Of course, those numbers are just rough estimates - I was in a mindset of dealing with future growth and planetary defence more than standard pvp defence at this stage - though this would be effecting me already. Those numbers already mean most ships will be dealing double damage to me by the time they finish killing my ship on the BT. When I go Lazuli Fixer, as is my endgame plan, they will be dealing 3-4 times my normal damage cap before I die just with my current hull.

To be honest I was worried that it scaled too quickly, especially for planet defense and bases. There are two possibilities here - both ships take more damage over time, or only the defender takes more damage. This is also broken down into the choice if this damage increase is done on the defenders side, or the attackers. By this i mean, if the attack formula looks to see how many times your ship has attacked this same target, or if checks to see how many times in total the target has been attacked.

Consider that when attacking something, you will attack a hundred times in a minute. If you can attack 4 times a second, it is 240 attacks. So for every minute you are under attack, you take 20%-40% more damage. Thats a BIG boost already - its a direct increase to damage taken, not simply to attack score where in reality it deals a lot less damage. If 5 people attack you and we are using the cumulative choice for damage calculation you take double to triple damage in just one minute of active online defence.

Many online defenders on exotica withstand attacks for as much as an hour at a time. That is obviously too much, but making a ship crumble after just 2-3 minutes is possibly too far the other way. A large ship build that been EMP'd and under attack for 4-5 mins in total will be taking six thousand damage a hit from just one attacker. Even without the EMP's it is likely to be taking 2-3k damage a hit naturally - and that number will just continue to increase.

At this point, they can continue to grow more and more tanky and defensive of course, but requiring 600 dutranium brackets to stop one or two attacks is a steep price.

Now, if the attacker also takes increasing damage ( I was specificlaly thinking in terms of against planets and bases here) It becomes a lot more tactical. One can choose to attack a thousand times, but will take increasingly huge amounts of damage, unless they pause for a minute before continuing. I do think this is needed, as i already tend to repair less often than the bases I kill... But it is possibly too big a disadvantage. Would need to discuss and play test - bases will be a lot more tanky if everyone needs to take a minute break from the assault every three-four minutes.

So basically, while i think the idea is solid, the rate of damage may need some serious discussion. Below are some more possibilities
Both offer faster extra damage, but the damage increases at different rates. Again, i think one of the big factors is if increased damage is calculated on the attackers count of attacks or the defenders - 1000 attacks by 5 people is only 1k energy spend each attacking.

50 attacks total, 1.2x damage...............25 attacks, 1.1x..........10 attacks, 1.1x
100 attacks total, 1.4x damage.............50 attacks, 1.2x...........40 attacks, 1.2x
200 attacks total, 1.6x damage.............100 attacls. 1.3x..........90 attacks, 1.3x
400 attacks total, 1.8x damage.............200 attacks 1.5x..........120 attacks, 1.4x
800 attacks total, 2.0x damage.............400 attacks 1.6x..........250 attacks, 1.5x
1600 attacks, 2.2x damage...................800 attacks, 1.7x.........360 attacks, 1.6x

etc

This seems way more complicated than it should be, I think.

5% of their total hull and shields, not to exceed their damage cap.

This seems way more complicated than it should be, I think.

You get four of these guns, each with a 1.5% chance to deal an additional* 5% of their total hull and shields, not to exceed their damage cap.

With all four equipped, that gives a 6.14% chance per hit.

*Additional: If you're hitting their cap anyway, and you successfully fire off one of these guns, you'll do twice their cap (if that 5% is more than their cap) - Having a little trouble putting this one into words. Basically it's just extra damage on top of what you'd deal normally, but it can't exceed their cap.

As has been pointed out already, a simple automatic percent makes it too easy. A reck 200 with 1500 e can probably kill anyone in the game.

That's why I want strength ratio to affect the percent it does.

I am going to repeat since I am sure this cause be an issue, anything requiring multiple hits and keeping track WILL cause problems with lag, so even if though this is a great way to scale up the damage, it might not be able to be implement due to the abilities of the servers.

As has been pointed out already, a simple automatic percent makes it too easy. A reck 200 with 1500 e can probably kill anyone in the game.

That's why I want strength ratio to affect the percent it does.

Then don't make it available to rank 200s, and maybe have it like the Radiant Surge Cannons: Its % is determined by the rank that you install them at. I think bewteen 600 - 900 is a good place to start the mission. Make it energy intensive, too.

I'm not quite sure I follow.

How about attack then? Has a chance to increase your attack by, say 30% or 40%?

We have thrown around a few possible ideas to fix this, such as an improved critical hit system, but yet to find the optimum solution But basically - whatever it is will have to either increase or ignore the damage cap in specific circumstances yet to be decided

30x is nice. I'm at 25.537109375 myself.

I really like the general idea of this and would like to talk about it more. Anyone wanna whip up a FB chat to bounce ideas around it?

We have an option to disable/uninstall weapons after successful hack.
What about ability to disable defense modules? Then the amount of damage inflicted would rise and hull will last shorter.
Or the same with other modules (hull/shields).

We have an option to disable/uninstall weapons after successful hack.
What about ability to disable defense modules? Then the amount of damage inflicted would rise and hull will last shorter.
Or the same with other modules (hull/shields).

TIBs take off def mods already. doesn't really fix the problem when they still have 200k hull.

Something like the Sorceress Static Field from Diablo 2 for example. This is probably the best example of a %lowering move based on %health remaining