Dante vs 204 Series

First.. don't hold back your excitement and disbelief that I started a forum thread. Can you believe it????


Is there a real reason why we have such a price disparity between dante and the 204 series? Specifically the hyper charged 204? Is the only reason why the 204s are rare because of the imk2 and mod merc or is it because of a different reason? Because that doesn't hold water much anymore with all the melee amps and 3rd scanthi in the mix on the blp side.

I don't feel like it makes sense for a dante to 1500 and dropping but a 204 is 13K and a hc204 is 32k. If i want dps, I could just use a hotfoot 30 And sacrifice eco... and by sacrifice.. I mean lopping off my testicles... as it is 0.6dpp less with an imk2 and at my level than a hc204.

Thought I'd stir the pot and start a discussion hoping to see other alternatives pop up. Having been laser focused, it is a question I've thought about and heard others make for some time now. I've had a hc204 at one time when I had the hl12. I feel mindark is losing out to turnover and decay by having upper dps only for blp users or those who can sacrifice 8 car payments to buy an amp that you can get in a blp gun for 1500ped.

Sorry for any grammar fubars as I am typing this on my phone.

My thoughts on this is that the Dante is a crafted item and the BPs for them were not that rare compared to some others. The 204 series amps were all looted afaik so that means even more rare and then add on the hunting/purchasing of the crystals to make the hypercharged versions. It's all about the number of each of these in game. More dantes means lower prices compared to the 204.

Dante crafted....lots of them.

204's looted, not many of them.

?


Rgds

Ace

Ace Flyster said:

Dante crafted....lots of them.

204's looted, not many of them.

?


Rgds

Ace

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This explains the rarity but not why they did it this way.

Dante is a crafted amp.
A204 is a looted amp.
Hyper A204 is made destroying a few (very expensive) A204s.

1000s of Dantes out there.
10s of A204 out there.
Only a handful Hyper A204 out there.

Dante's predecessor (Beast) is so nice that most people dont even bother upgrading.
Hyper A204 predecessors are all very low damage, making its demand crazy high.

I guess.

EDIT: Why did MA design it this way? because fuck laser. Probably. I'm a laser user.

Sorry.. let me rephrase. I knew why they were rare but didn't make sense why it has been allowed to continue to be that way.

atomicstorm said:

Sorry.. let me rephrase. I knew why they were rare but didn't make sense why it has been allowed to continue to be that way.

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Yep, I edited my previous post.

The reason is because fuck laser. I see no logical reason for the huge disparity in amp prices for the same damage.

EDIT: Sorry I can't give any other answer, I have given this many hours of heavy thinking during the years and I always end at the same place -> it doesnt make sense.

Side note: correction about the A204: it was originally crafted, along with the rest of the A20x series. When they started dropping it in loot in represented one of the first and most important departures from the original MA policy that things were always either looted or crafted.

On topic: Because if every weapon class and type was the same it would be pointless. Laser has always been the dpp option and it makes sense that that course of action is more expensive up front. (You pay now or you pay later.)

We're moving in the direction of homogenization though so maybe someday soon there'll be some alternative (i wrote a fictional future VU years ago in my blog mentioning an unlimited Shear pro iirc). Because of that, I was actually surprised that they made the adj and imp A204 such small steps in damage while the dante upgrades are quite large. It's not commensurate with its position as top amp and disproportionate with the hyper/overcharge stats (which is why almost everyone takes that route). I hope they add a final mod step and bump it quite a bit of damage over the imp while maintaing dpp to make it an interesting alternative.

CortunWrath said:

My thoughts on this is that the Dante is a crafted item and the BPs for them were not that rare compared to some others. The 204 series amps were all looted afaik so that means even more rare and then add on the hunting/purchasing of the crystals to make the hypercharged versions. It's all about the number of each of these in game. More dantes means lower prices compared to the 204.

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Dante BP itself is very rare. Atm at the top of my head i forgot how many were (3 BPs?), but as far as I can remember all Dante BPs have been owned by one person and if sold - sold as a package and not split (yes, total monopoly).

A20x series were crafted long long ago. As far as I remember hearing - all of the crafting was scrapped and totally revamped (including BPs).


Up until very recent past there have been very few A20x series amps around (A204 very rare) with no ways of increasing in amounts (quite a few probably were sitting on idle accounts) while every decent hunter has 1-2 Dante's in inventory... I still remember NZR spamming chat with Dante globals...

Comparing Laser to BLP is "apples and oranges". There isn't a single BLP weapon that can match the high-end laser eco, and then you throw on the a204 series amps and eco is beyond reproach.

Your asking about DPS vs Eco essentially, and DPS is easy to optain but eco isn't as simple.

Another thing I don't understand is why Arkadia, Cyrene, and Rocktropia cannot release their own UL weapon amplifiers, what is so special about weapon amps?

Rave said:

Comparing Laser to BLP is "apples and oranges". There isn't a single BLP weapon that can match the high-end laser eco, and then you throw on the a204 series amps and eco is beyond reproach.

Your asking about DPS vs Eco essentially, and DPS is easy to optain but eco isn't as simple.

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That was the case, but the BLP mod merc from Arkadia changed that distinction.

Rave said:

Comparing Laser to BLP is "apples and oranges". There isn't a single BLP weapon that can match the high-end laser eco, and then you throw on the a204 series amps and eco is beyond reproach.

Your asking about DPS vs Eco essentially, and DPS is easy to optain but eco isn't as simple.

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Scanthi matches mod merc. It is inverse the decay and ammo usage.

sachi.mk2 said:

Another thing I don't understand is why Arkadia, Cyrene, and Rocktropia cannot release their own UL weapon amplifiers, what is so special about weapon amps?

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I've asked the A team to look at this opportunity. unfortunately, a UL hotfoot 30 wouldnot be practical due to the poor eco of it.

atomicstorm said:

Scanthi matches mod merc. It is inverse the decay and ammo usage.

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Right, but there are more MMs and Imk2/3s available (and the other eco laser guns). So there is more of a market for laser, but there are less a204s available.

And the Scanthi with Dante is still less eco than Imk2 or MM with a204. With HC A204, the MM is the same DPS and slightly better eco than Scanthi.