferno"
• Minigun T4.C "Magnetic Bearings"
• Minigun OC "Thinned Drum Walls"
• Minigun OC "Bullet Hell"
• Autocannon OC "Composite Drums"
• Autocannon OC "Combat Mobility"
• Revolver T3.A "Super Blowthrough Rounds"
• Revolver OC "Homebrew Powder"
• BRT T1.C "Blowthrough Rounds"
• BRT T4.A "Hardened Rounds"
• BRT OC "Full Chamber Seal"
• BRT OC "Electro Minelets"
• BRT OC "Micro Flechettes"
• GK2 OC "Homebrew Powder"
• GK2 OC "Electrifying Reload"
• M1000 T4.C "Hardened Rounds"
• M1000 OC "Active Stability System"
• Boomstick T3.A "Stun Duration"
• Boomstick T4.B "Tungsten Coated Buckshot"
• Boomstick OC "Shaped Shells"
• Zhukovs T2.B "Supercharged Feed Mechanism"
• Zhukovs OC "Embedded Detonators"

Part 6: Numbers, Numbers, Numbers

Tables of Mod and OC selection percentages, organized by class