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Message: <blockquote data-quote="genshou" data-source="post: 2647239" data-attributes="member: 13164">Disclaimer: In order to accurately calculate expected damage, I would need to compare hardness with every possible damage die roll individually.  The formula listed assumes you are using the rules variant that all weapons simply deal average damage each attack.  The actual damage values come out a bit higher if you actually use the die rolls.PL 7 Upgraded Bulk Freighter vs. Strike CruiserBulk freighter stats:    Defense: 7    Hardness: 30    Weapons and Attack:        Battery of 4 fusion beams +0 ranged (10d8/19-20)    Relevant Defensive Systems: Point-defense systemStrike cruiser stats:    Defense: 11    Hardness: 40    Weapons and Attack:        Battery of 4 antimatter guns +4 ranged (10d8/19-20) and        Battery of 3 plasma missiles -2 ranged (18d8/18-20)    Relevant Defense Systems: Light fortification, magnetic field, particle field, point-defense system.Clearly, this battle is one-sided to the extreme.  But extremes are good.  Extremes let us see how the system breaks down at its furthest edges.When attacking the strike cruiser, the bulk freighter hits on a roll of 15 or higher (because of the strike cruiser’s particle field).  Let’s ignore the rolls of 19-20 for now as we’ll calculate their effect on expected damage later.  Thus, a successful, non-threat hit has a 20% chance of occurring.  A fusion beam deals an average of 45 damage (-40 for hardness), so that’s 5 damage on 20% of rounds, or 1 expected damage per round from rolls between 15 and 18 that may occur on that round.Now let’s look at threats.  On a threat, 70% of attack rolls will be normal (as they will miss the particle-field-adjusted AC of 15).  The other 30% might be a critical hit, but let’s take into account the strike cruiser’s 25% chance to turn a critical hit into a regular hit via its light fortification.  That means that 77.5% of threats (which threats are 10% of all attack rolls) will be regular hits ((45-40)*0.0775=0.3875), and 22.5% of threats (which threats are 10% of all attack rolls) will be critical hits ((90-40)*.0225=1.125).  Adding these two expected damage values to our first gives us our total, below.So, we can expect the bulk freighter to deal 2.5125 damage per round to the strike cruiser… hardly scratching the paint, and easily negated by the occasional damage control check.Let’s try the same thing, but get RID of the batteries and just make them be individual weapons (hell, they’re cheaper that way anyway).  This changes the ship’s partial statistics block as follows:    Weapons and Attack:        4 fusion beams -3 ranged (10d8)Now that I’ve shown an example of where my numbers come from, I’m going to use a simpler and more concise format.Bulk FreighterNotes: Particle field decreases attack bonuses by 4 for energy weapons.  Light fortification converts 25% of critical hits to regular hits.Fusion beam (Qty: 4)Roll 1-17: 0 damageRoll 18-19 (10%): (45-40)*0.1=0.5 damageRoll 20 (5%): 0.221875+0.28125=0.503125 damage    Subroll 1-17 (85% of 5% plus 25% of 15% of 5%=4.4375%): (45-40)*0.044375=0.221875 damage    Subroll 18-20 (75% of 15% of 5%=0.5625%): (90-40)*0.005625=0.28125 damageTotal Expected Damage: 4(0.5+0.503125)=4.0125 damageClearly, it doesn’t do much good either way for the poor bulk freighter, but this is after all a rather one-sided battle.  When we get to the next fight example, we’ll see how a PL 6 bulk freighter’s heavy lasers mounted in a battery play out against a military-upgraded escort ship (the strongest of the ultralight craft vs. the weakest of the mediumweight… how appropriate).  For now, let’s look at the other side of the coin.Our poor bulk freighter is about to get shredded…Strike CruiserNotes: Point-defense automatically negates 20% of missiles.Antimatter gun (Qty: 1 battery of 4)Roll 1-2: 0 damageRoll 3-18 (80%): (45-30)*0.8=12 damageRoll 19-20 (10%): 0.15+5.4=5.55    Subroll 1-2 (10% of 10%=1%): (45-30)*.01=0.15 damage    Subroll 3-20 (90% of 10%=9%): (90-30)*.09=5.4 damageTotal Expected Damage: 1(12+5.55)=17.55 damagePlasma missile (Qty: 1 battery of 3)Roll 1-8: 0 damageRoll 9-17 (80% of 45%=36%): (81-30)*.36=18.36 damageRoll 18-20 (15%): 2.448+9.504=11.952 damage    Subroll 1-8 (80% of 40% of 15%=4.8%): (81-30)*.048=2.448 damage    Subroll 9-20 (80% of 60% of 15%=7.2%): (162-30)*.072=9.504 damageTotal Expected Damage: 1(18.36+11.952)=30.312 damageTotal Overall Expected Damage: 17.55+30.312=47.862Ouch!  But could this warship be beating on this poor, lone, defenseless merchant vessel with even more ferocity if its weapons were not placed in batteries?  Let’s find out.Strike CruiserNotes: Point-defense automatically negates 20% of missiles.  Attack roll for antimatter gun reduced to +1.  Attack roll for plasma missile reduced to -4.Antimatter gun (Qty: 4)Roll 1-5: 0 damageRoll 6-19 (70%): (45-30)*.7=10.5 damageRoll 20 (5%): 0.1875+2.25=2.4375 damage    Subroll 1-5 (25% of 5%=1.25%): (45-30)*0.0125=0.1875 damage    Subroll 6-20 (75% of 5%=3.75%): (90-30)*0.0375=2.25 damageTotal Expected Damage: 4(10.5+2.4375)=51.75 damagePlasma missile (Qty: 3)Roll 1-10: 0 damageRoll 11-18 (80% of 40%=32%): (81-30)*0.32=16.32 damageRoll 19-20 (10%): 2.04+5.28=7.32 damage    Subroll 1-10 (80% of 50% of 10%=4%): (81-30)*0.04=2.04 damage    Subroll 11-20 (80% of 50% of 10%=4%): (162-30)*0.04=5.28 damageTotal Expected Damage: 3(16.32+7.32)=70.92 damageTotal Overall Expected Damage: 51.75+70.92=122.67All I have to say about this is… HOLY SON OF A FREAKIN’ HALIBUT-FISHMONGER!  Why would anyone EVER put weapons in batteries?!Clearly, this is not analysis the d20 Future designers put forth the effort to produce.  Next I'll compare a PL 6 bulk freighter (by the book except that the weapons will be in a battery instead of fire-linked) against an escort with military-level PL 6 technology.</blockquote>

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