------------ |ASCENDANCY| ------------ SHIP & PLANET BALLISTICS/GIZMO TESTING - Ver 1.0, 05/22/05 Written by Nathan Williams Copyright 1996-2005 Nathan Williams (StarTours@collegeclub.com) This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright, so there! This guide should give you almost everything you ever wanted to know about weapons, both ship and planetary, in Ascendancy. I also go over some of the gizmos and the planetary shields. It should probably be broken up into a couple different guides, which I am looking to do eventually. I created this back in 1996 and is finally seeing public eyes now. WEAPONS CHART What it is: This is more simple than it looks. You will see the following are all represented; the 10 weapons & 1 gizmo used for ship-to-ship combat in the game, the 4 different hull types and the 5 different power units. (The Disintegrator is a gizmo that really is a ship-to-ship weapon, but since it obliterates any ship, I thought listing its damage as 100% every time would be redundant. Not to worry, Disintegrator power testing can be found within the GIZMO CHART.) Columns defined: Weapon - What weapon was used in the test. The ATTACKING ship hull size has NO EFFECT on weapon power. The Myrdmonic Carbonizer is included on this list, even though it is a gizmo. It acts very similar to a weapon, and thought it was close enough to add to this list. Enemy Hull - What size hull the weapon was fired against. Power unit - What type of power was on board the attacking ship. The unit in this column was the ONLY type of power onboard the ship to produce accurate results. Amnt power used - The fraction of power consumed by ONE of the types of Power Unit when firing the Weapon ONCE. For example, here is one ABBREVIATED row taken directly from the chart: Weapon Power unit Amnt power used Ubrlsr Quark Exp 1/2 To interpret Amount of power used per unit, one shot from the Ueberlaser uses the power of 1/2 of ONE QurkExprss. Thus, ONE QurkExprss could fire 2 Ueberlaser shots (1/2 + 1/2 = 1), TWO Quarks could fire 4 shots, and so on. NOTE: If you see a *(3/8) in this column, the power used does not have a perfect fraction. Instead, the game employs something along the lines of 3P-1=S, where P is the TOTAL number of power units used and S is the TOTAL number of shots you can take with the weapon. For example, if you used 3 units of power for a certain weapon with a *(3/8) you could fire the weapon in that same row (((3*3)-1)=9-1=8) 8 times. For all intents and purposes, use the fraction 3/8, keeping in mind you will not completely drain your power should you use this fraction, but it will be VERY close to drained. Hull Dmge units - The amount of damage done to the Enemy Hull type. All ships were tested without shields. Here is a breakdown of the strength of each type of ship: Ship Number of Hull Damage Units Small 10 Medium 20 Large 30 Enormous 40 A ship's hull strength is represented by the small little blue globes in a ship's status window ... you see 9 of them, but the system uses units as listed above ... plus it makes the math A LOT easier! Thus, if the damage caused is 1 and you are firing on a Small Hull, you would need to fire the same weapon 9 more times to destroy the ship as 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1=10. If you see the word "Dstry" listed in this column, then one shot from the given weapon will destroy the given Enemy Hull. Hull %Dmge - An exact or very close approximation of the damage done to the Enemy hull. Helpful if you are using more than one type of weapon to attack with or the concept of the Hull Dmge column makes your head hurt. #uses per day - How many times ONE weapon unit may be used in ONE given day, provided you have enough power to fire it. Range - At the "bottom" of each system, you have the option of displaying a blue grid. The range is the maximum distance, or number of blue grid squares, you can fire the weapon at another ship (or planet, but we'll get to that later). NOTE: For these numbers to be accurate, you MUST be zoomed all the way OUT while viewing the system screen. In other words, zoom all the way OUT, make the grid lines nice and straight, make sure the height above or below the grid lines is about equal for the two ships and count on the grid the number of squares one ship is away from another ship along the same axis. Range w/ Accu - The Accutron doubles the effective range of any weapon (NOT GIZMOS!) for the attacking ship during that day. This column is for easy reference or for those who, again, don't like doing math. Practical application: Two Medium, hostile ships have left an enemy world and you think they are coming for you. You only have time to build one ship, but want to make sure it can handle both hostiles quickly. You have researched weapons up to the Plasmatron and power units up to the QurkExprss. How many Plasmatrons, how many power units in Quarks and what type of ship is needed to destroy BOTH hostile Med ships in one day? 1. Weapons - We are going against Med hulls, so focus on the Enemy Hull column and look for Med. For the Plasmatron against a Med hull, it can do 4 out of 20 units of damage per shot, as Med ships can take 20 units of damage. Thus, we need 5 Plasmatron shots per Med ship; with 2 Med ships, we need a total of 10 Plasmatrons. 2. Power - We need to fire 10 Plasmatron shots in one day. We are using Quarks, so look up Quarks under Power unit used. For a Quark firing a Plasmatron, one Quark uses 1/3 of its power to fire one shot. If we need 10 shots, we need (10 * 1/3) Quarks. The fraction comes out to 10/3, or 3 1/3 Quarks. Since we cannot build 1/3 of a Quark, we must round up and build 4 Quarks. 3. Ship type - We need 10 Plasmatrons and 4 Quarks. We will need at least 1 engine (I should hope), so we need (10+4+1=15) 15 possible squares inside the ship to build on. We now know we need a Lrg hull at 15 units or an Enormous hull at 25 units to accommodate these requirements. (You can pseudo-cheat if you like, building a full Lrg ship with 10 Plasmas and 4 Quarks and 1 shield of some type ... yes, it will leave orbit and Plasmas have the best range in the game, but don't expect to be doing any other moving any time soon.) Weapon Enemy Power Amnt Hull Hull #uses Range Range Hull unit power Dmge %Dmge per w/ used units day Accu MssBrgeGn Sml Nanotwrlr 1/11 1 10% 1 5 10 FourMssls Sml Nanotwrlr 1/11 2 20% 1 8 16 QntmSgLchr Sml Nanotwrlr 2/11 4 40% 1 5 10 MoleclrDis Sml Nanotwrlr 2/11 4 40% 1 10 20 EM Pulser Sml Nanotwrlr 1/11 1 10% 5 10 20 Plasmatron Sml Nanotwrlr 2/11 4 40% 1 20 40 Ueberlaser Sml Nanotwrlr 3/11 6 60% 2 10 20 FergtzLens Sml Nanotwrlr 0 4 40% 2 7 14 HyperDrvr Sml Nanotwrlr 6/11 Dstry 100% 2 15 30 Nanomanplr Sml Nanotwrlr 6/11 Dstry 100% 3 10 20 MyrmdCbnzr Sml Nanotwrlr *(3/8)Dstry 100% 1 8 8(Gizmo) MssBrgeGn Med VanCrgHyp 1/8 1 5% 1 5 10 FourMssls Med VanCrgHyp 1/8 2 10% 1 8 16 QntmSgLchr Med VanCrgHyp 1/4 4 20% 1 5 10 MoleclrDis Med VanCrgHyp 1/4 4 20% 1 10 20 EM Pulser Med VanCrgHyp 1/8 1 5% 5 10 20 Plasmatron Med VanCrgHyp 1/4 4 20% 1 20 40 Ueberlaser Med VanCrgHyp *(3/8)6 30% 2 10 20 FergtzLens Med VanCrgHyp 0 4 20% 2 7 14 HyperDrvr Med VanCrgHyp 11/16 10 50% 2 15 30 Nanomanplr Med VanCrgHyp 11/16 12 60% 3 10 20 MyrmdCbnzr Med VanCrgHyp 1/2 Dstry 100% 1 8 8(Gizmo) MssBrgeGn Lrg QurkExprss 1/6 1 3.33% 1 5 10 FourMssls Lrg QurkExprss 1/6 2 6.67% 1 8 16 QntmSgLchr Lrg QurkExprss 1/3 4 12.5% 1 5 10 MoleclrDis Lrg QurkExprss 1/3 4 12.5% 1 10 20 EM Pulser Lrg QurkExprss 1/6 1 6.67% 5 10 20 Plasmatron Lrg QurkExprss 1/3 4 12.5% 1 20 40 Ueberlaser Lrg QurkExprss 1/2 6 20% 2 10 20 FergtzLens Lrg QurkExprss 0 4 12.5% 2 7 14 HyperDrvr Lrg QurkExprss 1 10 33.3% 2 15 30 Nanomanplr Lrg QurkExprss 1 12 40% 3 10 20 MyrmdCbnzr Lrg QurkExprss 2/3 20 66.7% 1 8 8(Gizmo) MssBrgeGn Enrms SbatmScoop 1/4 1 2.5% 1 5 10 FourMssls Enrms SbatmScoop 1/4 2 5% 1 8 16 QntmSgLchr Enrms SbatmScoop 1/2 4 10% 1 5 10 MoleclrDis Enrms SbatmScoop 1/2 4 10% 1 10 20 EM Pulser Enrms SbatmScoop 1/4 1 5% 5 10 20 Plasmatron Enrms SbatmScoop 1/2 4 10% 1 20 40 Ueberlaser Enrms SbatmScoop 3/4 6 15% 2 10 20 FergtzLens Enrms SbatmScoop 0 4 10% 2 7 14 HyperDrvr Enrms SbatmScoop 1 1/2 10 25% 2 15 30 Nanomanplr Enrms SbatmScoop 1 1/2 12 30% 3 10 20 MyrmdCbnzr Enrms SbatmScoop 1 20 50% 1 8 8(Gizmo) MssBrgeGn Med PrtnShvr 1/2 1 5% 1 5 10 FourMssls Med PrtnShvr 1/2 2 10% 1 8 16 QntmSgLchr Med PrtnShvr 1 4 20% 1 5 10 MoleclrDis Med PrtnShvr 1 4 20% 1 10 20 EM Pulser Med PrtnShvr 1/2 1 5% 5 10 20 Plasmatron Med PrtnShvr 1 4 20% 2 20 40 Ueberlaser Med PrtnShvr 1 1/2 6 30% 1 10 20 FergtzLens Med PrtnShvr 0 4 20% 2 7 14 HyperDrvr Med PrtnShvr 3 10 50% 2 15 30 Nanomanplr Med PrtnShvr 3 12 60% 3 10 20 MyrmdCbnzr Med PrtnShvr 2 Dstry 100% 1 8 8(Gizmo) GIZMO CHART In all honesty, I am not much of a gizmo user, but I provided this chart anyway. I'll go crazy on it one day. Until then, enjoy! If #uses per day says "Only1" I mean it, you only get one use ... ever ... period. The gizmo is destroyed in the process of use. If number of uses says "Infte" yep, go nuts buddy cause this is one record you can't wear out. (Records, also called LPs or vinyls, are what your parents used to listen to music. They had these things called "Record Players." Using these "Record Players" a small needle would skim across the surface of a record against tiny grooves, vibrating the needle. These vibrations effected tiny magnets located at the other end of the needle, which in turn produces a current. This current carried the original music, was amplified and listened to in beanbag chairs across the globe.) NOTES: I would draw your attention to three gizmos in particular. Accutron: If you are a hardcore weapons user, throw this on a ship or three. It doubles the range of ALL weapons on a single ship for one day, becoming an equalizer for the Long Range Orbital Mega Whopper, as described in the PLANETARY TESTING below. This will NOT double the range of gizmos, which is a shame as ... Myrmidonic Carbonizer: The second most powerful SHIP-TO-SHIP weapon in the game. Reusable from day to day and consuming a little more power than an Ueberlaser, this can destroy Sml and Med ships in just one shot, a Lrg or Enormous type ship taking two shots, again, all ships tested were unshielded. It has a short range compared to more advanced weapons, so it could have benefited from the Accutron, but alas, it does not. I find it ironic as the Accutron and Myrmidonic Carbonizer are discovered within the same research item, Energy Focusing. Oh well, guess one half the lab was using Mac and the other Microsoft. (Yes, yes, they are getting more interchangeable now, I know ... just take a joke for once in your life.) Please be aware the Myrmidonic Carbonizer DOES NOT WORK ON PLANET STRUCTURES! Yes, you can shoot a planet with one and yes, it does look pretty, but it is "full of sound and fury signifying nothing." (Shakespeare's MacBeth ... read a book people!) Disintegrator: The most powerful SHIP-TO-SHIP weapon in the game. Shields? Whatever! Hull type? Whatever! The Disintegrator lives up to its name and will obliterate any ship on contact. That would be the reason why it comes so late in the game and requires the longest amount of research time in the entire game. I was curious about this weapon and created an Enormous ship, outfitted with 19 Nanoshells (the most powerful ship shield in the game, assuming one space is left for an engine) and 5 Nanotwrlrs to power said Nanoshells for one turn. The Disintegrator won and destroyed the highest possible shielded ship in one swift blow. It has the worst range in the game, unenhanced by the Accutron. It requires over 2 Nanotwrlrs just to fire one, so you must have plenty of power on board. The Disintegrator will be destroyed in the process, so use it wisely (or refit often). If you, for some reason, have a fleet of enemy ships breathing down your neck, create a ship with a few of these, TONS of power, some shields and a lot of Star Lane Hypers and you've got yourself a one ship demolition crew. When the irresistible force (Disintegrator) meets an immovable object (a ship with an Invulnerabilizer enabled), the Disintegrator looses and the Invulnerablizer wins, FYI. Also, this weapon will NOT effect any planetary devices. FINAL NOTE: Amnt power used for Gizmos in this chart is slightly inaccurate. Most of these numbers came from when I thought the game used sevenths in everything. I was wrong back in 1996, but since I don't use gizmos often, I didn't waste my time redoing this column. The only true and accurate measurements are anything involving the Disintegrator. Gizmo Target Power unit Amnt Effect #uses Range power or per used Damage day Accutron Enmy Shp Nanotwrlr 5/7 Range2X 1 N/A Backfirer Enmy Shp Nanotwrlr 4/7 1 10 Brunswick Dsptr Enmy Shp Nanotwrlr 1 4/7 1 10 Cannibalizer In Ship Nanotwrlr ??? 1 N/A Contnmnt Device Enmy Shp PrtnShvr 2 4/7 1 10 Disarmer Enmy Shp Nanotwrlr 4/7 1 12 Disintegrator Sml Nanotwrlr 2 3/11 Dstry Only1 5 Disintegrator Med VanCrgHyp 2 7/8 Dstry Only1 5 Disintegrator Lrg QurkExprss 3 5/6 Dstry Only1 5 Disintegrator Enrms SbatmScoop 5 3/4 Dstry Only1 5 Disintegrator Med PrtnShvr 11 1/2 Dstry Only1 5 Fleet Disperser All Ships Nanotwrlr 4/7 1 24 Gizmogrifier Enmy Shp Nanotwrlr 4/7 1 12 Grvmtrc Cndnsr Sys. Star Nanotwrlr 4/7 1 N/A Gravity Dstrter All Ships Nanotwrlr 3/7 1 N/A Gravomtrc Ctplt Star PrtnShvr 1 4/7 1 N/A Gyro Inductor Planet Nanotwrlr 0 Infte Orbit Hyperfuel In Ship Nanotwrlr Only1 N/A Hyperswapper Any Ship Nanotwrlr 3/7 1 24 Intllct Scrmblr Enmy Shp Nanotwrlr 6/7 1 10 Invulnerablizer In Ship Nanotwrlr 2 Only1 N/A Lane Blocker Star Lane Nanotwrlr 2/7 Only1 8 Lane Destblzer Star Lane Nanotwrlr 4/7 Only1 5 Lane Endoscope Star Lane Nanotwrlr 1 Infte 9 Lane Magnetron Star Lane Nanotwrlr 1 Only1 9 Mass Condenser All Ships Nanotwrlr 1 1 24 Molclar Tie Dwn Enmy Shp Nanotwrlr 6/7 1 10 Moving Part Exp Enmy Shp Nanotwrlr 1 1 10 MyrmdCbnzr Sml VanCrgHyp 1/2 Dstry 1 8 MyrmdCbnzr Med VanCrgHyp 1/2 Dstry 1 8 MyrmdCbnzr Lrg VanCrgHyp 1/2 20 1 8 MyrmdCbnzr Enrms VanCrgHyp 1/2 20 1 8 Phase Bomb Planet Nanotwrlr 2/7 Only1 5 Plasma Coupler Ally Ship Nanotwrlr 4/7 1 14 Positron Buncr Any Ship PrtnShvr 1 1 12 Recaller In Ship Nanotwrlr 5/7 Infte N/A RemoteRprFclty In Ship Nanotwrlr 3 Infte N/A Replenisher In Ship Nanotwrlr 1 1 N/A Sacrificial Orb Ally Ship Nanotwrlr 3/7 Infte 14 Self Dstrcttrn In Ship Nanotwrlr 0 BlowUp Only1 N/A Shield Blaster Enmy Shp Nanotwrlr 6/7 1 10 Smart Bomb EnmyShps Nanotwrlr 6/7 Only1 Spclty Blstr Enmy Shp Nanotwrlr 4/7 1 12 Torrdial Blstr In Ship Nanotwrlr 0 Energy 1 N/A Trctr Beam-Ship Any Ship Nanotwrlr 3/7 1 24 Trctr Beam-Plnt Any Ship N/A N/A 2 Infte PLANETARY TESTING - SHIELDS & WEAPONS PLANETARY SHEILDS What this is: This chart lists the number of times you must fire a certain type of weapon in order to destroy a single shield, be it Orbital or Orbital Mega. Columns defined: Weapon used - What ship weapon was used against the shield. Shield Type - Which type of shield you are up against. Here is a breakdown of the strength of each type of planetary shield: Shield Type Number of damage units Orbital Shield 15 Orbital Mega Shield 35 # of shots dstry - If you fire the given weapon this number of times at ONE type of shield, you will destroy the shield. Shld Dmge - Amount of damage done, in damage units, to ONE of the types of shield. Shld %Dmge - An exact or very close approximation of the damage done to the shield. Helpful if you are using more than one type of weapon to attack with or the concept of the Damage caused column makes your head hurt. Range of weapon - Will help in talking about the next chart, but same as before, representing the maximum range a weapon will be effective within when firing at a planet from the ship. Range w/ Accutron - Will help in talking about the next chart, but same as before, representing the maximum range a weapon will be effective within when firing at a planet when an Accutron as been activated on the ship that day. Ship Weapons vs. Planetary Shields Weapon Shield Type # of Shld Shld Range Range w/ shots Dmge %Dmge weapon Accutron dstry MssBrgeGn Orbtl Shield 35 1 6.67% 5 10 FourMssls Orbtl Shield 15 2 13.3% 8 16 QntmSgLchr Orbtl Shield 4 4 26.6% 5 10 MoleclrDis Orbtl Shield 4 4 26.6% 10 20 EM Pulser Orbtl Shield 35 1 6.67% 10 20 Plasmatron Orbtl Shield 4 4 26.6% 20 40 Ueberlaser Orbtl Shield 3 6 40.0% 10 20 FergtzLens Orbtl Shield 4 4 26.6% 7 14 HyperDrvr Orbtl Shield 2 10 66.7% 15 30 Nanomanplr Orbtl Shield 2 13 86.7% 10 20 MssBrgeGn Orbtl Meg Shld 35 1 2.86% 5 10 FourMssls Orbtl Meg Shld 18 2 5.71% 8 16 QntmSgLchr Orbtl Meg Shld 9 4 11.4% 5 10 MoleclrDis Orbtl Meg Shld 9 4 11.4% 10 20 EM Pulser Orbtl Meg Shld 35 1 2.86% 10 20 Plasmatron Orbtl Meg Shld 9 4 11.4% 20 40 Ueberlaser Orbtl Meg Shld 6 6 17.1% 10 20 FergtzLens Orbtl Meg Shld 9 4 11.4% 7 14 HyperDrvr Orbtl Meg Shld 4 10 28.6% 15 30 Nanomanplr Orbtl Meg Shld 3 13 37.1% 10 20 Shields DO NOT recharge from day to day. Should a shield be damaged due to attack, it will not automatically recharge "overnight". PLANETARY WEAPONS What this is: This chart shows the strength and range of all planetary weapons. The chart above will help as you can easily see at what distance your ship can fire its weapons safely at an enemy planet, without fear of getting nailed by their defenses. Columns defined: Orbital Weapon - The type of weapon orbiting a planet. Hull - The type of hull the Orbital Weapon was fired at. Damage in units - The amount of damage incurred on the ship. As a refresher, Small ships have 10 damage units, Medium ships have 20, Large ships have 30 and Enormous ships have 40. # of uses per day - The number of times a planet may fire a given weapon in one day. Range - The range of the Orbital Weapon, measured in the same way described in the WEAPON CHART. Orbital Weapons vs. Ships Orbital Weapon Hull Damage # of uses Range in units per day Orbital Missle Base Sml 7 1 8 Orbital Missle Base Med 7 1 8 Orbital Missle Base Lrg 7 1 8 Orbital Missle Base Enrms 7 1 8 Shrt Rng Orbtl Whpr Sml 7 3 8 Shrt Rng Orbtl Whpr Med 7 3 8 Shrt Rng Orbtl Whpr Lrg 7 3 8 Shrt Rng Orbtl Whpr Enrms 7 3 8 Long Rng Orbtl Whpr Sml 8 3 18 Long Rng Orbtl Whpr Med 8 3 18 Long Rng Orbtl Whpr Lrg 8 3 18 Long Rng Orbtl Whpr Enrms 8 3 18 Obviously, Long Range Orbital Mega Whoppers are valued not for their slightly enhanced damage strength, but their range. Firing 3 times per day and longer in range than all weapons except the Plasmatron, a couple of these should be added once you have a few orbital shields, mega or non-mega. If a ship has an Accutron, all the rules change and the number of possible ship weapons that can sit outside your Long Whoppers goes from 1 to 6! If you encounter a planet with Long Whoppers, you really should use an Accutron to make your destroying go easily. As far as which weapon of the possible 6 to use, HyperDrvrs are a fine alternative to the Nanomanplr if the Nano is unavailable. Both consume the same amount of power and yes, the Hypersphere can only fire twice a day compared to the Nano's 3, but you don't have to worry about playing the distance game having an extra 10 spaces of cushion, assuming of course your ship comes equipped with an Accutron. Of course, a planet with a Tractor Beam installed negates the Accutron with the ability to pull the ship closer! Additions/Modifications to be made one day: Ship shield testing Enhanced Gizmo testing and exact power consumption Future Ascendancy guides: Research - "The Tree", times of research completion, what items are found where & recommended path Planet building - Best way to start building planets & lengths of time to build structures. Ship building - Recommended ship configurations & lengths of time to build items on ships. Comments? Questions? Concerns? Giving away free money? StarTours@collegeclub.com