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I just wanted to clarify the damage values for their beam weapons prompted by JFL's comment on the latest chapter post. If I replied directly to him there, it would have been buried in the comments, so I thought I'd just create a fresh post here (for future reference!)

Now, as per Dana's chapter 55 weapon discussion, Maliri Beams are more powerful than their old Terran ones. However, the main difference to the Maliri upgrade was the weapon's smaller size - they could now be mounted in Laser Cannon turrets.


So the damage scaling goes like this:


Base damage + (Damage multipliers x base damage) = total damage


Terran Beam base damage = 1

Maliri Beam base damage = 1.5

Kintark heatsinks = 50% damage increase (chapter 38)

Crystal Alyssium barrel = 50% damage increase (chapter 55)

Therefore Maliri Beam boosted damage = 3

(As per Dana: "Same range, and triple the strength of a standard Terran Beam!")


Now from chapter 77: A Photon Laser hits twice as hard as a base Maliri Beam. That means:

Photon Laser base damage = 3

Boosted with Kintark heatsinks and upgraded with Crystal Alyssium barrels, that increases to 6.

So the after-upgrade values are:

Invictus' Maliri Beam Lasers = 3

Mech+ Raptor's Photon Lasers = 6


The Raptor has two weapon hardpoints equipped with Photon Lasers, so it can do 6x2 = 12 damage

The mech has four weapon hardpoints equipped with Photon Lasers, so it can do 6x4 = 24 damage

The Invictus has 24 weapon hardpoints equipped with Maliri Beam Lasers, so it can do: 

16x3 = 48 beam damage off the topdeck

8x3  = 24 beam damage off the underbelly

Combined damage = 72 damage (by rolling while weapons are cooling down)


So compared to the original Invictus with its 6 forward facing beams doing a rather sad 6 beam damage: The raptor hits twice as hard, the mech hits four times as hard, and the Invictus hits twelve times as hard. 

Obviously that doesn't include the batteries of Pulse Cannons, Gauss Cannons, Heavy Cannons, Nova Lances, and Singularity Drivers! (but I'll be here all day if I start getting into all that!)

Those are the damage values I use for calculating how fast shields go down and subsequent hull damage, so I hope you found that interesting. :-)

Tefler



*** Updated 26th August ***

Photon Laser damage = 3

Enhanced Kintark heatsinks = +100% damage

Crystal Alyssium barrel = +50% damage

Damage per Photon Laser after latest refit = 7.5 (chapter 88)

Comments

PLRus--Founding member of the TSM F5 club.

Umm....perfectly reflective would be visible, perfectly absorbative would be a black hole. Our eyes only see direct or reflected light (energy)

PLRus--Founding member of the TSM F5 club.

Theoretically, it is impossible to have a substance that is 100 percent reflective of all energy because the law of entropy dictates it would eventually dissipate into nothingness.

Anonymous

You've had experience with tabletop gaming, haven't you?

Tefler

I actually worked for Games Workshop for a couple of years before going to University. So yes, many, many hours... :-)

Malthe Mørk Mejlby

The maliri beams are not the same as the "the warning" are they? I can't remember and haven't got time for a reread.

Tefler

The big holes punched through the freighter were from repeated Nova Lance strikes. The Maliri actively scanned it beforehand to avoid hitting any Power Cores as they didn't want the ship to explode. After turning it into a swiss cheese, they hit it with Beam Lasers and Pulse Cannons, so the entire wreck is covered in gouges and impact craters. It was a firepower demonstration to basically say, "Trespass in Maliri Space and you'll end up like this."

bigdawguw65

Thanks Tefler . enjoyed your explanation . Not a game player so some times get lost in the minutia of some of the discussions . MMM I think the "Warning" was the result of the Nova Lance but not positive .

Anonymous

Thank you for clarification tefler

Malthe Mørk Mejlby

I couldn't remember what the big beam laser that cut through the hull of "The Warning", and as you said it is the Nova Lance.

Anonymous

and what would the damage from a single Nova Lance beam? Just for comparing :D

Anonymous

I'd have to make an uneducated gues and say INSANE!

Anonymous

Hang on a sec, Mech???? Did I miss Dana creating a combat chassis somewhere?

Jedi Khan

Yep. In the chapter leading up to Tashana's story, we saw our first glimpse of the thing while the Invictus was on it's way to the Unclaimed Wastes. John noted in the Engineering Bay what appeared to be a mass of corded crystal tubing that resembled a muscle, but on a much larger scale. We saw even more of it in the last chapter with most of the girls helping Dana put the thing together and move its parts into the new Launch Bay (likely that big 40-meter hole that was cut in the bow of the ship).

Anonymous

So, Dana won't upgrade the Invictus beam lasers with photon lasers because not enough power from the main weapons power core to upgrade all beam laser locations. Too bad she can't find a way to run the photon lasers in their normal "high power mode" off the mostly unused nova lance power core, but when the nova lances are charging, run the photon lasers in "low power mode" off the main weapons power core. I'm sure Calara would agree to 144 beam damage without nova lances, while still 72 beam damage if charging the nova lances.

Anonymous

Faye needs to be given remote access to that Mech.  If they are of the ship and in trouble a big help can come charging in. Dana is too exposed to be piloting that. It needs to be able to do crazy things for the shock value.

Anonymous

If you ever find the time and interest to expand upon this with the rest of the weapons (maybe even shield capacities, hull strengths... <selftalk>Man, calm the hell down, you'll scare him...</selftalk> It would appear I have a fixation about numbers... (Goes and talks to a shrink) Didn't help...

Wookey

Well done Tefler

Anonymous

Forgot to ask what happens if lets say somone springs a trap with gravity wells on Invictus are they immune to it ? Oh and are gravity wells the same us interdiction beacons ?

PLRus--Founding member of the TSM F5 club.

Tefler! Thank you for the clarification. BUT: that doesn't take into account the huge disparity in hit percentage. Calara 100% Others (with Jade driving) 20% or less. That gives the Invictus a 5-fold advantage....72*5=360 'effective' hit points....and that is without the Invictus getting the Photon Laser upgrade. (I know, they would need one or two more power cores as well).

Anonymous

Now that the final version of chapter 77 is out and I've read it, those Photon Lasers sound kick-ass! Now I even more want to see Dana design & build a few dozen small, fast drone fighters for the new docking bay. If each was built around one Photon Laser, rather than a Beam Laser, they could really dial up the Invictus' tactical presence in large-scale fleet battles like what I expect we'll be seeing in the next chapter.

Anonymous

I am seriously disappointed in this whole not enough power thing. After 3 different power core upgrades Dana continually states the Invictus has tons of spare power. Then on the first new laser weapon the comes along we are back to not having enough power. They just put three full on proginator class power cores in. I get that yes now they can run the nova lances, all the new cannons and 2 new engines. But Dana clearly said they had plenty of power for what ever new tech they found. Personally I find this tiresome. It is inconsistent that the Raptor can run these new weapons with its miniaturized power cores and the Invictus cannot.

Wookey

am sure this will be corrected in ch 79 or 80

Anonymous

So Tefler your saying that the Photon Lasers 4x the power draw but only 2x the damage of the Maliri Beam Lasers or 3x the damage of the Terran Beam Lasers?? Despite the increase of damage it doesn't seem like an economical use of the power available. To make it worthwhile for a full upgrade it obviously needs some more Dana research magic to happen. Maybe after Dana gets her two week inspiration boost ;) she might find a way to make the system more efficient?? Or when it's needed against a bigger and bladder enemy :p lol

Anonymous

"...against a bigger and bladder enemy..." LMAO, does this mean the enemy is incontinent and pisses themselves when they see the Invictus?

PLRus--Founding member of the TSM F5 club.

Also Tefler, not sure if the Math is correct with the 50% upgrades. When you have multiples of 8 or 24 those decimal points make a difference. The 1.5 base Maliri powerup with two 50% upgrades on top of that from the heat sinks and barrel reshaping is 1.5*1.5*1.5 which equals 3.375 hit points. So a doubling of that would be 6.75 hit points for each of the the photon lasers. With the 8 photon lasers on the shoulders of the Mech that would be 54 hit points which would be more than 9 times the original Beam laser power of the Invictus with 6 Terran beam lasers. The Raptor has 6.75 * 2 or 13.5 hit points or a bit more (1.5 hit points) than twice the Beam laser hit points of the original Invictus. The Invictus Beam Lasers are at 3.375 original Terran equivalent. So 3.375*24 = 81 hit points or 13.5 times the original Invictus load-out on just Beam Lasers. Considering the 5 to 1 greater accuracy of Calara over other gunners (with Jade driving the Invictus) that means the Invictus has an 'effective' advantage of 405 hit points or roughly 67.5 times the original Invictus Beam laser load-out. That does not include the pulse cannons which are a medium range defense grid upgrade from the Gatling laser short range grid, nor the Nova Lances which can single shot Battleships every minute, the Gauss cannons which can fire 3 times faster with double the energy as well as the 12 extra (6 sets of 2) mass drivers (the top deck heavy cannons), or the Singularity driver spurting out a mass driver round every second on ships which have had their shields taken out...at 3 times the normal range...and there really is no way to guage the tactical advantage the Invictus holds over a small fleet of ships. And that doesn't even include the in-system (gravity well) FTL jumps that allows effectively instant jumps to the rear of any attacking group or fleet. I mean, Jump in behind the Fleet Carrier and do a Nova Lance then finish off any shields with the Beam Lasers and then fire a salvo from the heavy cannons on top at the engines, letting the pulse lasers take out the fighters as they swarm out...and in the space of say...oh...2 minutes (time enough for two Nova Lance strikes and quite a few mass driver strikes) and you have taken out the Fleet Commander and their largest Capital ship. Then jump out to refresh shields or jump in behind another Capital Ship and do it all over again.

PLRus--Founding member of the TSM F5 club.

Actually, that is pretty consistent with real life Physics. The reason it is better to upgrade the power rather than the number of units is the limited hard points. Eventually your ship is so large that you lose coverage and/or mobility.

Wookey

How about even bigger sonic cannons. Might be useful vs Brimorian shields, you never know.

Anonymous

Trefler, any chance of getting a reference post outlining the resistance/toughness of the different armour types? I am having trouble following where everything is. For example, the Raptor has deca shaped crystal allysium combined with the energy absorbing capacitors make it immune to standard energy based weapon. But does that mean ALL energy based weapons. Can it shrug off the pulsed photon lasers and nova lances? And what about Kintark plasma weapon, eventually won't they burn through. If you could layout the armour for all the races it would be greatly appreciated.

Evan

Actually, I'm going to request that you NOT layout the armor for all the races vs. the weapons for all the races. We don't know that information yet, in the story, so I don't want to know it outside of the story. Until the Kintark actually succeed in hitting the Raptor's enhanced armor, I don't want to know what the plasma will do to it, if anything. Same thing with the Nova Lances. I think it would take away from a dramatic scene or ten if we could just know ahead of time what the impact would be of such an attack before you actually have one succeed in striking in the story. After all, why fly the Invictus so that the ship is missed when struck at, and have a concern about shield strength, if the vessel is KNOWN to be invulnerable to the weapons that the Drakkar - or anyone else - can bring to bear? Let it play out in the story and we'll come along for the ride!

Anonymous

I agree not to divulge anything we haven't seen yet. But we know the Drakkar use steel as the base element for their armour. Which is much weaker than standard Terran titanium. And the Ashanath Erithium is comparable to titanium as well. When Dana examined the Kintark drop ship she stated that their tech was comparable to their standard Terran equivalent. Guess I am just having a really hard time wrapping my head around the reflective armour. As they were all measured against Terran standard energy weapons. Normally 2X damage means half the resistance. When you start getting into the 10X, 50X 100X power range I just do not see how the armour can maintain it's resistance. We know the Raptor is immune to Terran based energy weapons. Mikaboshi's ship couldn't even scratch it. But I am not sure the same can be said for the Malari weapons, Dana's upgrades or the purple beams from the proginator ship that whipped out the Sword of Sif, dread noughts shield in one shot. It's an interesting puzzle that I am dying to see play out

Evan

A 'perfectly' reflective surface would be immune to any form of energy attack, so long as that energy were reflected perfectly, regardless of magnitude. However, there are no *known* substances which reflect all energies equally, much less 'perfectly', so the question then becomes more interesting. Which energies are reflected, and to what extent, and does that include kinetic energies? Mind you, I remember 'Doc' Smith writing about 'zones of force' over 70 years ago which would be 'perfect' barriers in the ether... allowing no penetration of *any* kind, including momentum.

Grimlakin

It's a misstatement to say they were measured against Terran weapons. They were measured against direct energy weapons and noted the level of energy reflection/refraction/and absorption. Basically from a energy transfer field the armor. At full shape levels is effectively immune to damage. We know there is still energy transfer because the object in question is visible. If zero energy transferred there would be empty space to represent the object. I say that because lasers operate as far as we know on visible or even invisible but light. It is in essence a lot of energy packed into a burst/beam of light to transfer that energy to something else. For it to be perfectly reflective it would appear as utterly empty space. A black void to our eyes. Clearly this operates differently. Perhaps it is so advanced modern physics can not account for it.

Grimlakin

So an attempted. Energy transfer of high enough levels could still damage the armor. But it would take. Transfer of an very high level. Beyond those even they have achieved as of yet.