[Spoilers] Disruptor Mechanics

[Lucas Trask]

I've played ES for a while now and I think it's a pretty great game! Right now I'm trying to figure out the finer mechanics of how certain weapons work, specifically disruptors in this case. I know how disruptors work, and I've seen the formula on the "creating outfits" page of the website ( When disrupted, your shields only block 1 / (1 + .01 * disruption) of weapon damage, and the rest pierces through your shields and damages your hull.), but I have three questions on how they work.

1. Does anyone have a way to calculate the disruptor bleedthrough and loss of disruption for each second as opposed to each frame?

2. What is the maximum limit for disruption damage that each disruptor turret can apply?

3. Most importantly, does disruption damage only allow bleedthrough of pure damage or does it allow more special damage, such as ion and heat to have additional shield penetration?

[jafdy]

1. Throw a spreadsheet at it. Well, the remainder will be 0.99^60 after 1 second, so a spreadsheet is not relly required.

2. You can apply limits for this, set the initial and final disruption to something (say; L) now solve for L.

3. I'm guessing it will apply to all damage types (that are effected by shields) but you would need to ask one of the coders.

[Avior]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/404410/discussions/0/1762481957319834875/

Originally posted by Luke5Arman:

Does anyone have a way to calculate the disruptor bleedthrough and loss of disruption for each second as opposed to each frame?

It's not easy without brute-forcing it.

Originally posted by Luke5Arman:

What is the maximum limit for disruption damage that each disruptor turret can apply?

It depends on how many turrets there are. The more disruption a ship has, the more quickly disruption damage can accumulate.

Originally posted by Luke5Arman:

Most importantly, does disruption damage only allow bleedthrough of pure damage or does it allow more special damage, such as ion and heat to have additional shield penetration?

Disruption basically relies on the same system as piercing: each time a projectile strikes a ship, shieldFraction is calculated, based on the ship's current disruption and the projectile's piercing.

While shields are up, shield damage is multiplied by 1 - shieldFraction. (So 100% when shields are up, and (obviously) 0% when shields are down, and in between when they're being disrupted.) Hull damage is multiplied by shieldFraction. (0% with shields up, 100% with shields down, in between with disruption.) Heat, ion, disruption, and slowing damages are multiplied by 1 - 0.5 * shieldFraction. (50% when shields are up, 100% when shields are down, and once again in between with disruption.)

[Lucas Trask]

Thank you very much to both of you for answering my questions! I think I have the information I need. As for calculating it, I think I'll have to set up a script to run it for me, since computers are reportedly good at brute force calculations. Once again, thank you both!

[thorndeux]

Hey, while your question has already been answered, I can add a few things:

The max disruption per weapon is the disruption value per frame (0.24 in case of the Korath Disruptor) multiplied by hundred. This is due to the fact that 0.24 is the max disruption that can be added every frame; at the same time 1% of the target's current disruption value dissipates each frame. Once the target approaches 24 disruption, that 1% will approach the 0.24 that is added by the Disruptor and the disruption value will stabilize there.

The effect of disrupting weapons is hard to calculate in general terms, as the amount of disruption that is added each frame depends on the percentage of shield the target has left. I tackled the same question one or two weeks ago and put together a spreadsheet[docs.google.com] to simulate how different weapon outfit setups would perform against different ships. Warning: it is extremely slow, due to the heavy amount of calculation necessary. You need to make a copy in order to edit and use it.

There are two parts to it:

1. In the first sheet, named 'Weapon Outfit Setups', you can put together several outfits to compare. I have only included a selection of outfits I considered relevant. This will give you a general summary of how the outfits compare in terms of damage vs shields/hull, outfit space, etc.
   
   
2. The second sheet, named 'Damage Simul', lets you check how the different outfits perform against different targets. You gotta input the shield and hull of the target, and the amount of ships with the selected outfits that are attacking the target. The output is how long it takes to remove all shields, and how long it takes to disable the target.

You can ignore the other sheets ('Disruption Aggregate' was an earlier version, before I learned from Avior about shieldFraction and leakage; the 'Inhibitors' sheet lets you calculate how much a target will be slowed down over time when affected by x numbers of Remnant Inhibitors - the input/output is further down the sheet).

Hit me up if you have questions...

[Lucas Trask]

Originally posted by thorndeux:

Hey, while your question has already been answered, I can add a few things:

The max disruption per weapon is the disruption value per frame (0.24 in case of the Korath Disruptor) multiplied by hundred. This is due to the fact that 0.24 is the max disruption that can be added every frame; at the same time 1% of the target's current disruption value dissipates each frame. Once the target approaches 24 disruption, that 1% will approach the 0.24 that is added by the Disruptor and the disruption value will stabilize there.

The effect of disrupting weapons is hard to calculate in general terms, as the amount of disruption that is added each frame depends on the percentage of shield the target has left. I tackled the same question one or two weeks ago and put together a spreadsheet[docs.google.com] to simulate how different weapon outfit setups would perform against different ships. Warning: it is extremely slow, due to the heavy amount of calculation necessary. You need to make a copy in order to edit and use it.

There are two parts to it:

1. In the first sheet, named 'Weapon Outfit Setups', you can put together several outfits to compare. I have only included a selection of outfits I considered relevant. This will give you a general summary of how the outfits compare in terms of damage vs shields/hull, outfit space, etc.
   
   
2. The second sheet, named 'Damage Simul', lets you check how the different outfits perform against different targets. You gotta input the shield and hull of the target, and the amount of ships with the selected outfits that are attacking the target. The output is how long it takes to remove all shields, and how long it takes to disable the target.

You can ignore the other sheets ('Disruption Aggregate' was an earlier version, before I learned from Avior about shieldFraction and leakage; the 'Inhibitors' sheet lets you calculate how much a target will be slowed down over time when affected by x numbers of Remnant Inhibitors - the input/output is further down the sheet).

Hit me up if you have questions...

Thanks for bringing up more in depth stuff! The spreadsheet is a beast, thank you for sharing it!