https://youtu.be/ZiTpQTqemgA?t=7m58s

What do you guys think of this?  Appears that the D guns in the front do about 20% less damage than the L's.  This is opposite of what you'd expect, but the amount of difference is consistent with NavyField dev's love of having a 10% difference(i.e. Heavy/Light engines are 10% away in weight/horsepower/etc. from normal, L vs D 10% weight diff).  This would lead one to believe that L's give you both range and damage(but keep in mind they do load slower, weigh more, and take up more space).

For a long time I've always used D guns and just loaded light shells in them to make up for the range, and heavy shells on the switch so within range I'd have max damage pairing of D gun with Heavy shells.  This was nice since D guns allow more space for ammo, weigh less, and fire faster.  Now with this discovery, the decision will be harder.

BTW when I was saying "deck shot" in the video I was thinking "Belt shot".  I never adjust the angles during the test and try to stay about the same distance, just in case damage varies based on where the shell lands on the belt.  I'm sure some idiot will flame me in comments for misspeaking there without giving me the benefit of the doubt.

I.e. I was trying to be as scientific about it as possible.  Since each ship has different armor, I made sure to switch back and furth on a single ship, because you can't compare results between different ships.

A test at a longer range might get opposite results, since D gun shells *might* maintain velocity further as if they had more mass, thus they end up doing more damage as a result at longer ranges.  Really, velocity shouldn't impart additional damage because it is the explosion that does the damage, not the impact. But I'm not here to debate the realism of the game!  It is what it is.

My goal was just to deteremine how much more damage the D guns did, and surprisingly found opposite results.

I'm going to run with these guns for awhile in Blitz and see if the pattern is consistent, maybe switch the fronts with the backs at some point to make sure there isn't some code that favors back over front.  Or who knows, maybe there is a bug where the guns mounted on the back in the port get the damage calculation  Perhaps the velocity of the shells adds damage.  

If anyone has some fleet mates they can test with that would probably be a more controlled test.  A test with and without armor on the target, as well as at longer ranges would be good.

I share this for you so you can provide your own observations and conclusions.  Don't direct them at me because I am not making any premature claims, all I did was record exactly what the game shows.  I included the long boring beginning so you could see verification of what guns are there.  If you suspect foul editing tricks, then feel free to record your own video start to finish and post.  Please, thoughtful responses.  Keep it civil.