On 2011-02-09 19:15, Gejaheline wrote:
Disclaimer: When I say "armour" here I refer to basically any source of ship integrity, including shields, particularly if they heal themselves.

Let one armour plate repair at 1HP/second. (Note: not actual in-game number.)

No damage: 0HP repaired per second.

One armour plate is damaged: 1 HP is repaired per second. Repair rate is 1HP/s.

Two plates are damaged: 1 HP is repaired/second per plate, so total repair rate is 2HP/s

Thus, as more components are damaged, the total rate that a ship is repaired increases.

A ship being shot at from one arc will repair 1HP per second. When the plate is breached and the plate beneath it begins taking damage, both plates will regenerate, so the total regeneration rate for that facing will be 2HP/s, which is double the rate.

Any given component will repair at a fixed rate regardless of damage to other components, yes, but overall it's far better to take damage to as many components as possible because that gets you the maximum possible regeneration rate.

Example: Your gun deals 2 HP of damage per second. You are shooting an enemy ship that heals at the above rate.

Hitting the first armour plate, every second it regenerates 1HP, which leaves one HP of damage that must be repaired in the next second, but since you're constantly piling on damage it can't repair as quickly as you're hurting it.

However, you then get to the second layer. What happens here is that the first armour plate regenerates 1HP every second still. This soaks up 1HP of damage, and the other 1HP falls through to the second armour layer.
Because this layer can also repair, it promptly repairs that 1HP of damage, leaving it at full hitpoints until you find a way to deal more damage.

Obviously this is an extreme case where the damage is barely enough to overcome regeneration to start with, but it demonstrates the point that a ship's resistance to damage by way of repairs or regeneration increases when more components take damage. This can pose a problem when, for example, ten reloads are being pointed at a target, since you have to multiply the number of reloads by the number of damaged components to get the effective repair rate.

Any kind of damage to self-repairing components benefits from this regeneration increase, which is why the best situation for a ship regen-wise is to be on the second layer of defence on every arc, but the relatively slow regeneration rate of unassisted armour/shields prevents this from becoming overly powerful. Adding reloads can result in situations where a ship cannot be damaged because its repair rate suddenly doubles when the first defensive layer is breached.

Obviously, this is primarily a concern when actually in-combat, where your raw HP regeneration rate is an important factor in reducing incoming damage. Out of combat, the deciding factor for repair time to 100% is your most damaged component.

Note that "HP gain rate" and "time for components to reach 100%" are two subtly different things: A ship with 100 armour plates at 0% will reach 100% at the same time as a ship with 1 armour plate at 0%, but the ship with 100 armour plates will repair 100 times more hit points in a given period of time.

In conclusion, I'd like to see some kind of mechanism where reloads only have a certain HP repair rate which is divided evenly amongst all damaged components.

Stay tuned; I might write yet another rambling, incomprehensible post at some point.

tl; dr: Damaging one armour plate/shield causes regeneration. Damaging two armour plates/shields causes double that regeneration. Stacking 10 reloads on two damaged armour plates is like stacking 20 reloads on a single damaged plate, which is a problem for people shooting at them.

On 2011-02-10 00:51, Cory_O wrote:
Edit: The reason I am talking about depot planets is because they are what this entire thread is really about.

On 2011-02-09 19:15, Gejaheline wrote:
Let one armour plate repair at 1HP/second. (Note: not actual in-game number.)

No damage: 0HP repaired per second.

One armour plate is damaged: 1 HP is repaired per second. Repair rate is 1HP/s.

Two plates are damaged: 1 HP is repaired/second per plate, so total repair rate is 2HP/s

Thus, as more components are damaged, the total rate that a ship is repaired increases.

On 2011-02-09 19:15, Gejaheline wrote:
Disclaimer: When I say "armour" here I refer to basically any source of ship integrity, including shields, particularly if they heal themselves.

Let one armour plate repair at 1HP/second. (Note: not actual in-game number.)

No damage: 0HP repaired per second.

One armour plate is damaged: 1 HP is repaired per second. Repair rate is 1HP/s.

Two plates are damaged: 1 HP is repaired/second per plate, so total repair rate is 2HP/s

Thus, as more components are damaged, the total rate that a ship is repaired increases.

A ship being shot at from one arc will repair 1HP per second. When the plate is breached and the plate beneath it begins taking damage, both plates will regenerate, so the total regeneration rate for that facing will be 2HP/s, which is double the rate.

Any given component will repair at a fixed rate regardless of damage to other components, yes, but overall it's far better to take damage to as many components as possible because that gets you the maximum possible regeneration rate.

Example: Your gun deals 2 HP of damage per second. You are shooting an enemy ship that heals at the above rate.

Hitting the first armour plate, every second it regenerates 1HP, which leaves one HP of damage that must be repaired in the next second, but since you're constantly piling on damage it can't repair as quickly as you're hurting it.

However, you then get to the second layer. What happens here is that the first armour plate regenerates 1HP every second still. This soaks up 1HP of damage, and the other 1HP falls through to the second armour layer.
Because this layer can also repair, it promptly repairs that 1HP of damage, leaving it at full hitpoints until you find a way to deal more damage.

Obviously this is an extreme case where the damage is barely enough to overcome regeneration to start with, but it demonstrates the point that a ship's resistance to damage by way of repairs or regeneration increases when more components take damage. This can pose a problem when, for example, ten reloads are being pointed at a target, since you have to multiply the number of reloads by the number of damaged components to get the effective repair rate.

Any kind of damage to self-repairing components benefits from this regeneration increase, which is why the best situation for a ship regen-wise is to be on the second layer of defence on every arc, but the relatively slow regeneration rate of unassisted armour/shields prevents this from becoming overly powerful. Adding reloads can result in situations where a ship cannot be damaged because its repair rate suddenly doubles when the first defensive layer is breached.

Obviously, this is primarily a concern when actually in-combat, where your raw HP regeneration rate is an important factor in reducing incoming damage. Out of combat, the deciding factor for repair time to 100% is your most damaged component.

Note that "HP gain rate" and "time for components to reach 100%" are two subtly different things: A ship with 100 armour plates at 0% will reach 100% at the same time as a ship with 1 armour plate at 0%, but the ship with 100 armour plates will repair 100 times more hit points in a given period of time.

In conclusion, I'd like to see some kind of mechanism where reloads only have a certain HP repair rate which is divided evenly amongst all damaged components.

Stay tuned; I might write yet another rambling, incomprehensible post at some point.

tl; dr: Damaging one armour plate/shield causes regeneration. Damaging two armour plates/shields causes double that regeneration. Stacking 10 reloads on two damaged armour plates is like stacking 20 reloads on a single damaged plate, which is a problem for people shooting at them.