As I understand it, the chance% is a chance to bypass shields 'and' mitigation so whether or not there are any shield points left, you're still getting a chance to ignore the potentially huge mitigation rating.

I'm not completely sure that's how it works but whatever the case, you 'will' notice a difference in how quickly your opponent drops with phase missiles researched.

Someone must know the answer. Why do we need to theorize at all?

Bypassing shield mitigation would be good, but not that great. If you bypass likelyhood is ten percent and you are getting a 50% damage increase by doing it, you are basically even with a simple 5% damage increase. However, it only benefits during focus fire, so attacking a single target would have almost no benefit.

I'd rather have the 5% damage increase. Anyway, we can all agree that the damage increase is probably the same as every other race's. Everything else in this game is direcetly equivalent between all the races, so I'm sure this is too.

More often than not, focusing fire is going to be better for your health than spraying single targets anyway (especially when you're using phase missiles), even 'with' the current mitigation system so that really isn't much of an issue.

The Vasari also have more ships (and turrets) that take advantage of the missile upgrade than the other races so that's another perk.

But it can't. That never happens. You'd need 60%+ likelyhood of bypass for that to work.

The main benefit is clearly that phase missiles do bypass shield mitigation, increasing the damage dealt by a large amount and making phase missiles the by far best upgrade in the game.

But versus Advent it is actually quite likely to be even more effective and kill some ships hulls before their shields are down.

Sorry, the post above was meant to be a lot LESS expensive. Phase chance upgrades are tiers 0,0,2,2,4,4. However, damage bonus to missiles is tier 5. So you can get a 10% passthrough chance for a lower price as a 5% damage boost, not including the cost to build the extra labs.

SINS FORUM OWNERS PLEASE FIX THE FRIGGIN' FORUM EDIT FUNCTION OR AT LEAST MAKE IT CONSISTENT KTHX?

-- Retro

GOTTA love Gravity Bomb + Phase Disruptors for that!

Phase Disruptor - "Oh, look, you're stuck in warp warm-up mode with my fleet just behind you."
use Gravity Bomb - "Oh look, you're stuck in warp warm-up mode again. But now there's less of you."
use Gravity Bomb - "Oh look, you're stuck in warp warm-up mode even againer. And now there's more less of you."
use Gravity Bomb - "Oh look, you're stuck in warp warm-up mode even more againer. And there's even more less of you than the less of you that was there a minute ago."

Repeat ad nauseum until a nice debris cloud forms.

-- Retro

After the research is complete, a miniature version of the Strikecraft's phase drive called a Potprostorr Engine is installed into all the missiles capable of holding such a device. It is limited to missiles, because they can carry enough load to facilitate the engine's main phase drive, the power core(which is mostly one-use) and be fitted with a Space Matrix Cavitation Helix at the nose. That is why cannons cannot benefit from the Phase Missile Technology, and also why it is called Phase Missile Technology. The device itself functions very much differently than a strikecraft's version.
When a Phase Missile is launched, it quickly homes into the target vessel, and starts to accelerate. Complicated monitoring devices inside the missile monitor target ship's activities and the Quantum Calculation Unit begins complex calculations in when to activate the phase drive, how to set it, and how powerful the phase shift should be. Upon reaching approximately 11.2% common-space C, the Space Matrix Cavitation Helix begins to charge it's neutrino release pods. The interaction of neutrino particles with surrounding sparse particles such as hydrogen atoms and the errant ferrum atom then begins to create a field of localised space around the missile that moves with the missile. Once this field reaches a 77% ratio to the normal space within the field's area of effect, the Main Phase Drive can finally be activated to bend this loaclised space itself and reshape the space around it as if the missile and it's own localised field of space did not exist. Once this is accomplished, the missile is considered fully phased out, and achieves a speed well exceeding the speed of light. The standard missile has enough energy supplies to phase itself for just under 0.07 seconds, after which it is thrust back into normal space violently. It is the duty of the previously mentioned Quantum Calculation Unit to ensure this violent thrust back into normal space is achieved after the shields of the target ships have been bypassed. Various factors can influence the results, and some of those factors can not be classified into a calculation. These factors include phase-space eddies(which can increase or decrease the phase-time of a missile and turn it off it's course), sporadic antimatter existance(may lenghten the process of phasing by interfering with the integrity of the localised field of space), target maneuvering(a very minor effect, but important enough to be mentioned) multi-phasic and ascending shield systems(makes the return to normal space inside the shield impossible) and the existence of remote phase disruption equipment(such as those found on phase disruptors, phase stabilisers, Antorak marauders and Stilakus vessels). After thousands of field tests, the reliability of phase missiles has been classified into a 5% effectiveness for the oldest, passive cavitation models, to as much as 25% for the newest, phase-space scanning missiles.
I hope this brief review of the Phase Missile Technology has been insightful for you. If you would like to know more, please peruse the Vasari Tactical Doctrine files 26c and 33b through 33f, as well as the Artifact Archives Codex 7 on the details of phase space mechanics and the devices for phase space interaction.