Damage/Defense and the Mechanics of Flight
Damage types and defense types: proper tools make all the difference Every weapon has its own damage type. Every possible target has its own defense type. Whenever something takes damage, a damage modifier is generated based on the damage and defense types. For example, the damage modifier for using an anti-utility weapon against a miner is 2.0 (meaning the weapon does twice the rated damage), while the damage modifier for the mini-gun vs. the miner is 0.50 (meaning the weapon does half the rated damage). The only thing that is true for all weapons is that their damage modifier against light armor is 1.0.
Currently, there are 8 distinct defense types:
- Light: all scouts, all fighters, all stealth fighters, the stealth bomber, and the lifepod (for the bloodthirsty)
- Medium: bombers & heavy bombers, all interceptors, gunship, all troop transports, destroyer
- Heavy: missile frigate and sector support
- Super heavy: cruiser
- Utility: all miners and all constructors
- Tower: probes, towers and missiles
- Lt base: teleport receivers and outposts
- Hv base: all other bases
- Ship shield: any ship shield
- Base shield any base shield
Each weapon has its own damage type (all weapons are average against lt armor):
- Anti-utility optimized against utility class, heavily penalized against medium and above ships, almost worthless against bases
- Sniper rifle average vs. medium armor, moderately penalized against heavy & above ships, and bases
- Machine guns average vs. medium armor, small penalty vs. heavy & above ships, and bases
- Galvonic blst optimized against shields and heavily armored targets: the heavier the armor, the better the bonus
- Disruptor blst same as above
- Mini-gun moderate penalty vs. medium armor and shields, large penalty vs. heavy & above armor, utility and bases.
- Cannon bonus vs. heavy & super heavy armor, small penalty vs. shields, large penalty vs. bases
- Anti-fighter msl same as machine guns
- Anti-base msl average against everything and have a huge bonus against bases.
As you can see, the weapons you chose can make a big difference in how you fight. Also note that the Galvonic blaster is twice as deadly as the Disruptor blaster (and far more energy efficient).
A stealth fighter (with two sniper rifles) will take roughly 9.4 seconds to kill an interceptor while the interceptor (with 2 mini-guns) will take only 4.6 seconds to kill the stealth fighter. Of course, any stealth pilot who doesn't get the first whack against an interceptor (nothing like a missile or two to get things off to a good start) is just asking to lose his kill bonus. Enhanced fighters vs. interceptors are a little more even: 4.6 to kill the fighter vs. 6.6 seconds to kill the interceptor (three MGs on the enhanced fighter). For base killing, if you can't use a bomber, the best weapon is an advanced fighter with blasters. One of these can take an outpost down in a bit over a minute, which probably isn't very practical. Get a group of 3 or 4 fighters and you can do it in 20 or so seconds, which is very practical.
3. Flight model: my engine is doing what?!? There has been a lot of discussion about how "realistic" the games flight model is, so it is time for a confession: realism has been sacrificed on the altar of game-play. Ships fly around using conventional Newtonian physics except that we've added a "drag" force to limit the speeds at which people fly. There is absolutely no scientific justification for this ... [we pause for a moment as Tkela is briefly dragged off stage by Solap and a loud thumping is heard] ... actually the drag is a by-product of the interaction of the Kerwinsky reactionless drive with the fabric of space. The drag force is proportional to your velocity and in the opposite direction. Your ship reaches its top speed when the drag force is equal to your engine's thrust. All ships have space drives. These do not use fuel and can thrust in any direction (though they are generally more efficient thrusting in the direction the ship is facing). Some ships have afterburners, which use fuel and always thrust in the direction the ship is facing.
Afterburners are simple. If you use the afterburner key, the afterburners will start thrusting (taking a few seconds to reach full power). Let go of the key and the afterburners will spool down (taking a few more seconds). The afterburner thrust ranges between three times the effective thrust of the space drive (for an interceptor) to half the effective thrust (for a stealth fighter). An interceptor using its afterburner has 4 times the effective thrust of its space drive (the space drive plus three times that from the afterburner). As a result, since drag is proportional to velocity, its top speed with the afterburner is 4 times that without afterburner (making it, briefly, the fastest thing in space).
The space drive is more complex. It can basically operate in three different modes:
- Cruise control: your desired velocity based on your throttle setting and the direction you are facing. The space drive will automatically thrust in whatever direction and amount is needed to shift your current velocity to your desired velocity. For example, if you are moving forward at full speed and you throttle back to 50%, your drive will immediately start thrusting backwards (at full power) until you've slowed down to half speed (at which point, the engine will continue to run at 50% power to compensate for the drag). If you then turn 90 degrees to the left, your old velocity is now 90 degrees to the right and your desired velocity is straight ahead, so your drive will thrust left and forward to bring your old velocity vector around to the desired one.
- Direct control: thrust (at 100% power) based on whatever thrust keys are held down. If, for example, the left and up thrust keys are held, then thrust up and to the left. As a "feature" if you are not holding any thrust keys down but are holding the afterburner key down, your space drive goes into the direct control mode exactly as if you were holding the thrust forward key. This is why holding the afterburner key does something even when you are out of fuel: you want to thrust forward so the ship thrusts forward with everything it has.
- Vector lock: your desired velocity is your current velocity, thrust equal and opposite to the drag force (or as much as you can if over your top speed).
The space drives can have different efficiencies when thrusting backwards or to the sides. Interceptors thrust equally well in all directions. Fighters have moderate (50%) penalties to the sides and backwards. Stealth fighters have moderate (50%) penalties to the sides and a severe (75%) penalty when thrusting backwards. This means that interceptors can dodge equally well in all directions while the fighter is better dodging by turning away from the source and toggling between forward and backward thrust. It also affects a ship's top speed when traveling any direction other than straight ahead. For example, when going backwards, the interceptor is faster than the stealth fighter (the interceptor can thrust at 100% to the rear so its top speed is unchanged, the stealth fighter can only thrust with 25% efficiency to the rear, so its top speed is 25% & 140 = 35). Another thing which affects a ship's maneuverability is mass. The space drive and afterburners produce a thrust: the ship's acceleration is this thrust divided by the ship's mass. If you carry a full cargo hold full of missiles, your ship's mass is higher and its acceleration is noticeably reduced (although your top speed is not affected since drag does not depend on a ship's mass).
