this small ship theory is exactly my stratergy. I am a little underpowered at the moment but getting to a nice balance. would really like some more info on ship size damage cap tho. i have capped my decks at 149 small enough to have evasion but decent deck space to play with. if a scout is an x-wing fighter i think i'd be a Millenium falcon

Does that make defense and shields more important than hull? That means you should focus on defense and shields over hull but you still need a equalibeium ( can't spell it)


p.s is that the correct way to use a equaliberium?

It's spelled equilibrium. And yes, you can use equilibrium that way.

From what I can surmise, if you're going ultra small, you don't need to worry so much about defense, as your damage cap takes care of that for you. Just stock up on whatever else you need - but remember, bigger scanners, etc. take more space, and eventually you might need a bigger ship, which means more defense, etc. I just did a scan blitz, and used 360 decks for the scanners alone, not to mention the various other special modules that add to scan.

I think the small ship strategy can work if you get a legion that is willing to share planets and focus on artifact production. The artifact production will give you hull shields and crew which do not take up any size. You can get enough equipment from npc drops to fill your small ship that you will not need to do much research. You could also get enough credits from legion friends or legion members to pay for your upkeep. I would be interested in seeing the small ship strategy work, if your focus is not on pvp then you can join Mostly Harmless.

I'm sure someone can generate the formula with the infomation you given, I might not but i'm sure someone can.
but the last part means I can tell what the damage cap for each ship is?

I think someone did in another thread but I don't remember where I saw it.

I'm working on the formula right now, recording all the combat logs and NPC stats. So far:

XP per shot = 8-13, average seems to be 10.5 (2.1 XP/energy/shot) + kill award XP/shot varies by attack strength (some NPC I have seen 30 XP for 5-6 shots = 5-6 XP/shot, mostly lower def + low-mid life NPC). Anyone who logged XP for a bunch of shots and got different result please post. The upper limit I assume is defined by the enemy "hull limit" (damage limit per shot if any). I don't know if "winning" a round has any effect on XP but I think it doesn't, I also don't see a pattern to "crits" on either side yet.

It being mentioned as as hyperbolic tangent formula means to me, having significantly more attack/def than the opposing stat will yield diminishing returns, but so far I am seeing more of a linear relationship; there is also some significance to the difference between your stat and NPC stat I haven't figured out yet. It looks like if they were equal we'd see about 50 damage on average, but 1000:1000 would probably be double the damage of 500:500.


970 att (me) average damage by NPC def:
750 = 59
700 = 69
650 = 77.5
590 = 98
558 = 102
500 = 139
409 = 144

360 def (me) average damage by NPC att:
1014 = 149
700 = 104
600 = 83
590 = 81
409 = 63.5
300 = 45.6
150 = 24.4

Experience:
Dark Velocitor VIII = 95 + 20 kill bonus, 9 hits, 2.56 XP/energy

Drannik Replicator II (detail) = 11, 13, 11, 10, 12, 13 = 70 (perhaps lucky XP rolls)
Total XP = 70 + 23 kill bonus = 93
XP/HIT = 15.5
XP/ENERGY = 3.1 (pretty good)


Observation:
970:409 ~ 144 ; 360:1014 ~ 149 ; closest mirror, NPC is following same rules on attacking me.

Sample size is still too small to be precise. Defense is normally less than attack, so I'm only getting one side. Not sure if it's the ratio of att:def or the difference between att:def here. My advise for best farming is to attack the lowest defense NPC first when you can, it tend to yield more XP overall since you can kill it quickly (even if the XP kill bonus is a bit smaller).

perhaps this means that the attack determines base damage linearly and the attack:defense ratio determines a modifier with diminishing returns.

so that a 100 attack against 100 defense will deal the base damage of a 100 attack
and then if the defense is higher deal less damage and if it is lower deal more damage.

I then switched to a higher attack mode, shield amped and let regen do the work instead of defense. Here are my encounters and the average damage I dealt (note I was taking hull/2 myself with no defense except on the weakest NPC):

My stats at the time -- Attack: 1474 / Defense: 37

NPC by defense:

Defense: 940
Damage : 78.5

Defense: 600
Damage : 137.3
Defense: 600
Damage : 158.7

Defense: 500
Damage : 161
Defense: 500
Damage : 160.5
Defense: 500
Damage : 145
Defense: 500
Damage : 169.5

Defense: 418
Damage : 207.5
Defense: 418
Damage : 200.75