I hate starting threads because I'm afraid the material has likely already been covered in another thread, so I apologize if this has been covered and I missed it. That said I've seen quite a bit of talk on weapon power overcapping and would really like to know the truth. Is the ability to overcap weapon power bugged, or was it nerfed, and if so how do the mechanics work now. Is EPTW a waste to use if you are already at 125 weapon power (disregarding the % dmg increase it affords for 5 seconds). Thanks in advance.

Regardless how the thread evolves I would like to point out that even if there was no over-capping, you can still use EP-W to replenish lost weapon power (like mini battery) and get a substantial bonus to energy dmg for 5s, which is great way of using it with Beam Overload (aka spikes). So if your weapons drain you to 70-80s, with EP-W you can make beam overload with best dmg possible without using weapon battery.

When it comes to over-capping. My subjective experience is that over-capping weapon power has noticeable difference, which is somewhat hard to express in numbers. But im pretty sure its not that over-capping your weapon power by 10 makes one of your weapons shoot for "free". Which is kinda logical, as there is no effect for over-capping shields, auxiliary or engines.

But Superchum is TEH local expert on weapon power over-capping, and spend past months researching it, so when he is finished with complaining about the Excelsior, C-Store and 15 bucks in half-dozen other threads, I'm sure he will enlighten us all, and present us with his findings. I really look forward to it !

I've been trying to pin the problem down for a while, I have a working theory now that explains what I see. I think what is bugged is the automatic power return when a weapon stops firing. That is what is capping at 125.

Overcapping seems to still work. EP:W gives you a bigger pool, and the first volley works as expected. I stay in the green for a noticeable few extra seconds to start a fight with it running. But once you drop below 125 power, all you have is your natural energy regeneration to get you back over (plus you can hit EP:W mid-fight for a 'reset'). With constant firing, regen won't really help. Even with pauses in firing, natural regen is too low to do much unless you stop firing for quite a number of seconds. Engineer EPS running makes a noticeable difference, though, I suspect due to its larger power transfer rate boost. There are enough natural lulls in firing (wiggling to fire torpedoes, turning to present a different shield facing, warp plasma overruns, and what not) that running EPS feels much stronger right now than EP:W2 even though both give the same 30 extra weapon power.

I'm not sure of this, but I am sure that it isn't as simple as "weapon power is now being straight capped at 125".

I do not know the answer, but I am of the thought that I am glad it is gone (if it is indeed gone). Like it was said, you can't overcap shields/engines/aux power so why should you be able to with weapons?

Only weapon power drains itself as a natural consequence of using it. Shield, Aux, and Engine power don't have that problem.

In any case, you can (or could, before the bug/change in Season 2) overcap shield, aux, and engine power; there just isn't/wasn't a good enough reason to do so.

As for the topic of the thread, overcapping doesn't appear to be gone completely. Like others, I have a hard time nailing down exactly what's going on, but there's definitely a difference. Some people believe that overcapping has itself been capped at some arbitrary number above 125; others believe that overcapping still helps, just in a very subtle way.

I do know that with EPtW I, my weapon power will not dip quite as low as it does when I start at 125. But it's not a cut-and-dried 24 point difference. EPS consoles muddy the waters, too; they appear to increase recovery rate even though they're not supposed to, and it may well be that there's some obscure interaction between EPS rate and overcapped power.

Whatever the case may be, dev clarification is in order. Is this change intentional? What, exactly, is the nature of the change? On a related topic, at what point is weapon power drain going to function as it's supposed to do, independent of EPS rate?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Thanks for the responses guys. I too noticed that the EPS consoles aid in weapon power regeneration though thye are not supposed too. Hope we are able to get more clarification on what's really going on with this.

P.S. Roach... Dude, your latest avatar scares the you know what outta me! Is he looking at me? Yeah, he's definetly looking at me!

Yellowbeard. Heh.

if u have powersetting 120/100 on weapons and fire 6 arrays (3fore + 3aft) at the same time, ur energy gos to 60/100 (6*-10). that means each array make 60% of the max damage, if it hit.

the energylevel will go up fast (I use two EPS MK XI and two +7 weaponpower consoles) and the weapons will fire (at autosetting), after the first shot, timedelayed.

i use 6 arrays (3fore + 3aft). with my skills (engineer) i can fire full brodsideing over 30 sec. without weapon powersetting go under 115/100. skills are “ESP power transfer III” (+38 to all powersetting, is playeronly), nadion Inversion III (only 76% weaponpower consume, is playeronly) and EW:W1.
without skilluse the powersetting on weapons go down to levels between 76/100 and 110/100.

for me i think overcapping and EPS consoles (have 309% energy transferrate, shown in shipstatus in solsystem) works good.

Yen

I do not think that overcapping works like it used to. Fire your weapons, note the drain, then pop a weapon battery, the drain is nearly identical. I run 125 wp on my escorts and cruiser usually with 6 weapons firing for a total of about 50 drain to about 70-80-ish wp. With EPtW, and/or a battery I still see nearly the same drain. With a battery, it shouldn't even dip below 125, but it does.

If it's a bug, fix it. If it's an intended change, I didn't see it in any release notes indicating it as such.