New to Beta: Question on Damage Mechanics

from Sins Forums
I recently pre-ordered the game and therefore am new to the Beta. (Although the game makes an incredible first impression.)

Being new, I am having trouble understanding the damage mechanics. Each of my ships has two "health" bars a "shield" bar and a "hull" bar. It's clear that when both of these bars are gone that the ship blows up, although the difference between the two bars isn't clear to me.

--- It seems that out of combat, the shield bar regenerates faster than the hull bar, is this true?

--- It seems that the hull bar usually doesn't start going down until after shields are fully depleted, is this true? Are there times when I lose hull before shields?

--- Each ship also has a "shield mitigation" percentage, how does this relate to shield and hull depletion?

--- I've seen two different ships of the same type with different "shield mitigation" percentages. What affects a ship's shield mitigation value?

Thanks a lot for the info.

(Also if there's somewhere other than this forum where I should be looking for the answer to stupid newbie questions, please let me know.)
28,693 views 13 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
It seems that out of combat, the shield bar regenerates faster than the hull bar, is this true?
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Yes, and there are research techs to increase both regeneration rates (as well as amounts). Also, both regenerate in combat as well.

It seems that the hull bar usually doesn't start going down until after shields are fully depleted, is this true? Are there times when I lose hull before shields?
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Yes to both. Traditional weapons need to deplete shields first before they start damaging hulls, but some ships have special abilities that bypass shields and eat away at the hull, and Vasari Phase Missiles have a chance to bypass shields and do direct hull damage.

Each ship also has a "shield mitigation" percentage, how does this relate to shield and hull depletion?
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I've seen two different ships of the same type with different "shield mitigation" percentages. What affects a ship's shield mitigation value?
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The lower the shield hp gets, the more damage it starts to mitigate. At max shields, they mitigate 20% damage (for example, if a weapon does 20 damage and you have 20% mitigation, your shields will take 16 damage), when they get dangerously low, it's common to see 50% or so mitigation. It doesn't relate to hull hp at all beyond buying more time until the hull starts getting damaged.

Hope this helps And don't worry about which forum If you want, feel free to hop on the Sins IRC channel (irc.stardock.com #sins, or from SDC). Myself and others usually sit around there and are generally happy to answer questions
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
The lower the shield hp gets, the more damage it starts to mitigate.
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Mitigation is based on how much DPS the ship is receiving, not how much shielding it has left. The harder you hit it, the stiffer the shields get.
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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Erp, I stand corrected Do the info cards update properly, then? I could swear out of combat when shields regen it still shows a high mitigation percentage, not the default 20% as it would be if it receives no incoming damage? But I could also be blind or just plain old confused
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
It might take a bit for it to drop back down after combat, that I can't recall specifically.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Thanks If that's the case, that would probably be why I thought it was related to shield hp!
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top


Mitigation is based on how much DPS the ship is receiving, not how much shielding it has left. The harder you hit it, the stiffer the shields get.
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That's not quite correct.

Shield mitigation is based on absolute damage a ship receives, not on dps (though it doesn't make that much of a difference in practice).

Mitigation is increased by 0.001 per damage point (ie. 0.1%). It decays at a rate of 0.0125 points per second (1.25%/s). This is regardless if a ship is in battle or not.

Base shield mitigation is 0.2 (20%) and it goes up to a max of 0.6 (60%).

It's clear that when both of these bars are gone that the ship blows up
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A ship blows up as soon as the health bar is at zero, even if it has shields left.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
Thanks a lot for the replies. (Not all games have such friendly and helpful player communities
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
Not all games have such friendly and helpful player communities
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As an added bonus, we have direct communication with the dev team too, which is even rarer!   
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

Hmm ... This would seem to indicate that the lower the incoming DPS on a ship, the less total damage is needed to destroy the ship (assuming all damage is using conventional weapons that don't bypass shields)... interesting mechanic.
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It was designed as a mechanic to reduce the need for FF, but doesn't really work yet.
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
That's not quite correct.
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actually Van, its exactly correct. thanks for the redundant (but far more specific) explanation!
Not all games have such friendly and helpful player communities
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ahahoo... you havent been here very long eh?
well my sarcasm aside welcome to one awesome new game   
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
ahahoo... you havent been here very long eh?
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Yeah, I considered posting a comment about that line, but decided against it... something to the effect of:

Oh, we have our rampaging Schods... er, forum trolls... too!
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
wait... so im tired and slightly confused. DPS stands for what exactly and FF...? maybe ill kick myself for asking as soon as i hit post but its been a long day and i dont quite feel like thinking.

and so your saying the lower the mitigation the more damage is done to the ship, but the higher the "harder" the shealds are, thus protecting the ship more in its time of need...? veryy interesting, i was wondering exactly how this worked mathematically. nice to know.
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
Damage per second and focus fire are common terms, but we all forget things

Shield mitigation is a percentage value of all incoming damage that is negated. It rises as ships take damage, and falls as they don't.