Difference between revisions of "Sonic Pistol vs. Gauss Rifle"

Latest revision as of 04:17, 4 February 2020

Overview

The Sonic Pistol and Gauss Rifle are the two generally-suggested general-issue weapons, since the Gauss Rifle is obviously better than any other non-alien weaponry, and the Sonic Pistol is better for an assault role than any other alien weapon due to its lower TU cost.

Obviously, there are weapons that surpass both of these in some roles, e.g. the Sonic Cannon for a sniper rifle, the Dart Gun for training reactions and the Disruptor Pulse Launcher and Sonic Pulser for splash damage and terrain destruction. However, none of these really work as a standard weapon assuming you have a choice.

The Stats

Gauss Rifle:

Aimed mode: 60% TUs for 100% base accuracy

Snap mode: 30% TUs for 65% base accuracy

Auto mode: 40% TUs for 50% base accuracy

60 Gauss damage

Sonic Pistol:

Aimed mode: 50% TUs for 85% base accuracy

Snap mode: 30% TUs for 65% base accuracy

80 Sonic damage

Basic Analysis

In general, using these weapons in an assault role involves the Auto mode for the Gauss Rifle and the Snap mode for the Sonic Pistol. There are two general situations of use: point-blank and non-point-blank. The difference is that accuracy hardly matters at point-blank range since it's nigh-impossible to miss.

Point-blank calculations:

Gauss Rifle: 6 shots/turn @ 60 damage = 360 damage per turn

Sonic Pistol: 3 shots/turn @ 80 damage = 240 damage per turn

Non-point-blank calculations:

Gauss Rifle: 6 shots/turn @ 60 damage each and 50% accuracy = 180 on-target damage per turn before soldier accuracy

Sonic Pistol: 3 shots/turn @ 80 damage each and 65% accuracy = 156 on-target damage per turn before soldier accuracy

Intermediate Analysis

The previous analysis ignored damage modifiers and armour effects. The full formula for damage is:

Damage = max(floor((floor(basedamage/2) + randominteger(0, basedamage)) * modifier) - armour, 0)

On Superhuman difficulty, Aquatoids have 4/3/3/2 armour, Gill Men 18/14/14/16, Lobster Men 24/24/24/18, and Tasoths 24/24/24/24 (front/left/right/rear; non-explosive weapons can't hit under armour). Let us assume median values of 3, 16, 24, and 24 respectively.

Aquatoids treat Sonic and Gauss damage identically, but this is not true for the other races. Gill Men take full damage from Gauss and 110% from Sonic. Lobster Men take 30% damage from Gauss and 50% from Sonic. Tasoths take 70% damage from Gauss and 120% from Sonic.

Modifying the damage-per-turn values accordingly, we get:

Point-blank

	Aquatoid	Gill Man	Lobster Man	Tasoth
Gauss Rifle	342	264	1.2	106.2
Sonic Pistol	231	214.7	48	214.8

Non-point-blank

	Aquatoid	Gill Man	Lobster Man	Tasoth
Gauss Rifle	171	132	0.6	53.1
Sonic Pistol	150.2	139.5	31.2	139.6

(before soldier Firing Accuracy)

Terrorists are less commonly faced than the four main alien races, but aside from the Deep One the stats look very similar to those of Tasoths (or in a couple of cases, Lobster Men); terrorists are well-armoured and all of them resist Gauss.

Advanced Analysis

The above analysis is still not entirely accurate, however, because we don't really care about how much damage we do to aliens so much as how many we kill. Dealing 44 damage to a Gill Man is not very much better than dealing 14, and dealing 200+ is no better than dealing 46.

The way to calculate mean kills in a turn is to simply run through every possible permutation of hit/miss probabilities and kill chances for a given number of shots and tally up all the possible kills with their probabilities. This is complicated in the case of the Gauss Rifle by the fact that we cannot re-target between shots in an auto burst; if we kill an Aquatoid with the first shot, for instance, the other two will almost certainly be wasted on empty space. Because the probability of this happening depends on accuracy (a missed shot won't get a kill), the results will therefore depend somewhat on the Firing Accuracy stat of the shooter (point-blank range corresponding effectively to infinite Firing Accuracy).

I will not give the full calculations here, as while simple they are rather tedious. Instead, I will simply give the mean kills obtained in one turn and in two turns of shooting against Aquatoid Soldiers and against Gill Man Soldiers (in the cases of Lobster Men and Tasoths, overkill is less relevant, so the obvious superiority of the Sonic Pistol against these races stands basically unaltered), for 50, 70 and 100 Firing Accuracy stat as well as point-blank range. Armour values are the same as used above.

vs. Aquatoids

1 turn	50 FA	70 FA	100 FA	Point-blank
Gauss Rifle	1.115	1.408	1.856*	2.857*
Sonic Pistol	0.975	1.365	1.95	3

2 turns	50 FA	70 FA	100 FA	Point-blank
Gauss Rifle	2.231	2.816	3.715*	5.717*
Sonic Pistol	1.95	2.73	3.9	6

* These numbers are for Snap fire; at high accuracies, using the Gauss Rifle's Auto mode against Aquatoids is counterproductive since a single shot will likely kill anyway. The numbers for Auto fire are 1.713 (one turn) and 3.427 (two turns) for 100 FA and exactly 2 (one turn) and 4 (two turns) for point-blank.

vs. Gill Men

1 turn	50 FA	70 FA	100 FA	Point-blank
Gauss Rifle	0.761	1.034	1.383	2
Sonic Pistol	0.793	1.115	1.601	2.478

2 turns	50 FA	70 FA	100 FA	Point-blank
Gauss Rifle	1.587	2.123	2.798	4
Sonic Pistol	1.603	2.253	3.229	4.983

Addendum

Note that while the Sonic Pistol is roughly equal to the Gauss Rifle at killing Aquatoids (when summed over the full range of Firing Accuracy stats), the Gauss Rifle is probably the better choice here, for two reasons:

Gauss Rifles and their ammunition are cheaper, and while this is a minor concern it can be a tiebreaker;
Aquatoids use M.C. attacks. The Gauss Rifle cannot penetrate Ion and Magnetic Ion Armours, while the Sonic Pistol can; this makes the Gauss Rifle quite a bit safer to use on large Aquatoid missions if you haven't done an M.C. screen.

The second factor technically also applies to Tasoths, but as the Gauss Rifle is quite ineffective against Tasoths on Superhuman difficulty (as seen above) you are probably screwed either way if you have to fight substantial numbers of Tasoths without having done an M.C. screen. On Beginner difficulty, however, there is a decent argument for using Gauss Rifles in that situation.

Verdict

The Sonic Pistol is better against Lobster Men, Tasoths, and (more narrowly) Gill Men, and due to the immense disparity against the first two is the better to take on an unknown-race mission (e.g. Ship Rescue Mission, or simple lack of a Transmission Resolver). However, the Gauss Rifle is generally better against Aquatoids as long as you have some other means of disposing of any terror units.

Magic9mushroom (talk) 09:34, 26 January 2020 (CET)

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 The Sonic Pistol and Gauss Rifle are the two generally-suggested general-issue weapons, since the Gauss Rifle is obviously better than any other non-alien weaponry, and the Sonic Pistol is better for an assault role than any other alien weapon due to its lower TU cost.
-Obviously, there are weapons that surpass both of these in some roles, e.g. the Sonic Cannon for a sniper rifle, the Dart Gun for training reactions and the Disrupter Pulse Launcher and Sonic Pulser for splash damage and terrain destruction. However, none of these really work as a standard weapon assuming you have a choice.
+Obviously, there are weapons that surpass both of these in some roles, e.g. the Sonic Cannon for a sniper rifle, the Dart Gun for training reactions and the Disruptor Pulse Launcher and Sonic Pulser for splash damage and terrain destruction. However, none of these really work as a standard weapon assuming you have a choice.
 ==The Stats==
@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 Sonic Pistol: 3 shots/turn @ 80 damage each and 65% accuracy = 156 on-target damage per turn before soldier accuracy
-==Advanced Analysis==
+==Intermediate Analysis==
+The previous analysis ignored damage modifiers and armour effects. The full formula for damage is:
-The prior analysis ignored resistance and armour effects.
+Damage = max(floor((floor(basedamage/2) + randominteger(0, basedamage)) * modifier) - armour, 0)
-===Damage Modifiers===
+On Superhuman difficulty, Aquatoids have 4/3/3/2 armour, Gill Men 18/14/14/16, Lobster Men 24/24/24/18, and Tasoths 24/24/24/24 (front/left/right/rear; non-explosive weapons can't hit under armour). Let us assume median values of 3, 16, 24, and 24 respectively.
-For Aquatoids (and Aquatoids alone) there is no difference between Gauss and Sonic damage, both doing 100% damage. For Gillmen the stats are 100% Gauss/110% Sonic, hence each point of Sonic is worth 1.1 points Gauss. For Lobstermen the stats are 30% Gauss/50% Sonic, hence each point of Sonic is worth 1.67 points Gauss. For Tasoths the stats are 70% Gauss/120% Sonic, hence each point of Sonic is worth 1.71 points Gauss. Assuming equal frequency of each alien type (which is approximated over a full game), the geometric mean of these is 1.33. This is ignoring terrorists, of course, but most of those have large resistances to Gauss anyway, and they aren't as common.
+Aquatoids treat Sonic and Gauss damage identically, but this is not true for the other races. Gill Men take full damage from Gauss and 110% from Sonic. Lobster Men take 30% damage from Gauss and 50% from Sonic. Tasoths take 70% damage from Gauss and 120% from Sonic.
-So we can take 1.33 as a reasonable multiplier for Sonic damage compared to Gauss.
+Modifying the damage-per-turn values accordingly, we get:
-Hence we can repeat those calculations:
+===Point-blank===
-====Point-blank:====
+{| class="wikitable"
+! !!Aquatoid!!Gill Man!!Lobster Man!!Tasoth
+|-
+!Gauss Rifle
+|342||264||1.2||106.2
+|-
+!Sonic Pistol
+|231||214.7||48||214.8
+|}
-Gauss Rifle: 360 adjusted damage/turn
+===Non-point-blank===
-Sonic Pistol: 319.6 adjusted damage/turn
+{| class="wikitable"
+! !!Aquatoid!!Gill Man!!Lobster Man!!Tasoth
+|-
+!Gauss Rifle
+|171||132||0.6||53.1
+|-
+!Sonic Pistol
+|150.2||139.5||31.2||139.6
+|}
-====Non-point-blank:====
+(before soldier Firing Accuracy)
-Gauss Rifle: 180 on-target adjusted damage/turn
+Terrorists are less commonly faced than the four main alien races, but aside from the Deep One the stats look very similar to those of Tasoths (or in a couple of cases, Lobster Men); terrorists are well-armoured and all of them resist Gauss.
-Sonic Pistol: 207.7 on-target adjusted damage/turn
+==Advanced Analysis==
+The above analysis is still not entirely accurate, however, because we don't really care about how much damage we do to aliens so much as how many we kill. Dealing 44 damage to a Gill Man is not very much better than dealing 14, and dealing 200+ is no better than dealing 46.
-===Armour===
+The way to calculate mean kills in a turn is to simply run through every possible permutation of hit/miss probabilities and kill chances for a given number of shots and tally up all the possible kills with their probabilities. This is complicated in the case of the Gauss Rifle by the fact that we cannot re-target between shots in an auto burst; if we kill an Aquatoid with the first shot, for instance, the other two will almost certainly be wasted on empty space. Because the probability of this happening depends on accuracy (a missed shot won't get a kill), the results will therefore depend somewhat on the Firing Accuracy stat of the shooter (point-blank range corresponding effectively to infinite Firing Accuracy).
-Armour acts per shot, so in each of the Gauss Rifle numbers, 6 * Armour must be subtracted, while for the Sonic Pistol numbers, 3 * Armour must be subtracted. Most alien armour ratings are 20 or above, so it can be seen that even in the point-blank numbers the Gauss Rifle drops to below the Sonic Pistol in damage/turn.
+I will not give the full calculations here, as while simple they are rather tedious. Instead, I will simply give the mean kills obtained in one turn and in two turns of shooting against Aquatoid Soldiers and against Gill Man Soldiers (in the cases of Lobster Men and Tasoths, overkill is less relevant, so the obvious superiority of the Sonic Pistol against these races stands basically unaltered), for 50, 70 and 100 Firing Accuracy stat as well as point-blank range. Armour values are the same as used above.
-==Externalities==
+===vs. Aquatoids===
-Weapons are more than just collections of accuracy/time/damage stats. There are a few factors that may affect your choice:
+{| class="wikitable"
+!1 turn!!50 FA!!70 FA!!100 FA!!Point-blank
+|-
+!Gauss Rifle
+|1.115||1.408||1.856*||2.857*
+|-
+!Sonic Pistol
+|0.975||1.365||1.95||3
+|}
-Ammo use concerns: Advantages Sonic Pistol due to Gauss Rifle's faster use of ammo (due to autofire) and smaller clip (15 vs. 20).
+{| class="wikitable"
+!2 turns!!50 FA!!70 FA!!100 FA!!Point-blank
+|-
+!Gauss Rifle
+|2.231||2.816||3.715*||5.717*
+|-
+!Sonic Pistol
+|1.95||2.73||3.9||6
+|}
-Size and Weight concerns: Advantages Sonic Pistol due to 1x2 instead of 1x3 size, and extremely low weight (especially since you need to carry more clips for the Gauss Rifle).
+<nowiki>*</nowiki> These numbers are for Snap fire; at high accuracies, using the Gauss Rifle's Auto mode against Aquatoids is counterproductive since a single shot will likely kill anyway. The numbers for Auto fire are 1.713 (one turn) and 3.427 (two turns) for 100 FA and exactly 2 (one turn) and 4 (two turns) for point-blank.
-Ammo manufacture concerns: Goes both ways - the Gauss Rifle's ammo doesn't require Zrbite and is faster to manufacture, but you'll scavenge a good deal of Sonic Pistol ammo from dead aliens.
+===vs. Gill Men===
-Handedness concerns: Advantages Sonic Pistol due to one-handed grip allowing a Sonic Pulser or other item to be carried in the other hand.
+{| class="wikitable"
+!1 turn!!50 FA!!70 FA!!100 FA!!Point-blank
+|-
+!Gauss Rifle
+|0.761||1.034||1.383||2
+|-
+!Sonic Pistol
+|0.793||1.115||1.601||2.478
+|}
-Molecular Control concerns: Advantages Gauss Rifle due to the nigh-immunity of Ion Armour to Gauss Rifle shots. The Sonic Pistol can penetrate the sides or back of even Magnetic Ion Armour on a lucky shot.
+{| class="wikitable"
+!2 turns!!50 FA!!70 FA!!100 FA!!Point-blank
+|-
+!Gauss Rifle
+|1.587||2.123||2.798||4
+|-
+!Sonic Pistol
+|1.603||2.253||3.229||4.983
+|}
-Collateral concerns: Advantages Sonic Pistol due to the spray-and-pray nature of the Gauss Rifle.
+===Addendum===
+Note that while the Sonic Pistol is roughly equal to the Gauss Rifle at killing Aquatoids (when summed over the full range of Firing Accuracy stats), the Gauss Rifle is probably the better choice here, for two reasons:
+*Gauss Rifles and their ammunition are cheaper, and while this is a minor concern it can be a tiebreaker;
+*Aquatoids use M.C. attacks. The Gauss Rifle cannot penetrate Ion and Magnetic Ion Armours, while the Sonic Pistol can; this makes the Gauss Rifle quite a bit safer to use on large Aquatoid missions if you haven't done an M.C. screen.
-Burst fire issues: Advantages Gauss rifle due to the fact that aliens can only react after all three shots are fired in a burst.
+The second factor technically also applies to Tasoths, but as the Gauss Rifle is quite ineffective against Tasoths on Superhuman difficulty (as seen above) you are probably screwed either way if you have to fight substantial numbers of Tasoths without having done an M.C. screen. On Beginner difficulty, however, there is a decent argument for using Gauss Rifles in that situation.
 ==Verdict==
+The Sonic Pistol is better against Lobster Men, Tasoths, and (more narrowly) Gill Men, and due to the immense disparity against the first two is the better to take on an unknown-race mission (e.g. [[Ship Rescue Mission]], or simple lack of a [[Transmission Resolver]]). However, the Gauss Rifle is ''generally'' better against Aquatoids as long as you have some other means of disposing of any terror units.
-After armour and resistance issues are weighed in, the Sonic Pistol seems to be by far the better weapon unless huge amounts of MC are in play.
+[[User:Magic9mushroom|Magic9mushroom]] ([[User talk:Magic9mushroom|talk]]) 09:34, 26 January 2020 (CET)
-[[User:Magic9mushroom|Magic9mushroom]] 06:42, 10 August 2009 (EDT)
-:Great article! On looking at your data, which is solid, I would draw the slightly different conclusion, which is to arm with a Gauss Rifle early in the game, when Aquatoids and Gill Men are prevalent, and arm with Sonic Pistols later in the game. Later in the game you also tend to have Transmission Resolvers, and thus you know the race and mission type. In which case you could in theory still elect to use Gauss Rifles for an Aquatoid mission or maybe Gill Man mission, ''if'' it's worth the hassle of changing your transport loadout and (if remembered by XComutil or Seb76 Loader) your troop loadouts.
-:One other aspect to consider is the economics of obtaining and operating the weapons. On a pure ammo basis, the cost of Sonic Pistol ammo is $4440 per clip if you are scavenging it (in foregone revenue). However, once you Research Sonic Pistol, the aliens apparently quickly stop using it. I'm not 100% convinced of this but they do eventually stop using it, regardless. At that point, or if you need more ammo than can be supplied by scavenging, the all-in manufacturing cost is about $9160 per clip, including $5000 for the Zrbite. And $5000 probably significantly undervalues the Zrbite, which you need to keep your ships flying and to build other essential things. Manufacturing a Gauss Rifle clip costs about $3620, including the Technician Time.
-:Per clip, the SP ammo is about 22% more expensive if you can scavenge it, 2.5x as expensive if you need to manufacture it. However the SP clip is 2.66x longer lasting than the GR clip, so this nets out to 45% of the cost per turn of firing if you are scavenging ammo, about the same (95%) if you are manufacturing it.
+==See Also==
-:Of course there are also the Research costs to factor in, over the lifetime of the weapon. The total average cost is 660 research days on Gauss weapons for the GR (450 specifically on the GR), versus 1600 for the SP. As a rule of thumb you can cost research-days at $50K each. So that's $80,000 for the Sonic vs $22,500-$33,000 for the Gauss.
+[[Weapon Analysis]]
-:[[User:Spike|Spike]] 13:51, 10 August 2009 (EDT)
+[[Category:TFTD]]