Turrets

Turrets

Overview

Turrets are the most common weapon in EVE, and come in many different flavors. Not that missile launchers are NOT turrets, they work pretty much entirely differently. Different races and pirate factions generally use different turrets, and have their hulls bonused for them.

Basic Rundown

There are three main families of turret in EVE, and each of them comes with a short and long range version. Then in turn each of them have tree variants (each of which has a full range of T1, meta T2 etc) for each size. Generally that will be big ones that do more damage but track less well and eat more fittings, small ones that track nicely but have less damage and range, but low fitting requirements and one somewhere in between.

Short Range Turrets

Type	Family	DPS	Accuracy Score	Range	Damage type	Pros	Cons	Used by
Autocannons	Projectile	Low	High	Medium	Selectable	Don't use cap, high rate of fire, long falloff, selectable damage types	Shitty DPS, lackluster T2 ammos	Minmatar, Angels
Blasters	Hybrid	High	Medium	Low	Kinetic/Thermal	Insane damage, amazing T2 ammo	Moderate cap usage, terrible range	Gallente, Serpentis, occasionally Caldari
Pulse lasers	Energy	Medium	Medium	Medium	EM/Thermal	No need to reload, instant ammo switching, long optimal, good T2 ammo, they are fucking lasers	Massive cap usage, basically zero falloff	Amarr, Sansha's, Blood Raiders, SoE

Long Range Turrets

Type	Family	DPS	Accuracy Score	Range	Damage type	Pros	Cons	Used by
Artillery	Projectile	Low	Low	Medium	Selectable	No cap usage, massive alpha, selectable damage types	Terrible rate of fire, meh T2 ammo	Minmatar, Angels
Railguns	Hybrid	Medium	Medium	High	Kinetic/Thermal	Huge optimal range, nice T2 ammo	Moderate cap usage, meh DPS, terrible alpha	Caldari, Serpentis, occasionally Gallente
Beam lasers	Energy	High	Low	High	EM/Thermal	No need to reload, instant ammo switching, they are fucking lasers	Massive cap usage	Amarr, Sansha's, Blood Raiders, SoE

Chance to Hit and the Tracking Formula

EVE has a lot of maths behind how turrets work, and it basically boils down to a single formula, which determines your chance to hit. Unfortunately CCP just changed things, and the version of the tracking formula everyone has isn't quite correct any more and I'm far too lazy to go and fix stuff. Fortunately there are only a few things we need to worry about with our chance to hit.

Angular and Transversal velocity

This is how fast your ship and the enemy ship are moving past eachother, which word you use is based on whose perspective things are from. Basically, angular is how fast another ship is moving around you, transversal is how fast you are moving around another ship. Only perpendicular motion matters here, movement towards or away is ignored. It's hard to explain without pictures and I am very lazy, go read this reddit post. Basically a low angular velocity means a high chance to hit

Distance and Range

How far away you are from your target. A far off target is easier to track, since their relative speed seems lower, but you also start to suffer from range penalties beyond your optimal range. From 0m out to your optimal you suffer no penalty due to range, from optimal onward you start to get a reduction to your chance to hit. At optimal + 1*falloff your chance to hit is reduced to 40% of it's previous value, at optimal + 2*falloff your chance to hit is less that 10% it's previous value. This means that beyond optimal + 2*falloff your chance to hit is effectively 0.

Signature Radius

Signature radius is how “big” a target is. High sig radius means a large target, which means easier to hit. Not a whole lot to be said here.

Weapon Accuracy Score

For the vets among you, this is tracking a resolution rolled into a single stat. To anyone else, this is essentially how good your turret is at hitting things. A higher number means it's better at hitting smaller, faster targets. Larger turrets and long range turrets have lower accuracy.

Dealing damage

Whenever you fire a turret the server calculates your chance to hit the server does three things:

It decides that you automatically have a wrecking shot 1% of the time, no matter what this will land for max damage multiplied by 3.
You chance to hit is calculated
A random number between 0 and 1 is rolled, let's call it x

If x is higher than your chance to hit, bad luck you missed. If x is lower, then well done, you hit. Now you have a damage modifier applied, of (x+0.49)*chance to hit. This means that your chance to hit sets an upper limit on your maximum damage.

Improving your chance to hit

Anything that I say increases accuracy score is actually, behind the scenes, improving tracking speed. However since weapon resolution has been normalized across the board the two are largely interchangeable now.

Many ammo types will effect your turret's range, and accuracy score
Tracking computers and links will increase your optimal range, accuracy score or both, depending on what scrips you have loaded
Tracking enhancers give a bonus to optimal range and accuracy score
Weapon rigs can improve range and accuracy score
Stasis webifiers and grapplers lower a target's speed
Warp scramblers and HICtor points shut off a target's microwarp drive, slowing them down (but also lowering their sig radius)
Target painters increase a target's signature radius
Using prop mods and tackle mods to dictate range can let you stay in or close to optimal range
Many ship hulls give bonuses to turret accuracy and range
Sharpshooter modes on T3 destroyers give bonuses to range or accuracy (except the jackdaw that doesn't have turrets)
Sharpshooter gives a +5% bonus to optimal range per level
Trajectory analysis gives a +5% bonus to falloff per level
Motion prediction gives a 5% bonus to tracking speed per level
Good piloting can give you control over range and relative speed
Various implants and combat boosters give bonuses to range and accuracy

Lowering an opponent's chance to hit

Tracking disruptors can lower enemy optimal range, accuracy score or both depending on scripts
Tackle modules let your dictate range letting you keep outside their optimal or close enough that they struggle to track you
Good piloting still helps

Increasing your damage dealt

Improve your chance to hit, not only do you land more shots but you also get a better damage modifier
Fit weapon upgrades and rigs to boost base damage
Gunnery and surgical strike give you a bonus (2% and 3% respectively) to turret damage per level
Rapid firing increases rate of fire by 4% per level
Base turret skills (e.g small energy turret) give a 5% damage bonus to that turret type per level
Turret specialization skills (e.g small railgun specialization) give a 2% damage bonus to that T2 turret type per level
Many ships have bonuses to turret damage

Table of Contents