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: 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.
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.
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).
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.
