Damage Compared - D92-U vs. D92-F

In yesterday's analysis of the new prizes, I showed the lower salvo number of the D92-U means that a reload bonus helps the U more than the F.  What I wasn't sure of is whether having more shockwaves created by the U would balance out the greater base DPS of the F.  So I built a calculator and came up with an answer.  

I made some assumptions here... the key assumption is that with either launcher type, you need 120 hits within a 10 second period to trigger a shockwave.  (from the Battle Pirates Wiki) I also assumed a 0.1 second delay between shots within a salvo. The other simplification I made is that no hits or damage is wasted (no overkill, no firing at dead targets).  

For my calculator inputs, I take into account three general areas:  the Weapon, Attacker, and Defender.

Weapon: I use the statistics from the game, and also document the assumption that you need 120 hits in a  10 second period to start generating shockwaves.  If you want to try other assumptions or statistics, go ahead.

Attacker: In this area, the number of launchers used, the attacker's reload bonus, and the attacker's accuracy bonus (or penalty) should be entered.

Defender: In this area, select "Y" for a ship target, or a "N" for a building target.  The evade and Radioactive Defense percentages should be entered as well.

The outputs are as follows:

Net Accuracy (NA): This is the percentage of shots that are expected to hit, given the target type, accuracy, accuracy bonus, and evade.  NA = Accuracy * ( 1 + Accuracy Bonus) * (1 - Evade)
Net Reload Time (NRT): This is the total time between the end of one salvo to the start of the next salvo.  NRT = Reload Time / (1 + Reload Bonus)
Net Damage Per Hit (NDPH): This account for the target type, salvo number, and resistance.  NDPH = (Damage * (1-Defense)) / Salvo
Number of Launchers (NL): (from the attacker area)

Launcher Weight (LW): Number of launchers times weight per launcher - lets you compare total weight.

Hits per Second (HPS): Average number of shots expected to hit the target per second HPS = NL * (NA * salvo) / (NRT + salvo delay * (salvo -1))

HPS/hton: (HPS / total weapon weight) * 100

No Shock Damage Per Second (NSDPS): The weapon DPS without any shockwaves.  NSDPS = HPS * NDPH

NSDPS/hton: (NSDPS / total weapon weight) * 100

Shockwaves per second (SHpS): Given the number of hits per second, the average number of shockwaves generated per second.  If the average time to generate a shockwave is longer than the Shockwave Threshold time (10 seconds), this number goes to zero.  SHpS = HPS / Hits to shockwave (unless less than 1 / Shockwave Threshold Time)

SHpS/hton: (SHpS / total weapon weight) * 100

Shock DPS: DPS from the shockwaves only. Shock DPS = SHpS * Shockwave Damage * (1 - Defense)

Shock DPS/hton: (Shock DPS / total weapon weight) * 100

Total DPS: No Shock DPS + Shock DPS

Total DPS/hton: (Total DPS / total weapon weight) * 100

So here's some example scenarios with enough launchers to ensure shockwaves:

Reload Bonus	Accuracy Bonus	Evade	total DPS/hton
			D92-U	D92-F	D92F DPS Margin
0%	0%	0%	20.53	27.07	32%
50%	0%	0%	29.23	36.21	24%
100%	0%	0%	37.09	43.57	17%
150%	0%	0%	44.22	49.63	12%
100%	-20%	0%	29.67	34.86	17%
100%	35%	0%	50.07	58.82	17%
100%	35%	-20%	60.09	70.59	17%
100%	35%	20%	40.06	47.06	17%
100%	35%	50%	25.04	29.41	17%
25%	0%	Building	28.94	57.50	99%
100%	0%	Building	42.94	78.54	83%
180%	0%	Building	55.80	95.11	70%

The first three columns show the relevant statistics on the attacker or defender, then the next two columns show the DPS/hton for the D92-U and the D92-F, and then the last column shows the percentage more DPS/hton done by the D92-F.

So, for any scenarios where shockwaves are being triggered, the D92-F ALWAYS does more damage per weight than the D92-U.  Of course, if shockwaves are NOT being triggered, it is obvious that the D92-F will be doing more damage, because of its much higher base damage.

The only other factor to take into consideration is whether there are loadouts where using D92-U will trigger shockwaves where an equal weight of the D92-F won't.  I'm going to skip the big table and say... yes there are situations like that, but there aren't many.  This calculator will tell you a shockwave threshold, but it isn't quite accurate because the nature of salvo fire.  For example, if you have 8 D92-F firing at a target with 100% net accuracy, you will trigger the first shockwave after 3.9 seconds (during the second salvo), even though you will trigger a shockwave every 5.5 seconds on average. 

So... play with the calculator below, if you try to compute the number of launchers you will need to trigger a shockwave, you'll end up with at least as many as you need.

Introducing ... the Base Damage Calculator

Another tool?  So quick?

After looking at the beta version of the Survival Time Calculator, PriceIsWrong from Battle Vortex asked me if I could put something together that calculated HP for bases using all the buildings in place and the HP values that xnih extracts so well.

Click here if you are impatient and just want to see the tool

This tool lets you enter the level of each building you have, then computes the HP of that building and the percentage contribution to the entire base HP.  Enter Level 0 if that building isn't built or scrapped.  Then you can enter in the buildings that are destroyed, and see the damage percentage and the "Star" value used for medal computations.

Limitations: 

• HP Values - I'm trusting xnih's values here.  I think only the HP for Level 12 WH have been updated with the higher values from the 2 April 2014 update.  WH levels 1-11 are using the "old" values.

I hope you find this useful - the tool is hosted at: http://bpprofbase.blogspot.com

Just like my Survival Time Calculator, if you find any errors or have suggestions, please let me know in the comments under the posts towards the bottom of the page.

Introducing... The Survival Time Calculator

On a few previous articles, I've referenced a calculation I've done called Survival Time.  The survival time is a metric using characteristics of both the weapon firing and of the target in order to calculate the expected survival time of a single ship being fired upon by a single weapon.  I've built an online calculator that you can use in order to calculate Survival Time for your own ship designs.

For those who are impatient, just click here to go to the tool.

What is Survival Time Really?

Survival time is the expected time that a single ship will survive when being fired upon by a single weapon, calculated in seconds.

Shipbuilding tools like the BP Outpost and Huggy's Ship Builder calculate Weapon DPS and/or Damage Taken from various weapon types.  At its simplest, survival time is Damage Taken divided by DPS.  However, my calculator also accounts for characteristics like Evade, Bonus Damage types, and Plate Armor.  

What Isn't Accounted For?

My calculator isn't perfect - I've listed the limitations I know about below.

• Building Damage: I have used the ship damage values for all weapons - for weapons that have different building damage, you'll have to do some work yourself to calculate the expected survival time of buildings.
• Specials: The weapon statistics are unmodified by any specials, such as Auto-Loader or Concussive Warhead.
• Plate Armor: Kixeye has explained that there is a minimum weapon damage, even if plate armor would cause the calculated damage to be less than zero.  We don't know what that minimum actually is, I have used 0.001 as the minimum damage, but this is probably too low.
• Countermeasures: Any active countermeasures on the target ship are not accounted for.
• Splash Weapons: For Splash weapons (Mortars & Rockets), I use the formula Splash / (3/8 * Spread) to calculate an equivalent accuracy.
• Salvo Time: I have used some generally accepted values for the salvo intervals.  They can be changed.  For Halo & Brimstones I use a 6 salvo with a zero interval to simulate the 6 simultaneous pieces.
• Accuracy / Splash combo:  For weapons that have both an accuracy and splash statistic, I have ignored the splash and used accuracy only.  (Siege Cannon W, S, Z)
• D-92U Launcher: The launcher Shockwave is not accounted for - only the direct hit damage is included in the calculation.
• "Half Damage": It has been stated on the forums that weapons actually do half of their rated damage points against targets.  I'm not sure if that is true or false, and so I have used all weapon and armor statistics as listed in their blueprints.
• Selection of Weapon Types: I have not entered information for every weapon in the game, just a selection of weapons I think may be important.

How Do I Use the Tool?

To use the tool, you should have one to three ship designs that you would like to compare, and go to the Calculator page at http://bpprofcalc.blogspot.com. 

For each design, you need to know the total armor points, evade %, % resistances to each of the 5 damage types, and plate resistances (subtraction) to each of the 5 damage types.  See figures below for the location of the needed data.

Circled data is required - Huggy's Ship Builder

Circled data is required - BP Outpost.com shipyard.  You will need to figure out plate information for yourself.

Enter the data for each ship design in a column.

This example shows two different hull configurations being compared.

Enter the data related to applicable hull and alliance bonuses in the row by each weapon type.  This is broken up by weapon type because some bonuses apply only to particular weapon types.  For example, the alliance Defender bonus applies only to base weapons, or the Stingray Accuracy bonus applies only to Ballistic weapons.  The default reload bonus in the calculator is 35% - 25% from rank and 10% from alliance gunner bonus.  The default accuracy bonus is 20% from alliance gunner bonus.  For mortar and rocket weapons, a splash bonus is used instead of accuracy.  This could be from a hull bonus or a special such as High Explosive Shells.  UAVs have a damage bonus, which could be from Powercells.

Enter the weapon bonuses in the circled areas.

Each row lists the expected survival time for each design against a particular weapon.  If you are evaluating ship designs, the one with the largest number is the best, since that ship would be expected to survive the longest.  The tool automatically shades the survival times from Green to Red for best to worst in each row.

Why Would I Use the Tool?

This tool helps to compare different armor / special configurations, in order to figure out what would last longer against different types of weapon fire.  

Another way to use the tool is to evaluate different weapons against example ships.  The picture above shows how much less effective a Halo is than a Brimstone, since the Halo has a 431.6 second survival time vs a 349.9 second survival time against the ship configuration being compared.

Any weapon not included in the tool can be entered by typing over the statistics of an existing weapon.  Fix any screwups by reloading the page.

Conclusion

I hope this tool is useful - the page is kept up like a blog, and I put release notes below the table.  Use it in conjunction with a ship builder tool, not instead of one.  I'll try to keep it up do date with new weapons. Leave any thoughts and feature requests as comments on that page and I'll try to address them in updates.

The site for the calculator - http://bpprofcalc.blogspot.com