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[ekolis]

Hmm, that's odd. I thought disruptors were supposed to be somewhat shield piercing. But Girlinhat's shields completely blocked several of my disruptor blasts...

[Girlinhat]

Disruptors can more easily penetrate deflector shields, which are 'leaky' shields, while a Shield is a hard shield, comparable to solid armor.

You'll notice the damage to my structural segment, as your dizzy penetrated the deflector, reducing but not nullifying damage.  Luckily it's not enormous damage.

[SuicideJunkie]

Disruptors do get 10% piercing vs solid shields, while lasers don't at all.

Part of the problem is also that you're using pulse disruptors at 11dmg/shot x2 shots rather than heavy disruptors at 20dmg/shot.
Its a lot harder to pierce the shield with ~7 dmg particles at the front of the blast than the ~12 dmg particles leading a heavy dis.

And when she's got a deflector sapping 40% of your shot off the top, its really hard to get through the underlying shield.

Overall, that initial exchange is showing where 200 DPS vs 225 shields crushes your forward shield block, but 44 DPS vs 210 shields just makes a respectable dent.


Where the math will really hurt is when turbolaser blasts of 7pts spread over two 4dmg particles go through TWO deflectors each sapping up to 60% leaving maybe 1 damage to then plink off the 1-4 pts of emissive armor protection and not even reaching the wall of armor behind it.
I wasn't kidding when I said that's the toughest ship in the game

[Neonivek]

Ok, I have to ask

What does Newtonian Space mean exactly?

Because I know how physics would work under Newton's law, for example Faster then Light travel is very easy under Newton's law (Object in motion stays in motion, energy cannot be created or destroyed, and the mass of an object during acceleration is linear), in fact Fireball XL5 functions by such (It uses a really powerful rocket engine)

But I have a feeling that isn't what Newtonian space means.

[Draxis]

It means that linear (in this case, not rotational) momentum is conserved, so when a ship accelerates in a given direction it stays moving that way, and there is no top speed.

While you could theoretically go faster than light, the run up would be ridiculously long, and there aren't any units of measurement anyway, beyond 'hexes' or 'damage'.

[SuicideJunkie]

Regarding your physics mentions:
1) Objects in motion do stay in motion.  Exploded ships will drift away in the direction they were last moving, and you either need retros or to turn around and thrust in order to stop your ship.

2) Energy is effectively destroyed when you spam lasers into deep space, or thrust your beefy engines or run your magitech shields.  Energy is created slowly by reactors from nothing.  An EMP warhead plus sufficient quantities of energy absorbing armor would also make a perpetual motion machine.
3) Mass doesn't change unless you get your bits shot off or you build more bits and weld them on using a fabber and clamps or drydocks.
4) The speed of light (and lasers and disruptor bolts) is infinite here.  So you can't actually travel faster than it.


Though, speaking of energy creation, I do want to make some light, flimsy and retractable "solar" panels for satellites and/or fighters to use when it is quiet, then retract for safety during combat.

[Girlinhat]

The main "Newtonian Physics" in play here, is the acceleration and drifting.

[Neonivek]

The speed of light (and lasers and disruptor bolts) is infinite here.  So you can't actually travel faster than it

Possibly, but you can more then reach the real life light speeds.

As well since light speed is infinite it means there is "Instant communication over stellar distances" since there is nothing to dictate signal decay.

[SuicideJunkie]

1) Yes, you can reach any arbitrary speed such as 300,000 hexes per turn.

2) No.  Communication would be instant, but signals will still decay.
The background noise levels will not be affected, but your signal still would fall off at 1/r².
Or, since this is a 2D universe, the signal falls off at 1/r here.  (warhead explosions do suffer a 1/r penalty on damage)

[ekolis]

Figured I might as well start a little AAR for my side of the battle...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Turn 1:
Holy moly, that ship to the west has a lot of lasers! I think we're going to go for the easy pickings in the east...

Turn 2:
Oh no, the laser doomship, which is apparently called the "Fennec", is headed straight for us! Change targets!

Turn 4:
Hmm, that didn't hurt THAT bad. Still, we can't take too many hits like that, so best to try and sneak behind them...
They have absolutely zero weapons on all but the forward facing, and their wing shields look a bit weak. If we could just break one of those wings off...

Turn 5:
Hah! Caught you off arc! And the northern ship, the Invincible, is headed this way... let's see if they're friend or foe...

Turn 6:
Ouch, that hurt a bit. Port aft retro engine seriously damaged. Still, consistently hitting the Fennec's wing is bound to be good...
Disruptors are running low on charge, as are the forward shields. Making a brief retreat... maybe the Invincible can distract the Fennec for a bit!

Turn 7:
FORWARD SHIELDS ARE DOWN! REPEAT, FORWARD SHIELDS ARE DOWN! Critical damage to forward retro drives, disruptors, and shield generators! Nothing that can't be repaired given time, fortunately.
Oh. Apart from that one engine. Could have sworn it was there a moment ago...
Thankfully our ship has the best acceleration of any of the ships in this fight, so we can afford to retreat for a bit!

Turn 20:
Our shields are almost fully regenerated; we are returning to battle. The Invincible is moving to engage. We should be in weapons range in approximately 3 turns. Hopefully our shields will hold out longer against this less heavily armed foe. Though their defenses are impressive, so it will take time to wear them down...

Turn 23:
A showdown of pulse disruptors vs. heavy... let's see which is better! Making a slight course adjustment to maximize distance to the target while staying in range; since our pulse disruptors are more accurate than their heavy disruptors, and they are a larger target from this angle than we are, this should improve our chances of hitting without being hit in return.

Turn 25:
Forward shields are down to 75% from the Invincible's first volley. Our shots seem to have been completely sapped by their deflectors and emissive armor, though. We'll be on top of them next turn, though, so maybe we can pull off some sort of tricky maneuver...
Also, the Fennec is closing in once again. Who will she attack?'

Turn 26:
Looks like our maneuver paid off; we're now out of the Invincible's main weapons/armor arcs. And what's this? They lowered their deflectors??? FIRE ALL THE DISRUPTORS!!! Well, OK, just the forward ones; no need to fire the broadsides in celebration...
However the Fennec is drawing dangerously close; they should be in range in 1-2 turns...

Turn 27:
MASSIVE DAMAGE ACROSS THE ENTIRE... oh, wait. It was just an EMP. Someone seriously needs to fix the damage control consoles... they seem to go haywire when an EMP is detonated! And it didn't even do all that much damage to the shields!
Unfortunately the EMP has also scrambled our sensors, making it difficult to determine how much damage we inflicted last turn... I wonder if it's even worth firing again this turn, now that the Invincible is facing us? We didn't do any serious damage last time we attacked them head-on. Perhaps it would be better to deal with the greater threat of the Fennec?

Turn 28:
Odd... Why didn't Fennec fire? They have plenty of energy... Unfortunately they're going past us so fast that we won't have time to turn around to face them, due to our loss of an engine. Starboard broadside away... here goes nothing!

Turn 29:
As expected, that didn't really do much. But now Fennec is tearing into Invincible, and has significantly weakened their forward deflectors! This might be a good chance to take potshots at both of them... if all else fails, we can always go hunt down Erdock and make sure they don't build some sort of heavily fortified base while everyone else is busy slugging it out!

Turn 36:
While the Fennec was distracted with the Invincible, we've managed to sneak around to their starboard side. They'll have a little surprise coming...

Turn 38:
The Fennec is still busy chasing the Invincible, so we were able to put a few disruptor bolts into one of their main drives! Unfortunately we'll be drifting out of range soon, but we should be able to come back into range shortly...

Turn 41:
Oh, how convenient! The Invincible is moving into weapons range! *blam blam blam*

Turn 42:
Dang, most of those shots just grazed the Invincible's emissive armor coating, doing no actual damage... of course, they're wasting so much power keeping their now-useless deflectors up that they might run out of energy before this battle is over!

Turn 43:
And it looks like this salvo knocked a few emissive coatings loose from around Invincible's gunport; that's bound to be useful. Their shot glanced harmlessly off our shields; they don't seem to pose much of a threat at the moment. To continue fighting them, or to chase after the Fennec and risk getting knocked out already? Decisions, decisions...

Turn 49:
Accelerating past the Fennec on our approach paid off, as it caught them off guard, allowing us to slip out of their weapons arc and fire at them from the side! Engines jutting just slightly out of our shields are proving to be more vulnerable than anticipated against heavy turbolaser fire, though...

Turn 53:
We retreated for a bit to recharge our shields. For some reason, though, the Fennec has turned around and is pursuing the Invincible. This might be a chance to sneak up on them from behind!

Turn 63:
Flying past the Fennec, gonna blast them... GAH! They went southeast, and now they're out of arc of our main guns! And we almost lost another retro drive... gotta turn the strong shields to face them...

Turn 64:
What's this? The Invincible is returning to the fray? With 31% energy reserves - and they're raising SHIELDS? This should be interesting...

Turn 65:
Oh, damage reports! Didn't even notice those were ready due to all the smoke on the bridge! Hmm, could have sworn we used to have TWO forward disruptors... this will make things much more difficult...

Turn 74:
A wild Invincible draws near! *blam* (note the lack of multiple blams due to that missing disruptor )

Turn 77:
IT'S A TWAP! Somehow we find ourselves sandwiched between the Invincible and the Fennec! Fortunately the Invincible, like our ship, has only one main gun remaining, and only a smidgen of power left, so they won't be that much of a threat...

Turn 78:
...lolwut... did the Invincible just self destruct or something? Never seen a ship take THAT much damage before...

To be continued...

[SuicideJunkie]

FFA update (turn 10):
Ed has suffered a ton of hull damage from Girlinhat's main battery.
He'll be out of the fight for 15 turns to rebuild shield strength, 35 turns to fix the hull damage.
He's also lost one of his left hand engines, so Ed's main advantage in maneuverability has taken a huge hit.  Still top in forward acceleration, but turn rate and strafe movement is crippled by about 1/3rd.

Girlinhat has suffered moderate hull damage to the port wing (30 turns to repair), and the engine shield is at half strength.
Dessard has punched a shot through the port shield and it has collapsed, but the engine did not take any actual damage.  She's out of range of Dessard now, but will be facing a scary amount of fire from USEC's guns shortly.

Dessard has fired off one of his EMP missiles.  That is unfortunate, as they could have been detonated multiple times if they remained attached to the ship for recharging (dropping the shields and relying on the emissive armor for protection while the blast washes past).  Still, if it scores a good hit and the disruptors can capitalize on the opening in the defences, it will have been worth while.
As Girlinhat's is the only ship incapable of harming this ship, attacking her first is a questionable tactic.

USEC has gotten hit hard in the aft section by Girlinhat, but did not lose any components, and now has the armor umbrella oriented and guns oriented properly. it will be 30 turns to clear most of the damage, and 70 turns to repair the hull.



Odds update:
Girlinhat: 3:5  (35%) #Slightly worse - Weaker defence is taking a toll, and there are a lot of guns.
Ed:  1:3      (25%) # Unchanged - damage compensated by weakened other players
USEC:  1:4 (20%) # Unchanged - heavy damage taken, but now in a good tactical position
Dessard:  1:4  (20%) # Net boost thanks to weakened position of other players

[Girlinhat]

As Girlinhat's is the only ship incapable of harming this ship, attacking her first is a questionable tactic.

This was not his choice.  I intentionally slid past the opening volley and into his side.  I like his ship.  I wish to see it in pieces.

[Draxis]

My ship is the one with all the emissive armour.  That's USEC you're attacking.

[Graknorke]

PTW.
This is a play-by-post type game right?

[Draxis]

Sort of; you download the game state from a remote host, then upload orders made through the game client to that host, which will process them and put up new state files.  The posts people are making are more AAR-type descriptions.