Weapons, Weapon Types, Damage, Nulls, Mitigation, and Armor.
And figuring out this whole mess!
Sins Forums
I am bringing this up, because there seems to be some MAJOR confusion on exactly how Weapons work in Sins, and how they do Damage, and how the Damage is calculated, and spread out. Plus how Shield Mitigation, and Armor is "supposed to work". I would hope that Rebellion Dev's jump in to confirm, or deny any of this.
This subject was covered years ago in Original Sins topics, but all of the relevant topics seem to be lost in limbo. So we will go over again what we know about (or at least what I know about), and confirm, or dismiss what is true, and what is not. Perhaps even learn something new.
First i will go over what "I" know about weapons. I am not going to claim that i know "everything". However, Some of what i know has been confirmed by Dev's years ago. If it has changed since Original Sins i don't know. AFAIK all weapons work the same way in OS, Entrenchment, Diplomacy, and Rebellion. Nothing has changed AFAIK in any version of sins on how weapons work.
I will cover Damage first, and use the SoA 2 mod as an example. We all know that ships have Front, Back, Left, and Right firing arcs. They cover a full 180 degrees per arc (plus a full 180 degrees up, and down on the z axis). This is hardcoded, and we can't change that. Where all of the confusion begins is "how do these weapons distribute the damage".
(Edited for correction) It was previously thought that each weapon null distributed damage individually, but that information turned out to be FALSE! The weapon nulls are for cosmetic purposes only. You can have as many nulls up to the weapon null limit as you want, but they have NO EFFECT on the weapons damage for that firing arc. It was thought that if a ship had 4 nulls in the forward arc that each bank was a null. It turns out the the Forward bank is exactly that. Just the forward firing arc. The number of nulls in that arc determine how many particle effects show, and where they fire from. The damage the weapon does is totally separate, and determined by the damage number in the bank.
Other entry's you will see for the weapon type is:
PreBuffCooldownTime 11.310000
CanFireAtFighter TRUE
SynchronizedTargeting FALSE
PointStaggerDelay 0.480000
TravelSpeed 0.000000
Duration 0.510000
fireConstraintType "CanAlwaysFire"
WeaponEffects
weaponType "Beam"
burstCount 1
burstDelay 0.000000
fireDelay 0.000000
PreBuffCooldownTime: This is pretty self explanatory. It is how long the weapon must cool down between shots. It also effects how much damage over time the weapon does. Shorter cool downs mean more DPS. While longer cool downs mean less DPS.
CanFireAtFighter: Again is self explanatory. True, or False. It determines if this weapon type can shoot down fighters, or not. In SoA 2 All Phaser's can fire at fighters, and every faction has a weapon type that can shoot down fighters. In Vanilla Sins Flak Frigates, and Titans have weapons flagged TRUE.
SynchronizedTargeting: Once again self explanatory. (Edited for correction) this determines if the weapon particle effects focus on one area of the target mesh, or on multiple areas on the target mesh. It is a just a cosmetic thing.
TravelSpeed: The speed at which a projectile, or missile effect travels. Beam weapons are always zero.
Duration: How long the weapon will fire (beam, and projectile). In a missiles case how long it will stay on the map. If it goes over the duration it will disappear, and do no damage.
fireConstraintType "CanAlwaysFire": I never messed with this. So i am not sure what it does. All weapons i dealt with had the "CanAlwaysFire" entry.
weaponType: Self explanatory. Beam, Projectile, Missile, PhaseMissile.
burstCount: This entry is for cosmetic purposes Only! It determines the number of weapon particle effects that are shown when the weapon fires. For example if the number was 3 then the weapon would fire 3 effects, or if 6 then 6 effects. The number of effects, or what kind of effects have absolutely nothing to do with how much damage the weapon does. The weapon will do the same damage if 1, or 100 effects are present. In a beam weapons case it is always 1.
burstDelay: Again for cosmetic purposes only! It determines how long each particle effect takes to show up after the 1st particle effect fires.
fireDelay: I never messed with this line. I am assuming it is cosmetic for the particle effects also.
Ability's effect how much damage weapons do after they are Buffed, or Debuffed by said ability. A weapon never misses in Sins. With the exception of missiles if they go over their duration (or you phase jump before they hit you). So this determines how much damage a weapon will do after said buff, or debuff.
Shield Mitigation as far as i know was created, because if it didn't exist then Vanilla Sins ships would "instapop" because of fleets "Focus Firing" on a single ship. From what i gather the more DPS is inflicted on a ship the higher Shield Mitigation becomes, and negates that damage. Giving small frigates somewhat of a fighting chance in a huge fleet battle. I do not fully understand how it works. In SoA 2 we toned down the Mitigation big time, because unlike Vanilla Sins where the ships stand still, and let themselves get shot up by focus fire. SoA 2 ships use dynamic movement, and fire at multiple targets. Very rarely will you see SoA 2 ships "Focus Firing". If we left the mitigation as it was the battles would take forever, and become stalemates. I would like more information as to exactly how Shield Mitigation is supposed to work.
Armor as far as i know also negates some damage (which becomes higher as you research more), but it is a fixed number. Unlike Shield Mitigation which changes, and becomes higher as more ships fire on a single unit. Again i would like more information as to exactly how this is supposed to work.
I am making this topic basically to refresh people memory, and to find out what is, or is not true about this subject. There is some confusion among us, and it will help if we knew exactly how Weapons, Damage, Mitigation, and Armor in Sins worked.
It would really suck if i found out the way i made my weapons in SoA 2 was totally wrong.
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