Comprehensive Guide to Damage Types
Something I haven't seen much of is talk about how damage works in Sins of a Solar Empire, yet it is one of the most important things to take into account when creating a fleet. I'm using a lot of information from Gameplay.constants file in the GameInfo folder for Rebellion 1.1.
SHIP TYPES
Each ship has a damage type and an armor type (the corvette has 2 damage types) which determine what ships it deals a lot of damage against and which ships it takes a lot of damage from.
| Ship | Armor Type | Weapon-Type |
|---|---|---|
| Scout | Light | Anti-light |
| Light-frigate | Medium | Anti-heavy |
| Long-range frigate | Light | Anti-medium |
| Anti-strike frigate | Heavy | Anti-very-light |
| Colony frigates | Light | Anti-light |
| Siege Frigates | Light | Anti-heavy |
| Corvettes | Very light | Corvette |
| Support squadron cruisers | Heavy | None |
| Support cruisers | Heavy | Anti-heavy |
| Heavy combat cruiser | Very Heavy | Composite |
| Anti-structure cruiser | Light | Anti-module |
| Starbase | Module | Anti-module, heavy; capital ship (I think) |
| Fighter | Very light | Anti-light |
| Bomber | Light | Anti-very-heavy |
Note: Module is the armor type for structures, but the starbase uses it, too.
DAMAGE TYPES
| Shiptype/vs | CapitalShip | Very-light | Light | Medium | Heavy | Very-heavy | Module | Pirate | Titan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anti-very-light | 0.5 | 1.33 | 0.75 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.35 | 0.25 | 0.45 |
| Anti-light | 0.5 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.35 | 0.5 | 0.45 |
| Anti-medium | 0.75 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.33 | 0.75 | 0.75 | 0.50 | 0.65 | 0.70 |
| Anti-heavy | 0.5 | 1.0 | 0.75 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.45 |
| Anti-very-heavy | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 0.65 | 0.5 | 0.55 |
| Anti-module | 1.0 | 0.25 | 0.25 | 0.5 | 0.75 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 0.3 | 1.0 |
| Composite | 0.75 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 1.25 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.75 | 1.2 | 0.70 |
| CapitalShip | 1.0 | 0.25 | 0.75 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.75 | 0.90 | 0.95 |
| CapitalAbility | 0.75 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.75 | 0.75 |
| Titan | 1.0 | 0.25 | 0.75 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.75 | 0.9 | 1.0 |
| Corvette | 0.65 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.55 | 0.35 | 0.5 | 0.7 |
CHANCE TO HIT
Bombers and fighters are very light, and one may wonder why their capital ships suck at taking them down. The reason is that there's a high chance for fighters and bombers to avoid being hit by an attack. Here are the %hit values:
| Damage Type | vs. Fighter | vs. bomber |
|---|---|---|
| Anti-very-light | 0.75 | 0.75 |
| Anti-light | 0.65 | 0.75 |
| Anti-medium | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Anti-heavy | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Anti-very-heavy | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| Anti-module | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Composite | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Capital Ship | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Capital Ability | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Titan | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Corvette | 0.65 | 0.75 |
There are also abilities, such as the Akkan Battlecruiser's Targetting Uplink and the Rapture Battlecruiser's Vertigo, and effects, such as those of asteroid belts and some stars, which affect the % chance to hit value.
SHIELDS
Shields are a pretty big part of the game, especially for Advent, but what exactly do they do?
They usually regenerate much faster than hull.
Shield mitigation, despite its name, is still present when a ship's shields are down. It reduces the damage a ship takes by a %, and it is triggered by a ship taking damage, making it more effective to open combat with a powerful ability than waiting until shield mitigation would reduce its power.
Base shield mitigation is 15%, the maximum is 60% for frigates, 65% for capital ships, with 0.111111/level for cap ships increasing to a maximum of 75%.
Shield mitigation goes down over time, so if you have slow-firing attacks, or wait a bit before using a powerful ability, the damage you deal can tremendously increase.
ARMOR
I believe damage is calculated using the formula % damage = 20/(20+armor). So 5 armor would recude damage by 1/5, 10 armor would reduce damage by 1/3, 20 armor would reduce damage by 1/2. I'm not sure how the formula for negative armor works, but it is similar and does increase damage dealt to beyond 100%.
OTHER STUFF PEOPLE SHOULD ADD
I'm not sure of the exact damage type of beam defense platforms, each individual starbase + its improvements, titan abilities (I assume capital ship), asteroids taken control of by Advent Starbases, and maybe a few others I haven't though of.
Edit: From the comments, Diplomacy spreadsheet of various statistics, link courtesy of JimmyBob13.
Posted Dec 4, 2012, 5:29 PM UTC · edited