Alien Blaster or Gatling Laser?

I have a really low skill with energy weapons and that's not likely to change, but I also have Lystra as my companion, so which one should she use? She has power armor BTW.

Also is the Gatling Laser listed under energy weapons skill or Heavy Weapons? (Just asking here in case the mod changed something)

I'm pretty sure the Gatling Laser still counts as an Energy Weapon.

I would say the Alien Blaster is better. Gatling Laser has to face higher resistances (as it's laser, while the blaster is electrical) and needs to land most of its hits to count.
Plus, Lystra can fire the Alien Blaster twice per turn, that should put it ahead.

Oh yeah because of it's low AP, right.

Okay thanks!

I would actually recommend the YK32 Pulse Pistol over the Alien blaster for Lystra. Mainly for it's 'Penetrate' perk that cancels 80% of the DT of the target. They both are 'Electric' damage and cost 4 APs to fire. The Alien Blaster has the 'Accurate' perk, but it's not really needed since Energy weapons are her primary skill so she must have +100% skill in it already. The YK32 also as 15 range, which sometimes can be critical since the Alient Blaster has only 10 range.

According to my calculations the Penetrate ability of the Pulse Pistol does not compensate for the higher damage of the Alien Blaster. The Alien Blaster should still do more damage in average.
The range is a drawback though.

Checked your files and it's close when it's vs Power Armor, but yeah the Alien Blaster should theoretically cause more damage on average.

The thing is, since the difference between it's min and max damage values is very large (30 to 90 - that's 200% gap) I'm not sure if using the average in that case would reflect the true reality of using it in combat. What I mean is, the below average range of damage is too big that the real damage might fall in that range more often compared to the YK32 (with damage range of 32-46 and ~40% gap only).

I might actually test this in my game with a fast shot character (so no critical much). If only I can find the Alien Blaster

I'm not a math expert (humpty-dumpty, dumpty-dum ), but I believe average is average.

The only significant difference should be comparing a single roll (anything goes) with a number of rolls (evens out eventually).

In most cases the damage of the Blaster should be around 60. That's the number I've calculated the damage with (30+90)/2. Which is also a bit above the max damage of the Pulse Pistol (46). The number I used for the Pulse Pistol is 39. (32+46)/2. Not sure if the wider span matters much (?), especially as the minimum is for both weapons rather similar (30).

Also you can adjust the numbers in the formula and test a little. I did that and it seems as if the Alien Blaster does OK compared to the Pulse Pistol as long as it stays above 40 points of damage (roughly). So only 10 to 16 out of 60 possible numbers will start to underperform, that's 16% to 25%, so roughly 1 out of 6 or 1 out of 4 shots will do worse than the Pulse Pistol (right?). That doesn't seem that bad.

Once it does 49 damage it is equal to the average of the Pulse Pistol. And when it does 51 it starts to do better. So 39 out of 60 possibilities will do better than the Pulse Pistol's average. That's 65%, aka 2 out of 3 or a 3+ on a D6.

Unless I made a mistake (derpy-derp ), I don't think the wider damage span matters that much. And the Alien Blaster should do better.

I might actually test this in my game with a fast shot character (so no critical much). If only I can find the Alien Blaster

That may be tough. Over a playing-time of about 10 months I had only 3 to 4 special encounters. So roughly 1 every 3 months. The Alien Blaster is more a gimmick/in-game joke.

Once it does 49 damage it is equal to the average of the Pulse Pistol. And when it does 51 it starts to do better.

This right there convinced me. 10 points of damage below the average is enough to measure up to the YK32. Even over a larger spread, it will do more damage accumulative eventually.

You're right, the Alien Blaster is better than the YK32 for Lystra.
If you can find it, that is

Cheers

Regarding averages, and calculations, it's also important to note that it all depends heavily on the opponent's armour.

And on top of that armours in Fallout are very irregular. Most NPCs in Power Armour have lower DT & DR than the player. However, some, especially at the Rebirth Base, have significantly better armour.

So calculating averages is more comparing weapons within a set condition. Which helps with orientation. But in-game you will see variations and differences.

Regarding averages, and calculations, it's also important to note that it all depends heavily on the opponent's armour.

Also damage type. I think both alien blaster and gatling laser deals laser/heat damage whilst pulse pistol deals electric.

The Alien Blaster is “electrical” just like the Pulse Pistol.
I checked if FoRes changed that, but it didn't, as far as I can tell.

Otherwise it's a good point. Especially Laser Resistance is much higher than other resistances, rendering “laser” weapons borderline useless. However, it was especially in regard to the Laser Rifle when I noticed the huge variation based on armour. It does well versus low end armour, but is useless versus high end. Then again several NPCs (at least in FO2) have lower laser resistances than the player would have. Making it all a bit vague.

Classic Fallout is not a very transparent game .

Most times it goes for the realism approach of “you can't know how much damage this will make” or “you can't tell if your sneak attempt fails or not”. Which is kind of fascinating (accepting outcomes as they are), but also frustrating when trying to use mechanics (especially sneak in combat, which is potentially fun but also a lot of try and error).