Leaky shields and QNP

SuicideJunkie · Leaky Guru Joined: May 28, 2005 Location: Canada!

Some major changes for the next version...

Anti-QNP is out, and QNP is in.
Capital ship propulsion tech now boosts the output of engine ports, up to double their normal amount. Size and crew requirements are halved so as to keep things sane.
Bonus - multiple supply tanks are now useful on larger ships due to the increased fuel burn rate.
Overall ship speeds will be reduced to 4-8 movement, and variation among designs is much easier.
This also means fighters are much more mobile relative to ships. Staying away from return fire or diving in to use powerful SR guns becomes much easier.

Turn rates are now proportional to 1/ vehicle size ^(2/3)
IE: Dreads take 4x longer to turn than a scout, and fighters can really whip around.

Acceleration is reduced, but considering that most ships spend the entire time at full throttle, this shouldn't make much of a visible difference.

Leaky shields.
Not leaky as we know it, but still good, just the same.
Ice shields: Blocks 5% of damage per layer. 5 hp, loses 1 per 100 damage in a single impact event.
Plasma shields: Blocks 10% of damage per layer. 10hp, loses 1 per 120 damage.
Grav shields: Blocks 15% of damage per layer. 15hp, loses 1 per 134 damage.

Generators regenerate at 0.1 hp/s, so a large volley of high damage weapons can overload and temporarily disable some generators, but in light combat, they will remain operational until the ship explodes.

Emissive ability on the armor currently does not work due to hardcode, but when it does, the shields will stack fully with them.

EG: 290 damage torpedo hit, with 6 grav shields (~62% absorption).
shield #1 blocks 43points, suffers 2 damage (13/15 hp left). 247 dmg left
shield #2 blocks 37points, suffers 1 damage (14/15 hp left). 210 dmg left
shield #3 blocks 31points, suffers 1 damage. 179 dmg left
#4: blocks 26, suffers 1. 153 dmg left
#5: blocks 22, suffers 1. 131 dmg left
#6: blocks 19, suffers no overload damage. 112 dmg left
112 damage hits the hull, 3-7 points of which would be negated by armor depending on tech level.

Eight hits like that would disable shield #1, and increase the leakage unless the ship is given time to deal with the overload.
Ten big hits like that in a row would also reduce the next four shields below 50%, shutting down their regen, and likely forcing the ship to consult a repair facility.
Note that the ship would still have use of the remaining shields (blocking ~55%, then ~48%, ~39%, and rapidly collapsing to 28%, 15% and 0% as the overloads progressively destroy shield generators)

By comparison, an 80mm Plasma Cannon deals 108 damage.
Grav shields and plasma shields can both absorb that without overloading, but two layers of ice shields will take 1 point of overload damage per hit. (The third ice shield just barely does not overload due to the protective action of the upper two layers.)

Note:
Shield generator hitpoints increase with tech. Also, I forgot about the 3x hp bonus the mounts give. So, they are actually tougher than suggested above.