MASTER OF ORION II

MASTER OF ORION II
WEAPON CALCULATIONS

by Gontzol ([email protected])

Version 1.1
May 1, 2002

Based on Master of Orion II v1.6 (Mac).

This document Copyright 2002 Gontzol. This document may not be used for commercial
or promotional purposes without my permission. This document may not be used on any
website except GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com) without my permission.

=================
Table of Contents
=================

1. Introduction
2. Chance to Hit Table
3. Things that affect Beam Attack and Beam Defense
4. Notes on some battle mechanics
5. Beam damage and range dissipation
6. Missiles
7. Ways to affect Missile Evasion
8. Torpedoes
9. Fighters
10. Other Special Weapons
11. Weapon space and miniaturization
12. Miscellaneous

===============
1. Introduction
===============

This guide contains detailed information on weapon calculations. Most notably, it
answers the questions: What's "Beam Attack" and "Beam Defense"? How do I figure out
my chance to hit with beams or missiles? How does range dissipation work?

I figured this stuff out myself, mainly to satisfy my curiosity, and because I was
annoyed when I could only guess which weapon was best when designing my ships. I
thought I might as well share what I found. The information in this guide is probably
95% accurate.

Right now the guide only explains weapon calculations. It doesn't have tips on which
weapons are better at various stages (at least not yet), since that's complicated
by what the enemy's defenses are and any delays a weapon has in delivering it's damage.
Hopefully understanding the calculations will allow you to tailor your ships to best
deal with your foe's current defenses. Feel free to email me if you have any questions
or comments.

======================
2. Chance to Hit Table
======================

A key finding was how the game calculates chance to hit. Chance to hit with beam weapons
depends on the attacker's Beam Attack value minus the defender's Beam Defense value.
I found a reasonable formula that matches closely to observed attacks, but it's easier
just to use the table that follows.

Percent chance to hit = 100/(1 + 2^E)

where E = -(BA - BD)/16
BA = Beam Attack
BD = Beam Defense
("^" means "to the power of")
(This is a formula for a "Sigmoid" or S-shaped curve).

In practical terms, if BA = BD, chance to hit is 50%. For every point of difference
between BA and BD, chance to hit changes by about 1%, as long as (BA - BD) is between
about -30 and +30. For more extreme differences, the change in the chance to hit gets
gradually smaller.

BA - BD Chance to hit
------- -------------
-100 1%
-90 2%
-80 3%
-70 5%
-60 7%
-50 10%
-40 15%
-30 21%
-20 30%
-10 39%
0 50%
10 61%
20 70%
30 79%
40 85%
50 90%
60 93%
70 95%
80 97%
90 98%
100 99%

Actually, it seems that the game might do some rounding off. For instance, if the
chance to hit is high enough (high 90's or so), chance to hit might be rounded up
to 100%. The game might not round low chances to 0%.

Missile evasion is calculated very similarly. Just use 50 as a "Missile Attack" value,
and Missile Evasion in place of BD. See the missiles section, below.

==================================================
3. Things that affect Beam Attack and Beam Defense
==================================================

Computers BA BD
--------- -- --
Moleculartronic Computer +125
Cybertronic Computer +100
Positronic Computer +75
Optronic Computer +50
Electronic Computer +25
Ship Systems
------------
Battle Scanner +50
Inertial Stabilizer +50
Inertial Nullifier +100
Cloaking Device +80 (when active)
Scout Lab (+20 BA vs. monsters or the Guardian)
Tractor Beam (Immobilizes target)
Augmented Engines +5 speed and +50 BD (see note)
Battle Pods (more empty space from Battle Pods increases
maximum possible speed)
• Systems that increase speed or add BD take up space, slowing the
ship and partially counteracting their benefits. Leaving the space
empty would also give a "bonus" to BD.
• Scout Lab appears to give +20 BA to all ships in your fleet when
fighting monsters or the Guardian. There is no bonus when fighting
Antarans. The bonus does not depend on ship size class.
• Augmented Engines add +50 BD to the listed BD in the ship design
screen, but only +25 BD is listed on the main map and in battle. +50 BD
is the true value.
Bases BA BD
----- -- --
Star Fortress +20
Battlestation +10
• There is no bonus to BD, as some descriptions suggest (or at least no
*listed* bonus). When a Star Base is present, there is no bonus, but
when there is a colony or outpost present that has no orbital base, the
bonus is +10 BA. Any base or "no base" bonus applies to all ships,
bases, and planets on it's side in combat.
Crew level BA BD
---------- -- --
Green +0 +0
Regular +15 +15
Veteran +30 +30
Elite +50 +50
Ultra Elite +75 +75
Ship's Combat Speed
-------------------
Combat speed is the number of squares that a ship can travel per round.
BD bonus from combat speed = [combat speed]*5
Immobile ships, bases, and planets have their BD bonus from combat speed
set to -20. BD bonuses from all other sources are added normally.
Partially damaged ship drives have reduced combat speed.

Drive Combat speed bonus
----- ------------------
Nuclear +0
Fusion +2
Ion +4
Anti-matter +6
Hyper +8
Interphased +10

Base speed
Size Class (0 space left) Battle Pods "bonus"
---------- -------------- -------------------
Frigate 10 +4
Destroyer 8 +5
Cruiser 6 +5
Battleship 5 +5
Titan 4 +5
Doom Star 3 +5

Combat speed varies uniformly from [base] (0 space left) to [base + 10]
(all space left). Battle Pods increase a ship's maximum speed, but not
minimum speed. Megafluxers do not increase a ship's speed, and reduce the
Battle Pods "bonus" by 1.
Range
-----
Range to hit penalty is likely -1 BA per square. Point Defense doubles
this penalty, whereas Heavy Mount halves it.
Some Beam Modifications
-----------------------
Modification BA Range to hit penalty Range dissipation Refinement
------------ -- -------------------- ----------------- ----------
Heavy - 1/2 "1/2" 0
Point Defense +25 x2 "x2" 0
Continuous +25 1
Autofire -20 2
No range - none 1
dissipation
Racial Characteristics
----------------------
• -20, +25, and +50 BA or BD. For BD racial bonuses, the same value is
also added to Missile Evasion. The listed value on the main map only
uses half of this Missile Evasion bonus, but the full bonus (listed in
battle) applies.
• Trans Dimensional gives +4 combat speed (so +20 BD). No Missile Evasion
bonus. The speed bonus is lost if the ship is immobile.
• Warlord has crew level benefits.
Leaders
-------
• Skills like Weaponry and Helmsman apply to all ships, bases and planets
present (whether the skill has an "*" or not).
• Helmsman also gives a bonus half as large (rounded down) to Missile
Evasion.
• Galactic Lore gives a bonus to BA to all ships present when fighting
monsters or the Guardian, but not Antarans (just like a Scout Lab).
• The Navigator skills seems to have no effect on combat speed, and adds
no bonus to the listed BD.

=================================
4. Notes on some battle mechanics
=================================

Range
-----
• My definition of "range" is the number of squares between the nearest
edges of ships (this gives the same results for small and large ships).
Range at an angle is calculated "realistically" using Pythagoras.
• Maximum range:
Beam type Maximum range
--------- -------------
Point Defense 11
Normal 23
Heavy 50
• Ships often start combat at a range of 27 (sometimes at a slightly
different range , it depends).
• The game displays a 32 x 17.5 area. The battle area is 82 x 67.
• Range to hit penalty is likely -1 BA per square. Point Defense doubles
this penalty, whereas Heavy Mount halves it.
• Rangemaster Unit divides the range to hit penalty by 3. It does not
reduce range dissipation, nor does it increase a beam's maximum range.
• Subspace Teleporter's maximum range is at least 20, and it can even be
as high as your combat speed if it's more than 20.
Shields
-------
• Shields reduce damage per attacking weapon, regardless of whether 1 or
all shield facings are down. Multi-Phased Shields do not improve this
reduction. Enveloping weapons count as 4 shots each, so each shot has
it's damage reduced. Enveloping weapons still do x4 damage to ships
without shields.
• Call the shield's listed hitpoints S. Each shield facing has S
hitpoints. Each round, the shields regenerate 0.3*S (not 4*0.3*S)
hitpoints, distributed evenly to all shield facings that need it.
• The shield's hitpoints S equal the shield's multiplier times the ship's
size class. For some reason, a Doom Star counts as size 7 here, not
size 6.
High Energy Focus
-----------------
• High Energy Focus adds damage to each beam equal to the maximum damage
of that beam weapon, normal type (non-Pd, non-Hv), at range 0, divided
by 2. Shields act after this damage is calculated. Range dissipation
does not do extra reduction on this extra damage.
• Works on all beam weapons including Mass Driver, Gauss Cannon, and
Disrupter.
Ordnance Leader Skill
---------------------
• Works just like High Energy Focus, where the percent bonus equals the
ordnance skill level instead of 50%.
• Works with beams, missiles, torpedoes, and Stellar Converter. Does not
work with Fighters' beams. I'm not sure about bombs (on fighters or
not) or Gyro Destabilizer, Pulsar, etc.
• The ordnance bonus is not increased by Heavy Mount on beams or
Overloaded on torpedoes. Ordnance does not increase dissipation of
beams or Plasma Torpedoes.
Damaging Systems
----------------
• It seems that non-fatal damage to ship systems are only recalculated
in between combat rounds.
Turning Costs
-------------
• Standard turning cost is 8 per 90°. Ship size and drive technology
don't have any effect.

====================================
5. Beam damage and range dissipation
====================================

The game lists two numbers for the damage of beam weapons that have range dissipation.
The higher number is the maximum damage at range 0, while the lower number is useless.
For beams without range dissipation, the number listed is the maximum damage at range
0. There is no randomness in the damage that a beam does, although chance to hit is
determined with random rolls.

"x2 range dissipation" does not really exist naturally on any beam weapon. Fusion
Beams, Plasma Cannons, and Mauler Devices all have normal range dissipation.

To determine range dissipation for normal (non-Pd, non-Hv) beams, multiply the base
damage (range 0) as follows:

Ranges Multiplier
------ ----------
0 to 2 1
3 to 5 0.9
6 to 8 0.8
9 to 11 0.7
12 to 14 0.6
15 to 17 0.5
18 to 20 0.4
21 to 23 0.35

Round decimals to the nearest integer. Round ".5" decimals up.

For Heavy Mount beams, the multipliers are increased by 0.5, and the ranges are
different. Multiply the base damage of a normal version of the beam by:

Ranges Multiplier
------ ----------
0 to 8 1.5
9 to 14 1.4
15 to 20 1.3
21 to 26 1.2
27 to 32 1.1
33 to 38 1.0
39 to 44 0.9
45 to 50 0.85

Note that Heavy Mount gains more than simply "half range dissipation". A smaller
percentage of the damage is lost to range dissipation, and the first group of ranges
covers 9 squares, not just 6.

For Point Defense beams, the calculations are a bit strange. Multiply the base damage
of a normal version of the beam by:

Ranges Multiplier
------ ----------
0 to 2 0.4
3 to 5 0.2
6 to 8 0
9 to 11 -0.125

As you can see, the multiplier at ranges 0 to 2 is not 0.5, but 0.4. I guess the beams
have already dissipated a bit by the time they get that far. For Pd Mass Drivers (no
range dissipation), the multiplier is 0.5. Note that this extra dissipation is not
taken into account when the weapon's damage is listed in the ship design screen, so
you really get less than you think. In fact, Pd Fusion Beams do exactly the same damage
as Pd Laser Cannons.

If the final damage per beam is less than 1 (before shield's damage reduction), the
damage is set to 1. The "-0.125" multiplier is there for use with High Energy Focus:
add half of the beam's base damage (as mentioned above), then add the "negative damage"
of the Pd beam. (A value of -0.5 is rounded to -1).

Note that these calculation do not work for Pd beam damage done by fighters; see the
fighters section below.

Because the calculations for Pd beams are pretty complicated, and the low damage can
change a lot depending on how the numbers are rounded, I'll just list the damage done.

Pd beams, without High Energy Focus:

Ranges:
Beam type 0 to 2 3 to 5 6 to 8 9 to 11
--------- ------ ------ ------ -------
Laser Cannon 2 1 1 1
Fusion Beam 2 1 1 1
Mass Driver 3 3 3 3
Phasor 8 4 1 1
Particle Beam 12 6 1 1

Pd beams, with High Energy Focus:

Ranges:
Beam type 0 to 2 3 to 5 6 to 8 9 to 11
--------- ------ ------ ------ -------
Laser Cannon 4 3 2 1
Fusion Beam 5 4 3 2
Mass Driver 6 6 6 6
Phasor 18 14 10 7
Particle Beam 27 21 15 11

The way the game calculates High Energy Focus is probably by adding 0.5 to the range
multiplier, before rounding. The Ordnance leader skill seems to act in the same way.
For example, an Ordnance skill of 10 adds 0.1 to the range multiplier before rounding.
High Energy Focus only works on beams, but Ordnance works on other weapons (see "Notes
on some battle mechanics").

For Graviton Beams, the amount of extra structure damage (ESD) equals the armor damage
(AD) if AD is even; if AD is odd, ESD = AD - 1. If the target ship has no armor or
shields left, Graviton Beams still so extra structure damage. The number shown when
your beam strikes a ship is not accurate for Graviton Beams: the number shown is AD
+ ESD/2. I suspect that the game's designers initially had ESD = AD/2, rounded down,
but then decided to multiply ESD by 2. This would explain why ESD is always even.
(By the way, for any other weapon I just assumed that the damage shown upon impact
was accurate). ESD is calculated after range dissipation, High Energy Focus, Ordnance,
and shields' damage reduction.

So, which types of beams (normal, Hv, Pd) are better at what ranges? Differences in
Beam Attack, and the enemy's damage reduction from shields, should be taken into
account. But to give a rough idea, the following table compares the efficiency
(damage/space) of the different configurations. It ignores Beam Attack and shields,
and sets the damage of a normal beam to 1 as a baseline for comparison.

Without With
High Energy Focus High Energy Focus
Ranges 1 Hv 2 norm 4 Pd 1 Hv 2 norm 4 Pd
------ ---- ------ ---- ---- ------ ----
0 to 2 1.5 2.0 1.6 2.0 3.0 3.6
3 to 5 1.5 1.8 0.8 2.0 2.8 2.8
6 to 8 1.5 1.6 [= 4] 2.0 2.6 2.0
9 to 11 1.4 1.4 [= 4] 1.9 2.4 1.75
12 to 14 1.4 1.2 1.9 2.2
15 to 17 1.3 1.0 1.8 2.0
18 to 20 1.3 0.8 1.8 1.8
21 to 23 1.2 0.7 1.7 1.7
24 to 26 1.2 1.7
27 to 29 1.1 1.6
30 to 32 1.1 1.6
33 to 35 1.0 1.5
36 to 38 1.0 1.5
39 to 41 0.9 1.4
42 to 44 0.9 1.4
45 to 47 0.85 1.35
48 to 50 0.85 1.35

===========
6. Missiles
===========

Missile specs
-------------
Missile type Damage Hitpoints
------------ ------ ---------
Nuclear Missile 8 4
Merculite Missile 14 8
Pulson Missile 20 12
Zeon Missile 30 16

• Missile hitpoints are not affected by armor technology. Heavily armored
missiles have twice as many hitpoints. Note that Mirv missiles do not
gain additional hitpoints. A single beam can destroy a missile and
apply remaining damage to the next missile.
• Structural Analyzer and Achilles Targeting Unit don't work with
missiles.
Modifications Refinement Size & Cost Effect
------------- ---------- ----------- ------
Mirv 2 +100% 4 warheads.
Emissions Guidance 0 +300% If penetrates shield,
targets drive.
Fast 1 +25% +4 speed & corresponding
Beam Defense.
Heavily Armored 1 +25% x2 hitpoints.
ECCM 1 +25% Halves effect of jammers.
Missile speed
-------------
Missiles have a base speed of 10, modified by your best drive technology.
The calculation is the same as for a frigate with 0 space left. The
"fast" modification adds +4 to a missile's speed. Note that missiles
start 1 square away from the ship from which they are fired.
Shooting down missiles
----------------------
• Missiles have a Beam Defense of [missile speed]*5, which is the same as
for ships. The range between a ship and a missile is the number of
squares between their nearest edges, +1.
• I tested anti-missile rockets, and contrary to the description, the
chance to shoot down a missile was approximately 60% - 1% per square
traveled. One successful anti-missile rocket completely destroys
exactly 1 missile. Anti-missile rockets have a range of 16.
• The maximum range of beam weapons may be higher (+2?) when targeting
missiles or fighters. I haven't looked into this much.

=================================
7. Ways to affect Missile Evasion
=================================

Missile Evasion works the same as Beam Attack and Beam Defense. Use a "Missile Attack"
value of +50.

Ship Systems Missile Evasion
------------ ---------------
Ecm Jammer +70
Multi-Wave Ecm Jammer +100
Wide Area Jammer +130, and +70 to other ships in fleet (does not
stack with other jamming devices)
Lightning Field (no change; it just has a 50% chance of
destroying each incoming missile)
Inertial Stabilizer +25 (not mentioned in description)
Inertial Nullifier +50 (not mentioned in description)
Cloaking Device ("50% chance to dodge missiles when active". I'm
not sure if this is Missile Evasion or something
else.)
Scanners
--------
Tachyon Scanner -20
Neutron Scanner -40
Sensors -70
• Scanners' effects are present in every battle, and don't stack.
ECCM
----
• Halves the effect of jammers.
Crew level
----------
Green +0
Regular +7
Veteran +15
Elite +25
Ultra Elite +37
Racial Characteristics
----------------------
• -20, +25, and +50 BD. For BD racial bonuses, the same value is also
added to Missile Evasion. The listed value on the main map only uses
half of this Missile Evasion bonus, but the full bonus (listed in
battle) applies.
• Trans Dimensional gives +4 combat speed (so +20 BD). No Missile Evasion
bonus. The speed bonus is lost if the ship is immobile.
• Warlord has crew level benefits.
Leaders
-------
• Skills like Weaponry and Helmsman apply to all ships, bases and planets
present (whether the skill has an "*" or not).
• Helmsman also gives a bonus half as large (rounded down) to Missile
Evasion.
Immobilization
--------------
Immobilization doesn't change the listed value for Missile Evasion.

============
8. Torpedoes
============

About torpedoes
---------------
• Torpedoes cannot be shot down (by beams, anti-missile rockets, pulsars,
spatial compressors, ship explosions). They have unlimited ammo and
fire every other turn.
• Torpedoes can be jammed, and their chance to hit is calculated the same
as missiles.
• They are affected by Lightning Fields.
• Fast Missle Racks, Structural Analyzer, and Achilles Targeting Unit
don't work with torpedoes.
• Torpedo speed is unaffected by drive technology.
• The description for anti-matter torpedoes lists an incorrect speed of
20; anti-matter torpedoes have a speed of 18.
• Proton torpedoes hit their target immediately, and have a maximum range
of 23 (the same as normal beams).
• Plasma torpedoes have a speed of 22. Regular plasma torpedoes lose 5
points of damage per square traveled, plus an additional 5 points
(unless they are fired at range 0, in which case they do full damage).
Overloaded plasma torpedoes don't lose extra damage. A plasma torpedo
can travel until it completely dissipates: regular ones can hit a
target at a range of up to 23; overloaded, 34; "no range dissipation",
unlimited range.
Torpedo damage
--------------
Torpedo type Damage
------------ ------
Anti-matter torpedo 25
Proton torpedo 40
Plasma torpedo 120
Modifications Refinement Size & Cost Effect
------------- ---------- ----------- ------
Overloaded 1 +50% +50% damage
Enveloping 2 +100% Hits 4 shield facings
ECCM 1 +25% Halves effect of jammers
No Range Dissipation 1 +25% No range dissipation

===========
9. Fighters
===========

Fighter types
-------------
Interceptors Assault shuttles Bombers Heavy Fighters
------------ ---------------- ------- --------------
Base speed 8 4 6 6
Base hitpoints 2 3 4 5
Attacks per sortie 4 1 1 2
Beams per attack 1 0 0 1
Bombs per attack 0 0 1 1
Vessels per unit 4 4 4 4

• Fighter speed is increased by your best drive (the same as with ships).
• Fighters' hitpoints are multiplied by your best armor, the same as for
ships. The reduced armor bonus for fighters does not exist.
• Fighters return to their ship after their sortie, and can then be re-
launched. Any unit of 4 fighters that had at least 1 vessel destroyed
cannot be re-launched.
• If the launching and target ships are close enough, fighters can attack
every round. The only interruption possible is when rounds are used
entirely used for traveling.
Damage
------
• Beams used by fighters must be able to have the Point Defense
modification, but the damage done is not the same as Pd beams on ships.
The damage done is equal to the beam's normal damage +1 (except that
Mass Drivers don't get +1). Sometimes the damage is slightly less
(fractions of a point, on average).
Beam Fighter damage per beam
---- -----------------------
Laser Cannon 5
Fusion Beam 7
Mass Driver 6
Phasor 21
Particle Beam 31
• The game prefers Mass Drivers over Fusion Beams, even though Fusion
Beams are better.
• Bombers and Heavy Fighters carry bombs, which can be used against ships
(ships cannot drop bombs on ships, though).
• High Energy Focus, Structural Analyzer, and Achilles Targeting Unit
don't apply to damage done by fighters.
• If you don't have the tech for any of the above beams, you might get a
Laser Cannon anyway. :)
Defense against Fighters
------------------------
• Fighters' Beam Attack may be the same as that of the launching ship (I
haven't tested this much).
• Fighters' Beam Defense is it's speed x5 (just like for ships), and
there seems to be an approximately +35-40 BD bonus in addition.
• Fighters may always reach a position where they cannot be targeted by a
ship's beams. (I haven't tested this much).
• Lightning Field tries to destroy fighters every round.
• The maximum range of beam weapons may be higher (+2?) when targeting
missiles or fighters. I haven't looked into this much.

=========================
10. Other Special Weapons
=========================

Gyro Destabilizer
-----------------
• Unaffected by shields, and does damage directly to structure.
• Structural Analyzer doesn't increase damage.
Pulsar
------
• 3-square radius.
• Affected by armor and shields.
• Structural Analyzer and Achilles Targeting Unit don't work with
Pulsars.
• The amount of damage dealt is calculated strangely. The damage ranges
from about 1 to 24, but it's strongly skewed to the lower values, and a
damage of 1 occurs about twice as often as expected. The average damage
per pulsar ends up being close to 7. The damage is multiplied by the
target ship's size class before shields' damage reduction is applied,
and this damage reduction seems to be about half as much as normal.
Spatial Compressor
------------------
• 2-square radius.
• Ignores armor and shields.
• Structural Analyzer doesn't increase damage.
• It seems that the damage is calculated strangely, but in a different
way than pulsars. A good guess is that the damage ranges from 4 to 32
as listed (not skewed), but is NOT increased by the target ship's size
class.
Plasma Web
----------
• Unlimited ammo.
• Affected by shields.
• Structural Analyzer and Achilles Targeting Unit don't work with
Plasma Webs.
• It seems that Plasma Web damage is scaled up by x4 compared to the
damage listed, as is the dissipation. (Maybe that's supposed to be from
it's enveloping nature, and the description isn't clear). Here's how it
works: each shot adds 20-100 damage to the Plasma Web around a ship. At
the end of each turn, the damage value of the Web is applied to the
ship, then the shields regenerate and the Automated Repair Unit does
it's job. Even if there's no number displayed for the damage done, the
damage still being applied. Each round, the Web loses 20 points of
damage total, no matter how many shots were used. You can continue
adding more damage to the Web with more shots. I'm not sure whether a
shield's damage reduction is applied, but it doesn't matter much,
because it's only applied once if at all. For example, a ship with a
Class X Shield is attacked with 50 Plasma Webs that add 3000 damage.
The ship would take 2990 damage the first round, 2970 the next, 2950
next, etc. And that's not counting additional volleys of Plasma Webs
each round.
Stellar Converter
-----------------
• not considered a beam weapon
• no range dissipation
• unlimited range
• 360° arc
• automatically hits (but can't hit phased ships)
• affected by: shields, Damper Field, Structural Analyzer, Achilles
Targeting Unit.
• unaffected by: High Energy Focus, Hyper-X Capacitors, Displacement
Device.

====================================
11. Weapon space and miniaturization
====================================

A weapon's level of refinement is the number of technology groups in it's category
that are "passed" which are more advanced than the tech group that gave you the weapon.
You don't need to know every tech in a tech group, but the advances you know need
to be such as to cause a change in which technology group you can research in your
technology research screen. A brand new weapon has a level of refinement (LoR) of
0, and the maximum LoR is 5. For example, since a Neutron Blaster is a Physics tech
(4th physics tech group), it will have an LoR of 2 if you have advanced far enough
to start researching Multi-Phased Physics (7th physics tech group). Levels of
refinement allow certain modifications on weapons, and lead to the miniaturization
of most weapons.

The space that a weapon (or system) takes up is multiplied by a "refinement multiplier"
for it's corresponding LoR. The set of refinement multipliers used depends on the
type of weapon. Following is a list of what sets apply to which weapons and systems
(it's incomplete and uses a few guesses):
Set 1: all beams, missiles, bombs, bio-weapons, and shields.
Set 2: torpedoes, Anti-Missile Rockets, Gyro Destabilizer, Pulsar, Plasma
Web, Stasis Field.
No miniaturization: fighters, Extended Fuel Tanks.

Refinement multipliers:
LoR Set 1 Set 2
--- ----- -----
0 1 1
1 0.8 0.8
2 0.65 0.7
3 0.5 0.6
4 0.35 0.5
5 0.25 0.4

For beams, the formula for space is:

final space = round(refMult * roundDown(baseSpace * modMult * pfMult))

where refMult is the refinement multiplier.
modMult is the multiplier from weapon modifications (see below).
pfMult is the "platform" multiplier: 2 for Heavy Mount, 0.5 for
Point Defense.
"round()" means round the contents of the brackets to the nearest
integer, and round 0.5 decimals up.
"roundDown()" means round the contents of the brackets down.

To calculate modMult, the percent changes from all weapon modifications,
except for Heavy Mount and Point Defense, are *added* together. Weapon
arc changes are also added to this: +25 for Extended arcs, +50 for 360°.
Divide by 100 and add 1 for ModMult.

For missiles, the formula for space is:

final space = round(refMult * roundDown(baseSpace * modMult * shotMult))

where baseSpace is the base space for Shot x 5.
shotMult is the multiplier for the number of shots selected.

Shot x shotMult
------ --------
2 0.5
5 1
10 1.5
15 1.75
20 2

The cost of a weapon is calculated very similary to space. The refinement sets used
may be different, and I think the last rounding might be rounding down instead.

=================
12. Miscellaneous
=================

• You can board phased ships if the shield facing is down. :)

===================
13. Version history
===================

v1.0 April 20, 2002
• First version!
v.1.1 May 1, 2002
• Clarified Augmented Engines.
• Added info on how Scout Labs and Galactic Lore probably work.
• Determined orbital base and "no base" bonuses.
• Effect of immobilization on BD.
• Better info on leader skills and racial bonuses.
• Ordnance leader skill explained.
• Turning costs.
• New sources of Missile Evasion discovered.
• Shield hitpoint calculation and Doom Star.
• Figured out that Structural Analyzer and Achilles Targeting Unit only
work with beams and Stellar Converter.
• Added info on weapon space and miniaturization, and corrected a mistake
about mods being multiplicative for space calculation.