Interplay between shields and damage

[IceRaptor]

Greetings all,

I've recently picked up X:R again, and have found it to be significantly improved from launch. I've been encouraged by many of the great mods folks have put together, in particular MoreMissiles by NovaCameron. I really enjoyed some of the changes, but wanted to take my own crack at simply improving the basic missiles instead of having using all the new ones he added.

I've got most things working, and now I'm trying to figure out the balance points for damage on player missiles. But I'm not sure exactly how shield fit into the picture. Are their Mj values simply used as 'hull' damage that has to be punched through, or are they more complex than that? For instance, looking at the Maelchon (http://roguey.co.uk/xrebirth/ships/maelchon/) it has 29k hull and 21k M/J shields. Does that mean a 50k damage missile should one-shot it?

Secondly, is there any variance in damage, or is the full amount always applied? Using the same example before, if a missile does 50k hull will it always do 50k, or are there any damage randomization or reduction effects in play?


I'm sure this question has been asked before, but the search function in the control box appears broken and the 'extra search' didn't turn up anything fruitful.

Thanks!

[UniTrader]

I've got most things working, and now I'm trying to figure out the balance points for damage on player missiles. But I'm not sure exactly how shield fit into the picture. Are their Mj values simply used as 'hull' damage that has to be punched through

usually yes, simple as that. but unit of Shield is not MJ but KJ or internally hitpoints. Also there are weapons which ignore Shields and go directly for the hull (or do direct hull damage in addition to the usual first-shield-then-hull-damage), but nor sure how to define them in the Game files atm. i think its also possible to define Shield-Only Damage.

Secondly, is there any variance in damage, or is the full amount always applied? Using the same example before, if a missile does 50k hull will it always do 50k, or are there any damage randomization or reduction effects in play?

depends on wheter its defined as hit damage ( <damage value="***" /> ) which only applies on a direct hit in full or if its explosion damage which decreases with distance. Also difficulty has an influence to the Damage the player does/receives