Does shield mitigation increase immediately, or only when hull/mitigation rates are updated?

from Sins Forums

I've tried searching and have looked at different descriptions of shield mitigation but have not been able to find an answer. Does shield mitigation increase immediately, or only when hull/mitigation rates are updated? That is, it seems that there is around a 1 to 4-second delay or so between when one ship's projectile/laser/etc hits another and when the shield, hull, and mitigation rates are adjusted. It could make a big difference if you have a very large fleet (or a ton of strikecraft) and your ships are focus-firing - if the listed mitigation % isn't updated immediately, it could mean the difference between doing (450 + 500) damage in your 1st volley and doing (450 + 1000) damage in your first volley. (shield mitigation generally caps after taking 450 damage in a short time)

strategy
7,769 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

THis is a very very good question.  and... iirc... I feel any tests i have done have given conflicting results. 

which means it may depend on the weapon types or something.

but the update certainly happens fast... its not so much the displayed adjustment (which, always reads the number like, 3% to low).. but ticks... and perhaps for certain weapons each weapon updates the shield mitigation per hit, even if they all hit at the same time... and for other weapons, the damage is all lumped together in one big burst.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

While I don't have any evidence specifically for this, given that the game instantaneously keeps track of damage despite it taking a while to show up on the infocard, I would think shield mitigation works the same way. In other words as soon as it takes damage the mitigation will rise for all subsequent hits without delay. Only the Devs can know for sure however, given what tiny margins we're working with and since the infocard display tends to round numbers anyways.

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

If we knew the damage each volley does (infocards display average damage rather than damage done by a volley), it sounds like it would be simple enough to calculate exactly how much damage the target ship should receive in such a situation, turn autofire on for a second to shoot a volley, turn it off again, and compare predicted vs actual results to see which hypothesis seems more accurate.

I highly suspect that the mitigation is increased immediately, but it'd be great to know for certain.

Does anyone know if we have access to that information? (damage per volley, volley rate)

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Wrath89, reply 3
Does anyone know if we have access to that information? (damage per volley, volley rate)
End of Wrath89's quote

Its in the entity files of each ship. You'll still not be able to compute it exactly though. When I said the infocard rounds all the numbers, I meant it. That includes armor values, shields and health and I suspect even mitigation values. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the game keeps track of mitigation beyond the two digits we see, so internally your shield mitigation value could be something like 32.475%.

Granted you can find the actual armor values in the entity files as well, and since the extra mitigation has to be less that 0.5% of the actual that's probably not a big difference. But its just some extra complications to think about.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Key variable names:

DamagePerBank:FRONT 
DamagePerBank:BACK 
DamagePerBank:LEFT 
DamagePerBank:RIGHT

PreBuffCooldownTime

 

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

did some tests with destras vs a single lrm, and the number it takes to one shot...

There does not seem to be a significant difference if they all fire at once, or slightly staggered... which would make me feel like the mititagation is undated instantanious...for destras at least.