AI War:Do Shots Miss
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 5% 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 5% of the base value (5000 damage against 5000 armor does a 250 loss in hit points). Damage multipliers increase the base damage before armor is applied.
