Forum:Weaponry Comparison

Weapons Range Comparison
Distance in Mass Effect 2 is divided into centimeters. All weapons define melee range as 3 meters or less and confers a 100% bonus to damage (except sniper rifles), while at short range all weapons receive 25% bonus (except sniper rifles). However, the definitions of range beyond melee range varies from weapon to weapon. All assault rifles, heavy pistols, submachine guns and the M-22, define short range as 8 meters, medium range as 15 meters and long range as 20 meters. All other shotguns define short range as 4 meters, medium range as 8 meters and long range as 12 meters. All heavy weapons except the M-451 define short range as 8 meters, medium range 20 meters and long range as 30 meters. The M-451 defines short range as 5 meters, medium range 8 meters and long range 10 meters. Sniper rifles have a range up to 30 meters however the division into short, medium and long range is irrelevant given that sniper rifles do not have a bonus multiplier at any range. Damage multipliers are a linear interpolation between two ranges. For example, at 5 meters an assault rifle will receive a 70% bonus to damage and at 7 meters it will receive a 40% bonus.

Weapons Damage Rate Comparison
Conditions

In order to compare any weapon to another, a consistent measure of time is required. The consistent cycle of time used throughout the equation is the time it takes to empty one magazine and reload another. This allows for a consistent timeframe cycle which encompasses rate of fire, refire delay between rounds and reload time, if applicable.

Certain variables are also held constant. The following DPS equations are based on these conditions:
 * No powers (including special ammo types) are in use
 * Feathering is used to minimize the delay between rounds for pistols, SMGs, sniper rifles and assault rifles.
 * All projectiles including every fragment of a shotgun blast hit
 * No hitbox multipliers, all shots hit the chest
 * No range multipliers

Mathematical Equation
The mathematical equation used for weapons damage rate expressed as Damage per Second (DPS) is as follows:

Base DPS = [Magazine Capacity * Base Damage] / [(Magazine Capacity / Fire Mode) * (Fire Mode * (1 / (Rate of Fire / 60)) + Refire Delay) + Reload Delay]

Definitions:
 * Fire Mode = 3 for 3-burst fire mode weapons, 5 for 5-burst fire mode weapons, 1 for heavy weapons, single-shot weapons, semi-automatic and fully automatic weapons.
 * Rate of Fire = Rounds Per Minute. Obtained from the coalesced.ini file.
 * Refire Delay = Minimum delay between shots or bursts. Measured in seconds, or 0 for automatic weapons or semi-automatic weapons. Use BurstRefireTime instead of MinRefireTime from the coalesced.ini file to calculate un-feathered firing speed.
 * Reload Delay = 1.43 for pistols, 0 for weapons that do not reload, 1.5 seconds for all other weapons.

Step-by-Step Version
Put another way, the calculation is as follows:

Equation 1 - Seconds per Cycle

Step 1 - Seconds per (between) shot Step 2 - Seconds per (between) burst Step 3 - Seconds per mag Step 4 - Seconds per reload Step 5 - seconds per cycle
 * ROF = Shots per minute / seconds per minute = shots per second. 1 / shots per second = seconds per shot. So, e.g. 700 / 60 = 11.7; 1 / 11.7 = 0.09 seconds per shot.
 * Shots per burst * seconds per shot + Refire (aka Burst Pause) = seconds per burst. So, e.g. (3 * 0.09) + 0.25 = 0.51 seconds per burst.
 * Shots per mag / shots per burst = burst per mag. Bursts per mag * seconds per burst = seconds per mag. So, e.g. 24 / 3 = 8 bursts per mag. 8 * 0.51 seconds per burst = 4.1 seconds per mag.
 * Pistol reloads take 1.43 seconds. All others take 1.5 seconds.
 * This is also a fine place to add in a charge-up pause if applicable. For example, the Cain requires a few seconds to charge to reach full power.
 * Seconds per mag + seconds per reload = seconds per cycle. So, e.g. 4.1 + 1.5 = 5.6 seconds per cycle.

Equation 2 - Damage per Cycle
 * Damage per shot * shots per mag = damage per cycle. So, 20.5 * 24 = 492

Equation 3 - Damager per Second (DPS)
 * Damage per cycle / seconds per cycle = damage per second. So, 492 / 5.6 = 89 base DPS.

Weapon Comparison Chart
Note:
 * The DPS stats represent DPS with no upgrades / DPS with all upgrades
 * The 6th assault rifle damage upgrade is not included as it is only available if you let the refinery workers burn during Zaeed's loyalty mission.
 * DPS including innate damage multipliers versus shields, armor and barriers are shown
 * Some weapons lack necessary data to accurately calculate DPS:
 * M-490 Blackstorm has no data
 * Arc Projector DPS is variable
 * M-12 Locust Armor/Barrier/Shield damage multipliers are currently unavailable