Leaky Armor Formula?

[Ed Kolis]

Has anyone figured out the formula behind leaky armor - i.e. the relationship between the Tonnage Structure of a component and the chance of its getting hit? I don't know if it's linear, or if it's weighted toward tougher (TS^2 for instance) or weaker (sqrt(TS))components...
Thanks in advance!

[Suicide Junkie]

http://imagemodserver.mine.nu/other/MM/SE4/Tools/

Pick the Compression type you like, and look for
"SE4damagesim"

Its technically linear on the initial hit, but heavy components soak up more of the damage points due to "reroll" effects, partial damage and the like.
Plug in some values to the simulator, and it will do the calculations for you.

[ May 24, 2004, 23:13: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

[Ed Kolis]

OK, so it IS linear... Thanks! That makes the calculations a bit simpler for when I finally get to that stage of writing my design analyzer!

[Suicide Junkie]

Wha?
I didn't say that!

It is linear at each intermediate step during a shot damage calculation, but the way they sum up over an entire, single bLast is not linear.

[Ed Kolis]

eh?
What do you mean, each step during a bLast? All I'm looking for is, you shoot at a ship, what are the chances X type of component will get hit? (Armor, Shield Generator, Heavy Mount Phased Polaron Beam, etc.)
I guess you could say that since a shot can knock out more than one component, that has to be taken into account... but I'm just thinking in simple terms, i.e. assuming no shot does enough damage to spill over to the next component, or alternatively, finding only the chance that a component is *first* to be hit...
However, I guess I *could* make the algorithm recursive to find leakiness at any specified damage level... that is what you did, right?

(You know, I wonder what Aaron thinks of our overanalyzing his game like this... I guess it leads to more balanced mods... )

[JLS]

Originally posted by Ed Kolis:
eh?
What do you mean, each step during a bLast? All I'm looking for is, you shoot at a ship, what are the chances X type of component will get hit? (Armor, Shield Generator, Heavy Mount Phased Polaron Beam, etc.)
I guess you could say that since a shot can knock out more than one component, that has to be taken into account... but I'm just thinking in simple terms, i.e. assuming no shot does enough damage to spill over to the next component, or alternatively, finding only the chance that a component is *first* to be hit...
)

Suicide Junkie

Please define your leaky armor in layman’s terms. With se4 v1.91 - will a 28kt Tonnage Structure Leaky Armor Component (no Armor or Emissive Abilities in play) protect a 30 kt Component fully first and then any left over damage potential carry on to another component?

To protect in an attack - Does the Leaky Armor Tonnage Structure have to be greater then or equal to the other prospective Component(s) or are they hit randomly only if equal?

Are all Ship Components completely protected by Leaky Armor or will the Attack randomly hit any one Component?

Please elaborate and do embellish

Thanks

[ May 25, 2004, 01:37: Message edited by: JLS ]

[Captain Kwok]

The best way to work this out would be to duplicate the same algorithm Aaron uses in the damage calculation itself.

For leaky armor to work best it should represent the majority hitpoint contributor.

When designing "light armor" it should have a smaller size than the average component and provide a relatively high number of hitpoints. For "heavy armor", it should have the same or larger size than the average component, and provide a moderate amount of HP - but not too close to the corresponding light armor HP/kT ratio.

Keep in mind, light armor is more likely to allow a hit to break through and damage internals. Heavy armor will provide overall less protection, but will reduce the likelyhood of damage to internals for less total HP.

[JLS]

Captain Kwok in your post: (leaky Armor) is this based on a Component with no Armor or Emissive Abilities?

Or stock se4 Armories with either Armor or Emissive Abilities?

= = = = =
Reference se4 Stock Armor Ability

Number of Abilities := 1
Ability 1 Type := Armor
Ability 1 Descr := Is damaged before any other components on a ship.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 0
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Weapon Type := None

Number of Abilities := 2
Ability 1 Type := Armor
Ability 1 Descr := Is damaged before any other components on a ship.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 0
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Ability 2 Type := Emissive Armor
Ability 2 Descr := Negates any damage of 10 or less.
Ability 2 Val 1 := 10
Ability 2 Val 2 := 0
Weapon Type := None

[Suicide Junkie]

If there is any surviving component with the armor ability on a ship, one of them will be hit.
70%-90% of the time, the ones with the fewest hitpoints first.

Once all of the ability-tagged armor is gone internals start getting hit.
Leaky armor is just internals that do nothing fancy, but are cheap, small and have plenty of hitpoints to soak up damage with.

And of course, all that damage they randomly soak up DIDN'T destroy your guns.

[JLS]

Great - Thanks SJ, Captain