Here is the math behind the upcoming changes to swarms and vehicles. When forges are released I will do the same calculations for them. Before you comment, make sure you actually understand what you are talking about when it comes to resist and the new rep/regen mechanics.
The shortened range will be nice and the reduced damage should have been implemented a long time ago given the fact that we only have modules up to meta level 3 and no hulls further than standard. Swarms are still going to r@pe as the proto version will deal 1782 to armor and 1056 to shields. With the new mechanics for armor reps and shield regen/boosters, armor will take 9.83 seconds to regen and shield will take 9.28 seconds. Note that the calculations for shield imply an unharmed 3 second regen delay. Armor reps are passive so they continue to rep, while shield regen is finicky, but strong.
Basically, for every 1000 damage taken to armor or shield, tanks will take 5.15 seconds (armor) or 6.28 seconds + 3 seconds of regen delay (shields). Using this we can get a rough idea of the time it would take each to fully recover from a full volley of proto swarms. The time for armor recovery is 29.49 seconds, while the shield takes 21.85 seconds.
AV grenades are nothing but a lie on CCP's part. The stories are true of the proto lai dai packed AV dealing somewhere between 3000-4000 damage per grenade. My typical tank with close to 12k ehp went pop after roughly 4 the other day. Based on CCP's lies they say they will be reduced to 1470-1015. Their figures are off by a factor of 1.5 at the very least. The old proto AV grenade dealt 2592 damage. According to what I just found they will yield 1788 damage. This equates to 2414 damage to armor and 1430 to shield. Armor would need 13.32 seconds to recover, while shield would need 21.86 seconds to recover. Again, assuming the regen delay is not interrupted.
Damage mods on AV weapons are the next big concern. assuming the typical proto swarm has 3 complex damage mods plus a proficiency level or 2 puts us up to 1767 standard damage. Multiply by efficiency and we get 2385 damage vs armor and 1414 damage vs shield. The recover times would then be 13.16 seconds for armor or 11.42 seconds for shield.
What about resist?
When one resist is factored in along with efficiency we get 1431 damage for one swarm volley vs armor and 848.4 damage for one proto swarm volley vs shield. The recovery times are reduced to 7.9 sec for armor and 8.05 sec for shield. Full volley recovery times are 23.7 sec for armor and 18.14 sec for shield.
With two resists factored in we get 933 damage for one swarm volley vs armor and 270.3 damage for one proto swarm volley vs shield. The recovery times are reduced to 5.15 sec for armor and 4.61 sec for shield. Full volley recovery times are 15.45 sec for armor and 7.83 sec for shield.
They need to abolish the BS efficacy system they implemented in 1.3 where forges AND explosive weapons got a huge kick towards armor. Currently forges deal 110/90 to armor/shield and explosives deal 80/135 to shield/armor. Put it back to where it was in Chromosome where forges dealt 110/90 to shield/armor and explosives dealt 90/110 to shield/armor.
So what does this all mean? Efficacy rating need to be reverted to Chromosome levels. Shield resists are strong, but short lived. Armor resists are weaker, but last longer. Shield regen is very finicky and can be interrupted by any AV weapon meaning it is not very good for CQC interaction. Armor reps are decent, but they are not sufficient enough for long term combat. If you have noticed the cooldown times on all modules, you can accurately predict that there will be a lot of time sitting in the redline or behind cover waiting for modules to cycle.
Note: all calculations here are from in game experience and are backed by data. current efficiency for explosives is 135% for armor and 80% for shield. Current efficiency for non explosive weapons (forge) is 110% for armor and 90% for shield. 1st module efficiency is 100%, second is 87%, third is 57%. All data derived from
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