Any way to add a 'defensive bonus' to hulls?

I'm trying to make hull choice a bit more interesting rather than 90% of the time, 'bigger is better'. I've already added some base speed to the smaller hulls and it's worked out really really well (the early game is more interesting and the AIs seem to do better since they tend to use the default slow small ships).

But in addition I'd like to add a bit of a defensive bonus to the smaller hulls to keep them a bit more viable later in the game. Is that possible and if so, what would be the code to add it?

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

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So you're thinking of making them more resistant to taking direct damage I figure? Pretty sure you need the fortification stat then. Just add it in like all the other stats on the hulls.

<Stats>
      <EffectType>Fortitude</EffectType>
      <Target>
        <TargetType>Ship</TargetType>
      </Target>
      <BonusType>Flat</BonusType>
      <Value>0.2</Value>

</Stats>

Edit: Wow. The code block for XML sucks.

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Actually, as far as I can tell, Fortitude is just like Threat and Value - they are only used to help determine ship role and targeting priority, with no actual battle effects.

To add a defensive bonus, what I have done is just use the same code from the Jamming devices:

<Stats>
      <EffectType>Jamming</EffectType>
      <Target>
        <TargetType>Ship</TargetType>
      </Target>
      <BonusType>Flat</BonusType>
      <Value>0.10</Value>
    </Stats>

Hope that helps.

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You could alternatively use the ArmorRating, ShieldStrength, and PointDefense effect types if you would rather have the defensive bonus show up as an increase in the ship's defenses, though I feel that Sansloi37's choice of jamming makes more sense as a defensive bonus for smaller ships.

You could also use the Multiplier bonus type rather than a flat bonus type if you don't want to get the bonus for free. A bonus which has the 'multiplier' type works on the base value and increases it by a factor of (1 + [value]); if the base value is zero, the bonus doesn't do anything, so you'd need to first add a component which increases the base value of the statistic affected by the bonus in order to see the benefit.

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Awesome. Thanks very much guys. I'll give it a try!

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Could you increase their evasion score? Give them a greater miss chance, which is another version of defense.

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Quoting Stalker0,

reply 5

Could you increase their evasion score? Give them a greater miss chance, which is another version of defense.

That's essentially what Sansloi37's suggested jamming bonus does. It might be possible to do with a speed (or acceleration) bonus, but since as far as I know none of us really know what effects tactical speed and acceleration have in combat, I'd tend to avoid suggesting increasing the speed bonuses.

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could you put a negative value in for the Jamming modifier to make a Huge hull easier to hit?

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Quoting T33J,

reply 7

could you put a negative value in for the Jamming modifier to make a Huge hull easier to hit?

In theory, yes, though I've never tried it and so cannot say with any certainty that it will or will not work.

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I added the defense bonuses. I'm not sure if they worked or not though. There is no UI display for the bonus that I can see. The game didn't error out though so maybe it's working as intended. Thanks again for the assist!

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