The EDF System's Details and Lore:
The Electromagnetic Energy Dispersion Field, commonly refered to as the Energy Dispersion Field System, or EDF System, is a secondary defense desinged to mitigate damage from energy weapons when shields fail. The EDF's purpose is to spread the damage caused by energy based weapons over a wider area. For example, one square meter of ship armor (a block) affected by a dispersion field will distribute damage from an energy weapon to across adjacent armor plates. An EDF System works by charging the ship's outter hull in order to magnetically attract ions. These ions are then magnetically aligned by the EDF System to direct the flow of energy over the ship's hull.
EDF System Proposition
The amount of energy distributed should be relative to both the number of blocks touching it, and the strength of the field. Say the field has a strength of ten percent. Ten percent of the damage recieved by the "struck" block will be distributed to EACH adjacent (touching) block. So if a block takes 100 damage from an antimater cannon but it is affected by a 10% EDF and that block also has 4 adjacent blocks, it will evenly distribute that damage between the others. Note that this percentage refers to the damage displacement effect, not the power level of the entire system - that is a different percentage (see Power Thresholds).
Adjacent blocks take 10 damage, the "struck" block takes only 60 damage rather than the initial 100 damage.
Power Thresholds
The EDF has power thresholds which determine how wide an area the damage is spread. Below 30%, the EDF will spread power to all "touching" blocks, so no diagonals. At 30% to 90% power, the EDF will allow energy to be spread out over another block in each direction AND to immediately diagonal blocks. At 90% power and above, energy will spread out to 3 horizontal and vertical blocks from the hit block, and two diagonally.
The distribution of a 30%-90% power field (I'm sure I was more wordy than I needed to be there):
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Power level is determined entirely by the overall mass of the ship. Ships with higher mass will need more EDF capacitors to reach a power threshold. A ship with 1k mass will need a x capacitors to reach 100% threshold, whereas a ship with 2k mass will need x^1.2 capacitors. I wonder if surface area of a ship's hull could be easily calculated by the developers, as that might be a better way to handle this. You can add more capacitors to a ship to go "above" 100% threshold. These capacitors act as a backup and only kick in when others are depleted. This will allow ships with many more capacitors to sustain more energy based damage before they fall below the 90% power threshold.
Accessing an EDF System (With "R" like a weapons computer) will instead show an interface where the user can determine the maximum power to draw from the ship's stores per second. The terminal will also display the current power threshold, so you can easily determine if you need more capacitors to reach the desired threshold. The captain of a ship must take into consideration that setting power draw too high will be very bad for a ship taking heavy fire, as that will also reduce power available to weapon systems and shield recharge.
Power is drained from the capacitors based on the amount of damage the initial shot would have dealt to a single block.
As I stated above, power dispersion percentage is different than the power level of the system. Basically, power thresholds are power level thresholds, and percentage of damage transfer can be set at the EDF System Terminal. Total damage transfered is the only factor in power consumption.
Things that the EDF will be able to disperse:
Things the EDF will not affect:
Finally, capacitors that have sustained more than 60% damage will shut down, reducing total power capacity of the EDF System.
The EDF System is designed as a secondary defense only. Your best and first line of defense should always be energy shielding. With the EDF System, your ship will still take damage energy weapons, but it will not be so easy for enemies to punch a hole in your hull if your shields fail.
The Electromagnetic Energy Dispersion Field, commonly refered to as the Energy Dispersion Field System, or EDF System, is a secondary defense desinged to mitigate damage from energy weapons when shields fail. The EDF's purpose is to spread the damage caused by energy based weapons over a wider area. For example, one square meter of ship armor (a block) affected by a dispersion field will distribute damage from an energy weapon to across adjacent armor plates. An EDF System works by charging the ship's outter hull in order to magnetically attract ions. These ions are then magnetically aligned by the EDF System to direct the flow of energy over the ship's hull.
EDF System Proposition
The amount of energy distributed should be relative to both the number of blocks touching it, and the strength of the field. Say the field has a strength of ten percent. Ten percent of the damage recieved by the "struck" block will be distributed to EACH adjacent (touching) block. So if a block takes 100 damage from an antimater cannon but it is affected by a 10% EDF and that block also has 4 adjacent blocks, it will evenly distribute that damage between the others. Note that this percentage refers to the damage displacement effect, not the power level of the entire system - that is a different percentage (see Power Thresholds).
Adjacent blocks take 10 damage, the "struck" block takes only 60 damage rather than the initial 100 damage.
Power Thresholds
The EDF has power thresholds which determine how wide an area the damage is spread. Below 30%, the EDF will spread power to all "touching" blocks, so no diagonals. At 30% to 90% power, the EDF will allow energy to be spread out over another block in each direction AND to immediately diagonal blocks. At 90% power and above, energy will spread out to 3 horizontal and vertical blocks from the hit block, and two diagonally.
The distribution of a 30%-90% power field (I'm sure I was more wordy than I needed to be there):
*
* * *
* * * * *
* * *
*
Power level is determined entirely by the overall mass of the ship. Ships with higher mass will need more EDF capacitors to reach a power threshold. A ship with 1k mass will need a x capacitors to reach 100% threshold, whereas a ship with 2k mass will need x^1.2 capacitors. I wonder if surface area of a ship's hull could be easily calculated by the developers, as that might be a better way to handle this. You can add more capacitors to a ship to go "above" 100% threshold. These capacitors act as a backup and only kick in when others are depleted. This will allow ships with many more capacitors to sustain more energy based damage before they fall below the 90% power threshold.
Accessing an EDF System (With "R" like a weapons computer) will instead show an interface where the user can determine the maximum power to draw from the ship's stores per second. The terminal will also display the current power threshold, so you can easily determine if you need more capacitors to reach the desired threshold. The captain of a ship must take into consideration that setting power draw too high will be very bad for a ship taking heavy fire, as that will also reduce power available to weapon systems and shield recharge.
Power is drained from the capacitors based on the amount of damage the initial shot would have dealt to a single block.
As I stated above, power dispersion percentage is different than the power level of the system. Basically, power thresholds are power level thresholds, and percentage of damage transfer can be set at the EDF System Terminal. Total damage transfered is the only factor in power consumption.
Things that the EDF will be able to disperse:
- Antimatter weaponry
- Plasma weaponry (if implemented)
- Photon weaponry (photon torpedos, lasers, etc. - if implemented)
- Siphon Beams (like powerdrain) will drain power from the EDF before draining power from the ship's power supplies. Siphon beams will deplete power from EDF capacitors at a very high rate
- Ion Beams (if implemented) will briefly overload the system and distrupt the ions across the ship's hull, disabling the effect until the system can compensate for the fluctuations in its ion field.
Things the EDF will not affect:
- Conventional torpedos and missiles
- Mass weaponry like railguns and ramming (if implemented - would love to see ramming frigates like in Homeworld: Cataclysm!)
- Dis-Integrater and other explosives
Finally, capacitors that have sustained more than 60% damage will shut down, reducing total power capacity of the EDF System.
The EDF System is designed as a secondary defense only. Your best and first line of defense should always be energy shielding. With the EDF System, your ship will still take damage energy weapons, but it will not be so easy for enemies to punch a hole in your hull if your shields fail.
