Weapons (& shields) in atmosphere

[orfeusz (OP)]

What weapons will work in atmosphere? Missiles of course, but what else?

Also, does shields work in atmosphere?

thanks 

[Dutchling]

I know Meson works in atmosphere. I don't know about the rest.

[Ashery]

Pretty sure that the damage of other beam weapons scales based upon how much atmosphere is present, with full damage at 0atm and none at 1atm. Note that damage gets rounded down, so gauss weapons are pretty much always useless in this situation.

Mesons, however, are unaffected.

Haven't heard anything in particular about shields, so I presume that those would work. Would require you to outfit your PDCs with fuel, though.

[Ziusudra]

Except the game doesn't even give you the option of putting shields on a PDC.

[ZimRathbone]

shields dont work in PDCs - more to do with the proximity of the ground than to do with atmosphere IIRC.

[orfeusz (OP)]

So, only missiles and meson. Thanks

[Hawkeye]

All beam weapons except for meson beams are affected by atmosphere.

Damage of those weapons is reduced by an amount depending on density of the atmosphere.

I do belive it goes something like Damage Reduction = atmospheric pressure x 100 in percent. Damage is rounded down.

This means, a pressure of 0.2 will reduce damage by 20%.

Weapons (such as gauss cannons) that will deal only 1 pt of damage are totally ineffective on any kind of atmosphere, due to the round down.

At a pressure of 1.0 or more, all beam weapons except meson beams become ineffective.


Note: I am not sure the formula is correct, but I _am_ sure, that atmosphere of 1+ renders all beams useless.

Note 2: CIWS work for PDCs, and given they are basicly a Phalanx system on steroids, I don´t see, why they shouldn´t. (Yes, they use gauss cannons, but they are very short ranged, so the atmosphere has not enough time to effect the shots)

[voknaar]

So, only missiles and meson. Thanks

Mesons don't fire as far as other energy weapons of the same tech level so it is best to design them to go into turrets designed for a PD role only.

[Dutchling]

Mesons don't fire as far as other energy weapons of the same tech level so it is best to design them to go into turrets designed for a PD role only.

Do you know what the range is for PDC to PDC combat (same planet)?

[Hawkeye]

As Aurora considers every planetary body as just a point, weapons range does not come into play in that case

[Dutchling]

but what would happen if you fire a missile? What will the distance be it needs to cover?

[Erik L]

Check out the ICBMs in a pre-TN start. They have an effective range of 0. So any missile with any sort of range will have the range to hit targets on the same planet.

[Sudragon2k3]

ICBM's are a special case. They have a 15 minute 'hang time' between launch and impact. Mesons have this time to intercept.

[Dutchling]

So missiles other than ICMB's can only be shot down my final fire mode when shot from the same planet? Wouldn't that mean that there is no way to use your mesons if you don't already have your active sensors turned on?

[voknaar]

I don't know about pdc meson combat but i assume since they are the same location they can attack eachother in atmosphere.