Difference between revisions of "AI War:Do Shots Miss"

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(Created page with '<big>'''Do Shots Miss Sometimes?'''</big> '''Q:''' I notice that a lot of the time, a shot will hit a ship, but no damage will be dealt. This seems to happen a significant amoun…')
 
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'''Q:''' I notice that a lot of the time, a shot will hit a ship, but no damage will be dealt. This seems to happen a significant amount of the time, and is frustrating because I can see the shot hit the ship, it makes the little green wave animation.  
 
'''Q:''' I notice that a lot of the time, a shot will hit a ship, but no damage will be dealt. This seems to happen a significant amount of the time, and is frustrating because I can see the shot hit the ship, it makes the little green wave animation.  
  
'''A:''' Yes, shots can miss -- the sign of a shot missing is that little green wave animation, which is the target's shields absorbing the shot. Even ships with zero shields have a minor chance of this occurring, depending on the attack range of the ship that fired the shot and the distance between the shooter and the target. Depending on these factors and how high the shields of the target are, ships can miss a LOT. When you have ships selected and you hover over an enemy ship, it shows you the percent chance likelihood of your hitting that enemy, along with how much damage will be dealt. If you have multiple ships selected it shows you the range of damage, and the worst hit percent chance.
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'''A:''' The above question refers only to '''pre-4.0''' versions, in which shields and range were put through a complex math equation with a random element in order to determine if the shot would miss.  In version 4.0 and later of the game, shots never miss -- the green wave animation is only shown when a shot hits a forcefield, but damage is still dealt to the forcefield.
  
Here's the basics of how all this is calculated. All shots have a certain amount of energy, which is dependent on the attack range of the ship firing them. So, sniper shots have practically unlimited energy, while tank shots have almost none. Depending on the distance between the shooter and the target at the time the shot is fired, the shot will have a certain amount of energy remaining when it reaches the target (regardless of whether the target moves). If that remaining energy is higher than the shield level of the target, then the shot will hit. If it is lower, then it will miss. There is also a random component to whether shots hit or not -- you can think of this as shield "frequencies" as in popular sci-fi shows. If the frequency happens to match just right, then even low powered-shots can penetrate high shields.
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In short: ships either have a 100% chance of hitting an enemy target, or a 0% chance. If it's inside the range circle, there's a 100% chance. Outside, 0%. There is no dice-roll-style random component at all (which we think makes more sense for a strategy game).
  
The big exception to how all this works are Shield Bearers, which have supercharged shields that can only be breached by very high-energy shots or specialized missiles. This makes them weak to snipers and cruisers, and very little else (but the shield bearers have almost no hull health, so one missile hit will usually polish them off). There are some other complexities with certain ships, such as cruisers, which have a certain guaranteed minimum hit chance on any ship that is within their range; this simply increases the chance of shots from these ships bypassing shields (think of these as frequency-sensing shots).
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'''Radar Jamming'''
  
Lastly, with the exception of ships with supercharged shields like the shield bearers, if the range between the shooter and the target is very low, there is a minimum of a 5% chance of the shot hitting its target (this doesn't apply for shots which are countered by the target, or which the target is immune to -- there is always a 0% chance of those hitting). So, if your shots are being blocked too much by an enemy's shields, the solution is simple: move closer. Note that if you manually tell ships to attack a target, they will automatically close distance to the target until they have a good shot at it.  
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Radar jamming shrinks the circle of effectiveness, but inside that circle it's still 100% effective.
  
[[AI_War:Fleet_Command]]
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'''Armor Rating'''
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Armor does not affect the ability of one ship to hit another ship.  Rather, it linearly reduces the amount of incoming damage, but not below a floor of 20% of the total amount of damage that would have been dealt.  This makes highly-armored ships take longer to kill, but it doesn't make them any harder to hit.  Armor is simply subtracted from the incoming damage (so 5000 damage against 1000 armor does a 4000 loss in hit points) down to a minimum to 20% of the base value (5000 damage against 5000 armor does a 1000 loss in hit points).  Damage multipliers increase the base damage ''before'' armor is applied.
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'''See the new [[AI War:Combat_System|combat system page]] for more information.'''
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[[AI War:AI War]]

Latest revision as of 19:48, 1 February 2015

Do Shots Miss Sometimes?

Q: I notice that a lot of the time, a shot will hit a ship, but no damage will be dealt. This seems to happen a significant amount of the time, and is frustrating because I can see the shot hit the ship, it makes the little green wave animation.

A: The above question refers only to pre-4.0 versions, in which shields and range were put through a complex math equation with a random element in order to determine if the shot would miss. In version 4.0 and later of the game, shots never miss -- the green wave animation is only shown when a shot hits a forcefield, but damage is still dealt to the forcefield.

In short: ships either have a 100% chance of hitting an enemy target, or a 0% chance. If it's inside the range circle, there's a 100% chance. Outside, 0%. There is no dice-roll-style random component at all (which we think makes more sense for a strategy game).

Radar Jamming

Radar jamming shrinks the circle of effectiveness, but inside that circle it's still 100% effective.

Armor Rating

Armor does not affect the ability of one ship to hit another ship. Rather, it linearly reduces the amount of incoming damage, but not below a floor of 20% of the total amount of damage that would have been dealt. This makes highly-armored ships take longer to kill, but it doesn't make them any harder to hit. Armor is simply subtracted from the incoming damage (so 5000 damage against 1000 armor does a 4000 loss in hit points) down to a minimum to 20% of the base value (5000 damage against 5000 armor does a 1000 loss in hit points). Damage multipliers increase the base damage before armor is applied.


See the new combat system page for more information.


AI War:AI War