STO Math: How Damage is Calculated

[BigBob357]

So last night Sean Hill and I were having a conversation about how the amount of damage your ship puts out is determined, and the issue of "over saturation" of category 1 bonuses. Now, I am by no means a math guru. In fact, I suck at anything form of arithmetic past the basics (*, /, +, -). But I thought the following information would be useful for this who are interested in such things. 

(Cannot get the link to paste properly, but will attempt to get it in here later tonight).

As i understand it, there are two main groups into which most the the bonuses to damage fall into (cat1 and cat2). The majority of these fall into cat1. There are, as you will see in the link, damage bonuses that do not fall into either and are essentially "end multiplers". All the bonuses within each category are added together, and then the totals of both categories are multiplied together. So an extremely simplified version of this equation would  probably look something like:

[(a + b + c) * (x + y + z)] * end multipliers 

So where over saturation comes in is that after a certain point, having too many cat1 bonuses actually begins to dilute your overall damage output. For instance let's say for the sake of argument you had a total of 100 cat1 bonuses and 20 cat2 bonuses, so 100 * 20 which equals 2000. But if you had 50 * 50 you would end up with a damage bonus of 2500. 

So it might seems like an easy fix - just even out the different types of bonuses. Well in theory that may be true, but given what we have to work with its actually much more difficult than it should be, and you would actually need to know the math or have some  perform the calculations for your specific build to deterime what changes to make. 

So how do we apply this knowledge to the average player? Let's say you heard there was a shiny new console, or you heard that there was a reputation piece that another player was using, and you were considerin adding it to your build. Well, it may be a great console, but it may not give you the same boost as it did for them. So before you go and dump your money, real or in-game, you might want to see if it is actually worth it for your particular situation. This is why having people like FCPT Davis, and knowing where the find information like this is so important. 

[VADM Wulfric Richter CoS]

Like you, I am no math wizard either. But what you describe is an increase in the cat2 multiplier. There is no dilution of cat1, but rather an increase in the multiplicative potential. Unless there is a mechanism that dilutes it as a matter of coding in the game, which there likely is, the math doesn't explain the dilution.

If it works like a DDC control loop there is likely a tuning subroutine that dampens the effect of the cats 1 & 2 in order to minimize drift in the calculation and to keep it in a specific set point range that was determined by the devs for balance.

What we need to understand in order to make the adjusted calculation is how that tuning process works. You can use math to figure it out, but that is far beyond my set of skills.

[BigBob357]

Perhsps I've worded this poorly. So when choosing between bonuses to damage, or more commonly, when choosing between a console that has a cat1 damage bonus, and a console that provides a good hull heal. It may actually be more efficient to choose the hull heal console over the damage boost because the effective boost to you damage is negligible.

As for the math, consider this: 

Adding to cat1

100*10=1000

101*10=1010

102*10=1020

Adding to cat2

100*10=100

100*11=1100

100*12=1200

 

So Adding 2 to the cat1 bonus does less for you than adding it to cat2. Again, this is over simplified, to illustrate the point. I will link the page to the actual math when I can get it to work.

[VADM Wulfric Richter CoS]

Ah...I see where you are coming from now. Makes much more sense to me. Thank you for the clarification!

[BigBob357]

Here is the link: http://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/wiki/math

[Wupteedo]

"Knowledge is the ultimate weapon!" - The Book of Kahlass

Qapla'